ABSTRACT
Throughout the book we have stressed that our aim was not to establish what English was ‘then’ in 2000 or is now, as we have finished writing ‘the book of the project’ in early 2004. So if not that, what have we done? We had also set out to answer a question that seemed essential to us: ‘Can you understand English if you focus on speech and writing alone?’ Here too we can ask what our conclusions might be. And beyond our two aims, there are the broader questions: ‘Can we say anything about English that has wider application?’ ‘Can we say anything that might help in thinking about the future of the subject?’
