ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a review of shifts in the basic word order in the Modern English period. It summarizes the ways in which nouns and pronouns appear, especially changes in case and gender and the loss of the thou/thee forms, but also demonstratives and relative pronouns. The chapter reviews the emergence of new verb forms and new functions of older ones, e.g. regular and irregular verbs, do-periphrasis, and the model and semi-modal verbs. It looks at the categories of conjunction and preposition. The modal auxiliaries have continued to expand, thus further reducing the use of the subjunctive, and they have been supplemented by new semi-modals in a process of grammaticalization. The relative pronouns once again show the effects of notional change. The most divergent system of demonstratives, however, is that used in the Southwest of England. The chapter concludes with some observations on substrate influence on grammar.
