Starting with the thesis that philology is the very spirit of the study of the history of English, this talk will begin by considering what might be described as two philological moments during the formative period of the subject: that is, Samuel Johnson’sDictionary of the English Language (1755) and John Mitchell Kemble’s The History of the English Language(1834). Although Johnson’s and Kemble’s views on historical English are very different from each other, they are reflected in the current study of the history of English and of English language and literature at large. The talk will move on to the rise of English as an academic discipline during the late nineteenth century and foreground the significance of the history of English in this process. The talk will conclude with a consideration on the role of philology for the study of the subject in today’s academy and suggest as one of the possible approaches an exploration of globally regional Englishes.

Haruko Mommais Silver Professor and Professor of English at New York University. She is the author of From Philology to English Studies: Language and Culture in the Nineteenth Century (2012) and The Composition of Old English Poetry(1997). In 2008, she co-edited with Michael Matto the Blackwell Companion to the History of the English Language. She has also published various essays in such areas as Old English language and literature, medieval literature and culture, English lexicology and lexicography, the history of philology, and medievalist.

This open lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of English and is part of the Studies in the History of the English Language Conference. Learn more about the conference at depts.washington.edu….

Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made byMay11, 2022to the Simpson Center, 206-685-5260, scevents@uw.edu.