This volume offers a collection of twelve original papers on language use and attitudes towards language from both a historical and a present-day perspective. The first part of the book focuses on the general theme of language use and on attitudes towards language use in both the past and the present. The second part concentrates on actual language use in personal and public letters from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. The third part is mainly concerned with the possible impact of usage guides, and also addresses the problem of language and cultural misunderstanding and the apparent nee.

• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Part I
• Student Evaluations in Late Modern Times
• In Sheridan's Shadow
• An Old Friend Revisited
• Language-Norm Formation in Dutch Urban Contexts
• Part II
• Between English and Dutch
• The Fall and Rise of Lord Chesterfield?
• James Boswell Practising French and Learning Dutch in the Netherlands
• “I Can Read Hollandsch Very Fairly.”
• Part III
• “Lowthian” Linguistics Revisited
• Have Went and Flat Adverbs Once Again – “Irish Style”?
• Write Back in Anger
• The Next Step
• About the Editors