Mai, thank you for your question.
>How did you learn it,Shunta?
I read on it in Shoich Watanabe(an emeritus
professor in Sophia university)'s book. May
-be he is much more famous as a conservative
acitivist, but he is a great authority on
English linguistics as well. Now that I
mentioned it, our fuculty's professor Kazu-
yoshi Yamanouchi is also very renowned in
that field(especially in the field of the
history of English language).
You know the 20 century's most comprehensive
and authoritative work on English grammar?
It is arguably Quirk et al.(1985). Again,here
is our fuculty's professor: Minoji Akimoto's
name is on the reference of that work. Amazing
it is, isn't it? Which I heard from Tadao
Nomura, who teaches Kisoenshu.
Here are a few recommendations of Shoich
Watanabe's books.
『講談・英語の歴史』
This small book is full of interesting episodes
about English language. On the label on the bottle
of Johnnie Walker(Scotch whisky) is an image of
a man walking, this in fact a by-product of mis-
understanding of something. If interested, give
it a try.
『スタンダード英語講座 第3巻』
This very volume gave me the knowledge of Umlaut
Plurals you mentioned. A very comprehensive work
on the history of English language. Far more
arduous than 『講談・英語の歴史』.
