Notes on regularities in the writing system of ‘the global language’, which both review Diane McGuinness, ‘Why Children Can't Read’ (1998), and comment on Christopher Upward, ‘In defence of spelling reform’ (ET57, Jan 99)

A consideration of how language and literature run together and can be studied together

A corpus-based study of competing prepositional constructions in American and British English

A proposal for a reasonable form of prescription that would help take the teaching and testing of English into the coming century

MICHAEL BULLEY provides a postscript to the Universal Grammar debate

Taxi's stop here says a sign – Bus' across the street says another. – Joes hamburger's says a third: a descriptive/prescriptive look at a troublesome symbol

In usage matters, everything is open to change. TIM CONNELL looks at some alterations in the geography of English

A review of the category ‘Sexual orientation’ in John Ayto's new dictionary (see also p. 58) and a consideration of ‘queer’ slang at large