LANGSCAPE is a Cambridge University Press project associated with both ‘English Today’ and a new international usage guide for the year 2000 by Pam Peters, author of the ‘Cambridge Australian English Style Guide’ (1995). Like the Australian publication, the international work will be distinctive in its use of empirical evidence from computer corpora as well as data elicited from surveys of users of English round the world. Because English is a world language, any account of usage that is limited to one person's views and resources is inadequate. The first topic and questionnaire (‘The ubiquitous letter e’) appeared in ET53 (Jan 98). See the accompanying box for further information on the Survey.

Notions of grammar, spelling and punctuation in the National Curriculum for schools in England – an introduction to the NATE Position Paper

A report on the ways in which hyphenation habits have been changing in recent years

LI LAN considers the current state of on-line lexicography

How mixed language usage evolved as a natural compromise between educational policy and social reality

PAUL RASTALL takes on an overlooked area of domestic grammar

In nineteenth-century England, Dickens wrote about the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, imagery that can be applied to South Africa today

English – like all languages – has a predilection for ‘rules’, as grammatical patterns are often called. Generally the patterns are fairly straight-forward, though sometimes they become rather complex, perhaps with numerous exceptions or irregular features. To further obscure the picture, language patterns do not stay still, variations occurring in place and time. At first sight, English word-building elements – such as prefixes and suffixes – would appear to be fairly regular, presenting clear morphological patterns with few exceptions. But first appearances can be deceptive.

A discussion of the historical and social complexities involving English in this West African country

A detailed further inquiry into the nature, use and prospects of medical technical terms based on personal names