Book excerpt: This is the second of two volumes of papers selected from those given at the 12th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics. The first is New Perspectives on English Historical Linguistics (1): Syntax and Morphology. Together the volumes provide an overview of many of the issues that are currently engaging practitioners in the field. In this volume, the primary concern is with the historical study of the English lexicon and its sound and writing systems. Using research tools such as machine-readable text and lexical corpora, and intellectual tools such as corpus and cognitive linguistics, many of the papers move from a close study of a set of data to conclusions of theoretical significance, often concerning questions of classification and organisation. More broadly, whether concerned with lexicology or transmission, the papers have a social orientation, since neither lexicology nor phonology can be seen as divorced from its social setting.