Patterns of Change in 18th-century English

This section first looks at changes that range from incipient (below 15%) and new and vigorous (15–35%) to mid-range (36–65%), with some nearing completion (66–85%) but not reaching that stage (over 85%) by the end of the 18th century. The changes in these stages include the progressive, the indefinite pronouns ending in -body and -one, and its. The final section focuses on changes in derivational productivity and the difficulty of determining these processes in terms of distinct stages.