1. Modern English is conventionally defined as the English language since about 1450 or 1500.
1.1. Early Modern Period (roughly 1450-1800)
1.2. Late Modern English (1800 to the present)
1.3. The most recent stage in the evolution of the language is commonly called Present-Day English (PDE).
2. Syntactic and Morphological Changes by 1776
2.1. Older patterns of word order had long been replaced by an unmarked order framed by the sequence subject-verb-object or subject-verb-complement.
2.2. A subject noun phrase was virtually obligatory in simple clauses other than imperatives.
2.3. The number and frequency of prepositions had expanded greatly.
3. Standardization of English
3.1. Standard English was first the language of the Court of Chancery, founded in the 15th century to give prompt justice to English citizens and to consolidate the King's influence in the nation.
3.2. It was then taken up by the early printers.
4. The Normative Tradition
4.1. Setting up a committee in 1664 whose principal aim was to encourage the members of the Royal Society to use appropriate and correct language.
5. Global English
5.1. Jacob Grimm declared to the Royal Academy in Berlin that English 'may be called justly a language of the world'
5.2. 'The English tongue has become a rank polyglot, and is spreading over the earth like some hardy plant whose seed is sown by the wind'
