If you write a PhD in the Netherlands, you usually have to supply a set of so-called “stellingen” (scholarly propositions) along with the printed book. I defended my PhD in 1987, and my thesis was called The Auxiliary Do in Eighteenth-Century English. (At the moment, there doesn’t seem to be a nice image of the book around on the web to illustrate this post with, but I’ll see to this soon.)

Looking at my stellingen the other day, I was struck by numer VI:

Er zou meer onderzoek moeten worden gedaan naar taalgebruik in brieven (“There ought to be more research into the language of letters”).

I wrote this in 1987: now, twenty-five years later, much research has indeed been done, and this blog will present that research but also show what more research can be done. First, to make a start, invitations are out for people to send information on publications that they have, so that between us we can compile a good working bibliography on the subject. So: please feel free to get in touch via this blog.

Source of the image: google books.