This volume is a selection of papers read at the fourth international conference of the Society of Historical English Language and Linguistics (SHELL) held at Keio University, Tokyo, in 2012. The first conference was at Chiba University (Japan) back in 2005, the second at Nagoya University (Japan) in 2007, the third at Hiroshima University (Japan) in 2009. The volume consists of four plenary papers in part one, of six papers read in two symposia in part two, and individual papers on Old, Middle, Modern, American English with some diachronic studies in part three. Papers discuss syntax, lexicology, semantics, paleography, literary criticism, etc., in various historical periods of English, on the basis of both theoretical and philological studies, as the Society has aimed at the reunion of these approaches from its establishment.