Talking about MOTION in medieval English

Author(s):  
Judith Huber

Chapter 4 outlines the aims, material, and methodology of the different studies of motion expression in Old and Middle English presented in chapters 5–6: The inventories of motion verbs (based primarily on the Thesaurus of Old English and a definition search in the Middle English Dictionary) investigate which kinds of verbs can be used to talk about motion, including various non-motion verbs coerced into motion readings by the construction. They also allow a first impression of the combinability of manner verbs and path satellites and of the general manner salience of Old and Middle English. The analysis of roughly 1000 motion expressions in exemplary Old and Middle English texts, which are presented in this chapter (chronicles, saints’ lives, non-imaginative narration, and fiction), shows which verbs and structures are typically used to talk about motion in different text types.

Author(s):  
Judith Huber

Chapter 6 begins with an overview of the language contact situation with (Anglo-) French and Latin, resulting in large-scale borrowing in the Middle English period. The analysis of 465 Middle English verbs used to express intransitive motion shows that there are far more French/Latin loans in the path verbs than in the other motion verbs. The range of (new) manner of motion verbs testifies to the manner salience of Middle English: caused motion verbs are also found in intransitive motion meanings, as are French loans which do not have motion uses in continental French. Their motion uses in Anglo-Norman are discussed in terms of contact influence of Middle English. The analysis of motion expression in different texts yields a picture similar to the situation in Old English, with path typically expressed in satellites, and neutral as well as manner of motion verbs being most frequent, depending on text type.


Author(s):  
Judith Huber

The analysis of the 189 Old English motion verbs shows that Old English has a large manner vocabulary and various non-motion verbs attested in motion readings, which are discussed in this chapter. It is argued that although there are Old English path verbs, hardly any of them can be considered as pure path verbs (except nēahlǣcan, genēahian ‘to approach’), a diagnosis which is supported by an investigation of how Latin path verbs are translated in the Old English version of the gospels. The analysis of motion expression in different texts reveals that Old English can be seen as strongly satellite-framing, with the proportion of manner verbs as opposed to neutral verbs depending on text type. The chapter also addresses the changing realization of satellites in the history of English: In the Old English texts analysed, satellites are typically realized by prepositional phrases and adverbs, while true prefixes only play a minor role.


Author(s):  
Judith Huber

Chapter 1 introduces the major research questions pursued in the book: (a) To investigate motion expression in Old and Middle English, with a focus both on what is possible and what is frequent. It will be shown that, like Present-Day English, early English is strongly satellite-framing and can use a wide range of manner verbs and non-motion verbs to express motion. (b) To study the semantic and syntactic integration in Middle English of a range of pure path verbs (e.g. entrer, issir) borrowed from French, which are semantically unusual in the native system of talking about motion. The structure of the book is outlined with an overview of the remaining chapters.


Author(s):  
Judith Huber

Chapter 2 provides an introduction to the motion encoding typology as proposed by Talmy, Slobin, and others (manner- and path-conflating languages, different types of framing and their concomitant characteristics). It argues that this typology is highly compatible with a construction grammar framework, points out the differences, and shows that particularly from the diachronic perspective taken in this study, the constructionist approach has advantages over the originally lexicalist approach of the motion typology. The chapter also provides a discussion of the different categories of motion verbs used in this study (manner verbs, path verbs, neutral motion verbs, and verbs that do not evoke a motion event on their own, but can receive a contextual motion reading).


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Holmberg

The conclusion seems inescapable, if the facts in Emonds & Faarlund are more or less right: Middle English would be the outcome of a shift from West Germanic grammar to an eccentric form of North Germanic grammar.


2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 178-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas H. Jucker

Studies in the history of politeness in English have generally relied on the notions of positive and negative face. While earlier work argued that a general trend from positive politeness to negative politeness can be observed, more recent work has shown that in Old English and in Middle English face concerns were not as important as in Modern English and that, in certain contexts, there are also opposing tendencies from negative to positive politeness. In this paper, I focus in more detail on the notions of positive and negative face and follow up earlier suggestions that for negative face a clear distinction must be made between deference politeness and non-imposition politeness. On this basis, I assess the usefulness of the notions of positive and negative face for the development of politeness in the history of English.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Egi Putriana ◽  
Jufrizal Jufrizal ◽  
Fitrawati Fitrawati

The history of English language has three periods of time; Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. The linguistic forms in English development are different each period. This research aims to find out one of the changes, that is, the affix changes from Middle English to Modern English form that found in both of The Miller’s Tale Story Middle English and Modern English versions. This research also aims to find out the spelling changes in affixes. This research used descriptive qualitative method. The data, which are the collection of words that have affixes found in The Miller’s Tale, were identified based on the base of the words and its affixes and its were classified based on the type of its functions. Based on data analysis, there are seven affixes in Middle English which have been changed in Modern English form. These changes occur in the deletion of vowel, change of vowel, substitution of the affix, and elimination of the affix. The spelling change also influenced the change in suffixes. Some of the vocabularies change into the new words and some of the words change only in its vowel.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2020 i ◽  
pp. 74-86
Author(s):  
Anna Proskurina

The article indicates that the study of the semantic-communicative component of hymns makes it possible to identify performative frameworks - “pillows”, on which the foundation of speech activity rests. Thus, the obligatory semantic-communicative component of the hymns is informing the deity about his/her qualities, in other words, it is praising. The article reviewed three hymns written in Old English (“The Kentish Hymn”, “The Cædmon’s Hymn”) and Early Middle English (“The Godric’s Hymn”). The author focuses on paganism in Old English hymns. Thus, the work emphasizes that at the dawn of Christianity, for a smooth transition from paganism to Christianity, the image of Jesus Christ was presented as the image of a leader (Cyning - Leader), while believers were represented as His warriors. The cross as the main Christian symbol often appears made of wood and is identified with the cosmic world tree growing right into heaven.


Author(s):  
Lilo Moessner

This chapter sets the present book off against previous studies about the English subjunctive in the historical periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE). The aim of the book is described as the first comprehensive and consistent description of the history of the present English subjunctive. The key term subjunctive is defined as a realisation of the grammatical category mood and an expression of the semantic/pragmatic category root modality. The corpus used in the book is part of The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, comprising nearly half a million words in 91 files. The research method adopted is a combination of close reading and computational analysis.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document