Code-switching in early English literature

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Schendl
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Medieval Poetry ◽  
French And English ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Early English

Code-switching has been a frequent feature of literary texts from the beginning of English literary tradition to the present time. The medieval period, in particular, with its complex multilingual situation, has provided a fruitful background for multilingual texts, and will be the focus of the present article. After looking at the linguistic background of the period and some specifics of medieval literature and of historical code-switching, the article discusses the main functions of code-switching in medieval poetry and drama, especially in regard to the different but changing status of the three main languages of literacy: Latin, French and English. This functional-pragmatic approach is complemented by a section on syntactic aspects of medieval literary code-switching, which also contains a brief comparison with modern spoken code-switching and shows some important similarities and differences between the two sets of data.

scholarly journals Medieval Literature in Combination with the Koran

2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-90
Author(s):  
G. Kurmangali ◽  
◽  
Ashraf Mohamed Attia Abddou
Keyword(s):  
Main Idea ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Medieval Poetry ◽  
The People ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Of Affairs

The article emphasizes the importance of medieval poetry in the history of Kazakh literature, as well as the ideological and artistic significance of Turkic literature. It analyzes such topics as the state of affairs of the era, moral problems, changing morals which became the basis in the works of the medieval period. In particular, the influence of the Koran on the works of the medieval period is widely discussed. The main idea of the works of the medieval period was to explain the religion of Islam to the people and call them to spiritual purity. Islam influenced the development of medieval literature in Turkic literature, and this can be seen from the use of the Qur’an and the hadith of the Prophet in the writings of that era. The article reveals how medieval poets sang didactic problems, which were the main theme of the works of the Karakhan era and their contribution to the development of Turkic literature.

History of the Study of Apocrypha in Early Medieval England

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Brandon W. Hawk
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Early English

Literature written in England between about 500 and 1100 CE attests to a wide range of traditions, although it is clear that Christian sources were the most influential. Biblical apocrypha feature prominently across this corpus of literature, as early English authors clearly relied on a range of extra-biblical texts and traditions related to works under the umbrella of what have been called “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” and “New Testament/Christian Apocrypha." While scholars of pseudepigrapha and apocrypha have long trained their eyes upon literature from the first few centuries of early Judaism and early Christianity, the medieval period has much to offer. This article presents a survey of significant developments and key threads in the history of scholarship on apocrypha in early medieval England. My purpose is not to offer a comprehensive bibliography, but to highlight major studies that have focused on the transmission of specific apocrypha, contributed to knowledge about medieval uses of apocrypha, and shaped the field from the nineteenth century up to the present. Bringing together major publications on the subject presents a striking picture of the state of the field as well as future directions.

Critical Contexts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Williams
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Postcolonial Criticism ◽  
Modernist Fiction

This concluding chapter argues that the critical contexts of the literary texts dealt with in this volume cannot be so confined inside the period before 1950, not merely for writers whose works have maintained or increased their esteem, but also for the bulk of that work belonging to the large categories of colonial, Victorian, and even nationalist writing that exhibits the values and attitudes of empire. Much of the postcolonial criticism of colonial fiction treats it as symptomatic of imperial views on race, nature, gender, or progress rather than as literature Criticism in this volume means something distinct from that applied to nineteenth-century English literature or American modernist fiction where the specifically literary qualities and values of the writing remain central concerns of its criticism, even where the values and ideology of modernism, for example, have been sharply contested.

Always in Translation

2019 ◽  
pp. 329-346
Author(s):  
Regina Galasso
Keyword(s):  
Code Switching ◽  
Latino Studies ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Junot Diaz ◽  
Latino Literature ◽  
Multilingual Writing

For outsiders, the languages of Latino literature are English, Spanish, and code-switching between the two languages. What is more, code-switching is considered a symptom of not knowing either language well. At the same time, Latinos themselves feel anxiety toward perceived deficiencies in both languages. This essay argues that Latino literature offers a complex use of language that can be appreciated through the lens of translation. This essay explores the forms of translation present in Latino literature suggesting that Spanish and English always exist in the presence and under the influence of each other. Discussions of Felipe Alfau, Junot Díaz, and Urayoán Noel highlight the centrality of translation issues in Latino writing ranging from creative output and expression to the making of subsequent versions of literary texts. Overall, considerations of translation in Latino studies can lead to a more complex understanding of the work of translators and multilingual writing in general.

Modal Difficulty in Medieval Literature Analysis: the Frame-Notation Correlation in Dante’s Quotations of Fibonacci

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-121
Author(s):  
Moreno Bonda
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Literature Analysis ◽  
Dense Networks ◽  
Mathematical Formulas ◽  
Cognitive Frame ◽  
Definition Of

The investigation of medieval literature poses a number of challenges, even to native speaker researchers. Such difficulties are related to (a) linguistic – syntactical and lexical – obstacles, (b) to the ability to recognise dense networks of interdisciplinary references and, (c) mainly to the cognitive challenges posed by “unfamiliar modes of expression”. The aim of this research is to discuss a methodological approach to deal with these unusual manners of composition, technically known as modal difficulty, in medieval literature. The theoretic setting is represented by Davide Castiglione’s monographic study Difficulty in Poetry (2018) and the specific definition of modal difficulty elaborated by James E. Vincent in the premise of his treatise on American poetry (2003). A study case illustrative of challenges in medieval literature analysis has been chosen to illustrate the speculative reasoning: the references to the celebrated mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci (1170–1242) – known for having introduced the Arabic numbers to the Europeans – in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Preliminarily, the author discusses unfamiliar mathematical notations implemented from the 13th to the 18th centuries. Subsequently, adopting cognitive linguistics principles and hermeneutic as methodological tools, several veiled citations of the mathematician’s cogitations – such as the chess comparison in Paradise XXVIII, 91–93 and the quadratic expression in Paradise XXVII, 115–117 – are deciphered and illustrated. The analysis of Dante’s cognitive frame indicates that the recourse to Fibonacci’s formulas is functional to depict the incommensurable multitude of the divine in words. In the conclusions, the case studied is adopted as a model to illustrate how the reflection on unusual forms of expression could be employed to investigate ancient literary texts. A preliminary analysis of the frame-notation relation could help, as an example, to recognise mathematical formulas that were expressed in a verbal and non-symbolic notation.

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