scholarly journals The recursive formation of Old English non-verbal categories. Productivity and constraints

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Raquel Vea Escarza
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Formal Representation ◽  
High Type ◽  
Semantic Effect ◽  
Type Frequency ◽  
The One

This paper aims at analysing the recursivity in the formation of non-verbal categories, more specifically, of nouns and adjectives in old English. Pounder’s (2000) model, known as Process and Paradigm Model, provides the formal representation of recursive operations. The data of analysis consist of a total of 388 recursive nouns and adjectives, 11 of which undergo a two-level recursivity, or slot-II recursivity. Both in the case of nouns and adjectives, suffixation has a clearly preeminent role over prefixation. As for nouns, the suffix -nes is the most frequent one in number of tokens, whereas -∂ is the one that combines with a greater number of suffixes in prefinal position. Regarding adjectives, -lic is by far the suffix present in a higher number of predicates, and also the one that undergoes a wider variety of different recursive patterns, what evinces that there is correlation between a high type frequency and the assignment of a high number of different recursive patterns. Positional constraints affect -nes and -lic, since none of them can occur in a position other than final. A semantic interpretation of recursive suffixation leads to assign a semantic effect of this phenomenon when it applies to nouns, and a pragmatic one in the case of adjectives.

Nerdalicious scientainment: A network analysis of English libfixes

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muriel Norde ◽  
Sarah Sippach
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Network Model ◽  
Phonological Similarity ◽  
High Type ◽  
Type Frequency ◽  
Semantic Properties

Libfixes are parts of words that share properties with both blends, compounds and affixes. They are deliberate formations, often with a jocular character, e.g. nerdalicious ‘delicious for nerds’, or scientainment ‘scientific entertainment’. These are not one-off formations – some libfixes have become very productive, as evidenced by high type frequency in a single corpus. Libfix constructions are particularly interesting for a network analysis for three reasons: they do not always have discrete morpheme boundaries, they feature a wide variety of bases (including phrases, as in give-me-a-break-o-meter), and they may be the source of back formations such as infotain. In this paper, we present a corpus-based analysis of eight English libfixes (cracy, fection, flation, gasm, licious, (o-)meter, tainment, and tastic), detailing their formal and semantic properties, as well as their differences and similarities. We argue that libfixes are most fruitfully analysed in a Bybeean network model, in which nodes are connected on the basis of phonological similarity, which allows for both fully compositional and non-compositional constructions to be linked without an exhaustive analysis into morphemes.

Variant versions of Old English medical remedies and the compilation of Bald's Leechbook

1984 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 235-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey L. Meaney
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
The Other ◽  
British Library ◽  
The One ◽  
Medical Writings

Over a hundred years ago, T. O. Cockayne published his Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, in which he edited the texts of all the medical writings in Old English he could find. It is massive in its scope, and no modern scholar is ever likely to produce its equal. Yet we, metaphorically standing on Cockaynes's shoulders, and equipped with aids provided by more recent research, are able to examine more closely than he could some of the special features of the field which he revealed to us. Its English substrata have been comparatively neglected, however, and therefore I propose in this paper to examine closely the relationships of the hundred or so medical remedies in Old English which have been preserved – usually in different manuscripts – in two or three versions so close that it is obvious, even on a superficial view, that they either derive from the same English original, or are copied the one from the other. These remedies usually begin by specifying the ailment for which they are recommended, and then go on to set out the ingredients and method of making the appropriate herbal concoction. Nearly all the repeated remedies are found at least once in the Leechbook manuscript, now London, British Library, Royal 12. D. xvii, and so I will begin by describing it, and use it as the basis of the argument. Then I will describe briefly in turn the other manuscripts in which the remedies are found, discussing as I proceed those with minor parallels to Bald's Leechbook; and then, separately and in detail, the important duplications in the two final manuscripts under consideration. It may thereafter be possible to draw some conclusions about the method of compilation of Bald's Leechbook.

scholarly journals Metrical Positions and their Linguistic Realisations in Old Germanic Metres: A Typological Overview

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiichi Suzuki
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
The Other ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Old Saxon ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Common Scale ◽  
The Common ◽  
Linguistic Alignment ◽  
The One ◽  
Linguistic Material

This paper provides a typological account of Old Germanic metre by investigating its parametric variations that largely determine the metrical identities of the Old English Beowulf, the Old Saxon Heliand, and Old Norse eddic poetry (composed in fornyrðislag, málaháttr, or ljóðaháttr). The primary parameters to be explored here are the principle of four metrical positions per verse and the differing ways in which these constituent positions are aligned to linguistic material. On the one hand, the four-position principle works with a maximal strictness in Beowulf, and to a slightly lesser extent in fornyrðislag, whereas it allows for a wider range of deviations in verse size in the Heliand and ljóðaháttr. In málaháttr, however, the principle in itself gives way to the five-position counterpart. On the other hand, the variation in the metrical– linguistic alignment in the three close cognate metres may be generalised by positing the common scale, Heliand > Beowulf > fornyrðislag, for the decreasing likelihood of resolution, the increasing likelihood of suspending resolution, and the decreasing size of the drop.

Linguistic politeness in Anglo-Saxon England? A study of Old English address terms

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kohnen
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
The Other ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Linguistic Politeness ◽  
Mutual Obligation ◽  
The One ◽  
Address Terms

This paper investigates Anglo-Saxon address terms against the background of politeness and face work. Using the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, it examines the most prominent Old English terms of nominal address associated with polite or courteous behaviour, their distribution, the typical communicative settings in which they are used and their basic pragmatic meaning. The results suggest that, at least in this field, politeness as face work may not have played a major role in Anglo-Saxon England. Rather, the use of the address terms may reflect accommodation to the overriding importance of mutual obligation and kin loyalty on the one hand, and obedience to the basic Christian ideals of humilitas and caritas on the other.

Some Latin poems as evidence for the reign of Athelstan

1980 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 61-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lapidge
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Successful Career ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Latin Verse ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
William Of Malmesbury

Like his illustrious grandfather, Alfred, King Athelstan (924–39) combined a distinguished and successful career as soldier and statesman with more overtly intellectual pursuits. He restored monasteries, established new bishoprics and was an extremely generous benefactor of churches throughout England. William of Malmesbury reports a view allegedly shared by his twelfth-century contemporaries, that ‘no one more just or more learned ever governed the kingdom’. William's assessment has been endorsed by modern historians. Stenton, for example, wrote of Athelstan that ‘in character and cast of mind he is the one West Saxon king who will bear comparison with Alfred’. As in the case of Alfred, we are moderately well informed concerning Athelstan's military exploits and political achievements from early chronicles. But whereas we also have sound evidence for the literary enterprise of Alfred's reign both in the pages of Asser and in the surviving Old English translations which were executed under Alfred's sponsorship, we have no comparable evidence for the reign of Athelstan. Here the contemporary evidence is limited to a couple of Latin letters addressed to the king, a series of royal diplomas issued in his name and a miscellany of (largely incomprehensible) Latin verse. In face of this pitiful collection of contemporary evidence scholars have seized upon a poem quoted at some length by William of Malmesbury, have declared it a near-contemporary document and have used it to fill the void in the historical record – without ever having examined the poem's credentials to authenticity and antiquity with care. I propose to examine the miscellaneous Latin verse contemporary with Athelstan's reign presently; but since the poem quoted by William of Malmesbury has loomed so large in previous discussions of the reign, it may serve as an appropriate point of departure.

King Alfred's Boethius and its Latin sources: a reconsideration

1982 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 157-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Wittig
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Old English ◽  
Considerable Extent ◽  
Current Position ◽  
The One

Ever since Georg Schepss wrote ‘Zu König Alfreds “Boethius”’, scholars have thought that Alfred's translation depended to a considerable extent upon an early Latin commentary. Dorothy Whitelock has stated the current position of Old English scholarship succinctly: ‘There is no doubt that Alfred's work did use a Latin commentary on Boethius’ work … which was clearly related to the one now normally ascribed to Remigius of Auxerre.’ It is the purpose of the present article to reconsider that hypothesis and to argue that it should be rejected.

Claire Lefebvre, Creole genesis and the acquisition of grammar: The case of Haitian Creole. (Cambridge studies in linguistics, 88.) Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xviii, 461. Hb £45.00, $74.95.

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-138
Author(s):  
Adrienne Bruyn
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
West African ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
Nominal Structure ◽  
Present Book ◽  
Essential Contribution ◽  
The One ◽  
Creole Languages

In the continuing debate on the origins of creole languages, Lefebvre has long taken a strong stance in favor of an essential contribution of the West African substratum to the grammatical makeup of Haitian Creole; thus, she opposes both a universalist account along the lines of Derek Bickerton's bioprogram (e.g. 1984), and Robert Chaudenson's superstratist approach (e.g. 1992). Lefebvre's present book summarizes the main findings of two decades of research by herself and others (such as John Lumsden and Anne-Marie Brousseau) through various projects carried out at the Université du Québec à Montréal. The overall aim of this enterprise has been to test the hypothesis that adult speakers of the substratum languages, in creating a new creole language, use the properties of their native lexicons as well as the parametric values and semantic interpretation rules of their native grammars (9). In order to test this hypothesis, Haitian Creole is compared, on the one hand, with its superstratum or lexifier language, French, and on the other hand, with Fongbe (or Fon, belonging to the Gbe cluster of Kwa languages), as a representative of the substratum. Most of the book consists of the presentation of such three-way comparisons in regard to nominal structure (Chap. 4), the marking of tense, mood, and aspect (Chap. 5), pronouns (Chap. 6), clausal operators and the structure of the clause (Chaps. 7–8), the properties of verbs (Chap. 9), derivational affixes (Chap. 10), compounds (Chap. 11), and parametric options (Chap. 12). In all these areas, striking similarities between Haitian and Fongbe are revealed.

Visual Design of coherent Technology-Enhanced Learning Systems

2011 ◽  
pp. 135-161
Author(s):  
Thierry Nodenot ◽  
Pierre Laforcade ◽  
Xavier Le Pallec
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Design ◽  
Knowledge Engineering ◽  
Technology Enhanced Learning ◽  
Formal Representation ◽  
Design Languages ◽  
The One ◽  
Computer Problem ◽  
Functional Components ◽  
Enhanced Learning

Visual instructional design languages currently provide notations for representing the intermediate and final results of a knowledge engineering process. As some languages particularly focus on the formal representation of a learning design that can be transformed into machine interpretable code (i.e., IML-LD players), others have been developed to support the creativity of designers while exploring their problem-spaces and solutions. This chapter introduces CPM (Computer Problem-based Metamodel), a visual language for the instructional design of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) situations. On the one hand, CPM sketches of a PBL situation can improve communication within multidisciplinary ID teams; on the other hand, CPM blueprints can describe the functional components that a Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) system should offer to support such a PBL situation. We first present the aims and the fundamentals of CPM language. Then, we analyze CPM usability using a set of CPM diagrams produced in a case study in a ‘real-world’ setting

Visual Design of coherent Technology-Enhanced Learning Systems

2008 ◽  
pp. 252-279
Author(s):  
Thierry Nodenot ◽  
Pierre Laforcade ◽  
Xavier Le Pallec
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Design ◽  
Knowledge Engineering ◽  
Technology Enhanced Learning ◽  
Formal Representation ◽  
Design Languages ◽  
The One ◽  
Computer Problem ◽  
Functional Components ◽  
Enhanced Learning

Visual instructional design languages currently provide notations for representing the intermediate and final results of a knowledge engineering process. As some languages particularly focus on the formal representation of a learning design that can be transformed into machine interpretable code (i.e., IML-LD players), others have been developed to support the creativity of designers while exploring their problem-spaces and solutions. This chapter introduces CPM (Computer Problem-based Metamodel), a visual language for the instructional design of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) situations. On the one hand, CPM sketches of a PBL situation can improve communication within multidisciplinary ID teams; on the other hand, CPM blueprints can describe the functional components that a Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) system should offer to support such a PBL situation. We first present the aims and the fundamentals of CPM language. Then, we analyze CPM usability using a set of CPM diagrams produced in a case study in a ‘real-world’ setting

The Irish Role in the Origins of the Old English Alphabet: A Re-assessment

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick P. O’Neill
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Orthography ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
English Alphabet ◽  
The One

This chapter re-examines the role of the Irish in the origins of the Old English alphabet. There are many theories about the Old English alphabet's origins. These include those contained in Karl Luick's Historische Grammatik and E. Sievers and K. Brunner's Altenglische Grammatik, which both offered the view that the model for the Old English alphabet was the Latin alphabet. But the first work to cover Old English orthography was Alistair Campbell's Old English Grammar, which rejected the notion that the Latin alphabet which underlay the Old English alphabet was the one taught by the Irish.

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