Old and Middle English Spellings for OE hw-, with Special Reference to the ‘qu-’ Type: In Celebration of LAEME, (e)LALME, LAOS and CoNE: In Memoriam Angus McIntosh

2019 ◽  
pp. 91-112
Author(s):  
Margaret Laing ◽  
Roger Lass
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Geographical Variation ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Electronic Version ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Spelling Variation ◽  
In Memoriam

This chapter demonstrates how the four main electronic resources created in the same tradition as A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediæval English (LALME), i.e. LAEME, LALME itself (and its electronic version eLALME), A Linguistic Atlas of Older Scots (LAOS) and A Corpus of Narrative Etymologies from Proto-Old English to Early Middle English and accompanying Corpus of Changes (CoNE) can be used in tandem to support an investigation into the initial wh-cluster in words such as when, where, what, who, which. No fewer than 57 different spellings are found for this cluster, from the earliest attested Old English to ca 1500. The authors show how LAEME, eLALME, and LAOS provide the data that allow this spelling variation to be analysed as reflecting various scribal choices, whether determined by orthographic variation (including traditional contextual rules for the use of <v> or <u>), phonological variation, geographical variation, and/or diachronic variation. The final section showcases CoNE, and reconstructs a diachronic account on the basis of these spellings, revealing a coherent, if extremely complex, picture of lenitions, fortitions, and reversals.

The Development of Old English eo/ēo and the Systematicity of Middle English Spelling

2019 ◽  
pp. 133-155
Author(s):  
Merja Stenroos
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Core Area ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Spelling Variation ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Almost All ◽  
English Spelling

This chapter uses a new resource, the Middle English Grammar Corpus (MEG-C), a corpus of 14th and 15th Century English texts, to answer an old question: it is possible to find traces of a systematic distinction between the reflexes of Old English e/ē and eo/ēo in Middle English? An investigation into the spelling variation found in 27 lexical items that contain a vowel representing Old English eo/ēo as well as the equivalent Old Norse element jó throws up a wide range of spellings, the vast majority of which show <e>/<ee>. Spellings that might suggest a rounded pronunciation are also fairly robustly present, however, particularly <eo>, with the Southwest Midlands as its core area. The second part of the investigation retrieves all words that were spelled with the digraph <eo>. The vast majority of these turn out to be reflexes of Old English eo/ēo, and almost all of them are localized to the Southwest Midlands. They occur either as reflexes of OE y/ȳ, or in unstressed syllables, or in words where <eo> follows <w> – three groups for which a rounded pronunciation would be plausible.

Historical Dialectology and the Angus McIntosh Legacy

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Rhona Alcorn ◽  
Joanna Kopaczyk ◽  
Bettelou Los ◽  
Benjamin Molineaux
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Electronic Version ◽  
Digital Repositories ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Text Corpora ◽  
Historical Text ◽  
The University

This chapter provides an overview of the historical text corpora and digital repositories hosted by the Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics and created by its predecessor, the Institute of Historical Dialectology: A Linguistic Atlas of Late Middle English (LALME), and its remodelled electronic version eLALME; A Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English (LAEME), A Linguistic Atlas of Older Scots (LAOS) and The Corpus of Narrative Etymologies from Proto-Old English to Early Middle English (CoNE). The chapter also highlights related resources created at the University of Stavanger, most prominently the Middle English Scribal Texts programme (MEST), and its offshoot, The Middle English Grammar Corpus (MEG-C), which provides tagged and annotated diplomatic transcriptions of 410 LALME texts; and the Corpus of Middle English Local Documents (MELD) which comprises transcriptions of over 2000 fifteenth-century documents.

Towards a history of English resultative constructions: the case of adjectival resultative constructions

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
CRISTIANO BROCCIAS
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Causal Chain ◽  
Evolutionary Path ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Force Dynamics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Metaphorical Interpretation

This contribution provides a corpus-based investigation of the history of adjectival resultative constructions (RCs), e.g. He wiped the table clean, with special reference to Old English and Middle English. The article first briefly discusses some of the parameters relevant to a synchronic analysis of RCs, namely causativity, causality and force-dynamics, as well as the distinction between adjectival and adverbial RCs (collectively referred to as ARCs since the two types cannot always be differentiated diachronically). The article then shows that the diachronic data point to an expansion of the ARC from very specific instantiations, involving a limited set of verbs and adjectives/adverbs (i.e. the washing and cutting scenarios), to progressively more general types (which, however, set up a coherent network of analogical extensions). It is observed that this evolutionary path correlates with the metaphorical interpretation of actions as forces and the emergence of ‘proper’ causative examples, i.e. examples where the verb only symbolises the causing subevent in the causal chain evoked by the RC. Further, it is argued that this investigation highlights the importance of the usage-based model in linguistic analysis.

Ere and before in English historical corpora, with special reference to the Corpus of English Dialogues

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 286-301
Author(s):  
Matti Rissanen
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Spatial Form ◽  
History Of ◽  
Temporal Adverbial

Abstract In this paper, the use of two roughly synonymous temporal adverbial links, ere and before, will be discussed. The survey will cover the history of English, from Old to Present-day English. It is based on historical corpora, particularly on the Corpus of English Dialogues (1560–1760). Ere (Old English ær) was originally temporal, while before (Old English beforan) goes back to the spatial form. In Old English and Early Middle English ere is clearly more common than before; from Late Middle English on, before becomes the more favoured link. The Corpus of English Dialogues and later corpora indicate that the use of ere is remarkably restricted to informal and speech-related discourse.

Talking about MOTION in Middle English

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Huber
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Other ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Text Type ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Contact Situation ◽  
Analysis Of Motion

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.

scholarly journals Norse against Old English: 20-0

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Holmberg
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
West Germanic

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.

Positive and negative face as descriptive categories in the history of English

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 178-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas H. Jucker
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
History Of ◽  
Negative Face

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.

scholarly journals The Affix Changes from Middle English to Modern English Found In The Miller's Tale Written by Geoffrey Chaucer and Its Modern English Version

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Egi Putriana ◽  
Jufrizal Jufrizal ◽  
Fitrawati Fitrawati
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Geoffrey Chaucer ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Version ◽  
New Words ◽  
History Of ◽  
Vowel Change

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.

On the Issue of Performativity of Hymns

2021 ◽  
Vol 2020 i ◽  
pp. 74-86
Author(s):  
Anna Proskurina
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
Speech Activity ◽  
The Cross

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.

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