Voices on the Past. Studies in Old and Middle English Language and Literature (ISBN 0-9729892-0-X) (original) (raw)
Related papers
京都大學文學部研究紀要, 2012
The majority of Middle English texts are anonymous, and they do not provide information as to when and where they were produced. It is, therefore, often necessary for Middle English text editors to date and localize the language by analyzing its various features. Fortunately, for late Middle English, the existence of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (LALME) (see McIntosh, Samuels, and Benskin 1986) is now a great help. By using the "fit-technique" of LALME, one can reach a fairly accurate localization of the language of the scribe at issue. 2 The dating of language, by contrast, is not an easy task, unless some reliable external pieces of evidence are available. In relation to medieval works in general, Damian-Grint(1996: 280) states: "Philological evidence will give a rough approximation of the period in which a work was composed but can rarely indicate a possible date of composition to within even half a century". When a particular manuscript is concerned, the nature of the script together with codicological information can suggest the approximate date of its production, but I have long wondered how linguistic analyses can make a further contribution to this area than they do now. The aim of the present study is to see if some linguistic features can function as linguistic scales to make the "chronological fit" possible. I will analyze for this purpose two different versions of a single text: MS Cotton Tiberius D. VII(MS １ This research was in part supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grantin-Aid for Scientific Research. ２ Iyeiri(forthcoming)illustrates the use of LALME by analyzing the language of the parchment section of MS Pepys 2125, Magdalene College, Cambridge, and shows that there are some caveats to be taken into consideration in LALME's "fit-technique". For details of the "fit-technique" of LALME, see Benskin(1991)among others.
A Report on English Historical Linguistics in Spain (1968-2011)
2012
In the following pages we will report on the development of research in English historical linguistics in Spain, looking specifically at doctoral dissertations. These can be seen as an indicator of the relationship between research and teaching in the Spanish public university system. This system, highly valued by Spanish society in general, requires that most teachers occupying permanent positions have doctoral degrees. However, someone with a doctorate in a particular field of expertise is not guaranteed to teach in that same field, which represents a poor use of human resources and impacts negatively on teaching quality. The cause for this is two fold: on the one hand, the humanities in general are gradually losing prestige, due to society's demand for institutions of higher education to provide teaching and scholarship of an immediate, practical and applicable nature. On the other hand, the reform process agreed on in Bologna for the creation of a Europe-wide higher education system has required an extraordinary effort on the part of faculties to rethink and adapt previously courses to these new trends. This process has implied an increasing load of administrative work and thus a decrease in the time devoted to research and to the preparation of lectures. There is a danger, if this critical situation is not addressed, that lectures will become ever more unappealing and dull, a situation compounded by the fact that the necessary financial resources are not available for the implementation of the whole process.
The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies (YWMLS), Modern Humanities Research Association. Vol. 61 (1999): 232-252, 2000
Text in Old Englishes, Modern Englishes and Investigation
The traditional orthodox linguistic view of the history of Old English in Britain perpetuates a myth of genocide against Britons and their Celtic language by Anglo-Saxon invaders who spoke more or less a common Germanic tongue which, mixed with some Viking Norse input, became Old English by the ninth century AD. This view is based heavily on literary and other written texts, their philological and syntactic analysis. This view has been seriously questioned by researchers (Tristram 2004, McWhorter 2008 2009, Vennemann 2009) who consider other, non-language evidence, question historical assumptions and reach radically different conclusions. Further, in hindsight, it appears that the circumstances and evolution of Old English (or old Englishes) share parallels with circumstances of how modern varieties of English are developing today. This paper considers revised views of the history of Old English, sources of textual and non-textual evidence and speculative proof, and assesses how they stand up. First it overviews the tangible and intangible concepts of 'Text' and considers thee in the contexts of one ancient and one modern sign text, which are analysed in turn. Secondly, in an attempt to draw relevance to the present state of English in the world, parallel circumstances and avenues of investigation between Old Englishes and modern world Englishes are considered.
Medieval English: The state of the language
Neophilologus, 1995
In the last few decades several large-scale data-oriented projects in the field of English historical linguistics have been undertaken. One is the Dictionary of Old English project in Toronto with its spinoffs, such as computerised texts and concordances. Another one is the Helsinki Corpus of Diachronic Texts, partly based on the Toronto material. The Old and Middle English parts of the Helsinki Corpus are at present undergoing syntactic tagging (in the case of the Old English material, with the help of morphological coding). The Helsinki corpus also includes Early Modem English texts, but a more extensive corpus of Early (and Late) Modern English is now being prepared by Edward Finnegan and Douglas Biber. Furthermore, electronic texts for complete works of more and more individual writers are becoming available.