Obsolete Scandinavian Loanwords in English

Obsolete Scandinavian Loanwords in English
Author: Magdalena Bator
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2010
Genre: England
ISBN: 9783631613160

So far, no comprehensive study of the obsolescence of Scandinavian loanwords in English has ever been published. This book remedies that situation, and presents an analysis of the causes of obsolescence of Scandinavian loanwords in English since the 15th century. The study has mainly been based on the Oxford English Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary. Over 300 loanwords have been selected, grouped into semantic fields and analysed. To account for their disappearance, reasons such as the rivalry of synonyms, the exclusive use in local dialects, the disappearance of the referent as well as rare occurrence or phonological changes were investigated.

Textual Reception and Cultural Debate in Medieval English Studies

Textual Reception and Cultural Debate in Medieval English Studies
Author: María José Esteve Ramos
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2018-11-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 152752244X

This book is a rigorous and broad update of the state of the art in the investigation of Old and Middle English. The volume, written by some of the best known experts in this field, addresses different issues, such as etymology, manuscript sources, and medieval literary traditions, among others. Its contents will be particularly useful for those interested in the different perspectives of current research in the field, exhorting the reader to consider the relationship of the medieval textual heritage and language with both its contemporary medieval audience and the readers of the 21st century. This book will appeal to specialists in Old and Middle English language and literature and also to university students. In contrast with monographs, which focus on a specific aspect, these essays allow a broader panorama of what is being done and the approaches currently being used.

External Influences on English

External Influences on English
Author: D. Gary Miller
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2012-08-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199654263

In this fascinating history of the influences on English during the first thousand years of its formation the author shows when and why the Anglo-Saxons began to borrow words from Latin and Greek and the effects of contact with the Vikings, Celts, and French. A book of enduring value to everyone interested in the history of English.

Borrowed Words

Borrowed Words
Author: Philip Durkin
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 871
Release: 2014-01-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0191667072

The rich variety of the English vocabulary reflects the vast number of words it has taken from other languages. These range from Latin, Greek, Scandinavian, Celtic, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian to, among others, Hebrew, Maori, Malay, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, andYiddish. Philip Durkin's full and accessible history reveals how, when, and why. He shows how to discover the origins of loanwords, when and why they were adopted, and what happens to them once they have been. The long documented history of English includes contact with languages in a variety of contexts, including: the dissemination of Christian culture in Latin in Anglo-Saxon England, and the interactions of French, Latin, Scandinavian, Celtic, and English during the Middle Ages; exposure to languages throughout the world during the colonial era; and the effects of using English as an international language of science. Philip Durkin describes these and other historical inputs, introducing the approaches each requires, from the comparative method for the earliest period to documentary and corpus research in the modern. The discussion is illustrated at every point with examples taken from a variety of different sources. The framework Dr Durkin develops can be used to explore lexical borrowing in any language. This outstanding book is for everyone interested in English etymology and in loanwords more generally. It will appeal to a wide general public and at the same time offers a valuable reference for scholars and students of the history of English.

Keys to the History of English

Keys to the History of English
Author: Thijs Porck
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2024-04-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027247005

This volume brings together contributions selected from papers delivered at the 21st International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL, Leiden 2021). The contributions deal with various aspects of English language across time and geographical space, shedding light on both long-term developments and singular documents of particular linguistic interest. A wide range of methodologies are represented, including corpus linguistics, acoustic phonetics and philology. Chapters showcase work on syntax and word order (parataxis and hypotaxis from Old to Late Modern English; left-dislocation in Old English; do-support in Scots), diachronic linguistic change (phonological developments of lateral /l/ in English; modality in noun clauses from Old to Early Modern English; editorial practices of Middle English punctuation across time) and lexicography and lexis (Old English glosses of the Durham Ritual; Old English lexicographers from 17th-century Germany; lexical differences between Old and Middle English; Yiddish loanwords in English). This volume will be of interest to those working on morphology, syntax and lexicography of English, historical linguistics, language change, history of linguistics, computational historical linguistics and related sub-disciplines.

Lemmatising Old English on a relational database

Lemmatising Old English on a relational database
Author: Laura García Fernández
Publisher: utzverlag GmbH
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2020-08-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3831648212

This work contributes to the research in the linguistic analysis of Old English with corpus-based lexical databases. In the specific area of Old English, which presents numerous morphological variations and lacks a written standard, a lemmatised corpus is necessary. Thus, the aim of this work is to lemmatise part of the verbal lexicon of Old English, combining aspects of Morphology, Lexicography and Corpus Analysis. The scope is restricted to the most morphologically complex verbal classes of Old English, including irregular verbs and reduplicative verbs, which comprise preterite-present, anomalous, contracted and strong VII verbs. This aim requires, firstly, the selection and management of the sources of data and verification of results; and secondly, the design and sequencing of the steps of the lemmatisation tasks. This research also raises the issue of the automatisation of the process of lemmatisation of Old English verbs, on which little previous literature has been found. In conclusion, this work offers an inventory of inflectional forms and lemmas of the verbs under analysis. On the applied side, this work presents different procedures of automatic and manual lemmatisation that can be applied to the fields of Lexicography and Corpus Linguistics.

Aspects of the History of English Language and Literature

Aspects of the History of English Language and Literature
Author: Osamu Imahayashi
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2010
Genre: English language
ISBN: 9783631609668

"The first international conference was held at Chiba University in 1-3 September 2005, the second one at Nagoya University in 7-9 September 2007, and the third one at Hiroshima University in 28-30 August 2009"--P. [v].

Modal Auxiliaries from Late Old to Early Middle English

Modal Auxiliaries from Late Old to Early Middle English
Author: Kousuke Kaita
Publisher: Herbert Utz Verlag
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2015-04-17
Genre: English language
ISBN: 3831643784

Why do Modern English modal auxiliaries ought to, should, and must, meaning OBLIGATION, occur in the present tense, yet their forms are in the preterite? Why does to accompany ought? One of the solutions to these questions is to look at the history of the English language. This monograph deals with the history of ought to, should, and must, which are of different syntactic and semantic origins: ought to stems from a main verb of Old English āgan ‘to have’ (POSSESSION) along with to; should derives from sculan ‘must’ with its ‘deviation’ to shall, and mōtan originates in ‘to be allowed to’ (PERMISSION). The work concentrates on the transition from Old English (700-1100) to Middle English (1100-1500), which is a crucial period in the history of the English language. Topics addressed include the linguistic review of modality, the philological reading of primary texts, and the occasional reference to the other Germanic languages.