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1

Degree of Grammaticalisation of Behind, Beneath, Between and Betwixt in Middle English

100%

Ciszek-Kiliszewska E.

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nr 2

193-222

EN

The present paper traces the history of four selected adverbs with the prefix be- in Middle English. Already in Old English behind, beneath, between and betwixt are attested to function as both adverbs and prepositions, which demonstrates that the process of grammaticalisation accounting for the development of prepositions from adverbs started before that period. The focus of the study are the diachronic changes of the degree of grammaticalisation of the examined lexemes in the Middle English period as demonstrated by the ratio of their use with a respective function in the most natural context. Hence, specially selected Middle English prose texts are analysed. The analysis shows that while behind and beneath are still frequently used as adverbs in the whole Middle English period, between and betwixt are predominantly used as prepositions already in Early Middle English. This clearly demonstrates that the degree of grammaticalisation of the latter two Middle English words was much higher than that of behind and beneath.

2

The Dialectal Provenance of London, Wellcome Library, Ms 5262

88%

Esteban-Segura L.

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nr 3

79-90

EN

This paper takes into consideration the language found in London, Wellcome Library, MS 5262, a one-volume codex from the early fifteenth century which holds a medical recipe collection. The manuscript, written in Middle English (and with a few fragments in Latin), represents a fine exemplar of a remedybook, a type of writing that has been traditionally considered to be popular. The main aim is to study the dialect of the text contained in folios 3v-61v in order to localise it geographically. The methodology followed for the purpose is grounded on the model supplied by the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (LALME) (McIntosh et al. 1986), which consists of several stages including the completion of a survey questionnaire, the creation of the linguistic profile of the text and the application of the ‘fit’-technique (McIntosh et al. 1986, vol. 1: 10-12; Benskin 1991). Extralinguistic features of the manuscript may also be taken into consideration. This comprehensive analysis will help us to circumscribe the dialectal provenance and/or local origin of the text accurately.

3

The Onomastic Data of the Fourteenth-Century Poll Tax Returns: A Case for Further Dialectological Study of Late Medieval English

88%

Parkin D. H.

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nr 2

33-61

EN

An important source of localisable Middle English dialectological data has recently become widely accessible, thanks to the published transcription of the 1377, 1379 and 1381 poll tax re-turns by Carolyn C. Fenwick (1998, 2001, 2005). As the only collection of onomastic data from the late fourteenth century with national coverage, the name forms in the records can be analysed to further our understanding of Middle English dialect distribution and change. As with many historical records, the poll tax returns are not without damage and so do not cover the country in its entirety, but provided their investigation is carried out with suitable methodological caution, they are of considerable dialectological value. Using the poll tax data, the distributions of two dialect features particular to the West Midlands (specifically rounding of /a/ to /o/ before nasals and /u/ in unstressed positions) are presented and compared with the patterns given for the same features in Kristensson’s (1987) dialect survey of data from 1290-1350. By identifying apparent discrepancies in dialect distribution from these datasets, which represent periods of no more than 100 years apart, it seems that the spread of certain Middle English dialect features may have changed considerably over a short space of time. Other possible reasons for these distribution differences are also suggested, highlighting the difficulties in comparing dialect data from differ-ent sets of records. Through this paper a case for further dialectological study, using the poll tax returns, is made, to add to the literature on Middle English dialect distribution and to improve our knowledge of ME dialect phonologies at the end of the fourteenth century.

4

The Rise of Standard I (< Me Ich): A Contribution to the Study of Functional Change in English

75%

Wełna J.

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nr 3

29-41

EN

In its post-Norman Conquest development the Old English first person personal pronoun ic underwent transformations which, following the loss of the consonant, finally yielded the contemporary capitalised form I, contrasting with other Germanic languages, which retain a velar sound in the corresponding pronoun. The rather complex change of ich to I involves a loss of the final velar/palatal consonant, lengthening of the original short vowel, and capitalisation of the pronoun. It is argued here that the use of the capital letter was a consequence of vowel lengthening subsequent to the loss of the consonant. This seems to be confirmed by the observation that forms retaining a consonant are extremely rarely capitalised. The data adduced in the present paper will help verify as precisely as possible the distribution of the forms of that pronoun in Middle English dialects in order to determine to what extent the changes were functionally interdependent. The evidence comes from the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose.

5

Courtesy and Politeness in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

75%

Jucker A. H.

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nr 3

5-28

EN

A close reading of three selected passages of the Middle English alliterative romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight provides a detailed picture of fictional and fairy-tale manifestations of courtly and polite behaviour in Middle English, a period that imported many new terms of courtesy and politeness from French. In the three passages Sir Gawain is visited in his bedchamber by the lady of the house, who tries to seduce him and thus puts him in a severe dilemma of having to be courteous to the lady and at the same time loyal to his host and to the code of chivalry. The analysis shows how Sir Gawain and the lady of the house engage in a discursive struggle of the true implications of courteous behaviour. It also shows how the two characters use nominal and pronominal terms of address to negotiate their respective positions of power, dominance and submission towards each other. And, finally, an analysis of requests reveals how the lady carefully selects appropriate strategies to reflect the severity of the imposition of her requests and her momentary standing in their discursive struggle.

6

The Transmission of the Agnus Castus Herbal: From Manuscript to Early Print

51%

Esteve-Ramos M. J.

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nr 3

319-333

PL

Celem artykułu jest zrozumienie jak piśmiennictwo naukowe ewoluowało od średniowiecza do czasów nowożytnych. Badanie oparte jest na dwóch kopiach zielnika (Agnus Castus Herbal), który powstał w obu badanych okresach. Analiza tego tekstu pozwala zaobserwować zmiany jakie zachodziły w tego typu tekstach, oraz jak zmiany technologiczne wpłynęły na produkcję oraz postrzeganie zielników. Agnus Castus Herbal był bardzo popularnym traktatem w średniowieczu i prawdopodobnie nadal cieszył się dużym zainteresowaniem na początku XVI wieku. Jego wczesnoangielski odpowiednik – wydany w 1525 r. – jest pierwszym zielnikiem wydrukowanym w Anglii.

EN

This article aims at understanding how scientific writing was evolving from the medieval to the Early Modern times through the study of two copies of the same text belonging to both periods: the Agnus Castus Herbal. This text offers the possibility of studying the fluidity of this specific type of discourse in a time of a profound technological innovation, reflecting the way the texts were not only produced but also perceived. For those making decisions on how to present this old material to new readers and through a new medium, the influence of the new humanist views and the powerful middle-class may have influenced the final resolutions. The Agnus Castus Herbal was a very popular tract in the Middle Ages, a fundamental part of medical treatments at the time, and was probably still of great interest in the early sixteenth century. Its Early Modern English counterpart – published in 1525 – is the first Herbal printed in England.