Analysing older English / edited by David Denison [and others] ; with the assistance of Ayumi Miura.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Denison, David, 1950- editor.

Series:

Studies in English language.

Studies in English language

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--History.

English language.

English language--Old English, ca. 450-1100--Versification.

English language--Middle English, 1100-1500--Versification.

Linguistic change.

Historical linguistics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 335 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Is historical linguistics different in principle from other linguistic research? This book addresses problems encountered in gathering and analysing data from early English, including the incomplete nature of the evidence and the dangers of misinterpretation or over-interpretation. Even so, gaps in the data can sometimes be filled. The volume brings together a team of leading English historical linguists who have encountered such issues first-hand, to discuss and suggest solutions to a range of problems in the phonology, syntax, dialectology and onomastics of older English. The topics extend widely over the history of English, chronologically and linguistically, and include Anglo-Saxon naming practices, the phonology of the alliterative line, computational measurement of dialect similarity, dialect levelling and enregisterment in late Modern English, stress-timing in English phonology and the syntax of Old and early Modern English. The book will be of particular interest to researchers and students in English historical linguistics.

Contents:

Part I. Metrics and Onomastics in Older English: 1. Introduction to Part I / Chris McCully and David Denison; 2. What explanatory metrics has to say about the history of English function words / Gerffrey Russom; 3. To þœre fulan flóde óf þœre fulan flode: on becoming a name in Easton and Winchester, Hampshire / Richard Coates; 4. Notes on some interfaces between place-name material and linguistic theory / Peter Kitson

Part II. Writing Practices in Older English: 5. Introduction to Part II / Chris McCully; 6. Anglian features in late West Saxon prose / R.D. Fulk; 7. 'ea' in early Middle English: from diphthong to digraph / Roger Lass and Margaret Laing

Part III. Dialects in Older English: 8. Introduction to Part III: on the impossibility of historical sociolinguistics / Emma Moore; 9. Levelling and enregisterment in northern dialects of late modern English / Joan Beal; 10. Quantitative historical dialectology / April McMahon and Warren Maguire; 11. Reconstructing syntactic continuity and change in early modern English regional dialects: the case of who / Terttu Nevalainen

Part IV. Sound Change in Older English: 12. Introduction to Part IV: when a knowledge of history is a dangerous thing / Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero; 13. Syllable weight and the weak-verb paradigms in Old English / Donka Minkova; 14. How to weaken one's consonants, strengthen one's vowels, and remain English at the same time / Nikolaus Ritt; 15. Degemination in English, with special reference to the Middle English period / Derek Britton

Part V. Syntax in Older English: 16. Introduction to Part V / David Denison; 17. The status of the postposed 'and-adjective' construction in Old English: attributive or predicative? / Olga Fischer; 18. DO and weak verbs in early modern English / Anthony Warner.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-22258-3

1-139-17909-8

1-283-37822-1

9786613378224

1-139-18859-3

1-139-18731-7

1-139-18990-5

1-139-18268-4

1-139-18499-7

1-139-02217-2

OCLC:

782876872