SELIM. Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature.

Semantic Inheritance in the Lexical Paradigms of Old English Strong Verbs

2022-07-14T10:22:29+00:00

This work delves into the semantics of Old English lexical paradigms based on strong verbs. Its aim is to describe the patterns of semantic inheritance that hold in these paradigms, which present morphologically related words sharing the form and meaning of the base of derivation. The analysis carried out permits to circumscribe semantic derivation in these Old English lexical paradigms into the lexical entailment relations of troponymy, -troponymy, backward presupposition and cause, and the semantic relations of synonymy and opposition. The data of research has been retrieved from the lexical database Nerthus (Martín Arista et. al 2016). On the theoretical side, this examination follows the English lexical database WordNet (Princeton, 2010). This research unfolds a systematic methodology that is thoroughly described and illustrated by means of the paradigm (ge)berstan. It has not only been possible to circumscribe semantic derivation into the six semantic relations mentioned, but also to determine their frequency of occurrence in the paradigms under analysis, which indicates that synonymy and troponymy are the most recurrent semantic relations.

What Did(n’t) Happen to English?: A Re-evaluation of Some Contact Explanations in Early English

2023-05-28T09:06:35+00:00

McWhorter (2002) argued that contact with Norse caused simplifications in English grammar that set English apart from other Germanic languages. This paper focuses on one of the losses McWhorter attributed to the linguistic impact of the Scandinavian invasions, External Possessors. An investigation of electronic Old and Early Middle English corpora reveals that the construction was already on the decline in the Old English period, and that Norse contact cannot explain the Early Middle English data. There is no support for the view that the loss of the construction spread from the Scandinavianized areas southwards. The facts are consistent with the view that while Celtic influence did not cause the loss of the construction in Old English, Celtic speakers shifting to English may have played a role in triggering the initial decline of the construction. Study of non-standard variants of other Germanic languages is needed to increase our understanding of the history of External Possessor constructions in those languages.

The Inflection of Latin Feminine Proper Names in the Old English Martyrology

2023-04-10T08:21:40+00:00

This paper focuses on the inflections of Latin feminine names in Old English. Whereas most Latin loanwords are perfectly integrated and behave like Old English words as far as their morphology is concerned, like scientific loans, names can take inflectional endings from both Latin and Old English. Ruiz Narbona (2023) has shown that, in the case of masculine names, the distribution of both types of inflections followed certain clear patterns. Following the model of that study, the analysis of the 125 tokens from the Old English Martyrology shows that certain rules can also be established in the case of feminine names. In general terms, the inflections of these names are modelled after Old English weak n-stems, although nominative inflections are invariably Latin. The case with the more widespread variation is the genitive, where both Old English and Latin inflections are consistently used. The latter, however, are heavily restricted to introductory sections and function solely as post-modifiers.

Verbs and Expressions of Calling a Person/Place/Thing in Old and Early Middle English Chronicles and Homilies

2023-07-31T07:37:29+00:00

There were many ways of calling or naming a person, a place, or other things in Old English: se wæs noe gehaten ‘he is called Noah’, Ioppe hatte sum burh ‘a city was called Joppa’, æt þæm beorge þe mon Athlans nemneð ‘at the mountain which they name (precisely, one names) Atlas’, þe Grecas nemnað paralysis. and we cweðað lyftadl ‘which the Greeks call paralysis, and we call palsy’, his nama is iohannes ‘his name is John’, etc. A clear difference in the use of these verbs and expressions of calling is found between chronicles and homilies. Also, when the contents that describe the same object or theme like false god or the deadly sins, lexical variations or flexible uses of verbs can further become obvious. The aim of this study is to exemplify a variety of expressions of calling found in Old and early Middle English texts, especially in chronicles and homilies, which show syntactic and stylistic continuity with some morphological and lexical alterations. Tables are given to show the choice of each verb form used in each text.

“Terrible Letters”: Bad Handwriting and its Implications, 1020–1220

2022-11-01T18:03:59+00:00

This article focuses on the role of one of the most fundamental of medieval figures—the scribe, as well as on the products of scribes in the eighth to thirteenth centuries. It chiefly addresses how writing seems to have functioned and been conceived of and how present-day scholarly palaeographical methods do not always adjudicate medieval writing practices sensitively or convincingly. This matters, and especially so in our age of the digital aspect, since the inherited categories of description simply no longer hold force. What constitutes ‘bad handwriting’ then and is it, in fact, a description that can be validated by close analysis of scholarship and medieval writing practices?

The Missing Letters J. R. R. Tolkien Received from Derek J. Price and R. M. Wilson: Addendum to “Further Notes on J. R. R. Tolkien’s Photostats of The Equatorie of the Planetis (MS Peterhouse 75.I)”

2023-04-10T15:01:49+00:00

In 2021, Andoni Cossio suggested cataloguing The Equatorie of the Planetis (MS Peterhouse 75.I, c. 1393) under “Section A” in Tolkien’s Library: An Annotated Checklist, by Oronzo Cilli. One year later, Cossio unearthed the exact list of MS Peterhouse 75.I folios J. R. R. Tolkien had once owned in the form of photostats (2022). In this second article, Cossio alludes the to the hypothetical existence of correspondence that Tolkien exchanged with Derek J. Price and R. M. Wilson during the preparation phase of Price and Wilson’s edition of The Equatorie of the Planetis (1955). New evidence gathered from Maggs Bros. Ltd. private archive (1991b), as well as auction (Phillips 1988; Sotheby’s 1995) and sales (Maggs Bros. Ltd. 1991a) catalogues demonstrate the existence of epistles and other material Tolkien received, though the brief, and often inaccurate, descriptions of the lots and items do not determine Tolkien’s exact contributions. However, the catalogues provide additional information about the timeline of Tolkien’s participation, and disclose that Price was the one to approach Tolkien in the first place. This note will elucidate those aspects and further complement Cossio’s (2022) article in other ways.

Bueno Alonso, Jorge Luis, ed. 2022. Tolkien in the 21st Century: Reading, Reception, and Reinterpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Pp. 175. ISBN 9781527583955.

2023-07-30T14:47:55+00:00

Book review of Bueno Alonso, Jorge Luis, ed. 2022. Tolkien in the 21^st Century: Reading, Reception, and Reinterpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Pp. 175. ISBN 9781527583955.

Fay, Jacqueline. 2022. Materializing Englishness in Early Medieval Texts. Oxford Textual Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 224. ISBN 9780198757566.

2023-07-30T15:00:17+00:00

Book review of Fay, Jacqueline. 2022. Materializing Englishness in Early Medieval Texts. Oxford Textual Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 224. ISBN 9780198757566.

Guzmán González, Trinidad. 2022. Espejo del Arte de Cocina. De la Corte del rey Ricardo, el Segundo de Inglaterra tras la conquista. Folia Medievalia, 8. León: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de León-Inst. Estudios Medievales. Pp. 211. ISBN 9788418490552.

2022-12-09T18:35:15+00:00

Book review of Guzmán González, Trinidad. 2022. Espejo del Arte de Cocina. De la Corte del rey Ricardo, el Segundo de Inglaterra tras la conquista. Folia Medievalia, 8. León: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de León-Inst. Estudios Medievales. Pp. 211. ISBN 9788418490552.

Knox, Philip. 2022. The Romance of the Rose and the Making of Fourteenth-Century English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xv + 296. ISBN 9780192847171.

2023-07-30T15:03:45+00:00

Book review of Knox, Philip. 2022. The Romance of the Rose and the Making of Fourteenth-Century English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xv + 296. ISBN 9780192847171.

Neidorf, Leonard, ed. 2021. Epic and Romance: A Guide to Medieval European Literature. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press. Pp. 444. ISBN 9787305251276.

2023-07-30T15:06:04+00:00

Book review of Neidorf, Leonard, ed. 2021. Epic and Romance: A Guide to Medieval European Literature. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press. Pp. 444. ISBN 9787305251276.

Parker, Eleanor. 2022. Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year. London: Reaktion Books. Pp. 240. ISBN 9781789146721.

2023-07-30T15:10:00+00:00

Book review of Parker, Eleanor. 2022. Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year. London: Reaktion Books. Pp. 240. ISBN 9781789146721.

Ruszkiewicz, Dominika. 2021. Love and Virtue in Middle English and Middle Scots Poetry. Studies in Medieval Language and Literature, 58. Berlin: Peter Lang. Pp. 221. ISBN 9783631861738.

2023-07-30T15:12:43+00:00

Book review of Ruszkiewicz, Dominika. 2021. Love and Virtue in Middle English and Middle Scots Poetry. Studies in Medieval Language and Literature, 58. Berlin: Peter Lang. Pp. 221. ISBN 9783631861738.

Shippey, Tom. 2022. Beowulf and the North before the Vikings. Leeds: Arc Humanities. Pp. 127. ISBN 9781802700138.

2023-07-30T15:20:04+00:00

Book review of Shippey, Tom. 2022. Beowulf and the North before the Vikings. Leeds: Arc Humanities. Pp. 127. ISBN 9781802700138.

Timofeeva, Olga. 2022. Sociolinguistic Variation in Old English. Records of Communities of People. Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pp. xv + 204. ISBN 9789027211347.

2023-07-30T15:22:34+00:00

Book review of Timofeeva, Olga. 2022. Sociolinguistic Variation in Old English. Records of Communities of People. Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pp. xv + 204. ISBN 9789027211347.

Treharne, Elaine. 2021. Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts: The Phenomenal Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xiv + 248. ISBN 9780192843814.

2023-07-30T15:24:44+00:00

Book review of Treharne, Elaine. 2021. Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts: The Phenomenal Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xiv + 248. ISBN 9780192843814.

Weikert, Katherine, and Elena Woodacre, eds. 2021. Medieval Intersections: Gender and Status in Europe in the Middle Ages. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 132. ISBN 9781800731547.

2023-07-30T15:26:42+00:00

Book review of Weikert, Katherine, and Elena Woodacre, eds. 2021. Medieval Intersections: Gender and Status in Europe in the Middle Ages. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 132. ISBN 9781800731547.

Whearty, Bridget. 2022. Digital Codicology: Medieval Books and Modern Labor. Redwood City: Stanford University Press. Pp. 338. ISBN 9781503632752.

2023-07-30T15:30:06+00:00

Book review of Whearty, Bridget. 2022. Digital Codicology: Medieval Books and Modern Labor. Redwood City: Stanford University Press. Pp. 338. ISBN 9781503632752.