Aspects of Medieval English language and literature : proceedings of the Fifth International Conference of the Society of Historical English Language and Linguistics

This volume is a collection of papers read at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds in 2017, in two sessions organized by the Institute of English Studies at the University of London and four sessions organized by the Society of Historical English Language and Linguistics. Contributions consist of poetry, prose, interlinear glosses, syntax, semantics, lexicology, and medievalism. The contributors employ a wealth of different approaches. The general theme of the IMC 2017 was ‘otherness’, and some papers fit this theme very well. Even when two researchers deal with a similar topic and arrive at different conclusions, the editors do not try to harmonize them but present them as they are for further discussion. List of Abbreviations 9 Maps and Pictures 13 Preface and Acknowledgements 15 Part I. Poetry 1. Hironori Suzuki / The composition of 'auxiliary + main verb' constructions in Old English poetry 23 2. Hideki Watanabe / The Significance of 'nacod nið-draca' (Beowulf 2273a) Reconsidered: The Metaphorical Link Interconnecting fire, swords, warriors and monsters 41 3. Andrew Breeze / 'Brunanburh' Located: The Battlefield and the Poem 61 Part II. Prose 4. Joyce Hill / Ælfric’s Polemic of Orthodoxy versus Error: An Analysis of the Name-Game 83 5. Tomonori Yamamoto / From Verb Simplexes to Periphrastic 'Modal Verb + Infinitive' Constructions: A Semantic and Syntactic Study of the OE 'Boethius', with Reference to the Four Poems in the Junius Manuscript 97 6. Javier Martín Arista / The design and implementation of a pilot parallel corpus of Old English 111 7. Liliana Sikorska / The magical human-animal or the monstrous female in 'Le Roman de Melusine' 135 Part III. Interlinear Glosses 8. Hans Sauer & Birgit Schwan / Aldred’s combinations with 'efne', 'eft' and 'ymb': their status (wordformation, glossing device, or both), and their treatment in dictionaries 151 9. Michiko Ogura / How Free the Translation could be: Choices of Verb Forms in Lindisfarne and Rushworth Versions of the Gospels 179 10. Yoshitaka Kozuka / Reconsideration of the Development of English Third Person Plural Pronouns: An Analysis of the Use of Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns in Old English Biblical Glosses 197 Part IV. Syntax 11. Michio Hosaka / Ambiguity between the BE Perfect and the BE Passive in Old English 217 12. Kousuke Kaita / Old English 'Magan': An Expression of Adhortative Wish 239 Part V. Semantics and Lexicology 13. Jane Roberts / Some thoughts about the Old English Weaving and Spinning terms 259 14. Magdalena Bator / The Language of the Early Culinary Instructions 273 15. Rafał Molencki / Why did 'people' oust 'folk' and 'lede'? 291 Part VI. Medievalism 16. Oliver M. Traxel / Reviving a Past Language Stage: Modern Takes on Old English 309 Contributors 329 This collection of papers is a gift for all the members of the Japan Society for Medieval English Studies, who worked abroad under the direction of British, European and American medievalists or greatly influenced by those scholars as guests of the Society. Six papers in this book tell parts of their special fields of study: Aldred the Northumbrian scribe, Old English glosses, the Exeter Book, source studies of Old English homilies, Old English Boethius and Judgement Day II. As one of their students and a former president of the Society, the editor adds the last paper on Old English syntax This volume is a collection of papers read at the Leeds International Medieval Congress in 2017, in two sessions organized by the Institute of English Studies at the University of London and four sessions by the Society of Historical English Language and Linguistics. Topics include poetry, prose, interlinear glosses, syntax, lexicology, etc. Researches vary: word order between auxiliary verbs and main verbs in Old English poetry, simple verbs and periphrases, uses of personal and demonstrative pronouns, words of cooking, weaving, and words meaning 'people', word-formation in glosses, a proposal of a new Old English corpus, etc