Meaning in the History of English: Words and texts in context(148 Studies in Language Companion Series)

Uncovering the meaning of individual words or entire texts is a complex process that needs to take into consideration the multiple interactions of linguistic organization including orthography, morphology, syntax and, ultimately, pragmatics. The papers in this volume pay close attention to these interactions and assess both the details of the texts and entire texts within their relevant contexts. All the papers deal with data from the history of English, and they cover a wide range from Old English manuscripts to Early Modern English letters and medical texts to Late Modern English cant vocabulary.

Table of Contents:
1. Preface; 2. Uncovering layers of meaning in the history of the English language (by Jucker, Andreas H.); 3. Part I. Graphemics and phonology; 4. Layers of reading in the Old English Bede: The case of Oxford Corpus Christi College 279B* (by Wallis, Christine); 5. Unlikely-looking Old English verb forms (by Stanley, Eric Gerald); 6. On the importance of noting uncertainty in etymological research: Some implications of a re-examination of the etymology of road (by Durkin, Philip); 7. Part II. Lexicology and semantics; 8. "A Wiltshire word, according to Kennett": The contribution of MS Lansd. 1033 to Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words (1847)* (by Ruano-Garcia, Javier); 9. Enforcing or effacing useful distinctions?: Imply vs. infer (by Chapman, Don); 10. The role of context in the meaning specification of cant and slang words in eighteenth-century English (by But, Roxanne); 11. Part III. Syntax; 12. Let's talk about uton* (by Bergen, Linda van); 13. Exploring part-of-speech profiles and authorship attribution in Early Modern medical texts (by Tyrkko, Jukka); 14. The positioning of adverbial clauses in the Paston letters* (by Iyeiri, Yoko); 15. Part IV. Genres; 16. Complexity and genre conventions: Text structure and coordination in Early Modern English proclamations (by Lehto, Anu); 17. Formulaic discourse across Early Modern English medical genres: Investigating shared lexical bundles* (by Kopaczyk, Joanna); 18. "Treasure of pore men", "countrymans friend" or "gentlewomans companion"?: On the use of interpersonal strategies in the titles of Early Modern English medical texts (by Sylwanowicz, Marta); 19. "I saw ye Child burning in ye fire": Evidentiality in Early Modern English witness depositions (by Grund, Peter J.); 20. Name index; 21. Subject index

Review :
This volume opens new vistas for various aspects of the historical study of English. It is significant that the textual evidence for most of the articles is derived from historical corpora. Meaning in the History of English offers extremely useful and inspiring reading both to senior scholars and to young researchers at the beginning of their scholarly career. There is much excellent scholarship, and intriguing directions for English historical linguistics are opened up by papers spanning different linguistic domains, such as parts of speech for author identification, or semantic change and prescriptivism.