Reading Early Modern literature through OED3
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Giles Goodland
Abstract
We may think we know what a neologism is, but it is hard to isolate the nature of the moment in which neologizing occurs. In literature sometimes this moment is enacted for effects that may not belong to the discourses of normal communication, and these effects are compounded when it is a loan-neologism. The Early Modern period was one of increasing contact between the languages of Europe, and literature responded to this in a variety of ways. This paper looks at neologistic borrowings into English literature, using a selection of canonical authors as refracted through the Oxford English Dictionary, to see if they can tell us something about the porousness of literary language in this period.
Abstract
We may think we know what a neologism is, but it is hard to isolate the nature of the moment in which neologizing occurs. In literature sometimes this moment is enacted for effects that may not belong to the discourses of normal communication, and these effects are compounded when it is a loan-neologism. The Early Modern period was one of increasing contact between the languages of Europe, and literature responded to this in a variety of ways. This paper looks at neologistic borrowings into English literature, using a selection of canonical authors as refracted through the Oxford English Dictionary, to see if they can tell us something about the porousness of literary language in this period.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
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Introduction
- ‘If but as well I other accents borrow, that can my speech diffuse’ 1
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Articles
- Reading Early Modern literature through OED3 17
- Neighbor Hob and neighbor Lob 41
- ‘Fause Frenche Enough’ 61
- Female multilingualism in William Shakespeare and George Peele 91
- ‘Have you the tongues?’ 115
- Social stratification and stylistic choices in Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday 137
- Refashioning language in Richard Brome’s theatre 161
- Interlinguicity and The Alchemist 179
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Afterword
- Double tongues 203
- Index 209
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
-
Introduction
- ‘If but as well I other accents borrow, that can my speech diffuse’ 1
-
Articles
- Reading Early Modern literature through OED3 17
- Neighbor Hob and neighbor Lob 41
- ‘Fause Frenche Enough’ 61
- Female multilingualism in William Shakespeare and George Peele 91
- ‘Have you the tongues?’ 115
- Social stratification and stylistic choices in Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday 137
- Refashioning language in Richard Brome’s theatre 161
- Interlinguicity and The Alchemist 179
-
Afterword
- Double tongues 203
- Index 209
