Multilingualism in the vocabulary of dress and textiles in late medieval Britain
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Mark Chambers
Abstract
This paper initially examines data from the Lexis of Cloth and Clothing in Britain ca. 700–1450 project in order to investigate the contemporary status of what are now classified as separate languages. In relation to this question, it briefly considers the methodologies of a variety of historical dictionaries. The paper then introduces the first findings of the Medieval Dress and Textile Vocabulary in Unpublished Sources project. The aim of this new project is the examination of language choices in a corpus of documents from the late medieval Royal Wardrobe accounts and petitions to Parliament. The paper considers the findings of this project in the context of theoretical accounts of code-switching that propose the use of the scribal abbreviation system to obscure the language of origin of content nouns in the administrative register of the period and which posit a connection between technicality of meaning and language choice.
Abstract
This paper initially examines data from the Lexis of Cloth and Clothing in Britain ca. 700–1450 project in order to investigate the contemporary status of what are now classified as separate languages. In relation to this question, it briefly considers the methodologies of a variety of historical dictionaries. The paper then introduces the first findings of the Medieval Dress and Textile Vocabulary in Unpublished Sources project. The aim of this new project is the examination of language choices in a corpus of documents from the late medieval Royal Wardrobe accounts and petitions to Parliament. The paper considers the findings of this project in the context of theoretical accounts of code-switching that propose the use of the scribal abbreviation system to obscure the language of origin of content nouns in the administrative register of the period and which posit a connection between technicality of meaning and language choice.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Norse influence on English in the light of general contact linguistics 15
- The Germanic roots of the Old English sound system 43
- Monetary policy and Old English dialects 73
- The order and schedule of nominal plural formation transfer in three Southern dialects of Early Middle English 95
- The temporal and regional contexts of the numeral ‘two’ in Middle English 115
- Grammaticalisation, contact and corpora 131
- Discourse organization and the rise of final then in the history of English 153
- The origins of how come and what…for 177
- “Providing/provided that” 197
- Prefer 215
- The 400 million word Corpus of Historical American English (1810–2009) 231
- Gender change from Old to Middle English 263
- “Please tilt me-ward by return of post” 289
- Multilingualism in the vocabulary of dress and textiles in late medieval Britain 313
- “No man entreth in or out” 327
- Beyond questions and answers 349
- The demise of gog and cock and their phraseologies in dramatic discourse 369
- Index 383
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Norse influence on English in the light of general contact linguistics 15
- The Germanic roots of the Old English sound system 43
- Monetary policy and Old English dialects 73
- The order and schedule of nominal plural formation transfer in three Southern dialects of Early Middle English 95
- The temporal and regional contexts of the numeral ‘two’ in Middle English 115
- Grammaticalisation, contact and corpora 131
- Discourse organization and the rise of final then in the history of English 153
- The origins of how come and what…for 177
- “Providing/provided that” 197
- Prefer 215
- The 400 million word Corpus of Historical American English (1810–2009) 231
- Gender change from Old to Middle English 263
- “Please tilt me-ward by return of post” 289
- Multilingualism in the vocabulary of dress and textiles in late medieval Britain 313
- “No man entreth in or out” 327
- Beyond questions and answers 349
- The demise of gog and cock and their phraseologies in dramatic discourse 369
- Index 383
