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Chapter 7. “A riddle to myself I am”

Argument shifting in English congregational song between 1500 and 1900
  • Kirsten Gather
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Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English
This chapter is in the book Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English

Abstract

This article presents and refines the main results of a larger study on left-shifted arguments in congregational song (see Gather 2014) and discusses its implications for genre studies in general. Argument shifting1 is defined as the deviation from any unmarked order of obligatory arguments, as in the title of the famous carol We three kings of Orient are. Very often, requirements of meter and rhyme are evident causes of shifting. In this article, I provide the results obtained for congregational song, which lead to two major patterns of argument shifting with distinct syntactic and poetic criteria. The comparison to secular poetry shows the uniqueness of the phenomenon in congregational song and the conservatism of the genre.

Abstract

This article presents and refines the main results of a larger study on left-shifted arguments in congregational song (see Gather 2014) and discusses its implications for genre studies in general. Argument shifting1 is defined as the deviation from any unmarked order of obligatory arguments, as in the title of the famous carol We three kings of Orient are. Very often, requirements of meter and rhyme are evident causes of shifting. In this article, I provide the results obtained for congregational song, which lead to two major patterns of argument shifting with distinct syntactic and poetic criteria. The comparison to secular poetry shows the uniqueness of the phenomenon in congregational song and the conservatism of the genre.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Conspicuous lexical choice in past societies
  6. Chapter 1. Old English ead in Anglo-Saxon given names 15
  7. Chapter 2. News and relations 41
  8. Chapter 3. “… all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air” 61
  9. Part 2. Historical layers in text and genre
  10. Chapter 4. Conservatism and innovation in Anglo-Saxon scribal practice 79
  11. Chapter 5. Old English wills 103
  12. Chapter 6. Spatio-temporal systems in Chaucer 125
  13. Chapter 7. “A riddle to myself I am” 151
  14. Part 3. Lexis, morphology, and a changing society
  15. Chapter 8. Common to the North of England and to New England 183
  16. Chapter 9. Betwixt, amongst , and amidst 201
  17. Chapter 10. English word clipping in a diachronic perspective 227
  18. Index 253
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.343.07gat

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Conspicuous lexical choice in past societies
  6. Chapter 1. Old English ead in Anglo-Saxon given names 15
  7. Chapter 2. News and relations 41
  8. Chapter 3. “… all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air” 61
  9. Part 2. Historical layers in text and genre
  10. Chapter 4. Conservatism and innovation in Anglo-Saxon scribal practice 79
  11. Chapter 5. Old English wills 103
  12. Chapter 6. Spatio-temporal systems in Chaucer 125
  13. Chapter 7. “A riddle to myself I am” 151
  14. Part 3. Lexis, morphology, and a changing society
  15. Chapter 8. Common to the North of England and to New England 183
  16. Chapter 9. Betwixt, amongst , and amidst 201
  17. Chapter 10. English word clipping in a diachronic perspective 227
  18. Index 253
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