Chapter 13: Literary Language
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Robert D. Fulk
Abstract
Old English as it is preserved represents a variety of literary standards in competition, often within a single text. A range of registers is evident in both poetry and prose, and many of the features characteristic of an elevated style are to be associated with the Anglian dialects (Mercian and Northumbrian), due to the political and cultural ascendancy of the Anglian kingdoms in the early portion of the period. The language of nearly all of the preserved poetry is a koine, chiefly West Saxon in character but with a strong admixture of orthographic, morphological, and syntactic features from other dialects. In varying degrees, such nonstandard characteristics may also be found in prose. Lexis is keyed to register, as well, there being many items of strictly poetic vocabulary (some of them occasionally used for rhetorical effect in prose) and a smaller number of strictly prosaic words. Figures of rhetoric, some Latinate, are frequent in poetry, and in prose they are especially common in homilies.
Abstract
Old English as it is preserved represents a variety of literary standards in competition, often within a single text. A range of registers is evident in both poetry and prose, and many of the features characteristic of an elevated style are to be associated with the Anglian dialects (Mercian and Northumbrian), due to the political and cultural ascendancy of the Anglian kingdoms in the early portion of the period. The language of nearly all of the preserved poetry is a koine, chiefly West Saxon in character but with a strong admixture of orthographic, morphological, and syntactic features from other dialects. In varying degrees, such nonstandard characteristics may also be found in prose. Lexis is keyed to register, as well, there being many items of strictly poetic vocabulary (some of them occasionally used for rhetorical effect in prose) and a smaller number of strictly prosaic words. Figures of rhetoric, some Latinate, are frequent in poetry, and in prose they are especially common in homilies.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Abbreviations VII
- Chapter 1: Introduction 1
- Chapter 2: Pre-Old English 8
- Chapter 3: Old English: Overview 32
- Chapter 4: Phonology 50
- Chapter 5: Morphology 73
- Chapter 6: Syntax 100
- Chapter 7: Semantics and Lexicon 125
- Chapter 8: Pragmatics and Discourse 140
- Chapter 9: Dialects 160
- Chapter 10: Language Contact: Latin 187
- Chapter 11: English Contact: Norse 202
- Chapter 12: Standardization 220
- Chapter 13: Literary Language 236
- Chapter 14: Early Textual Resources 254
- Index 271
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Abbreviations VII
- Chapter 1: Introduction 1
- Chapter 2: Pre-Old English 8
- Chapter 3: Old English: Overview 32
- Chapter 4: Phonology 50
- Chapter 5: Morphology 73
- Chapter 6: Syntax 100
- Chapter 7: Semantics and Lexicon 125
- Chapter 8: Pragmatics and Discourse 140
- Chapter 9: Dialects 160
- Chapter 10: Language Contact: Latin 187
- Chapter 11: English Contact: Norse 202
- Chapter 12: Standardization 220
- Chapter 13: Literary Language 236
- Chapter 14: Early Textual Resources 254
- Index 271
