A Variationist Approach to the Spread of Emergent Features in Middle English

A Variationist Approach to the Spread of Emergent Features in Middle English

The present article tests the potential of emergent Middle English features as introduced or influenced by contact with Old French. By mapping texts from the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English, the diatopic spread of such features is investigated, whereby a South to North spread would len...

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Bibliografiske detaljer
Udgivet i:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ranam,
Hovedforfatter: Percillier, Michael
Format: Article ou chapitre numérique
Sprog:Anglais
Udgivet: Recherches anglaises et nord-américaines 2024
Fag:
diachronie
contact de langues
Moyen Anglais
variation diatopique
linguistique historique
diatopic variation
Middle English
language contact
historical linguistics
diachrony
Online adgang:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
id openedition-oai:revues.org:ranam_744
record_format openedition
spelling openedition-oai:revues.org:ranam_744 https://doi.org/10.4000/ranam.744 urn:doi:10.4000/ranam.744 en https://journals.openedition.org/ranam/744 2024-02-07T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/vrvp https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ A Variationist Approach to the Spread of Emergent Features in Middle English Recherches anglaises et nord-américaines Presses universitaires de Strasbourg info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/3000-4411 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0557-6989 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ranam Percillier, Michael diachronie contact de langues Moyen Anglais variation diatopique linguistique historique diatopic variation Middle English language contact historical linguistics diachrony The present article tests the potential of emergent Middle English features as introduced or influenced by contact with Old French. By mapping texts from the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English, the diatopic spread of such features is investigated, whereby a South to North spread would lend support, but not yet credence, to a contact explanation, and the opposite development would render it unlikely. The spread of the three features under investigation, namely French-based verbs, serving as a baseline, the verbal{en-}prefix, and the to prepositional object construction, all show a general trend of spreading from South to North. However, further factors such as translation and genre effects appear to play a role as well. The paper makes a case for a multivariate analysis to integrate these factors, which however is not feasible with the corpus in its current status due to data gaps, and delineates plans to include further texts to obtain a balanced corpus data collection for Middle English. Cet article teste l’émergence de caractéristiques linguistiques du moyen anglais comme ayant été introduites ou influencées par le contact avec l’Ancien Français. En cartographiant les textes du corpus Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English, la diffusion diatopique de ces caractéristiques linguistiques est analysée. Alors qu’une diffusion du Sud au Nord serait en faveur d’une explication liée au contact sans pour autant la prouver, une diffusion au sens inverse rendrait une explication liée au contact peu probable. Les trois caractéristiques étudiées, à savoir les verbes empruntés à l’ancien français, le préfixe verbal {en-}, et les constructions d’objet prépositionnel avec to, suivent une diffusion générale du Sud au Nord, mais d’autres facteurs, tel que les effets de traduction et de genres, semblent également être importants. L’article plaide en faveur d’une analyse multivariée, ce qui n’est pas possible avec le corpus dans son état actuel pour cause de lacunes de données. Un plan d’inclusion pour des textes additionnels est décrit, ce qui permettrait l’obtention d’une collection de données de corpus équilibrée pour le moyen anglais.
collection OpenEdition Journal
language Anglais
format Article ou chapitre numérique
building 0/Bibliothèque numérique/
1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/
topic diachronie
contact de langues
Moyen Anglais
variation diatopique
linguistique historique
diatopic variation
Middle English
language contact
historical linguistics
diachrony
spellingShingle diachronie
contact de langues
Moyen Anglais
variation diatopique
linguistique historique
diatopic variation
Middle English
language contact
historical linguistics
diachrony
Percillier, Michael
A Variationist Approach to the Spread of Emergent Features in Middle English
description The present article tests the potential of emergent Middle English features as introduced or influenced by contact with Old French. By mapping texts from the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English, the diatopic spread of such features is investigated, whereby a South to North spread would lend support, but not yet credence, to a contact explanation, and the opposite development would render it unlikely. The spread of the three features under investigation, namely French-based verbs, serving as a baseline, the verbal{en-}prefix, and the to prepositional object construction, all show a general trend of spreading from South to North. However, further factors such as translation and genre effects appear to play a role as well. The paper makes a case for a multivariate analysis to integrate these factors, which however is not feasible with the corpus in its current status due to data gaps, and delineates plans to include further texts to obtain a balanced corpus data collection for Middle English.
author Percillier, Michael
author_facet Percillier, Michael
author_sort Percillier, Michael
title A Variationist Approach to the Spread of Emergent Features in Middle English
title_short A Variationist Approach to the Spread of Emergent Features in Middle English
title_full A Variationist Approach to the Spread of Emergent Features in Middle English
title_fullStr A Variationist Approach to the Spread of Emergent Features in Middle English
title_full_unstemmed A Variationist Approach to the Spread of Emergent Features in Middle English
title_sort variationist approach to the spread of emergent features in middle english
publisher Recherches anglaises et nord-américaines
publishDate 2024
container_title URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ranam
url https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/ranam.744
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ranam/744
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