Covering nearly one thousand years, this volume explores medieval and modern English texts from fresh perspectives. Within the relatively new field of historical discourse linguistics, the synchronic analysis of large textual units and consideration of text-external features in relation to discourse has so far received little attention. To fill that gap, this volume offers studies of medieval instructional and religious texts and correspondence from the early modern period. The contributions highlight writer-audience relationships, the intended use of texts, descriptions of text-type, and questions of orality and manuscript contextualization. The topics, ranging from the reception of Old English texts to the conventions of practical instruction in Middle English to the epistolary construction of science in early Modern English, are directly relevant to historical linguists, discourse and text linguists, and students of the history of English.
Table of contents
Ruth Carroll, Risto Hiltunen, Matti Peikola, Janne Skaffari, Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen, Ellen Valle and Brita Wårvik 1–12 “When you read or hear this story read”: Issues of orality and literacy in Old English texts
Brita Wårvik 13–55
Telling the anchorite code: Ancrene Wisse on language
Risto Hiltunen 57–76
Lexical borrowings in early Middle English religious discourse: A case study of Sawles Warde
Janne Skaffari 77–104
The catalogue: A late Middle English Lollard genre?
Matti Peikola 105–135
Recipes for laces: An example of a Middle English discourse colony
Ruth Carroll 137–165 “Best patterns for your imitation”: Early modern letter-writing instruction and real correspondence
Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen 167–195 “Let me not lose yr love & friendship”: The negotiation of priority and the construction of a scientific identity in seventeenth-century natural history
Ellen Valle 197–234