Lop-webbe and henne cresse: Morphological aspects of the scientific register in Late Middle English
Loading...
Date
2006
Authors
Advisor
Editor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Adam Mickiewicz University
Title alternative
Abstract
The aim of the present paper is to present an approach to the vernacularisation of English scientific
texts with special attention to lexicon. Word-formation is a better indicator than other linguistic
levels of the extent to which the scientific register is adapted to the vernacular because such
vernacularisation can be seen clearly when scientific items reproduce the patterns of the general
lexicon. To this end, we will attempt to measure the degree of development of the vernacular
scientific register by analysing word-formation processes. It is also our intention to ascertain
whether there is a predominance of one particular linguistic stratum in texts of that kind from the
late Middle Ages, unveiling the etymological origin of some lexical items of diverse provenance.
The paper is therefore divided into four sections. In section 1 the socio-historical context of the
scientific register is described briefly. Section 2 covers the processes of lexical enrichment in
Middle English due to word-formation. The presentation of the corpus material and the analysis
of data is dealt with in the third section. Finally, section 4 contains the conclusions reached in the
light of previous research.
Description
Sponsor
Keywords
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 42 (2006), pp. 133-145