The paper focuses on linguistic terminology used by Ælfric (10th c.) in his translation of an anonymous Latin grammar (Excerptiones de arte grammatica anglicе) going back to Priscian and Donatus’ works. Ælfric’s grammatical metalanguage, comprising loan words, semantic loans, loan translations, and periphrastic expressions created for explanatory purposes, is characterized by great diversity. A question arises whether these terms, remaining occasional, made any impact on the language system and can be thus evaluated as change from above.The paper combines a traditional semantic, morphological, and functional description of Ælfric’s terminology and its consideration within the frame of sociolinguistics; the analysis is supplemented by a cross-linguistic study of Ælfric’s terms with remarks on other Germanic languages. The results achieved enable us to argue that Ælfric’s linguistic terminology, being innovative, displays some features of change from above, arising from language contact and individual change.
This study is devoted to Old English-Latin language contacts that took place at the turn of the 10 th and 11 th c. and were reflected in several written records of that period, in particular, in AElfric"s Grammar translated from Latin into Old English. Due to the importance that the problem of language contacts and language change is gaining in modern linguistics, the study seems to be quite relevant. The paper focuses on the metalanguage of AElfric"s "Grammar" viewed structurally and semantically, on the one hand, and sociolinguistically, on the other. The structural and semantic analysis of AElfric"s terminology allows to single out in it Latin insertions (code-switches), semantic and morpheme-for-morpheme translations created by AElfric and periphrastic expressions. The wide use of these terms, their simplicity and transparence have made the "Grammar" an outstanding sample of Old English scientific prose. The sociolinguistic approach to the "Grammar" is based on the theory of W. Labov who distinguishes "change from above" and "change from below". Subjecting AElfric"s Grammar to a detailed analysis as for its correlation with the original text, spread in the cultural milieu, and peculiarities of its terminology, we conclude that this work manifests some features of "change from above", thus influencing the English language and the culture of England. The results of the research allow us to claim that a translation displaying widespread use of occasional word formation and code switching can serve as a sufficient witness of language change.
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