Archaisms in the Early New English play by D. Lindsay "The Satire of the Three Estates": the problem of identification and stylistic evaluation

Abstract

The subject of this research is the method of identification and problem of statistical interpretation of archaic lexis in literary texts of the Early Modern English period, namely in D. Lyndsay’s play “A Satire of the Three Estates”. The article discusses the capacity of attracting the data from diachronic corpus and corpus-based dictionaries for determination of archaic elements in literary works of the XVI century. Leaning on the commentaries of reputable philologists of the Early Modern English period and modern research, the article explores the trends of relevant perception pertaining to introduction of archaisms into the literary text by the authors of that time. An algorithm is proposed for identification of outdated units in literary material, created on Scottish (considering the obsolescent character of this dialect), based on juxtaposition of the approximate frequency indexes of reproduction of the element in the Early Modern English and Scottish sections of Helsinki corpus, as well as data from the corpus-based dictionaries of Middle English and Scottish. For stylistic assessment of archaisms in the play of D. Lyndsay, the author applies the method of linguo-stylistic analysis, in which linguistic element is viewed from the contextual perspective. The scientific novelty is substantiated by the fact that for solution of the problem of analysis of archaisms in the texts of Early Modern English period, the author elaborates an algorithm that allows clarifying if a unit is obsolescent in a specific moment of development of the English language. It is established that the prevalent proportion of words in Lyndsay’s play was not archaic within the framework of Scottish dialect; and only few of the involved units were outdated at the moment of creation of text in the standard Early Modern English. The archaisms determined in the play allows stating the Lyndsay considered archaisms a part of elevated lexis. The practical values of this work is defined by the possibility to apply the proposed algorithm for detecting archaisms in any literary text of the Early Modern English period, as well as conduct stylistic assessment of archaisms from the perspective of the trends of their perception by the authors of the XVI century.