Code-switching and vernacular support: an early Middle English case study

Skaffari, Janne

doi:10.1515/multi-2015-0033

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This is also reflected in the materials used in this exploration: rather than investigating one text type or period, we demonstrate the breadth of Latin in English and its mediation to English readers by citing examples from a very heterogeneous set of sources, many of which we have utilized in earlier projects (see e.g. Nurmi et al 2018;Pahta and Nurmi 2006;Skaffari 2016Skaffari , 2018. They range from individual manuscripts to large electronic text corpora.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Managing Latin: support and intratextual translation as mediation strategies in the history of English

Nurmi

Skaffari

2021

Text &Amp; Talk

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Our study maps the practices of managing Latin in English texts from over a thousand years. Mediation is a communicative activity which involves explaining the content of a conversation or text to another person. In contexts of multilingual writing, this is typically self-mediation, which a writer may perform by complementing code-switches with intratextual translations in the text. The data for the study are drawn from corpora of English historical texts, dictionaries and manuscripts, and mediation is analyzed in terms of support, intratextual translation and flagging. The findings show that while cognitive support helps a reader understand all of the content of the text, intratextual translation may also have relational functions, where the reader is expected to understand both languages used, as when code-switching and translation are a vehicle for humor. Intratextual translation can also be used to add credibility to the writer’s argument or to link it to a broader discussion on the topic. Mediation is also facilitated by flagging code-switching and intratextual translation metalinguistically or visually. Support is needed for Latin as a language which has always been part of relatively few English-speakers’ repertoire, but these strategies are expected to apply to other language pairs as well.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Managing Latin: support and intratextual translation as mediation strategies in the history of English

Nurmi

Skaffari

2021

Text &Amp; Talk

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“…Multilingualism in writing is an old phenomenon (see e.g. Skaffari 2016), but interestingly it is a topic that has not been investigated as intensively as multilingualism in spoken interaction. For example, the articles in the collective volume edited by Sebba, Mahootian and Jonsson (2012) highlight that the ways in which code-switching and code-mixing (and other related phenomena) are utilized in writing may differ from spoken language, and that in this respect, the exploration of written texts may open new insights into their functions.…”

Section: Translating Multilingual Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Literary Texts and their Translations as an Object of Research

Kolehmainen

Penttilä

Poucke³

2016

IJLL

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This special issue of the International Journal of Literary Linguistics offers seven state-of-the-art contributions on the current linguistic study of literary translation. Although the articles are based on similar data – literary source texts and their translations – they focus on diverse aspects of literary translation, study a range of linguistic phenomena and utilize different methodologies. In other words, it is an important goal of this special issue to illuminate the current diversity of possible approaches in the linguistic study of translated literary texts within the discipline of translation studies. At the same time, new theoretical and empirical insights are opened to the study of the linguistic phenomena chosen by the authors of the articles and their representation or use in literary texts and translations. The analyzed features range from neologisms to the category of passive and from spoken language features to the representation of speech and multilingualism in writing. Therefore, the articles in this issue are not only relevant for the study of literary translation or translation theory in general, but also for the disciplines of linguistics and literary studies – or most importantly, for the cross-disciplinary co-operation between these three fields of study.The common theme that all these articles share is how the translation process shapes, transfers and changes the linguistic properties of literary texts as compared to their sources texts, other translations or non-translated literary texts in the same language and how this question can be approached in research. All articles provide new information about the forces that direct and affect translators’ textual choices and the previously formulated hypotheses about the functioning of such forces. The articles illustrate how translators may perform differently from authors and how translators’ and authors’ norms may diverge at different times and in different cultures. The question of how translation affects the linguistic properties of literary translations is approached from the viewpoint of previously proposed claims or hypotheses about translation. In the following, we will introduce these viewpoints for readers who are not familiar with the recent developments in translation studies. At the same time, we will shortly present the articles in this issue.

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“…Vices and Virtues, the only text the manuscript contains, is rich in code-switches. For more information, seeSkaffari (2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

7. Code-switching in the long twelfth century

Skaffari¹,

Pahta²,

Wright³

2017

Multilingual Practices in Language History

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In the field of historical code-switching research, English historical linguists have been particularly active, exploring medieval and modern data, but as the history of English provides an enormous range of material, it may not be surprising that they have thus far overlooked at least one important sub-period in the English Middle Ages. This is the period immediately following the Norman Conquest of 1066, when England became increasingly trilingual. This chapter is devoted to the long twelfth century, from the late eleventh century until well into the thirteenth. Although the concept of "long century" seems to have been used less frequently by historical linguists than by historians, there are several recent publications in which a "long twelfth century" appears with reference to the history of English between, approximately, the Norman Conquest and the second quarter of the thirteenth century (e.g. Skaffari 2009;Faulkner 2012b;Kwakkel 2012; cf. Treharne 2012). 2 This designation is particularly appropriate here: we encounter several languages in the material dated to this period, which makes a label such as Early Middle English inadequate, particularly as some of the English is not Middle but, rather, Old Englisheven if copied around 1200.The objective of the present chapter is to provide a linguistically orientated overview of code-switching and other multilingual practices in material from the long twelfth century, with English as one of the languages involved. The growing community of historical code-switching researchers has virtually ignored this period, in spite of its "endemic multilingualism" (Trotter 2003: 84) and the recent efforts of scholars working on medieval language and literature to bring this period into focus (particularly Treharne 2012 and Faulkner 2012b). To fill the gap, the extant material needs to be described and examined, and approaches originating in research on other periods tested further. Only the first few steps can be taken here, as the material and phenomena are more diverse and copious than is often expected of this period. 1 The author wishes to acknowledge the Academy of Finland for supporting the Multilingualism in the Long Twelfth Century project (decision number: 257059). 2 Kwakkel (2012: 79) associates this period with the "Twelfth-Century Renaissance", dating it to 1075-1225Skaffari (2009), following the sub-periodisation employed in the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, does not consider primary sources from after 1250; and Faulkner (2012b: 275) "provocatively" chooses to start his long twelfth century with a pre-Conquest date, 1042, the beginning of Edward the Confessor's reign. Treharne's (2012) work on a period similar to ours starts from the earlier of the eleventh-century conquests, the Viking one by Cnut, and continues until 1220.Final draft version (without subsequent minor alterations) of Skaffari, Janne. 2018. Code-switching in the long twelfth century. In Pahta, Päivi, Janne Skaffari & Laura Wright (eds.).

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Code-switching and vernacular support: an early Middle English case study

Cited by 5 publications

References 11 publications

Managing Latin: support and intratextual translation as mediation strategies in the history of English

Managing Latin: support and intratextual translation as mediation strategies in the history of English

Introduction: Literary Texts and their Translations as an Object of Research

7. Code-switching in the long twelfth century

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