Geographical variation in old English prepositions and the location of Ælfric's and other literary dialects

Kitson, Peter

doi:10.1080/00138389308598839

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The direct sources of the linguistic information for Middle English are provided by the written forms found in the extant texts. That Old English was more varied in writing than the West Saxon literary texts of the 10th and 11th centuries would suggest is evident from the English to be found in charters, whether contemporary, or later copies preserving the Old English text, as Peter Kitson has demonstrated (Kitson 1993(Kitson , 1995. The regional variants which are characteristic of Middle English did not arise ex nihilo.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

31 Middle English: Dialects

Williamson

2012

Handbücher Zur Sprach- Und Kommunikationswissenschaft / Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 34.1

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

31 Middle English: Dialects

Williamson

2012

Handbücher Zur Sprach- Und Kommunikationswissenschaft / Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 34.1

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“…The Middle English preposition twēn(e) lacks proper treatment or even a remark in Middle English grammars or handbooks. As regards detailed studies of other prepositions meaning 'between', Kitson (1993Kitson ( , 1996, who establishes the provenance of selected Old English texts on the basis of spelling and phonetic variants of selected lexemes, thoroughly discusses also the dialect distribution, frequencies and syntax of the forms of the OE preposition between. Moreover, Alcorn (2013) concentrates on the placement of nominal and pronominal objects in phrases including variants of the prepositions by, for and between in Old English.…”

Section: Studies In Medieval English Prepositionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The choice might have been dictated by the requirements of meter since the text was written in eight-syllable couplets. 7 Kitson (1993Kitson ( , 1996 is the text which includes the highest number of occurrences of the preposition twēn(e) and also of atwēn.…”

Section: Dialect Distribution and Textual Distribution Of Twēn(e)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Middle English Preposition Twēn(E)

Ciszek-Kiliszewska

2014

Studia Anglica Posnaniensia

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The present paper focuses on the Middle English preposition twēn(e) 'between, among, in between'. The aim of the study is to review the acknowledged etymology of twēn(e) as well as to provide its semantics, dialect distribution, complete textual distribution (record of texts employing twēn(e)), and absolute token frequency. Moreover, all texts including the preposition twēn(e) are subject to an analysis of the whole variety of prepositions meaning 'between' and their token frequency in order to establish the proportions of the use of twēn(e) and other discussed prepositions, especially the better established preposition betwēn(e) in texts employing twēn(e).The study is based on such extensive electronic databases as the Middle English Dictionary online, the Oxford English Dictionary online and the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse as well as on a number of complete Middle English texts. The study of the corpus demonstrates the presence of twēn(e) and other prepositions meaning 'between' also in texts not listed by the Middle English Dictionary online or the Oxford English Dictionary online under appropriate entries, and thus helps to provide a more complete record of texts and authors utilizing twēn(e) and the extent of use of twēn(e) as compared to other prepositions meaning 'between'. Moreover, the study demonstrates that also the other discussed prepositions are often not recorded in particular texts by the MED online or the OED online. In more general terms, the paper points out the need for the use of complete texts for the study of historical prepositions.

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“…Throughout this section I adopt the five variant types identified by Kitson (: 11–12), namely, {betweonum}, {betweo(h)n}, {betweoh}, {betweox} and {betweoxn}. Interestingly, this five‐way typology is not reflected in any of the main historical dictionaries.…”

Section: Betweenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following Kitson's (: 12) description of the five variant form types of Old English between , I have classified the forms occurring in the YCOE as follows: {betweonum}: forms with two nasals, e.g. <betwynan, betweonan, betweonum>; {betweoxn}: forms in <‐xn> with one nasal, e.g.…”

Section: Betweenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution of Variants of Old English by, for, between

Alcorn

2013

Trans of the Philol Soc

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This paper attempts to systematise the distribution of variant forms of the Old English prepositions BY, FOR and BETWEEN. Using evidence from the variable positioning of their object personal pronouns, I argue that BY and FOR each have two prosodically conditioned allomorphs; one that is phonologically dependent on its object (like French de 'of' as in Jean a beaucoup d'argent 'John has lots of money') and another that is not. Patterns in the distribution of variant forms of BETWEEN have previously been noted but remain partially unexplained. I offer a novel analysis of the tendency for personal pronouns to occur to the left rather than the right of betweonum and of the tendency to use that particular variant of BETWEEN when its complement is a personal pronoun.

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Geographical variation in old English prepositions and the location of Ælfric's and other literary dialects

Cited by 14 publications

References 11 publications

31 Middle English: Dialects

31 Middle English: Dialects

Middle English Preposition Twēn(E)

Distribution of Variants of Old English by, for, between

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