Judith Huber
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190657802
- eISBN:
- 9780190657833
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190657802.003.0009
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, English Language
Chapter 9 analyses the use of the path verbs enter, ish/issue, descend, avale, ascend, mount, and amount in Middle English autonomous texts and translations from French and Latin, focusing on their ...
More
Chapter 9 analyses the use of the path verbs enter, ish/issue, descend, avale, ascend, mount, and amount in Middle English autonomous texts and translations from French and Latin, focusing on their recurrent contexts and their complementation patterns. It shows that these verbs are borrowed predominantly in specific, often non-literal or manner-enriched senses relating to discourse domains such as administration, military, religion, and the like, rather than being borrowed as verbs for describing general literal motion events. Their application for general literal motion events is shown to be less restricted in translations from French and Latin, in which translators often react to the presence of a path verb in the original by using the same verb in its Middle English form. This and the continued influence of French and Latin after Middle English may eventually have led to a wider application of the verbs in later stages of the language.Less
Chapter 9 analyses the use of the path verbs enter, ish/issue, descend, avale, ascend, mount, and amount in Middle English autonomous texts and translations from French and Latin, focusing on their recurrent contexts and their complementation patterns. It shows that these verbs are borrowed predominantly in specific, often non-literal or manner-enriched senses relating to discourse domains such as administration, military, religion, and the like, rather than being borrowed as verbs for describing general literal motion events. Their application for general literal motion events is shown to be less restricted in translations from French and Latin, in which translators often react to the presence of a path verb in the original by using the same verb in its Middle English form. This and the continued influence of French and Latin after Middle English may eventually have led to a wider application of the verbs in later stages of the language.
Judith Huber
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190657802
- eISBN:
- 9780190657833
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190657802.003.0008
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, English Language
Chapter 8 presents the hypotheses about the early use of borrowed path verbs in Middle English which will be investigated in chapter 9: Previous research suggests that these path verbs, which have ...
More
Chapter 8 presents the hypotheses about the early use of borrowed path verbs in Middle English which will be investigated in chapter 9: Previous research suggests that these path verbs, which have been shown in chapter 5 not to have any real native forerunners, can be expected to be more frequently used for general literal motion events in translations from French and Latin than in autonomous Middle English texts, while they are expected to be more frequently used for metaphorical and other non-literal motion in autonomous texts. Furthermore, it is likely that they acquire additional manner semantics in Middle English, as speakers interpret them in line with the semantic patterns prevalent in Middle English motion verbs. The chapter also introduces the methodology and the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse which serves as the basis for the study.Less
Chapter 8 presents the hypotheses about the early use of borrowed path verbs in Middle English which will be investigated in chapter 9: Previous research suggests that these path verbs, which have been shown in chapter 5 not to have any real native forerunners, can be expected to be more frequently used for general literal motion events in translations from French and Latin than in autonomous Middle English texts, while they are expected to be more frequently used for metaphorical and other non-literal motion in autonomous texts. Furthermore, it is likely that they acquire additional manner semantics in Middle English, as speakers interpret them in line with the semantic patterns prevalent in Middle English motion verbs. The chapter also introduces the methodology and the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse which serves as the basis for the study.
