Jan Terje Faarlund
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199235599
- eISBN:
- 9780191709401
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199235599.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This is the first account of Old Norse syntax for a hundred years, and the first ever in a non-Scandinavian language. It presents a full analysis of the syntax of the language, and succinct ...
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This is the first account of Old Norse syntax for a hundred years, and the first ever in a non-Scandinavian language. It presents a full analysis of the syntax of the language, and succinct descriptions of its phonology and inflectional morphology. Old Norse is the language used from the early ninth century till the late fourteenth century in Norway, Iceland, and the Faroes, and in the Norse settlements in the British Isles and Greenland. It was the language of the Vikings and of the Old Icelandic sagas, and it is the best-documented medieval Germanic language. The syntactic analyses in the book are supported by numerous prose examples taken from the most reliable Norwegian and Icelandic manuscript editions. The descriptive framework is generative grammar, but the description is informal enough to be understandable to any linguist, grammarian or philologist regardless of theoretical background.Less
This is the first account of Old Norse syntax for a hundred years, and the first ever in a non-Scandinavian language. It presents a full analysis of the syntax of the language, and succinct descriptions of its phonology and inflectional morphology. Old Norse is the language used from the early ninth century till the late fourteenth century in Norway, Iceland, and the Faroes, and in the Norse settlements in the British Isles and Greenland. It was the language of the Vikings and of the Old Icelandic sagas, and it is the best-documented medieval Germanic language. The syntactic analyses in the book are supported by numerous prose examples taken from the most reliable Norwegian and Icelandic manuscript editions. The descriptive framework is generative grammar, but the description is informal enough to be understandable to any linguist, grammarian or philologist regardless of theoretical background.
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0013
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter argues that the “Roman conquest” of parts of temperate Europe was not as all-changing as most history books would suggest. The idea of a “Roman Europe,” in the sense of European ...
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This chapter argues that the “Roman conquest” of parts of temperate Europe was not as all-changing as most history books would suggest. The idea of a “Roman Europe,” in the sense of European provinces practicing Roman culture—in particular, Roman ways of seeing—needs considerable revision. Much evidence suggests that Middle Iron Age modes of visual perception and ways of crafting objects continued throughout the period of Roman political domination to reemerge in the so-called “early Germanic” style of the early Middle Ages, as well as in “Celtic” objects such as the Book of Kells and the traditions known as “Anglo-Saxon” and “Viking” art.Less
This chapter argues that the “Roman conquest” of parts of temperate Europe was not as all-changing as most history books would suggest. The idea of a “Roman Europe,” in the sense of European provinces practicing Roman culture—in particular, Roman ways of seeing—needs considerable revision. Much evidence suggests that Middle Iron Age modes of visual perception and ways of crafting objects continued throughout the period of Roman political domination to reemerge in the so-called “early Germanic” style of the early Middle Ages, as well as in “Celtic” objects such as the Book of Kells and the traditions known as “Anglo-Saxon” and “Viking” art.
Arndt Sorge
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199278909
- eISBN:
- 9780191706820
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278909.003.0003
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
Layered societies evolve distinctive institutions and culture, partly against and partly by way of internationalization. The latter nexus is often neglected but demonstrated well in the case of ...
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Layered societies evolve distinctive institutions and culture, partly against and partly by way of internationalization. The latter nexus is often neglected but demonstrated well in the case of Germany. Social spaces are typically segmented, such that opposite meanings are allocated specific sub-spaces; co-exist at close quarters; and become temporarily interdependent. This vitiates any treatment of society being uniformly marked by specific characteristics. Internal opposition of meanings and external effects together fuel an evolutionary dialectic, which makes different characteristics prevail, alternate, and become intertwined at different moments. Such developments congeal into a meta-tradition which resembles the swing of a pendulum. A meta-tradition encases the dialectics of internationalization and provincialization, and other recombinations of opposed characteristics into novel institutions. In the case of Germany, a salient opposition governing the meta-tradition is between economic liberalization and corporatist economic and political association. The dialectic between these has been stimulated by international exposure, politically and economically. The fundamental casing of the meta-tradition is called the South Germanic bedrock (as against the North Germanic, Scandinavian, bedrock).Less
Layered societies evolve distinctive institutions and culture, partly against and partly by way of internationalization. The latter nexus is often neglected but demonstrated well in the case of Germany. Social spaces are typically segmented, such that opposite meanings are allocated specific sub-spaces; co-exist at close quarters; and become temporarily interdependent. This vitiates any treatment of society being uniformly marked by specific characteristics. Internal opposition of meanings and external effects together fuel an evolutionary dialectic, which makes different characteristics prevail, alternate, and become intertwined at different moments. Such developments congeal into a meta-tradition which resembles the swing of a pendulum. A meta-tradition encases the dialectics of internationalization and provincialization, and other recombinations of opposed characteristics into novel institutions. In the case of Germany, a salient opposition governing the meta-tradition is between economic liberalization and corporatist economic and political association. The dialectic between these has been stimulated by international exposure, politically and economically. The fundamental casing of the meta-tradition is called the South Germanic bedrock (as against the North Germanic, Scandinavian, bedrock).
D. Gary Miller
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199654260
- eISBN:
- 9780191742064
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654260.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Lexicography
From its Germanic roots on the Continent, English has had many influences from other languages. This work documents the main influences on the lexicon and the structure. The earliest contacts were ...
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From its Germanic roots on the Continent, English has had many influences from other languages. This work documents the main influences on the lexicon and the structure. The earliest contacts were with the Romans, when many words were borrowed by the Germanic tribes from Vulgar Latin. In the British Isles, Roman influence continued but the primary influence, though largely substratal, was from Brythonic Celtic. In the later period the Latin influence became largely literary. Meanwhile, Danes settled northeast England, and the contact situation there was complicated but the major result was a high degree of koineization, reflected in major structural innovations shared with East Norse, primarily Old Jutland Danish. Subsequently, the French dominated southeast England and created a superstrate that resulted in Anglo-French on the one hand and the transfer of thousands of words to English on the other. As these words assimilated to the English lexicon, their affixes became an important part of English word formation, productivity beginning as early as the thirteenth century. The result of all this contact was that English preserved little of its Germanic heritage. Later influences were largely restricted to the lexicon and consisted mainly of learned Greek and latinate roots, many of which became standard English, though frequently of a higher register than native roots of similar import, and facilitated scientific word formation.Less
From its Germanic roots on the Continent, English has had many influences from other languages. This work documents the main influences on the lexicon and the structure. The earliest contacts were with the Romans, when many words were borrowed by the Germanic tribes from Vulgar Latin. In the British Isles, Roman influence continued but the primary influence, though largely substratal, was from Brythonic Celtic. In the later period the Latin influence became largely literary. Meanwhile, Danes settled northeast England, and the contact situation there was complicated but the major result was a high degree of koineization, reflected in major structural innovations shared with East Norse, primarily Old Jutland Danish. Subsequently, the French dominated southeast England and created a superstrate that resulted in Anglo-French on the one hand and the transfer of thousands of words to English on the other. As these words assimilated to the English lexicon, their affixes became an important part of English word formation, productivity beginning as early as the thirteenth century. The result of all this contact was that English preserved little of its Germanic heritage. Later influences were largely restricted to the lexicon and consisted mainly of learned Greek and latinate roots, many of which became standard English, though frequently of a higher register than native roots of similar import, and facilitated scientific word formation.
Donald Ringe (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199284139
- eISBN:
- 9780191712562
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199284139.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
This volume traces the prehistory of English from Proto-Indo-European, its earliest reconstructable ancestor, to Proto-Germanic, the latest ancestor shared by all the Germanic languages. It begins ...
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This volume traces the prehistory of English from Proto-Indo-European, its earliest reconstructable ancestor, to Proto-Germanic, the latest ancestor shared by all the Germanic languages. It begins with a grammatical sketch of Proto-Indo-European, then discusses in detail the linguistic changes — especially in phonology and morphology — that occurred in the development to Proto-Germanic. The final chapter presents a grammatical sketch of Proto-Germanic. This is the first volume of a linguistic history of English. It is written for fellow-linguists who are not specialists in historical linguistics, especially for theoretical linguists. Its primary purpose is to provide accurate information about linguistic changes in an accessible conceptual framework. A secondary purpose is to begin the compilation of a reliable corpus of phonological and morphological changes to improve the empirical basis of the understanding of historical phonology and morphology.Less
This volume traces the prehistory of English from Proto-Indo-European, its earliest reconstructable ancestor, to Proto-Germanic, the latest ancestor shared by all the Germanic languages. It begins with a grammatical sketch of Proto-Indo-European, then discusses in detail the linguistic changes — especially in phonology and morphology — that occurred in the development to Proto-Germanic. The final chapter presents a grammatical sketch of Proto-Germanic. This is the first volume of a linguistic history of English. It is written for fellow-linguists who are not specialists in historical linguistics, especially for theoretical linguists. Its primary purpose is to provide accurate information about linguistic changes in an accessible conceptual framework. A secondary purpose is to begin the compilation of a reliable corpus of phonological and morphological changes to improve the empirical basis of the understanding of historical phonology and morphology.
John McWhorter
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195309805
- eISBN:
- 9780199788378
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309805.003.0010
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
This chapter reiterates the qualitative differences in overall structural complexity between the five languages considered in the book and their sister languages, and states that these differences ...
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This chapter reiterates the qualitative differences in overall structural complexity between the five languages considered in the book and their sister languages, and states that these differences were caused by incomplete acquisition of a moderate degree in contact situations. However, a problem remains: that there is no clear place for the phenomenon identified in conventional models of language contact. Instead, the reduction in question — where perceived at all — has tended to elicit surmises that the languages are, or were once, pidgins or creoles. But these claims fail to compel, because neither synchrony, diachrony, nor sociohistorical data support classing these languages with Saramaccan, Haitian Creole, Papiamentu, and Tok Pisin.Less
This chapter reiterates the qualitative differences in overall structural complexity between the five languages considered in the book and their sister languages, and states that these differences were caused by incomplete acquisition of a moderate degree in contact situations. However, a problem remains: that there is no clear place for the phenomenon identified in conventional models of language contact. Instead, the reduction in question — where perceived at all — has tended to elicit surmises that the languages are, or were once, pidgins or creoles. But these claims fail to compel, because neither synchrony, diachrony, nor sociohistorical data support classing these languages with Saramaccan, Haitian Creole, Papiamentu, and Tok Pisin.
John McWhorter
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195309805
- eISBN:
- 9780199788378
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309805.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
This chapter explores the difference between English and its sister languages. It shows that in the emergence of Modern English, simplification dominated complexification to a greater extent than in ...
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This chapter explores the difference between English and its sister languages. It shows that in the emergence of Modern English, simplification dominated complexification to a greater extent than in any other Germanic language. Evidence suggests that this simplification was not a happenstance peculiarity, but due to a sociohistorical hindering of the full transmission of its grammar across generations. English is significantly less complex overall than its sister languages, based on factors such as inherent reflexes, external possessors, directional adverbs, and indefinite pronouns.Less
This chapter explores the difference between English and its sister languages. It shows that in the emergence of Modern English, simplification dominated complexification to a greater extent than in any other Germanic language. Evidence suggests that this simplification was not a happenstance peculiarity, but due to a sociohistorical hindering of the full transmission of its grammar across generations. English is significantly less complex overall than its sister languages, based on factors such as inherent reflexes, external possessors, directional adverbs, and indefinite pronouns.
Cynthia L. Allen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199216680
- eISBN:
- 9780191711893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216680.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, English Language
This chapter surveys possessive markers in the modern Germanic languages and looks at the Common Germanic background relevant to the remainder of the book.
This chapter surveys possessive markers in the modern Germanic languages and looks at the Common Germanic background relevant to the remainder of the book.
Cynthia L. Allen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199216680
- eISBN:
- 9780191711893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216680.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, English Language
This chapter looks at possessor doubling constructions, in which a form looking like a possessive pronoun is used, instead of an inflection, as a possessive marker, in various Germanic languages. ...
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This chapter looks at possessor doubling constructions, in which a form looking like a possessive pronoun is used, instead of an inflection, as a possessive marker, in various Germanic languages. This prepares the ground for a comparison of possessive construction found in earlier English with these doubling constructions.Less
This chapter looks at possessor doubling constructions, in which a form looking like a possessive pronoun is used, instead of an inflection, as a possessive marker, in various Germanic languages. This prepares the ground for a comparison of possessive construction found in earlier English with these doubling constructions.
Emily Nava and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199556861
- eISBN:
- 9780191722271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199556861.003.0014
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Phonetics / Phonology
Based on the English speech of native Spanish speakers, evidence is provided, on the one hand, for an analysis that connects the typology of Nuclear Stress patterns to the (un)availability of ...
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Based on the English speech of native Spanish speakers, evidence is provided, on the one hand, for an analysis that connects the typology of Nuclear Stress patterns to the (un)availability of unstressed functional words (in particular unstressed auxiliaries), and on the other hand, for the modularity of Nuclear Stress. It is argued that we must distinguish the core Nuclear Stress patterns (generated by a grammatically‐encapsulated algorithm) and the discourse‐sensitive Nuclear Stress patterns (derived by Anaphoric‐Deaccenting followed by Nuclear‐Stress Shift), in the spirit of Reinhart 2006.Less
Based on the English speech of native Spanish speakers, evidence is provided, on the one hand, for an analysis that connects the typology of Nuclear Stress patterns to the (un)availability of unstressed functional words (in particular unstressed auxiliaries), and on the other hand, for the modularity of Nuclear Stress. It is argued that we must distinguish the core Nuclear Stress patterns (generated by a grammatically‐encapsulated algorithm) and the discourse‐sensitive Nuclear Stress patterns (derived by Anaphoric‐Deaccenting followed by Nuclear‐Stress Shift), in the spirit of Reinhart 2006.
Peter Ackema and Ad Neeleman
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199267286
- eISBN:
- 9780191708312
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267286.003.0007
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter extends the approach of Chapter 6 to the operation of feature checking. Some forms of agreement seem to be sensitive to whether or not the controller is right-adjacent to the target, a ...
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This chapter extends the approach of Chapter 6 to the operation of feature checking. Some forms of agreement seem to be sensitive to whether or not the controller is right-adjacent to the target, a case in point being complementizer agreement in some Germanic dialects. It is argued that next to syntactic feature checking, there can also be postsyntactic feature checking at PF. In order for agreement to obtain, the agreeing elements must be in a local relationship. It is shown that the properties of the agreement relation between complementizer and subject are unexpected if this relation were conditioned by syntactic locality, but follow naturally if conditioned by prosodic locality. From the analysis, an account of the that-trace filter follows as well.Less
This chapter extends the approach of Chapter 6 to the operation of feature checking. Some forms of agreement seem to be sensitive to whether or not the controller is right-adjacent to the target, a case in point being complementizer agreement in some Germanic dialects. It is argued that next to syntactic feature checking, there can also be postsyntactic feature checking at PF. In order for agreement to obtain, the agreeing elements must be in a local relationship. It is shown that the properties of the agreement relation between complementizer and subject are unexpected if this relation were conditioned by syntactic locality, but follow naturally if conditioned by prosodic locality. From the analysis, an account of the that-trace filter follows as well.
Jeremy J. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199291953
- eISBN:
- 9780191710568
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199291953.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
This chapter begins with a brief historical outline, relating Old English to other Germanic varieties and interrogating traditional models of this linguistic relationship. It then focuses on one ...
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This chapter begins with a brief historical outline, relating Old English to other Germanic varieties and interrogating traditional models of this linguistic relationship. It then focuses on one sound-change in particular: Old English Breaking, a development which, it is argued, took place as the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain (the Adventus Saxonum).Less
This chapter begins with a brief historical outline, relating Old English to other Germanic varieties and interrogating traditional models of this linguistic relationship. It then focuses on one sound-change in particular: Old English Breaking, a development which, it is argued, took place as the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain (the Adventus Saxonum).
Ian G. Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195168211
- eISBN:
- 9780199788453
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195168211.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter deals with the nature and structure of the C-system in Welsh and Breton. The central question is whether the EPP holds at the C-level in these languages (since earlier chapters have ...
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This chapter deals with the nature and structure of the C-system in Welsh and Breton. The central question is whether the EPP holds at the C-level in these languages (since earlier chapters have shown that it is inoperative in IP). This entails a detailed discussion of Germanic verb-second, since it has often been proposed that the obligatory XP-movement into the C-system that makes up part of this phenomenon is a consequence of the EPP. First, the Welsh system of clause-initial particles is compared with the V2 system found in Germanic, and it is argued that the two systems are very similar at the relevant level of abstraction. Second, the Breton system is introduced. This system resembles that of Welsh in all respects except for one crucial one: it makes use of ‘long verb-movement’ rather than assertion particles. This movement is shown to be a genuine non-local case of head-movement. Both Welsh and Breton are argued to share a ‘filled-Fin’ requirement with V2 Germanic: this observation is then accounted for in terms of the EPP.Less
This chapter deals with the nature and structure of the C-system in Welsh and Breton. The central question is whether the EPP holds at the C-level in these languages (since earlier chapters have shown that it is inoperative in IP). This entails a detailed discussion of Germanic verb-second, since it has often been proposed that the obligatory XP-movement into the C-system that makes up part of this phenomenon is a consequence of the EPP. First, the Welsh system of clause-initial particles is compared with the V2 system found in Germanic, and it is argued that the two systems are very similar at the relevant level of abstraction. Second, the Breton system is introduced. This system resembles that of Welsh in all respects except for one crucial one: it makes use of ‘long verb-movement’ rather than assertion particles. This movement is shown to be a genuine non-local case of head-movement. Both Welsh and Breton are argued to share a ‘filled-Fin’ requirement with V2 Germanic: this observation is then accounted for in terms of the EPP.
D. Gary Miller
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199285051
- eISBN:
- 9780191713682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199285051.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
This chapter details adjectives that are not derived from verbs. These include various composite relational adjectives and their historical extension from a suffix that became a genitive, variants ...
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This chapter details adjectives that are not derived from verbs. These include various composite relational adjectives and their historical extension from a suffix that became a genitive, variants conditioned by dissimilation and derived by metanalysis, adjectives of appurtenance, characteristic, material, proclivity, plenitude, provision, and source, Germanic agentives, and substantivized neuter locationals.Less
This chapter details adjectives that are not derived from verbs. These include various composite relational adjectives and their historical extension from a suffix that became a genitive, variants conditioned by dissimilation and derived by metanalysis, adjectives of appurtenance, characteristic, material, proclivity, plenitude, provision, and source, Germanic agentives, and substantivized neuter locationals.
J. M. Wallace-Hadrill
- Published in print:
- 1983
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269069
- eISBN:
- 9780191600777
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269064.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This book, the first of its kind in English, surveys the development of the Frankish Church under the Merovingian and Carolingian kings (c.500–900 a.d.), and the special difficulties that it ...
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This book, the first of its kind in English, surveys the development of the Frankish Church under the Merovingian and Carolingian kings (c.500–900 a.d.), and the special difficulties that it encountered. The first three chapters look at the Gallo–Roman religious experience beneath the Frankish Church, the journey from Germanic paganism to Christianity, and the contribution of Gregory's history of the Gallo–Frankish Church to the development of the Frankish Church. Chs 4 to 9 examine developments in the Church in the Merovingian period (the first dynasty of Frankish kings, 481–751). Chs10 to 16 examine developments in the Carolingian period (the dynasty of Frankish kings that started with Pippin III and included his sons Carloman and Charlemagne, 751–887). Ch. 16 specifically addresses unsolved problems in the Church, viz. the Jews, the marriage bond and missionary activities.Less
This book, the first of its kind in English, surveys the development of the Frankish Church under the Merovingian and Carolingian kings (c.500–900 a.d.), and the special difficulties that it encountered. The first three chapters look at the Gallo–Roman religious experience beneath the Frankish Church, the journey from Germanic paganism to Christianity, and the contribution of Gregory's history of the Gallo–Frankish Church to the development of the Frankish Church. Chs 4 to 9 examine developments in the Church in the Merovingian period (the first dynasty of Frankish kings, 481–751). Chs10 to 16 examine developments in the Carolingian period (the dynasty of Frankish kings that started with Pippin III and included his sons Carloman and Charlemagne, 751–887). Ch. 16 specifically addresses unsolved problems in the Church, viz. the Jews, the marriage bond and missionary activities.
D. Gary Miller
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199583423
- eISBN:
- 9780191723438
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583423.003.0010
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
Words of more than two syllables tend toward moraic balance, while even those are subject to the acceleration processes that yield triplet formation. Triplets tend to shorten to disyllables, which in ...
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Words of more than two syllables tend toward moraic balance, while even those are subject to the acceleration processes that yield triplet formation. Triplets tend to shorten to disyllables, which in Ancient Greek, where all disyllables are stable, acquire duple timing when not inhibited by semantic or morphological considerations. This mora‐preference hierarchy is applied to the solution of problems in sound change, particularly in Latin, Greek, and Germanic. Stressed open syllable lengthening can be ranked higher than disyllabism. Different rankings follow from the instability engendered by competing processes. This unified account sheds light on problems as diverse as word localization in poetry, syncope, iambic shortening, monosyllabic lengthening, trisyllabic contraction, and even some consonantal changes, such as assibilation in Ancient Greek, Hittite, and Finnish. Finally, implications are adduced for optimality of the trochaic foot.Less
Words of more than two syllables tend toward moraic balance, while even those are subject to the acceleration processes that yield triplet formation. Triplets tend to shorten to disyllables, which in Ancient Greek, where all disyllables are stable, acquire duple timing when not inhibited by semantic or morphological considerations. This mora‐preference hierarchy is applied to the solution of problems in sound change, particularly in Latin, Greek, and Germanic. Stressed open syllable lengthening can be ranked higher than disyllabism. Different rankings follow from the instability engendered by competing processes. This unified account sheds light on problems as diverse as word localization in poetry, syncope, iambic shortening, monosyllabic lengthening, trisyllabic contraction, and even some consonantal changes, such as assibilation in Ancient Greek, Hittite, and Finnish. Finally, implications are adduced for optimality of the trochaic foot.
J. M. Wallace‐Hadrill
- Published in print:
- 1983
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269069
- eISBN:
- 9780191600777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269064.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
The Franks, or any other Germanic people, were not pagan one day and Christian the next; this simple solution does no justice to the texts and is overthrown by archaeological evidence. Fifth‐century ...
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The Franks, or any other Germanic people, were not pagan one day and Christian the next; this simple solution does no justice to the texts and is overthrown by archaeological evidence. Fifth‐century Gaul was Christian and mostly Catholic in a formal sense, but behind the forms lay a scarcely converted countryside where Celtic and other pagan beliefs still worried the clergy, and remained active in the 6th and 7th centuries, not only in indigenous peoples, but also in the various settler enclaves; these pagan beliefs also affected the way the Franks accepted Christianity. This is one side of the picture; the other is the nature of Germanic paganism — no sense can be made of Frankish Christianity, when it comes, unless allowance is first made for the fact that all Germans were religious people, conditioned by the sense they had of good and evil, life and death, gods and demons. This can best be seen in the archaeological evidence from their remote homeland in a more distant time, and much can be inferred from later literary evidence. This chapter discusses Frankish (Germanic) interest in and worship of pagan gods and heroes (Woden, in particular), Frankish grave gods (and the grave gods of settlers, with which they can be easily confused), the new religion the Franks found and were converted to under Clovis (or Chlodovech), their conqueror from northern Gaul, who was himself a convert to Catholicism, and the difficulties in converting the people in the countryside, where there had been a fusion of Germanic and Celtic paganism.Less
The Franks, or any other Germanic people, were not pagan one day and Christian the next; this simple solution does no justice to the texts and is overthrown by archaeological evidence. Fifth‐century Gaul was Christian and mostly Catholic in a formal sense, but behind the forms lay a scarcely converted countryside where Celtic and other pagan beliefs still worried the clergy, and remained active in the 6th and 7th centuries, not only in indigenous peoples, but also in the various settler enclaves; these pagan beliefs also affected the way the Franks accepted Christianity. This is one side of the picture; the other is the nature of Germanic paganism — no sense can be made of Frankish Christianity, when it comes, unless allowance is first made for the fact that all Germans were religious people, conditioned by the sense they had of good and evil, life and death, gods and demons. This can best be seen in the archaeological evidence from their remote homeland in a more distant time, and much can be inferred from later literary evidence. This chapter discusses Frankish (Germanic) interest in and worship of pagan gods and heroes (Woden, in particular), Frankish grave gods (and the grave gods of settlers, with which they can be easily confused), the new religion the Franks found and were converted to under Clovis (or Chlodovech), their conqueror from northern Gaul, who was himself a convert to Catholicism, and the difficulties in converting the people in the countryside, where there had been a fusion of Germanic and Celtic paganism.
R. D. Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198206606
- eISBN:
- 9780191717307
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206606.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Repression after 1848 stifled student political activity. In the 1860s–1870s this briefly took a radical form, with international links, but thereafter student organizations were as much social or ...
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Repression after 1848 stifled student political activity. In the 1860s–1870s this briefly took a radical form, with international links, but thereafter student organizations were as much social or athletic as political. There was a clear difference between the corporation model in Germanic countries, of exclusive, rival organizations, and the inclusive organizations found in most other countries, including Britain, Holland, and Scandinavia. Political interests also revived from c.1900, including student socialism as well as nationalism.Less
Repression after 1848 stifled student political activity. In the 1860s–1870s this briefly took a radical form, with international links, but thereafter student organizations were as much social or athletic as political. There was a clear difference between the corporation model in Germanic countries, of exclusive, rival organizations, and the inclusive organizations found in most other countries, including Britain, Holland, and Scandinavia. Political interests also revived from c.1900, including student socialism as well as nationalism.
Thomas Leu
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199553266
- eISBN:
- 9780191720833
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199553266.003.0016
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Theoretical Linguistics
This chapter proposes a relativization structure for adnominal adjectives in which the pre-adjectival definite marker and the adjective form a constituent excluding the noun. This is supported by a ...
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This chapter proposes a relativization structure for adnominal adjectives in which the pre-adjectival definite marker and the adjective form a constituent excluding the noun. This is supported by a unified perspective on Greek poly-(*in)-definiteness, Scandinavian double definiteness, and the Germanic weak/strong adjectival declension alternation, and reveals exciting parallels between the extended AP and the tensed clause.Less
This chapter proposes a relativization structure for adnominal adjectives in which the pre-adjectival definite marker and the adjective form a constituent excluding the noun. This is supported by a unified perspective on Greek poly-(*in)-definiteness, Scandinavian double definiteness, and the Germanic weak/strong adjectival declension alternation, and reveals exciting parallels between the extended AP and the tensed clause.
David Clark
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199558155
- eISBN:
- 9780191721342
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199558155.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, Anglo-Saxon / Old English Literature
Chapter 2 reviews the ethnographical evidence available which suggests that the pre‐Migration Germanic tribes may have practised pederasty and same‐sex rites of initiation, also comparing accounts ...
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Chapter 2 reviews the ethnographical evidence available which suggests that the pre‐Migration Germanic tribes may have practised pederasty and same‐sex rites of initiation, also comparing accounts of similar practices among the Celts. It explains apparently countervailing evidence from Tacitus's Germania by adducing the Old Norse discourse of nið, where only the passive partner in same‐sex acts seems to have been stigmatized. It forms a pair with the following chapter which, with this heritage in mind, seeks to uncover the range of attitudes to same‐sex activity in Anglo‐Saxon England.Less
Chapter 2 reviews the ethnographical evidence available which suggests that the pre‐Migration Germanic tribes may have practised pederasty and same‐sex rites of initiation, also comparing accounts of similar practices among the Celts. It explains apparently countervailing evidence from Tacitus's Germania by adducing the Old Norse discourse of nið, where only the passive partner in same‐sex acts seems to have been stigmatized. It forms a pair with the following chapter which, with this heritage in mind, seeks to uncover the range of attitudes to same‐sex activity in Anglo‐Saxon England.
