This book charts the development of style and lexicon in the English language from Late Middle English to Early Modern English through the analysis of binomials across a wide range of texts and genres.The volume elucidates the forms, functions, and origins of binomials, otherwise understood as word pairs, such as “safe and sound,” as they manifest in representative prose texts from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and in the Helsinki Corpus from the fourteenth through to the early eighteenth centuries. The book begins with cross-comparative analyses of binomials, examining their frequency, etymological makeup, and repetition in prose texts including Chaucer and Malory to explore the stylistic characteristics of each text, toward zooming out to examine their development in texts across different genres, from political to philosophical to legal texts, in the Helsinki Corpus. In charting binomial development over both time and text type, the volume offers readers a unique historical perspective into the evolution of phraseology from Late Middle English through to Early Modern English and in turn, a solid foundation for future research on lexical development in the English language.This book will be of interest to scholars in English historical linguistics, English stylistics, English corpus linguistics, and English lexicology.Chapter 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license.
Akinobu Tani is Professor in the Graduate School of Language, Communication, and Culture at Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan.
ContentsList of FiguresList of TablesAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsChapter 1 Introduction1.1 The purpose of the Present Monograph1.2 Characteristics of Binomials to be Analyzed in this Study1.3 Frequency and Distribution of Binomials1.4 Significance of Studying Binomials in LME prose1.5 Styles in LME prose1.6 Lexical Reorganization in LME and its Impact on Phraseology1.7 Previous Studies of Binomials in LME1.8 Research Methodology1.9 LME Texts to be Examined and the Editions and E-texts Employed1.10 The Structure of this StudyChapter 2 A Preliminary Survey of Binomials in Chaucer’s Prose Texts2.1 Introduction2.2 Previous Studies on Chaucer’s Prose and on Binomials in Chaucer’s Prose2.3 Normalized Frequency of Binomials in Chaucer’s Prose Texts2.4 Etymological Makeup of Binomials in Chaucer’s Prose Texts2.5 Repetition of Binomials in Chaucer’s Prose Texts2.6 Summary and ConclusionChapter 3 Binomials in Caxton’s Translations: Paris and Vienne and the History of Reynard the Fox3.1 Introduction3.2 Normalized Frequency of Binomials in Paris and Reynard3.3 Etymological Makeup of Binomials in Paris and Reynard3.4 Repetition of Binomials in Paris and Reynard3.5 Caxton vs. Chaucer: A Comparison of Translated Works, Caxton’s Paris and Chaucer’s Bo3.6 Summary and ConclusionChapter 4 Binomials in a Chronicle and the “Chronicle Style:” The Brut and Malory’s Le Morte Darthur4.1 Introduction4.2 Binomials in the Brut or the Chronicle of England4.3 Binomials in the Works of Sir Thomas Malory4.4 Book V of Caxton’s Edition of Le Morte Darthur vs. Book 2 in the WinchesterManuscript4.5 Summary and ConclusionChapter 5 Binomials in Political and Philosophical Texts: On the Governance of England and On the Properties of Things5.1 Binomials in On the Governance of England5.2 Binomials in On the Properties of Things5.3 Summary and ConclusionChapter 6 Binomials in Religious Texts: The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ and the English Wycliffite Sermons6.1 Introduction6.2 Binomials in The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ6.3 Binomials in the English Wycliffite Sermons6.4 Comparative Analysis of Religious Texts: The Parson’s Tale, The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, and the English Wycliffite Sermons6.5 Summary and ConclusionChapter 7 Binomials in Epistolary and Legal Documents: The Signet Letters of Henry V and the Paston Letters and Papers7.1 Introduction7.2 Binomials in the Signet Letters of Henry V7.3 Binomials in the Paston Letters and Papers7.4 Comparison between the Signet Letters of Henry V and the Paston Letter Texts7.5 Summary and ConclusionChapter 8 Grouping and Comparison of Texts Using Statistical Analyses of Binomials8.1 Introduction8.2 Overall Data of Frequency and Etymological Makeup8.3 Statistical Analyses8.4 Comparison of Findings by Statistical Analyses with Manual Analyses in the Foregoing Chapters8.5 Summary and ConclusionChapter 9 Motivations for the Use of Binomials (1): Evidences from Chaucer’s and Caxton’s Translations9.1 Introduction9.2 Motivations for the Use of Binomials in Chaucer’s Prose Texts9.3 Caxton’s Treatment of Binomials in the History of Reynard the Fox in Comparison with the MD Original Die Historie Van Den Vos Reynaerde9.4 Caxton’s Treatment of Binomials in Paris and Vienne in Comparison to the MF Original Paris et Vienne9.5 ConclusionChapter 10 Motivations for the Use of Binomials (2): Evidences from a Comparison of Binomials Between Chaucer’s Verse and Prose10.1 Motivation for the Use of Binomials in Chaucer’s Prose Compared to Binomials in his Verse10.2 Previous Studies10.3 Normalized Frequency of Binomials in Chaucer’s Verse and Prose10.4 Etymological Makeup of Binomials in Chaucer’s Verse and Prose10.5 Repetition of Binomials in Chaucer’s Verse and Prose10.6 Morphology of Binomial Members in Chaucer’s Verse and Prose10.7 Rhyming Binomials in Chaucer’s Verse10.8 Binomials in Individual Verse Texts of Fragment I10.9 ConclusionChapter 11 Historical Development of Binomials from 1350 to 1710 across Text Types in the Helsinki Corpus11.1 Introduction11.2 Frequency of Binomials11.3 Etymological Makeup of Binomials11.4 Relevance of the Most Repeated Binomials to Text Types11.5 Summary and ConclusionChapter 12 ConclusionReferencesIndex