Where did wer go? Lexical variation and change in third-person male adult noun referents in Old and Middle English

IF 1.4 2区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Language Variation and Change Pub Date : 2023-07-01 DOI:10.1017/S0954394523000108

James M. Stratton

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Abstract

Abstract The present study uses variationist quantitative methods to examine the evolution of the semantic field of third-person male adult noun referents from Old English to Middle English, covering a time depth of approximately six hundred years. Results show a shift from the favored variant wer in Old English to man in Middle English, with the diachronic change in frequency following a prototypical s-shaped distribution. Although the replacement seems to take centuries to be complete, lexical frequency and written transmission are proposed as influential explanatory factors, and a homonymic clash is suggested to have accelerated the process of replacement in Middle English. Text type and text origin contribute to variation, with alliteration significantly influencing lexical choices in Old English verse texts. When combined with findings from recent synchronic work, this study highlights a heterogeneously structured semantic domain, which has undergone lexical replacement and change over time, providing some evidence for the applicability of s-shaped patterns for lexical change.

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我们去哪儿了?中古英语成年男性第三人称名词指涉物的词汇变异与变化

摘要本研究采用变分论的定量方法，考察了古英语到中古英语第三人称成年男性名词指涉物语义场的演变过程，时间跨度约为600年。结果显示，从古英语中最受欢迎的变体“wer”到中古英语中最受欢迎的变体“man”，频率的历时变化遵循典型的s形分布。虽然替代似乎需要几个世纪才能完成，但词汇频率和书面传播被认为是有影响的解释因素，同音冲突被认为加速了中世纪英语的替代过程。文本类型和文本来源对变体有影响，头韵对古英语诗歌文本的词汇选择有显著影响。结合最近的共时性研究结果，本研究强调了一个异构结构的语义域，它经历了词汇的替换和变化，为s形模式在词汇变化中的适用性提供了一些证据。

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来源期刊

Language Variation and Change Multiple-

CiteScore

2.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Language Variation and Change is the only journal dedicated exclusively to the study of linguistic variation and the capacity to deal with systematic and inherent variation in synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Sociolinguistics involves analysing the interaction of language, culture and society; the more specific study of variation is concerned with the impact of this interaction on the structures and processes of traditional linguistics. Language Variation and Change concentrates on the details of linguistic structure in actual speech production and processing (or writing), including contemporary or historical sources.