Studies in the dialect materials of medieval Herefordshire
This thesis is an investigation into the medieval dialect of the pre-1974 county of Herefordshire. The main source materials consist of a group of literary texts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, localised in the Herefordshire area by linguistic means. The study builds on the methodology developed in connection with the Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986), but goes far beyond it both in its analysis of the individual texts and in using the data for descriptive and interpretative study. The aim is to contextualise and evaluate the evidence, as well as to gain a broad view of the characteristics of the dialect, including both diatopic and diachronic patterns and developments. In order to assess their value as evidence, a detailed dialect is carried out for each individual text; as part of this process, the Atlas localisations are reviewed, taking into consideration the full material now available, and various linguistic and textual questions are discussed. A set of dialect criteria for the localisation of texts within Herefordshire and the South-West Midland area is defined. While the study focuses on the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century materials, comparisons
Black, Merja Ritta
PE English
Studies in the dialect materials of medieval Herefordshire. This thesis is an investigation into the medieval dialect of the pre-1974 county of Herefordshire. The main source materials consist of a group of literary texts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, localised in the Herefordshire area by linguistic means. The study builds on the methodology developed in connection with the Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986), but goes far beyond it both in its analysis of the individual texts and in using the data for descriptive and interpretative study. The aim is to contextualise and evaluate the evidence, as well as to gain a broad view of the characteristics of the dialect, including both diatopic and diachronic patterns and developments. In order to assess their value as evidence, a detailed dialect is carried out for each individual text; as part of this process, the Atlas localisations are reviewed, taking into consideration the full material now available, and various linguistic and textual questions are discussed. A set of dialect criteria for the localisation of texts within Herefordshire and the South-West Midland area is defined. While the study focuses on the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century materials, comparisons
studies dialect_material medieval herefordshire investigation medieval dialect pre county herefordshire main_source material consist group literary_text localise herefordshire area linguistic mean study build develop connection linguistic atlas late_medieval english far_beyond analysis individual text use data descriptive interpretative study aim contextualise evaluate evidence well gain broad view characteristic dialect include diachronic pattern development order_ass value evidence detailed dialect carry individual text part process atlas review take_consideration full material_available various linguistic textual question discuss set dialect criterion localisation texts within herefordshire south west midland area define study_focus fourteenth fifteenth_century material comparison