To understand the characteristics of present-day English language and culture we must have some understanding of the earlier stages of language use. Bells Chiming from the Past investigates the early development of English and covers different aspects of English medieval studies, from traditional philological concerns, to the most recent perspectives of modern linguistics applied to early English texts. Most of the papers are based on empirical research in English Historical Linguistics, and will contribute substantially to our theoretical and descriptive understanding of English varieties, both written and spoken.

The book focuses on the relationship and interaction of language and culture during the Middle English period. Some of the articles are clearly linguistically-oriented, but most could be included under a wider philological perspective since they study both language and the cultural milieu in which linguistic events took place.

Bells Chiming from the Past is aimed at an international readership and makes a desirable addition to the field of Historical Linguistics, featuring as it does contributions from an array of well-known professionals from different academic and scientific institutions.

Contents

Isabel Moskowich and Begoña Crespo: Introduction Part 1. Linguistic aspects of early English Agnieszka Pysz: The (im)possibility of stacking adjectives in Early English Ruth Carroll: Lists in Letters: NP-lists and general extenders in Early English correspondence Prancisco Alonso-Almeida: Middle English medical books as examples of discourse colonies: G.U.L Hunter 307 Rosa Eva Fernández-Conde: The second-person pronoun in late medieval English drama: The York Cycle (c. 1440) Isabel Moskowich and Begoña Crespo: Different paths for words and money: The semantic field of “Commerce and Finance” in Middle English Part 2. Language and culture John McKinnell: How might Everyman has been performed? Isabel de la Cruz-Cabanillas: Shift of meaning in the animal field: Some cases of narrowing and widening María José Esteve-Ramos: Different aspects of the specialised nomenclature of ophthalmology in Old and Middle English Nuria Bello-Piñón and Dolores Elvira Méndez-Souto: Complex predicates in early scientific writing Mª Victoria Domínguez-Rodríguez and Alicia Rodríguez-Álvarez: Sixteenth-century glosses to a fifteenth-century gynaecological treatise (BL, MS Sloane 249, ff. 180v-205v): A scientifically biased revision Part 3. Philology and the study of medieval texts Donald Scragg: Rewriting eleventh-century English grammar and the editing of texts Francisco José Álvarez-López: DCL, B IV, 24: A palaeographical and codicological study of Durham’s Cantor’s Book Nils-Lennart Johannesson: The four-wheeled quadriga and the seven sacraments: On the sources for the ‘dedication’ of the Ormulum Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre: Verbal confrontation and the uses of direct speech in some Old English poetic hagiographies Tom Shippey: Tolkien, medievalism, and the philological tradition