The studies presented in this volume concentrate on different aspects of the medical, scientific and technical varieties of early English used in a wide range of medieval manuscripts. As the growing body of research published in recent years has shown, analysing the language of specialised texts is an opportunity to obtain access to the early history and vernacularisation of learned writing styles. It is an area of study in which all the contributors have considerable expertise, which affords them to present data findings while discussing important methodological issues. In addition, in most cases data derive from specially-designed 'second-generation' corpora, reflecting state-of-the-art approaches to historical linguistics, discourse analysis and pragmatics. Theoretical issues concerning the digital edition of medical and scientific texts, their role in social network analysis, and their value in the identification of dialectal specific traits are highlighted by the authors.

Contents:

Francisco Alonso-Almeida: Null Objects in Middle English Medical Texts - Graham D. Caie: The Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgow - Javier Calle-Martín: Line-final Word Division in Late Middle English Fachprosa: G.U.L. MS Hunter 497 (V.7.24) - Mark Chambers: What is this, a betel, or a batowe, or a buskin lacyd?: Lexicological Confusion in Medieval Clothing Culture - Javier E. Díaz Vera: Analysing the Diffusion of Scientific Metaphors through a Corpus of Middle English Medical Texts - María Laura Esteban-Segura: Punctuation Practice in G.U.L. MS Hunter 509 - Teresa Marqués-Aguado: The Dialectal Provenance of G.U.L. MS Hunter 513 - David Moreno-Olalla/Antonio Miranda-García: An Annotated Corpus of Middle English Scientific Prose: Aims and Features - Nadia Obegi-Gallardo: A Lexical Study of The Book of Operation (G.U.L. MS Hunter 95 (T.4.12) ff.82r-156v): Illnesses and Treatment - Elena Quintana-Toledo: Orality in the Middle English Medical Recipes of G.U.L. Hunter 185 - Irma Taavitsainen: Early English Scientific Writing: New Corpora, New Approaches. The Editors:

Javier E. Díaz Vera is a lecturer of English and Linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages of University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). His research interests focus on historical sociolinguistics and language change in the history of English.

Rosario Caballero is a lecturer of English and Linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages of University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Her research interests pivot on metaphor research in discourse contexts and genre analysis.