English Period Research Articles

Neologisms of the COVID-19 Pandemic Period in the Modern British Press

This article analyzes the concept of "neologism", determines its linguistic and stylistic function, systematizes and analyzes the features of the use of neologisms of the COVID 19 pandemic period in well-known British periodi-cals on the example of specific articles. Since the media describe phenomena and events that are characteristic of a certain time, the greatest number of neologisms appears in the press. The analysis of neologisms in the framework of this study is based on the classification of L. V. Sheveleva, according to which neologisms are divided into three groups: neologisms proper, lexical neoplasms, semantic neologisms.The relevance of the topic of this study is due to the fact that new words appear in the language constantly, at all stages of its existence, especially during the period of social upheavals, the rapid pace of development of society, and the question of their systematization is of particular importance. The purpose of this study is to identify and ana-lyze new lexical units that emerged in modern English during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to establish their linguistic and stylistic function in the process of forming a new lexical layer of the English language.As a result of the study, the author came to the conclusion that most of the neologisms in the British press of the COVID-19 period are lexical neoplasms. Most of the lexemes that have been analyzed have a nominative func-tion. Only the phrases Corona Mutant and Corona Winter perform an expressive function, and the phrases Booster campaign and The beginning of the pandemic – the function of attracting attention.The methodological basis of this study was the method of semantic analysis, the method of continuous sam-pling, the method of linguistic description (interpretation and generalization of the analyzed material), comparative analysis, linguistic and statistical analysis.The systematized material proposed by the author of the article can be used in pedagogical and scientific activ-ities in the field of such branches of linguistics as neology, linguistic terminology, derivatology.

REPRESENTATION OF THE SCENARIO «CONFLICT IN THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY» IN THE BRITISH MASS-MEDIA DISCOURSE

The article focuses on the modeling scenario “Confrontation in the British Royal family” which is actualized in the British mass-media discourse through an interaction between such concepts as BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY (a culturally marked one), CONFLICT, and RELATIONSHIP, graphically visualized and presented as a complex structure of four parallel subsidiary scenarios (confrontation between Harry and William; confrontation between Harry and his father; confrontation between Harry and Camilla; confrontation between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Royal family) that are realized in the slots of the propositional schemas of the action and thing frames. In order to single out verbalizers of the slots, a corpus of 25 articles about Prince Harry’s memoire book “Spare”, published in the period from January to April 2023 on the web-sites of the British periodicals “The Guardian”, “The Independent”, “Daily Express”, “Daily Record”, “The Sun”, was processed by AntConc programme and analyzed correspondingly. The analysis has allowed to identify the agents, patients, causes and the time frame of the conflict as well as to define the character of interaction between the concepts involved in the scenario. Modeling of the scenario “Confrontation in the British Royal family” on the basis of the British mass-media discourse has resulted in reconstructing the sequence of the dramatic events in the definite period of the British Royal family’s life, giving an insight into the perception of these events by the British society, distinguishing their verbal reflection in the British language community, and determining the role of the British media in shaping the Royal family’s image in the British minds.

What Did(n’t) Happen to English?: A Re-evaluation of Some Contact Explanations in Early English

McWhorter (2002) argued that contact with Norse caused simplifications in English grammar that set English apart from other Germanic languages. This paper focuses on one of the losses McWhorter attributed to the linguistic impact of the Scandinavian invasions, External Possessors. An investigation of electronic Old and Early Middle English corpora reveals that the construction was already on the decline in the Old English period, and that Norse contact cannot explain the Early Middle English data. There is no support for the view that the loss of the construction spread from the Scandinavianized areas southwards. The facts are consistent with the view that while Celtic influence did not cause the loss of the construction in Old English, Celtic speakers shifting to English may have played a role in triggering the initial decline of the construction. Study of non-standard variants of other Germanic languages is needed to increase our understanding of the history of External Possessor constructions in those languages.

A Diachronic Account of τ–Features and of Their Output as Vocabulary Items: On the Limits to the Vocabulary Item Ø

Assuming basic tenets of Distributed Morphology and likewise the minimalist framework of Agree, it is argued that the segmentation into Vocabulary Items (VIs) of the Past forms of verbs in Present Day English is as in e.g. deem-ed rather than deem-ed-Ø. The generalized position in the literature is for the Ø-VI to be subject to the Elsewhere condition, which entails that the proper form is deem-ed, that is the form with non-exponence after -ed. The main purpose of the discussion is to give evidence of the Elsewhere condition, and I propose to do so by taking a diachronic perspective and tracking down the relevant changes affecting verbal morphology in the language. It is argued that there are three types of τ–features in Old English and that the specific τ–feature that has as output the VI´s that are commonly referred to as subject agreement endings, which are those among which the Ø-VI steadily imposes itself from the end of the Old English period, is a τ–feature that combines φ– and τ–interpretation. The feature is labelled here [+/–past]AgrT and its τ–interpretation is identified as [morphological distinctiveness between Present and Past relative to Agreement]. The progressive imposition of the Ø-VI entails that the specific content of the cited [morphological distinctiveness…] varies in time, which variation is given diverse formulations throughout the discussion with the help of the Subset Principle requirements. The ultimate formulation is reached after analyzing the differences and similarities between English and Danish–Swedish being another case in point–as regards morpho-phonological loss and the connection with V-to-T movement. The cited formulation entails that the Ø-VI is not available if it is the only VI realizing a given formal feature (note the Elsewhere condition). A corollary of the account is for Present Day English, or rather from the English language from the eighteenth century onwards, not to rely on one binary feature like [+/–past] but on two privative features, each of a different type .

The Semantic Meaning of Verb+ Particle Construction Based on Emergent Metaphor Theory

The origin of Verb+ Particle can be traced back to the Old English period. During the development of Old English to Middle English, the Particle slowly replaced the role of verbal prefixes, and by the late Middle English, it completely replaced verbal prefixes and became a category used quite frequently in everyday English communication. The Verb+ Particle is one of the English phrasal verbs, and because of its multiple meanings, Chinese English learners easily confuse the meaning and make mistakes when acquiring and applying it, thus its becoming a major obstacle for English learners. The thesis tries to use emergent metaphor theory and construction grammar theory in cognitive pragmatics to analyze the semantic meaning of the four common particles down from the form and meaning of Verb +particle constructions, and then to use the meaning features to relate the specific meaning items of Verb + particle. participants, thus strengthening the ability to understand and use Verb +particle in specific contexts, and exploring a new path for English learners to understand the semantic meaning of Verb+ particle.

The reaction of Boris Johnson’s government to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation (based on materials from British periodicals)

The reaction of Boris Johnson’s government to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation (based on materials from British periodicals)

Erminda Rentoul Esler's “Physical” and “Virtual” Networks: Women's Activism, the Irish in London, and the Local-Colour Story

ABSTRACT This article illuminates the life and work of Irish-born novelist, short-story writer, and periodical columnist Erminda Rentoul Esler (1860?–1924), who lived and worked in London from the 1890s onwards. First, the essay documents Esler's participation in various literary and social networks in London. These “physical” networks included London-based Irish revivalist groups where she interacted with other Irish and London-Irish writers, and early feminist groups such as New Women and suffragists (e.g., the Women Writers’ Suffrage League). Second, the essay explores Esler's equally important engagement with “virtual” networks of readers through her collaboration with English periodicals (women's magazines) and her local-colour stories. As this article will show, Esler's local-colour fiction of the 1890s is a critical node that joins together and interrogates discourses surrounding Irishness, the New Woman, and the transnational dimension of the regional story. Reasserting Esler's presence in the London literary marketplace and in Irish diasporic circuits highlights the complexity of regional, diasporic, and religious varieties of Irish identity that were being negotiated at the turn of the twentieth century. Her involvement also underscores the importance of these networks of sociability to encourage women's participation in society through education, professionalism, and the vote.

Some notes on negated and quantified objects in Middle English and Early Modern English

AbstractIn this paper, I present a novel corpus investigation of quantified and negated objects in the Middle English and Early Modern English period, which is embedded within the wider language change scenario from linear OV to linear VO in the history of English. It will be shown that evidence for preverbal positioning of such objects is mostly limited to translated texts in Middle English in the PPCME2 corpus, and that by late Middle English, most of the hits consist of negated elements, as shown in the PCEEC corpus, which consists of native texts. The different constraints governing spell out of positive objects in Old English and Middle English are discussed and compared to the licensing of negated and quantified objects. The data provided in this paper constitute further evidence for Ingham's (2000, 2002, 2007) analysis of preposed negated objects in late ME and their correlation with the Negative Cycle, and complement previous investigations on negated and quantified objects in Middle English and Early Modern English.

The Worcester Herbal Glossary: Edition and Commentary

Abstract This study offers the first full edition of a late thirteenth-century herbal glossary preserved in Worcester, Cathedral Library, F 157, as well as a preliminary commentary of textual problems and analogues. This glossary (henceforth: Worcester Herbal Glossary) originally included around 130 Latin plant names with English equivalents; a few entries are lost today because of a lacuna in the manuscript. So far, only a partial – and at times inaccurate – edition of the glossary appeared in Floyer and Hamilton (1906: 184–185). Since then, this lexicographic collection of plant names has been almost wholly ignored by scholars. Remarkably, the Worcester Herbal Glossary seems to originate from a substantial batch of entries from the chapter on the names of herbs in Ælfric’s Glossary. This batch was expanded by means of other material which must have circulated in the Early Middle English period. This additional material parallels entries found in other botanical glossaries of the period – such as that preserved in London, British Library, Harley 978 – and, above all, finds striking analogues in the Middle English recension of the Salernitan medico-botanical glossary known as Alphita (Mowat 1887).

The history of geographical surveys in India during the British period

The history of geographical surveys in India during the British period

‘I’d castrate you and marry you in a heartbeat’: Queerness, quality and classics in Succession

Critically acclaimed transnational (United States/United Kingdom) drama Succession (2017–23) utilizes classical references combined (arguably juxtaposed) with queerness and insecurities about masculinity/-ties and orientation within its satirical representation of corporate culture. While connecting quality television to British period dramas and queerness, especially on HBO, is relatively common, the series uses phallic discourses not only to illustrate and satirize the toxic masculinity present in its pseudo-royal corporate culture but also to show the complexities of a queer ‘will-they/won’t-they’ couple – Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) and Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun) – within this environment. This article will engage in a close reading of representative scenes from the first three series in order to analyse the variety of phallic and other gendered or sexualized discourses within the series which represent contemporary sociocultural anxieties over masculinity/-ties and power as connected with genitalia, castration and/or orientation. This will include discussion and historical contextualization of castration with regard to queerness and different modes of (non-procreative) power, the analogy made to Nero and his castrated slave/spouse Sporus in which the title quote appears in the series as a declaration of love, and discussion of transgression, power and the series’ pseudo-royal court/corporation. The article will illustrate how the series utilizes these discourses to acquire and express the distinction required for quality TV while simultaneously interrogating, satirizing and critiquing the toxicity of contemporary corporate culture with regard to gender and orientation.

Conditionals as interpersonal devices in Late Modern English women’s scientific writing

It is widely recognised that attaining best possible reception of one’s writing within the scientific community is among the main factors that contribute to the rhetorical profile of scientific prose. Authors not only have to negotiate meaning but also to persuade their peers (Allen, Qin & Lancaster, 1994; Atkinson 1996, 1999; Bazerman, 1988; Hyland, 1998, 2000). This is perhaps most remarkable when the position within the scientific community is disadvantageous, as in the case of female scientists during the Late Modern English period. (Crespo, 2012; Schiebinger, 1989, 2003).
 Conditionals present an array of functions of an interpersonal nature, these used to negotiate meaning or to achieve a better reader response. Whether they are used to state shared assumptions, to narrow the scope or mitigate the force of a claim, to show humility by rhetorically doubting one’s own wording or underlining one’s uncertainty, or to directly express politeness, conditionals can be characterised as “rhetorical device[s] for gaining acceptance for one’s claims” (Warchal, 2010, p. 141).
 The aim of this article is to analyse the use of conditionals as interpersonal, negotiating devices in the work of female scientists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To this end, texts written by women included in the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing (Moskowich, 2011) will be searched for conditional markers, and the results will be analysed from a functional point of view, highlighting the particular ways in which female scientists used these devices across disciplines and through the period.

Sentiment and emotion in financial journalism: a corpus-based, cross-linguistic analysis of the effects of COVID

Sentiment and emotion play a crucial role in financial journalism, influencing market perceptions and reactions. However, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the language used in financial newspapers remains underexplored. The present study addresses this gap by comparing data from specialized financial newspapers in English and Spanish, focusing on the years immediately prior to the COVID-19 crisis (2018–2019) and during the pandemic itself (2020–2021). We aim to explore how the economic upheaval of the latter period was conveyed in these publications and investigate the changes in sentiment and emotion in their language compared to the previous timeframe. To this end, we compiled comparable corpora of news items from two respected financial newspapers (The Economist and Expansión), covering both the pre-COVID and pandemic periods. Our corpus-based, contrastive EN-ES analysis of lexically polarized words and emotions allows us to describe the publications’ positioning in the two periods. We further filter lexical items using the CNN Business Fear and Greed Index, as fear and greed are the opposing emotional states most often linked to financial market unpredictability and volatility. This novel analysis is expected to provide a holistic picture of how these specialist periodicals in English and Spanish have emotionally verbalized the economic havoc of the COVID-19 period compared to their previous linguistic behaviour. By doing so, our study contributes to the understanding of sentiment and emotion in financial journalism, shedding light on how crises can reshape the linguistic landscape of the industry.

Climate Changes: Mary Shelley on Roger Dodsworth

ABSTRACT In the summer of 1826, melting snows revealed a man frozen nearly 200 years, reanimated by a passing doctor. Reports of Roger Dodsworth, formerly deceased, spread from the French papers to launch a flurry of essays in the English periodicals. While the summer of 1816 has been central to discussions of climate, global politics, and Romantic literature, the thaw of 1826 has been relatively neglected. In this paper, I examine how Shelley's treatment of nature in “Roger Dodsworth: The Reanimated Englishman” presents climate changes as plural and contingent, simultaneously disrupting historical narrative and entangling natural history with human embodiment. As scientists grapple with evolutionary records revealed by our own “great thaw,” “Roger Dodsworth” offers a philosophical model for grappling with changes that cannot be overcome through human intervention. At the conclusion to the essay, as Shelley speculates that Dodsworth may have died a second time, finding “his ancient clay could not thrive on the harvests of these latter days,” she suggests a fundamental incompatibility of past and present, even as she collapses the distinction between the two. A changed world, she suggests, cannot support the past as it was, but only as it has become.

Post-Colonial Time: The Evaluation of Printmaking Practice and Present Time

Printmaking has a long and rich history that dates back thousands of years. The earliest forms of printmaking were developed in ancient china, where the artist would create prints using wood blocks as early as the 7th century. However, in the 15th century in Europe, printmaking began to develop into a proper art form. Johannesburg was a German goldsmith printer and inventor widely credited with movable type printing in the mid-15th century. In 1455 Bible was the first important Book in history. In the 16th century, Goa was the first place in India where printing technology started during the British period. Initially, it was used for religious printing and some commercial printing, like religious posters, pamphlets etc. later 20th century, this printing process transformed into fine art printmaking techniques. It became an educational part of developing printing technology and technician. This printing technology became a curriculum for the Art & Craft College, like Madras art college, Kolkata Govt. Art and Craft College, J.J art college, Lahore art college (now in Pakistan), and another essential college is Kala Bhavana under the Visva Bharati University. From post-colonial to contemporary times, printing to printmaking evolved in many ways. Most places academically followed the colonial curriculum, but commercial printing technology rapidly changed. Academically Visva Bharati University Santiniketan develops new technology for the students.

Law, Provenance Research, and Restitution of Colonial Cultural Property: Reflections on (In)Equality and a Sri Lankan Object in the Netherlands

The status of colonial objects in European museums touches upon a matrix of legal and historical issues. This article engages with some of them, while referring to the case of a Sri Lankan object in the possession of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (RMA) in the Netherlands: a ceremonial cannon looted by the Dutch from the King of Kandy in 1765. The article offers a historical overview of the European colonial domination of Ceylon, distinguishing between the Portuguese, Dutch, and British periods, and for each period distinguishes the nature and the size of the confiscated heritage. It also analyses Sri Lanka’s legal title to the cannon, and the discrepancy between the international and mostly Euro-centric legal regime and Sri Lanka’s own legal framework. The article moves on to analyses of and reflections about the type of provenance research practiced by the RMA, as well as the broader efforts in the Netherlands for better provenance research. The importance of the cannon for both Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, as well as earlier efforts to retrieve it, are also described and evaluated. In its conclusions, the article proffers suggestions for more balance and equality in the provenance research efforts. The contribution covers legal studies, history, and museum studies and is based on the literature, historical catalogues, and other documents, as well as the practice of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries titution in case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP).

India and Iraq: Interests and Interactions during the British Period

India and Iraq had relations since ancient era. Both claim ‘civilizational connect’ with Iraq corresponding with ancient Mesopotamian civilization and India to the Indus valley civilization. There is ample evidence of trade between the two regions. The entry of the Europeans in the Indian Ocean region and the use of Red Sea, Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean for trade of goods and people resulted in the British control over India and Iraq. Much of Iraq’s administrative models were based on those developed by the British in India and Indian men were used in war fought in Iraq. The paper explores India’s relations with Iraq with specific focus during the British rule in India.

“Chcę wrócić, jak emigrant, z podróży dalekiej, / Z papieru, z martwych liter, żywy. Do twych rąk . . . ” : życie i twórczość Kazimierza Wierzyńskiego (1894–1969)

“Chcę wrócić, jak emigrant, z podróży dalekiej, / Z papieru, z martwych liter, żywy. Do twych rąk . . . ” : życie i twórczość Kazimierza Wierzyńskiego (1894–1969)

Saddar Bazar Quarter in Karachi: A Case of British-Era Protected Heritage Based on the Literature Review and Fieldwork

On the international level, heritage is considered an essential element for the sustainable development of a country. In South Asian countries such as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, historic cities struggle to preserve their built heritage, due to rapid urbanisation and changing contemporary urban and architectural requirements. This contribution elaborates on the effects of urbanisation, and city development on the protected heritage of Karachi, Pakistan. The city developed in the 19th century from a mud-fortified small town along the Lyari river to become one of the busiest ports of the Indian subcontinent under British rule. Karachi has now become a metropolitan city with more than sixteen million inhabitants. Due to the accelerated rate of urbanisation and trade activities, Karachi has become Pakistan’s economic capital, resulting in the oblivion of its historical sites. Most of the city’s historic sites are in a state of dereliction, from over- or under-programming, or even under the threat of demolition. The paper focuses on the present condition of a British-era protected-heritage site through a literature review and fieldwork (mapping, drawing, archival research, interviews, photographic surveys, etc.), carried out during 2019 and 2020. The first author conducted site visits to photograph buildings and interview their users to gather feedback on how they perceive the current state of these buildings. The data were analysed to investigate how many buildings from Karachi’s British era with protected status have been demolished or are at risk of demolition. At the heart of the article is the Saddar Bazar Quarter in Karachi and its historical, social, cultural, and economic importance in the city from the British period until the present. The analysis will lead the discussion on what potential these sites/buildings hold, and how to make their preservation possible and withstand the uncurbed urbanisation and the threat of land development. Through discussion, we will focus on the social, cultural and economic aspects which the area and the buildings from the British period hold, and which can be useful in the future for the continuation of the Saddar Bazaar Quarter (SBQ), the historic urban landscape (HUL) and the heritage buildings.

Synonyms as the Semantic Component of Conversion

Conversion is very common in modern English. The main condition for the formation of a new language unit through conversion is the change of the syntactic function of the word, which is observed by the change of meaning. It is sometimes necessary to change the basic syntactic environment that is needed for conversion. A word formed by the conversion takes all the inflectional forms of the part of the language to which it belongs. Conversion, as a means of forming verbs and nouns, has become one of the characteristic features of the English language since the XIII century. The conversion formed as a result of the collapse of the inflectional system at the beginning of the Central Asian period. From 1150, a number of derivative verbs formed by conversion from adjectives appeared, and from the 13th-15th centuries, verbs derived from adverbs and participles appeared. In the Middle English period, until about the 15th century, the formation of verbs from nouns and adjectives significantly decreased due to the emergence of a large number of nouns and verbs borrowed from French. The grammatical homonymy of many English verbs and nouns resulting from the loss of inflection was only one of the prerequisites for the emergence of conversion as a new way of word formation.