Dictionary Of Old English Corpus Research Articles

Toward a Universal Dependencies Treebank of Old English: Representing the Morphological Relatedness of Un-Derivatives

This article deals with one of the aspects involved in the compilation of a treebank of Old English within the framework of Universal Dependencies. More specifically, this study addresses the question of how to account for the remarkable degree of Old English morphological relatedness in a type of treebank designed to stress syntactic similarities across languages. The solution proposed and assessed in this study is the addition of an extra field of annotation for morphological relatedness. The data of this analysis comprise 1106 derivatives attaching the prefix un-. Out of these, there are around 80 morphologically complex nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs whose derivation cannot be described gradually, 33 of which are unique formations or hapax legomena according to the attestations provided by the Dictionary of Old English Corpus. The main conclusion is that the specification of short-distance and long-distance morphological relatedness provides the Old English treebank with a paradigmatic dimension that can be particularly relevant for languages with relatively generalised and transparent derivational morphology.

Corpus philology: Using the Dictionary of Old English to get bigger data for Old English spelling variation

Abstract This article presents a methodology for obtaining large datasets for the spelling of individual phonological segments in Old English texts, based on searching the Dictionary of Old English Corpus for the attested spellings listed in the Dictionary of Old English A-H. It exemplifies this ‘corpus philology’ through a study of 216,526 spellings for words beginning with h followed by a vowel, using a variety of techniques to evaluate the methodology’s precision and recall, which are calculated as very high for <h->initial spellings (precision 100% precision, recall 92.1%) and moderate, but still usable, for <h->less spellings (precision 85.5%, recall 58.3%). Data for fourteen other segments related to the behaviour of h- in Old English is presented in the Supplementary Materials that complement the paper online. This dataset of 379,484 spellings from 2,605 Old English texts is shown to seriously problematize the findings of traditional philology, the conclusions of which are in contrast based on only a handful of spellings from a few texts, and to have the potential to radically enhance our understanding of the literary and linguistic histories of English.

Automatic Lemmatization of Old English Class III Strong Verbs (L-Y) with ALOEV3

This article presents ALOEV3, a lemmatizer based on Morphological Generation that allows for the type-based automatic lemmatization of Old English Class III strong verbs beginning with the letters L–Y. The lemmatizer operates on the basis of the inflectional, derivational and morpho-phonological alternation rules characteristic of this class. The generated form-types are checked against the two most reputed Old English corpora, namely the Dictionary of Old English Corpus and The York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose to validate their attestations and assign the corresponding lemma. Results show that 97 percent of the validated forms are successfully assigned a single lemma. The remaining inflectional forms (38 out of 1,256) show competition between two lemmas, which implies that despite the high level of accuracy of the lemmatizer, contextual, token-based analysis is still needed for disambiguation. However, the research shows that competition only occurs in a limited set of lemma pairs and their derivatives. Although the research focuses on but one strong verb class, it confirms that exploring the avenues of automatic lemmatization will contribute to the field of Old English lexicography by either lemmatizing attested inflectional form types or by highlighting areas for manual revision.

Old English class I strong verbs lemmatisation: A morphological generation approach

ABSTRACT This article takes issue with type-based automatic lemmatisation of the Old English class I strong verbs L-Y. To reach this goal, the article discusses the design of a Morphological Generation interface implemented with the rules of Old English strong verb inflection as well as with the most frequent variant spellings. The forms provided by the interface are automatically checked against the two most representative corpora of Old English, the Dictionary of Old English Corpus and the The York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose, and validated results are assigned the corresponding lemma. The results prove that almost 99% of the validated forms can successfully be assigned lemma. The remaining 1% correspond to formally ambiguous inflectional forms, where lemma assignment is in dispute between two candidates. The conclusion is reached that disambiguation is only possible on the basis of contextualised token-based analysis. The article confirms that type-based lemmatisation of Old English strong verbs can be largely automatised.

Identifying the Old English exponent for the semantic prime LIVE

The aim of this article is to identify the Old English exponent for the semantic prime LIVE following the principles of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory (Wierzbicka 1996, Goddard & Wierzbicka 2002, Goddard 2011). The methodology applied in the study is based on previous research in Old English semantic primes. In these terms, a search for those Old English words conveying the meaning of the semantic prime LIVE is made. This search selects the verbs (ge)buan, drohtian, (ge)eardian, (ge)libban, and wunian as candidate words for prime exponent. Then, these verbs are analysed in terms of morphological, textual, semantic, and syntactic criteria. With this purpose, relevant information on these words has been gathered from different lexicographical and textual sources in Old English, such as the Dictionary of Old English, the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, and the lexical database of Old English Nerthus. After the analysis of these verbs, the conclusion is drawn that the Old English verb (ge)libban is selected as prime exponent, as it satisfies the requirements proposed by each criterion.

Insights into Old English Lexicography: Lemmatisation ofgĀnand Its Prefix-Formations using a Corpus-Based Database

AbstractThis article contributes to Old English lexicography by providing a list of lemmas and inflectional forms for the Old English derived verbs (prefixed verbs) of gān ‘to go’. Entries for these lemmas, if listed by Old English dictionaries, are often incomplete, but, more importantly, they are not based on a lemmatised corpus. This is particularly problematic in the case of languages like Old English that are rife with morphological variation. The methodology followed in this study comprises searches on a lexical database and manual revision of the hits. The searches are launched on the lemmatiser Norna, and the hits are checked with available lexicographical sources, secondary sources and annotated corpora. Finally, ambiguous cases are examined in their context. The final list of lemmas and inflectional forms amounts to 104 inflectional forms which are attributed to 14 different lemmas, including one lemma and up to 61 inflectional forms never before listed by dictionaries. Special attention is paid to the contrast between what is attested in the Old English corpora and what is available from the sources. In addition to providing insights into the inventory of lemmas and inflectional forms for the derivatives (prefixed verbs) of the verb gān as attested in The Dictionary of Old English Corpus, which was not available until now from lexicographical sources, this article contributes recommendations for the linguistic analysis of Old English using corpus-based lexical databases.

Semantic primes in historical languages. The identification of the Old English exponent for DO

This journal article follows the research line opened on the search for semantic primes’ exponents in Old English within the frame of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory (Goddard 1997, 2012; Goddard and Wierzbicka 2002). The aim of this study is to complete the line of research on prime identification opened on the category Actions, events, movement, contact by establishing the Old English exponent of the prime DO. With this purpose, this paper discusses the adequacy of different OE verbs as possible prime exponent on the basis of textual frequency, morphology, semantics and syntactic complementation. Relevant data of analysis have been retrieved mainly from the lexical database of Old English Nerthus, the Dictionary of Old English (Healey et al. 2018) and the Dictionary of Old English Corpus (Healey et al. 2009).  

Reduced forms in the nominal morphology of the Lindisfarne Gospel Gloss. A case of accusative/dative syncretism?

Abstract One of the most characteristic features of the grammar of the Lindisfarne Gospel gloss is the absence of the etymological -e inflection in the dative singular in the paradigm of the strong masculine and neuter declension (a-stems). Ross (1960: 38) already noted that endingless forms of the nominative/accusative cases were quite frequent in contexts where a dative singular in -e would be expected, to the extent that he labeled the forms in -e ‘rudimentary dative.’ The aim of this article is to assess to what extent the dative singular is still found as a separate case in the paradigms of the masculine and neuter a-stems and root nouns. To this end a quantitative/statistical analysis of nouns belonging to these classes has been carried out in contexts where the Latin lemma is either accusative or dative. We have tried to determine whether variables such as syntactic context, noun class, and frequency condition the presence or absence of the -e inflection, and whether the distribution of the inflected and uninflected forms is different in the various demarcations that have been identified in the gloss. The data have been retrieved using the Dictionary of Old English Corpus. All tokens have been checked against the facsimile edition and the digitised manuscript in order to detect possible errors.

The Adversary or the Devil?: Semantic Analysis of Wiþer-Nouns in Old English

Abstract The examination of Old and Middle English religious lexis has attracted attention of many scholars. However, there are hardly any studies that would offer a comprehensive diachronic analysis of the terms denoting ‘Satan/(the)Devil’. The authors of the present study aim to fill this gap by conducting a systematic analysis of early English lexical field of ‘(the) evil spirit’, beginning with the analysis of Old English items that could potentially refer to ‘Satan/(the)Devil’ This paper discusses wiþer-nouns in Old English with the aim to verify which of them were applied with reference to ‘(the) evil spirit’. Thus, the texts compiled in the Dictionary of Old English Corpus have been searched for all the above-listed items. The identification of their uses has allowed us not only to determine the frequency of the words in question but also to specify whether the sense of ‘(the) evil spirit’ was core or peripheral for each lexeme.

Inflectional Variation in the Old English Participle. A Corpus-based Analysis

This article deals with the coexistence of verbal and adjectival inflection in the Old English past participle. Its aim is to assess the degree of variation in the inflection of the participle so as to determine whether or not the change starts in the Old English period. The analysis is based on two corpora, the “York Corpus of Old English” and the “Dictionary of Old English Corpus”. With these corpora the following variants of the inflection of the participle are analysed: genre (prose and verse), tense (present and past), morphological class (weak vs. strong) and case (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and instrumental). The main conclusion of the article is that the quantitative evidence from the corpora indicates that the degree of variation presented by the participle in Old English shows that diachronic change is underway. Overall, the past participle and poetic texts clearly reflect the loss of inflection, while the adjectival inflection of the participle co-occurs with its adjectival function.

The participle in two corpora of Old English. Descriptive and empirical questions

This article deals with the present and past participle of Old English. Its research method is based on the idea that the specific characteristics of a given corpus make it more suitable for certain types of analysis. In the analysis, the York Corpus of Old English is used for assessing the inflection of the participle with respect to tense, case and genre, while the Dictionary of Old English Corpus is searched for the present and past participles of strong verbs in all the inflections. The main conclusion on the descriptive side is that only 42.52 percent of the participles in the corpus are inflected, the ratio of inflection being lower in the past participle than in the present participle. On the empirical side, the main conclusion is that, of the variants considered, tense, morphological class and genre prove more useful than case and adjectival inflection, which are essentially contextual.

The types and categories of Old English recursive compounding

This article deals with the recursive compounding of Old English nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. It addresses the question of the textual occurrences of the compounds of Old English by means of a corpus analysis based on the Dictionary of Old English Corpus. The data of qualitative analysis have been retrieved from the lexical database of Old English Nerthus. The analysis shows that the nominal, adjectival and adverbial compounds of Old English can be recursive. Nominal compounding allows double recursivity, whereas adjectival and adverbial compounding do not. The conclusion is reached that both the type and token frequencies of recursive compounds are very low; and recursive compounds from the adjectival class are more exocentric as regards categorisation.

Illness as a Burden in Anglo-Saxon England

As a culturally constructed concept, illness may be conceptualised through various metaphors across different times and cultures. This paper presents evidence based on readings from the Dictionary of Old English Corpus in Electronic Form (Healey et al. 1998) and the Dictionary of Old English (DOE) that in Old English illness is conceptualised as a heavy burden. The significance of the illness is a burden metaphor in Old English is greater than in Present Day English, in which, as pointed out by Goddard and Wierzbicka (2014) it would not be usual to speak of a heavy illness. The paper also investigates whether there is evidence for a nascent form of the military metaphor for illness and medicine, as identified by Sontag (1978/1991) and exemplified in Middle English by Diaz-Vera (2009). The military metaphor suggests a different approach to illness, in which one ‘fights’ the affliction. This is not well-evidenced in Old English, and it is argued in this paper that these two conceptual metaphors are based on distinct cultural schemas (Quinn 1987). While illness is a burden is to an extent grounded in embodied experience (Lakoff and Johnson 1999), the conceptualisation in Old English cannot fully be understood without also taking into account cultural schemas influenced by the humoral theory of disease aetiology, and by the religious context.

Blunder, Error, Mistake, Pitfall: Trawling the OED with the Help of the Historical Thesaurus

The paper considers the lexis of error and examines its use across time in relation to the writing and spelling of English, to grammar and pronunciation. Discussion focuses first on the earliest records of notions of correctness in English language usage, from AElfric forwards to the emergence of standard English, from the sixteenth century’s growing worries about copiousness and purity of diction to eighteenth-century concerns to prescribe and rule the language. The historical overview is complemented by consideration of the data drawn together by the Glasgow Historical Thesaurus project, its evidence taken from the Oxford English Dictionary and the Dictionary of Old English Corpus. For earlier centuries, there are by far fewer relevant citations, often buried within words wide in reference. With the help of the Historical Thesaurus we drill down to view how views of language mistakes and errors have changed over the centuries of the recorded history of English.

The lemmatization of Old English Verbs from the second weak class on a lexical database

This article compiles a list of lemmas of the second class weak verbs of Old English by using the latest version of the lexical database Nerthus, which incorporates the texts of the Dictionary of Old English Corpus. Out of all the inflecional endings, the most distinctive have been selected for lemmatization: the infinitive, the inflected infinitive, the present participle, the past participle, the second person present indicative singular, the present indicative plural, the present subjunctive singular, the first and third person of preterite indicative singular, the second person of the preterite indicative singular, the preterite indicative plural and the preterite subjunctive plural. When it is necessary to regularize, normalization is restricted to correspondences based on dialectal and diachronic variation. The analysis turns out a total of 1,064 lemmas of weak verbs from the second class.

The regularization of Old English weak verbs

This article deals with the regularization of non-standard spellings of the verbal forms extracted from a corpus. It addresses the question of what the limits of regularization are when lemmatizing Old English weak verbs. The purpose of such regularization, also known as normalization, is to carry out lexicological analysis or lexicographical work. The analysis concentrates on weak verbs from the second class and draws on the lexical database of Old English Nerthus, which has incorporated the texts of the Dictionary of Old English Corpus. As regards the question of the limits of normalization, the solution adopted are, in the first place, that when it is necessary to regularize, normalization is restricted to correspondences based on dialectal and diachronic variation and, secondly, that normalization has to be unidirectional.

Matching productivity indexes and diachronic evolution: The Old English affixesful-, -isc, -cund, and-ful

AbstractThis article measures the productivity index of the Old English suffixes-cund, -ful,and-iscas well as the prefixful-and checks the results against the diachronic evolution of the affixes. The frameworks brought to the discussion includeType frequencymeasurement, as well as productivity indexes proposed by Baayen (1992, 1993, 2009) and Trips (2009). The sources are both textual(The Dictionary of Old English Corpus)and lexicographical (the lexical database of Old EnglishNerthus).The conclusion drawn is that Baayen's (1992, 1993, 2002) index ofGlobal Productivityprovides the most consistent results with the diachronic evolution of the affixes.

The Old English adjectival affixes ful- and -ful

The aim of this article is to measure the indexes of productivity of the prefix ful- and the suffix -ful in Old English adjective formation. This analysis is based on Baayen’s framework, which comprises different measures on productivity. The major sources of the analysis are The Dictionary of Old English Corpus and the lexical database of Old English Nerthus. This study of productivity allows for a diachronic perspective on the evolution of these affixes from the Old English period to the present. The main conclusion drawn from this analysis is that the suffix -ful is more productive than its prefixal counterpart, which implies that more productive patterns are still maintained in Present-day English in contradistinction to the less productive ones.

The Old English Exponent for the Semantic Prime TOUCH. Descriptive and Methodological Questions

The aim of the article is to identify the exponent for the semantic prime TOUCH in Old English. Therefore, this research contributes to the frame of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage Research Programme (NSMRP) by applying it to the study of a historical language. Throughout such an application several descriptive and methodological questions arise. On the descriptive side, it is necessary to propose a cluster of semantic, morphological, textual and syntactic criteria that allow for the identification of the prime at stake, given that the nature of the object of study is not compatible with the translation into the native language generally adopted by the NSMRP. The analysis focuses on the category actions, events, movement and contact, and relies on data retrieved from the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, the Dictionary of Old English Corpus and the lexical database of Old English Nerthus. Although the cluster of criteria evinces a clear candidate for semantic prime it also raises the methodological issue of the distinction between the semantic prime and the hyperonym because some of the criteria used in the search for the former also play a role in the process of identification of the latter. The conclusion is reached that the verb hrīnan is the main exponent for the semantic prime TOUCH in Old English because it satisfies the criteria of meaning, word-formation, textual frequency and syntactic complementation.

Assessing the Productivity of Old English –læcan

The aim of this paper is to analyse the productivity of the Old English weak verbs suffixed with -læcan. The main sources for this research are the lexical database of Old English Nerthus and The Dictionary of Old English Corpus. The assessment of productivity is based on the distinction between type-frequency (dictionary-based) and token-frequency (corpus-based). This work contributes to a methodology for assessing the productivity of a morphological process in a historical language as well as for dealing with very low indexes of productivity. The conclusion is reached that the type-frequency of -læcan is relatively high, whereas its productivity is considerably low. It may be affirmed then that a type-frequency higher than token-frequency is compatible with a rather unproductive affix. Finally, the analysis evidences that -læcan suffixed verbs are much more frequent in prose and glosses than in poetry.