The Art of Dying: Making a Will in Old English and Its Sociolinguistic Context Cover Image

The Art of Dying: Making a Will in Old English and Its Sociolinguistic Context
The Art of Dying: Making a Will in Old English and Its Sociolinguistic Context

Author(s): OLGA TIMOFEEVA
Subject(s): Historical Linguistics, Sociolinguistics
Published by: Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: Old English; wills; historical sociolinguistics; archive; gender; curses;

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the potential of legal documents for the study of the sociology of Old English. It gives a rationale for the use of legal genres, or charters, and introduces research databases and tools that may elucidate the interconnections between practitioners of legal Old English and their linguistic practices. A series of short case studies on wills illustrates what legal genres tell us about the correlation between linguistic variation, supralocalisation, and change and such variables as archive and gender.

  • Issue Year: 57/2022
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 109-129
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: English
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