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 TIMOFEEVASubject(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.
Journal: Studia Anglica Posnaniensia
- Issue Year: 57/2022
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 109-129
- Page Count: 21
- Language: English
