Anglo-Norman Money Names in Context
Anglo-Norman Money Names in Context

Summary/Abstract: The present study is the second in a series of inquiries into the specificity of money names in the history of English. The time frame is the Anglo-Norman period (1066–1500). The paper explores two distinct concepts – that of money as an abstract ideal construct and the concept of the coin represented by sets of nummular tokens. The centrality of cognitive concepts allows us to establish a link between socio-historical factors and actuation of naming, i. e., to study medieval onomasiological patterns in all complexity of social, cognitive, political, and ideological aspects. Semiotic study of Anglo-Norman coinage gives an insight into the meaning of messages Kings of England and France tried to communicate to each other and their subjects through coin iconography employing a set of elaborate images based on culturally preferred symbolic elements. By studying references to medieval coinage in various literary genres, we propose to outline some of the contours of new metaphoricity based on the concept of money and new mercantile ideology.

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