Mayumi Taguchi & Yoko Iyeiri (eds.), Pepysian Meditations on the Passion of Christ: Edited from Cambridge, Magdalene College, MS Pepys 2125 (Universitätsverlag Winter, 2019)
We have edited the second item in MS Pepys 2125 at Magdalene College, Cambridge in this volume. This book includes a substantial introduction discussing the textual tradition of the Meditations on the Passion of Christ and its language.
“Interpreting Different Types of Linguistic Variation: hit and it in Middle English”.
The shift from the personal pronoun hit to it in Middle English is a case of h-dropping. This study discusses the coexistence of the two forms in a single text by focusing on how they are distributed in different parts of it, and shows that there are some patterns in intra-text variation. The text analyzed mainly is Nicholas Love’s Speculum Vite Cristi (1494).
“Negation in Benjamin Franklin’s Writings: A Stylistic Analysis of his Autobiography and Letters”.
This is a paper presented at the 4th Asia Pacific Corpus Linguistics Conference (APCLC 2018), Takamatsu, Japan, September 17-19, 2018. It discusses various aspects of negation in Benjamin Franklin’s English, including the frequencies of negation itself, of the negative adverb not (as against other negative forms such as no and never), and of the use of the auxiliary do in negative sentences.
“Jespersen’s Cycle and the Expansion of Periphrastic do in English”.
This paper revisits Jespersen’s Cycle of negation. While most studies on this famous theory concentrate on the shift from ne V through ne V not to V not, the present study focuses on the later development of negative constructions in English, namely the shift from V not to do not V (and subsequently to don’t V).
“For and Because: A Comparative Study of Causal Conjunctions in Caxton’s Paris and Vienne and Three French Versions of the Same Text”
This article discusses the causal conjunctions for and because in Paris and Vienne, which Caxton translated from French into Middle English, analyzing the relationship between his text and some possibly related French ones.
“The Spelling and Syntax of Doubt in Early Modern English: Variation and Latin Influence”
This is an article included in Langauge Contact and Variation in the History of English, edited by M. Uchida, Y. Iyeiri and L. Schourup. It explores the word doubt, both nominal and verbal, in seven published books by Sir Thomas More.
Mitsumi Uchida, Yoko Iyeiri & Lawrence Schourup (eds.), Language Contact and Variation in the History of English (Kaitakusha, 2017)
Language Contact and Variation in the History of English is the 7th volume of the series, Studies in the History of the English Language. It is a booklet series of the Japanese Association for Studies in the History of the English Language, which was founded in 1999 by Professor Matsuji Tajima at Kyushu University.