The Evolution of Standard written English: A Corpus approac

1. Introduction.

In this paper I describe and demonstrate an electronic corpus of Middle English [ME], and draw upon this corpus to assess the development and influence of standard written English. I conclude by highlighting the importance of extra-linguistic factors such as textual history, genre and register in describing the evolution and impact of standard written English. I also consider the significance of this discussion for the production and use of diachronic corpora more generally.

2. The standardisation of written English.

The standardisation of written English during the Middle Ages was a gradual process which was ongoing throughout the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries (Samuels 1972, 1989). The standard written language was focussed on the London dialect but was considerably influenced by the dialects of the Midlands counties throughout this period, as a result of large-scale immigration into the capital. It is generally accepted that the arrival of immigrants from the provinces caused sudden and dramatic changes in the London dialect. However this explanation is unsatisfactory for a number of important reasons. In many cases it is impossible to trace the origins of Londoners during this period and it is therefore difficult to determine which dialects were infiltrating London at particular periods (Wright 1996). It is also unclear as to why native Londoners should display such an eagerness to adopt the spoken and written features of these provincial immigrants. Furthermore analysis of these texts has often be based on unreliable data taken from outdated editions and transcripts. There is therefore a need for a reconsideration of the rise of standardisation and its dissemination based upon the original documents and drawing upon the techniques and resources of an electronic corpus.

3. The corpus.

The corpus used in this study is being compiled as part of the Middle English Grammar Project [MEGP] currently underway at the University of Glasgow and Stavanger University College, Norway. The first research-area being addressed by the Project is the creation of a new history of ME spelling and phonology. In order to carry out this analysis a corpus of machine-readable ME texts is currently being assembled. These texts represent all the localised and localisable vernacular texts produced between 1250 and 1500. These texts are subsequently classified according to both Present-Day and etymological reflexes and the results of this process are entered in a database. This database includes a variety of extralinguistic information in addition to the classified spelling data, such as genre and script, which allows the corpus to be interrogated according to a number of different factors (Horobin and Smith 1999). This approach allows us to consider the range of forms within an individual text and to identify the distribution of these forms across other texts from the same dialect area and throughout the ME dialect continuum. The database also allows us to trace the influence of the standard across texts copied throughout the fifteenth century in a variety of different dialect areas. In this section of the paper I demonstrate the uses of the database and show how this approach identifies the importance of factors such as genre, register and textual background in explaining the changes in the London dialect during this period.

4. Conclusions.

This paper suggests a number of important factors concerning the design and use of historical corpora. While historical corpora are extremely useful for analysis of this kind, it is important that the data be classified. A classification system must allow the data to be interrogated according to a number of intra-linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. This paper also stresses the importance of an understanding of the textual history of the texts under consideration. I conclude by emphasising the importance of supplementing broad linguistic analysis with detailed textual and philological interrogation.

References.

Horobin, S. and J.J. Smith, 'A Database of Middle English Spelling', Literary and Linguistic Computing 14 (1999), 359-373.

Samuels, M. L., Linguistic Evolution with special reference to English. (Cambridge, 1972), pp. 165-70.

- 'Some Applications of Middle English Dialectology', in M. Laing (ed.) Middle English Dialectology: essays on some principles and problems. (Aberdeen, 1989), pp. 64-80.

Wright, L., 'About the evolution of Standard English', in 'Doubt Wisely' Papers in honour of E.G. Stanley. (eds.) M.J. Toswell and E.M. Tyler (London, 1996), pp. 99-115.