Chapter 1.Sociolinguistic approaches to the study of Old English
3
1.1A typology of approaches and earlier work
3
1.1.1Sociology of Old English
4
1.1.2Social dialectology
8
1.2Old English text categories and their suitability for sociolinguistic research
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1.2.1Text categories and genres
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1.2.2Runic and non-runic inscriptions
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1.2.3Glosses
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1.2.4Glossaries
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1.2.5Verse
15
1.2.6Prose
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1.3Concepts and definitions
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1.3.1Texts and textual categories
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1.3.2Texts and social networks
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Chapter 2.Social networks at the court of King Alfred
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2.1Towards a definition of the Alfredian network in sociolinguistic terms
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2.1.1Individual actors
28
2.1.2Proto-chancery as actor
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2.1.3King Alfred’s network and its ties
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2.2Case studies
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2.2.1Angelcynn
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2.2.2here
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2.3Conclusions
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Chapter 3.Legal Old English and its communities
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3.1Legal documents as acts of identity
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3.2Anglo-saxon legal documents
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3.3Legal documents as proxy genres in the study of social ties and sociolinguistic variables
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3.3.1PASE database
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3.3.1.1Names in PASE
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3.3.1.2Occupational terms in PASE
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3.3.1.3Women in PASE
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3.3.1.4Individuals in PASE
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3.3.2Other databases
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3.4Charter forms
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3.5Summary and outlook
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Chapter 4.Diplomas: Members of the assemblies and variation by archive
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4.1The protocol of diplomas
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4.2The diffusion of the practice
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4.3Case study: Witness lists
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4.4Case study: Dispositive verbs
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4.5Conclusions
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Chapter 5.Writs: Conservatism and sociolinguistic variation
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5.1General characteristics of writs
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5.2The corpus of writs
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5.3The protocol of writs
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5.4Case study: Salutation–notification template
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5.4.1The first attestation of the template and its possible origin
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5.4.2Corroborating evidence from letters and social status of the correspondents
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5.4.3Genre evolution and the writs of Cnut the Great
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5.4.4Writs by other social leaders
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5.4.5The incredible stability of royal writs
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5.4.6The switch to Latin
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5.5Conclusions
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5.6Coda: The afterlife of the template
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Chapter 6.Wills: Variation by archive and gender
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6.1The corpus of wills
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6.2Function and orality of wills
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6.3Types of wills
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6.4The protocol of wills
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6.5Case study: Variation by subperiod and archive
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6.5.1Dispositive verbs
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6.5.2
(ge)unnan + land objects
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6.5.3‘after my death’ adverbials
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6.6Case study: Variation by gender
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6.6.1Soliciting patronage
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6.6.2Cursing
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6.6.2.1The curse of Cnut and Emma
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6.7Case study: Sociolinguistic outliers
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6.7.1The will of Leofgifu
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6.7.2The will of Mantat
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6.8Conclusions
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Chapter 7.Mixed-language practices of William I’s chancery: Contact and innovation
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7.1Introduction
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7.2Data
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7.3Case study: English terms in Latin acta of William I
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7.3.1Anglo-Latin data as evidence for low-frequency Old English lexis
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7.3.2English-source items in lists of franchises
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7.3.3English-source items in broader contexts
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7.3.4Necessity criterion: Direct loans vs. cultural equivalents
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7.4Case study: French (and Gallo-Latin) terms in Latin acta of William I
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7.4.1Anglo-Latin data as early evidence for (Anglo-)Norman
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7.4.2Norman-source items in lists of addressees and witnesses
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7.4.3Other Norman-source items
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7.4.4Norman verbs
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7.5Chancery, chancellors, scribes, and bishops of William I
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7.6Conclusions
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Appendix 1
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