Chapter 8
The taking off and catching on of etymological spellings in Early Modern
English
Evidence from the EEBO Corpus
This chapter examines the path that orthographic
etymologisation, as in doubt and
verdict, followed mainly in the course
of the sixteenth century. Few corpus-based studies have been undertaken on
etymological spellings, but the recent availability of the large-sized EEBO
Corpus must be of great help in making it clear when and how etymological
spellings took off and caught on in the Early Modern English period. Besides
giving a close description of the process of the orthographic shift, we
discuss some methodological problems in the use of the corpus, stressing at
the same time that it is an excellent tool, when carefully used, for studies
in the history of English.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Previous studies
- 3.The EEBO Corpus
- 4.Analysis and discussion
- 4.1admonish
- 4.2amethyst
- 4.3apothecary
- 4.4captive
- 4.5cauldron
- 4.6cognizance
- 4.7falcon
- 4.8lethargy “dullness”
- 4.9lethargy “lead”
- 4.10orthography
- 4.11phantasm
- 4.12phantom
- 4.13pheasant
- 4.14salmon
- 4.15verdict
- 4.16Co-occurrence of spelling variants
- 5.Process of etymologising: A case of lexical diffusion?
- 6.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgements
-
Notes
-
Sources
-
References
-
Appendix
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