Chapter published in:

Diachronic Corpora, Genre, and Language Change
Edited by Richard J. Whitt
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 85] 2018
► pp. 95–115

Scholastic genre scripts in English medical writing 1375–1800

Irma Taavitsainen | University of Helsinki

Late medieval scientific and medical writing had several different genres and levels of writing from the beginning. Learned genres, including commentaries, were introduced into English with the vernacularization boom. The Latin “genre script” lists ancient authorities’ opinions of a topic, finishing with the commentator’s own. Writing conventions were adopted with a time lag, and fully-fletched commentaries emerge when the heyday of Scholasticism was already over. Research became increasingly based on observation and new top genres were based on empirical science. This chapter traces generic features derived from Scholasticism with genre dynamics and meaning-making practices at center stage. The material comes from medical corpora with background metadata.

Published online: 08 November 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.85.05taa

References

Corpora

Taavitsainen, Irma, Pahta, Päivi & Mäkinen, Martti

(compilers) 2005 Middle English Medical Texts. CD-ROM with MEMT Presenter software by Raymond Hickey. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Taavitsainen, Irma, Pahta, Päivi, Hiltunen, Turo, Mäkinen, Martti, Marttila, Ville, Ratia, Maura, Suhr, Suhr & Tyrkkö, Jukko

(compilers) 2010 CD-ROM with EMEMT Presenter software by Raymond Hickey. Irma Published together with Irma Taavitsainen and Päivi Pahta (eds), Early Modern English Medical Texts. Early Modern English Medical Texts: Corpus description and studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Taavitsainen, Irma, Hiltunen, Turo, Lehto, Anu, Mäkinen, Martti, Marttila, Ville, Oinonen, Raisa, Pahta, Päivi, Ratia, Maura, Suhr, Carla & Tyrkkö, Jukka

(compilers) Forthcoming Late Modern English Medical Texts 1700–1800 Amsterdam John Benjamins

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