Written Reliquaries: The Resonance Of Orality In Medieval English Texts (pragmatics And Beyond New Series)
by Leslie K. Arnovick /
2006 / English / PDF
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Written Reliquaries: The resonance of orality in medieval
English texts
Written Reliquaries: The resonance of orality in medieval
English texts establishes the linguistic component of orality
and oral tradition. The relics it examines are traces of spoken
performance, artifacts of linguistic and cultural processes. Seven
case studies animate verbal acts of making promises, quoting
proverbs, pronouncing curses, speaking gibberish, praying Pater
Nosters, invoking saints, and keeping silence. The study of their
resonance is enabled by a methodological conjunction of historical
pragmatics and oral theory. Insights from oral theory enlighten
spoken traditions which in turn may be understood in the larger
historical-pragmatic context of linguistic performance. The inquiry
ranges across broad as well as narrow planes of reference to trace
a complex set of cultural and linguistic interactions. In this way
it reconstructs relevant discursive contexts, giving detailed
accounts of underlying assumptions, traditions, and conventions.
Doing so, the book demonstrates that an integrated methodology not
only allows access to oral discourse in both Old English and Middle
English but also provides insight into the fluid medieval
interchange of literacy and orality.
establishes the linguistic component of orality
and oral tradition. The relics it examines are traces of spoken
performance, artifacts of linguistic and cultural processes. Seven
case studies animate verbal acts of making promises, quoting
proverbs, pronouncing curses, speaking gibberish, praying Pater
Nosters, invoking saints, and keeping silence. The study of their
resonance is enabled by a methodological conjunction of historical
pragmatics and oral theory. Insights from oral theory enlighten
spoken traditions which in turn may be understood in the larger
historical-pragmatic context of linguistic performance. The inquiry
ranges across broad as well as narrow planes of reference to trace
a complex set of cultural and linguistic interactions. In this way
it reconstructs relevant discursive contexts, giving detailed
accounts of underlying assumptions, traditions, and conventions.
Doing so, the book demonstrates that an integrated methodology not
only allows access to oral discourse in both Old English and Middle
English but also provides insight into the fluid medieval
interchange of literacy and orality.
