Lexical borrowing in the Middle English period

A multi-domain analysis of semantic outcomes

Bibliographic Data

ID21695367
AuthorsLouise Sylvester (0000-0003-1221-1369, University of Westminster), Megan Tiddeman (University of Westminster), Richard Ingham (0000-0001-7964-413X, University of Westminster)
Year2022
Volume26
Issue2
Pages237-261
Publication date2022-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnglish Language and Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-6743 • E-ISSN: 1469-4379
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1360674321000113
OpenAlexW3166148453
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited13

The Middle English period is well known as one of widespread lexical borrowing from French and Latin, and scholarly accounts traditionally assume that this influx of loanwords caused many native terms to shift in sense or to drop out of use entirely. The study analyses an extensive dataset, tracking patterns in lexical retention, replacement and semantic change, and comparing long-term outcomes for both native and non-native words. Our results challenge the conventional view of competition between existing terms and foreign incomers. They show that there were far fewer instances of relexification, and far more of synonymy, during the Middle English period than might have been expected. When retention rates for words first attested between 1100 and 1500 are compared, it is loanwords, not native terms, which are more likely to become obsolete at any point up to the nineteenth century. Furthermore, proportions of outcomes involving narrowing and broadening (often considered common outcomes following the arrival of a co-hyponym in a semantic space) were low in the Middle English period, regardless of language of origin

Art · Lexical item · Linguistics · Middle English · Computer Science · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Mathematics · Philosophy

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