Medieval English in a Multilingual Context Network – (University of Seville, 5th February 2019)

The primary aim of this AHRC-funded network (April 2018-April 2020), led by Dr Sara M. Pons-Sanz (Cardiff University) and Prof. Louise Sylvester (University of Westminster), is to bring together scholars working on the various effects that language contact had on medieval English (the lexis and the morpho-syntax of the language, its literary heritage, the mass of non-literary documents that survive from the medieval period and the manuscript evidence), in order to facilitate dialogue across (sub)disciplines in linguistics, and cultural and textual studies and to reconceptualise old problems in new terms, thanks to advances in neighbouring fields. We hope to develop and reshape current views on medieval speakers’ experience of multilingualism, and on the impact that it had on the linguistic development of medieval English and its textual manifestations.

In order to achieve this aim, we will hold three one-day workshops and a final two-day conference. The second workshop, to be held at the U. of Seville on Tuesday 5th of February 2019, will focus on some of the main morphosyntactic changes in the English language during the Old and Middle English periods, particularly the collapse of case and grammatical gender markers, and changes in argument structure. These changes will be discussed in connection with a number of features associated with the multilingual situation of medieval English, such as:

  1. the extent to which ‘imperfect’ second language acquisition influenced those changes;
  2. the effect of typological and sociolinguistic differences on the impact that the various languages had on the morpho-syntax of medieval English.

Further details of the workshop are as follows:

Time (approximate): 10.30am – 4.45pm

Venue: Aula de Grados, Faculty of Philology, University of Seville; C/ Palos de la Frontera, Seville, 41004.

Structure: Named members of the network have been asked to prepare short presentations about their work in connection with the focus of the workshop. After the presentations, there will be a round-table discussion about how best to move the field forward and avenues for future collaboration.

 

For more information, visit https://memc1500.wordpress.com/ or follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/1500memc. You can also contact either Dr. Sara M. Pons-Sanz (pons-sanzs@cardiff.ac.uk) or Dr. Julia Fernández Cuesta (jcuesta@us.es).

We look forward to meeting you in February.