Xinmeng Lu is a postdoctoral researcher on the LiTra project at the Department of Cultural Studies and Languages.
Following the introduction and the spread of Christianity in early Medieval England, the 8th to the 11th centuries witnessed the emergence of a considerable number of Old English glosses and translations of Latin religious texts. It has long been noticed that many pre-existing Old English words acquired new Christian senses when glossing or translating Latin religious terms. The conventional explanation to this phenomenon is that the new senses were transferred from the corresponding Latin terms to the Old English words through a special borrowing process, in which the semantic content is transferred without any accompanying formal-morphological elements. Such a process is known as “semantic borrowing”; and the words which acquired new senses are known as “semantic loans”. Even though the mechanism of semantic borrowing has remained a matter of intensive debate since it was proposed, it still dominates the discussions of semantic change as the default explanation to the new senses of Old English glosses and translations.
Using a selected range of Old English psalter and gospel glosses and translations as research materials, my PhD thesis provides a reinvestigation of the new senses in Old English religious texts. It argues against the semantic borrowing theory regarding its theoretical implausibility, its deviation from the actual Anglo-Latin contact scenario, and most importantly, its incapacity to capture the nature of the discussed linguistic phenomenon. In today’s talk, I will present the main findings of my thesis, and briefly introduce an alternative approach to the study of semantic change in Medieval religious glosses and translations.
The talk will last c.45 minutes with questions/discussion to follow. All interested are very welcome!