My dissertation undertakes a complete study of the stress patterns, syntactic construction, and rhetorical style of hypermetric verse in Germanic alliterative poetry. This project allows me to fill a gap in the study of Germanic meter while simultaneously investigating the connection between metrical and literary scholarship. Hypermetric meter…

There is a long linguistic tradition in which language change is explained in terms of first language acquisition. In this tradition, children are considered to be the agents of language change, or at least the agents of changes in the underlying grammar. Since the early 1980s, this has been formulated in the (generative) terminology in terms of…

The primary goal of the present study is to gain more insight into the phenomena of Expletive Negation. Chapter 1 starts with the observed hallmark properties of EN and theoretical backgrounds. In chapter 2, I show the pragmatic contribution of two scalar meanings of undesirability and unlikelihood. It is further shown that the base of scale…

Vantage Theory (VT) and Cognitive Grammar (CG) both rely crucially on the cognitive phenomenon of categorization as well as on the semantic/pragmatic notion of participant point of view in making claims about human linguistic production and perception. In this paper these commonalities of commitment are explored, as are the differences in the ways…

Globalization and the evolution of the knowledge-based economy have caused dramatic changes to the character and functions of higher education in most countries around the world. One major trend related to reforming and restructuring universities in Asia that has emerged is the adoption of strategies along the lines of the Anglo-Saxon paradigm in…

Argues that the work of translating the Old English poem, "Beowulf," has yielded an artistic work of the literary imagination that, although far different from the work of the original poet, is compelling for readers of today. Outlines numerous problems of translating the work. (HB)

Describes a series of poetry workshops that connect poetry to the tangible world of nature, and also teaches students about the biology, ecology, and history of their area. Presents several old and middle English poems used in the workshop and discusses different translations and their relation to nature. (SC)

Suggests supplementing the teaching of "Beowulf" to high school students with (1) translation and grammatical analysis of parts of the original lines, (2) study of Anglo-Saxon poetic techniques, and (3) students' imitation of old English poetic techniques in New English. (SW)

Reading Old English poses many problems for a beginning student. Even though it has some similarities to modern English, the special characters, obsolete words, inflected grammar, and alien word order of Old English makes it difficult for Old English neophytes to reconstruct the propositional content in a poem such as "Beowulf." Experts…

Analyzes the rightward movement of noun and prepositional phrases in the Early Old English poem "Beowulf." Evidence is provided for heavy noun phrase shift, with a characteristic major intonational boundary between the main verb and the postponed noun phrase, and preposition phrase extraposition, where the intonational boundary was much…

Brief historical account setting forth the manner of fusion of a number of races to become the British, and the significant part played by the very first Prince of Wales in initiating this process. (RJ)

Intended for college teachers and students of Anglo-Saxon literature, this paper provides an overview of the sophisticated poetic devices used by the "Beowulf" poet. The paper examines how old English words for color range in hues in a way that modern English words do not, and how these words for color are used in "Beowulf."…

Discussion of a class of verbs in the Germanic languages. (DD)

Examines the preform for the Old English "haefdige," the precursor of "lady." A list of 17 points that discuss the evolution is provided. (Author/VWL)

Intended for college students and teachers of English literature, this paper examines the lives and works of three great medieval Anglo-Saxon priestly scholars whose Latin writings have preserved the Anglo-Saxon roots of the English language. The paper first describes the works of Aldhelm, born in 650 A.D., whose poetry was not in the Latin…