Communicating Early English Manuscripts

Hardback

Main Details

Title Communicating Early English Manuscripts
Authors and Contributors      Edited by Paivi Pahta
Edited by Andreas H. Jucker
SeriesStudies in English Language
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:312
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 159
Category/GenreLanguage - history and general works
Historical and comparative linguistics
ISBN/Barcode 9780521193290
ClassificationsDewey:091.09
Audience
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Illustrations 17 Tables, black and white; 7 Halftones, unspecified; 10 Line drawings, unspecified

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 27 January 2011
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

In an obvious way, manuscripts communicate. This is the first book to focus on the communicative aspects of English manuscripts from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century. It investigates how the authors and scribes of these manuscripts communicated with their audiences, how the characters depicted in these manuscripts communicate with each other, and how the manuscripts communicate with scholars and audiences in the 21st century. It covers a wide variety of genres, such as stories, scientific writing, witchcraft records, personal letters, war correspondence, courtroom records, and plays. The volume demonstrates how these handwritten texts can be used to analyse the history of language as communication between individuals and groups, and discusses the challenges these documents present to present-day scholars. It is unique in bringing together studies by distinguished international experts examining primary handwritten sources from the perspectives of several fields, including historical pragmatics, historical sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics and literary scholarship.

Author Biography

Paivi Pahta is Professor of English Philology in the School of Modern Languages and Translation Studies at the University of Tampere. Andreas H. Jucker is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Zurich.