This thesis is an investigation of Middle English insanity language. It analyses change in the Middle English lexical field of INSANITY, the semantic structure of lexemes wod and mad, and compares INSANITY conceptual metaphors in Middle English and present-day English. The INSANITY lexical field is an ideal one to study language change, due to socio-cultural changes since the Middle Ages such as advances in medical knowledge, the development of the field of psychiatry and legal changes protecting people with a mental illness from discrimination. The general theoretical aims were to examine a) change in conceptual metaphor, and b) semantic and lexical change with a particular focus on the decline in use of adjective wod. The theoretical frameworks are cognitive linguistics, prototype theory, and conceptual metaphor theory, and the data is derived from Middle English corpora and other sources. The INSANITY database I created for this study consisted of 1307 instances of mad, wod and near-synonyms in context. The main results can be divided into three groups. Firstly, the lexical field study demonstrates that various intra-linguistic and socio-cultural phenomena effect lexical change. Using case studies amongst others of the decline of wod in the Wycliffite Bible and of Caxton's translations from French, and a systematic variation across genre, I argue that the important factors are i) the arrival of new medical loanwords such as frensy, lunatic and malencolie; ii) the early re-emergence of the vernacular in medical texts starting in the twelfth century, and the development of a new medical register; iii) the so-called medieval 'inward turn'; iv) changes in the neighbouring lexical field of ANGER. Secondly, the semasiological study of wod and mad shows that the meanings of these two lexemes are structured and change in line with the central tenets of prototype theory, i.e. as described for diachronic prototype semantics by Geeraerts (1997). The path of mad's semantic development does not parallel that of wod after the thirteenth century. Mad's senses do not have the emphasis on wildness and fury that the senses of wod do. A particularly interesting finding is the semantic change from a sub-sense of adverb mad and adjective mad, 'unrestrained', leading in present-day English to a new delexicalised and grammaticalised sense of mad, where its use as an intensifier enhances scalar quantity and quality. Thirdly, the conceptual metaphor study demonstrates that predominantly the same conceptual metaphors are seen in both Middle English and present-day English, with some exceptions such as the concept of insanity being related to moral decline, as evidenced in the dearth of FALLING metaphors for insanity in present-day English. Conceptual metaphors such as INSANITY IS ANOTHER PLACE are evidenced in present-day English expressions such as out of her senses, or not in my right mind. In 1422, Thomas Hoccleve could write of a dysseveraunce between himself and his wit, or about his wyld infirmitie, which threw him owt of my selfe, illustrating the same underlying concepts. Other INSANITY conceptual metaphors which remain unchanged are GOING ASTRAY, LACK OF ORDER, LACK OF WHOLENESS, DARKNESS, FORCE, PRISON and BURDEN. Because of its unique approach in combining onomasiological and semasiological approaches with a conceptual metaphor study, this study reveals not only specific patterns of change, but differences in the rate of change on the lexical and conceptual levels. Lexical change driven by the need to be expressive, and reflecting socio-cultural changes such as changes in medical knowledge, can be seen to happen rapidly over the Middle English period. However, underlying conceptual change is barely discernible even over a much longer period of time from Middle English to present-day English. This research is significant because it provides a basis for future analysis of insanity language in other periods and contexts. It also contributes to the study of semantic change in general, highlighting the insights that can be gained by combining different types of data-driven analyses.

Semantic change is a phenomenon that has been subject to a lot of research during the past few decades. However, a large part of the existing research has been conducted with the goal of finding causes of change or creating typologies in order to classify different types of changes. The present study has been conducted with the aim to examine how a specific extra-linguistic factor has affected a select few words. The extra-linguistic factor that is the focal point of this study is the rapid technological change during what is known as the digital revolution. This essay explores how the digital revolution has affected the uses of four words: bug, web, mouse,and cloud. The first part of this study was a collocational analysis of these four words. The results of the collocational analysis indicated that changes occurred during certain time periods. A closer context analysis was performed for each of the words on the time period during which a semantic change was suspected to occur. The findings of this essay are that all the examined words have gotten new technological meanings during the past 70 years, thus exhibiting semantic widening. All four words are currently polysemous words. Replacive change, meaning a change in the primary meaning of a word, is only apparent in web. The remaining words keep their primary senses throughout the examined period, and the new senses are added as periphery senses. The trends in the usage of these words indicate that it is possible that more of them will undergo replacive change, however, it is too early to tell.

Current research into language change and evolution focuses on native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) settler strand, but we have little knowledge concerning diachronic changes in non-native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) indigenous strand. Such a theory must take into account language contact as well as theories pertaining to Second Language Acquisition. This dissertation describes the diachronic changes which occur in one feature of Black South African English (BSAE), namely the progressive aspect. Current synchronic research on BSAE suggests that the progressive aspect is overextended to include stative verbs. This dissertation aims to evaluate the value of this hypothesis, and determine whether there is evidence of this overextension in diachronic data. In order to observe instances of language change, a diachronic corpus of BSAE was complied. This corpus consisted of data from letters, fiction, and newspapers ranging from the 1870s until the 2000s. Using this corpus, analyses were performed in order to determine the frequency of progressive use, the distribution of aktionsart categories, and which temporal meanings were denoted by stative verbs and activity verbs used in the progressive aspect. These analyses were then repeated for data taken from the historical corpus of White South African English (WSAE), in order to ascertain whether changes in BSAE developed parallel to WSAE, or if it follows its own trajectory of change. One further analysis was conducted on BSAE: the aspectual categories of 71 state verbs were analysed in order to determine whether speakers of BSAE indeed do overextend the –ing progressive form onto stative verbs describing states and qualities. The results indicate that the frequency of verbs used with the progressive aspect increases for BSAE, but decreases for WSAE. The comparison of aktionsart distribution indicates that BSAE has a higher overall frequency of communication verbs and accomplishments, while WSAE has a higher frequency of activity verbs, verbs denoting the future, and stative verbs. Achievements are used as expected by both varieties. The analysis of the temporal meanings of stative verbs indicates that speakers of WSAE denote the prototypical short duration associated with the progressive aspect for 74.83% of the verbs, while BSAE uses an extended temporal meaning for 46.86% of the verbs, indicating that speakers of BSAE more likely to overextend the temporal duration of stative verbs than WSAE speakers. The temporal meanings for activities were the same for both varieties; the prototypical short duration is denoted by 77.83% of the total activities in BSAE, and 77.11% of the activities in WSAE. The extended duration in both varieties may be due to language change in general, while the additional temporal meanings for statives in BSAE are a result of substrate transfer. / MA (English)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

Current research into language change and evolution focuses on native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) settler strand, but we have little knowledge concerning diachronic changes in non-native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) indigenous strand. Such a theory must take into account language contact as well as theories pertaining to Second Language Acquisition. This dissertation describes the diachronic changes which occur in one feature of Black South African English (BSAE), namely the progressive aspect. Current synchronic research on BSAE suggests that the progressive aspect is overextended to include stative verbs. This dissertation aims to evaluate the value of this hypothesis, and determine whether there is evidence of this overextension in diachronic data. In order to observe instances of language change, a diachronic corpus of BSAE was complied. This corpus consisted of data from letters, fiction, and newspapers ranging from the 1870s until the 2000s. Using this corpus, analyses were performed in order to determine the frequency of progressive use, the distribution of aktionsart categories, and which temporal meanings were denoted by stative verbs and activity verbs used in the progressive aspect. These analyses were then repeated for data taken from the historical corpus of White South African English (WSAE), in order to ascertain whether changes in BSAE developed parallel to WSAE, or if it follows its own trajectory of change. One further analysis was conducted on BSAE: the aspectual categories of 71 state verbs were analysed in order to determine whether speakers of BSAE indeed do overextend the –ing progressive form onto stative verbs describing states and qualities. The results indicate that the frequency of verbs used with the progressive aspect increases for BSAE, but decreases for WSAE. The comparison of aktionsart distribution indicates that BSAE has a higher overall frequency of communication verbs and accomplishments, while WSAE has a higher frequency of activity verbs, verbs denoting the future, and stative verbs. Achievements are used as expected by both varieties. The analysis of the temporal meanings of stative verbs indicates that speakers of WSAE denote the prototypical short duration associated with the progressive aspect for 74.83% of the verbs, while BSAE uses an extended temporal meaning for 46.86% of the verbs, indicating that speakers of BSAE more likely to overextend the temporal duration of stative verbs than WSAE speakers. The temporal meanings for activities were the same for both varieties; the prototypical short duration is denoted by 77.83% of the total activities in BSAE, and 77.11% of the activities in WSAE. The extended duration in both varieties may be due to language change in general, while the additional temporal meanings for statives in BSAE are a result of substrate transfer. / MA (English)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

Descriptive perception verbs have failed to receive a uniform analysis in previous verb classifications (cf. Chomsky 1965, Rogers 1974, Hengeveld 1992, Levin 1993, Van Eynde et al. 2014). This thesis argues that the descriptive perception verbs in Dutch (i.e. eruitzien 'look', klinken 'sound', voelen 'feel', ruiken 'smell', and smaken 'taste') should be classified as copular verbs, much like lijken 'seem' and schijnen 'seem'. This classification is supported by both the synchronic and diachronic behaviour of these verbs in Dutch. Synchronically, proposing that Germanic copular verbs (as opposed to copulas) are defined by their syntax rather than their (empty) semantics, I discuss that the Dutch descriptive perception verbs behave like stereotypical copular verbs: they require a predicative complement, usually in the form of an adjective. Semantically, the Dutch descriptive perception verbs are much like the copular verbs blijken 'turn out', lijken 'seem' and schijnen 'seem' in terms of epistemicity and evidentiality. Diachronically, I hypothesize that the Dutch descriptive perception verbs have evolved from one of the following two origins: either from intransitive verbs (as is the case for klinken and ruiken), much like English remain, through grammaticalization processes of semantic bleaching and reanalysis; or from cognitive perception verbs (as is the case of eruitzien and voelen), as found in Latin, Japanese and Zulu, through the process of argument reordering. The origin of smaken is not clear, and is left for future research. I show that other Germanic evidential copular verbs (i.e. lijken, schijnen 'seem', scheinen 'seem', seem) have developed diachronically in a uniform fashion, suggesting the following grammaticalization path: from a lexical verb to a copular verb, to taking a that-complement, an infinitival complement or a like-complement, and eventually being used in parenthetical constructions. The results of this thesis indicate that the Dutch descriptive perception verbs are only at the beginning of this grammaticalization path, but are on their way to becoming grammaticalized evidential copular verbs.

<p>This study investigates the realisation of phonological quantity in the dialects of Modern Swedish, based on a corpus containing recordings from 86 locations in Sweden and the Swedishspeaking parts of Finland. The corpus was recorded as part of the national SweDia project.</p><p>The study is explorative in character. Quantity structures in Swedish dialects and their geographical distribution, as described in the dialectological literature, are compared to the results of a data-driven categorisation (cluster analysis). The results reveal an overall good correspondence of the data driven and the traditional categorisation, although with some deviations in the detail.</p><p>The study is divided into two parts. The first part lays the foundation for the data-driven categorisation, which is then described in the second part. First, the phonology and phonetics of quantity in Swedish are described in terms of durational distinctions and vocalic quality differences that typically accompany the durational differences. Preaspiration, which appears to be a normative feature in some dialects, is covered as well. An overview of the historical development of the Swedish quantity system is provided, with special emphasis on a phonological interpretation of quantity changes. Thereafter, dialectological evidence is combined with phonological and typological considerations to develop a categorisation of Swedish dialects.</p><p>The second part explains the methodology of cluster analysis and applies this method to vowel and consonant durations from one contrastive word pair, in order to obtain an alternative dialect categorisation. Analyses of vowel quality and preaspiration are performed in addition to the durational analyses. Hypotheses derived from the cluster analysis are then tested on one additional word pair recorded in 75 locations and on three additional word pairs recorded in four locations.</p><p>The general pattern emerging from the cluster analysis is a categorisation of the dialects into three main types, a Finland-Swedish, a Northern and a Southern type. This categorisation shows a good geographical agreement with the categorisation that is derived from the analysis of the dialectological literature. Therefore, the durational patterns of the three types are interpreted as reflections of three different phonological systems: 4-way systems with vocalic and consonantal quantity, 3-way systems with vocalic quantity and with consonantal quantity only after short vowels, and 2-way systems with complementary quantity. From the historical perspective, the 4-way system constitutes the most conservative and the 2-way system the most recently developed system.</p><p>Finally, it is argued that the historical development is one of the factors behind occasional mismatches between the data-driven and the dialectological categorisation. Data from one of the dialects, which has recently abandoned a 4-way system but has obviously retained the durational properties of the older system, is used as an example to illustrate this historical hypothesis.</p>

This study investigates the realisation of phonological quantity in the dialects of Modern Swedish, based on a corpus containing recordings from 86 locations in Sweden and the Swedishspeaking parts of Finland. The corpus was recorded as part of the national SweDia project. The study is explorative in character. Quantity structures in Swedish dialects and their geographical distribution, as described in the dialectological literature, are compared to the results of a data-driven categorisation (cluster analysis). The results reveal an overall good correspondence of the data driven and the traditional categorisation, although with some deviations in the detail. The study is divided into two parts. The first part lays the foundation for the data-driven categorisation, which is then described in the second part. First, the phonology and phonetics of quantity in Swedish are described in terms of durational distinctions and vocalic quality differences that typically accompany the durational differences. Preaspiration, which appears to be a normative feature in some dialects, is covered as well. An overview of the historical development of the Swedish quantity system is provided, with special emphasis on a phonological interpretation of quantity changes. Thereafter, dialectological evidence is combined with phonological and typological considerations to develop a categorisation of Swedish dialects. The second part explains the methodology of cluster analysis and applies this method to vowel and consonant durations from one contrastive word pair, in order to obtain an alternative dialect categorisation. Analyses of vowel quality and preaspiration are performed in addition to the durational analyses. Hypotheses derived from the cluster analysis are then tested on one additional word pair recorded in 75 locations and on three additional word pairs recorded in four locations. The general pattern emerging from the cluster analysis is a categorisation of the dialects into three main types, a Finland-Swedish, a Northern and a Southern type. This categorisation shows a good geographical agreement with the categorisation that is derived from the analysis of the dialectological literature. Therefore, the durational patterns of the three types are interpreted as reflections of three different phonological systems: 4-way systems with vocalic and consonantal quantity, 3-way systems with vocalic quantity and with consonantal quantity only after short vowels, and 2-way systems with complementary quantity. From the historical perspective, the 4-way system constitutes the most conservative and the 2-way system the most recently developed system. Finally, it is argued that the historical development is one of the factors behind occasional mismatches between the data-driven and the dialectological categorisation. Data from one of the dialects, which has recently abandoned a 4-way system but has obviously retained the durational properties of the older system, is used as an example to illustrate this historical hypothesis.

With diachronic corpus over the time periods, I selected a word that might be suitable for this type of study for detecting if potential semantic changes have occurred. In this study, I explored the lexical semantics of the word viral to see if the World Wide Web (WWW) has influenced the word. This essay explores how the WWW influences word meaning within a language. The present study has been done in two parts. The first part was done by collecting and comparing definitions from four different dictionaries: The Oxford English Dictionary 1933/1961, The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 1966, Compact Oxford Dictionary of Current English 2002, and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2018. Four different dictionaries were used to collect definitions that occurred during different periods; for example, two were used before the appearance of the WWW, one was used after the appearance of WWW, and the last dictionary was used to display the definition of contemporary English. The second part was done by corpus analysis. Two different corpora were used for this study: The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the Corpus of Historical American English (COCA). Corpora were used to look through the word viral and to provide a useful source of how a particular word is used within language. The results showed that the principal definition of the word viral had obtained additional definitions within language, a definition related to Internet terminology.

Die ukrainische Sprache, die zu den Nominativ-Akkusativ-Sprachen gehört, weist sowohl historisch als auch synchron Abweichungen vom kanonischen Lizensierungsmuster dieser beiden Kasus auf. So kennt das Ukrainische resultative, inkongruente, in den Finitheitsmerkmalen neutralisierten Passiv-Partizipien auf -no, -to, die wie finite Aktiv-Verben ihrem internen Argument Akkusativ zuweisen, aber historisch auch Nominativ am Patiensargument lizensierten. Solche Kasus-Zuweisung am Patiens passivischer und impersonaler Verben bei fehlender oder Default-Kongruenz stellt einen wichtigen Prüfstein für die theoretische Erfassung von Kasus, Finitheitsmerkmale und Subjektmarkierung dar. Das Ziel der Untersuchung war, über die etymologische Fragestellung hinaus, ein korpus-basiertes und quantifizierbares Bild des diachronen grammatischen Wandels der -no, -to-Formen im Mittelukrainischen zu erstellen. Synchron sind -no, -to bereits gut erforscht: die Struktur erlaubt eine overte Agensangabe im Instrumental und eine optional eingesetzte overte Kopula. Diagnostische Subjekteigenschaften wie Kontrolle in die Infinitiv- und Partizipialkontexte, sowie die Bindung von Reflexiva greifen nicht. Historisch dagegen bestehen noch große empirische Lücken und Beschreibungsdesiderate. Es wurden einige der empirischen Lücken in der Diachronie der -no, -to auf der Grundlage eines elektronischen, diachronen (1500-1800) mittelgroßen Korpus literarischer und administrativer Texte geschlossen: die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Kongruenz und Transitivität der -no, -to und untersucht sie parallel zu den morphologisch identischen passiven kongruierenden -no, -to. / The Ukrainian language belongs to the nominative-accusative languages and demonstrates both historically and synchronically the deviations from the canonical case licensing pattern. That is, Ukrainian has resultative, non-agreeing and non-finite passive participles ending in either -no or -to that assign accusative to their internal argument, just like finite active verbs do. Historically -no, -to forms licensed the nominative on the patience argument as well. Accusative case assignment on the patience in impersonal verbs that lack agreement represents an important touchstone for the theoretical understanding of case, finiteness and subject marking. Along with the etymological questions, the aim of this investigation was to obtain a corpus-based quantifiable picture of the diachronic grammatical change of -no, -to forms in Middle Ukrainian. The modern -no, -to structure has already been properly investigated: it is clear that the structure allows for an overt agent phrase in instrumental and for an optional copula. Diagnostic subject properties like control into the infinitival and participial contexts, as well as the binding of reflexives do not apply. Historically however, there are large empirical gaps and desiderata as to the development of -no, -to. The thesis closes several of the empirical gaps in the diachrony of -no, -to on the basis of a middle-sized electronic corpus of literary and administrative texts from 1500-1800. The thesis deals with the agreement and transitivity of non-agreeing -no, -to that have been investigated parallel to the morphologically identical to them agreeing passive -no, -to.