Thus far, politeness in Old and Middle French and in older languages in general has not been closely examined. This dissertation therefore presents a detailed linguistic analysis of politeness in Medieval French. Relying heavily on data from a wide range of texts from Latin to Middle French, this dissertation discusses several aspects of linguistic politeness that traditionally have been misinterpreted or not considered. First and foremost, the evidence indicates that polite and deferential speech existed from early Latin onward, although its representation could vary from one period to another. The analysis of the linguistic systems of Latin and Medieval French introduces non-pronominal linguistic devices used to express politeness, the role of the pronominal address system in polite speech, and the evolution of the pronominal address system after the emergence of the deferential pronoun vous. Moreover, a diachronic analysis of the data reveals the spread of conventionalized polite and formal language, which was an instrument representing upper class society, to middle class society and the generalization of the polite linguistic devices in Middle French. This observation shows that, paradoxically, in the Classical period, conventional polite language could no longer be associated merely with upper class society. Subsequently, in contrast to the majority of previous studies, it is argued that the alleged inconsistency in the use of the pronominal address system of Old French was not significant and that it in fact followed a regular pattern. As a result, the Old French pronominal address system did not represent an irregular or isolated system, but a system in evolution. Finally, from a sociolinguistic perspective, this study partially supports the theory of a universal view of politeness postulated by Brown and Levinson (1987), because some of polite linguistic devices put forth in their theory (e.g. honorifics, impersonal structures, hedges, etc.) are found in older languages. Yet, this dissertation emphasizes that strategies used to express politeness changed over time, indicating that politeness is culturally defined. / text

Cultures of Conquest argues for the recognition of a significant and vital subcategory of medieval romance that treats the crusades as one of its primary interests, beginning at the time of the First Crusade and extending through the end of the Middle Ages. Many romances, even those not explicitly located in crusades settings, evoke and transform crusades events and figures to serve the purposes of the readers, commissioners, and authors of these texts. The prevalence of crusade images and themes in romance testifies to medieval Europe's intense preoccupation with the East in its multiple manifestations, both Christian and Muslim. The introductory chapter situates the Song of Roland (c. 1100) as a hybrid epicromance text that has long set the standard for modern thinking about medieval European attitudes toward the East. The following chapters, however, complicate the Song of Roland's black-and-white portrayal of Muslims as "wrong" and Christians as "right." Chapter Two, focusing on the Middle English romances Guy of Warwick and Sir Beues of Hamtoun, demonstrates the extreme "othering" of Muslims that occurred in medieval romance; but it also acknowledges the antagonism of other Christians (whether Eastern or European) in these texts. In Chapter Three, on romances with Saracen heroes (Floire et Blancheflor, the Sowdone of Babylone, and Saladin), I show how these texts reimagine the East as a desirable ally and even incorporate Saracens into European genealogies, seeking a more conciliatory relationship between East and West than is provided by the romances discussed in the previous chapter. My fourth chapter shows how gender mediates cultural contact in Melusine and La Fille du Comte de Ponthieu: women, as the cornerstones of important crusading families, were invested in crusading and were imagined as key to the success of the crusades. The epilogue offers a brief reading of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (emphasizing the "Squire's Tale" and the "Man of Law's Tale") within a long and varied tradition of medieval crusade romance. I argue that Chaucer works to replace a literary climate that idealizes violent conflict between East and West with one that imagines the possibility and desirability of commercial relationships with the East in England's future. / text

<p> This thesis investigates word order change in infinitival clauses from Object-Verb (OV) to Verb-Object (VO) in the history of Latin and Old French. By applying a variationist approach, I examine a synchronic word order variation in each stage of language change, from which I infer the character, periodization and constraints of diachronic variation. I also show that in discourse-configurational languages, such as Latin and Early Old French, it is possible to identify pragmatically neutral contexts by using information structure annotation. I further argue that by mapping pragmatic categories into a syntactic structure, we can detect how word order change unfolds. For this investigation, the data are extracted from annotated corpora spanning several centuries of Latin and Old French and from additional resources created by using computational linguistic methods. The data are then further codified for various pragmatic, semantic, syntactic and sociolinguistic factors. This study also evaluates previous factors proposed to account for word order alternation and change. I show how information structure and syntactic constraints change over time and propose a method that allows researchers to differentiate a stable word order alternation from alternation indicating a change. Finally, I present a three-stage probabilistic model of word order change, which also conforms to traditional language change patterns.</p>

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<p>Hildegard von Bingen, a visionary abbess living in the tumultuous 12th century, recorded and interpreted three very powerful visions pertaining to Christianity. This dissertation is limited to the first image of Hildegard&rsquo;s last vision called De Operatione Dei, the Works of God, a cosmological vision about creation. Hildegard named this image <i>On the Origin of Life. </i> </p><p> The thesis of this dissertation suggests the four main characters in the first image of Hildegard&rsquo;s cosmological vision&mdash;the two-headed and four-winged red figure named <i>Caritas</i> standing on the serpent-wrapped monster&mdash;correspond to the four stages of Jung&rsquo;s individuation&mdash;encounter with the shadow (serpent), encounter with the soulimage (monster as Adam), encounter with the god-image (Caritas), emergence of the Self (godhead). Each of these characters and stages represent a level in what has been called by perennial philosophy the Great Chain of Being. Hildegard&rsquo;s vision represents the unfolding of Spirit into matter. Jung&rsquo;s individuation process describes the soul&rsquo;s journey back towards Spirit. </p><p> This work starts by introducing the vision and Hildegard&rsquo;s interpretation. Next it moves to what other authors have written. Since the vision is about creation the interpretation starts with the literalists&rsquo; view of Genesis and moves to the mystical interpretations of Genesis. Other creation stories including a serpent and a goddess amplify the interpretation. Then, using Jungian and alchemical symbols the images of this iv vision are further elaborated. The research follows the logic of the axiom of Maria, from the uroboros, to the hermaphrodite, to the trinity and ending with the <i> marriage quaternio</i>&mdash;two pairs of hermaphrodites. Byington&rsquo;s symbolic elaboration process is used to interpret the dramatic action of the vision thereby bringing the vision back to life as Hildegard might have experienced it. Finally, the parallel between Hildegard&rsquo;s vision and Jung&rsquo;s individuation process is explained in detail. The work ends with Hildegard&rsquo;s interpretation of why god created the world showing how it aligns with the goal of individuation, and how both are critical for the life of the soul in the 21^st century. </p>

This thesis addresses the affinities between rhetoric and architecture. It is an essay in cultural history prompted by the reading of a text: Leon Battista Alberti's famous, mid-Quattrocento treatise on architecture, De re aedificatoria. It is about the interrelation of rhetoric and architecture in the city in Italy between the Trecento and the Cinquecento. The argument is framed by the notion that the city is a duality involving material and discursive cultures. The built and the written city unites architecture and rhetoric as cognate cultural practices, a kinship which suggests that one can be read in terms of the other. Accordingly, this thesis proposes rhetoric as a tool for reading actual cities, and develops a model of rhetoric to apply to Italian medieval/Renaissancec ities basedo n a precedent found in De re aedificatoria. The thesis is arranged into two parts. The first involves a thorough reading of Alberti's treatise. Chapter One focuses on the analogy between rhetoric and architecture in his theory, arguing that De re aedificatoria demonstrates a comprehensive grafting of rhetoric onto architecture that goes beyond analogy. It further suggests that this interdisciplinary approach is a product of the humanist culture of which Alberti was a part. Chapter Two expands this reading by recognizing the long-standing history of association between rhetoric and architecture in literature, a history that has continued into modem discourse. That association is then discussed in general historical and cultural terms extrapolated from Alberti's text. These terms form the basis of case studies presented in the second part of the thesis. Given that rhetoric is integral to the design of the city, the second part of the thesis is a demonstration of two propositions: the first, that rhetoric is a useful way of reading actual cities; and the second, that rhetoric is a useful way of reading the history of actual cities. These propositions are explored in two thematically defined case studies. Chapter Three looks at the relationship between art and power in the urbanism of Florence from 1280 to 1560, with a brief comparative discussion of Herculean Ferrara (1471-1505). Chapter Four examines a rhetorical practice of intertextuality and textualauthority in the late-Quattrocento building projects of Pope Pius II at Pienza and Federico da Montefeltro at Urbino. Both Part One and Part Two are prefaced by introductions that establish the terms of the rhetoric used in this thesis. The Introduction to Part One offers an explanation in general theoretical terms of rhetoric's capacity to be an integrative public discourse. The Introduction to Part Two sketches a proposed rhetoric of the city which is applied comparatively in the case studies that follow. The thesis as a whole works to establish the coexistence of the built and written cities in history and to show how rhetoric is able to integrate them. It argues that rhetoric is an appropriate and flexible means of reading the complex interweaving of aesthetics and politics, memory, text, discourse and material culture, the real and the unreal, in the construction and articulation of the city

This thesis discusses the effect that the use of more than one genre in a medieval narrative has upon the way we read the character of the main protagonist. Where most medieval writing aligns protagonist and narrative with a single genre, the main texts in this thesis confuse the reader's sense of such an alignment and the resulting generic interaction has the effect of separating the protagonist from the narrative, an effect I have called 'alienation'. This terminology relates to the Augustinian metaphor for the experience of the righteous in a fallen world. It is an image which describes a conflict of semiologies: individuals who operate according to one set of terms in a context which operates according to a different set of terms. The thesis examines the idea that the gaps in the narrative that are created by the alienation of the protagonist - the reader's sense of the protagonist having a meaning which does not work smoothly within his/her narrative context - allow for an interpretation of the character of the protagonist which is more sympathetic to a post- Romantic concept of individuality than is usual in medieval characterisation. Chapter One defines 'genre' and 'alienation' in relation to their application in the thesis, and discusses medieval ideas of individuality and the framework of language available to medieval writers for describing the individual. Two texts are used to illust~ate some of the points made in this discussion: the Confessions of Saint Augustine, and William Langland's ?iers Plowman. The following five chapters each give a reading of one of the main texts. Chapter Two shows how the romance characterisation of Sir Gawain, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is undermined by penitential and fabliau elements, Chapter Three, how Sir Lancelot in Malory's ~ale of the Sankgreal, is juxtaposed with a hagiographical narrative and an alternative hero, Sir Galahad. In Chapters Four and Five Criseyde, in Chaucer's ~roilus an~_~iseyd~, and his Canon's Yeoman, in the Canon's Yeoman's Tale, are both generically alienated as a mimesis of their---- thematic alienation as traitor and as alchemist. And Chapter Six establishes a working definition of Complaint and shows how Hoccleve, in his Complaint, uses and then transcends the genre's characteristic representation of righteous alienation to demonstrate his recovery from madness. Finally, Chapter Seven looks beyond Middle English to Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and the representation of character in the Renaissance.

The present study examines the rape episodes in Muslim and Christian historiography of the Iberian Peninsula between 9th and 13th century. These episodes possess a structure which the author defines as “rape tale.” The rape tale has a stock cast of characters—a rapist ruler, the female rape victim, and her avenging guardian, and a predictable ending: the ruler will be deposed. In the works studied in this dissertation, every version of the rape tales is part of a discourse that legitimates an occupation, an invasion, a conquest. The stable structure of the rape tale may reveal its mythic origins. It is possible that before these stories were put into writing, they were elaborated orally. The importance of these allegorical tales requires the necessity of memorization by means of oral repetition, which is possible only through a paring down of details in order to obtain a clear pattern. The images, the actions, must be formulaic in order to be recovered effectively. Characters—no matter their historicity—are simplified into types. Hence in all myths, heroes are brave and strong; princesses in distress are beautiful; tyrannical rulers, lustful. The myth studied here appears in chronicles and national/ethnic histories written by a community that saw itself as the winning character in a story of conquest—or Reconquest. It is a myth that features not one but two rape tales: the rape of Oliba (also known as Cava), daughter of Count Julian, which brought about the Moorish invasion of Spain, and the rape of Luzencia, which signaled a Christian rebirth with Pelayo’s rebellion. / text

The purpose of this dissertation is to create a word list of male and female speech in those Old English narrative poems which contain dialogue, to use as a reference in determining what, if any, differences existed between the way male Anglo-Saxon poets constructed speech for their male and female characters. Using a specifically designed computer program and an on-line text of the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, I electronically tagged those lines assigned to male characters, and then those assigned to female speakers, to generate two separate word lists. I eliminated all immortal speech (God, angels, demons), and all proper nouns as not germane to a study of male and female speech patterns. After I created the raw word lists, I parsed each individual word, and placed it under the appropriate headword. I further classified nouns, adjectives and pronouns according to case and number, and verbs according to person, number, tense and mood. In addition to the word lists, the dissertation includes a critical introduction, and a brief analysis of differences between male and female speech patterns in selected poems.

William of Rubruck was a Franciscan friar who travelled to the court of Mongke Khan at the time when the Mongol empire was reaching its apogee as the largest empire in the world. His attempt to start a Catholic mission there failed. The report he wrote to King Louis IX of France has survived and has proven to be extraordinarily reliable, but historians have not seriously questioned how his motives for writing influenced the contents of this report. William's education and ambitions affected both his perceptions and what he chose to describe. William sought to salvage his failure by including information for future missions in his report on the many competing religions in the polyglot Mongol capital. Because of this, William's report contains invaluable information concerning the beliefs of Nestorian Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and shamans in the Mongolian empire.