MORLET (Marie-Thérèse) – THE VOCABULARY OF NORTHERN CHAMPAGNE IN THE M

MORLET (Marie-Thérèse)

THE VOCABULARY OF NORTHERN CHAMPAGNE IN THE MIDDLE AGES, An Attempt at a Methodical Inventory, French and Romance Library, Series A: Manuals and Linguistic Studies, vol. XVII

Édition :

Paris

Date :

1969

octavo, paperback, black and white maps outside the text, (sun-faded cover), very fresh interior, 425 p.

“(...) Miss Morlet makes a new and important contribution to the knowledge of Northern Champagne, with the reasoned presentation of a medieval vocabulary. Geographically, this refers to the region extending from the Champagne hills on the left bank of the Aisne – still the Champagne region – to beyond Mézières and Renwez, encompassing the Vallage and part of the Argonne forest. Miss Morlet has drawn on two essential sources: the Documents relating to the County of Porcien edited by G. Robert (Paris, Monaco, 1935) and the Treasury of Charters of the County of Rethel edited by G. Saige, H. Lacaille and L.-H. Labande (Monaco, 1904 to 1932), which provide vernacular documents for the period under consideration: the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.” Miss Morlet also used the thirty-two charters of Mézières published by Ch. Bruneau and the documents of the Lordship of Écly edited by G. Robert in 1924-1925. From all these texts, which “give a prominent place to the history of law and institutions,” the author extracted a rich collection: more than four thousand words which, at the end of the volume, provide a thirty-four-page index. But, above all, Miss Morlet attempted a classification of this vocabulary: a difficult task undertaken by linguists such as Gh. Bally and W. von Wartburg for contemporary language, and one which is even more difficult to apply to bygone eras. Following the scheme established by R. Hallig and W. von Wartburg [Système raisonné des concepts pour servir de base à la lexicographie, 2nd ed., Berlin, 1963], the Vocabulary of Northern Champagne in the Middle Ages is structured in three parts: – the external world, that is to say, nature, fauna and flora, and humankind in its physical and psychological life; – humankind in society, encompassing everything related to human relationships, legal, family, professional, religious life, etc.; – finally, humankind in relation to the universe: this section lists the words by which human beings express notions of time, space, quantity, order, movement, and so on. Ultimately, medieval vocabulary lends itself very well to this three-part classification system. All the listed words are framed within one or more quotations that allow for a more precise understanding of their meaning and usage. From this fine lexicographical collection, Miss Morlet draws, at the end of her introduction – perhaps a little brief for the reader's taste – some considerations of a phonetic nature (p. 15-19) and a quick conclusion on the language, a “composite” language, marked by Picardisms, characteristic of a transitional region. » (Marianne Mulon, Bibliothèque française et romane, Manuels et études linguistiques, XVIL).

Référence : 51980

70,00 €

Mots-clés : Regionalism, Dictionary