Joanna M Esquibel | Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities

Joanna M Esquibel

Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Cultural Studies and Modern Langauges, Faculty Member

Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Cultural Studies and Modern Langauges, Faculty Member |

Medieval English Literature

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Books

Explorations in the English Language: Middle Ages and Beyond

The volume, inspired by Professor Wełna’s life-long studies in historical linguistics, brings tog... more The volume, inspired by Professor Wełna’s life-long studies in historical linguistics, brings together scholars researching topics in various fields of the history of the English language. Nine chapters devoted to different linguistic disciplines gather articles covering sound and spelling changes, historical word-formation processes, selected semantic domains, and manuscript variants.

In the broader perspective the book addresses the history of linguistic thought with authors incorporating different tools of analysis in historical research.

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Manipulation in Translation. Theory and Applications

It oftentimes appears that difficulties with expressing the intentions of the source text compoun... more It oftentimes appears that difficulties with expressing the intentions of the source text compounded with the lack of one precise definition of the very process of rendering the message from one language to another lie at the core of multiple interpretations of the translated product. Thus, the issue of manipulative undertakings on the part of the translator, be it deliberate or unintentional, seems to be always present whenever it comes to comparing the quality and quantity of information between the target text and it source.

We hope that the texts put together in this volume may constitute an interesting point of view on the phenomenon of translating various types of texts, on the role of translators in their task of bridging linguistic and cultural differences and, above all, on the part which manipulation, in this numerous forms, plays in the process of the cultural and linguistic information transfer called translation.

Tabele gramatyczne. Język angielski. [Grammar in Tables. English.]

Papers

Æfter/ra in the Lindisfarne Gospels: On the Plethora of Its Meanings and Uses in the English Gloss

by Anna Wojtyś and Joanna M Esquibel

Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies, 2016

The present study aims at discussing the use of the Old English ÆFTERin the glosses to the Lindis... more The present study aims at discussing the use of the Old English ÆFTERin the glosses to the Lindisfarne Gospels, in order to establish patterns of equivalence between the OE gloss and an array of Latin source terms it renders. We are particularly interested in examining the consistency of such glossing, which would allow us to demonstrate the basic and pe-ripheral senses of ÆFTERas well as its synonyms used in the collection. In an attempt to provide ground for a wider discussion of possible patterns in Old English gloss translation, the study compares the Aldredian employment of æfter and its forms with their use in the Rushworth Gospels,reportedly based on the Lindisfarne collection. The data for the present study come from the Dictionary of Old English Corpus (hence-forth DOEC), analyzed with AntConc, a corpus analysis toolkit developed by Laurence Anthony. The findings are further supplemented with a close analysis of the editions by Skeat (1970), as well as the digitalized manuscript of the Lindisfarne Gospels available at Turning The Pages™, British Library.

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How would they transfer the message across? From theodan to translaten: on the replacement of native forms with a Romance borrowing

At the dawn of the Middle English period, the language saw a number of different terms referring ... more At the dawn of the Middle English period, the language saw a number of different terms referring to the process of translation. One of these, WENDAN, had a literal meaning ‘to translate’, next to ‘cause to move, alter the direction or position’ and ‘to turn round or over’ (Bosworth--Toller, henceforth referred to as BT), and it only extended the meaning by attaching prefixes (cf. awendan, gewendan, BT). Others acquired the meaning by attaching the intensifying prefix a- or the resultative prefix ge-, including RECCAN ‘to stretch, extend’ (cf. areccan, gereccan ‘to interpret, translate’ BT), THEODAN ‘to join, attach’, CIRRAN ‘to turn, cause to move’ and HWIRFAN ‘to move about’ (cf. geþeodan, gecirran, gehwierfan, respectively, ‘to translate’ BT) and LÆDAN ‘to lead’ (oferlædan ‘to carry across, translate’, BT). One more verb, TRAHTNIAN, evoked the meaning of ‘explaining and expounding’ (BT), both with and without the prefix ge-, but tended to be used in contexts clearly indicating translation, such as “Ðá cwæþ Pilatus Hú clypedon hig and hú byþ hit getrahtnod on Hebreisc” (Gospel of Nikodemus).
Interestingly enough, in none of the above cases was the meaning limited solely to ‘translating’; instead, semantic domains of the verbs in question included such meanings as ‘to join, connect… adjust’ (geþeodan), ‘to turn upside down’, ‘pervert’ (awendan), ‘oppress’, ‘humble, humiliate’ (lædan) etc. (cf. BT, OED, MED), thus providing a wide contextual background for the process usually associated with translating. The plethora of terms and meanings seems to mirror the attitude of medieval scribes and authors towards translation, understood as presenting, explaining, expounding, unraveling, and explicating, interpreting, and, finally, transferring (oferlad) the message from one language to another, in line with the formula translatio studii et imperii.
After the Norman Conquest, however, the meaning of ‘transfer between languages’ in the above verbs starts to disappear with the exception of WENDEN, which is still used in this sense in mid 13th century (cf. “Icc till Ennglissh hafe wennd Goddspelless hallȝhe lare”, Ormulum). Incidentally, that is also the time when TURNEN seems to take over the same sense in such contexts (cf. “Ziff þu willt Emmanuæl Till Ennglissh spæche turrnenn, Itt seȝȝþ þatt Godd iss her wiþþ uss.” Ormulum). Finally, the language borrows the foreign term TRANSLATEN (F.-L., Skeat), which at the end of the 13th century starts to function along WENDEN and TURNEN in the meaning of ‘transferring, changing, replacing’ (cf. MED), and in the 14th century acquires the literal meaning of ‘translate’ (MED, Skeat), marginalizing or eliminating older forms.
The present paper focuses on the loss of the meaning ‘to translate’ from the semantic domains of the native verbs and the pattern of its replacement by the foreign term to indicate ‘transfer of a message between two languages’. The study shall analyze the affiliated texts classified by date and dialect in such electronic corpora as The Dictionary of Old English Corpus Database and The Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose, with special emphasis on the 13th century, when the old terms ceased to be used and the new term had not yet been clearly established.

Devil aka Satan: An enemy or fiend? On the rivalry between the familiar and the foreign in early English

by Anna Wojtyś and Joanna M Esquibel

The present paper discusses the distribution of the two most common Mediaeval English euphemisms ... more The present paper discusses the distribution of the two most common Mediaeval English
euphemisms of Satan, ie fiend and enemy, in religious prose. We focus on the rivalry
between the foreign word and the native word, comparing the contexts in which the two
words tended to occur, and attempting to determine the semantic status of the French word
enemy in relation to the sense originally denoted by fiend. The data come from the Middle
English period, when French loanwords began to compete semantically with native words.

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Of ðæm or bi him – on the scribal repertoire of Latin-English pronominal equivalents in the Lindisfarne Gospels

Languages in Contact 2010, 2011

This paper examines English equivalents for Latin pronouns offered by the gloss translator of the... more This paper examines English equivalents for Latin pronouns offered by the gloss translator of the Lindisfarne Gospels. In particular, we are interested in the types of correspondence attested in the glosses, i.e., whether one Latin pronoun
is glossed with the same Old English equivalent consistently throughout the text, or whether the choice of form is context- or language-structure dependent.
If no such dependence can be identified in the case of numerous OE elements for a Latin form, the analysis focuses on the reasoning behind the scribal inter-pretation.

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Explorations in the English Language: Middle Ages and Beyond

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Manipulation in Translation. Theory and Applications

Tabele gramatyczne. Język angielski. [Grammar in Tables. English.]

Æfter/ra in the Lindisfarne Gospels: On the Plethora of Its Meanings and Uses in the English Gloss

by Anna Wojtyś and Joanna M Esquibel

Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies, 2016

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How would they transfer the message across? From theodan to translaten: on the replacement of native forms with a Romance borrowing

Devil aka Satan: An enemy or fiend? On the rivalry between the familiar and the foreign in early English

by Anna Wojtyś and Joanna M Esquibel

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Of ðæm or bi him – on the scribal repertoire of Latin-English pronominal equivalents in the Lindisfarne Gospels

Languages in Contact 2010, 2011

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