Browsing by Author "Lis, Kinga"

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13
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    Behind the Early Modern English Translation of The Laws of Oléron: Determining the Underlying French Text
    (Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, 2021) Lis, Kinga
    The objective of this paper is to analyse the sixteenth-century French texts which might lie behind an Early Modern English translation of a sea-code known as the Laws of Oléron, in an attempt to determine which of them served as the actual basis for the rendition. The original code has been dated back to the thirteenth century, with the earliest extant copies coming from the fourteenth century, at which point it was already known and used in England. It was not, however, before the sixteenth century that a translation was commissioned and appeared in a book called The Rutter of the Sea. The publication in question went through multiple editions and the views concerning the French text that served as the basis for the rendition diverge greatly. This paper analyses the various proposed theories and juxtaposes the actual French texts with each other and the Early Modern English translation.
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    How to measure the French influence - lexical choices in a 14th-century English Psalter
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2015) Lis, Kinga
    The paper discusses lexical choices in the first 50 Psalms of the Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter with a view to demonstrate that the profusion of borrowings from French should not be taken as evidence of the direct influence of the French source text. Rather, it should be analysed in the context of the underlying Latin Psalter, the French source and the remaining 14th-century Psalter translations simultaneously. When examined from this perspective, the Psalter appears to converge in its use of 90% of the Romance-derived nouns with the three remaining 14th-century Psalter translations. The profusion of borrowings from Romance should be, therefore, perceived as a manifestation of the contemporary linguistic situation in medieval England and a reflection of the perceived inviolability of the biblical text. Furthermore, it is argued that the actual French influence should not be sought in the formal similarities shared by the lexical items used in Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter and the French rendition, but rather in the exceptional vocabulary choices of Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter corresponding semantically, rather than formally, to the relevant items employed in the French translation, both those which are context-motivated and, even more so, those which find no contextual justification with respect to other occurrences of the same Latin lemma.
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    Is there a method in this… madness? On variance between two manuscript copies of a Middle English Psalter
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2015) Lis, Kinga
    The objective of the paper is to determine the extent and the possible sources of the intertextual lexical variation between two manuscript copies of a single Middle English Psalter known, among other names, as the Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter. The purpose of the paper can be understood only if one approaches the variance from a medieval perspective on text with respect for the inherent features of manuscript culture and an understanding of the exceptional character of the text analysed in the study, which topics are briefly discussed within the paper. The extent of the variance is measured in relation to the nominal choices attested in the two copies of the text, the rationale behind the variation being sought separately in each case, taking into account the contextual intricacies of all the occurrences of the nouns under analysis.
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    Law and order in mediaeval Psalter
    (Lingwistyczna Szkoła Wyższa w Warszawie, 2016) Lis, Kinga
    The most conspicuous feature of the English language of law is its Frenchness in the area of lexis. The Psalter, as a text which aims at human spiritual elevation obtained by obeying divine precepts and respecting the order established by God, lends itself to an analysis of law-related terms amply represented there. Such an analysis is conducted here on the first fifty Psalms of four 14th-century Psalter renditions into Middle English, allowing one to determine the etymological make-up of the terms related to the area of law and order employed in these texts and juxtapose the findings of the study with the general etymological make-up of the nominal layer of the translations. The lexical choices made by the translators of these texts in favour of the non-native items testify to the well-established status of the analyzed borrowings in non-strictly-legal lexicon. Moreover, the expected oppositions, both inter- and intratextual, between native and foreign items employed as renderings of the law-related terms appear to be meaningful in the context of semantic and lexical changes in the English lexicon.
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    On the Earliest English Translation of the Laws of Oléron and Its Editions
    (De Gruyter, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2020) Lis, Kinga
    The Laws of Oléron are a compilation of regulations binding in north-western Europe. They concern relationships on board a ship and in ports, as well as between members of one crew and those of another when it comes to safe journey. Even though the “code” was known in England at the beginning of the 14th century, it was only in the 16th century that it was translated from French into (Early Modern) English. The literature on the topic mentions two independent 16th-century renditions of the originally French text (Lois d’Oléron) but disagrees as to the authorship of the earliest translation, its date and place of creation, the mutual relationship between the two, their content and respective source texts. Strikingly, three names appear in this context: Thomas Petyt, Robert Copland, and W. Copland. The picture emerging from various accounts concerning the translations is very confusing. It is the purpose of this paper to trace the history of the misconceptions surrounding the Early Modern English versions of the Laws of Oléron, and to illustrate how, by approaching them from a broader perspective, two hundred years of confusion can be resolved. The wider context adopted in this study is that of a book as a whole, and not of an individual text within the book, set against the backdrop of the printing milieu. The investigation begins with a brief inquiry into the lives and careers of the three people named with respect to the two renditions, in an attempt to determine whether these provide any grounds for disagreement. The analysis also juxtaposes the relevant renditions as far as their contents, layout, and the actual texts are concerned in order to establish what the relationship between them is and whether it could account for the confusion surrounding the translations.
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    Richard Rolle's Psalter rendition–the work of a language purist?
    (De Gruyter, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2015) Lis, Kinga
    Richard Rolle’s Psalter rendition, as any of the medieval English Psalter translations, is thickly enveloped in a set of assertions, originating in the nineteenth century, whose validity has been accepted unquestioned. It is the purpose of the present paper to investigate one such claim concerning the vocabulary selection, according to which Rolle’s rendition would employ almost exclusively lexical items of native origin, except for the instances where no proper item with native etymology presents itself in a particular context and Rolle is forced to use a Latin-derived word. The assertion generates at least two problematic issues. Firstly, it identifies Rolle’s translation as most exceptional in relation to the remaining 14th-century English Psalter translations: the Wycliffite Bibles and the Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter of which the former are asserted to be overtly influenced by the Latin text they render and the latter deeply indebted both syntactically and, more importantly, lexically to a ‘French source’. Secondly, it ascribes Richard Rolle the ideas nowadays covered by the term linguistic purism. Therefore, it seems necessary to analyse the lexical layer of the text in search of evidence, or lack thereof, which sets Rolle’s translation lexically apart from other renditions and sheds some light on the issue of Rolle’s supposed linguistic purism. Such a study is conducted on the basis of the nominal layer of the first fifty Psalms of the four relevant texts analysed in relation to their common Latin source text as only the juxtaposition of all of these enables one to (dis)prove the claim cited above. To provide a wider context from which to view them, the findings will be presented in relation to an overview of the contemporary theory of translation and set against a broadly sketched linguistic map of contemporary England.
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    The Etymology of Nouns in Middle English Prose Psalter Renditions
    (Wydawnictwo Werset, 2017) Lis, Kinga
    The Etymology of Nouns in Middle English Prose Psalter Renditions is a book devoted to an etymological analysis of the nominal layer of the first fifty Psalms of four prose Psalter translations from Latin into Middle English (Richard Rolle's Psalter, the Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter, Psalters from two Wycliffite Bibles), with a special focus on intertextual divergences between the texts in this respect. The study, however, is not divorced from the wider linguistic, socio-historical and cultural background which shaped the Psalters, and takes into consideration issues related to the medieval translation theory. Książka "The Etymology of Nouns in Middle English Prose Psalter Renditions" (Etymologia rzeczowników w średnioangielskich prozatorskich tłumaczeniach Psałterza) poświęcona jest analizie etymologicznej rzeczowników wykorzystanych w czternastowiecznych prozatorskich tłumaczeniach pierwszych pięćdziesięciu psalmów z języka łacińskiego na średnioangielski. Podstawowym jej celem jest weryfikacja utrwalonych w literaturze przekonań dotyczących warstwy językowej, a konkretnie etymologii doborów leksykalnych, czterech średnioangielskich przekładów: tłumaczenia Richarda Rolle'a, Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter (Średnioangielski prozatorski Psałterz z glosą) oraz Psałterzy z dwóch tłumaczeń Biblii powstałych w kręgach wyklifickich. Autorka omawia także kwestie teoretyczne związane z teorią tłumaczeń oraz szczegółowo przedstawia badane teksty, osadza je we współczesnym im kontekście — językowym, kulturalnym, społecznym oraz historycznym — prezentując je jako jego odbicie.
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    The latinity of the Wycliffite Psalters
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2014) Lis, Kinga
    The objective of the paper is to re-evaluate the claims reiterated in the literature on the Wycliffite Bible concerning the etymological make-up of the text(s). The Wycliffite Bible, or - rather - its two versions, are late 14th-century Middle English renditions from Latin, commonly regarded as either replete with Latinisms or at least heavily dependent on Latin in terms of vocabulary. These claims, however, have thus far not been corroborated by any evidence. The paper will endeavour to fill this gap by means of an analysis that will focus on the nominal layer of a selected portion of the text(s), i.e. the first fifty Psalms. It will investigate the etymological make-up of each Psalter independently (as they do diverge intermittently) yet always with reference to the Latin source text. This procedure enables one to compare exclusively those lexical items which can be classified as nominal equivalents in all three versions, i.e. the Latin text and the two Wycliffite Psalters. The choice of nouns for this purpose is important due to the tendency among languages to borrow nouns more frequently than items of any other grammatical category. This phenomenon renders the nominal component of the texts the most suitable to vividly illustrate the extent of the presence of Latinisms in the Wycliffite Psalters.
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    'The simplest and most proper' English of the 14th-century Richard Rolle's Psalter rendition
    (Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, 2015) Lis, Kinga
    The paper investigates the claim pertaining to the 14th-century Richard Rolle’s Psalter rendition which asserts that the translator of the text in question adhered to vocabulary of native origin unless an item necessary in the context was not available in the English language. In particular, the study focuses on the nominal equivalent selection strategy in instances where a single Latin lemma corresponds to more than one English noun and the competing items differ with respect to their etymologies. The issue is of considerable interest in the context of Rolle’s predominant consistency in this respect reflected in his general observance of a one-to-one correspondence between Latin nouns and their English equivalents.
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    The soul in the mediaeval Psalter
    (Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2016) Lis, Kinga
    The paper is an attempt to examine what lies at the heart and soul of the mediaeval Psalter in the contemporaneous approach(es) to its vernacularisations. In particular, the paper investigates the applications of the mediaeval translation theory in relation to a 12th-century Anglo-Norman, a 15th-century Middle French and four 14th-century Middle English prose Psalter renditions, with a view to locate them within the spirit of the attitude to biblical translations current in the Middle Ages and against the backdrop of the position of the Psalter in the period. In practical terms, the analysis is conducted on the basis of the equivalent selection strategies for rendering four Latin nouns central to the Psalter: anima, animae ‘soul,’ cor, cordis ‘heart’ and, perhaps surprisingly, ren, renis ‘kidney’ and lumbus, lumbi ‘loins’. All cases of variation in this respect are studied closely from intra- as well as extra-textual perspectives in order to establish the possible reasons behind the divergences, as these constitute exceptions rather than the rule, even in apparently heterodox renditions.
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    The use of the subjunctive in an Early Modern English translation of the "Laws of Oléron"
    (Wydawnictwo Werset, 2021) Lis, Kinga
    The book investigates into the use of the subjunctive in an Early Modern English translation of the Laws of Oléron, a 12th-century sea code regulating relationships onboard a ship and in ports in north western Europe. The monograph juxtaposes the subjunctive use in the text with the general pattern of subjunctive distribution found in English in the period in question. It also traces the possible French source text influence on the mood selection in the rendition by analysing the Middle French text choices in the relevant places and using statistical tests to verify whether the level of convergence in this respect is statistically significant. Additionally, mood choices in the earliest extant (Anglo-Norman) versions of the document are also traced so that the convergence level between the Early Modern English and Middle French choices can be seen against the level of convergence between the latter and the original Anglo-Norman copies. The study is based on author’s transcriptions of the original texts, not critical editions.
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    Tracing Anglo-Norman influence in French and English mediaeval Psalter translations
    (Wyższa Szkoła Filologiczna we Wrocławiu; Polska Akademia Nauk, Oddział we Wrocławiu; International Communicology Institute, 2017) Lis, Kinga
    The objective of the paper is to trace the alleged influence of an early 12th-century Anglo-Norman Psalter rendition (the Montebourg Psalter) on a 14th- century Middle English Psalter translation known as The Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter, as has been suggested in the literature devoted to Anglo-Norman Psalters. The issue of relatedness between the two texts will be addressed from the perspective of lexical choices as regards nouns. However, due to the complex translation history of the Middle English text, a Middle French Glossed Psalter, which has been proven to have influenced the Middle English translation, will also be juxtaposed with the Anglo-Norman rendition in order to establish the number of lexical choices that can probably be ascribed to the latter source. Additionally, the study takes into consideration the shape of the Latin text, whose lexical make­ up is bound to have played a role in the process of noun selection and can thus be responsible for some of the choices which are, at the same time, convergent with the choices in the two French texts. The analysis based on the first 50 Psalms will provide a tentative answer as to the veracity of the claim of the dependence of the Middle English text on the Anglo-Norman Psalter translation tradition and will at the same time shed some light on the issue of the relationship between the Middle English and Middle French Psalters analysed here.
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    Why differ? – divergent lexical choices in two Middle English prose Psalter translations and their raison d'être
    (Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 2016) Lis, Kinga
    The objective of the paper is to establish the motivation behind the lexical divergences between otherwise surprisingly uniform late-fourteenth-century Middle English Wycliffite Psalters and observe how it affects the etymological make-up of the texts. For this purpose the paper analyses the nominal layer of the first fifty Psalms and tries to assign each case of divergence between the texts to one of four groups of probable causes, both intra- and extratextual, prompting the variation, while juxtaposing these nominal lexical items with the corresponding data from two earlier 14th-century Psalters – Richard Rolle’s rendition and the “Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter”.