Full Description
The volume contains 13 specially written specialist articles on a wide range of subjects within the ambit of the history of the English language and prominent literary uses of it. In uniting linguistic and literary pursuits in a single volume, it follows the noble Neapolitan scholar's research interests, as well as representing topics that figure prominently in any comprehensive university course in English. Subjects range from the rise of the present progressive in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle via issues in Medieval English, concepts of language inherent in the Early Modern English grammatical treatises and an evaluation of their value as evidence for the development of the language, the "new science" and language in the 17th century, on literary issues like the "implied director" in Macbeth, Sir Elyot's Enigmatic "Image of Governance", English history reflected in Ben Jonson to the history of text types and Jespersen's reading of Saussure's "Cours". Apart from an introductory section with articles on Frank's biography, his scientific activities and his impact on the field, the book contains work by Susan Fitzmaurice, Nicola Pantaleo, Gabriella Di Martino, Konrad Koerner, Stefano Manferlotti, Uwe Baumann, Anna Maria Palombi Cataldi, Rosanna Sornicola and Dieter Stein.
Contents
1. Part I: Thomas Frank: Appraisals of his Life and Work; 2. Thomas Frank, 1925-1990 (by Koerner, E.F.K.); 3. Thomas Frank in the Neapolitan Environment (by Sornicola, Rosanna); 4. Honoring Thomas Frank: Introduction and Overview of the Contributions (by Sornicola, Rosanna); 5. Part II: Studies in the History of the English Language; 6. Grammaticalisation, Textuality and Subjectivity: The Progressive and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (by Fitzmaurice, Susan); 7. The Language of 'wit' in Piers Plowman (by Pantaleo, Nicola); 8. Relative Sentences in late Middle English: The Paston and the Cely Letters (by Stein, Dieter); 9. Part III: Studies in the History of Language and Linguistics; 10. The Interpretation of Historical Sources as a Problem for Diachronic Typology: Word-order in English Rhetorical and Grammatical Treatises of the XVIth and Early XVIIth Centuries (by Sornicola, Rosanna); 11. The 'new science' and the New Language in Seventeenth Century England (by Martino, Gabriella di); 12. Otto Jespersen as a Reader of the Cours de Linguistique Generale (by Koerner, E.F.K.); 13. Part IV: Studies on History in Literary Texts; 14. Macbeth and the Implied Director (by Manferlotti, Stefano); 15. Sir Thomas Elyot's The Image of Governance: A Humanist's Speculum Principis and a Literary Puzzle (by Baumann, Uwe); 16. The Union of England and Scotland Represented at Court in Ben Jonson's Hymenaei (1606) (by Palombi Cataldi, Anna Maria); 17. "How-to" Literature: A Comparison of Some Texts on Childbirth (by Hart, David); 18. General Index
