Lecture: Semantic Differentiation of Old Irish Terms for Bodies of Water

This study investigates the semantics of Old Irish terms in the lexical field 'body of water' based on a corpus of electronically available texts. The semantic investigation combines corpus linguistic approaches with close readings of relevant text passages. This allows for the identification of subtle semantic differences between lexical items that are given as (near) synonyms in the dictionary and provides insight into the semantic categories that structure the Old Irish landscape vocabulary.

Words do not create meaning in isolation, but have complex semantic relationships with other words; additionally, languages avoid having multiple words with the exact same meaning and context of use (Kay and Allan 2015). Semantic investigations, therefore, benefit from the analysis of entire lexical fields in order to identify and explain semantic differences. Historical semantic investigations often rely on corpus linguistic methods, as the surviving material constitutes a corpus. The limitations of the surviving Old Irish corpus require a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods (Lash, Qiu, Stifter 2020). The semantics of the Old Irish lexical field ‘water expanse’ have previously been investigated by Liam Mac Mathúna, who based his investigation on dictionary entries and citations (1987).
Corpus linguistics and electronic availability of Old Irish material have improved since that study, so that a larger corpus can now be examined. This warrants a re-examination of the lexical field. The present study, therefore, investigates the semantics of terms in the lexical field ‘body of water’ in order to differentiate their semantics. This provides insight into the semantic categories structuring the Old Irish landscape vocabulary.
Relevant lexical items are identified based on dictionary entries and investigated in a corpus of electronically available Old Irish texts that was compiled for this project. The semantic investigation is based on collocates and close readings of relevant passages from the corpus. The comparison of terms within the lexical field allows for their differentiation. For instance, muir, fairrge and ler are given in the dictionary as ‘sea’ or ‘ocean’. However, collocate analysis and close reading reveal subtle semantic differences: muir means ‘sea used by humans’, ‘sea as site of conflict’ and ‘sea as supernatural place’, fairrge means ‘sea used by humans’ and ler is an archaic, poetic term. Thus, Old Irish ‘sea’ terms show clear semantic differences.

References:
Kay, Christian and Kathryn Allan. English Historical Semantics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015.

Lash, Elliott, Fangzhe Qiu, and David Stifter. 2020. “Celtic Studies and Corpus Linguistics.” In Morphosyntactic Variation in Medieval Celtic Languages, edited by Elliott Lash, Fangzhe Qiu, and David Stifter, 1-12. Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110680744-001.

Mac Mathúna, Liam. 1987. “Continuity and Innovation in Early Irish Words for ‘Water Expanse.’” In Studien Zum Indogermanischen Wortschatz, edited by Wolfgang Meid, 83–99. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft.

Info

Day: 2022-05-28
Start time: 10:00
Duration: 00:30
Room: Eisenga (2.32)
Track: Diverse
Language: en

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