Schedule 71. StuTS + 31. TaCoS

There are numerous examples of magic systems in fiction, many of which involve spellcasting by an agent. Spellcasting often involves incantations, which are verbal components that a spell or magical effect requires in order to be realised or cast (sometimes supplemented by somatic components). This project examines the influences on and and choices made for the linguistic representation of incantations, in a small corpus that aims to be somewhat representative of the fantasy genre. This is also achieved through choosing a range of media, such as films, books, and games. Furthermore, the corpus includes media that is specifically aimed at adults, among which are Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and media that is specifically aimed at children, among which are Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, and Ursula K Le Guin’s Tales from Earthsea. In addition to examining incantations with an English basis, I focus somewhat on the significance of constructed languages (conlangs) used in magic systems, and the factors that influence the choice to use a conlang to represent the verbal counterpart of a magic system.

My analysis of the corpus reveals strong influences from liturgical languages on the utterances chosen to represent incantations, especially Latin and ‘Shakespearean language’. These influences link to the idea of magic as a channel between humans and gods, and positions magic as directly tied to invocations towards gods. I consider conlangs in regards to their linguistic and socio-cultural backgrounds and influences from natural languages such as Greek, Sanskrit, Manx, and Irish and Scottish Gaelic.

Info

Day: 2022-05-28
Start time: 09:30
Duration: 00:30
Room: Decartes (2.36)
Track: Diverse
Language: en

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