The Early History of they: Forms, Functions and Etymology
This book challenges the long-held theory that the English pronouns they, their, them are loanwords from Old Norse, arguing instead that the pronouns ultimately derive from the Old English demonstratives þā – þāra – þām.
Based on the most comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis yet published of third-person plural personal pronoun usage in early English, the study presents evidence of morphosyntactic and phonological continuity from Old to Middle English, particularly in the northern and (south)western dialects. It concludes that contact with Old Norse primarily reinforced existing native developments rather than introducing entirely new forms, thus highlighting the complex interplay of internal linguistic evolution and language contact that combined to shape they, their, them.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Historical Linguistics, Language Variation and Change, Language Contact, as well as readers interested in the history of the English language.
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Anglo-German Entanglements in English Fiction: From the Cold War to Brexit
Through a diffractive reading of seven English novels, Daniela Keller redefines the deeply intertwined and continuously developing relationship between England and Germany.
The relationship between England and Germany has fluctuated between friendship and animosity on both sides throughout the centuries and Brexit has driven another wedge between the two countries. This study shows how writers have employed physical phenomena, such as quantum entanglement, to move beyond an alleged fixed binary opposition between the nations. In novels, such as John le Carré’sThe Spy Who Came In from the Coldor Alison Moore’sThe Lighthouse, our understandings of nation and national identity emerge as more flexible and inextricable from their opponent Others.
The physical phenomena and optical metaphors of reflection, refraction, and diffraction are applied to hone the differences between various kinds of binary relations, such as England and Germany or physics and fiction. Diffraction and diffractive reading, inspired by Karen Barad, deliver the most accurate and progressive methods of reading literature because they best capture and acknowledge the complexity of stubbornly dualistic mindsets. They also draw attention to the responsibility of readers and their role in constructing Anglo-German identities through every act of reading.
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