Multilingual Influences and Comparative Periphrastic Adjectives in the Bibles of Wycliffe and King James
Abstract
Resumen
The present paper is a corpus-based study exploring the two grammatical resources (more/-er) available for comparative formation of adjectives in John Wycliffe’s Bible translation of 1385 and in the King James Bible of 1611. The first part of the analysis is devoted to the classification of the synthetic and analytic comparative adjectives according to the number of syllables to ascertain ratios of the periphrastic and inflected comparative adjectives employed in each Bible. Secondly, differences in comparative formation in a certain group of adjectives showing variation are examined contrastively in the translations of the Bibles of Wycliffe from the 4th c. Latin source – St. Jerome’s Bible (Vulgate), and of the King James from Tyndale’s (1525), Geneva’s (1560) and Bishop’s Bible (1568), which let us explore the comparative strategies used in the 14th and 17th century through translation and adaptation of Latin-based forms. This allows us to observe the development of this grammatical construction over the period when a sense of incipient linguistic codification began to spread, which would mark the beginning of standardisation in the English language.
Keywords: Middle English; language contact; adjective comparison; Latin influence; corpus linguistics
Resumen
Este artículo es un estudio de corpus que explora los dos recursos gramaticales (more/-er) para la formación de adjetivos comparativos en inglés en las traducciones de la Biblia de John Wycliffe (1385) y del Rey Jacobo (1611). La primera parte del análisis se centra en la clasificación de los adjetivos comparativos sintéticos y analíticos de acuerdo con el número de sílabas para determinar la proporción de adjetivos perifrásticos e inflexivos empleados en cada Biblia. En segundo lugar, se examinan diferencias en la formación del comparativo de un cierto grupo de adjetivos que muestra variación en la Biblia de Wycliffe, traducción inglesa de la Biblia de San Jerónimo del siglo IV (La Vulgata), y en la Biblia del Rey Jacobo, basada en las Biblias de Tyndale (1525), Ginebra (1560) y de los Obispos (1568), lo cual nos permite explorar la elección del tipo de comparativo usado durante el siglo XIV y XVII mediante la traducción y adaptación de los adjetivos comparativos que provienen del latín. Esto nos lleva a observar el desarrollo de esta construcción gramatical durante el periodo en el que una incipiente codificación lingüística empezó a expandirse y que marcaría el comienzo de la estandarización de la lengua inglesa.
Palabras clave: inglés medieval; contacto de lenguas; adjetivo comparativo; influencia del latín; lingüística de corpus
References
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