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IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 1706: Into the Words?: Linguistic Approaches to Letters, Texts, and Place-Names

Thursday 7 July 2016, 14.15-15.45

Moderator/Chair:Alaric Hall, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki
Paper 1706-aSolving a Salty Mystery: Finding Ala Chocha
(Language: English)
Kathleen Tyson, Department of History, King's College London
Index terms: Charters and Diplomatics, Geography and Settlement Studies, Local History, Maritime and Naval Studies
Paper 1706-b'Men drynken ofte peyne and gret distresse': Emotion and Drinking Imagery in Troilus and Criseyde
(Language: English)
Blythe Hsing-Wen Tsai, School of English, University of Leeds / Department of Foreign Languages & Literature, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Mentalities, Rhetoric
Paper 1706-cThe Roles of Religious Expressions in the Paston Letters , with or without a Relative Clause
(Language: English)
Osamu Ohara, Department of English, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo
Index terms: Computing in Medieval Studies, Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English, Lay Piety
Abstract

Paper -a:
In the Acta of William the Conqueror is a 1086 notification of plea for contested lands and privileges at Steyning. The king, clerics and barons convened at Ala Chocha, which is said to be a manor of William d’Eu. There is no place with this name in any other English or Norman record, but the grand assembly implies a prosperous manor. The name is not obviously Saxon, Celtic, Norman, Frankish, or Danish. As for Latin, ala can mean wing, but chocha is unknown. Following the mystery of Ala Chocha led to the 100 salt-pans of Rye in Rameslie, Sussex, and may have discovered a connection between salty slang in 1086 and salty slang in 2016.

Paper -b:
The imagery of drinking in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde is unique in that it traces the trajectory of emotional suffering in a way absent from Chaucer’s Italian sources. Troilus refers to his desire for Criseyde as quenchless thirst (I.406); only by drinking pain and distress can he be cured of lovesickness (III.1213-16). Likewise, when Criseyde speaks of women weeping, she uses the image of drinking sorrow (II.784). This paper explores how the poem connects drinking imagery and the discourse of emotion; it compares the language of emotion in Troilus and Criseyde with the forms deployed in late-medieval affective piety in a hope to better appreciate Chaucer’s deep concern with the physiology of emotion.

Paper -c:
In the Paston Letters, the religious expressions such as 'by the grace of God' seem to have been used so carelessly that they are sometimes thought to have been mere stereotyped expressions which lost their literal meaning. However, when Edmond II wrote, '[…] as I shall inform you at my coming, which shall be on Wednesday next, by the grace of God, who preserve you, […]' the sentence showed not only his gladness of returning on Wednesday but also his love and respect for his brother. Here, the religious expression with a relative clause was certainly used as a comment clause. In this paper, I would like to examine the Paston Letters and try to put these religious expressions in order according to their roles in the sentence.