Churls, Harlots and Sires: the semantics of Middle English synonyms of man.

ABSTRACT

While early students of linguistics such as, Bechstein (1863), Paul (1880), Breal (1879), Trench (1892) devoted much effort to the issue of diachronic semantic change, the second half of the 20th century was, until the 1980s, marked by a particular dearth of publications on the problems of diachronic semantics. This overall picture started to change with the advent of cognitive linguistics as new ideas caught on and were put to the test by those who thought that cognitive linguistics offered the means by which historical semantic changes could be studied more successfully.

This preliminary analysis is concerned with meaning and change of meaning within a well-defined group of lexical categories that are, panchronically speaking, ME synonyms of man (cf. Kleparski 1996, 1997). Notice that this report merely signals a number of problems rather than satisfactorily solves any of them. Although I believe that no available theory is capable of encompassing all the facts concerning meaning and its development, the absence of a strict formal apparatus here does not mean that I am in favour of semantic botanising; the aim set to what follows is the exploration of the semantic status of a group of lexical categories during a strictly-defined historical period.

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Hallig and Wartburg (1963) list three main conceptual macrocategories, i.e. UNIVERSE, HUMAN BEING and HUMAN BEING AND UNIVERSE, of which the conceptual macrocategory HUMAN BEING has undoubtedly drawn most attention and research. The preliminary analysis proposed here is a continuation of my long-lasting interest in diachronic semantics that started with the publication of Kleparski (1986), where an attempt was made to analyse pejorative developments in the history of English. In turn, Kleparski (1990) offers a study of evaluative developments in the conceptual macrocategory HUMAN BEING, while in Kleparski (1996) I narrowed my perspective to the conceptual category BOY. Finally, Kleparski (1997) carries out the analysis of semantic developments of ME and EModE synonyms of GIRL/YOUNG WOMAN. Here, we are concerned with the semantic content of a large corpus of ME (1050-1500) synonyms of man which is, however, but a fragment of the onomasiological dictionary one could list for the conceptual macrocategory MALE ADULT HUMAN BEING. Figure 1 lists the corpus of ME synonyms of man:

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

2. OE heritage

Notice that the use of several categories documented for the sense 'man' is restricted to the OE period and hence these lexical categories are not provided in Figure 1. This lot includes both morphologically simple lexical categories such as beorn, carl, haele, maga, waepned, esne, as well as a substantial number of morphologically complex categories, such as waepnedmann, woruldman, carlmann, folcagende, folcbearn, folcwer, freomann, gum mann, gumrinc and others. On the other hand, the ME body of synonyms of man comprises a body of lexical categories used in the sense already in Anglo-Saxon times. Thus, Germanic wer (cf. OFris, OHG wer, ON verr) appears already in Beowulf alongside with the sense 'husband' documented from OE down to the middle of the 13th century (OE > 1275). The lexical category churl was employed in the sense 'man' from OE until late 14th century. Like many other lexical categories associated with the core of the conceptual category HUMAN BEING, already in the EME period churl underwent the process of pejoration as it started to be used in the now predominant yet archaic sense 'base and low fellow'. OE sc(e)alc (cf. OFris, OHG scalc, scalh 'servant'), was originally linked to the conceptual microcategory SERVANT as it was used in the sense 'serving man', while in alliterative poetry it acquired the status of a synonym of man documented from OE down to the beginning of the 16th century (OE > 1508). The Germanic guma (cf. OHG gumo, gomo, Goth, guma) in poetic use was from the OE times till the 16th century used in the sense 'man'. Another Germanic category is here (cf. MDu herre, Gmc herr), which was used in LOE and ME poetry, in the sense 'man of high position or rank', and sometimes in the generalised sense 'man' (OE > 1530). Likewise, Germanic rink (OS rink, ON rekkr) in poetry appears in the sense 'man', especially in the specialised sense 'warrior'. The word makes its first appearance in Beowulf and is documented in the sense 'man' down to the mid 16th century (OE > 1557). OE segge (related to OS segg, ON segg-r), is documented in the sense 'man' from the OE times till the late 16th century, but in the 16th century it was merely used as a contemptuous appellation. OE freke, frequently appears in the sense 'warrior', though usually the category is used as a poetic synonym for 'man', first documented in Beowulf down to the early 17th century (OE > 1605). Originally, the now central lexical category man was employed from OE times in the sense 'human being irrespective of sex'. Notice that in the surviving use, the sense 'person' occurs in general or indefinite quotations, for example, with such adjectives as every, any, no, and often in the plural, especially in the collocation with all, any, some, many, few. However, already during the LOE period man is testified in the sense 'male person, man' with special reference to sex and this seems to have been the central sense of the lexical category for the ME period in question.

3. ME acquisitions

OE carman, apparently related to Norse karmann, is a variant form of an Anglo-Saxon compound karlmann. This lexical category is documented in the sense 'man' from the middle of the 12th century down to the beginning of the 15th century (1135 > ?a1400). One of the few ME compound expressions mother's son is a monosemous collocation appearing chiefly in the collocation every mother 's son in the sense 'man' from the middle of the 13th century until the 20th century (1240 > 1896). ME heme is of unknown origin and is found only in two documented quotations in the sense 'man'. ME Germanic hind, present in English since the OE times, was originally linked to the conceptual category SERVANT as it was used in the sense 'domestic servant' until the middle of the 19th century. During the course of the 13th century there developed the sense 'fellow, man', present in English till the 17th century. The Romance piece (cf. OF pece, It pezza 'piece of clothing') appears in ME at the beginning of the 13th century in the sense 'a part, a bit', and is documented for this sense down to the Present-day English (1225 > 20th c.). Interestingly enough, in the 13th century in absolute, elliptical, contextual, or conventional use piece started to be used in the sense 'an individual, man'. This sense is well documented for the ME period, and although the last OED quotation comes from the early 20th century, after the close of ME period the word seems to have been scarcely used in this sense, and the sense with which the word has come down to our times, that is 'girl, woman especially regarded as a sexual object' first appeared in the 14th century.

ME buck which goes back to OE buc (cf. Du bok, OHG bock, all meaning primarily 'he-goat'), has been used since Anglo-Saxon times in the sense 'male deer or the male of other related animals'. By the process of zoosemy, at the beginning of the 14th century the word started to be used with reference to man in various associations. Although the evidence for the ME period is relatively scarce the word has come down to ModE in the sense 'dashing fellow, a dandy'. ME groom is of uncertain etymology, and on the basis of the OED data one may say that 'boy, male child' seems to have been its original sense documented from the beginning of the 13th century until the late 17th century (1225 > 1675). In the middle of the 14th century groom developed the sense 'man, male person'. Simultaneously, at the end of the 13th century there appears the sense 'servant' that has come down to our times (1297 > 20th c.). The Romance sire (cf. OF sire, L senior) was originally from the early 13th century placed before personal names denoting knighthood, or with common nouns in the sense 'sir' throughout the ME period. In the middle of the 14th century the word started to be used in the generalised sense 'man, fellow', frequently with the implication that the person referred to is of some importance (1362 > 19th c.).

The lexical category harlot is most probably a French borrowing (cf. OF herlot, harlot, arlot 'lad, vagabond', It arlotto 'a lack-Latin or hedge-priest'). Originally, from the early 13th century onward the word was employed in the pejorative sense 'villain, low fellow'. At the end of the ME period harlot was occasionally used in the sense 'man, fellow', though the sense is poorly documented. During the course of the 15th century harlot underwent the process of moral pejoration as it developed the present-day sense 'female prostitute'. The Germanic category guest (cf. ModG gast, Sw Gast) from the OE period was used in its etymological sense sense 'one entertained at the house or table of another person'. From the end of the 14th century until the close of the ME period guest was used in the generalised sense 'man, fellow'. The word tailard is a ME opprobrious epithet founded on a legend told first of St. Augustine at Dorchester (or Rochester), and later of Thomas Becket in Kent, in which the people of these places were said to be cursed with tails for indignities done by attaching a tail to these holy men. The word is documented in one ME quotation only.

The Germanic tulk (cf. Da, Sw tolk 'translator', MHG tolc, tolke, 'interpreter') was employed in the sense man during the late ME period. The Romance category sergeant (cf. Sp sirviente, Pg, It servente 'servant'), started off in English in the sense 'a serving-man, servant', before it acquired the sense 'common soldier'. Again, the lexical category in question originally linked to the conceptual microcategory SERVANT at the end of the 14th century developed in alliterative verse the sense 'man' (?a1400 > 15..). Germanic fellow appears already in OE in the sense 'a partner, colleague'. During the course of the 14th century fellow underwent the process of degeneration as there developed a specialised sense-thread 'accomplice'. What is of primary interest to us is that at the end of the ME period fellow developed the sense 'man, male person', the sense that has survived till present-day usage, most frequently with such qualifying adjectives as good, bad, brave, clever, foolish, old, young, etc. (c1440 > 20th c.). Finally, the Germanic horse (MLG ros, ors, Du ros) has been present in its primary sense in English since Anglo-Saxon times. At the end of the ME period horse underwent a zoosemic development as it started to be applied contemptuously or playfully to a man, with reference to various qualities of the quadruped (1500 > 20th c.).

4. Preliminary observations

The corpus of ME synonyms of man presented here may be grouped into several subcategories, depending on the classificatory criteria adopted by the analyst. One of the yardsticks that may be applied for this division is etymology although, as has been observed, a surprisingly great number of ME synonyms of man are of uncertain provenance (heme, groom). A great share of ME synonyms of man are of Germanic origin (wer, sc(e)alc, guma, here, rink, segge, freke, carman, mother's son, hind, buck, guest, fellow and horse), though there is a substantial number of Romance importations, such as piece, sire, harlot and sergeant). This confirms the observations made earlier in the literature of the subject that during the ME period the conceptual category HUMAN BEING has attracted a great number of importations from French (cf. Kleparski 1996, 1997). Therefore, due attention should be paid to the role of borrowing in both the rise and the semantic development of ME synonyms of man. In particular, one may reasonably suppose that the ME influx of French borrowings into the field HUMAN BEING may have been largely responsible for either disappearance or change of meaning of a number of synonyms of man, both those inherited from the OE period and those that acquired the sense 'man' during the ME period.

When we apply the criterion of morphological complexity we see that, apart from the two categories carman and mother's son, all ME synonyms of man are morphologically simple forms. This observation is at odds with the observation made in Kleparski (1997) with respect to ME synonyms of GIRL/YOUNG WOMAN where almost one third of ME synonyms of girl/young woman are morphologically complex, as well as with the results of the analysis of ME synonyms of BOY where almost half of ME categories used in the sense 'boy, young man' are morphologically complex.

Beyond doubt, the most interesting of all is the question of semantic complexity of the analysed lexical categories. Notice that several ME synonyms of matt are monosemous categories such as guma, segge, carman, mother's son, heme, employed exclusively in the sense 'man, male adult person' during the ME period. However, as Figure 2 Shows, the majority of ME synonyms of man are polysemous in nature. Significantly, the meanings of the great majority of polysemous categories do not exceed the boundaries of the conceptual macrocategory MALE HUMAN BEING (wer, scalc, guma, here, segge, freke, carman, mother 's son, heme, hind, groom, sire, guest, seargant, fellow).

Another preliminary conclusion that may be formulated is that very frequently the historical appearance of the sense 'man' is either preceded or followed by the rise of the sense 'servant'. This observation confirms the results of the analysis carried out in Kleparski (1990) where the analysis of social pejoration of a number of OE lexical categories linked to the conceptual category HUMAN BEING is carried out. In other words, very frequently lexical categories that belong to the panchronic onomasiological dictionary of synonyms of man may and most frequently do belong to other onomasiological dictionaries of other concepts, in this case the panchronic dictionary of the conceptual category SERVANT. This fact simply represents the diachronic duality and relative independence of concepts and the expressions associated with these concepts (see Kleparski 1996: 86).

Another comment that can be made is that the ME body of synonyms of man contains two cases of zoosemic development, which merely signal a large-scale operation of animal metaphor in English at a later period. As convincingly shown in a number of works such as Schreuder (1929), Hughes (1978), Kleparski (1990, 2002), the animal kingdom is one of the most powerful centres of metaphorical expansion and perennial sources of imagery. The results of the studies carried out so far seem to point to the fact that most of the cases of animal metaphor are targeted at the conceptual category HUMAN BEING. The body of English animal metaphors analysed in the existing literature seems to point to a general tendency to form evaluatively and/or emotionally charged semantic extensions from the conceptual domains MAMMALS and BIRDS and not, for example, AMPHIBIANS, FISH or INSECTS. Notice that the zoosemic developments pertaining to the ME synonyms of man seem to confirm this tendency. The finding that man tends to apply to himself most often the names of those animals to which he is closest or which he is most familiar with seems only natural. As noted by Krzeszowski (1997: 73), higher forms of animal life such as, in particular, mammals are more prototypical than other animals.

To conclude, this preliminary analysis poses more questions than it can possibly answer. One of the basic questions which remain to be answered is that of the ME systemically primary designating expressions used in the sense 'man'. It appears that certain ME categories may readily be discarded, especially those that are poorly documented or chiefly poetical in character. One may reasonably suppose that it is ME man that could be ascribed the role of the primary designating category, but in order to verify this hypothesis one would have to engage in in-depth text and corpora studies.

Figure 2.

LEXICAL    PRIMARY SENSE                       SECONDARY
CATEGORY                                       SENSE(S)

wer        'man'                               'husband'
sc(e)alc   'servant'                           'man' (poetical)
guma       'man' (poetical)
here       'man of high position' (poetical)   'man' (poetical)
churl      'male human being'                  'base and crafty man'
rink       'man'                               'warrior'
freke      'warrior'                           'man' (poetical)
man        'human being'                       'man'
hind       'domestic servant'                  'fellow, man'
piece      'a bit, a fragment'                 'man'
buck       'male deer'                         'dashing fellow'
groom      'boy, male child'                   1) 'man, male person'
                                                   (poetical)
                                               2)'servant'
harlot     'villain, low fellow'               'man, fellow'
guest      one entertained at the house'       'man, fellow'
sergeant   'a serving man, servant'            'man' (poetical)
fellow     'partner, colleague'                1)'accomplice'
                                               2)'male person, man'
horse      'horse'                             'man' (playful or
                                               contemptuous)

LEXICAL    SENSE
CATEGORY   'MAN'

wer        OE > 13th c.
sc(e)alc   OE > 16th c.
guma       OE > 16th c.
here       OE > 16th c.
churl      OE > 14th c.
rink       OE > 16th c.
freke      OE > 17th c.
man        OE > 20th c.
hind       13th > 17th c.
piece      13th > 17th c.
buck       14th > 20th c.
groom      14th > 19th c.
harlot     14th c.
guest      14th > 15th c.
sergeant   14th > 15th c.
fellow     15th > 20th c.
horse      15th > 20th c.

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[1970] [Reprinted].

GRZEGORZ A. KLEPARSKI

University of Rzeszow