Medical and Scientific Writing in Late Medieval English

Book Description The late middle ages in England saw a flowering of scientific writing in the vernacular, taking English discourse in new directions and establishing new textual genres. This book examines the sociolinguistic causes and effects of that process, on the basis of the empirical evidence from manuscripts and a large computerised corpus. Topics covered include scriptorial "house-styles," code-switching, translation strategies, and transmission processes. The book offers important new insights into vernacularisation phenomena, and makes a significant methodological contribution to corpus linguistics. It will be welcomed by historical linguists and medievalists alike.