Historical translated texts meet corpus linguistics – exploring a diachronic parallel corpus of Dutch Psalm translations

We are hoping to see you on campus, but if you are unable to attend you are welcome to contact Antoaneta Granberg for the Zoom-link.

Abstract

Some of the oldest texts available for the study of language change are translated texts. These texts are, however, not without challenges for historical linguistics. It is often hard to establish in how far this text reflects the grammar of the source language or the target language. In this presentation, I aim to show how this challenge can be turned into an opportunity by taking a corpus linguistic approach.

I will more specifically explore the use of auxiliaries of an Old Dutch psalm translation, the Wachtendonck Psalter dating the tenth century CE, by comparing this translation retrospectively with its source text in Latin, and prospectively with later translations in Dutch. Together with my colleagues Gerlof Bouma and Nicoline van der Sijs, I have built a diachronic parallel corpus of these historical psalm translations, and compared the contexts in which auxiliaries and inflectional alternatives are used in these parallel translations by means of multidimensional scaling.

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Our historical comparative method results in five proximity maps which allow us to explore and compare the inventory of auxiliaries of the Wachtendonck Psalter through through the lens of subsequent translations in time. Our analysis looks into the role of grammaticalization, as well as the specific nature of the text as an interlinear translation, as possible motivations for the presence and absence of auxiliaries in the Wachtendonck Psalter.

Optional background reading

Evie Coussé, Gerlof Bouma & Nicoline van der Sijs (accepted). Auxiliaries in Old Dutch. A diachronic parallel corpus exploration. Journal of Historical Linguistics. [preprint]