Old English Syntax: A Handbook (Sprachstrukturen Reihe A: Historische Sprachstrukturen).

"Distinguished by a remarkable combination of erudition and lucidity, Aspects of Old English Poetic Syntax provides new insight into the rules that govern syntactic relationships and indicates how these rules differ for prose and verse. Blockley considers the functions of four of the most common and most syntactically important words in Old English, as well as such features of clauses as verb-initial order, negative contraction, and unexpressed but understood subjects. Picking up where Bruce Mitchell's classic Old English Syntax left off, Blockley shows how such common words and structures mark the relationships between phrases and clauses.".

Inside Old English: Essays in Honour of Bruce Mitchell offers readers a comprehensive insight into the world of Old English. Brings together original essays written by prominent specialists in the field in honour of Bruce Mitchell, the eminent Oxford scholar and co-author of the bestselling A Guide to Old English, 6th edition Encourages readers to engage with the literary, cultural, intellectual, religious and historical contexts of Old English texts Explores the problems scholars face in interpreting and editing Old English texts Contributors provide authoritative and informative perspectives, drawing out connections between different contexts and pointing readers towards the essential secondary literature for each topic

The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.

The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.

The book examines the word order of two Old Germanic languages, Old English and Old High German, using a corpus containing samples of three text types: poetry, original prose and translated prose. Thanks to this methodology, it is possible to compare word order patterns in Old English and Old High German, eliminating differences which may be due to stylistic or technical reasons (rhythm, rhyme, Latin influences), as well as to see to what extent text type determines word order and to check whether this phenomenon is universal (triggering similar behaviour in both analysed languages). The book also disproves the hypothesis of the West Germanic syntax, presenting data which show that the word order of the two languages started to diversify already during the Old English/High German period, i. e. before the 11th century AD.

Study of the syntax of Old English and Old Icelandic has for long been dominated by the impressions of early philologists. Their assertions that these languages were «free» in their word-order were for many years unchallenged. Only within the last two decades has it been demonstrated that the word-order of each shows regular patterns which approach the status of rules, and which may be precisely described. This book takes the subject one step further by offering a comparison of the syntax of Old English and Old Icelandic, the two best-preserved Old Germanic languages. Overwhelmingly the two languages show the same word-order patterns - as do the other Old Germanic languages, at least as far as can be determined from the fragments which have survived. It has long been recognised that Old English and Old Icelandic have a high proportion of common lexis and very similar morphology, yet the convention has been to emphasise the differences between the two as representatives respectively of the West and North sub-families of Germanic. The argument of this book is that the similar word-order of the two should instead lead us to stress the similarities between the two languages. Old English and Old Icelandic were sufficiently close to be mutually comprehensible. This thesis receives copious support from historical and literary texts. Our understanding of the Old Germanic world should be modified by the concept of a common «Northern Speech» which provided a common Germanic ethnic identity and a platform for the free flow of cultural ideas.