en:eebo:orthography_spelling - Příručka ČNK

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
====== Lesson 2: Orthography and Spelling. ======
The period covered by the EEBO corpus (roughly 1400-1700) is one in which spelling was not as stable as it is in the present day. As a result of this, one word could have a number of forms, and it is necessary to keep this in mind when conducting a corpus search. For example, the word love also appeared with <u>, as in //loue//, but its other variants include //leoue//, //lowe//, //lowfe// and //lovue//. When searching for a specific lexical item, it is always advisable to consult a reliable source, such as OED Online, for all the possible forms (spelling variants) available in the given period.
====== Special symbols ======
Although the orthography of Early Modern English is very similar to that which we use today, there are several letters, mostly from Old English, which are no longer in use in Present day English.
  * the long <ſ>, which was a variant of the short <s>, could appear anywhere in a word except in the final position, for example in //moſt// (most), //notwithſtandyng// (notwithstanding), //firſt// (first), //Chriſt// (Christ), //oppreſſed// (oppressed)
  * the runic letter “thorn” < þ>, representing the dental fricative, was a possible alternation of the digraph <th>, for example //þaet// (that). It is still present in the modern Icelandic alphabet and therefore accessible via the inbuilt Icelandic keyboard in Kontext (Íslenska).
  * representing the open front vowel is the letter “ash” <æ>, also available on the Icelandic keyboard (Íslenska)

//EEBO_pic01.png The Icelandic keyboard contains the symbols for “thorn” and “ash” which we may need especially when searching in older sections of the corpus//


====== Spelling ======
^ feature ^ description ^
| **<v> and <u>** | there was no distinction between <v> and <u>; they were variants of a single letter, for example in //vntill// (until), //euill// (evil), //giue vp// (give up)|
| **<y> and <i>** | the letters <y> and <i> were frequently interchanged to represent the close front vowel [i], such as //rayne// (rain) | 
| **<i> and <j>** | apart from representing the close front vowel , <i> also functioned as a variant of the consonant letter <j>, hence the forms //ielous// (jealous) and //iust// (just) |
| **double consonants** | doubling of consonants was common when preceded by short vowel, for example in //chinnes// (chins), //eternall// (eternal), //bagge// (bag – the vowel was still short in Early Modern English) |
| **<y> and <þ>** | <y> could also represent the dental fricative, which had previously been written with the runic symbol thorn <þ>, for example //ye olde folk// (the old folk) |
| **silent <e>** | the silent <e> at the end of words, usually marking a preceding long vowel, but also sometimes appearing as a relic of inflectional suffixes, found for example in //plucke// (pluck), //speake// (speak), //feare// (fear) |

There are many other, albeit minor, categories of formal variation, for example:
  * the elision of certain letters, for example in //suffred// (suffered)
  * length in //hée// (he), //séemeth// (seems)
  * the letter <o> frequently represented the sound which we often write as <u>, for example //ſommer// (summer)
  * the postalveolar fricative [ʃ] (the initial sound in shoe) was occasionally represented by the letter <c>, such as in //nacions// (nations), 
  * the syllable <-ic> was often spelt <-ick>, such as in //publick// (public)

As a result, we are faced with forms such as //vnleſſe// (unless), //punniſhing// (punishing) and //lykewyſe// (likewise)

====== Constructing the query ======
In order to secure as many permutations as possible, the query can be written in [[en:pojmy:dotazovaci_jazyk|CQL]] (Corpus Query Language) using a number of regular expressions. Furthermore, the CQL query mode in the [[en:kontext| KonText]] interface is case sensitive, and therefore both variants should be included in the query in order for us to obtain as many relevant hits as possible. See several examples below:
[word="[dD][eiy][uvw][iy]nn?e?"]
Frequency > Node forms provides a listing of all types found with the given query in order of frequency.
//EEBO_pic02.png //

A more extreme example is with the word godly:
Godly: [word="[gG]oo?dle?[yi]c?k?e?"]
This gives us the frequent forms //godly, goodly, godlie, godlye// and //goodlye//, but also much less frequent (and much less anticipated) variants such as //godlyc// and even //godlycke//. In the latter we can observe remnants of the Old English adjectival suffixes <-līc> and <-līce>.


=== Task: Spelling variants ===

Na konkrétním případu si ukažme, jak rozdílné výsledky jednotlivé asociační míry poskytují.

<WRAP round help 50%>
  * Find as many spelling variants of the word //royal// as possible
  * Keep in mind the spelling conventions and irregularities mentioned above
  * Make sure that the Query type is set to CQL
</WRAP>
Trace: • collocations • intercorp • verze4 • akalex • anotace • citace • moznosti_zobrazeni • frekvence • verze7 • struktura_korpusu