An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press

voice – the means by which relationships between the subject and the object are
expressed, hence the categories active and passive.
weight – the amount of phonological material contained in a word.
word-formation – the process of creating new words by means of either affix-
ation or compounding.
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AN INTRODUCTION TO OLD ENGLISH
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word order – sequence in which words occur; of particular interest in Old
English is the position of the verb.
zero – a morpheme which contains no phonological elements.
GLOSSARY OF LINGUISTIC TERMS
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Recommended reading
I have chosen to present the recommended reading in sections here, rather than
at the end of each chapter, since I believe this will prove more helpful, allowing
you to contextualise your reading more easily. It will also allow a more coherent
understanding of how the different parts of Old English fit together.
1 General histories
There are very many histories of the English language, but amongst the most
widely used, Barber (1993) and Baugh and Cable (2002) are both very accessible
at this level. Two other works at the same level which are particularly useful
for their illustrative material although less full on many relevant details are
Freeborn (1998) and Graddol (1996). Another excellent work which covers both
the Old and the Middle English period, with a slightly wider selection of texts
is Smith (1999). In the same series as this book, Smith and his colleague Simon
Horobin have written the companion volume on Middle English (Horobin &
Smith 2002).
Of more advanced general histories, by far the best remains Strang (1970). It
is both sophisticated and readable, with many powerful insights. It is to be hoped
that the forthcoming History of the English Language (Hogg & Denison 2003) will
show some of the best from Strang’s work as well as offering a necessary update.
Two other books which proved stimulating reading are Lass (1987) and Smith
(1996). If you wish to proceed further then the multi-volume The Cambridge
History of the English Language is essential (Hogg 1992–2001).
2 Old English
By far the best short grammar of Old English is Quirk and Wrenn (1957), still
widely available in libraries. Its principal shortcomings are the absence of any
texts and the fact that it is rather outdated. Nevertheless it is an invaluable
supplement to this present work. The most used Old English textbook is
Mitchell and Robinson (2001), now in its sixth edition. It has an excellent set of
texts of all types and is hardly likely to be superseded in the foreseeable future.
Despite the authority of its editors, it is somewhat marred, from our point
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of view, by its idiosyncratic style and a perceptibly ‘anti-linguistic’ approach.
Beyond these two works the most interesting book must be Lass (1994), which
leads any reader into a wealth of material.
In terms of grammars as such, however, there no few good grammar books
about Old English which lie between the level of Quirk and Wrenn and the
more detailed handbooks such as Brunner (1965), Campbell (1959), Girvan
(1931) and Hogg (1992), which cannot be recommended for anyone other
than a specialist. Furthermore all of these works concentrate on Old English
phonology and morphology only, reflected in their traditional use of the term
grammar. The best available intermediate grammar is probably Pilch (1970), a
German work. Another German work which was well-received when it was
published was the generative analysis of Wagner (1969). It is now seriously
outdated and it is regrettable that there has never been a comparable later work.
Another early generative work which remains interesting although also out-
dated is Lass and Anderson (1975).
There are a large number of collections of texts which might be mentioned,
but they are largely redundant given the presence of Mitchell and Robinson. But
for anyone who wishes to go further, then the next step forward is Sweet’s Anglo-
Saxon Reader (Whitelock 1967).
3 Phonology
Although I have tried to omit as much phonological discussion as possible in this
text, there are many works which are widely available. A first-class introduction
to English phonology can be found in McMahon (2002), a companion to this
work. A work which many, especially perhaps non-native, readers will be
familiar with is that by A. C. Gimson on the pronunciation of English, which
contains a short discussion of Old English. This work is now in its sixth edition,
having been revised by Alan Cruttenden (Cruttenden 2001). North American
readers, and others too, may find Ladefoged (1993), although neither historical
nor merely concerned with English, an essential guide.
More advanced works on phonology which have good material on English
include Giegerich (1992), Jones (1989) and Lass (1984). Many of the works
mentioned in §2 devote most of, sometimes even all, their time to phonological
issues. Many of the phonological issues I have covered here derive from my own
work in Hogg (1992)
4 Morphology
In morphology it is customary, although not essential, to distinguish between
inflection morphology and derivational morphology, and I have adopted that
approach here. A very useful work which appears in the same series as this work
and which includes a section on the historical sources of present-day English
morphological formations is Carstairs-McCarthy (2002). See also §6 below for
derivational morphology and other issues relating to vocabulary.
RECOMMENDED READING
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In other respects most of the works concerning morphology have been cited
already in §3, especially Quirk and Wrenn (1957). Others will be found in