Francisco Alonso-Almeida
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Email: falonso at dfm dot ulpgc dot es

Speech Acts and Orality in Middle English Medical Charms

My presention deals with speech acts and oral features in a corpus of thirty six texts of different length from several sources (Braekman 1986, Griffiths 1971, Hunt 1990, Jones 1997, Ogden 1938). All the charms are exclusively intended for healing purposes. A previous study on these charms has shown that the Middle English charm constitute a genre in itself, which differs from other related genres, such as the recipe and the prayer (Alonso-Almeida, forthcoming). Other studies of charms in medieval England are Olsan (2001 and 2003). Olsan’s works concentrate on the formal and social aspects of the texts. In my study, I want to explore oral features in detail since it is often argued that orality is a characterising feature of charms. One point of special interest is the analysis and classification of speech act types recurrent in these texts. The findings from here will let us determine the degree of formality and institutionalization of the language in the texts, which, in turn, will contribute to a register characterisation of the medieval English charm.

References:

• Alonso Almeida, F. fc. The Middle English Charm: Register, Genre and Text Type Variables. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen.
• Braekman, W.L. 1986. A Collection of Medicinal Recipes and Charms , Studies on Alchemy, Diet, Medecine and Prognostication in Middle English, Scripta 22, Brussels: Omirel, 113-143.
• Griffiths, J. G. 1971. 'Arepo' in the Magic 'Sator' Square. The Classical Review 85: 6-8.
• Hunt, T. 1990. Popular Medicine in Thirteenth-Century England: Introduction and Texts. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
• Jones, M. C. 1997. Analysis of the Language and Style of a Late Medieval Medical Recipe Book: Glasgow University Library MS Hunter 117. Master Dissertation. Glasgow University Library.
• Ogden , M. S. ed. 1938 The ‘Liber de diversis medicinis’ in the Thornton Manuscript (MS. Lincoln Cathedral A.5.2), EETS, o.s. 207. London: Oxford University Press.
• Olsan, L. T. 2001. Latin Charms of Medieval England: Verbal Healing in a Christian Oral Tradition. Oral Tradition 7: 116-42.
• Olsan, L. T. 2003 Charms and Prayers in Medieval Medical Theory and Practice. Social History of Medicine 16.3: 343-366.

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