Ewa Ciszek-Kiliszewska Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań “Middle English preposition and adverb twix.”
ABSTRACT
The present paper discusses the Middle English lexeme twix, which could function as a preposition and as an adverb. The aim of the study is to revise the etymology of twix as well as to construct its semantic profile, dialect distribution, textual distribution and token frequency. The study is based on such acknowledged electronic databases as the Middle English Dictionary online, the Oxford English Dictionary online, the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse and A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English as well as on some complete Middle English texts supplementing the corpus. The dictionaries are used to review the etymology of twix and to draw tentative conclusions concerning a semantic profile, dialect distribution and textual distribution of twix. Subsequently, the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse and some complete Middle English texts are examined in order to corroborate the latter three features as well as to calculate the number of tokens of twix. Moreover, the study of the corpus, demonstrating the use of twix also in texts/manuscripts not included by the Middle English Dictionary online or A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, helps to provide a more complete record of texts/manuscripts and authors employing twix.