Multi-word Vernacular Formations in the Multilingual Durham Account Rolls

Abstract

The textbook account of the history of English suggests that Middle English favoured lexical borrowing and native compounding declined. Still, some types of compounds carried on being productive and new types were developed in Middle English. The non-negligible presence of complex lexical units—encompassing both compounds and other multi-word expressions (see Schlücker 2019)—in late medieval English texts whose base language is Medieval Latin is worth tracing: What kinds of complex lexical units are present in those texts and why are they expressed in the vernacular instead of using Latin equivalents (if any)? This article gives a sketch of the background to the historical development of compounding, putting it alongside (rather than in isolation from) the languages and textual traditions with which English had contact, and provides examples of such compound formations from a case study, the Durham Account Rolls.