Sun and Moon, Good and Evil, Come and Go. Studies in English Binomials from ca. 850 to 2008

Hans Sauer

Sun and Moon, Good and Evil, Come and Go. Studies in English Binomials from ca. 850 to 2008

Edited by Monika Kirner-Ludwig, Kerstin Majewski and Gaby Waxenberger

ISBN 978-3-86821-956-2, 400 S., kt., € 48,00 (2024)

ISBN 978-3-98940-055-9, 400 S., € 39,50 (E-Book/pdf, 2024)

The essays collected in this volume represent a selection of publications on binomials and multinomials by Hans Sauer (1946–2022), professor emeritus of English Philology at the University of Munich. The book begins with a comprehensive survey of binomials in the history of English. In each essay, these constructions are then classified according to form and function, etymology, and semantic structure. The volume concludes with a summary of Hans Sauer’s main assumptions and insights. His corpus comprises medieval English historiographical, religious, and scientific texts such as The Wise Book of Philosophy and Astronomy, The Historye of the Patriarks, or Pecock’s Donet, but also literary works like Gower’s Confessio Amantis, Lydgate’s Troy Book, and Richard Coer de Lyon. Hans Sauer’s work also deals with binomials and multinomials in various translations, e.g., Aldred’s glosses to the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Old English versions of Alexander’s Letter to Aristotle and Theodulfi Capitula, translations commonly attributed to King Alfred’s circle, Caxton’s Ovid, and Hoccleve’s translation of Christine de Pizan’s Epistre au dieu d’amours. In addition, he discusses a Middle English and an Early Modern English translation of Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris as well as two Modern English translations of an early Chinese version of the Lotus Sutra. Hans Sauer’s extensive research on binomials showcases their importance as complex linguistic and stylistic phenomena featuring in a wide range of literary and non-literary texts from the early Middle Ages until today.

Buchvorschau / Inhaltsverzeichnis (pdf)