This work supplements the author's two-volume Old English Syntax (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985). It contains what is intended to be a bibliography complete to the end of 1984, of books, doctoral dissertations, articles, notes and reviews, on the syntax of Old English, with cross-references and with comments on items other than reviews; a subject index thereto; and the index of authors and reviewers which is (by design) missing in Old English Syntax but which gives references to both books. It provides an introduction, a section dealing with general works, eleven chapters which parallel those in Old English Syntax, and three appendixes which include inter alia addenda and corrigenda to Old English Syntax. All items other than reviews are allotted a number and some important post-1984 publications are included. There are some 1150 numbered items, later additions being marked A or B. The bias of previous work is demonstrated by the fact that over 45% of these are on chapter II, "The Parts of Speech and their Functions". Three categories are marked by symbols: the first indicates items which can now safely be disregarded, the second those discussed and evaluated in Old English Syntax, and the third those written from a "modern linguistic" point of view. There are deliberate omissions: no reviews are listed for items 1-50A (bibliographies, dictionaries, and grammars) or for collections from which individual items are cited, and abstracts of conference papers are excluded. Items concerned with prefixes and "phrasal verbs" (OES, sections 1060-80) and with element order (OES, sections 3887-951) have been divided into appropriate groups without critical comments for individual items. The word "critical" in the title reflects the fact that the author's overwhelming loyalty is to Old English Syntax and to users of this book, not to the writers whose work he discusses.… (more) |