The Old English Charms

The development of Old English

This volume is the second in Ringe’s Linguistic history of English, picking up where the previous book, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (Ringe 2006), left off. It covers the time period from the break-up of Proto-Germanic until c. 900 ce, thus ending roughly in the middle of the Old English (OE) period as traditionally conceived. The scope of this monumental project will be apparent ...

‘Charms’ in Childrearing

Traditional or cultural practices are time honored rituals and beliefs which are prevalent in the community and they may pertain to a wide range of activities. A charm is defined as something worn about the person to ward off evil or ensure good fortune. Commonest purpose for use of a charm is for general wellbeing, and is found to be higher among people living in rural areas in joint family wi...

“whatever Charms Is Alien”: John Ashbery’s Everything

When Three Charms but Four Alarms

How many positive claims should be used to produce the most positive impression of a product or service? This article posits that in settings where consumers know that the message source has a persuasion motive, the optimal number of positive claims is three. More claims are better until the fourth claim, at which time consumers’ persuasion knowledge causes them to see all the claims with skept...

A Morphological Analyzer for Old English Verbs

After the fall of Roman in uence in the British Isles at the beginning of the 5 Century A.D., two West Germanic tribes began pouring into Britain in increasing numbers. Originally recruited as mercenaries against the Picts in modernday Scotland, the Angles and Saxons stayed and eventually overwhelmed the Celts and other inhabitants of modern-day England and Wales who had invited them (Wikipedia...