Perceptions of Latin, and its socially strategic uses, within rural communities in late medieval England

我的研究将探索中世纪晚期英国农民社区中拉丁语的潜在认知和经历的广度。我建议不要把拉丁语视为一种“他者”，在社会和文化上属于其他地方，而是一种植根于这些社区的白话。通过了解农民如何看待拉丁语，我们将更好地理解拉丁语在农村社会关系中的作用，不仅关注与拉丁语当局的互动，更重要的是，了解农民如何战略性地使用这种语言。文学学者已经认识到，一种语言在每种背景下并不具有相同的联想，从而丰富了对不同语言在中世纪英国“复杂的多语言文学文化”中的含义的分析(Wogan-Browne，2013)。然而，很少有人注意到拉丁语对农民的潜在意义的广度。相反，拉丁语被认为是由语言和社会限制来定义的，表示或实施排斥(Evans等人，1999；Justice，1994)。农民对拉丁语的态度只有与该语言的真正“所有者”--更高的地位、统治者、教士、文学--以及对他们对拉丁语的战略使用的分析围绕着模仿和拒绝这两个极端结合在一起时才能被理解。从宗教、医学和文学到会计、记录和法律，拉丁语在各种登记册和语境(单语和多种语言)中使用和使用。借助文学研究对语言灵活性的分析，我将考察人们对多种拉丁语的态度，它们之间的关系，以及它们与拉丁语总体范畴的任何特征的相互作用。我将考虑拉丁语是如何跨越社会或文化界限被吸引或推动进入农民社区的，在他们内部创造或使用，并重新传播，以及这些过程如何影响拉丁语被联系和被看待。我将调查农民社区对拉丁语的态度，这些态度比将拉丁语本质上描述为“排他性”更广泛、更复杂(贾斯蒂斯，1994)。我将对农民与拉丁语的接触采取全方位的方法，根据其功能将资料分成几章。功能无疑在创造鲜明而有特色的方言方面发挥了关键作用，将它们与特定的社会群体、创作和交流模式、受众和目标联系在一起。我还将分析这些因素以及性别和文盲如何在这些广泛的职能类别中产生显著的细微差别和不同的视角。关注功能将有助于我研究拉丁语的战略用途，因为它强调了语言选择(有意或本能)的目的。建议的章节是：《拉丁语用于会计和记录》，使用行政文件、法庭记录和一本农民常用书(路易，1980)；《拉丁语用于娱乐》，研究文学和表演；和《拉丁语用于崇拜和魔法》，分析祈祷、教堂拉丁语、布道、牧师和符咒。我将在这些章节中明确地围绕拉丁语的社会战略功能展开讨论。可能的主题是“拉丁文出版”和“拉丁文颠覆”。这些章节将加深我们对拉丁语在社会关系中的作用的理解，不仅展示了农民(或其中的群体)如何看待拉丁语，也展示了他们如何期望不同的受众对他们使用拉丁语做出反应。这项研究将为农民如何看待拉丁语并在与社区内外的人的社会关系中战略性地使用拉丁语提供有价值的见解。它可能有助于研究中世纪晚期的异端邪说&即将到来的宗教改革，拉丁语和翻译是这些运动的关键要素，以及更广泛的乡土政治文化研究。

My research will explore the potential breadth of perceptions and experiences of Latin within peasant communities in late medieval England. I propose to consider Latin not as an 'other', belonging elsewhere socially and culturally, but as a vernacular, embedded within these communities. By discerning how the peasantry perceived Latin, we will better understand Latin's role in rural social relations, looking not only at interactions with Latinate authorities but, more significantly, how the peasantry made strategic use of the language themselves.Literary scholars have recognised that a language does not have the same associations in every context, enriching the analysis of what different languages could mean in medieval England's "complexly multilingual literary culture" (Wogan-Browne, 2013). However, little attention has been paid to the potential breadth of meanings which Latin had for the peasantry. Instead, Latin is envisioned as being defined by linguistic and social restriction, signifying or enacting exclusion (Evans et al, 1999; Justice, 1994). The peasantry's attitudes towards Latin are understood only in relation to the language's true 'owners' - the higher status, the governing, the ecclesiastical, the literary - and analysis of their strategic use of Latin coalesces around two poles of emulation and rejection. These accounts are reductive.Latin was multifaceted, used and encountered in a variety of registers and contexts (mono- and multilingual), from the religious, medicinal and literary, to accounting, record and law. Drawing on literary studies' analyses of the flexibilities of language, I will examine attitudes towards a multiplicity of Latin vernaculars, the relationships between them, and their interactions with any characterisation of an overarching category of Latin. I will consider how Latin was drawn, or pushed, into peasant communities across social or cultural boundaries, created or used within them, and re-transmitted, and how these processes influenced how Latin was related to and regarded. I will investigate attitudes to Latin amongst peasant communities which are broader and more complex than characterising it essentially as "exclusionary" (Justice, 1994).I will take an all-encompassing approach to the peasantry's encounters with Latin, dividing sources into chapters based around their functions. Function surely played a key role in creating distinct & characterful vernaculars, connecting them to particular social groups, modes of creation & communication, audiences, & aims. I will also analyse how these factors, together with gender & illiteracy, created significant nuances & varied perspectives within these broad functional categories. Focusing upon function will support my investigation of Latin's strategic uses as it emphasises that language choice (intentional or instinctive) had purpose.Proposed chapters are: 'Latin for accounting and record', using administrative documents, court records, & a peasant's commonplace book (Louis, 1980); 'Latin for pleasure', studying literature and performance; & 'Latin for worship and magic', analysing prayer, Church Latin, sermons, pastoralia, & charms. I will follow these with chapters based explicitly around Latin's socially strategic functions. Possible themes are 'Latin for publication' & 'Latin for subversion'. These chapters will develop our understanding of Latin's role in social relationships, not only demonstrating how the peasantry (or groups within it) perceived Latin, but how they expected different audiences to react to their use of it.This research will provide valuable insights into how the peasantry perceived Latin & made strategic use of it in social relationships with people both within & outside their communities. It could contribute to studies of late medieval heresies & the impending Reformation, Latin & translation being key elements of these movements, & to studies of vernacular political culture more broadly.