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

我的研究将探讨在中世纪晚期英格兰的农民社区内的看法和拉丁语的经验的潜在广度。我建议不要把拉丁语看作是属于其他社会和文化的“他者”，而是作为一种方言，嵌入这些社区。通过了解农民如何理解拉丁语，我们将更好地理解拉丁语在农村社会关系中的作用，不仅要关注与拉丁当局的互动，更重要的是，农民如何战略性地使用这种语言。文学学者已经认识到，一种语言并不是在每一种语境中都有相同的联系，这丰富了对中世纪英格兰“复杂的多语言文学文化”中不同语言可能意味着什么的分析（Wogan-Browne, 2013）。然而，很少有人注意到拉丁语对农民的潜在含义的广度。相反，拉丁语被设想为被语言和社会限制所定义，表示或颁布排斥（Evans et al ., 1999; Justice, 1994）。农民对拉丁语的态度只能从语言的真正“主人”——更高的地位、统治、教会、文学——和他们对拉丁语的战略使用的分析中理解，这两个极端是模仿和拒绝。这些说法都是简化的。拉丁语是多面性的，在不同的记录和语境（单语和多语）中使用和遇到，从宗教、医学和文学，到会计、记录和法律。借鉴文学研究对语言灵活性的分析，我将研究对拉丁语方言多样性的态度，它们之间的关系，以及它们与拉丁语总体类别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到农民社区，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的相关和看待方式。我将调查农民社区对拉丁语的态度，这种态度比将其定性为“排他性”更广泛、更复杂（Justice, 1994）。我将对农民与拉丁语的接触采取全面的方法，根据其功能将资料分成章节。在创造独特的、有特色的白话文，将它们与特定的社会群体、创作和传播模式、受众和目标联系起来的过程中，功能无疑发挥了关键作用。我还将分析这些因素，以及性别和文盲，如何在这些广泛的功能类别中产生重大的细微差别和不同的观点。关注功能将支持我对拉丁语战略用途的研究，因为它强调语言选择（有意的或本能的）是有目的的。建议的章节有：“拉丁语用于会计和记录”，使用行政文件、法庭记录和农民的日常书籍（Louis, 1980）；“拉丁语的快乐”，学习文学和表演；&“崇拜和魔法的拉丁语”，分析祈祷，教会拉丁语，讲道，牧歌和魅力。接下来的章节将明确围绕拉丁语的社会战略功能展开。可能的主题是“拉丁语代表出版”和“拉丁语代表颠覆”。这些章节将发展我们对拉丁语在社会关系中的作用的理解，不仅展示农民（或其内部群体）如何感知拉丁语，而且展示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感知拉丁语并在与社区内外的人的社会关系中策略性地使用拉丁语提供有价值的见解。它有助于研究中世纪晚期的异端和即将到来的宗教改革，拉丁语和翻译是这些运动的关键因素，以及更广泛地研究本土政治文化。

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.