Form-Meaning Systematicity in Old English Alliterative Verse

Abstract

This article explores the phenomenon of form-meaning mapping in Old English alliterative verse and presents a new account of its conceptual systematicity. It aims to find instances of regular correlation between the alliterative onsets and the lexical semantics of the words. The data include the alliterative /w/- and /s/-datasets, extracted from Beowulf. Despite a long tradition of analyzing alliteration as a poetic device foregrounding marked elements for aesthetic effect, the question relating to correlation between word-initial onset and “alliterative” semantics is far from resolved. I show that the relationship between the onset-related alliterative units and their meanings is not only iconicity—the resemblance between perceptual properties of sound and referent within localized groups—but also systematicity—regular similarity in form and conceptual relatedness of words within the entire lexicon. Form-meaning correlation between the onset of alliterative units and their semantics is determined by the processes of relational analogy, conceptual associativity, and metaphorical extension.