Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2021, Page 169
of the two suffixes once the terms made it to Icelandic? Moreover, in connection
with my earlier point about the context of the language contact, why is (Anglo-
Norman) French origin an option for expens but not for port? Admittedly, etymo-
logical decisions are by no means straightforward and it is difficult to achieve full
consistency; however, the reasons behind etymological decisions and the princi-
ples leading to them should be made explicit to the reader. In that respect,
although the remit of this dissertation is much broader in terms of the languages
involved, some of the principles that the Gersum Project has put forward in con-
nection with a typology for the classification of Norse-derived terms in English
might be helpful for comparison (see Dance, Pons-Sanz and Schorn 2019).
Semantic classification
The dissertation would also benefit from further clarity in connection with the
principles that have been followed for the semantic classification of the terms.
The introduction should outline whether Matteo has classified the terms himself
(and, if so, which criteria he has followed to do so) or whether the classification
relies on any particular thesaurus. For instance, one might wonder why the pair
kirkja – guðshús are associated with Buildings and Materials but not with
Religion. Matteo might want to consult the Thesaurus of Old English or the
Historical Thesaurus of English for useful comparanda. Moreover, the implications
of the semantic classification of the terms for the overall significance of the work
could be brought more clearly to the forefront in the final discussion chapter.
These comments do not detract from the quality of the dissertation and are sim-
ply intended as issues for further consideration when Matteo prepares the dis-
sertation for publication. His work makes a very significant contribution to the
study of Old and Middle Icelandic vocabulary (and the sociocultural contexts
where language contacts took place) and offers really interesting avenues for fur-
ther investigation.
references
See full list of references on pp. 178–181.
Sara M. Pons-Sanz
School of English, Communication and Philosophy
Cardiff University
John Percival Building, Colum Drive
Cardiff CF10 3EU
United Kingdom
pons-sanzs@cardiff.ac.uk
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