A lexical and morphological analysis of the vernacularization of medical vocabulary in Augsburg from 1470–1500

Robins, Jenny (2023): A lexical and morphological analysis of the vernacularization of medical vocabulary in Augsburg from 1470–1500: the creation and application of the German Medical Incunabula Corpus (GeMedIC). Dissertation, LMU München: Faculty for Languages and Literatures

Abstract

Recent developments in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software make it possible to produce accurate, semi-automated digital transliterations of the first European prints created with Gutenberg’s 15th-century movable type printing press. Prior to these developments, the digital recognition of these first prints or incunabula is challenging due to the difficulty in training models using inconsistent and complex typesets. This research documents the employment of this new OCR technology in the creation of a resource of 15th-century medical texts printed in Augsburg called the German Medical Incunabula Corpus (GeMedIC). The study first introduces key prior research and the socio-historical background information necessary in preparation for various linguistic studies. It then explains the process of GeMedIC’s digital creation and the requirements for its compilation. Thereafter, the raw text corpus is applied to multiple questions in historical linguistics. The first section of the analysis comprises a lexicological study in which a glossary of the key nouns used in GeMedIC is created and explored further using corpus linguistic methods. The next portion of the study focuses on the word formation processes of the key vernacular terminology in the corpus unattested prior to the Middle High German period. This section then discusses the morphological features of these unattested nominal compounds and derivations in GeMedIC along with their inflectional phenomena. The research concludes by exploring textual variation and multilingualism within the corpus in various sections. The first section consists of a glossary of key nouns falling into the categories of foreign words, loan words, loan translations, and loan renderings. This is followed by assorted studies measuring the amount of Latin in GeMedIC and then delves into the possible motivation behind in-text translations, intertextuality, and code-switching within the corpus. The closing chapter emphasizes the continued use of GeMedIC to not only answer scientific questions in linguistics, but also those in history and historical medicine. This research ultimately documents the creation of a specialized corpus of German medical jargon and explores its lexicon in a time in which Latin remains the lingua franca for the genre.

• Item Type: Theses (Dissertation, LMU Munich)
• Keywords: historical sociolinguistics, code switching, linguistics, OCR, incunabula, medicine
• Subjects: 400 Language; 400 Language > 430 Germanic languages German
• Faculties: Faculty for Languages and Literatures
• Language: English
• Date of oral examination: 22. February 2023
• 1. Referee: Schallert, Oliver
• Signature of the printed copy: 0001/UMC 30453