English place names with sylvanic components as representatives of social-economic development in medieval England (based on the Anglo-Saxon Charters and the Domesday Book)

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to determine the contribution of Old English sylvanic lexemes (wudu, hyrst, holt, lee, graf, wald) to the English toponymic system as conditioned by the socio-economic development of medieval England. The article discusses the semantics of the specified lexemes in the Old English period and its development as conditioned by social and economic processes and analyzes the toponyms of medieval England containing these lexemes as appellatives. The research is based on the material from the Anglo-Saxon Charters and toponymic dictionaries. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that toponyms with a sylvanic component from the Domesday Book are compared for the first time with the names of landmarks of previous centuries from the Anglo-Saxon Charters by their structure and semantics, which allows us to trace the dynamics of the formation of these toponyms. The results of the study showed that toponyms with the appellative wudu, hyrst, holt, lee, graf, wald are formed from free combinations of these terms with descriptors highlighting the distinctive features of the forest that were significant for medieval society (location, tree species, belonging, animals, vegetation, size, quality, color, function). The dynamics of the semantics of the lexemes-appellatives and the use of descriptors reflect changes in the categorization of space and the socio-economic development of medieval England. Active development of forest spaces during the medieval period was marked by a significant contribution of sylvanic lexemes to the toponymy of England (6% of toponyms found in dictionaries).

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About this article

Publication history

• Received: July 4, 2024.
• Published: August 28, 2024.

Keywords

• Англо-саксонские грамоты
• Книга Судного дня
• топонимия Англии
• лексема со значением ‘лес’
• англо-саксонский топоним
• Anglo-Saxon Charters
• Domesday Book
• English toponymy
• woodland term
• Anglo-Saxon place name

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