Buried Treasure in the Tyndale Corpus: Innovations and Archaisms
Buried Treasure in the Tyndale Corpus: Innovations and Archaisms

Summary/Abstract: The translations and polemical texts that make up the Tyndale Corpus are filled with linguistic buried treasure: lexical innovations, syntactic archaisms, metalinguistic commentary, and features related to language and dialect prejudice. The use of computer corpus analysis can reveal and illuminate what makes Tyndale different from other writers of his time, and why he is so important to the history of English and the modern religious register. Examining the patterns hidden in his work does not prevent us from appreciating the beauty of his writing as some literary scholars might suggest. Instead, it al-lows us to better understand the approach he took to his work. This paper summa-rizes and exemplifies Tyndale’s contributions to English historical linguistics. The methodology involves reviewing previous scholarly assessments of Tyndale’s work, examining in detail his particular lexical and syntactic choices using text and cor-pus computer software, and, most especially, allowing William Tyndale to speak for himself.

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