The adjective gesælig in Old English prose: towards a characterization of the lexical field of holiness in Old English
Abstract
The adjective gesælig is one of the representatives of the lexical field of Holiness in Old English in the perspective of Trier's (1931) theory and its later modifications (Schwyrter, 1996) (alongside with other adjectives and participles (gebleotsod, gehalgod, halig as defined in TOE online: "Holiness :: Characterized by holiness, blessed."). The speech shall present the meaning of the word gesælig in the context of prose texts as they are presented in York Helsinki Toronto Parsed Corpus of Old English (by using the query [word="(ge)?sæli?g?(a|u|o|e)?(n|m|s)?t?" & tag="ADJ.*"]) with the identification of conceptual fields, i.e. who or what can be gesælig or who/what can be granted this quality.
It also identifies whether the meaning shifts according to the syntactical use of the adjective (i.e. whether it is used predicatively or attributively as presented in Fúsik (2018) and potentially names other adjectives from the same lexical field which may be preferred in the syntactical role. The analysis also includes the comparative and superlative form.
Lastly, the presentation shall also present a comparative study of the meanings between gasælig and halig as the similar research for the later named adjective has been conducted (Fúsik, 2018). In this section, it will attempt to answer the possible question for what reason the adjective meaning "blessed" developed into the modern day meaning of the word silly as well as trace possible indication whether the word is strictly used in Christian collocations.