The adjective (ge)sælig in Old English prose: Towards a characterisation of the lexical field of holiness in Old English
Abstract
The adjective gesælig is a representative 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 past participles (ge)bleotsod, (ge)halgod, halig as defined in TOE online: HOLINESS: CHARACTERIZED BY HOLINESS, BLESSED.). The aim of this chapter is to determine what position this adjective occupies in this field in terms of its syntactical use and specific meaning with reference to the other members of the lexical field as well as the field of HAPPINESS, which it is also a part of.
The chapter shall present the meaning and use of (ge)sælig in the context of prose texts using the York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English as well as further analyse it by identifying and classifying its conceptual fields, i.e., who or what can be (ge)sælig. The chapter furthermore includes a comparative study of the findings between (ge)sælig and halig, as the same methodology has already been applied to halig in Fúsik (2018).