33rd International Conference of Selim

University of Murcia
Murcia, 13–15 September 2023

Spelling Focusing and Language Standardisation in Late Middle

English: A Type-Token analysis of Caxton’s language

Alberto Peñalver-Ayora (University of Murcia – a.penalverayora@um.es)

Abstract
The introduction of the printing press in 1476 by William Caxton (c. 1422 – c. 1492) in
England was one of the most impressive phenomena in the late Middle Ages. The printing
press would quickly serve as the vehicle for culture, literacy and education and, in linguistic
terms, there is no doubt that it accelerated the diffusion of the emerging standard in its
initial stages. Nevertheless, scholars have raised doubts about the active role of Caxton
himself as the first English printer in the establishment of the incipient norm (Blake 1969;
Thaisen & Blake 2004; Howard-Hill 2006). In this regard, my study is concerned with
Caxton’s own language and I will pay particular attention to the prologues and epilogues
appended to his translations, coming directly from Caxton’s own handwriting. My analysis
will concentrate on spelling focusing, as one of the key processes in standardisation. In
particular, I will analyse the distribution of types and tokens and the frequency of use of
the different variants per type in the belief that (a) reduced figures used conspicuously are a
clue towards more standardised usages and (b) vice versa the high number of tokens per
type repeatedly used can be a clue to a less focused variety. The results obtained from the
analysis of Caxton’s prologues and epilogues will be compared to spelling focusing in
contemporary late Middle English texts, like the Stonor letters (Conde-Silvestre 2019).

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 33rd International Conference of Selim
University of Murcia
Murcia, 13–15 September 2023

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Contact data
Alberto Peñalver-Ayora
English Department/Faculty of Arts
University of Murcia
La Merced Campus, 30001
+34 639740280