Ere and before in English historical corpora, with special reference to the
Corpus of English Dialogues
In this paper, the use of two roughly synonymous temporal adverbial links, ere and
before, will be discussed. The survey will cover the history of English, from Old to Present-day English. It
is based on historical corpora, particularly on the Corpus of English Dialogues (1560–1760). Ere
(Old English ær) was originally temporal, while before (Old English beforan)
goes back to the spatial form. In Old English and Early Middle English ere is clearly more common than
before; from Late Middle English on, before becomes the more favoured link. The
Corpus of English Dialogues and later corpora indicate that the use of ere is remarkably
restricted to informal and speech-related discourse.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Old English
- 3.Middle and Early Modern English
- 4.
Corpus of English Dialogues
- 5.Other Modern English corpora
- 6.Final remarks
- Notes
-
Corpora
-
References