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Eine der Besonderheiten des Wyclif'schen Übersetzungsprojektes ist seine Realisierung zu jener Zeit, als das bibelsprachliche Ausdrucksinventar des Englischen noch recht überschaubar war. Diese Arbeit untersucht anhand ausgewählter lateinischer Wortbildungsmuster und Ablativus-Absolutus-Konstruktionen, wie die Bibelübersetzer dennoch zu einem gelungenen Ergebnis kamen. Denn trotz strenger Anforderungen an den Übersetzer erfüllt die Wyclif'sche Bibel auch die theologischen Forderungen nach einer sinn- und formgetreuen Bibelwiedergabe. Die Betrachtung der Übersetzungslösungen im Rahmen des diskurstraditionellen Forschungszugangs ermöglicht eine neue Interpretation der übersetzerischen Entscheidungen, die sich eindeutig der besonderen Kontaktsprachlichkeit verpflichtet gezeigt haben.

The MS 133 Digby Mary Magdalene has commonly been investigated by paying attention to literary features, while linguistic aspects have seldom been taken into consideration, with the result that any deviation from the norm has been classified as scribal inconsistency. However, what has been regarded as scribal carelessness actually seems to be a modern misunderstanding of scribal practices. Indeed, the significant combination of Southern, Midlands and Northern elements featuring in the language of Mary Magdalene is the result of the scribe's desire to faithfully reproduce the author's design, in which variants may have a marked social function. We can thus infer that the Mary Magdalene author probably created a sort of biblical koiné, shared with the audience, which was realized with the linguistic varieties offered by the existing late Middle English dialects and clearly exploited not only for poetic but also, and above all, for religious purposes. At the same time, the text puts an innovative emphasis on the figure of Mary Magdalene, who simultaneously plays the role of sinner and saint, virgin and prostitute, female and male. Thanks to the methodological approach of this volume, the author shows that most unusual forms are diatopic and diastratic alternatives used in specific religious contexts to realize well-defined sociolinguistic purposes.