The Middle English medical charm: Register, genre and text type variables

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to characterize the Middle English charm as a genre through an analysis of a substantial number of texts taken from a variety of sources. After reviewing some prior theoretical approaches to this genre, I offer a complete description of the charm from a systemic functional perspective that reconciles both the linguistic and the social aspects of charms. First I concentrate on their generic structure potential and the key linguistic realizations frequently associated to each one of the structural stages. After this, I analyze the variables pertaining to the context of situation to conclude that the charm genre is addressed to virtually any type of audience, and that it belongs to the learned tradition, as suggested by the lack of affectiveness in these texts and the appropriate use of botanical and religious terminology.