List of contents

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
List of illustrations, tables and plates

Introduction
Research objectives

1. Language, culture and discourse in the investigative paradigms of anthropological linguistics

1.1. Paradigms of antropological linguistics
1.1.1 The first – language-centered – paradigm
1.1.2 The second-language-culture-and-mind-centred-paradigm
1.1.2.1.Language as a mirror of systematic changes in the human mind and behaviour
1.1.2.2.On the attentional processing of information
1.1.2.3.Aspects of neuropsychology of coded behaviour
1.1.2.4.On the consilient nature of language and culture
1.1.3.The third-discourse centered paradigm
1.2.Discourse Studies: selected aspects
1.2.2.Speech and discourse communities
1.2.3.Cultural and linguistic transmission of knowledge
1.2.3.1 Language death mechanisms
1.2.4.Speech and discourse habits as an adaptation to social and natural environments
1.2.4.1.Vocabulary as a socio-cultural index of socio-cultural changes
1.2.5.Writing as a power-relation establishing process

2. On the diversification of Scandinavians against the background of other Germanic speech communities – from the perspective of contact linguistics

2.1.Contact linguistics: an overview of current research from the uniformitarian perspective
2.1.1.On the creation of pidgins, creoles and mixed languages
2.1.1.1.A general overview of pidgin creation mechanisms on the basis of the contemporary Neomelanesian Pidgin English
2.1.1.2.Russenorsk
2.1.2.Linguistic ecology of early Scandinavian contacts
2.1.2.1.Scandinavian invasions and the British Isles
2.1.2.2.Early modes of writing in the British Isles
2.1.2.3.Selected aspects of the Norsification of English – the language of the invaded
2.2.Viking Age Scandinavia as a defined cultural entity: a synopsis
2.2.1.Denmark
2.2.2.Norway
2.2.3.Sweden

3.Runic inscriptions within the scope of linguistics and the theory of writing

3.1.Writing systems as a way of textual determining of cultural behaviour
3.1.1.On different approaches to the concept of written language
3.1.2.Factors determining the status of literacy
3.1.3.Forerunners of writing
3.1.3.1.An Eskimo picture writing of Nunivak, Alaska
3.1.4. Graphemes, scripts, and writing systems
3.2.On the development of runic scripts
3.2.1.Theories on the origin of runes
3.2.2.Basic runic periods and runic script types
3.2.2.1.The „Common Germanic” 24-rune-futhark period
3.2.2.1.1.The phonology of Old Runic inscriptions: a summary
3.2.2.1.2.The Anglo-Saxon futhorc
3.2.2.2.The second runic period
3.2.2.3.The third period of runic writing
3.2.2.3.Concluding remarks
3.2.3.North-Central Jutland rune-stones and their inscriptions: the presentation of the material
3.2.4.An attempt at a multidimensional typology of the North-Central Jutland runic texts
3.2.4.1.Commemorative inscriptions
3.2.4.2.Sacrificial inscriptions
3.2.5.An analysis of North-Central Jutland runic texts against the background of selected delineating civilisations models

4.General conclusions

4.1.Linguistic and cultural significance of formulaic runic inscriptions:an outline proposal
4.2.Notes for further research: a philosophical approach toward culture and cognition
4.2.1.Religious discourse as a way of upholding forms of written communication
4.2.1.1.On religious/magical thinking
4.2.2.Rituals and textuality implementations as ways of influencing cultural changes
4.2.4.Early Scandinavian literature as a form of quasi-religious thinking
4.2.5.Research „paleometaphors” and cognitive realities devised by runic graphemes
4.3.Final remarks

References

Literary sources

Online sources