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Dr. Mark Faulkner
Ussher Assistant Professor, English

Biography

Mark Faulkner was appointed as Ussher Assistant Professor in Medieval Literature in September 2016, after four years as Lecturer in Medieval English at the University of Sheffield. Prior to that he taught at University College Cork, Swansea University and the University of Oxford, where he studied for his D. Phil. His research focuses on medieval writing in its manuscript, historical and linguistic contexts, particularly in the long twelfth century.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Mark Faulkner, Corpus philology: Using the Dictionary of Old English to get bigger data for Old English spelling variation, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 38, (4), 2023, p1508 - 1521 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

Corpus Philology, Big Dating and Bottom-Up Periodisation in, editor(s)Stephen Pink Anthony Lappin , Dark Archives: Voyages into the Medieval Unread and Unreadable, 2019-2021, Oxford, 2022, pp280 - 308, [Mark Faulkner] Book Chapter, 2022

Mark Faulkner, A New Literary History of the Long Twelfth Century: Language and Literature between Old and Middle English, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022 Book, 2022 DOI

Mark Faulkner, The Old English Bede: a new source for the F-version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Medium Aevum, 90, (2), 2021, p217 - 229 Journal Article, 2021

Mark Faulkner, Habemus Corpora: Reapproaching Philological Problems in the Age of 'Big' Data, Anglia: Journal of English Philology, 139, 2021, p94 - 127 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

Mark Faulkner, Using Manuscript Books as a Source for Medieval Culture, Oxford, 2021 Case Study, 2021 DOI

English in, editor(s)Anthony Grant , The Oxford Handbook of Language Contact, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, pp374 - 387, [Mark Faulkner and Joan Beal] Book Chapter, 2020

Mark Faulkner, Quantifying the Consistency of 'Standard' Old English Spelling, Transactions of the Philological Society, 118, (1), 2020, p192 - 205 Journal Article, 2020 DOI

Mark Faulkner, Review of Language and Chronology: Text Dating by Machine Learning, by Gregory Toner and Xiwu Han , Linguist List, 2020 Review, 2020

Mark Faulkner, 'Medieval Manuscripts', Oxford Bibliographies Online, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2019, - Bibliography, filmography, etc., 2019 DOI

Mark Faulkner, Review of Conquest and Transformation, The Oxford English Literary History, Vol. 1, 1000-1350, by Laura Ashe , Review of English Studies, 69, 2018, p967-971 Review, 2018

Mark Faulkner, Dublin, Trinity College, MS 492: A New Witness to the Old English Bede and its Twelfth-Century Context, Anglia: Zeitschrift fur Englische Philologie, 135, (2), 2017, p274 - 290 Journal Article, 2017

The Eadwine Psalter and Twelfth-Century English Vernacular Literary Culture in, editor(s)Tamara Atkin Francis Leneghan , The Psalms and Medieval English Literature: from the Conversion to the Reformation, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 2017, pp72 - 107, [Mark Faulkner] Book Chapter, 2017

Mark Faulkner, The Twelfth-Century Annotations to the Old English Hexateuch: Some Corrected Readings, ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 30, (1), 2017, p6 - 9 Journal Article, 2017 URL

Mark Faulkner, Review of The Oxford Psalter (Bodleian MS Douce 320), by Ian Short , Speculum, 92, 2017, p1251-2 Review, 2017

Mark Faulkner, Review of Studies in Linguistic Variation and Change: From Old to Middle English, by Fabienne Toupin and Brian Lowrey , Linguist List, 28.810, 2017 Review, 2017

Mark Faulkner, Linguistic Evidence for the Compilation of Twelfth-Century Manuscripts containing Old English: the case of Cotton Vespasian D. xiv, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 118, 2017, p279 - 316 Journal Article, 2017

Mark Faulkner, Review of Bury St Edmunds and the Norman Conquest, by Tom Licence , Speculum, 91, 2016, p522-3 Review, 2016

Mark Faulkner, Further Evidence for Knowledge of Werferth's Translation of Gregory's Dialogues at Canterbury around 1200, Notes and Queries, 63, (4), 2016, p514 - 515 Journal Article, 2016

Orderic and English in, editor(s)Charles C. Rozier Daniel Roach Giles E. M. Gaspar Elisabeth van Houts , Orderic Vitalis: Life, Works and Interpretations, Woodbridge, Boydell, 2016, pp100 - 126, [Mark Faulkner] Book Chapter, 2016 URL

Mark Faulkner, Review of The Peterborough Version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Rewriting Post-Conquest History, by Malasree Home , The Mediaeval Journal, 6, (1), 2016, p136-9 Review, 2016

Mark Faulkner, Review of The Long Twelfth Century View of the Anglo-Saxon Past, by Martin Brett and David A. Woodman , English Historical Review, 131, 2016, p876-8 Review, 2016

Mark Faulkner, Review of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: a bibliographical handlist of manuscripts and manuscript fragments written or owned in England up to 1100, by Helmut Gneuss and Michael Lapidge , Notes and Queries, 62, 2015, p317-9 Review, 2015

Teaching Beowulf in its Manuscript Context in, editor(s)Howell D. Chickering Allen J. Frantzen Robert F. Yeager , Teaching Beowulf in the Twenty-First Century, Tempe, Arizona Center for medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2014, pp169 - 175, [Mark Faulkner] Book Chapter, 2014 URL

Archive Journal, 4, (2014), Mark Faulkner, Amber Regis, Emma Rhatigan and Graham Williams, [eds.] Journal, 2014

Mark Faulkner, Review of Living through Conquest: the politics of early English, by Elaine Treharne , Review of English Studies, 65, 2014, p922-3 Review, 2014

Mark Faulkner, Review of John Lydgate and the Poetics of Fame, by Mary C. Flannery , Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 36, 2014, p306-8 Review, 2014

Mark Faulkner, Review of Old Northumbrian Morphosyntax and the (Northern) Subject Rule, by Marcelle Cole , Linguist List, 26.3102, 2014 Review, 2014

Mark Faulkner and Stephen Pelle, Worcester, Cathedral Library, Q. 29, fols. 133-7: An Early Middle English Sermon and Its Context, Mediaeval Studies, 75, 2013, p147 - 176 Journal Article, 2013

Mark Faulkner, Review of A Conspectus of Scribal Hands Writing English, 960-1100, by Donald Scragg , The Medieval Review, 13.03.17, 2013 Review, 2013

Mark Faulkner, Review of Conceptualizing Multilingualism in England, c. 800 - c. 1250, by Elizabeth Tyler , English Historical Review, 128, 2013, p923-6 Review, 2013

Mark Faulkner, Archaism, Belatedness and Modernisation: "Old" English in the Twelfth Century, Review of English Studies, 63, 2012, p179 - 203 Journal Article, 2012

Mark Faulkner, Review of Purloined Letters: the reception of the Anglo-Saxon Hexaetuch in the Twelfth Century, by A. N. Doane and W. P. Stoneman , Review of English Studies, 63, 2012, p841-2 Review, 2012

Mark Faulkner, Rewriting English Literary History 1042-1215, Literature Compass, 9, 2012, p275 - 291 Journal Article, 2012

Mark Faulkner, Review of From the Norman Conquest to the Black Death: an anthology of writings from England, Notes and Queries, 59, 2012, p258-9 Review, 2012

Exegesis in the City: the Chester Plays and Earlier Chester Writing in, editor(s)David Klausner Jessica Dell Helen Ostovich , Drama and Religion 1555-1575: the Chester cycle in context, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2012, pp161 - 177, [Mark Faulkner] Book Chapter, 2012

Mark Faulkner and W. H. E. Sweet, The Autograph Hand of John Lydgate and a Manuscript from Bury St Edmunds Abbey, Speculum, 87, 2012, p766 - 792 Journal Article, 2012

"Like a Virgin": the reheading of St Edmund and monastic reform in late-tenth-century England in, editor(s)Larissa Tracy Jeff Massey , Heads Will Roll: decapitation in the medieval and early modern imagination, Leiden, Brill, 2012, pp39 - 52, [Mark Faulkner] Book Chapter, 2012

The Spatial Hermeneutics of Lucian's De laude Cestrie in, editor(s)Catherine Clarke , Mapping the Medieval City: space, place and identity in Chester c. 1200-1500, Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 2011, pp78 - 98, [Mark Faulkner] Book Chapter, 2011

Mark Faulkner, Review of Anglo-Saxons and the North, by Matti Kilpio, Leena Kahlas-Tarkka, Jane Roberts and Olga Timofeeva , Notes and Queries, 58, 2011, p606-8 Review, 2011

Mark Faulkner, Gerald of Wales and Standard Old English, Notes and Queries, 58, 2011, p19 - 24 Journal Article, 2011

Mark Faulkner, Review of Against All England: regional identity and Cheshire writing, 1195-1656, Review of English Studies, 61, 2010, p466-8 Review, 2010

Mark Faulkner, Review of Finding the Right Words: Isidore's Synonyma in Anglo-Saxon England, Medium Aevum, 78, 2009, p329-30 Review, 2009

Mark Faulkner, Ælfric, St Edmund and St Edwold of Cerne, Medium Aevum, 77, 2008, p1 - 9 Journal Article, 2008

Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications

Mark Faulkner, Corpus Philology: Using the Dictionary of Old English Corpus to Get Big Data for Old English Spelling Variation, SELIM 32: Spanish Society for Mediaeval English Language and Literature, University of La Rioja, Logrono, Spain, 14-16 September 2022, 2022 Oral Presentation, 2022

Mark Faulkner, When Philology Meets Big Data: Thoughts on Argumentation in Studies of Early English, Once and Future English, London, March, 2022 Invited Talk, 2022

Mark Faulkner, 'Babbling in the Vernacular': The English Language in the Middle Ages, 2022, - Miscellaneous, 2022

Mark Faulkner, An Even Heardra Nut to Crack: using the Dictionary of Old English Corpus to get big data for Old English spelling variation, International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 2022 Oral Presentation, 2022

Mark Faulkner and Elisabetta Magnanti, Using Machine Learning to Generate Big Data for Book History, Manscript, Book and Print Cultures Seminar Series, Trinity College Dublin, 6 December 2022, 2022 Oral Presentation, 2022

Mark Faulkner, What do we mean by "the continuity of English literature"? Insights From the Borderlands of "Old" and "Middle" English, ICOME: 12th International Conference on Middle English, Glasgow, 2022 Oral Presentation, 2022

Mark Faulkner, Corpus Philology: Towards Automatic Linguistic Profiling of Old English Texts, Keynote at 43rd Symposium on Old English, Middle English and Historical Linguistics in the Low Countries, Leiden, December, 2021 Invited Talk, 2021

Mark Faulkner, Adventures in Translation: Creative Translation in the Undergraduate Curriculum at TCD, TOEBI Newsletter, 38, 2021, p8 - 18 Journal Article, 2021

Mark Faulkner, A Tough Hnutu to Crack: Using the Dictionary of Old English Corpus to Get Big Data for Major 'Transitional' English Sound Changes, From Old English to Middle English, Online, August, 2020 Oral Presentation, 2020

Mark Faulkner, Corpus Philology, Big Dating and Bottom-Up Periodisation', Dark Archives, Oxford, September, 2019 Invited Talk, 2019

Mark Faulkner, Was there a Standard Old English?, ICAME 40, Neuchatel, June, 2019 Oral Presentation, 2019

Mark Faulkner, Language, Authenticity and Forgery: some early twelfth-century Canterbury fakes, Medieval History Research Seminar, Trinity College Dublin, 2018 Invited Talk, 2018

Mark Faulkner, Neglected Old English in Trinity College Dublin, 2017, - Miscellaneous, 2017

Mark Faulkner, Language, Culture and Identity in England, 1066-1215, Medieval Cultures Seminar, Queen's University Belfast, May, 2017 Invited Talk, 2017

Mark Faulkner, Historical Corpora, Literary and Non-Literary Methods, and the Transition from Old to Middle English, Studies in the History of the English Language, Vancouver, 2015 Oral Presentation, 2015

Mark Faulkner, Not to Put too Fine a Point on It: method and madness in medieval manuscript punctuation, Punctuation in Practice, Frei Universitat, Berlin, June, 2015 Invited Talk, 2015

Mark Faulkner, "Þa inne iuurn dægæn": the sense of the literary past in twelfth-century English writing, Manuscripts Seminar, Institute of Advanced Studies, London, February, 2014 Invited Talk, 2014

Mark Faulkner, English as a Language of Authenticity in Twelfth Century Canterbury, Writing Britain, University of Cambridge, 2014 Oral Presentation, 2014

Mark Faulkner, "Falling Standards?" The Collapse of "Standard" Late West-Saxon and Literary Impossibility in the Twelfth Century, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 2013 Oral Presentation, 2013

Mark Faulkner, Orderic and (the) English, Orderic Vitalis: new perspectives on the historian and his world, Durham, 2013 Oral Presentation, 2013

Mark Faulkner, Pastoral Care before Lateran IV: English Vernacular Preaching in the Twelfth Century, 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, 2012 Oral Presentation, 2012

Mark Faulkner, The Eadwine Psalter and Twelfth-Century Vernacular Literary Culture, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 2012 Oral Presentation, 2012

Mark Faulkner, Twelfth Century Sermons and the "Survival of English Literature", Medieval Seminar, University of Oxford, November, 2012 Invited Talk, 2012

Mark Faulkner, Continuity and Innovation in Twelfth-Century Insular Homilies, Exegetical Readings / Lectures Exegetiques, University of Oxford, 2011 Oral Presentation, 2011

Mark Faulkner, 'Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 155', The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220, Leicester, University of Leicester, 2010, - Digital research resource production, 2010 URL

Mark Faulkner, 'Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 1', The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220, Leicester, University of Leicester, 2010, - Digital research resource production, 2010 URL

Catherine Clarke, Keith Lilley, Helen Fulton, Paul Vetch, Mark Faulkner, Eleanora Modignani Picozzi, 'Mapping Medieval Chester', Swansea University / King's College London, 2009, - Digital research resource production, 2009 URL

Mark Faulkner, The Uses of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, c. 1066-1200, University of Oxford, 2008 Thesis, 2008 URL

Stuart Lee, Katherine Lindsay and Mark Faulkner, 'The Old English Coursepack', University of Oxford, 2005, - Digital research resource production, 2005 URL

Research Expertise

Projects

  • Title
    • Big Dating: Using Big Data to Date Medieval Texts
  • Summary
    • The transition from Old to Middle English in the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries has been described as 'the most dramatic change in the English language' (van Gelderen), yet also as 'the textual "black hole"' in its history (Curzan). Historians of both English literature and the English language routinely treat it as inscrutable. Yet the period is not, in fact, inscrutable. It is relatively easy to assemble a brief list of English texts that can be securely attributed to the twelfth century and show that this inscrutability is more imagined than real. This raises the possibility that numerous texts that have always been assumed to be Old or early Middle English on the basis of the very questionable assumption that there was little or no composition in English in the twelfth century might also belong to that period. This project continues the programme of reinstating the twelfth century into English literary and linguistic histories by producing a handlist of texts written in that period, achieving in so doing significant advances in methods for dating undated medieval texts. In particular, the funding secured from the Provost's Project Awards will be used to recruit a historical linguist with training in quantitative and perhaps computational methods to develop 'big data' techniques to assist in the process of dating texts from this period.
  • Funding Agency
    • Trinity College Dublin
  • Date From
    • 2019
  • Date To
    • 2023
  • Title
    • Big Data and Medieval Texts
  • Summary
    • Numerous large corpora of medieval texts have been built over the last thirty years, collectively comprising over ten million words. However, they were built for varied purposes and have different user interfaces and search protocols. This project seeks to explore the possibilities for harnessing the enormous collective potential of this big data as a tool for cultural, historical, literary and linguistic analyses through the organisation of an international colloquium, and networking towards future international, collaborative funding bids to develop new overarching interrogation techniques.
  • Funding Agency
    • Irish Research Council
  • Date From
    • 01/01/17
  • Date To
    • 30/09/17
  • Title
    • Trinity Corpus of Old English from the Twelfth Century (TOXIIC)
  • Summary
    • The transition from Old to Middle English in the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries has been been described as 'the most dramatic change in the English language' (van Gelderen), yet also as 'the textual "black hole"' in its history (Curzan). This perception has meant that some of the most basic questions of literary history, such as where and when particular texts were written, have been regarded as unanswerable. Yet this transitional period appears a black hole only because a significant category of evidence, late copies of Old English texts, has been systematically ignored. This body of material comprises 29 manuscripts, collectively containing 471 texts and just over 1.25 million words of English. While texts of approximately a fifth of these works are already available in the main resource for the study of earlier English, the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, this proportion obscures the unevenness of the coverage, with many manuscripts only sketchily represented or not represented at all. This project will produce transcriptions of selected texts from these unrepresented manuscripts and aggregate them into a digital corpus, available under a Creative Commons license to scholars and students across the world.
  • Funding Agency
    • Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Date From
    • 31/01/2017
  • Date To
    • 30/09/2019

Keywords

Digital Humanities - Computational Philology; Early Middle English; Historical Linguistics; Literary History; manuscript studies; Old English