The Discursive Construction of "Welsh" in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle : Thematic Roles and Mental Models

Abstract: With the recent rise in interest in critical readings of our history, scholars have begun noticing that historical documents such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle may have functioned as propaganda (e.g., Yorke, 2006; Konshuh, 2020). The present study examines how Britons (i.e., Brythonic-Celtic-speaking people) are discursively represented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The aim of the study is twofold. First, drawing upon theories from Role and Reference Grammar (RRG, e.g., Van Valin, 1993), this study applies the notion of thematic roles to investigate what roles Britons may take as arguments in the Chronicle. Secondly, the study takes a socio-cognitive approach to discourse (e.g., van Dijk, 2017), conceptualizing arguments and the roles they take as corresponding to the Anglo-Saxons’ shared mental representations of the referents. The results show Britons are construed mainly as passive, often taking the roles of Theme or Patient as they are fought, slain and put to flight. When taking an Agent role, Britons are mostly performing actions related to fear caused by the Anglo-Saxons.  Based on this, it was concluded that the Britons are construed as a cowardly and rather anonymous group, whom the Anglo-Saxons have all the right to eradicate. The portrayal of Britons in the Chronicle furthermore resembles portrayals of other colonized peoples, and it appears that strategies observed in orientalist discourses may have parallels in medieval English discourses.  Moreover, the results provide linguistic empirical evidence for what previous research in history has indicated: that the Anglo-Saxons used opposing groups as part of their narrative in which they were the rightful rulers of Britain (Yorke, 2006; Konshuh, 2020).