Browse Items (16470 total)

Twenty-eight essays by various authors on linguistic aspects of Old and Middle English. For three that pertain to Chaucer; search for Historical Englishes in Varieties of Texts and Contexts under Alternative Title.

Discusses the "sudden emergence" of and rapid growth in use of the "adverbial subordinator" because in Middle English writing, including the works of Chaucer.

Fifty-nine essays by various authors on topics ranging from the Indo-European roots of English to linguistic theory of the twenty-first century, from "the history of the history of English" to various geographical Englishes, and from English…

Argues that function shifts and the development of impersonal constructions reduced the nouns and verbs associated with dreaming in the development of English. Nohara focuses on the loss of forms of "sweven" and "meten" from Middle English, drawing…

Surveys the verbal representation of numerals in Chaucer and elsewhere in Middle English and comments on the Germanic basis of composite representations (e.g., "four and twenty") and development of French-influenced forms (e.g., "twenty-four").…

Tallies and assesses Chaucer's uses of comparative constructions using as in CT (e.g., "as . . . as," "as . . . as is a . . ."), including their functions as set phrases.

Explores development and uses of plural nouns from Old to Modern English. Modern English plural usage was already established for the most part in Chaucer's Middle English.

Surveys Chaucer's uses of ye and thou forms in CT, discussing plurality, formality, and other usage. In Japanese, with English abstract.

Identifies and tabulates "new" impersonal verbs used by Chaucer, Gower, Langland, and the Gawain-poet, describing factors that affected their usage, especially imitation of Old French forms.

Studies the distribution of Chaucer's impersonal verb "listen" (to be pleasing), focusing on disparities between distributions in prose and verse, usage in formulaic expressions, and transition from impersonal to personal usage.

Arguing that contemporary "negative" politeness may function in public only, Jucker surveys historical functions of politeness in English. Analyzes Chaucer's use of "thou" and "you" forms in ClT as "retractable," i.e., variable by situation, rapidly…

Analysis of Bo, Mel, and ParsT reveals that preverbal "ne" unsupported by a postverbal "not" appears most often with "forms of be, will, and witen"; moreover, this construction is more likely to appear in subordinate clauses than in main clauses.

Hsy explores the use of English, French, and Latin by writers such as Chaucer, Gower, and Margery Kempe in conjunction with the polyglot mercantile culture of London. Argues that these writers "hybridize" multilingual traditions to form "hybrid …

Argues that, despite the influence of French on the idioms, spelling, and pronunciation of Chaucer's English, the "basic structure of English as a Germanic language . . . remained intact." In Japanese, with English abstract.

Tabulates the "frequency and percentage" of the modal auxiliaries shall/will and should/would in CT, presenting in eight tables the statistical data in relation to grammar (types of sentences and clauses, person, etc.), mode (poetry and prose), and…

Crespo-García gauges the "scientific register" of Astro and Equat in contrast with medical handbooks, examining etymology and specificity in the common nouns and nominalized forms in these works. The astrological treatises reflect a specialized…

Surveys the making of English, German, Latin, and Greek dictionaries from 1500 to 1650, including the contributions of Franciscus Junius (among others). Discusses the unpublished manuscript of Junius's glossary to Chaucer and the place of Chaucer's…

Benson advocates teaching Chaucer in Middle English, because the liveliness and vitality of Chaucer's language are lost in translation.

Studies Chaucer's stylistic techniques, comparing several texts (KnT, MLT, PhyT, MkT, ManT, and LGW) with sources to show that Chaucer employed a style that was remarkably consistent across genres, rather than appropriating the styles of source…

Lists examples from Chaucer's works of rhetorical devices recommended by Aristotle and/or used by Ovid, demonstrating Chaucer's place in the rhetorical tradition of Western European literature.

Fujiki considers comic "misapplication of proverbs" in TC (Pandarus), MilT (John), MerT (January), and SumT (the friar), suggesting that Chaucer capitalized on his audience's expectation of proverbs to characterize some users as foolish.

Provides statistical analysis of 300-line samples from the verse of eight poets who wrote in English (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Longfellow, and Browning), comparing percentages of inversion and "erosion" among iambic…

Cole contends that metrical groupings of works from the "Alliterative Revival" are faulty and that these groupings reflect inappropriate application of phonology common in the "poetic dialects" of Chaucer and Gower.

Burrow explores the functions and rhetoric of praise in classical, medieval, and Renaissance poetry, with commentary on its relative paucity in modern tradition. Focuses on medieval English panegyric verse, love poetry, and devotional poetry, with…

Building on medieval "gender comedies," including Chaucer's (especially WBP and the fabliaux), Lydgate anticipates the family-state analogy that pervades early modern political theory. By giving the complaints of abused husbands a court hearing, the…