Toward a Visual Stylistics: Assent and Denial in Chaucer

Author / Editor
Cosmos, Spencer.

Title
Toward a Visual Stylistics: Assent and Denial in Chaucer

Published
Visible Language 12 (1978): 406-27.

Description
Variations in spelling of words for "yes" and "no" are systemic in the literate language of Chaucer in that they distinguish the meanings of "no" and "nay," "yes" and "yea." As such, they are manifestations of visible language. Variant spellings of similar words exist in free variation in records of oral verse and are manifestations of audible language. Hence writing is not merely a mode of expressing speech, but a language in its own right.

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies.