The Partial-Contact Origins of English Pentameter Verse : The Anglicization of an Italian Model

Author / Editor
Stockwell, Robert P, and Donka Minkova.

Title
The Partial-Contact Origins of English Pentameter Verse : The Anglicization of an Italian Model

Published
Dieter Kastovsky and Arthur Mettinger, eds. Language Contact in the History of English (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2001), pp. 337-62.

Description
Stockwell and Minkova argue that Chaucer's prosodic innovation is rooted in his familiarity with the "Romance decasyllabic model." The article focuses on duple and triple rhythmic units, suggesting that Chaucer imposed native iambic rhythm on romance models found in Petrarch and Boccaccio.

Alternative Title
Language Contact in the History of English.

Chaucer Subjects
Style and Versification.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.