Middle English Stress Doubles: New Evidence from Chaucer's Meter

Author / Editor
Redford, Michael.

Title
Middle English Stress Doubles: New Evidence from Chaucer's Meter

Published
Paula Fikkert and Haike Jacobs, eds. Development in Prosodic Systems (Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2003), pp. 159-95.

Series
Studies in Generative Grammar, no. 58.

Description
Redford analyzes Chaucerian evidence pertaining to Middle English words that "appear to have initial stress" in certain contexts and "final stress in others." Examines several prominent theories and explanations, arguing that meter can be useful in determining normal language patterns, that scribal diacritics can be useful, and that in metrical contexts Middle English word stress was "initial, except at the end of phrases, where both syllables were prominent."

Contributor
Fikkert, Paula, ed.
Jacobs, Haike, ed.

Alternative Title
Development in Prosodic Systems

Chaucer Subjects
Style and Versification.