Some Metonymic Relationships in Chaucer's Poetry

Author / Editor
Brewer, D[erek]. S.

Title
Some Metonymic Relationships in Chaucer's Poetry

Published
Poetica (Tokyo) 1 (1974): 1-20.

Description
Examines the word "sad" in ClT to show that meaning and nuance in Chaucer's poetry derive, not from patterns of similarity or metaphor, but from metonymic contiguity, which functions much as does the "creative contiguity" of Gothic juxtaposition. Borrows the term "metonymic" from linguist Roman Jacobson and shows that "sad" means "constant in adversity" and even "serious cheerfulness," a reflection of "heroic Christian stoicism" that gains dimension through its contiguity with motherly. Also comments on "suffisaunce" in TC as "satisfaction" or completeness, without satiety.

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies
Clerk and His Tale
Troilus and Criseyde