The Nature of Material Evidence.

Author / Editor
Horobin, Simon.

Title
The Nature of Material Evidence.

Published
Tim William Machan, ed. Imagining Medieval English: Language Structures and Theories, 500–1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp. 147-65.

Description
Considers how manuscript evidence informs our understanding of Middle English, addressing the value of autograph manuscripts and personal letters, the process of standardization, and the importance of sociolinguistics. Includes analysis of the habits of Chaucer scribes Geoffrey Spirleng and Adam Pinkhurst and maintains that, generally, when "copying Chaucer, scribes tended to preserve older London forms associated with Chaucer's own usage."

Alternative Title
Imagining Medieval English: Language Structures and Theories, 500–1500

Chaucer Subjects
Manuscripts and Textual Studies
Language and Word Studies