Linguistic Change and Metre: A Reply.
- Author / Editor
- Weiskott, Eric.
Linguistic Change and Metre: A Reply.
- Published
- Notes and Queries 268 (2023): 54-55.
- Description
- Responds to Ad Putter, "Linguistic Change and Metre: The Demise of Adjectival Inflections and the Scansion of 'High' and 'Sly' in Chaucer, Gower and Hoccleve" (2022). Claims that the dropping of inflectional "-e" in "high" and "sly" in poetry by Chaucer, Gower, and Hoccleve should not be understood as a linguistic shift, for it follows the "metrical subrule," whereby the inflectional "-e" is dropped when a weak adjective precedes a word with "aft stress."
- Chaucer Subjects
- Style and Versification
Language and Word Studies