Linguistic Change and Metre: The Demise of Adjectival Inflections and the Scansion of 'High' and 'Sly' in Chaucer, Gower and Hoccleve.
- Author/Editor
- Putter, Ad.
- Title
- Linguistic Change and Metre: The Demise of Adjectival Inflections and the Scansion of 'High' and 'Sly' in Chaucer, Gower and Hoccleve.
- Published
- Putter, Ad. "Linguistic Change and Metre: The Demise of Adjectival Inflections and the Scansion of 'High' and 'Sly' in Chaucer, Gower and Hoccleve." English Language and Linguistics 26 (2022): 471-85.
- Review
- This article examines the inflectional system of adjectives in Chaucer, Gower, and Hoccleve, all of them careful metrists. Focusing in particular on the adjectives "high" and "sly," the essay argues that while Chaucer and Gower generally observe the inflection of weak adjectives, a presumptively regular and even rigid system in general was breaking down for these words in particular. The essay posits a phonological explanation--i. e., that a schwa in the adjectival inflection was more likely to disappear after a high front /i/. [TWM. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 42.1]
- Date
- 2022
- Gower Subjects
- Language and Word Studies
Style, Rhetoric, and Versification