Chapter 14: Literary Language
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Leslie K. Arnovick
Abstract
The notion of literary language proves problematic when it is applied to the Middle English written corpus. While the literary language of Old English did not die entirely with the Conquest, being maintained in a different guise in the alliterative poetry and prose of Middle English, the breach had an inestimable affect on vernacular tradition. Even when the corpus is apportioned by discrete periods of time, a range of textual languages characterize each stage of Middle English. The disparate nature of textual forms and stylistic features becomes apparent in a chronological survey of the period’s important texts. In the absence of literary language per se, the styles represented in ME writings become the more logical object of study. Select written styles are thus exemplified. This chapter seeks to formulate generalizations about translation as a central form of ME writing and looks at the colloquial language of Corpus Christi plays as representatives of vernacular writing. If a self-consciously literary language does not manifest itself in English until very late in the medieval period, its arrival may be glimpsed in the style of some of the writing reviewed here.
Abstract
The notion of literary language proves problematic when it is applied to the Middle English written corpus. While the literary language of Old English did not die entirely with the Conquest, being maintained in a different guise in the alliterative poetry and prose of Middle English, the breach had an inestimable affect on vernacular tradition. Even when the corpus is apportioned by discrete periods of time, a range of textual languages characterize each stage of Middle English. The disparate nature of textual forms and stylistic features becomes apparent in a chronological survey of the period’s important texts. In the absence of literary language per se, the styles represented in ME writings become the more logical object of study. Select written styles are thus exemplified. This chapter seeks to formulate generalizations about translation as a central form of ME writing and looks at the colloquial language of Corpus Christi plays as representatives of vernacular writing. If a self-consciously literary language does not manifest itself in English until very late in the medieval period, its arrival may be glimpsed in the style of some of the writing reviewed here.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Abbreviations VII
- Chapter 1: Introduction 1
- Chapter 2: Middle English: Overview 8
- Chapter 3: Phonology 29
- Chapter 4: Morphology 50
- Chapter 5: Syntax 76
- Chapter 6: Semantics and Lexicon 96
- Chapter 7: Pragmatics and Discourse 116
- Chapter 8: Dialects 134
- Chapter 9: Language Contact: Multilingualism 165
- Chapter 10: Language Contact: French 184
- Chapter 11: Standardization 205
- Chapter 12: Middle English Creolization 224
- Chapter 13: Sociolinguistics 239
- Chapter 14: Literary Language 261
- Chapter 15: The Language of Chaucer 292
- Index 307
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Abbreviations VII
- Chapter 1: Introduction 1
- Chapter 2: Middle English: Overview 8
- Chapter 3: Phonology 29
- Chapter 4: Morphology 50
- Chapter 5: Syntax 76
- Chapter 6: Semantics and Lexicon 96
- Chapter 7: Pragmatics and Discourse 116
- Chapter 8: Dialects 134
- Chapter 9: Language Contact: Multilingualism 165
- Chapter 10: Language Contact: French 184
- Chapter 11: Standardization 205
- Chapter 12: Middle English Creolization 224
- Chapter 13: Sociolinguistics 239
- Chapter 14: Literary Language 261
- Chapter 15: The Language of Chaucer 292
- Index 307
