Chaucer’s Language Boston College乔叟的语言波士顿学院.ppt

Chaucer’s Language A very brief glimpse Statistics Complete vocabulary: 8,072 Words from Romance sources: 4,189 Words first recorded by Chaucer: 1,180* (for those of you with poor math skills, 1/8 of all of the words in Chaucer’s vocabulary were appropriated by him to be used in new and original contexts) *data taken from Chaucer’s Language, by Simon Horobin Vocabulary – Main Uses 1. connotation Register (high or low) Technical terms Sometimes used with basic definition in mind Often used ironically Used to deepen the meaning of a passage Word status in larger language 2. metrical convenience Old English Words Forms the core of the text (common every day words transmitted from Old to Middle English Used as synonyms where another word doesn’t rhyme (I.e. stevene instead of vois [Fr]) Technical terms derived in OE but uncommon in ME used figuratively (I.e. thurrok – OE – the hold or bilge of a ship ? used to refer to ydelnesse as the hold of all “wikked and vileyns thoghtes” – Parson’s Tale) French Loanwords Many French words common parlance already in ME (i.e. vois); used proportionally in Canterbury Tales Borrowed technical terms Some have lost original technical meaning (I.e. effectif – originally used in Aristotelian philosophy) Chaucer first to use legal terms derived from French in literary context (I.e. protestacioun, ‘a type of pleading where a party affirms or denies a matter’ in the legal sense, also a ‘declaration;’ from Millers Tale “First I make a protestacioun That I am dronke, I knowe it by my soun”) Here used to give the line deeper meaning because it is not used in a legal situation Old Norse Loanwords Words of ON derivation used primarily to indicate Midlands and Northern dialects (I.e. in Reeve’s Tale) Most likely more common in speech We do not yet see the use of the ON third person pronouns (except when indicating dialect; use of ‘they’ somewhat common) Latin Loanwords Latin words primarily used technical terms (Ie: preamble – “a formal prologue