Smith, J. J. (2019) Chaucer's linguistic invention. In: Johnson, I. (ed.) Geoffrey Chaucer in Context. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 27-34. ISBN 9781107035645 (doi: 10.1017/9781139565141)
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Publisher's URL: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/literature/anglo-saxon-and-medieval-literature/geoffrey-chaucer-context?format=HB
Abstract
Chaucer changed the history of English poetry, but it seems unlikely he was thinking about that. Rather he did what any skilled poet does: he was assisted in his stylistic choices by what antiquity would have called his own peculiar ‘genius’, the particular linguistic resources of his time and place: the Middle English of London. Had he lived at another time and place, he would have expressed himself differently, and adopted a different poetic strategy. He would have ‘invented’ different things.
Item Type: | Book Sections |
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Status: | Published |
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Smith, Professor Jeremy |
Authors: | Smith, J. J. |
Subjects: | P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PE English |
College/School: | College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
ISBN: | 9781107035645 |
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