The Making of Chaucer's English
A Study of Words

A substantial reappraisal of the place of Chaucer's English in the history of English language and literature.

Christopher Cannon (Author)

9780521022675, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 November 2005

452 pages, 1 b/w illus.
23 x 15.3 x 3.2 cm, 0.664 kg

"...arguments in the book..succeed well in reading philology through a postmodern lens." Speculum

The Making of Chaucer's English undertakes a substantial reappraisal of the place Chaucer's English occupies in the history of the English language and the language of English literature. It attacks the widespread presumption that Chaucer invented literary English and argues instead that Chaucer's English is generally traditional. It shows that Chaucer's linguistic innovation was as much performance as fact, but it also traces the linguistic strategies that made (and make) the performance of 'originality' so believable. It also includes a valuable history of every word Chaucer uses. The book also interrogates the theory and methodology of historicising languages, so even as it explores how Chaucer's words matter, it also questions why these particular words have acquired such importance for poets and scholars alike for 600 years.

Introduction
Part I. A Study of Words: 1. The making of English and the English of Chaucer
2. Traditional English
3. The development of Chaucer's English
4. Invented English
5. The myth of origin and the making of Chaucer's English
Part II. Words Studied: Chaucer's writings
Chaucer's words.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]