Medieval Grammar, Medieval Verse: Continuity and Evolution in the English Alliterative Tradition
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the metrical evolution of medieval English alliterative verse, as inferred from a prosodic and syntactic analysis of 11 alliterative poems ranging in date from early OE (680) to late ME (1385). Three claims are supported: (1) OE and ME alliterative verse were part of the same unbroken metrical tradition, despite major differences in their metrical structure, and despite centuries during the early ME period for which few or no alliterative poems are attested; (2) metrical differences between early and late poems should be attributed in large part to syntactic changes in the English language; (3) these syntactic changes, which impeded the viability of the alliterative meter in English language verse, likewise made English more hospitable to syllabic-accentual meters such as the anapestic tetrameter and iambic pentameter. In short, while cultural change was undoubtedly a factor in the metrical transformation that occurred during the Middle Ages, I argue that the decline of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, as well the nativization of borrowed Romance meters, was made possible by the transition of English from a synthetic to an analytic language. Furthermore, the fact that this change occurred steadily and along predictable trendlines supports the model of a continuous tradition, since a revival might be better typified by stasis or an abrupt prosodic shift.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Niepokuj, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Linguistics|Medieval literature
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