Non-Root-Initial Ictus on Native Words in Old and Middle English Poetry

• Authors: Kołos Marta
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Primary word-stress in Germanic languages is generally defined as root-initial. This placement is considered decisive in the metrical shape of native poetic creations, with a tendency for placing prominence where linguistically plausible. However, notable exceptions can be traced in Middle English poetry, with ictus in certain native words falling on a derivative suffix or the second element of an obscure compound rather than the root. The present paper discusses possible reasons for the divergences on the basis of a sample of major poetic works. Focus is placed on the diachronic development from Old to Middle English. Firstly, a discussion from the point of view of linguistic prosody is included, with attention devoted to the possibility of non-weak stress in Old English falling on all heavy, bimoraic syllables. Secondly, semantic aspects are analysed, with focus on the possible impact of incomplete grammaticalization of certain morphemes. Finally, French influences are noted.

Keywords

EN

Middle English; stress; prosody; syllable-weight; diachrony

• Publisher: Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw
• Journal: Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies
• Year: 2014
• Issue: 23/2
• Pages: 33-41

Contributors

author

Kołos Marta

• University of Warsaw

References

• Benson, Larry D (ed.). 1988. The Riverside Chaucer. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Klaeber, Frederick (ed.)
• Benson, Larry D (ed.). 1950. Beowulf. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Company. Sweet, Henry (ed.)
• Benson, Larry D (ed.). 1965. Anglo-Saxon reader in prose and verse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Middle English dictionary online. Available at <http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/m/mec>
• Cable, Thomas. 2011. “Kaluza’s Law and the progress of Old English metrics”. In: P. Fikkert – H. Jacobs (eds.), Development in prosodic systems. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 145–158.
• Campbell, Alistair. 1959. Old English grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Dresher, B. Elan – Aditi Lahiri. 1991. “The Germanic foot: metrical coherence in Old English”, Linguistic Inquiry 22: 251–286.
• Fulk, Robert Dennis. 1992. A history of Old English meter. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Kemenade, Ans van – Bettelou Los. 2014. “Using historical texts”. In: D. Sharma – R. Podesva (eds.), Research methods in linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 216–231.
• Kuryłowicz, Jerzy. 1976. “The linguistic foundations of meter”, Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa Językoznawczego 34: 63–73.
• Lahiri, Aditi. 2002. Pertinacity in representation and change. Paper presented at the Workshop of Pertinacity, Schloss Freudental, July 10–14, 2002.
• Marchand, Hans. 1969. The categories and types of present-day English word-formation. A synchronicdiachronic approach. 2nd ed. München: C.H. Beck.
• Minkova, Donka. 1996. “Nonprimary stress in early Middle English accentual-syllabic verse”. In C. B. McCully, and J. J. Anderson (eds.), English historical metrics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 95–120.
• Russom, Geoffrey. 1998. Beowulf and Old Germanic meter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Russom, Geoffrey. 2002. “A bard‘s eye view of the Germanic syllable”, The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 101: 305–328.
• Sievers, Eduard. 1983. Altgermanische Metrik. Halle: Max Niemeyer.
• Suzuki, Seiichi. 1996. The metrical organization of Beowulf: Prototype and isomorphism. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.