Среднеанглийские письменные памятники

Introduction

    The history of English language traditionally is divided into three periods:

        -  Old English - the period from the beginning of written monuments (VII century) up to the end of XI century;

        - Middle English - from the beginning of XII century till XV century;

        -New English - from XVI century up to now.

    This division is based on events of external history of England: the middle of XI century - the Norman gain of the England which has completed development of feudalism; in XV century - war of the Scarlet and White rose, disintegration of the feudal state, transition to absolute monarchy, development of bourgeoisie» [1,23]. But all these moments having vital importance for history of the country, cannot be solving in definition of stages of development of language.

    It is necessary to consider, that any periodization is always conditional, for it cannot capture all parties of language.

    Problem of studying of development of the English language is related a lot to the Russian and foreign scientists. For example, I.R.Galperin, Y.M.Skrebnev, N.B.Gvishani, I.B.Khlebikova and others.

    In general, researches in the field of the development of language are very actual, as they help to understand processes of becoming of the modern language and to explain many problem questions of studying language.

Task of the work:

    -to study the dialects of Middle English period,

    -to consider a changes in the schedule and spelling,

    -to study the history of creation and features of a genre of « Canterbury Tales »,

    -to consider a poetics of « Canterbury Tales » in semiotic aspect.

    A subject is Middle English written monuments.  An object is research of language features of Middle English written monuments after the example of «Canterbury Tales» by G. Chauser.

    Purpose of work is to study Middle English written monuments from the point of view of revealing lexical and semantic methods used by their authors.

     In this work we used various methods of research: the method of phonetic analysis, different kinds of decoding of the text: an phonetic, lexical and syntactic levels.

    Work as a whole has the certain practical importance. Materials of our research can be used for a writing of degree work. It would be desirable to note, that area in which we have carried out our research, till now is poorly studied and consequently our work represents the certain value for many disciplines of language and literary.

    Work consists of introduction, theoretical and practical parts, conclusion, bibliography.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1. Writings of the Middle English period
1. Dialects of the Middle English period.

    Monuments of writing of the Middle English period were kept on all dialects of that time. The majority of them do not represent the big interest as literary works (except for G. Chauser, G. Gauer, U.Lenglend). But all these products are very dear as monuments of language. We shall consider more in detail dialects of the Middle English period [1,52].

The East-central dialect

     Continuation of « the Anglo-Saxon chronicle » - « The Peterborough Chronicle » (1070-1154.) «Ormulum», the beginning of XIII century. It is the retelling of a part of an evangelical legend written by a white verse. Also on this dialect are written « King Horn » and « Havelok the Dane » -two the poetic novel (XIII century). Robert Manning from Burna « The Story of England » -   the poetic chronicle. « Handlyng Synne » - a-morally-didactic reasoning, translation with French (the end XIII-has begun XIV centuries)[1, 56].

The West-central dialect

     «Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight» - the tale of chivalry written by a alliterative verse, the end of XIV century; the second  novel is « William of Palerne» ( XIV century) also contains the alliterative verse. The prose writes lives sacred - legends about Margarita, Katerena, Uliana (XIII century). The large satirical poem «The Vision of William Concerning Piers, the Plowman» borrows a special place. It directed against corruption in church circles and at a court yard. The poem is written by the alliterative verse, in the form of allegory. Its author, William Lenglend, came from the western part of England, but long veins in London. Therefore in a poem are presented the London and the West-central forms.

The Southwest (southern) dialect

  The poem of Lamon «Brut» (the beginning of XIII century) with an impurity of the central dialect. « Ancren Riwle » is a message to three nuns with instructions both morally-religious, and cleanly household order (the beginning of XIII century). Robert Glostersky «Chronicle» - the poetic chronicle (the end of XIII century), stating celtic legends (among them a legend about King  Lyre), as a real history.

The Kentic dialect

     « The Ayenbite of Inwit » translation from French is given Mechel, XIV century. William Shoremsky of a-poem (the beginning of XIV century).

The Northern dialect

    «Cursor Mundi», XIII в.-it is a poem stating a bible legend. Richard Rolle Khempolsky «The Pricke of Conscience» is a religious-didactic poem, first half XIV century, mysteries « Towneley Plays », XIV century and « York Plays », the beginning of XV century. 

The Scottish dialect

    The Scottish dialect for the first time is fixed in written monuments since XIV century. It possesses many characteristic features of northern dialect; having arisen as a local variant of northern dialect, it has stood apart by virtue of special political position of Scotland and became a separate dialect. The first written monument on the Scottish dialect is the poem «Bar» written by Barbour in the end of XIV century . It is a poem about the national hero of Scotland Robert Bruse struggled for independence of the country. « The Kingis Quhair » - poems of the beginning of XV century.   

     In the conclusion it is possible will note, that in Middle Ages in territory of England there was a set of various dialects. Written monuments were kept on all dialects of Middle English period. They represent huge interest by way of studying linguistic aspects of development of the language.

2. Changes in the schedule and spelling

    As drawing up and correspondence of documents have appeared in hands Norman writer, at correspondence of English texts they brought in the schedule habitual it designations of some sounds [2,156]. Innovations can be broken into three basic groups:

- designations for phonemes which was not in French;

- designations for the phonemes similar with French, but not had special ways of a designation in English;

- designations for the phonemes similar with French and designated in it differently, than in English.

- For a phoneme /q/, which was not in french,  writer applied a rare writing by means of combination of letters th: thick, that. For a firm phoneme /х/ , similar on Russian /х/ in I «хочу», and for phonemes/x '/-as in Russian "хилый" - the writing gh was used: thought, night.

-For the hissing phonemes which are not had a special designation in English, began to apply French designation: combinations of letters sh, sch for/S/: ship, waschen, ch, tch for/C/: child, fetch, dg, j for/G/: bridge, John.

   The phoneme /j/ began to be designated, as in French, through the letter y: yield, yard.

   Innovations in a designation of vowels reflect the writing, accepted in French; they have entered into language with loan words, and then have got and into English words [3,76].

-/е:/in French it was designated through ie: chief; later this writing has got into English words: field, thief.

-/u:/it is designated by a grapheme оu in words French origin: round, fountain and in words of an English origin: house, loud.

-/u/it was close on sounding to closed/о/in French; writer began to use a grapheme «o» in words where/u/was in an environment of the sounds, transferred letters which contained vertical strokes: comen, love. In a Gothic font of the letter u, n, m, v merged, therefore a writing through «about» instead of «u» promoted ease of reading.

     During long time of a phoneme/u/and/v/could be designated by letters u or v without any distinction. This interchangeability was kept till XVIII century; in editions of that time are frequent a writing of type bvt, giue. Therefore when these letters designated concordant, that is /v/, they should be between the letters designating vowels, including е, for a long time ceased to transfer in the end of a word any sounding: have, haue; glove, gloue, etc [4,175].

    In the end of a word there could not be a letter i; it has been replaced by the letter y which was considered as more ornamental in this position [5,94]. In modern English language the letter i costs in the end of a word only in loan words:  taxi, rabbi and in latin forms of plural where it designates/ai/: nuclei, termini, etc.; the letter u in the end of a word always, and sometimes  in the middle, was replaced with the letter w: cow, now, down. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2 Research of features of language in the « Canterbury Tales» of Geoffrey Chaucer

2.1  G. Chauser and his « Canterbury Tales» . The history of creation and features of a genre.

      World popularity G. Chaucer have brought his « Canterbury Tales» . The reading of "Decameron" Bocacho has given for Chauser idea of stories.

   Modern English the poetry begins with G. Chauser (1340 - 1400). He was a diplomat, a soldier, a scientific. He was the bourgeois,  knowing court yard, possessed an inquisitive sight, read much and travelled across France and Italy to study classical products in Latin [6,273]. He wrote because realized the genius, but its reader's audience was small: court, yes a part of workers and merchants. He served in the London customs. This post has enabled him to familiarize versatilly with a business life of capital, personally to see those social types that will appear in his ledger book « Canterbury Tales».

   « Canterbury Tales » send from under his feather in 1387. Its have grown on the basis of narrative tradition which sources are lost in the extreme antiquity which has declared in literature XIII-XIV centuries in the Italian short stories, cycles of satirical fairy tales, " the Roman acts " and other collections of instructive stories. In XIV century the plots which have been picked up at different authors and in different sources, are united already in deeply individual registration. The chosen form - stories of travelling pilgrims - enables to present a bright picture of the Middle Ages.

    E.Meletinsky, agreeing with I.Kashkinym, also proves, that plots « Canterbury Tales » « are mostly realistic and as a whole represent absolutely Renaissance (as) the encyclopedia of an English life of XIV century, and at the same time - the encyclopedia of poetic genres of time: here and the story, and a household short story, both the fabliau, and a folk song, and a parody to knightly adventurous poetry, and a didactic narration in verses. - and besides the researcher emphasizes, - « new genres, say,» small tragedies « which at Chauser are stated by the monk, the instructive historical miniatures obviously connected with the pre Renaissance motives » are outlined also.

    All the scientists-literary critics investigated a problem of genres « Canterbury Tales », are solidary that one of the basic literary genres of the given product is - a short story [7, 156].

    « A short story ( It. novella), - it is readable in the literary encyclopaedic dictionary, - the small prosaic genre comparable on volume with the story, but differing from it sharp centripetal of plot, quite often paradoxical, absence describing and composite severity. Poeticizing a case, the short story extremely nakes a kernel of a plot - the center, a peripetia, reduces a vital material in focus of one event ».

    Unlike the story - a genre of the new literature on a boundary 18- 19 centuries, a narration bringing to the forefront the graphic-verbal invoice and gravitating to developed characters, - the short story is art of a plot in the purest form, developed in an extreme antiquity in  communications with ritual magic and the myths, turned first of all to active, instead of the contemplate party of human life.

    « The literary short story arises in Renaissance in Italy ( the moust famous sample is « Decameron » by G. Bokkachcho ), then in England, France, Spain (G. Chauser, Margarita Navarrskaya, M. Servantes). In the form of comic and instructive the short story occurs becoming the Renaissance realism which has opened is spontaneous-free self-determination of men in the world fraught with falsities. Subsequently the short story in the evolution makes a start from adjacent genres (the story, the story, etc.), representing extraordinary, at times paradoxical and supernatural incidents, breaks in a circuit of a sociohistorical and psychological determinism »[8, 289].

    Chauser as the poet even before creation « Canterbury Tales » has tested influence of the French and Italian literature. In creativity of Chauser, as is known, there are already the some people  features, and it can be carried to Renessans. The question on influence of the founder of a classical short story of Revival of Giovanni Bokkachcho on Chauser is disputable.

    In a prologue to « Canterbury Tales» the author adjusts the reader on the subsequent detailed narration-description about each pilgrim, its appearance, position in a society.

    Representatives of various layers of a society have gone to pilgrimage. By a social status of pilgrims it is possible to distribute on the certain groups:

-high society (the Knight, Сквайр, church attendants);

-scientific people (the Doctor, the Lawyer);

-land owners (Franklin);

-proprietors (the Miller, Мажордом);

-merchant class (the Merchant);

-handicraftsmen (Красильщик, the Carpenter, the Weaver, and so on);

-the lowest class (Plowman).

    In the General Prologue  G.Chauser represents the reader practically each pilgrim (simply mentioning its presence, or representing in details its character). «The general Prologue» to some extent forms expectations of the reader - expectation of the basic mood and subjects of the story, the subsequent behaviour of the pilgrim. From «the General Prologue» the reader receives representation about what histories will be told, and also an essence, a private world of each pilgrim. The behaviour presented by Chauser characters opens an essence of their persons, their habits, private life, moods, the good and bad parties. Character of this or that character is presented in a prologue to « Canterbury Tales» and reveals further in the story, forewords and epilogues to stories[9, 67]. «Proceeding from attitude of  Chauser to each character, the pilgrims participating on travel, it is possible to organize in the certain groups.

    Inveterate sinners ( the Seller of indulgences, Police officer of church court - all of them church employees).

    To each character Chauser finds an individual approach, representing it in «the General Prologue».

    « In poetic of « Canterbury Tales»  the composite frame - conditions of a scene of action was national: a tavern at the road leading in Canterbury, crowd of pilgrims in which it is presented, in essence, all English society - from feudal lords up to cheerful crowd of handicraftsmen and peasants. In total in the company of pilgrims 29 person is typed. Almost each of them - alive and complex enough image of the person of time; Chauser it is masterful describes an excellent verse of a habit and clothes, a manner to behave, speech features of characters » [10,94].

     The brilliant genre of a literary portrait - here that, maybe, is main creation Chauser.

2.2 Poetics of «Canterbury Tales» G. Chauser (in semiotics aspect)

    In this work we shall present the analysis of poetics « Canterbury Tales» G. Chauser the elements of the text participating in formation of aesthetic impression - from the point of view of semiotics. Most in detail in a practical part the analysis of poetics of the text of the Prologue and the analysis of Story Seller of indulgences are presented.

PROLOGUE TO «Canterbury Tales»

    The prologue opens the lyrical introduction - the description of awakening of the nature in the spring. The annual turnover cycle of the nature mentions also people who gather in pilgrimage to sacred places, praying about clarification from sins and in search of protection patronizing sacred: