The Language of Middle English Literature (Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English Literature)

This bibliography - apart from giving information on the language of a specific author or text - may also serve to define existing linguistic approaches to the study of texts and to suggest further possibilities. Language is defined in the way in which it would be understood by philologists and linguists, so that works which employ a metaphorical or analogical relationship to linguistic study have not been included. On the other hand, this does not set out to be a record of purely linguistic scholarship: works have been included only when it was judged that the linguistic analysis which they contain contributes directly to the lterary understanding of the text or of a cultural context. Works written between 1890 and 1900 are covered, including not only those written in the western world, but also the increasingly important contribution made by Japan. Although covering the whole of Middle English (1100-1500), the works of Chaucer have been omitted because they are the subject of another volume in a separate series.