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A cognitive approach to alliteration and conceptualization in medieval English literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2017

ANTONINA HARBUS
ANTONINA HARBUS*
Affiliation:
Department of English, Macquarie University, Building W6A, Office: W6A 636, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australiaantonina.harbus@mq.edu.au
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Abstract

This article investigates alliteration in Old and Middle English poetry as a particular type of discourse-structuring device. It explores the use of this device in the context of a mainly anonymous and oral-formulaic tradition, and – in Construction Grammar terms – as a type of fragment chunker for both local conceptualization at the phrasal level and also one that permits (even encourages) a counterpoint conceptualization across syntactic structures, with an impact on literary meaning. The discussion will encompass the metrical aspects of this device, its role in the proliferation of poetic-only terms for key concepts that recur in extant verse texts, and implications for our understanding of medieval mental grammars.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 21 , Special Issue 2: Cognitive approaches to the history of English , July 2017 , pp. 203 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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