Pre- Presentation Outline

Here it is our pre-presentation outline:

1.Introduction to our excerpt

2. From OE to Chaucer's ME:

• General changes in grammar and morphology:
  

-palatalization, impersonal forms,use of -es genitive and y- prefix,
abundance of function words...

3. Chaucer's ME:

• From a synthetical to an analytical language: % of function and lexical words
• Word's origins: percentages and semantic fields
• Spelling inconsistencies
  

4.From Chaucer's ME to PDE:

• Phonetics:

-GVS through evidence of rhyme (Chaucer's text-PDE rhymed version)

• Lexis and Semantics:

-Religious sense : literal and metaphoric ---language as a social convention
-Loss of meanings and historical terms and archaic words.

MAKING USE OF A REST...

Hi! How does the examination go? Making use of a rest, I'm checking that thing about to make a theatrical scene for the oral presentation and I believe it does not go if possible. If we disguise ourselves and assume roles, we will not be able to pronounce all ME and PDE. It will be better to do it otherwise, so that we all speak both.
By the way, I have found a translation of our text, where the lines of verse are also rhymed in Spanish. It would be well to compare them and to highlight its importance for spelling and pronunciation. See you tomorrow morning!

phonetic evolution

Hi!

How are you doing? I've been working today in the phonetic evolution of the words in our fragment from Chaucer's General Prologue . I think it is really interesting to focus one part of our presentation on this aspect, because we can see here in a practical way the effects of the Great Vowel Shift and other minor processes(such as the drop of r in post-vocalic position; or the drop of gh in final position) that explain the English language as it is in our days. It explains the way how English has moved away from an almost phonetic spelling to a written representation far from its spoken reality. And why it is considerably easier for us, as spanish speakers, to read the original text with Chaucer's pronunciation.

What do you think of including a list with examples taken from the text of these phonetic changes?

How is your selection of the words worth to mention in the part of the evolution of meaning?

Phonetic transcription revised, (part 1)

(click on the image to see the transcription in detail)

And shame it is, if a prest take keep,

A shiten shepherde and a clene sheep.

Wel oghte a preest ensample for to yive,

By his clennesse, how that his sheep sholde lyve.

He sette nat his benefice to hyre

And leet his sheep encombred in the myre

And ran to Londoun unto Seinte Poules

To seken hym a chaunterie for soules,

Or with a bretherhed to been withholde;

But dwelte at hoom, and kepte wel his folde,

So that the wolf ne made it nat myscarie;

He was a shepherde and noght a mercenarie.

And though he hooly were and vertuous,

He was to synful men nat despitous,

Ne of his speche daungerous ne digne,

But in his techyng discreet and benygne.

To drawen folk to hevene by fairnesse,

By good ensample, this was his bisynesse.

But it were any persone obstinat,

What so he were, of heigh or lough estat,

Hym wolde he snybben sharply for the nonys.

A bettre preest I trowe that nowher noon ys.

He waited after no pompe and reverence,

Ne maked him a spiced conscience,

But Cristes loore and his apostles twelve

He taughte; but first he folwed it hymselve.

Phonetic transcription revised, (part 2)

(Click on the image to see the transcription in detail)

With hym ther was a Plowman, was his brother,
That hadde ylad of dong ful many a fother;
A trewe swynkere and a good was he,
Lyvynge in pees and parfit charitee.
God loved he best with al his hoole herte
At alle tymes, thogh him gamed or smerte,
And thanne his neighebor right as hymselve.
He wolde thresshe, and therto dyke and delve,
For Cristes sake, for every povre wight,
Withouten hire, if it lay in his myght.
His tithes payde he ful faire and wel,
Bothe of his propre swynk and his catel.
In a tabard he rood upon a mere.
Ther was also a Reve, and a Millere,
A Somnour, and a Pardoner also,
A Maunciple, and myself -- ther were namo.
The Millere was a stout carl for the nones;
Ful byg he was of brawn, and eek of bones.
That proved wel, for over al ther he cam,
At wrastlynge he wolde have alwey the ram.
He was short-sholdred, brood, a thikke knarre;
Ther was no dore that he nolde heve of harre,
Or breke it at a rennyng with his heed.
His berd as any sowe or fox was reed,

weekend!

If needed we can meet next weekend to finish the presentation and the etymological commentary and also to check and improve the pronunciaton. All in order to keep our work updated

See you tomorrow!!

Presentation

Hey!
I think that a performance is an enjoying idea !!!! I should be grateful if we would send the portfolio 6 (hard work) on Friday , we have to include the original text and start with a handout about the presentation. I would like to discuss this matter as soon as possible, because we have to consult our doubts with Jerry.
Glo, I believe that turn the phonetic transcription into an image is a practical choice.
Please contact me via blog if you have any comment to make.

All the best!!!!

A PERFORMANCE!!!!!!!

Hi! What about your new ideas for the oral presentation? Gloria, you are going to watch a Passolini's film to find out much more about The Canterbury Tales. I think it's a good idea. In my opinion, it would be very interesting to do a performance, something like a pair of theatrical scenes of about 15 minutes. What do you think about?

ideas

Hi!

I've been revising the phonetic transcription, and I will try to upload it here, but I am not sure how to do it if I want all the IPA characters to be visible... do I try to turn it into an image? or what do you think it is best?

In reference to the presentation, I'm going to watch tonight Passolini's version of The Canterbury Tales, to have a general idea of it, and just in case I find some image that I consider interesting to use in our presentation.

How are evolving your ideas?

On the presentation

Hey! I don't know if you have read the last two emails from Barry, but I have decided to start writing our daily comments on the presentation and on the portfolio 6 here from now on, due to his insistence on the use of the blog as the way to get some marks for the pre-presentation part.

In the other email he says there is some problem with our blog and the group 24's blog, but I don't really understand what is happening, because when I follow the links he has written in his email I do have access to each group's own blog. Anyway, I will send him tomorrow an email, giving to him the link of our blog just in case there has been some crossing of URL. And, if the problem is not solved, we will go to talk with him on Thursday.

As for the portfolio6 , tomorrow morning I will bring my part of the etymology. So you can take a look at it and check it. I think we are doing it correctly, but as Barry says, we have to take care with our English, and try to consult our doubts with that native boy.

See you tomorrow,

Gloria

1 24 a
2 22 and
3 19 he
4 18 his
5 12 was
6 8 to
7 7 for
8 7 of
9 6 it
10 6 that
11 6 the
12 5 but
13 5 in
14 5 or
15 5 ther
16 4 at
17 4 ne
18 4 wel
19 4 were
20 4 with
21 3 by
22 3 ful
23 3 hym
24 3 nat
25 3 sheep
26 3 wolde
27 2 al
28 2 also
29 2 any
30 2 as
31 2 Cristes
32 2 ensample
33 2 good
34 2 him
35 2 hymselve
36 2 if
37 2 millere
38 2 no
39 2 preest
40 2 shepherde
41 2 so

As we can see in this analysis of the frequency of the words in the fragment of Chaucer's text, it is obviously function words the ones which prevail, showing that at this period English language was not more a syntectical and inflectional one. We can also observe that this loss of inflections and the regularisation of the subsisting ones, makes possible a higher repetition of words such as verb forms and the demonstrative. Furthermore, We want to highlight the copular verb "To be" (in the form was and were) as the other word more frequently used apart from function words(although it is precisely a word that works as linking particle, so as to say, with a grammatical function more than with a lexical one)