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Article: Synonymity and semantic variability in medieval French and Middle English.(Essay)
- Article from:
- The Modern Language Review
- Article date:
- April 1, 2007
- Author:
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Texts in medieval French and English often string together two or even three (quasi-)synonyms carrying a wide range of senses, a feature commonly regarded by modern scholars as stylistic rather than semantic. However, while for the modern reader the dictionary has become the accepted arbiter of form and meaning, the printing-press which made possible the dictionary came only in the late Middle Ages. In the absence of any such prescriptive authority, the synonyms in a medieval text often play a semantic role.
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