TY - BOOK ID - 77885882 TI - Chaucer and language AU - Myles, Robert AU - Williams, David AU - Wurtele, Douglas J PY - 2001 SN - 1282859315 9786612859311 0773569200 9780773569201 9781282859319 0773521828 9780773521827 PB - Montreal Ithaca [N.Y.] McGill-Queen's University Press DB - UniCat KW - English language KW - Semantics. KW - Chaucer, Geoffrey, KW - Chaucer, Jeffrey, KW - Chʻiao-sou, Chieh-fu-lei, KW - Chieh-fu-lei Chʻiao-sou, KW - Choser, Dzheffri, KW - Choser, Zheoffreĭ, KW - Cosvr, Jvoffrvi, KW - Tishūsar, Zhiyūfrī, KW - Language. KW - Literary style. KW - Semiotics and literature KW - Signs and symbols KW - Symbolism in literature. KW - History KW - Knowledge KW - Language and languages. KW - Symbolism. KW - Literature and semiotics KW - Literature KW - Signs and symbols in literature KW - Symbolism in folk literature KW - Representation, Symbolic KW - Semeiotics KW - Signs KW - Symbolic representation KW - Symbols KW - Abbreviations KW - Omens KW - Semiotics KW - Sign language KW - Symbolism KW - Visual communication KW - Germanic languages UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77885882 AB - Every poet arrives at some sense of how language works. Chaucer's engagement, like that of the greatest literary figures, goes beyond the brilliant, skilful use of language as a tool of expression, beyond what we usually call "talent." He brings to the creative use of signification a sophisticated philosophical questioning of the very nature of language, of how we know and how we signify. Chaucer and Language argues that Chaucer's work points to answers to these questions, emphasizing that in various ways Chaucer made language itself the subject of his writing. The polyvalent nature of signs and the ambiguity this makes possible are discussed as one aspect of Chaucer's use of language as subject, as is irony. Chaucer's extension of the concept of language to include relics and the Eucharist, his exploitation of equivocation and the lie, and the semiotic dimensions of his poetic themes are also treated. These issues derive directly from the long tradition of mediaeval sign theory and anticipate the major issues of the modern theory of signs that is semantics. ER -