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Full-Text Articles in Phonetics and Phonology
From Canterbury To The Conference: Chaucer’S First 18 Lines Reborn, Charles X. Li, Tony Liang, Anika Saphiloff
From Canterbury To The Conference: Chaucer’S First 18 Lines Reborn, Charles X. Li, Tony Liang, Anika Saphiloff
Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression
Project Mentor(s): Charles X. Li, PhD
This presentation examines the phonological shift from Chaucerian Middle English to Modern English, focusing on the Great English Vowel Shift. Using the first eighteen lines of Chaucer’s “General Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales as a case study, we demonstrate how vowel sounds in Middle English transitioned to those in Early Modern and Modern English. By analyzing specific words from these opening lines, we illustrate the vowel changes that marked the shift and their impact on pronunciation. Our presentation will conclude with a recitation of Chaucer’s first eighteenth lines, intertwined couplet by couplet by their …
From Old English Genitives To Modern English Possessives: Tracing Grammar Evolution Through Biogrammar And Grammatical Biology, Charles X. Li
From Old English Genitives To Modern English Possessives: Tracing Grammar Evolution Through Biogrammar And Grammatical Biology, Charles X. Li
Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression
Project Mentor(s): Charles X. Li, PhD
This paper presents a biologically grounded and historically informed framework, Biogrammar, as a means to explain grammatical evolution and cognitive processing. It compares Biogrammar with two foundational theories in the study of language: the Nature-Nurture Hypothesis and Chomsky’s Universal Grammar. As a case study, the paper examines the historical evolution of English plural and genitive constructions, focusing on morphological developments such as the -as/-es mergers, his-genitives, group genitives, and the rise of the of + noun phrase pattern. These diachronic changes are interpreted as evidence of grammar functioning as a biologically adaptive system shaped …