Some Notes on Poetic Synonyms for 'man' in The Wars of Alexander

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  • The Wars of Alexanderに於ける'man'の同義語
  • The Wars of Alexander ニ オケル man ノ ドウギゴ

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The Wars of Alexander is an alliterative poem written in unrhymed alliterative long-line at about the end of the 14th century by a poet who may be located in the North West Midlands, perhaps Lancashire. The English poet translated the 11th century Latin source, Historia de preliis Alexandri Magni, into a poem with Middle English alliterative style. The aim of this article is to investigate the use of poetic synonyms for 'man' in The Wars of Alexander and the lexical substitution of them among the two extant manuscripts in order to reveal an aspect of the history of these poetic words. The investigation shows the following results. (1) While all synonyms for 'man' occur in the two manuscripts, there are some differences about the frequency of these words among the two manuscripts. (2) Almost all of the examples of these poetic synonyms in the two manuscripts alliterate with other words within the line in which they occur. The fact suggests that the function of these poetic synonyms as alliterating word does not fade away in the process of transcription by the scribes of the manuscripts of The Wars of Alexander. (3) If we compare the use and occurrence of The Wars of Alexander with that of The Parlement of the Thre Ages, in which the frequency of these words decreased in the later manuscript, we can notice regional differences of the currency of the synonyms for 'man' between these two works.

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KJ00005443432

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