For nearly 150 years the poet John Skelton ($c$1460-1529) has been credited with significantly enriching the English language. The claim, which apparently began with Isaac Disraeli in 1840 and has continued to the present day, is very likely overblown. / To examine the validity of Skelton's contribution, a computerized concordance of the poet's English works was generated and then compared against earlier work on Skelton's language; against entries in the Oxford English dictionary, the OED supplement, and the Middle English Dictionary; and against numerous books and articles on OED additions and antedatings. This examination resulted in a list of some 2,627 words and senses that Skelton may have introduced into English. / However, after I compared the 1,457 "new" words and senses that appear in Skelton's English translation of Diodorus Siculus against Poggio's Latin from which the translation was made, it was discovered that surprisingly few (only fifteen percent) of Skelton's "new" Diodorus words came from Poggio's Latin, leading to the speculation that many of these "new" words were probably not new at all. Also, it was noticed that a majority (sixty-four percent) of Skelton's 2,627 "new" words were only new senses of older words, and that most (sixty-three percent) of the remaining new words were formed merely by prefixation, suffixation, or combination rather than by borrowing from foreign tongues. Furthermore, over half of Skelton's new words are obsolete. / A final chapter examines Skelton's new words for patterns that may help reveal his character and birthplace: Skelton appears to have been interested in insults, birds, music, the craft of poetry, drink, and clothing, but not very interested in religion; his attitude toward women seems to have been largely one of contempt; and he may well have been born in the far north of England. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-03, Section: A, page: 0693. / Major Professor: Harry Caesar Morris. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77957 |
| Contributors | Stevens, Mark Kemble., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 219 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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