The Structure of Chaucer’s Ambiguity with a Focus on Modal Discourse (Tr 5.1084, etc.)

The Structure of Chaucer’s Ambiguity with a Focus on Modal Discourse (Tr 5.1084, etc.)

  Ambiguity has long been recognized as a rewarding research area in linguistics and literature. This recognition dates back to the seminal work of Empson (1930) on the subject. Now that linguistics no longer avoids the problem of meaning, which represents a great deal of departure from structural linguistics, meaning itself is regarded as indispensable to the study of language and literature, and ambiguity has come into sharp focus. Much has been achieved in the field of literature since. Nakao (2004), The Structure of Chaucer’s Ambiguity, is an attempt to show how ambiguity is likely to occur with special reference to one of Chaucer’s works, Troilus and Criseyde (henceforth Tr). This paper is a brief sketch (with slight revisions) of Nakao (2004). I will first state the background of this research, secondly propose the framework to describe how Chaucer’s ambiguity is likely to occur, and thirdly deal with his ambiguity in modal discourse (Tr 5.1084, etc.) within this framework.