Bard Blog 2 Evaluation

Instructions: Create a text using Middle English (ME) language features. Account for the features you included on this page by circling or listing them below by line number. Type a one-page contemporary English translation and evaluation as part of the blog. Upload the poem and commentary for our Bard Blog at www.blogger.com. Turn in this sheet on Thursday, May 27^th, in class.

1 Text Style: Choose one of the following options for preparing a Middle English text:

• Translate one of your favorite recipes from Present-Day English into Middle English, substituting medieval food items where necessary (see BEL 164 and http://www.godecookery.com/ ). Cook the dish to share with class members.

• Write a one-page love letter in Middle English to your spouse or future spouse. On a separate sheet, provide a close translation of the letter in Present-Day English (see BEL 172-173).

• Translate the Thirteen Articles of Faith for Latter-day Saints from Present-Day English into Middle English (see BEL 214-216 and the following websites, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayenbite_of_Inwyt;

http://www.hti.umich.edu/c/cme/).

• In a mimesis of Middle English Chaucerian verse style, create a latter-day Saint narrator who is making a pilgrimage to the Preston Temple in England, who tells a story as part of a larger work entitled the Prestonbury Tales (see BEL 194-195 and http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/cgi-bin/pages.cgi?preston&geographical).

1 Tone: The tone of the text may be serious or humorous, religious or secular, within the bounds of common sense and common decency (see BEL 216-221).

4 Lexical Features: Capture a sampling of various vocabulary items from the Middle English lexicon from about A.D. 1100 – 1500 (see BEL 115, 198-201, 201-202, 206-207; the Oxford English Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary appendix of IE roots, or another OE word-hoard of your choice).

• One half of the vocabulary should derive from French etymologies.

• One quarter of the vocabulary should derive from Old English etymologies.

• One quarter of the vocabulary should derive from Scandinavian, Latin, Celtic, Dutch, Low German, and other language etymologies.

• Vocabulary should include new words in ME from various word formation processes such as compounding, affixing, clipping, back formation, and blends (see BEL 202-206).

5 Semantic Features (see BEL 207-211):

• Use ME words whose meaning has gone through generalization or narrowing.

• Use ME words whose meaning has gone through amelioration or pejoration.
  

• Use ME words whose meaning has gone through strengthening or weakening.

• Use ME words whose meaning has gone through abstraction or concretization.

• Use ME words whose meaning has gone through shifts in connotation or denotation.

4 Grammatical Features:

• Use surviving inflections for ME nouns and adjectives (see BEL 165-168).
  

• Use ME pronouns (see BEL 168-174).

• Use ME weak and strong verbs (see BEL 174-179).

• Use ME function words (see BEL 179-181).

3 Syntactic Features:

• Use ME phrase structures (see BEL 181-187).

• Use ME clause structures (see BEL187-190).

• Use ME sentence structures (see BEL 190-192).

1 Orthographic Feature: Use the Middle English alphabet (BEL 159-161), or use an online font that seems to capture a Medieval or Middle English orthography.

1 Presentation Feature: Name, section number, oral recitation to class members.

Total: 20 items worth .5 point each for a total of 10 percentage points.