Computer-assisted Quantitative Textual Comparison of Several Manuscripts and Caxton's Editions of The Canterbury Tales

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520289
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Hiroshima University
• Principal Investigator: JIMURA Akiyuki 広島大学, 文学研究科, 教授 (00131409)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NAKAO Yoshiyuki 広島大学, 教育学研究科, 教授 (10136153) ; KAWANO Noriyuki 広島大学, 平和科学研究センター, 教授 (30304463) ; SATOH Kenichi 広島大学, 原爆放射線医科学研究所, 准教授 (30284219)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: チョーサー / 『カンタベリー物語』 / Hengwrt写本 / Ellesmere写本 / キャクストン版（初版） / キャクストン版（第2版） / コンピュータ / 計量的比較

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Our project is to make a computer-assisted comprehensive textual comparison among the Hengwrt (Hg) and Ellesmere (El) Manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and the two edited texts based on them, Blake (BL: 1980), which is faithfully reconstructed from Hg, and Benson (BN: 1987), which is mainly based on El. Caxton’s editions (X1 [c1476] and X2 [c1482]) are added in this textual comparison. The comparison is expected to contribute a great deal to the textual criticism of Chaucer. We have investigated the ways in which the linguistic features of these two manuscripts have been transmitted through the printed texts of Chaucer’s works. We have explored some of the systematic differences between the two manuscripts and the edited/printed texts, using statistical methods. Our comparative concordance has been intended to offer highly important data in this international scholarly field.

Free Research Field

中世英語英文学