Abstract
The aim of the paper is to focus on the conceptual construal of ME happiness in The Canterbury Tales in order to reconstruct the culture in Chaucer's world. The analysis is based on The Canterbury Tales (The British Library Copies edited by Barbara Bordalejo). The paper will refer to the etymology of the lexemes that constituted the concept of mediaeval happiness as well as to their semantic similarities and differences. Furthermore, the attempt is also to juxtapose Middle English and Present Day English concepts of HAPPINESS thereby reflecting on two distinct cultures and hence on two distinct worldviews. In my study I will refer to works by Wierzbicka (1991, 1992) in an attempt to recreate world out of words (Bartminski and Tokarski 1993).
Highlights
The aim of the paper is the attempt at analysis and recognizing an abstract, existential nature of HAPPINESS, of a concept that was essential in the history, but which is fundamental for the contemporary society.The paper focuses on the construal of ME concept of HAPPINESS in The Canterbury Tales [1], and juxtaposes Middle English and Present Day English concepts of HAPPINESS thereby reflecting on distinct cultures and distinct worldviews
Apart from the lexeme happy, the analysis focuses on such lexemes as selly, bliss/blissed and mery in order to reconstruct the holistic perception and conceptualization of HAPPINESS for the mediaeval society and to "recreate world out of words" (Bartmiński and Tokarski 1993) [2]
The juxtaposition of the contemporary English and the mediaeval concepts of happiness showed that they were positively loaded for both cultures, yet they were underpinned by divergent values
Summary
The aim of the paper is the attempt at analysis and recognizing an abstract, existential nature of HAPPINESS, of a concept that was essential in the history, but which is fundamental for the contemporary society. The study will focus on the variety of collocations that coded these lexemes in order to reflect upon cultural beliefs and social values of HAPPINESS for the mediaeval society. Changes in the perception of this concept will be accounted for with an attempt at recognizing social, historical factors and cultural norms that could possibly affect the value of HAPPINESS in the two periods. By Barbara Bordalejo), which is a CD-ROM containing the first full- colour facsimiles of William Caxton's first and second editions of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. This is the first-ever electronic publication of the full text of all copies of the Caxton edition. In order to achieve maximum accuracy, the data is supported by the online Middle English Dictionary (MED) [3], and by the online Etymological Dictionary [4]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
