III. — On the Substantivation of Adjectives in Chaucer 



BY ARTHUR GARFIELD KENNEDY 



INTRODUCTION 



The substantivation of adjectives in English has, like most 

 other processes of our language, been so gradual that it is diffi- 

 cult to fix the beginning of it in the case of any particular word 

 or group of words, or at any one time to measure accurately its 

 progress. Perhaps the most satisfactory results are obtained by 

 comparing the data made up from the writings of authors of 

 different periods. This investigation is offered as. a study of the 

 process of substantivation of adjectives in the fourteenth century, 

 as shown in the writings of Chaucer. 



Kellner^ names three ways in which adjectives become sub- 

 stantivized : first, the quality of a thing is so striking that the 

 name of the adjective is adopted for the substantive itself. So 

 gold was originally 'the yellow metal,' ivheat, the 'white grain,' 

 etc. Secondly, ellipsis may bring about this process of substan- 

 tivation. Since the adjective conveys the idea of the noun to 

 which it is attached, the noun is dropped. So we have the Al- 

 mighty, a saint, a sage, the good, etc. Finally, adjectives are 

 used as substantives when they denote abstract ideas, as good, 

 evil, ill, etc. 



Adjectives ]jiay be used in different degrees of substantivation. 

 One usage which was quite common a few centuries ago was 

 that in which the adjective modifies a preceding noun. When 

 Chaucer says, "A true swynk and a good was he," we feel that 

 good is, at least partially, a substantive. Again, the use of the 



^Outlines of English Syntax, pp. 144-50. 



University Studies, Vol. V, No. 3, July 1905. 



