<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The names in Shakespeare’s <italic>Love’s Labour’s Lost</italic> present a delightful linguistic mix. The names of major characters are Anglicized names of actual French nobles, which emphasizes the thematic parallelism of historical and fictive events. Other names broaden the international landscape, including <italic>Nathaniel</italic>, a biblical association, <italic>Forester</italic> (which is French as well as English), and <italic>Armado</italic>, a Spanish tag. The length of this paper does not allow room to describe many names in detail. However, the cross-cultural puns make this play especially interesting; e.g., <italic>Moth</italic> has at least two meanings in English, but pronounced <italic>mot</italic> in French means ‘word,’ ‘remark,’ ‘cue,’ or ‘answer to a riddle’ – which points most clearly to a thematic meaning. A full analysis of this play will appear soon in my book <italic>Names as Metaphors in Shakespeare’s Comedies</italic> (Vernon Press).</p>
</abstract>

The names in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost present a delightful linguistic mix. The names of major characters are Anglicized names of actual French nobles, which emphasizes the thematic parallelism of historical and fictive events. Other names broaden the international landscape, including Nathaniel, a biblical association, Forester (which is French as well as English), and Armado, a Spanish tag. The length of this paper does not allow room to describe many names in detail. However, the cross-cultural puns make this play especially interesting; e.g., Moth has at least two meanings in English, but pronounced mot in French means ‘word,’ ‘remark,’ ‘cue,’ or ‘answer to a riddle’ – which points most clearly to a thematic meaning. A full analysis of this play will appear soon in my book Names as Metaphors in Shakespeare’s Comedies (Vernon Press).

The Linguistic Mix of Names in <italic>Lll</italic>

Professor Emeritus, Eastern Washington University

Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedný casopis

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":{"italic":"Lll","content":"The Linguistic Mix of Names in"}}

The names in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost present a delightful linguistic mix. The names of major characters are Anglicized names of actual French...

The Linguistic Mix of Names in Lll

Publié en ligne: 27 sept. 2021

Pages: 264 - 271

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2021-0027

Mots clés
names, narratives, analogies, sounds

© 2021 Grant W. Smith, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Linguistic Mix of Names in Lll

Publié en ligne: 27 sept. 2021

Pages: 264 - 271

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2021-0027

Mots clésnames, narratives, analogies, sounds

© 2021 Grant W. Smith, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
names, narratives, analogies, sounds