Systemic Phonology - Recent Studies in English - Wendy L. Bowcher
Chapter 7: A note for -ed: Comments on the treatment of -ed in Handel’s Messiah
Systemic Phonology - Recent Studies in English - Wendy L. Bowcher
David Banks [+]
Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France
David Banks is Emeritus Professor of English Linguistics at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France. He is a past Director of ERLA (Equipe de Recherche en Linguistique Appliquée) and a past Chairman of AFLSF (Association Française de la Linguistique Systémique Fonctionnelle). His research interests include the synchronic and diachronic analysis of scientific text, and the application of systemic functional linguistics to French. He has published over 80 academic articles and authored or edited over 20 books. His book The Development of Scientific Writing (2008) won the ESSE (European Society for the Study of English) Language and Linguistics Book Award in 2010.
Description
In Handel’s Messiah the -ed ending of the simple past verb form, and the past participle as a separate syllable; are sung. This paper is an attempt to see the extent of this phenomenon in this music and to speculate on why he should have used what was, for him, an old-fashioned form. The Messiah was written in 1741 and first performed in Dublin in the following year.