1.

a) British Poetry from the beginnings to the 16th century (Old English
poetry, Middle English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer, The alliterative revival,
romances, the early Tudor period, sonnet writers, William Shakespeare).
Old English period: 410-1066
The language was Germanic and absolutely different from present day English. OE pagan
traditions and Christianity lived side by side. The OE picture of the world is very pessimistic. The
basic concept is that there is the lonely individual who has to fight against the hostile world. The
only force that direct our live is Fate/ Wyrd=OE Fate.
Features of OE Language:
Resembles (hasonlt) much present day german, it was divided into 4 main dealects: NorthUmbiran, Kintish, Mercian, West-Saxon
There was a compex gender system (masculine, feminine, neutral nouns)
Complex, difficult system of declination (fnv ragozs), and conjugation (igeragozs)
The word order was more flexible.
Vocabulary was not too big (French and Latin words.)
Spelling: special alphabet: the runic (similar the Hungarian rovsrs) It fits to convey short
massages. With the help of the Chritianity, Latin alphabet was adopted, which was better to
write longer massages after the 7th century.
General characteristics of OE literature
Basically orally transmitted.
Most of them are pagan poems and they were put down by the monks in monasteries
centuries later. These monks paid no attention to the individual.
Most poems are about types: the warrior, the soldier, the hero.
Songs were recited by scops= OE minstrel (vndornekes). They presented their songs to
large audience in the courts of the kings, they often had to improvise, accompained (ksr)
themselves with harp. Famous scops: Caedmon, Deor
Very little remained of OE poetry. The monopoly of producing manuscripts belonged to the
church since the parchment (pergamen) and ink were very expensive; scribes (rnok) had to
be very skilful.
4 manuscripts remained: - The Junius MS
The Exeter Book
Beowulf MS
Vercelli MS
General features of OE poetry
did not use rhymes
musicality was provided by alliteration
each line had to contain 4 stresses and each line could be diveded in the middle into 2-2.
the number of unstressed syllables was unlimited
These poems are aristocratic in tone, use sophisticate vocabulary
Genres of OE poetry
Riddles (talls krds)
Subgroup of riddles called charms (tok), reflects traditional belief, superstitions (babona).
They are preserved fully in their original text because they were afraid that it would not
work.
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 Battle songs: they deal with contemporary hystory.

Religious poetry: Caedmons a 9-line hymn
Cynewulf (The Phoneix)
Allegies: Personal voice, characterised by softness, melancholy, the description of feelings
is based on natural scenery (dszlet). They often mix pagan and Christian elemets. Eg. The
Seafarer, The Wanderer
Epic poetry: Beowulf is the most famous. It can divide into 3 parts. It is the only heroic
epic preserved in full. It takes us back to glorious past. 1. Part: Young Beowulf. He lives
his home to rescue the Danes the palace of King Hrotgar is endangered by a monster who is
called Grendel. B. kills the monster single-handed. Grendels mother, an evil witch wants to
take revenge for his sons death. B. kills the water witch. 2. Old Beowulf. He is the king of
the Gates in South- Sweden. He has to defend his kingdom against a dragon. He kills the
dragon but he was also fatally wounded and dies at the end.
The whole story is based on historical facts. It mixes real historical elements and universal
topics.
Middle English period 1066-1485
The language was a mix of English and French and begins to resemble (hasonlt) present day
English. This is the age of the establishment of feudalism. Normandy occupies England. As
opposed to the tribal organiation of OE society, the feudal organisation of the Normans arrives.
Literature and language
Merchants go to distant land especially to the Far East and they brought in an enormous
amount of literary material from the east. Exotic stories, oriental stories.
London became the artistic centre of the country and the centre of scholarship: Oxford
1249, Cambridge 1284. The knowledge was connected to the church.
Language also changed. The aristoocracy and the clergy began to use French. Latin was the
language of of learning and scholarship. English was the language of popular literature:
songs and ballads.
In the 14th century, French language begins to be pushed into the background.
Norman French language is much more flexible and closer to the everyday use of languag
than OE.
Norman French is more optimistic, lighter, flexible, used all kind of forms formally is
richer than OE, it had a rich vocabulary, used rhymes.
In ME language the grammatical structure become simplified and the endings, suffixes
begin to disappear. There is more possibility of thyme.
Romances
In France the cult of romantic love was born. This was dalled courtly love amour
courtois. This was the natural result of the social position of women in the feudal society.
At that, time marriage meant just an economic contract. At official ceremonies, the Knights
living on the estate paid homage to the lady. (tiszteletket fejeztk ki)
Love songs were written by amateur poets and in these poems the lady appears as a saint or
patron. These amateur poets are the troubadours. The main theme of these songs is the
tension between love and marriage. Love was always unrequited (viszonzatlan).
Jean Bodel, a French poet at the end of the 12 th century defined the main topics of
romances. : Matter of France: Eg. Song of Roland, Matter of Britain Eg. Arthurian Legend,
Matter of Rome: Mainly stories about Troy (Trja), and various tales with oriental (keleti)
subjects.
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General features of romances:

They are in verse, narratives of heroic adventures, the action is less unified, and
characters are less developed than in an epic.
It is a string of episodes.
The actoin happens temporarily remote (in the distant past), or physically remote (in a
distant country)
It is also socially remote (tvoli) ideal, unreachable women
Adventure is the main element, often linked to the quest (keress) motif. Eg.: The
Legend of King Arthur, they search for the Holy Grail.
Supernatural elements are frequent. The hero never wins with supernatural elements; he
only wins with his own force.
The form is metrical octo-syllabic couplets (8 syllables rhyme in pairs: AABBCC...)
that contain typical foot: iamb: (u-).

Another group of ME poetry includes songs, Lrics Narative poems

The most famous song is The Cuckoo Song (1240)
These songs are quite single and easy to remember.
The most famous narrative poem in the ME period is The Owl and The Nightingale. It
is a didactic poem.It is a debate between the Owl religious way of life and the
Nightingale- is for the secular (vilgi) way of life. No one wins and the debate is
undecied.
Geoffrey Chaucer
14th c. general background: Rising of the middle class. This merchant class was a new class
between the nobility and the commons. Chaucer belonged to this new class. The great
plague eradicated 1/3 of the population. The peasant revolt.
He was born around 1340 and died around 1400. He created the English literary language
and flesh and blood characters.
He managed to use French poetic forms with an English content. He writes in the ME
language and he raises this language onto a literary level. In ME times there were a lot of
local dialects. There was no standard usage of polite language. Chaucer used the London
dialect.
He summed up all the existing (meglv) forms of European poetry.
He created flesh and blood characters. (emberi test, emberi termszet kapcsolata)
He provided a panorama of English society in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, which
has never been done before.
His works: Roman de la Rose, The book of the Duchess
Canterbury Tales: It is not a complete work. It is quite unorganised. The sequence was
later developed by Fussinall in the 19th c. and some corrections were added by William
Skeat. There are 9 groups of the tales. They signed the groups with letters A-I. He used all
kinds of medieval stories, genes.E.g. Chivalric romance (The Knight Tale), Beast Tale,
Fablio (trgr mese (The Millers Tale), Excemplum- a story with moral message (The Tale
by the Nun.
He created the so called rhyme royal: It is 7 line octosyllabic stanca: ab ab bcc
Alliterative revival
1350-1400 Allitarative revival, this brings back the OE poetical forms. It was mainly
written in the north, so they used northern dialects.
Important works: William Lenglend: Piers the Poughman , Pearl poets: Sir Gwain The
Green Knight
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The early Tudor period (1485-1558)

Major trends in poetry
The compromise between christianity and Platonic heritage
The compromise between classical literature an popular literatue
The world pictue:
Universal cosmic order =hierarchical arrangement of creatures in the great chain of being
and man was the top of creation
man is thought to unite matter an spirit (man is between the beast and angel)
the forces of history are determined by divine providence, fortune and human character
The human being suffers from a constant tight betwween passion and reason
The self should be flexible and versatile (sokoldal).
Renaissance:
The 2nd half of the 15th century, the 16th century- The age of Shakespeare. It is transition
between the Middle- Ages and the Modern Age. The European crisis became obvious that
the Holy Roman Empire was not able to hold Europe together and it failed as a poitical
force. Middle ages caracterised by communities, internationalism, no national differences,
divine writings of theologians determing the intellectual life.
In the Renaissance we can find individualism, nationalism, human and secular (vilgi)
wisdom. The interest in Greek and Latin authors began to grow. Classical Latin was revived
(felleszt) represented by Ovid, Vergil an Cicero.
Wealthy individuals began to collect these manuscripts and in a sense, rich patrons and
bookcollectors became the forerunners of humanism.
Educational reform was in Oxford a Cambridge.
The invention of printing had a great effect on learning. (1450 in Germany). It standardise
the language of each country, slowly local dialects began to die out in writing, and books
became cheaper.
First people bought the books because of the printer and not because of the writer. The first
printer was William Caxton.
Determining aspect of English Literature
o The moral principle was didacticism
o The religious and philosophical principle was the combination of antique and
Christian heritage
o Literary priciple- aesthetical- was created by Horace whose guideline was ut
pictura poesie- painting like in poetry. according to him painting is silent poetry,
and poetry is speaking in pictures. Poetry should express itself through pictures and
the picture of the trope (klti kp) used in Renaissance Poetry is the metaphor.
Previously poetic pictures were without ambiguity. Now poetic pictures became full
of contrasts. Renaissance poetry uses classical mythology for allusions (clzs),
images, and allegories, symbols. That suggests ideal beauty in nature in art and in
the human body.
o The first important anthology that contained Wyatt and Surreys poems was caled
the Tottels Miscellany in 1557. (Tottel is the publisher, Miscellany = uniting)
o Sonnet sequences became popular.
The renewal of art (classical) discovery. We are human beings, body feelings. Geografical
scientific, astrology discoveries. Different manifestations (American continent).
Heliocentric worldview. These things caused uncertainty to art. History beliefs little
creation. He determines this future.
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 First phase (szakasz) of Renaisssance poetry is England. English poetry needed in this era
formal discipline (fegyelem). It found it in the Italian Renaissance. A new kind of poetry
emerged, called: courtier poetry (udvari kltszet).
Courtier:
They composed short lyrical pieces that were circulated among friends in a manuscript form and
later they were pulblished in various anthologies.
Sonnet writers:
Sonnet, poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme
scheme. There are two prominent types: the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, composed of an
octave and a sestet (rhyming abbaabba cdecde), and the Elizabethan, or Shakespearean,
sonnet, consisting of three quatrains and a couplet (rhyming abab cdcd efef gg). Variations
of these schemes occur, notably the Spenserian sonnet, after Edmund Spenser (rhyming
abab bcbc cdcd ee). The sonnet is generally believed to have developed from medieval
songs. In Italy, where it was cultivated during the Renaissance, it achieved great expression
in the work of Petrarch
Petrarch was the creator of the sonnet form. He divided the sonnet to 2 parts: 2 units of 4
lines and 2 units of 3 lines. 4 (quatrain) the first part explained a situation and the second
part explained the 4 opposite of it octave, 3 lines+ 3 lines. 3 lines=tercett
The English sonnet includes 3x4 lines and a cuplet = 2 lines
Sonnet writers in the early Tudor period:
Sir Thomas Wyatt: (150342) First typical English Renaissance knight. He used very
simple rhyme sceme.: abab ....aa Unrequited love, Platonic love. He was employed a
various diplomatic missions by the king, Henry VIII. When he went to Italy and to France,
he brought home three kinds of new forms of poetry:
o Terza rima= 3 rhymes aba bcb cdc ded...
o Ottava rima = 8 rhymes. The stanza contains iambic( u- that is one unstressed and
one stressed syllables) pentameters, ab ab ab cc
o Sonnet form: Most of his sonnets are translations of adaptations of Petrarch.
Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey: (1517?1547) He introduced blank verse to English
poetry in translating two books of Vergils Aeneid. Used similar monotoneus rhyme ab ab
cc

Sonnet writers in the second period.- the Elizabethan period- age of Shakespeare
General remarks: This period associated with the rein of Elizabeth I. The height of the
English Renaissaince literature.
o England is a leading commercial and nave power
o spirit of conquest
o English colonization
o Self glorification. Sense of exploration. People get to know the world. Sense of
discovery.
Spencer: (1552?1599) Spenser was not only a master of meter and language but a
profound moral poet as well. Patterning his literary career after that of Vergil. Spenser first
published 12 pastoral eclogues of The Shepheardes Calender (1579), which treat the
shepherd as rustic priest and poet. It contains 12 pastoral eclogues. Eclogue: a dialogue
between shepherds.
o Spencerian stanza containing of 9 lines: 1-8 lines are iambic pentameters, 9 th line is
an iambic heameter Alexandrine, Rhyme
o Epithalamion: occasional poem on the poets own marriage
5

o Prothalamion: Occasional poem on spencers visiting to London

o Also in 1596 the first six books of The Faerie Queene, Spenser's unfinished
masterpiece, appeared. Although the poem is an epic, his method was to treat the
moral virtues allegorically. The excellence of The Faerie Queene lies in the
complexity and depth of Spenser's moral vision and in the Spenserian stanza (nine
lines, eight of iambic pentameter followed by one of iambic hexameter, rhyming
ababbcbcc), which Spenser invented for his masterpiece. One of the greatest works
of the English Renaissance. The aim was to write a great English epic that includes
the total knowledge of his age.
o It includes many subjects: nature history, folklore, legends, Italian medieval and
classical refenences, Current world affairs, Humanism, Protestant theology,
Calvinism, the teachings of Plato Elizabetahn chivalry. The title refers to Queen
Elizabeth. The plot: King Arhurs Quest for Gloriana. The plot presents Queen
Ellizabeh both as a woman and as a ruler.
The cenral number is 12: 12 volumes were planned but only 6 are
completed., 12 subplots, 12 knights of feast in the court of Gloriana, 12
cardinal virtues discussed by Plato
o Amoretti:sonnet sequences
Sidney: (155486) His sonnet form: abba abba cddc ee His sonnet sequences: Astrophel
and Stella He was a romantic genious of the Renaissance. He was a soldier, a knight, a
poet, a philosopher, and a literary critic. He travelled a lot, he even visite Hungary and
wrote about Hungarian poetry as well. His famous piece of criticism: a defence of Poesy
Shakespeare 1564- 1616)[is the most famous sonnet writer.
o He used a non-petrarchian sonnets. He does not celebrate the idealised lady.
o His sonnet form: abab abba cddc ee.
o His many sonnets addressed to a young ambitious man, no one knows who he was.
o 20 sonnets addresed to the so-called Dark Lady: realistic manner. She can smell,
dirty. She is a real lady, far away from the idealized love as they were before.
o The structure of his sonnets: idea, idea 2, contrast colution.
o His topics:
1. Love, frienship,
2. time, morality, passing the time, mortality
3. Success, unsuccess

1. b) Elements or grammar, parts of speech. Formal and functional classification of

verbs
Parts of a sentence
Subject and predicate:
Operator, auxiliary, and predication
Range of operators
Parts of speech
The structures realizing sentence elements are composed of units which can be referred to
as parts of speesh. These can be exemplified (pldz) for English as follows: The examples
are listen as words in their dicionary form and not as they often appear in sentences when
they often appear in sentences when they function as constituents of phrases. (singular
room, plural rooms, simple happy, comparative happier)
a.) noun- (thing or person) John, room, answer, play
adjective (describes a noun) happy, steady, new, large, round
adverb-(describes a verb, adjective, adverb)
teadily, completely, relly, very, then
verb- (action or state)
search, grow, play, be, have, do
b.) article (
the, a, an
demonstrative that, this
pronoun
(replaces a noun) he, they, anybody, one, which
preposition (links a noun to another word) of, at, in, without, in spite of
conunction (joins clauses, sentences, word) and, that, when, although
interjection (short exclamation) oh, ah, ugh, phew
o Some of the examples appear as more than one part of speech (play as noun and
verb, that as demonstrative and conjunction)
o More of them could have been given additional entries in this way (round, can be
noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and prposition)
Closed-system items
o Set b comprises what are called closed-system items. They cannot normally be
extended by the creation of additional members.
o The items constitute a system in being reciprocally exclusive (klcsnsen
kizrlagos): the decision to use one item in a given structure excludes the
possibility of using any other (one can have the book or a book but not a the book)
o Reciprocally defining items: It is less easy to state the meaning of any individual
item than to define it in relation to the rest of the system. (If a student came third in
an examination, the meaning that we attach to third will depend on knowing how
many candidates took the examination.)
Open-class items
o By contrast, set a comprises open classes. Items belong to a class in that they have
the same grammatical properties and structural possibilities as other members of the
class.
o It is indefinitely extendable. New items are constantly being created.
o John may
sit
by
this
fountain
will
stare
at
that tree
must
read
from
window
i
ii
iii
iv
v
closed:i, , iii, iv, open: v,
7

Formal and functional classification of verbs

Form. The verb is composed of a main verb with or without auxiliaries.
Frank reads (V) quickly.
Frank must have been reading (V) quickly.
Position. The verb usually occurs after the subject in the indicative mood, around the subject in the
interrogative mood, and at the beginning of the clause in the imperative mood.
Sandy fell (V) asleep. [indicative mood]
Did I win (V)? [interrogative mood]
Go (V) home! [imperative mood]
Agreement. The verb corresponds in number (singular or plural) with the subject in finite clauses.
Liz (S) works (V) hard. [singular, third person]
Emily and Liz (S) work (V) hard. [plural]
Tense. The verb of a finite clause is marked for tense (present or past).
Mike likes (V) Nintendo. [present]
Mike liked (V) Nintendo. [past]
Modality. The verb can be marked as predicating something other than simple fact (modal).
Paul might do (V) it. [modal]
Paul ought to do (V) it. [semi-modal]
Aspect. The verb can be marked as completing or continuing the process indicated by the main verb
(perfect and/or progressive).
Paul has done (V) it. [perfect]
Paul is doing (V) it. [progressive]
Paul has been doing (V) it for a long time. [perfect and progressive]
Voice. The verb is marked for voice (active or passive).
Emily likes (V) Liz. [active voice]
Liz is liked (V) by Emily. [passive voice]
Formal Classification of Verbs
Inflectional forms of the English verbs
o Infinitive: (to) V-0
o Past Tense Form: V-ed
o Past Participle Form: V-en
o s-form: V-s
o ing-form: V-ing
The conjugation of the English verb is based on the first three principal forms. They are the dictionary
forms of the English verb:
First form: (to) work, (to) give
Second form: worked, gave
Third Form: worked, given
English verbs are either regular or irregular, distinguished by the formation of the past tense and the
past participle.
Regular verbs:
They have one common form. v-0. From this the other forms can be made: work-workedworks working
In all regular verbs the past tense and the past participle are formed by adding [d/t/id] in
spelling (e)d to the infinitive.
The ending is pronounced:
[d] if the verb ends in a vowel or a vioced consonant, except [d]: played, opened
8

[t] if the verb ends in a voiceless consonant, except [t]:washed, dressed, watched,
looked, laughed
[id] if the verb ends with [d] or [t]: ended, wanted
The s-form and the ing-form are regular in all verbs. The only personal inflexion of the verb
in Present-Day English is the inflexion [z/s/iz] in spelling (e)s of the third person singular in
the present tense of the indicative mood. The ending is:
-[z] after vowels an vioced consonants, except [z], [], [d]: plays, gives
[s] after voiceless consonants, except [s], [], [t]: likes, writes
[iz] after [z], [s], [], [], [d], [t]: closes, dresses, wishes
Spelling rules:
o In regular vers the past tense and the past participle are formed by adding d (when the
verb ends in e) or ed to the infiniteive: close-closed-closed
o Most English verbs form their s-forms by adding -s to the infinitive, but -s, -ch, -sh,
-x, -z: dresses, watches, brushes boxes, buzzes,-o: goes
o Silent e is dropped before the suffix ing: love-loving. Final e is kept when it is a
sign of the palatal quality of a preceding g, as in singeing (=burning slightly),
swingeing (=striking hart), tingeing (colouring slightly) to distinguish them from
singing, swinging, tinging. It is also retained in words ending in ee, -ye, -oe: agreeing,
seeing, dyeing
o Vebs which end in -y preceded by a consonant change y into i- before es and ed:
try-tries-tried
o Final y remains unchanged if it is preceded by a vowel or before the suffix ing: laylays-laying, enfoy-enjoys-enjoyed
o Vebs that end in ie changes this to y before ing: die-dying, lie-lying, tie-tying, vievying (versenyez
o The final consonant is douled before the suffixes ed and ing:
when the preceding vowel is stressed and marked by one letter: beg-beggedbegging, stop-stopped-stopping
if the verb ends in l: cancel-cancelled-cancelling
if the verb ends in ap, -ip, and if the stress is on the first syllable: kidnapkidnapped-kidnapping, worhip-worshipped-worshipping
o Final ic takes ked and king, as in: frolic-frolicked-frolicking, picnic-picnickedpicnicking
Irregular verbs
The past tense and the past participle of irregular verbs vary and must be learnt. Irregular verbs
may have three, four or a maximum of five inflectional forms.
o Three forms: cut (V-0, V-ed, V-en) cuts, cutting
o Four forms: beat (V-0, V-en), beaten, beats, beating; find, come
o Five forms: give, gave, given, gives, giving
Simple forms and compound forms
o Simple: consist of one word only
o Compound forms: are formed by placing one, two, three or four auxiliary principal
verb (full verb).
One-word verbs and multi-word verbs
o One-Word Verbs:
Simple verbs: work, play, learn, eat
Derivative verbs: formed by means of affixes: prefixes or suffixes: discover,
mislead, blacken, synchronize
Compound Verbs: understand, overburden, blackmail, broadcast
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o Multi-Word Verbs
Phrasal Verbs (verb + adverbial particle): come back, put on, sit up,
Prepositional Verbs (verb + preposition): call on, look at, look for
Phrasal-Prepositional Verbs (verb + adverbial particle + preposition): come down
on, do away with, look up to, put up with, run up to
Functional Classification of Verbs
Full verbs and auxiliary verbs
According to their syntactical functions, verbs may be divided into full/content/ordinary verbs
and auxiliary/function/helping verbs.
o Full verb: Has a meaning of its own and can form the predicate by itself: We work a
lot. I often go home. They played football.
o Auxiliary verb has no independent meaning of its own, but helps to build up the
compound forms of the English verb.
Tense formers (temporals):
- (to) be: am, is, are, was, were, been, being
- (to) have: have, has, had
- Do, does, did
- Used (to)
- Shall, will
- Should, would (Future-in-the-Past)
Mood-formers (modals): can-could, may-might, shall-should, will-would, must,
ought (to), need, dare
Note that to be, to have, to do, to need, to dare can also be used as full verbs: We
were in Great Britain last year. He has two sisiters. They did theirwork well. I
badly need a new suit.
Non-Finites and Finites
o The verb forms that cannot form the predicate by themselves are non-finites (or
verbals). :
infinitives
gerunds
participles
o Any part of a verb can be called finite, which is connected with some subject. The
word finite means limited, that is, limited or bound to its subject.) Note that certain
verb forms function sometimes as non-finites and sometimes as finites Examples:
Non-Finites:
- We could not meet him. (Present Infinitive)
- It was made in Hungary. (Past Participle)
Finites:
- We often meet him. (Present Tense)
- He made a big mistake. (Past Tense)
Anomalous finites
the hollowing 24 verbs (auxiliaries or full verbs) are sometimes called anomalous (=irregular)
finites or special finites: am, is, are, was, were, have, has, had, do, does, did, used (to), will,
would, shall should, can could, may, might, must, ought (to), need, dare
These verbs anomalous because they have negative forms ending in nt and are not used with
to do. (nmagukkal tagadjuk).
o Anomalous finites are used. affirmative, negative, interrogative, short answers,
question-tags
o To express concepts such as: ability, premission, obligation, possibility, condition
10

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