Linguistic Change and Metre: A Reply.

The author comments on an article by Ad Putter which discussed apparent exceptions to the norms governing metrical treatment of weak adjectives in the verse of English poets Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower and Thomas Hoccleve. Topics include the author's claim that Putter advanced a purely linguistic explanation for variable counting or discounting of adjectives by the poets, an explanation of the rule mere tautology in alternating-stress and the poets' treatment of phonology of "high" and "sly."