Mar.21,2012
At 10 o’clock, March 16th, Prof. Donoghue from English Department of Harvard University delivered a lecture named “Reading the Earliest English Poems: From Manuscripts to Cognitive Science” at Room 201, East 5. The lecture attracted students and teachers from several universities in Hangzhou, as well as students from various majors in Zhejiang University. Prof. SHEN Hong led the lecture and warmly welcomed Prof. Donoghue.
The lecture began with the pictures of early poetry manuscripts shown by Prof. Donoghue. He explained that because of the omission of punctuations and capital letters, there were potential difficulties in pause-making and comprehension of the sentences when reading early poems. He also mentioned the observation of the intervals between words. Sometimes there was no space between words, which caused the reading barriers to some extent. Rarity of the writing materials also can be the reason. The unclear pauses in early poems make the poems obscure but interesting. Eventually, punctuations become popular in poems and show some similarities with modern English.
Capital letters at the beginning of sentences can be found in early English poems written by Anglo-Saxon. People believe that the process from simple sentences to complex sentences is an evolutionary one. Taking manuscripts as an example, Prof. Donoghue introduced the evolution of poetic language, especially the pauses. The relationship between English, German and Latin was also mentioned. Prof. Donoghue explained the verse syntax, quoting Guthlac A line 292-315 as a precedent. If readers were accustomed to the syntax in a certain kind of poem, the overt representation of the syntax was not so important, since they can be easily distinguished through the sense of language. Prof. Donoghue proposed the readers’ perspectives, instead of the poets’ perspectives to study the manuscripts. Some words functioned as punctuations in sentences, which was an important reason why the early English poem could be widely read.
According to cognitive science, the brain reacts in different ways to hearing and reading. When we are reading words or sentences, our eyes focuses on some of the words rather than all the words. Prof. Donoghue suggested that the movement of the eyes in reading illustrates the preference and understanding system in brain. There were no great differences between the ancients and modern people in cognition. It’s hard to judge the pausing in the early manuscripts, since there were various ways of pausing. The study on the movement of the eyes can help understand the composition of the early English manuscripts, reconsider the relationship between and poems and symbols and stimulate the research interest in visual works.
After the lecture, students and teachers communicated ideas with Prof. Donoghue actively. The lecture ended up in friendly atmosphere. The attendants all suggested that this lecture widened their vision in study.
This lecture is one of the “Overseas Scholars Lectures”, supported by the “985” fund.
(Translated by WEI Chunyu)
