A Linguistic View of the Elegies of Anne Bradstreet : With a Focus on the Past Tense Morpheme

Abstract

This project looks at the second edition of Bradstreet’s book, Several Poems, which was the first edition of her book published in America. Anne Bradstreet was born in Northampton, UK, in 1612. She moved to America when she was 18-years-old. She grew up in a puritanical, yet supportive family environment and was hesitant to come to America. In America, she had access to expansive libraries. Bradstreet died in 1672 in Andover, MA. The past tense -ed suffix has three different pronunciations, i.e., as [t] as in walked; as [d] as in compared; and as [əd] as in seeded. It is only recently that the past-tense morpheme on weak/regular verbs has been consistently spelled –ed. Previous research has not shown a consistent spelling pattern that relates to pronunciation or other factors. By focusing on work of a single author, the factors in the representation of the morpheme may become clearer.