"Using an interdisciplinary approach, John Chamberlin brings together an examination of Langland's poetic practices, a discussion of the historical development of the arts of discourse doctrines they derive from, and some broad considerations of the implications of these doctrines for language theory. Focusing on the concept of ambiguity, Chamberlin claims that the excess of meaning ambiguity gives language is at least as important as allegory to the understanding of Piers Plowman and other medieval texts. He deals with lexical ambiguity and the ambiguity of words-as-words - in which words themselves are taken as objects - offering linguistic, philosophical, and historical perspectives."--BOOK JACKET.
