This article examines the inflectional system of adjectives in Chaucer, Gower and Hoccleve, with particular reference to the adjectives ‘high’ and ‘sly’. Since these poets were careful metrists, scansion allows us to determine the syllabic status of adjectives in their verse. While in Chaucer and Gower, the grammatical system for the inflection of monosyllabic adjectives (final -e for weak and plural adjectives) is generally observed, there is good evidence to show that the system was breaking down in the case of ‘high’ and ‘sly’, which frequently appear without inflection in weak position. The article also shows that in Hoccleve's poetry inflectional -e had disappeared altogether in these adjectives, except at line ending. Editorial emendations that depend on this inflection are therefore incorrect. The explanation for the irregular behaviour of ‘high’ and ‘sly’ is probably related to the vulnerability of schwa after front vowels.

本文考察了乔叟、高尔和霍克莱夫中形容词的屈折变化系统，特别提到了形容词“高”和“狡猾”。由于这些诗人是细心的计量师，扫描使我们能够确定形容词在他们的诗句中的音节状态。虽然在乔叟和高尔，单音节形容词屈折的语法系统（final - e表示弱形容词和复数形容词）是普遍观察到的，但有充分的证据表明该系统在“高”和“高”的情况下发生了故障。 sly'，在弱势位置经常出现不屈不挠。文章还表明，在 Hoccleve 的诗歌中在这些形容词中完全消失了，除了行尾。因此，依赖于这种变形的编辑修正是不正确的。“high”和“sly”的不规则行为的解释可能与前元音后schwa的脆弱性有关。