The Vocative Adjectives Biaus, Dous and chiers in Old French

The Vocative Adjectives biaus, dous and chiers in Old French: These three epithets are used with far more frequency than any other adjectives accompanying titles of address in direct discourse. Nevertheless, they are not used in great abundance until the romances of Chrétien de Troyes, who employs them with ever increasing frequency throughout his romance production. The article briefly retraces the attestations of their semantic values and literary applications in rhymed verse narratives of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.