LING Module 11, 12, & 13
Was there a market for grammar books? Was it profitable? (This plays a role in English's development.)
"Let me now move to answering the question 'why did this increase in the number of grammars occur in the second half of the 18th century'? I propose the following four reasons: (I) There is a new market situation with so-called 'social climbers'," Pertaining to profit: "TiekenBoon van Ostade (2000: 33) supports this argument by saying that the booksellers and publishers had an interest in exactly this market to make a financial profit: "The booksellers' concern was not the language but the market". For example, one of the leading publishers, Robert Dodsley, not only published Samuel Johnson's famous Dictionary in 1755, but also Lowth's grammar in 1762 (Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2000, 2003)."
Rich Smith, author of "I Feel Like We Say 'I Feel Like' All the Time: The Origins and Virtues of One of English's Most Popular Qualifiers" notes the research points out that this phrase is similar to which phrase from an earlier stage of English?
"Methinks" Right! Good job! Note that the author asserts methinks in Shakespearean English shifted from "I am thinking about this" to "My opinion is." This is similar to the shift in the phrase "I feel like the answer is" going on right now.
Today, the word peruse for many people means "to read over quickly or to glance over quickly." However, Dr. Anne Curzan in one of the videos points out that this is a semantic change. What did the word originally mean? (And for many people, this word retains its original meaning.)
"Peruse" originally meant to view something over, to watch something but not just "quickly" like the new meaning has come to offer.
Part of the attempt to correct grammar in early grammar books was not only prescribing but also proscribing. According to pages 130-131 in this week's reading, what does proscribing mean?
"The grammars have a clearly 'prescriptive', some also a 'proscriptive' stance. This means that they not only list what should be done, but some also describe what linguistic behavior should be avoided by giving examples of bad English."
Who were the social climbers and how did language play a role in their advancement?
"The middle classes grew and aspired to climb the social ladder. They are referred to as social climbers." "Apart from amassing more wealth, these people wanted to better their situation by investing into 'polite' language"
Look at page 135. Note how the author alludes to the myth that language can reach a state of perfection, thus approaching the divine. (You don't have to comment. I just wanted to draw your attention to this part of the reading.)
"The myth of the perfect language: The idea that a language can reach a state of perfection. In the grammars this is usually seen to have been the case at the turn of the 17th to the 18th century"
Another reason for the rise in grammar books is the idea that English was deteriorating in the 18th century. Thus, there was a need for codification. Explain. (See page 134 in this week's reading.) The process of "Standardization"
"The process of 'standardization' The 18th century is not only the century of population increase, the middle classes and social climbers, but it is also closely associated with the process of language 'standardization' in general. Even as early as 1697, Daniel Defoe called for a language 'Academy' in analogy to the Académie Française. This English Academy, however, never became a reality. And Swift, in his 1712 Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue also argued for improving the current language situation. In the course of the 18th century the idea that English was deteriorating and that it was past its prime is also reflected in the grammars which try to 'fix' proper language usage. This process is called 'codification' in the literature on standardization (cf., e.g., Haugen 1966). Several ideologies have been found to play a prime role in this process, as discussed, for example by Milroy and Milroy (1991). Watts (2000) mentions, among others, the Language and nationality myth: The idea that Britain needs one language that unifies it and that can be transported to the colonies Myth of superiority: The idea that a particular variety of English is better than all the others; The myth of the perfect language: The idea that a language can reach a state of perfection. In the grammars this is usually seen to have been the case at the turn of the 17th to the 18th century; The myth of the undesirability of change: This means that if change is happening, it is perceived as being for the worse.
Okay, let's talk about that. People may change their speech (even their phonology) to sound more like a group to which they aspire. Do you think you do that? I know I do. I drop many aspects of my Texan phonology when I speak with colleagues. What about you? (You get full credit if you answer.
(Personal Answer given, but for Exam 'hw review' Reference)
Our reading on page 133 calls this middle class a group of "social climbers." They wanted to move up in society and they viewed "good" grammar as essential. Thus, there was a market for grammar books. The grammar books in turn actually influenced how English was spoken.
(answer given on quiz) "okay I understand" From reading about "social climbers": New market situation: 'Social climbers' In the 18th century we have an increase in population numbers from roughly 7 to 12 million people (Belanger 1982: 18-19; 'United Kingdom', Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007). The middle classes grew and aspired to climb the social ladder. They are referred to as social climbers. Apart from amassing more wealth, these people wanted to better their situation by investing into 'polite' language - a notion that I will return to later. With respect to the grammars, Susan Fitzmaurice (1998: 315) claims that "[w]hat is striking about these texts is that they seemed to promise social advancement". Correct language was therefore seen as a commodity that could be bought and "marketed" (Fitzmaurice 1998: 325). TiekenBoon van Ostade (2000: 33) supports this argument by saying that the booksellers and publishers had an interest in exactly this market to make a financial profit: "The booksellers' concern was not the language but the market". For example, one of the leading publishers, Robert Dodsley, not only published Samuel Johnson's famous Dictionary in 1755, but also Lowth's grammar in 1762 (Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2000, 2003)
Which is the correct phonetic transcription for the OE word gnat?
/ n æ t /
Which of these sounds was added during the Early Modern English period?
/ ŋ /
What is a basic difference between vowels and consonants?
1. consonants restrict airflow using an articulator; vowels do not restrict airflow & 2. vowels can be the nucleus of a syllable
What is the traditional starting for Middle English?
1066 AD
Which is the traditional starting date for the Early Modern English Period?
1500
Early Modern English Outer History
1500-1800, not exact years William Caxton's first printing press (1476): first printing press in England. - froze spelling (while english went under dramatic sound shift at this time) thus why we have so many disconnections between sounds & writing - middle class wanted books in English - translation of Greek and Latin works in English (introduction to new load words) - continued rise of London dialects (dialect often used in print) Renaissance - revival of classical literature (greek & latin literature) - comparison of English's "inferiority" to Latin Protestant Reformation - breaking with church in Rome - lead to King James Bible in 1611, influence on language since it was previously only written in Latin. Literacy rates were soaring in English so there was a larger exposure to christianity now - education in the vernacular language in England (english) (english still seen as something in need of fixing but bestowed with some pride) Rise of Nationalism in Europe - rising notion of nations and national pride (incred in pride in English) - Excommunication of Elizabeth in 1570 Change in Economic System - "downsizing" of tenant farming system (less oppressive that feudal system) - rise of middle class...with aspiration of achieving "upper class status" through work and language (increased need for "refined" english & 'educated" use of English to show worth in class climbing) - "...the insecure do not want theory, speculation, abstraction, or exceptions; they want hard and fast practical rules that are easy to understand and memorize" in order to go from lower class to upper class Exploration and Colonization - "sun never sets..." on the British Empire - One direct result is this: English is the language of 80% of information on computers Industrial Revolution: - increased urbanization - increased wages (jobs readily attainable) and decreased literacy (school and education put on hold to work more hours at the factory) American Revolution - very little to "lose" for Brits - led to world 'Englishes', increase in different kind of english - through colonization, there was an increase in mutually intelligible dialects (outside of the once ruling london dialect)
Explain the etymology of the word snafu.
1940s: acronym from situation normal: all fouled (or ****ed ) up .
How many words were in Samuel's dictionary?
42,773 words first dictionary to use quotations
In one of the Linguistic Connections, I included three pieces about the phrase "I feel like..." Explain two points of view concerning this emerging phrase. In other words, what is the criticism of this phrase and what could be a linguistic retort to this criticism?
A criticism of this phrase is that people who use "I feel like..." are not taking ownership of their own opinions and instead are employing this phrase to end conversation against them by framing the concept as "you can't dispute how I feel about something." However, another one of the articles views this emerging phrase as a new way of saying "I think" or "methinks" by employing language change to mean something similar to another phrase already in existence; basicially, this author believes that the emerging phrase is a generational difference in wording rather than a direct evasion of differing opinions.
What is the Danelaw?
A treaty between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings in which the Anglo-Saxons were given the south of England while the Vikings were granted the North.
Which king had some success at stopping the Viking invasion of England?
Alfred
Descriptive
An evaluation of how language is typically use. There is not value associated with regular and irregular forms. It is simply an observation.
When was Samuel Johnson's dictionary published?
April 15, 1755 2000 copies were initially printed
Perhaps the two most salient characteristics of Present-Day English are its highly analytic grammar and its immense lexicon.
Both of these features originated during the M[iddle] E[nglish] period. Although English has lost all but a handful of its inflections during ME and has undergone little inflectional change since, ME marks only the onset of the burgeoning of the English vocabulary to its current unparalleled size among the languages of the world. Ever since ME, the language has been more than hospitable to loanwords from other languages, and all subsequent periods have seen comparable influxes of loans and increases in vocabulary
The term Present-Day English (PDE) refers to any one of the varieties of the English language (usually a standard variety) that is used by speakers who are alive today. Also called late or contemporary Modern English.
But not all linguists define the term in this way. Millward and Hayes, for example, describe Present-Day English as "the period since 1800." For Erik Smitterberg, on the other hand, "Present-Day English refers to the period from 1961, the year in which texts that make up the Brown and LOB corpora were published, on" (The Progressive in 19th-Century English, 2005). Regardless of the precise definition, Mark Ably describes contemporary English as "the Wal-Mart of languages: convenient, huge, hard to avoid, superficially friendly, and devouring all rivals in its eagerness to expand" (Spoken Here, 2003).
Peter Trudgill article:
But perhaps the most obvious way in which languages change is in the usage and meaning of words. A number of people seem to think that the fact that languages change the meanings of their words in this way is unfortunate. They believe that change in language is inherently undesirable and that we should do everything we canto stop it because change can be dangerous and confusing. In particular, any tendency for words to start to mean something which they have not always meant should be resisted. This leads such people to argue that it makes sense to determine what a word means by looking at its origins - the real meaning of a word. So, for example, they would claim that it is wrong to use aggravate to mean 'irritate', even though this is its most common use in English, because it comes originally from Latin aggravare, which meant 'to make heavier' and was originally borrowed into English with the meaning 'to make more serious'. They also would maintain that it is wrong to talk about having three alternatives, because alternative comes from the Latin word alter, which meant 'second', and that nice really means 'precise' - and so on. Changes of meaning can be of a number of different types. Some words, such as nice, have changed gradually. Emotive words tend to change more rapidly by losing some of their force, so that awful, which originally meant 'inspiring awe', now means 'very bad' or, in expressions such as awfully good, simply something like 'very'. In any case, all connection with 'awe' has been lost. Some changes of meaning, though, seem to attract more attention than others. This is perhaps particularly the case where the people who worry about such things believe that a distinction is being lost. For example, there is a lot of concern at the moment about the words uninterested and disinterested. In modern English, the positive form interested has two different meanings. The first and older meaning is approximately 'having a personal involvement in'. Perhaps surprisingly, according to dictionaries the two different meanings of interested have different negative form We can notice that this relatively sudden change of meaning is rather different from the changes of meaning we discussed above in the case of awful and nice, which seem to have changed gradually over long periods of time. But, all the same, it is not something which is particularly surprising to students of language change. The English prefix dis- is very commonly employed to turn positive adjectives into negative adjectives. In this way, pleasing, honest, fluent, agreeable become displeasing, dishonest, disfluent, disagreeable. (Note also that displeasing and unpleasing both occur with approximately identical meanings, although displeasing is more common.) We cannot therefore be surprised if, by analogy, speakers start following this pattern of using dis- to make a negative form out of the newer meaning of interested. This is something which very often happens to synonyms - they very rarely stay complete synonyms. So disinterested often seems to be stronger in meaning than uninterested, with the former indicating real, positive lack of interest, perhaps even hostility, while uninterested refers to simple apathy or indifference.
Issues of Grammar (Ch. 12 Reading Lesson plan)
But you won't be learning grammar. Rather, you will read about why an obsession with grammar arose during the 18th century. English was well established by the 18th century in England. French had long since faded from England. A major influence on the history of English during the modern era has been an obsession with grammar. This arose during the 18th century and in many ways continues today. Consider these wonderful tidbits that we were all taught: "Never end a sentence with a preposition." "Never split infinitives." "You should say It is I and not It is me." "Never use double negatives." Probably most of you have heard these at some point in your school career. Rules like these are prescriptive (rules that tell us how we SHOULD use a language); Rules that note how language is typically used are known as descriptive (An evaluation of how language is typically use. There is not value associated with regular and irregular forms. It is simply an observation). IMPORTANT: HISTORY INFLUENCE, NOT OUTER INVASIONS: And it is the rise of grammarians that had an enormous influence on the English language during this period. There were no Germanic nor Norman invasions. Rather, grammarians and their books "invaded" English and they shaped the language for centuries.
1) Note that these literary and historical figures are mentioned: John Milton (Paradise Lost), Rudyard Kipling, William Shakespeare, Homer Simpson, Robert Lowth (A Short History of the English Languag), Otto Jespersen (Negation in English and Other Languages), George Orwell, Mick Jagger (singer for the Rolling Stones), Geoffrey Chaucer. Can you place them in historical order? Click on the activity below for some practice before listening
Chaucer > Shakespeare > Milton > Robert Lowth > Rudyard Kipling > George Orwell >
Explain how the relatively new area of corpus linguistics can aid in our understanding of language usage and change. How does this compare with the more traditional use of dictionaries as a source for understanding language use and change?
Corpus Linguistics can aid in our understanding of language usage and change by revealing to us the evolution of a word outside of one scoped lens. That is to say that we can see how a word is used in the field of academia versus how it is used in journalism or blog posts on the internet. Corups Linguistics allows us to track and observe not only the word's connotation evolution but its social changes and use throughout time and how these uses compare and contrast to past and future uses. (I capitalized the program name because I cannot do italics on here). This compares to the more traditional use of dictionaries as a source of understadning language as the program provides a trackable feature that allows vieweres to interpret the date surrounding the selected word outside of its initial defintion and its (currently set) evolved one. That is to say a dictionary allows viewers to see the end products while Corpus Linguistics allows viewers the opportunity to witness its step-by-step recorded change.
Old English had the words pig, cow, and chicken. But today, speakers of PDE don't typically talk of eating pig, cow, and chicken. Rather, they speak of eating pork, beef, and poultry. Why?
During this time period, French was seen to be the upperclass language after the Norman invasion and rule of England. It was used by the aristocracy (i cannot spell it right im so sorry) and therefore supplied much of this terminology with an upperclass influence. French speakers during this time used "pork, beef, and poultry" to seperate themselves from the lowerclass labeling of "pig, cow, and chicken" and since many people, understandably, wanted to rise to the upperclass, this terminology was used to seem a part of the "upperclass." The social influence of these terms have stuck around and still remain present in our use of them within Present Day English.
What does "ease of articulation" have to do with language change?
Ease of articulation has to do with language change as it is one of the ways we shape our language into more convient forms and usages. That is to say that ease of articulation is utilized as a method to change pieces of our language into something easier to speak and share, thus further evolving our language and words.
Who were cousins?
Edward & William
(fALSE) The etymology of the word keister (butt) traces this word and its relationship to a ball of yarn.
FALSE
TRUE OR FALSE: Edward the Confessor had ties to the emerging state of Italy. He spoke Italian. Thus the Anglo Saxon people resented the fact that he was king of England.
FALSE
Bishop Lowth is mentioned several times in our reading for this week. He was noted as a self-proclaimed grammar expert. He criticized the grammar of famous writers, but he never criticized the language of the Bible.
False
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales was not printed using a printing press until the 18th century.
False
During the 18th century, English grammarians knew very well that all languages change.
False
During the Early Modern English period, there was a feeling that English needed no improvement.
False
Early Modern English added dozens and dozens of new sounds to the language that Middle English did not have.
False
Our reading for this week notes that there were more grammar books written in the 16th and 17th century than in the 18th century in England. (You can refer to page 128 in the reading.)
False
However, it is also indisputable that language change bothers people. And it's difficult to say when a change becomes accepted as standard. This goes for the lexicon as well as all parts of the grammatical system of a language.
For instance, many people object to the word literally being used in a figurative sense. (BTW, here is an article dealing with literally. Maybe the new usage is not so new!) Also, people object to awfully being used as an intensifier as in, I'm awfully tired. But the new meanings of literally and awfully have slowly grown in acceptance, and thus they have become more standard. Turning to grammar, in Early Modern English we see the rise of the use of do in negative statements as in the following: I do not want to eat my broccoli. Before Early Modern English, the standard way to say that would have been this: I want to eat my broccoli not. or I want not to each my broccoli. How did the do become standard in negative statements? It's very difficult to answer. It just happened slowly. So, let's explore this issue of change a bit more within the realm of words that change meaning. In this linguistic connection, we are going to look at semantic change. Do you remember the meaning of semantic?
Gutenberg invented the printing press: this new print technology involved setting pages of type from individually cast metal letter forms that were then run off on a hand press.
For the first time it was possible to rapidly and mechanically reproduce multiple copies of the same work. This new technology heralded the beginnings of a massive cultural revolution. Before Gutenberg's invention, books were usually copied by hand, in manuscript, a laborious and cost-intensive process. The potentialities of Gutenberg's machine were quickly grasped and printing spread rapidly throughout Europe in the second half of the 15th century.
In around 1476 Caxton returned to England and set up the first printing shop in the country near Westminster Cathedral.
From here he issued over a hundred books between 1476 and 1492, the year of his death. The size of his organisation is unclear. But since from early in his career he had been publishing large books he must have had a number of workmen to undertake the various aspects of printing, including typesetting, operating the press, proofreading and binding. The great majority of these books were written in English, although a few were in Latin. One of the first major books he printed, in 1477, was Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Caxton was evidently keen to make available to his readers the writings of the most widely known of medieval English poets. He printed a second edition of The Canterbury Tales in 1483, as well as other poems by Chaucer: his Parliament of Fowls and Anelida and Arcite (both c. 1477-78), and his Troilus and Criseyde and House of Fame, both in 1483. He also printed Chaucer's prose translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy (1478). Thus Caxton established the tradition of Chaucer in print that has continued over the centuries.
Who wrote The Canterbury Tales?
Geoffrey Chaucer
Name three language families in the Indo-European group of languages.
Germanic, Italic, Celtic
Who stayed with Everyman until his death?
Good Deeds
Edward the Confessor died at the "beginning" of Middle English. Name the two principal historical characters who laid claim to the kingship of England. Who eventually became king? How did this happen?
Harold (a trusted person of king Edward) and William the Conquorer were the principle characters who laid claim to the kingship of England. William eventually became king, but Harold was initially crowned in his place by the Anglo-Saxon Wittans (i think that's spelled right). William and his army crossed the channel and fought Harold and his army in battle where William came out as the winner (and therefore king of England) after Harold was killed in the battle.
William won the throne of England at the Battle of ...
Hastings
Chaucer's works had had a wide manuscript circulation and Caxton used the medium of print to maintain and extend their appeal as the new print technology began to displace copying by hand.
He also printed works of other major medieval English poets whose works had enjoyed manuscript popularity, including John Gower's Confessio Amantis and John Lydgate's Life of Our Lady, both of which were published in 1483. Caxton's printed editions brought these poems to a new, contemporary audience. Evidence of early ownership of copies of his editions suggests the social breadth of that audience, including royalty, nobility, gentry, the mercantile classes and religious houses.
In all, Caxton published more than 20 translations that he had made himself. In fact, these translations virtually sustained his press, being the single most abundant source of material: publications such as Cicero's Of Old Age, Of Friendship and Of Nobility (1481), Christine de Pizan's early 15th-century French Moral Proverbs (1478) and Fayttes of Arms (1489) and Alain Chartier's Curial (1483) were all the result of Caxton's own translation efforts.
He also translated Aesop's Fables (1484), a collection of encyclopaedic material, the Mirror of the World (1481), a lengthy religious work called the Royal Book (1487) and a prose version of Virgil's Aeneid, the Eneydos (1490), from French versions. His collection of saints' lives, The Golden Legend, published in 1483 and again in 1487, was partly a translation from French, supplemented by some lives written in Middle English. He published his only translation from Dutch - the beast fable Reynard the Fox - in 1481 and again in 1489. His rendering of the Vitas Patrum ['Lives of the Fathers'], one of the longest of his translational projects, was not published until 1495 by Wynkyn de Worde.
Why is the linguist in this NPR report not bothered by the phrase I feel like when it replaces I think.
He notes that young people often create new expressions or alter old expressions in a language. In this case, he does not think the phrase is expressing feeling but is in fact expressing a belief or opinion. (a Linguist who deals in descriptivism) this contrast to the prescriptive NYorker Article argument against the phrase and its 'diluting' of the language; the people who want to 'maintain' standards are imporant because language cannot be overly descriptive or prescriptism because we have standardized language for certain situations (example: you wouldn't risk saying this phrase in an interview in case the interviewer hated it, and this use of tact is standardized language)
Subsequently, Caxton applied the experience he had gained in Cologne by printing various books in the Low Countries.
He seems to have published the first book in English in Ghent, in around 1473. This was his own translation of the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, an account of the Trojan legend. Caxton states in the preface that he had completed the translation while he was in Cologne in September 1471. In the following year he printed another of his own English translations, the Game of Chess. In Bruges, in 1475, he printed a few more books.
Johnson hoped that his dictionary would, "fix the English language."
He states that, "The chief intent of it is to preserve the purity, and ascertain the meaning of our English idiom." He wanted to produce a dictionary that would unify pronunciations across the board because he believed that that would help perpetuate the language.
Why did the author of A Dictionary of English Language (1755) want to include quotations along with definitions of words?
He wanted to give the words credibility and thereby he appealed to readers through ethos by quoting authoritative writers to esteem his definitions in reference to them.
The advent of printing in England was due to the efforts of William Caxton, who was born, probably in Kent, between 1415 and 1424.
He was apprenticed to a member of the Mercers' Company in London and subsequently worked for much of his adult life as an English merchant in the Low Countries, particularly in Bruges, where he became governor of the resident English merchants. Caxton's commercial experience must have made him quick to see the potential of print.
But Caxton was not content to simply draw on pre-existing markets for manuscripts for his readership. He also used print to create new markets for novel and different kinds of writing.
His most sustained effort of this kind was the publication of a series of prose romances, essentially a new literary form in England in the later 15th century. The most famous work of this kind was his edition of Thomas Malory's prose Arthurian romance, Le Morte Darthur (1485), one of the biggest books his press produced. He printed a number of other romances of this kind, all in his own translations, including Godfrey of Boulogne (1481), The Knight of the Tower (1484), Charles the Great and Paris and Vienne (both in 1485) and Blanchardin and Eglantine and The Four Sons of Aymon (both in 1490).
But - to go back to disinterested - what should we say about the claims of 'ignorance' and 'misuse'? It is certainly true that those people who originally started saying disinterested in the new way probably did not know its other meaning. We could then say that they were misusing the word. There is a very important observation we can make about this, though.
IMPORTANT (article thesis): The fact is that none of us can unilaterally decide what a word means. Meanings of words are shared between people - they are a kind of social contract we all agree to - otherwise communication would not be possible. If somebody decides all by themselves that nice ought to mean 'ignorant' because that is what it meant originally in English, he or she will have a very hard time. If I said 'Because they do not study very hard, my students are very nice,' it is certain that people would misunderstand me and probable that they would think that I was mad. Similarly, it is certain that anyone who found Salisbury cathedral enormously impressive and said 'I find this building really awful' would also be completely misunderstood.
Old English had many grammatical and structural innovations through the centuries. In a Linguistic Connection, I speculate (with the help of a comedian) that the word ass is taking on a new grammatical function. If this is true, this is an example of a grammatical and possible structural change in PDE. What is the new function of ass in a sentence such as the following: That is a lame ass reason for showing up to work late.
INTERSIFIER that follows the object
The first comprehensive dictionary of English was published in 1755 and was called A Dictionary of the English Language. During the 18th century, there was a push to "fix" the definition of words and "bring order to the English language." So says the documentary we watched. Now, comment on this. Can a dictionary "fix" a word's meaning? (A paragraph might do to answer this, but it should be a good paragraph.)
In simple terms, a dictionary can "freeze" a word's meaning and potentially prolong its use in that prescribed definition, but it cannot make people apply this meaning in their own use of the word. This is to say that while a dictionary does record the "frozen" meaning of a word, that does not stop people from adapting, altering, and all together evolving the word into other forms of meaning. The use of a dictionary to "bring order to the English language" does this partly in its recording of the word's meaning, thereby freezing it in lasting writing for people to refer back to, even if they themselves do not utilize the word's "fixed" meaning. All of this is to say that a dictionary can "freeze" a word's meaning in writing, but it has no power in enacting the application of this meaning in language use among the public; this does not take away from the value of a dictionary, of course.
Changes are taking place in the way words are stressed. There is a long-term trend in two-syllable words for the stress to be moved from the second syllable to the first: this has happened in living memory in such words as adult, alloy, ally and garage.
It is still going on, especially where there are related noun-verb pairs. There are many pairs where the noun has first-syllable stress, and the verb second-syllable stress, and in such cases many speakers now stress the verb also on the first syllable: examples are annex, contest, contract, escort, export, import, increase, progress, protest and transfer. In cases where both the noun and the verb have second-syllable stress, there is a tendency for the noun to be given first-syllable stress, as with discharge, dispute, redress and research; occasionally the verb may also be given first-syllable stress.
Johnson's dictionary was not the first, but how was his dictionary different from previous dictionaries of English?
It used literary excerpts to illustrate word usage.
We examined a research article that discussed a language change in (Preset-day English) PDE. This involved a change from the intensifier very to so. This area of language change is:
LEXICAL
Even though English was emerging as the language of school, commerce, and diplomacy, which language was still considered "better?"
Latin
Why in the 18th century?: Suggested reasons for the increase in the number of prescriptive grammars
Let me now move to answering the question 'why did this increase in the number of grammars occur in the second half of the 18th century'? I propose the following four reasons: (I) There is a new market situation with so-called 'social climbers', (II) a process of language standardization is involved, (III) as well as the notion of politeness, (IV) and finally, new developments in the printing trade play an important role. It has to be stressed that these reasons are interrelated and thus closely connected. In what follows I will discuss them one by one
During the Early Modern English Period, the dialect around this city became the dominant or prestige dialect. This was due in part to the printing press becoming established in this city. Which city became home to the most prestigious dialect of England during this period?
London
Grammar Never dies
Middle Class: people moved to city, got jobs, weren't tied to the land again. They wanted to move to the upperclass & wanted hard rules of how to "talk" like the upper-class - This was during the "Age of Reason" the age where everything had a "Why" reason so "certainly we could figure out english grammar?" - Bishop Lowth wrote a VERY important book on English grammar where many of his ideas are still with us today "A Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762)" - ideas such as "dont end a sentence with a preposition" and "dont use double negatives" - Joseph Priestly also wrote grammar books; but he was not quite as determined to "stamp out bad grammar" - It was seen by some that if you did not use "good grammar" you were being "un-religious" or "sacrilegious" even - Grammar changes because languages change; there is standard grammar but standards also CHANGE
What role did printing play in the spread of the obsession with grammar?
New developments in the 'printing' trade "Finally, the last point suggested as a factor that facilitated the increase in the number of grammars in the 18th century is the development in the printing trade more generally. According to Belanger (1982), at the end of the 17th century there were virtually no magazines or newspapers and publishing was only possible in London, Oxford and Cambridge due to the socalled 'Licensing Act', which expired in 1695. If we compare this situation to the one at the end of the 18th century, we find that a dramatic shift has taken place. There are now local newspapers and periodicals, even though the national newspapers are still based and thriving in London, and there are pamphlets and books available for purchase. In addition, the copyright situation had changed dramatically over the same period of time, in that there was no longer any perpetual copyright. This meant that provincial publishing received an enormous impetus, that cheap editions of the classics could now be produced, and that unaltered reprinting of established bestsellers, such as the grammars, had become possible everywhere. This changed situation in the printing trade, in combination with the other factors previously mentioned, helps to explain the large numbers of re-editions and reprinting of prescriptive grammars. Lowth's grammar, for example, sold 34,000 copies by 1781 (Mandelbrote 2004). Since the market was clearly there, this might also go a long way towards explaining that the increase in the number of new grammars continued into the 19th century."
Is the author of this NY Times article a fan of phrase I feel like when used in place of I think?
No. She thinks it interferes with "taking responsibility" for our own answers; this feeling about language like this has carried on from the 15th century and will carry on forever; we are resistant to change
As we saw in the lecture (with the guest lecturer), William the Conqueror was from this region.
Normandy
However, most of the books Caxton printed in English were in prose.
Once more, some of these reflected earlier traditions of manuscript popularity. Thus, he made available in print for the first time such popular historical writings as the prose Brut, a chronicle of English history, that he printed in 1480 and again in 1482, and an English translation of a Latin universal history, the Polychronicon, published in 1482; both of these works had previously circulated widely in manuscript. He also printed English religious works that had enjoyed a similar earlier manuscript appeal, including editions of Nicholas Love's early 15th-century Speculum vitae Christi ['Mirror of the Life of Christ'] in 1484 and 1490, the Pilgrimage of the Soul (in 1483) and editions of various sermon collections, including two of the Festial of John Mirk (in 1483 and 1491), which was printed with the Quattuor Sermones ['Four Sermons']. The largest religious work Caxton printed was a collection of prose saints' lives, The Golden Legend, in 1483. The final works from his press included several concerned with spiritual well-being: The Art and Craft to Know Well to Die (1490), The Craft for to Die Well (1491) and a collection of spiritual writings generally known as The Book of Divers Ghostly [i.e. spiritual] Matters (1491).
One of the distinguishing characteristics of Early Modern English was a growing (and some would say misguided) preoccupation for "correctness" by language scholars and even society in general.
One of the reasons for this preoccupation in early Modern English was that language change was not that well understood. In short, change was seen as corruption. But as we've seen throughout the course, language changes. Even Samuel Johnson changed his focus as he worked on his famous dictionary. When he started the dictionary, he wanted to refine the language and prevent change, particularly in words' meanings.
Vowel Breaking ('participation' vs. 'participa-etion')
One vowel sound becomes two; vowel shifts into two distinct parts of the vowel as it's articulated
To "proscribe" means to
Outlaw
What are phonotactic rules and how do they explain some of the spelling irregularities in Present Day English?
Phonotactic rules are mental rules in our heads that dictate the "legality" of sound combinations. This means that there are certain sounds we do not use because their sound combinations seem "illegal" in our minds. These rules explain some of the spelling irregularities in Present Day English because as our pronunciations evolve, our sounds change and these "rules" dictate our initial spelling for these words, even though these words' pronunciation is different now than they may have been when initially recorded. These rules explain that some of the spelling irregularities in Present Day English are a result of pronunciation change as the language sound evolved.
A S G Edwards explains how William Caxton brought the printing press to England, and published printed versions of works by writers including Chaucer, Malory, Gower, Cicero and Virgil.
Printing with moveable type was introduced to the Western world in the 1450s by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany.
Inner History of Early Modern English: Grammar (influnced by outer history influence of dictionary)
Remember early modern English period is 1500-1800 as TRADITIONAL time period MAIN POINTS FOR TEST: - POINT ONE: Two consonants were added in this time: / z / (with a 'v' over it) which sounds like a 'sure' in 'measure' or 'treasure' and / n / (with the little hook on the 'n' right leg) which added an "-ing" sound- more of a nasal sound than emphasis on the 'g' Two sounds were added, but roughly by this period all of the sounds we have in present day english were set here - POINT TWO: / r / "'r' less ness" do not pronounce the 'r' after a vowel became very popular in this time; this is a large difference in American English and British English, as this popular rule still continues in England
How can we describe the adjectives prettiest, happiest, and saddest?
SUPERLATIVES
Which of these names is usually associated with the "first" English dictionary? (Even though there were a few previous dictionaries, but they were less extensive.)
Samuel Johnson
We listened to a podcast about double negatives. The podcast and our readings mentioned that Robert Lowth wrote a grammar book in the 18th century and denounced the use of double negatives. However, sometimes they can be useful. For example, why would someone use the following phrase: Mary is not an unkind woman.
Someone would use this phrase to indicate a moment of in-depth thought around the concept. I think someone would use the phrase listed above to imply that there are multiple facets connected to the idea; Mary is neither simply "kind" or "unkind" but rather the subject of the sentence is allowed multiplicity in this use of double-negatives, in a way that can almost be taken for insulting in the right context.
Why does spelling not match a language's pronuciation?
Spelling may not match a language's pronunciation because as a language's pronunciation evolves, the written spelling of a language is more concrete and thus (usually) remains after the pronunciation has changed and evolved.
Explain one reason why strong verbs continued to disappear in Middle English.
Strong verbs continued to disappear in Middle English due to the continued loss of inflections. The merging of multiple language with English to produce Middle English irradicated many of these word endings (inflections) and instead focused more strongly on syntax (word order) to dictate meaning. These internal changes began to disapper while word order began to matter more.
What kind of student was Johnson?
Studious, no-nonsense and didn't think many of the lectures he attended were what they could have been
(Questions about Module 12 Podcast "Connections"): 2) Are double negatives self-canceling?3) If I say Dr. Johnson is "not un-interesting," then is that the same thing as saying Dr. Johnson is "interesting?"4) Can we ever use double negatives?5) What's the historical background for English using double negatives in the early part of English's development and then NOT using them?6) How did double negatives become so "blue collar?"
TB
(TRUE OR FALSE) The pronoun you was originally only an object pronoun in Old English.
TRUE
A characteristic of early modern English is the postvocalic / r / dropping. This developed in England and along the Atlantic US seaboard. (Hint: Remember Jeff Sessions' accent.)
TRUE
Currently, the letters "ng" are pronounced as / ŋ / by most speakers of English.
TRUE
Describe the Durham Proverbs. What are they? What is their structure and what do they deal with?
The Durham Proverbs is a collection of 46 mediaeval proverbs from various sources. They were written down as a collection, in the eleventh century, on some pages of a manuscript that were originally left blank.
Describe the Inkhorn Controversy? What exactly was the Inkhorn Controversy in Early Modern English?
The Inkhorn Controversy was a battle between the Purist and the Neologizers about words borrowed directly from foreign languages, such as Latin and Greek terms, and those newly invented words by writers like Shakespeare. Long Latin words that scholarly writers used were known as "inkhorn terms" or "inkhornisms." They were viewed by many with distaste and took on connotations of "learned pedantry." The Inkhorn Controversy in Early Modern English was fueled by those who supported borrowings and coinages versus those who opposed them.
What group came to (invaded) England after the Germanic tribes, starting around 787 A.D.?
The Vikings came to invade England starting around 787 A.D.
How did the bubonic plague affect English?
The bubonic plague affected English as it dismanttled the feudal system and therefore allowed for the English to stop its "dying" process brought on by the upperclass use of French after the Norman invasion. This is to say that peasants were able to travel into the main cities (and to charge more for their labor) and due to this influx of peasants traveling into the cities, English (the lesser language spoken by common people) began to merge with the common language and dialects, thus increasing and spreading out in its use.
How did the change from tenant farming to larger estate farming in the 16th and 17th century affect English? (Hint for you memory...think about the rising middle class.)
The change from tenant farming to larger estate farming affected English by allowing for.greater aspirations of achieving "upper class status" through work and language (such as an increased need for "refined" english & 'educated" use of English to show worth in class climbing). Through this, English was able to develop and evolve as more and more people began to seek out ways to "refine" their use of it in order to elevate their class, work, and economic status.
From a linguistics perspective, what is the definition of dialect vs. language?
The difference between dialect vs. language is that if there is mutual intelligibility between two dialects, then the dialect is a language. That is to say that when a dialect of a language evolves past being able to be understood by other speakers of that same langauge, then this indecipherable evolution has lead into a new language rather than just a variation of one because it "sounds different." The traditional definition can be problematic in this way because "what classifies" a language can mean seperate things to different people. Someone who may be able to understand this "dialect" spiraling into a language cannot speak for everyone else's intelligibility of it, so the process of identification and labeling can become problematic in ruling out the defining aspect.
From a linguistics perspective, what is the definition of dialect vs. language? Explain how the traditional definition can be problematic. (This issue was in one of our Linguistic Connections.)
The difference between dialect vs. language is that if there is mutual intelligibility between two dialects, then the dialect is a language. That is to say that when a dialect of a language evolves past being able to be understood by other speakers of that same langauge, then this indecipherable evolution has lead into a new language rather than just a variation of one because it "sounds different." The traditional definition can be problematic in this way because "what classifies" a language can mean seperate things to different people. Someone who may be able to understand this "dialect" spiraling into a language cannot speak for everyone else's intelligibility of it, so the process of identification and labeling can become problematic in ruling out the defining aspect.
In Learning Module 5, we read the article "Good Old Immigrants of Yesteryear Who Didn't Learn English: Germans in Wisconsin." Summarize the main point of the authors? How might this relate to the bilingual situation in England during the Old English period?
The main point of the authors is that the "Good Old Immigrant" stereotype of immeditate language assimiliation is false and that this choice not to immediatly assimilate does not mke immgrants now more "lazy" than their ancestors, who sometimes had to adopt some form of English (though, as the article states, nowhere near perfect English) to survive. Many immigrats continued to be bilingual after immigrating. This relates to bilingual situation in England during the Old English period because even after the introduction of Germanic languages (brought over by Germanic invaders & conquores), Celtic languages still continued to live on through many common people, and this inability to change their language immediatly did not make them "lazy" or destroy their life quality as some examples from the article argue.
The Early Modern English period, particularly the 17th and 18th centuries, witnesses developments that result in the establishment of the Present-Day English verbal system.
The most noticeable of these affect the subjunctive and the modal auxiliaries, tense auxiliaries (future and [plu]perfect), passive, and the progressive (be + -ing). At the end of the 18th century, a fairly high degree of paradigmatic symmetry exists in the verbal group: various combinations of tense, mood, voice and (to a certain extent) aspect can be systematically expressed by sets of auxiliaries and endings."
Who ruled England from about 43 AD until about 410 AD? And why did they leave England?
The romans. They left England due to threats from invaders on their homeground, Rome.
What is the theme in the play Everyman?
The theme in the play Everyman is a religious theme. It is a morality play that focuses on how earthly values such as beauty, material goods, kinship, and even friendship will not outlast "good deeds" (the good doings within morality).
Why is the /n/ pronounced in PDE in the word condemnation but not the word condemn.
The word condemn had suffixes originally, but they were lost during the history of English. And the /mn/ is an illegal phonological construction at the end of syllables.
During the 18th century, many English grammar books were published in England. Why was there a rise in the number of grammar books being published? Many of these were written from a very prescriptive and even proscriptive perspective. What does prescriptive and proscriptive mean in this context?
There was a rise in the number of grammar books being published because "social climbers" believed an elevation of "polite" and "correct" language would allow them some aspirations of becoming part of the uppercrust, allowing for class mobility. The printing press made these grammar books more accesible. In this context, "prescriptive" is pertaining to how words and grammar should be used while "proscriptive" refers to words and grammar rules that were "outlawed" from popular use in order to better fit into "correct" langauge usage.
Even more useful is the fact that we now have something which we never had before - the possibility of a single-word noun corresponding to the adjective.
There was never a word uninterestedness or uninterest in English, so we had to use rather clumsy, longer noun-phrases such as lack of interest, which I just used above. But are there also any difficulties caused by this change? Are those who resist the change right to do so? Surely confusion can result from this development? Actually, it does not seem so. As usually happens with words with more than one meaning, the context in which the word is used nearly always makes it clear which meaning is intended. After all, we never seem to get confused about the two different meanings of interested, so why should we be confused if disinterested has two meanings also? We will not usually confuse the meaning of common in 'Chaffinches are very common in England' with its meaning in 'Only common people eat peas with their knife'. We are very unlikely to misinterpret the meaning of state on hearing 'Slovakia has become an independent state' as opposed to 'John was in a very bad state'. This is true of a number of other pairs of words which dictionaries distinguish between, but for which many speakers and writers make no difference. One such well-known pair is imply and infer. Dictionaries, and schoolteachers, tell us that these two words mean different things, and that they should be used differently
Words do not mean what we as individuals might wish them to mean, but what speakers of the language in general want them to mean
These meanings can and do change as they are modified and negotiated in millions of everyday exchanges over the years between one speaker and another. IMPORTANT: Language change cannot be halted Nor should the worriers feel obliged to try to halt it Languages are self-regulating systems which can be left to take care of themselves They are self-regulating because their speakers want to understand each other and be understood If there is any danger of misunderstanding speakers and writers will appreciate this possibility and guard against it by avoiding synonyms, or by giving extra context, as in the well-known
Recently, the pronoun they has been proposed as as a substitute for he and she if the antecedent is unknown. How might this process be compared to the history of the pronoun you.
This compares to the history of the pronoun "you" as "you" evolved into a personl pronoun where it had not been that case before. This case with "they" is similar as many have begun to propose "they" as a singular personal pronoun, in order to better adhere to gender fluidity and repurpose gender-roles, opposed to its initial use as a different part of speech (a plural).
The irregularities of present-day English spelling are more in evidence with vowels than with consonants
This is a notorious source of mis-spellings in present-day English because the vowel in both sets of suffixes is reduced to /ə/
In one of the modules, I discussed a letter to the editor that encouraged speakers to use more English words and less Anglo Saxon words. And one of our readings discussed the fact that about 85% of Anglo Saxon words have been lost in present-day English. However, when a native English speaker in the U.S. speaks, an accurate estimate is that about 50% of their words have Anglo Saxon roots. Explain how this could be true.
This is true due to the fact that many Anglo-Saxon words that still remain are words we use most commonly. That is to say that even if there is a decrease in Anglo-Saxon words as eximplified within this percentage data, those that remain are used often enough to warrant a repetitive use in our every-day language.
There is speculation that the Indo-Europeans were lactose tolerant while many of their neighbors were lactose intolerant. How could this have affected migration patterns and who controlled the land?
This lactose tolerance could have affected migration patterns and who controlled the land due to the traveling difference in cattle breeds between Indo-Europeans and their neighbors; that is to say that the Indo-Europeans' tolerance of lactose potentially granted them the ability to raise different type of cattle than their neightbors and, in addition to this, that would allow for different migration patterns in caring for different specicies. (I apologize for these misspellings. Lock-down browser does not give me the help of auto-correct).
In Shakespeare, there are many adverbs without -ly (our will . . . which else should free have wrought, Macbeth, II.i.18f), but the -ly forms are more numerous, and the relative number has increased since then. In our example, free would be replaced by freely in present-day English.
Today there is a residue of adverbs without the suffix, e.g. far, fast, long, much. In another group of adverbs, there is vacillation between suffix and no suffix, something which has been utilized systematically in a number of cases: dig deep vs. deeply involved; he was admitted free vs. speak freely; right now vs. he rightly concluded that . . .; cp. also clean(ly), direct(ly), loudly(ly), near(ly), short(ly), etc
Due to the printing press, written works became more accessible to the general public.
True
Harold Godwinson was king of England for a few months.
True
Verbs gave Johnson the most trouble
True
There are different dialect regions in Alabama (RE: the 'r' dropping after certain vowel sounds in reference to Jeff Session's speech & 'vowel breaking' & autocratic aspirational tone that shifted his language use to sound more like 'upper-middle class' or 'upper-class) It was very fashionable at Sessions' time to drop the 'r' which is reflected in his speech; he tries to sound a little bit 'uppercrust' in his language, whether it is subconscious or not, even though now it is popular and fashionable to pronounce the 'r'
True: there are four 'quadrants' of southern american english: North eastern, North western, South eastern, South western
During Middle English, these consonants were added.
VOICED FRICATIVES
What happens when two people use different meanings of a word in a conversation according to Peter Trudgill in his essay "The Meaning of Words Should not Be Allowed to or Change"? (Remember that line about "self-regulating systems.")
When two people use different meanings of a word in a conversation, to solve this miscommunication they will provide extra context and avoid synonyms.
Why does PDE have this spelling of "knee" despite the / k / not being pronounced?
While the / k / is not pronounce in Present Day English (PDE) as it was once pronounced due to Viking influence in Old English (OE), our written records allow us to continue to use this word, even if our articulation of it has changed.
Who is credited with bringing the printing press to England?
William Caxton
Who brought the printing press to England and in what year? And how did the printing press affect the relationship between spelling in English and pronunciation?
William Caxton 1476. The printing press affected the relationship between spelling in English and pronunciation by "freezing" spelling the way it was pronounced at the point of publication, leading to some confusion of inaccurate spellings as these pronunciations changed and evolved as the generations went on. Set a stand spelling
Did Johnson think dictionaries should legislate (i.e. prescribe) language use?
Yes?
An English Academy was never established to regulate English. Why was such an academy never developed?
[FEEDBACK: "And the issue of establishing the standard also has played a role."] An English Academy was never established to regulate English because it was impossible to "fix" a language like that. The language academies of french and Italian exemplified this. The publication of Samuel's dictionary also aided this desire to "learn correct English" in place of an academy that may or may not be able to "regulate" English.
The word blast had an original meaning of "a strong gust of wind." It still has this meaning. However, a more modern meaning is "to have a good time." What is the term used to describe this sort of semantic shift?
amelioration
How many vowel phonemes are in PDE?
around 11 or twelve
What is the place of articulation for the final sound in the word lamb?
bilabial region
To hearken back to previous terms, Samuel Johnson changed from a prescriptivist to a ______ as he wrote his famous dictionary.
descriptivist
Remember this for the final exam. And here is the question: Samuel Johnson wrote a _______ of the English language.
dictionary
English Academy
early modern english speakers became obsessed with grammar & grammar rules - benefits of a language academy, it would serve as a guide for what is "right and wrong" though from a linguistic perspective languages change. Though during the 18th century people were not as aware of language change. Negatives: correcting people's grammar can cause public upsets, and grammar changes Realities: you cannot "fix" a language, english creeps into french despite a french academy As Samuel Johnson published his dictionary, the thought of an English academy more or less went away (1755) the place to go to whenever there was a grammar question
English's language family is...
germanic
Define the word etymology.
history of a word
Even if the situational context does not make it clear what is meant, the grammatical context will:
if I imply something to you, you will, if you are clever and sensitive enough, infer that same something from what I have said. This is a distinction which can just as well be made, then, by means of infer to and infer from. Many English speakers of other dialects, however, do not observe the distinctions enshrined in dictionaries, and say things like Can I lend your bike? and The teacher learnt us geography. Purists might want to argue that we should not permit potentially confusing variation of this type between dialects. is clear that absolutely no confusion of meaning can result, and that speakers of the different dialects will always understand one another even if they follow different patterns of usage. The context, and/or the use of prepositions like from and to, will make it clear what is intended. (Actually, it is not only dialects of English which vary in this way. Individual languages differ from one another quite a lot in the extent to which they use different words for converse terms. The German verb leihen, for example, means both 'to lend' and 'to borrow', something which causes German speakers no distress whatsoever.
Caxton seems to have learnt how to print in Cologne, in what is now Germany.
in 1472, of a massive Latin encyclopaedic work, Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De Proprietatibus Rerum ['On the Properties of Things']. Wynkyn de Worde, Caxton's associate and successor, who printed an English translation of Bartholomaeus in Westminster in 1495/96, says in the verse epilogue to it that 'William Caxton [was] first printer of this book | In Latin tongue at Cologne'. In fact, the Cologne edition was probably undertaken by a German printer, possibly Johannes Schilling, who organised the production of this book for Caxton and instructed him in the techniques of printing while he was resident there. It is possible that Caxton published other books while in Cologne, but the evidence is not conclusive.
What is the place of articulation of this sound [ ð ]? (Hint: Think of where the tongue is.)
interdental
Which of these describes the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar sounding word?
malapropism
What does Everyman offer Death to go away?
money (a thousand dollars)
The plural of ox is oxen in PDE. However, the plural of box is boxes (and not boxen) in PDE. The study of how different word endings work in a language (like the study of how how endings in OE changed in PDE) deals with which area of linguistics?
morphology
In the fifth century AD, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians came to England from which of these areas of modern-day Europe?
northern and western Germany and Denmark
What is an allophone?
one or more variants of the same phoneme
During the Great Vowel Shift, long vowels
rose (in the mouth)
Prescriptive
rules that tell us how we SHOULD use a language
Many speculate that the Indo-Europeans migrated into Europe and western Asian from...
the Eurasian Steppes (above the North Sea)
William Jones is credited with discovering...
the Indo-European group of languages
Who wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English Speaking People?
the Venerable Bede
Which of the following is a strong verb in PDE.
to write
During the Middle English period, many French words were incorporated into English.
true