Transcript Shakespeare’s Use of Language

PRESENTS
Understanding the Language of
A Short History of English
Where did the English language
begin?
The earliest origin of English is in Africa.
What are the stages of
development of the language?
•Proto-English
•Old English
•Middle English
•Early Modern English
(Shakespeare’s time)
•Modern English
Old English (1000 AD)
Faeder ure, thu the eart on
hefonum si thin nama
gehalgod…Urne
gedoeghwamal ican hlaf syle
us to doeg
Middle English (1300 AD)
Fader oure
that is I heuen,
blessed be thi name…Oure
ilk day bred gif us to day.
Early Modern English 1600
Shakespeare’s Time
Our father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name... Give
us this day our daily bread.
Modern English (2000)
Our father who is in heaven,
may your name be hallowed...
Give us our daily bread today.
All four versions
of the Lord’s Prayer
Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
Name... Give us this day our daily bread.
Our father who is in heaven, may your name be
hallowed...
Give us our daily bread today.
All from “English Language –big changes” by April Holladay
Some Influences on English
• Germanic Tribes
(Angles, Saxons, Frisians, Jutes)
• Scandinavian Invasion
• Norman Conquest of Britain (French)
• Trade with the Roman Empire
• Christianity
(more Latin and Greek words)
• Invention of Print
• Samuel Johnson’s dictionary (1755)
• Shakespeare
• The Internet
What changes a language?
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Migration
Mixing with other cultures
Being conquered
Trade with other cultures
Religion
Books and other print sources
Media
Centralized government
Scholars
New Ideas and Technology
What were the influences on Early
Modern (also called Elizabethan or
Shakespearean) English ?
The Elizabethan period “presents
the English language in a
transitional and undeveloped
condition, rejecting and inventing
much that the verdict of posterity
has retained and discarded”
(Abbott 15).
Influences on
Shakespeare’s English
• Values of the time:
clarity preferred over correctness, and brevity
preferred over both clarity and correctness
• New discoveries = new thoughts that require
new words
• Revival of classical studies (Greek, Latin)
• Transitional period of the Language
• Greater influence of spoken English over written
(more contractions)
From A Shakespearean Grammar by Edwin Abbott
Qualities of Shakespearean
English
• Grammatical errors (according to today’s
rules of Standard English)
• Any part of speech can be used as any
other
• Versatility in the arrangement of words in
sentences
• Words and phrases have a greater variety
of uses than today
Adjectives In Shakespeare’s
English
• Add “y” to any word to form an adjective
“Slumbery agitation” – Macbeth 5.1.12
“Unheedy haste” – A Midsummer Night’s
Dream 1.1.237
• Articles (a, an, the) may be omitted
“When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 5.1.224 (“a”
omitted before “lion”)
Adjectives In Shakespeare’s
English
• Adjectives may be used as adverbs or nouns
“Which the false man does easy.” Macbeth
2.3.143 (easily)
“Grow not instant old.” Hamlet 1.2.94
(instantly)
• Adjectives may be compounded
“I am too sudden-bold.” Love’s Labour Lost
2.1.197
“Honorable-dangerous” Julius Caesar 1.3.124
Adjectives In Shakespeare’s
English
• “-er” and “-est” added where today’s English
doesn’t add them
“Horrider: Cymbeline 4.2.331
“Certainer” Much Ado About Nothing 5.3.62
• Double comparative and superlative
“More nearer” Hamlet 2.1.11
“Most unkindest” Julius Caesar 3.2.187
Adjective may be placed AFTER the noun rather
than before
“In the seat royal” Richard III 3.1.164
Adverbs in Shakespeare’s English
• Along may mean “along with me”
• Forth, hence, and hither may be used to show
motion without a verb
“I have no mind of feasting forth tonight”
Merchant of Venice 2.2.37
Double negative: Viola in Twelfth Night says,
“Nor never none /Shall mistress of it be, save I
alone,” by which she meant that no one except
herself would ever be mistress of her heart.
Prepositions in Shakespeare’s
English
• May be left out
“That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds”
Romeo and Juliet 3.1.122 “to” left out
before “clouds”
• May differ slightly in meaning to today’s
prepositions, but the meaning is usually
decipherable
Verbs in Shakespeare’s English
• The “-ed” ending may be omitted
“These things indeed you have articulate”
Henry IV 5.1.72 (articulated)
• “to” may be omitted in an infinitive
“The rest I wish thee gather.” Henry VI
2.5.96 (to gather)
Verbs in Shakespeare’s English
• Verb tense may be inconsistent: changes in
tense allowed where today’s rules would not
allow it
“Therefore they thought (past) it good you hear
(present) a play.” Taming of the Shrew
• Any noun or adjective could become a verb
“That has so cowarded and chased your blood.”
Henry V 2.2.75
Effects of Rhythm on
Shakespeare’s Language
• Shortening of words by using contractions
so words will fit the rhythm
• Changing the accent of words so they fit
the rhythm
Compounding
New words created by compounding
any parts of speech:
“the steep-up heavenly hill” “Sonnet 7”
“til Henry’s back-return” Henry V Prologue
41
Sentence Order
The most emphatic words may be
placed at the beginning of the sentence in
spite of grammatical rules:
“In dreadful secrecy impart they did” Hamlet
1.2.207
“Before the time I did Lysander see,
Seem’d Athens a paradise to me.” A
Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.205
Ellipses (Words Left Out)
“Elizabethan Authors objected to scarcely any
ellipsis, provided the deficiency could be easily
supplied from the context.” (Abbott 279)
•
Little words left out such as : and, as, but, if,
ere, or, like, since, than, though, and pronouns
“This is that banish’d haughty Montague,
And here is come.” Romeo and Juliet 5.3.52
(here he is come)
Shakespeare’s Impact
on Modern English:
Some Phrases Created by Shakespeare
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Eaten out of house and home
Full circle
Neither rhyme nor reason
Seen better days
A sorry sight
A spotless reputation
In my heart of hearts
Words Coined by Shakespeare
Nouns:
accused addiction alligator amazement
anchovies assassination backing bandit
bedroom bump buzzers courtship critic
dauntless dawn design dickens discontent
embrace employer engagements excitements
exposure eyeball fixture futurity glow
immediacy investments kick leapfrog
luggage manager mimic misgiving
mountaineer ode outbreak pageantry pedant
perusal questioning reinforcement retirement
roadway rumination savagery scuffles
shudders switch tardiness transcendence
urging watchdog wormhole zany
Words Coined by Shakespeare
Verbs:
besmirch bet blanket cake champion
compromise cow denote deracinate dialogue
dislocate divest drug dwindle elbow enmesh film
forward gossip grovel hobnob humor hurry
impedes lapse lower misquote negotiate numb
pander partner petition puke rant reword secure
submerge swagger torture unclog
Words Coined by Shakespeare
Adjectives:
aerial auspicious baseless beached bloodstained
blushing circumstantial consanguineous deafening
disgraceful domineering enrapt epileptic equivocal
eventful fashionable foregone frugal generous
gloomy gnarled hush inaudible invulnerable jaded
juiced lackluster laughable lonely lustrous madcap
majestic marketable monumental nervy noiseless
obscene olympian premeditated promethean
quarrelsome radiance rancorous reclusive
remorseless rival sacrificial sanctimonious
softhearted splitting stealthy traditional tranquil
unmitigated unreal varied vaulting viewless widowed
worthless yelping
Words Coined by Shakespeare
Adverbs:
importantly instinctively obsequiously
threateningly tightly trippingly unaware
Works Cited and Consulted
Abbott, Edwin. A Shakespearian grammar: An attempt to illustrate
some of the differences between Elizabethan and modern English.
For the use of schools . 2nd ed. London:Macmillan, 1901.
"History of the English Language." Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation
Inc. 7 Mar 2007
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_English_language>.
Holladay, April. "English Language - Big Changes." USA Today
07/15/2005 03/06/2005
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2005-07-15english-part2_x.htm>.
Holladay, April. "Script for origins of English Language Comes out of
Africa." USA Today 7/8/2005 03/06/2007
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2005-07-07english-part1_x.htm >.
Vernon, Jennifer. "Shakespeare's Coined Words Now Common
Currency." National Geographic News April 22, 2004 03/06/2007
<nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0419_040419_shakespear
e.html>.