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Positive impact of language change
Classical impact on the English language during the Renaissance period
Language development research paper
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Recommended: Positive impact of language change
Today, like during the renaissance when it could be said that the English language developed the most, there is no shortage of people who comment and have opinions on the development of the English Language. In an essay entitled English our English John Marenbon (1987) talks of the necessity to include Latin in the national curriculum to aid the English student in their study, he also says that any Englishman who does not have a grasp of Latin is "(A) stranger to his own culture" (note the patriarchal ideological inscription in not including females who speak or study English in his comments!). The influence of Latin on the English Language is of course, not to be overlooked, not only do we have words which directly come from Latin such as the Latin Factum which has become the modern day word fact, to use one of many examples, but Latin has also affected the English language indirectly through the uptake of words from as many as 50 languages, many of which have Latin as their predominant influence.
It is important to note that during this renaissance period it was predominantly only lexical changes that occurred, the great grammatical development in English language had occurred before the renaissance, of course grammatical developments also occurred after this period too right up to recent times. The reason for these lexical changes, I will look at in greater detail later. So when we look at linguistic development during the period c 1550-1700 we generally only look at the addition of new words.
Having made these comments about the lack of grammatical developments, such was the massive ambiguity of how to spell words at the time that some people had made attempts at producing texts on how to spell. Even the cleverest intel...
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...ng since English was first starting to take its modern form. One good example is the use of negatives, as far back as c1155 it used to be customary that a double or triple negative was used to add more power to a comment, but eventually simplification occurred and it became the norm for only one negative to be used, this is another example of a rare grammatical change which I have previously drawn attention to, however this simplification occurred long before and continued long after the renaissance.
In conclusion, we see that not only were the major changes to the English Language during the renaissance mainly lexical but also were mainly due to social and economic factors.
References.
John Marenbon (1987) English our English (Centre for Policy Studies)
Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable (2002) A history of the English language, "The Renaissance." Routledge
Hallen, Cynthia L. "The History of the Latin Language." Department of Linguistics Brigham Young University. Last modified September 6, 1999. Accessed January 9, 2014. http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/latin.html
May, Robert. “Lesson 6: The Early Modern Period.” English 110S Course Notes. Queen’s University. Kingston. Summer 2010. Course Manual.
The Renaissance period also changed through literature. This new change in literature was important because it taught people to read,write and with learning how to read and write gave people the needed components to do for themselves, different ways to think and use knowledge to better themselves.. Many more people got more chances to read and write instead of the select few. This gave people more opportunity at jobs, gave the servants a more chance for freedom.(Doc.b)
The Web. The Web. 04 May 2014. http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/grandstyleterm.htm>. Bacigalupi, Paolo.
Vickers, K. H. A History of England: (Volume III) England in the Later Middle Ages (London, 1937).
Author(s): Judie Newman Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 98, No. 4 (Oct., 2003), pp. 817-826
how the English language has changed in the many years from then until now. The
Mitchell, Bruce and Robinson, Michael A Guide To Old English, fifth edition 1992 , Blackwell Publishers , Oxford .
As you can see, there are many differences and similarities between these distinctive periods in literary history. The Anglo-Saxon period was the time of heroism. The Medieval period was the time of chivalry and courtly love. The Renaissance period was the time of a rebirth and humanism. Lastly, the seventeenth century was a time of the Puritans and the Cavaliers. Each period revolved a new topic, theme and writing style. However, no matter what differences our literature goes through, we always go back into our roots and pull out our beginnings and use them efficiently. The English language has surely evolved through each stage of time and it will continue to grow to new heights because of its predominant history.
Sharma, B., 2008. “World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, and English Pedagogy”, Journal of NELTA 13 (2), pp. 121-130. Available from
The English Renaissance dated from the late fifteenth century to the early seventeenth century. The English Renaissance was a cultural movement that affected all forms of art such as literature, painting, and music. The later sixteenth century is known as the Elizabethan era and is known as the height if the English Renaissance. During this time literature in England was gradually becoming more and more popular due to inventions such as the printing press. This time period is also known as the “New Birth”. The renaissance era started in Italy after being conquered by the barbarian Teutonic tribes. Even though Italy’s government was in anarchy, their culture and faith grew stronger than ever. The renaissance spread a feeling of endless possibilities and potential from Italy to all over England. The renaissance era wa...
The settlement of the British Isles by north Europeans followed by Norman French paints the backdrop to this essay which will focus on the period between the early 15th and 17th centuries, when a'standard' English language evolved. It will show that modern-day English is very different to that first introduced to the British Isles, but by identifying changes through time, its continuity can be demonstrated. Finally, it will suggest that present day English is in a position analogous to that which existed before the Norman invasion, when there were many varieties and dialects, and that this may lead to its decline as a global language, due to decreasing intelligibility. The beginnings of English can be found in the occupation of England from the 5th century by north and west German ethnic groups who brought their 'indigenous dialects' (Seargeant, P. 2012, p. 1). The Oxford English Dictionary defines English as 'Of or related to the West Germanic language spoken in England and used in many varieties throughout the world' (Seargeant, P. 2012, p. 7).
SeargentPhilip, and Joan Swam. English in the world: History, diversity, change. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2012.
Have you ever wondered where the names of the different items you use daily came from? Or listened to people talk and find a particular word interesting or odd and wonder why it has become part of our English language? The English language that we speak today has developed as a result of many different influences and changes over thousands of years. The resulting changes to the English language can be split into three time periods that include, Old English or Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and Modern English which is commonly used today
It is interesting to see the way that the English languge has grown and changed.