David Crystal - riassunto inglese | Appunti di Linguistica Inglese

THINK ON MY WORDS - DAVID CRYSTAL

1. “You speak a language that I understand not”: myths and realities

According a myth, in Roanoke Island, off the east coast of Virginia, you can hear pure Shakespearean

English, or “Elizabethan English”. Just as it happens today, even in Shakespeare’s time the speech of the

young and old people from some part of the country differs from different point of views, whether it is

lexicons, pronunciation, spelling or grammar. Even if some isolated communities will indeed be more

conservative than others, the idea that Shakespeare’s English is alive is a myth.

Some say that Shakespeare had the largest vocabulary of any English writer. it is not possible to do a

precise calculation of how much vocabulary was in use during a particular historical period. The best guess

is that in Shakespeare’s time there were about 150,000 different English words, today there are 600,000.

Shakespeare’s vocabulary is about 20,000 (we count words that have different meanings. Cat, dog and ask

are 3 words, cat and cats is counted as one), today we have twice as many. Quantity is not enough. We

know way more words than Shakespeare, but it doesn’t matter how many words we know, it matters what

we do with them. That makes the difference between an ordinary and a brilliant use of language.

It is important to choose the most effective words from the language’s wordstock to express our intentions.

If the wordstock does not have the words that we need, we have to be prepared to invent new ones to

make good the deficiency, and to use old ones in unprecedented ways. Shakespeare was excellent at this.

The problem with counting words is that we must decide if we want to separate words such as “filthy-

worsted-stocking” or count it as 1. We have to decide if the grammar variations are part of the word, since

in Shakespeare’s times we had way more of them than today, if we include proper names, if foreign words

are part of the vocabulary or not. 20,000 words for Shakespeare sounds about right. King James’ Bible in

1611 had 880,000 words. If we exclude the proper names, it only had 6,000 words. The first dictionary will

be Robert Cawdrey’s Table Alphabeticall in 1604.

Why is Shakespeare’s vocabulary so much? Because he wrote a lot, and because he wrote about different

things, different people, different situations. Because the range of characters and settings was so wide, so

was his vocabulary. Shakespeare invented many words, or, simply, he was the first to have written them

down. We go back to Shakespeare because, since there is no other evidence that someone before him has

used certain words, we associate them with him. Thousands of words were taken from Latin and Greek and

new words were created on the basis of the pattern found. The age in which he wrote was one of the most

lexically inventive periods in the history of the language. The 16th century saw a huge expansion of

vocabulary as scholarly writers tried to make good the deficiencies they perceived to exist in English.

How difficult is Shakespeare language? The need for a translation is not necessarily because of the words,

but because of the thought that he wants to express. However, linguistic difficulty arises from unfamiliar

grammar (around 10% of Shakespeare’s grammar causes comprehension problems) and unfamiliar

vocabulary, as well as spelling and punctuation. Shakespeare uses plenty of words that haven’t changed

their meaning but can be difficult. When he alludes to something, if we don’t understand the reference, it

becomes difficult to understand the meaning. There are words that might look easy but are deceptive (false

friends) such are “merely” meaning “totally” or “ecstasy” meaning “madness”. A number of “different

words” are of we might call “moderate difficulty”, as the context is sufficiently clear to enable us to make a

guess at the meaning.

Shakespeare’s style seems to be distinctive, something that differentiates him from other writers. Style

varies on two dimensions: diachronically & synchronically. Style is determined by the features that, taken

together, identify a language user. The way adjectives are used, what vocabulary is selected, if there is a

rhythm inside the text.

Anteprima parziale del testo

Scarica David Crystal - riassunto inglese e più Appunti in PDF di Linguistica Inglese solo su Docsity!

THINK ON MY WORDS - DAVID CRYSTAL

1. “You speak a language that I understand not”: myths and realities

According a myth, in Roanoke Island, off the east coast of Virginia, you can hear pure Shakespearean English, or “Elizabethan English”. Just as it happens today, even in Shakespeare’s time the speech of the young and old people from some part of the country differs from different point of views, whether it is lexicons, pronunciation, spelling or grammar. Even if some isolated communities will indeed be more conservative than others, the idea that Shakespeare’s English is alive is a myth. Some say that Shakespeare had the largest vocabulary of any English writer. it is not possible to do a precise calculation of how much vocabulary was in use during a particular historical period. The best guess is that in Shakespeare’s time there were about 150,000 different English words, today there are 600,000. Shakespeare’s vocabulary is about 20,000 (we count words that have different meanings. Cat , dog and ask are 3 words, cat and cats is counted as one), today we have twice as many. Quantity is not enough. We know way more words than Shakespeare, but it doesn’t matter how many words we know, it matters what we do with them. That makes the difference between an ordinary and a brilliant use of language. It is important to choose the most effective words from the language’s wordstock to express our intentions. If the wordstock does not have the words that we need, we have to be prepared to invent new ones to make good the deficiency, and to use old ones in unprecedented ways. Shakespeare was excellent at this. The problem with counting words is that we must decide if we want to separate words such as “filthy- worsted-stocking” or count it as 1. We have to decide if the grammar variations are part of the word, since in Shakespeare’s times we had way more of them than today, if we include proper names, if foreign words are part of the vocabulary or not. 20,000 words for Shakespeare sounds about right. King James’ Bible in 1611 had 880,000 words. If we exclude the proper names, it only had 6,000 words. The first dictionary will be Robert Cawdrey’s Table Alphabeticall in 1604. Why is Shakespeare’s vocabulary so much? Because he wrote a lot, and because he wrote about different things, different people, different situations. Because the range of characters and settings was so wide, so was his vocabulary. Shakespeare invented many words, or, simply, he was the first to have written them down. We go back to Shakespeare because, since there is no other evidence that someone before him has used certain words, we associate them with him. Thousands of words were taken from Latin and Greek and new words were created on the basis of the pattern found. The age in which he wrote was one of the most lexically inventive periods in the history of the language. The 16th^ century saw a huge expansion of vocabulary as scholarly writers tried to make good the deficiencies they perceived to exist in English. How difficult is Shakespeare language? The need for a translation is not necessarily because of the words, but because of the thought that he wants to express. However, linguistic difficulty arises from unfamiliar grammar (around 10% of Shakespeare’s grammar causes comprehension problems) and unfamiliar vocabulary, as well as spelling and punctuation. Shakespeare uses plenty of words that haven’t changed their meaning but can be difficult. When he alludes to something, if we don’t understand the reference, it becomes difficult to understand the meaning. There are words that might look easy but are deceptive (false friends) such are “merely” meaning “totally” or “ecstasy” meaning “madness”. A number of “different words” are of we might call “moderate difficulty”, as the context is sufficiently clear to enable us to make a guess at the meaning. Shakespeare’s style seems to be distinctive, something that differentiates him from other writers. Style varies on two dimensions: diachronically & synchronically. Style is determined by the features that, taken together, identify a language user. The way adjectives are used, what vocabulary is selected, if there is a rhythm inside the text.

7. “Think on my words”: Shakespearean vocabulary

Vocabulary is the area lest subjected to generalization. If one says “As blacke as Vulcan, in the smoake of warre”, we understand the sentence, but it would help to know who Vulcan is (the Roman god of fire). It is not a matter of language change; it is an educational point that applies to many Shakespeare’s text. If a word gains a new function, we immediately feel a dramatic effect. Child: Can I have another biscuit? Mom: I’ll biscuit you if you don’t get off to bed right now. Some words are different solely because Shakespeare needed an extra syllable to meet the demands of the metre. He’d add an “e” at the end of the word for example. Shakespeare uses the word “vast” but adds an “ie” at the end: “vastie”. He could have used very big , large and huge , which have been in English since the 13 th^ century, or great , since the Anglo-saxon times. There were the words immense and enormous , but they had the wrong rhythm. The word massive had the rhythm, but another meaning (it refers to a concrete size upwards). He then used vast , which thought was poetically attractive. In other situations, Shakespeare adds an -y , which means “characterized by” for example in steepy , brisky and plumpy. They come from steep , brisk and plump , which we understand. The vocabulary is pretty clear when he uses alternative forms of the same word. The choice between vantage and advantage , scape and escape , shrew and beshew can be solely due to the location of the word in the line. Names can be altered too, sometimes the full name is used, Helycanus , other times he shortens it, Helicon. On the other hand, there are some words are harder to understand and result incredibly difficult because it is not possible to deduce from their form what they might mean, such as finical , fardel , grise and incony. These words present no alternative but to learn them, the same way we would with a foreign language. It is useful to explore the whole range of uses of a new word as soon as we come across it, because it helps the comprehension in a number of ways. “fardels” in Hamlet means “burden, load, bundle”. In The Winter’s Tale “fardels” can be ordinary things. It is helpful to teach children difficult words when they are young, especially if learnt in couples or together, as words are usually learnt in a context. Some Shakespeare’s difficult words are not difficult because they are different in form from the vocabulary, we know today but because they have changed their meaning. “intent” is similar to “intention”, “meat” used to refer to “food” in general, not only “flesh meat”, but the effect is not greatly different. Some words, which meanings’ have changed, are much more misleading to read in the modern sense. “demander” for example, does not mean to “demand”, but “ask”. “Naughty” means “wicked”, “sad” means “serious” and “merely” means “totally”. “Humorous” means “moody”. It is important to remember that when we study Shakespeare’s vocabulary, it is important to recognize that his period of the language is not homogeneous. In modern English we sense that some words are current, some old, some new. People refer to the older usage as “obsolete words” or “archaisms”. If a word is getting obsolete, it tends to pass away in silence. Early Modern English was a period of extraordinary dynamic change. There was a remarkable lexical inventiveness and experimentation. Shakespeare uses come coinages (a new word or phrase in the language) that define his way of writing. “Angel” meant “divine messenger” but it then turned to “lovely being”, as Romeo describes Juliet. A typical Shakespearean word is “fledge” which has the same root of “fly” and during the Middle Ages it emerged as an adjective describing the state of birds whose feathers were fully developed. In the second half of the 16 th century it began to be used as verb, referred to the “acquiring of feathers”. Shakespeare started to use the word “unfledged” in the sense of “immature” or “inexperienced”.

8. “Talk of a noun and a verb”: Shakespearean grammar

Grammar makes sense of language. Words by themselves do not make sense. The grammatical rules over the past 400 years have changed very little: 90% of the words-orders and word-formations used by Shakespeare are still in use today. We have the impression that Shakespeare’s grammar is very different from us because of the complicated word-order. Grammar reflects the way we think, specifically the way we organize our thoughts, so the more complex the thing we want to say is, the longer and more complex our sentence is going to be. There are two big branches that study grammar: syntax (the study of a sentence structure) and morphology (the study of a word structure). A reference grammar of Shakespeare’s usage is as important as a dictionary is for his vocabulary. Such a grammar provides information about all aspects of morphology and syntax. There are 3 perspectives to take into account when studying Shakespearean grammar:

Forms/constructions used by him that we still use today
Forms/constructions used by him that are not in use today
Forms/constructions that we use today and he did not We have to make sure that we know how grammar worked in Shakespeare time. In Shakespeare we find a plural subject with a singular verb (there is 2 or 3 Lords&Ladies). He also used double negatives; the more negative in the clause, the more emphatic the negative meaning. Nouns The main difference is that there were some nouns that were countable and had their plural during S’ times but today are uncountable ( music, courage, information ). Adjectives For comparatives and superlatives, we don’t see much difference, since we could find more near, honester, honestest. What was common was the double comparative: more longer, most bravest , because of the emphatic effect they produced. The decision also depended on the rhyme and the metrical system. We could also find a sequence of adjective before and after the noun: a good Lady, and wise, and virtuous (instead of a good, wise and virtuous lady ). Verbs The most distinctive features is in the forms used to express time. We find in the 2 nd^ person the -est and in the 3rd^ person the -th , which will then be replaced by -s , apart from religious English and occasional modern jokey usage. The -eth ending adds another syllable, so the poet had two forms to choose from, depending from the metrical number he’s decided to use. Usually the two forms are in free variation much of the time. The older -th form is preferred in situations where a more conservative vocabulary is the norm. Some irregular verbs have changed graphically (drave  drove, spake  spoke), others have become regular (holp  helped) , but most of the regular verbs had - ed in the end. Pronouns Thou and you forms dominate : thou, thee, thy, thine, you, ye, your, yours. Reflexive pronouns: itselfe , themselues. In Old English thou was singular and you was plural. By the 13th^ century, you began to be used as a polite form of the singular (probably copying the French manner of talking, where vous was used in that way). You was generally used from inferiors to superiors, for example from children to parents, or servants to masters, and thou was used in return. Thou was also used when addressing God and when the lower classes talked to each other. The upper classes used you to each other, as a rule, even when they were closely related. When someone changed from you to thou or vice versa, it meant something, usually a different emotion or mood. Thou was also an insult, if we are talking about upper classes. Thee will then be used as index of warmth of feeling, the reverse as thou. Ye was the subject of a clause and you the object. We will have mainly ye and you , the main difference is that ye is not poetical, but it was used in two sonnets because it rhymed with me , otherwise, since we are

talking about monosyllabic words, we have to think about other factors that come in. the main reason is that it is related to a character. Ye is used also in vocatives ( ye people) and certain fixed attention-getting phrases. One pronoun that causes a few problems is the ethical dative. When Petruchio says “knocke me” Grumio thinks he is saying “hit me”, rather than “knock on the door for me”. If we don’t recognize the ethical dative , we miss the point of the joke, which is what happened with Grumio (also sign that it was starting to be outdated). Word order Sentence per line: simplest relationship between metre and grammar. Sentence per two lines: two-line sentence Clause per line. Sometimes the line breaks. We might have a line with only the clause subject and a dynamic tension to go read the next one to find the verb and complete it. The line endings are all major point of grammatical junction, so that each line makes a separate semantic point. There are also lines where there is not semantic coherence and grammatical structures are broken. The reason is that it is the sort of disruption that is needed when portraying a confused mind. The position of the adverb helps with the dynamic impact (or not) that we want to have: he quickly went home / he went home quickly / quickly he went home. Sometimes the subject is put after the verb, but today this is obsolete, as we follow the SVO word structure. Metre is often thought of simply as a phonetic phenomen, as an aesthetic sound effect, when in fact it is much more. Metrical choices always have grammatical, semantic, pragmatic as well as dramatic consequences.

David Crystal - riassunto inglese, Appunti di Linguistica Inglese

Documenti correlati

Anteprima parziale del testo

Scarica David Crystal - riassunto inglese e più Appunti in PDF di Linguistica Inglese solo su Docsity!

THINK ON MY WORDS - DAVID CRYSTAL

1. “You speak a language that I understand not”: myths and realities

7. “Think on my words”: Shakespearean vocabulary

8. “Talk of a noun and a verb”: Shakespearean grammar