Mr. Larbi 1

Chapter 4 :

MODERNITY & ENGLISHas a National Language

Mr. Larbi 2

MODERNITY & ENGLISH AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

Dick Leith and David Graddol

Introduction This chapter focuses on:

1- The Key factors that lead to the development of the English Language into a standardized English. [The end of the 15th c. to the 19th c.]

2- The changing linguistic characteristics and the wider social context within which English developed.

3- How did the ideas of a 'standard’ form of English came up.

5- The process of standardizing the English language

4- The Puritans and their strong interest in the old English [17th century]

6- The development of scientific English

Mr. Larbi 3

1- The Key factors that led to the development of the English Language into a standardized English.

MODERNITY & ENGLISH AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

A- Renaissance Renaissance or ‘the revival of learning’ started in Italy in the 15th century and gradually spread across Europe.

The Renaissance period played a key role in the intellectual development in the whole Europe including England. The importance of the Renaissance period in terms of developing many parts of Europe and England including English language should be related to the sudden growth in scientific researches.

The main scientific researches were conducted first by Copernicus: “The sun , rather than the earth is the center of the solar system.”

Issac Newton who discovered the properties of gravity and light. These scientific discoveries required a vast number of new words and the new forms of reasoning were needed in the grammatical resources of English.

Mr. Larbi 4

MODERNITY & ENGLISH AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

B- The invention of printing by William Caxton [ 1422-1491] The main feature of the renaissance era was the invention of the printing

The printer was introduced to Britain by William Caxton [ 1422-1491] and played a major role in the development of English.

The invention of printing made it possible for the English printer William Caxton to translate and publish the great Greek and Roman books into English

The first book that was printed in English and translated from French into English by Caxton in 1473 was ‘The History of Troy’.

Also the Bible was translated from Latin into English [1526 ]and later that led in the creation of the standard English after the Protestants broke away from the Roman Catholic church and established the new church of England by king Henry 8.

Mr. Larbi 5

MODERNITY & ENGLISH AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

B-1 William Caxton and the Standardization of English. Before Renaissance, different vernacular English [dialects] were firmly dominating the communication between people in England. As a result, a rapid and continuous linguistic changes constantly occurred . 1- Lack of conventionalized spellings and authoritative sources.

Caxton put much effort to familiarize people with the Midlands dialect by setting that dialect as a medium of print and neglecting the other dialects.

2- English , unlike Latin, had no recognized common usage and it varied from one part of the country to another causing practical difficulties of everyday communication.

William Caxton effectively accomplished the 1st stage of the English language standardization by selecting one variety : the south-east Midlands English to be the ‘national language’ and the main English for his books.

Mr. Larbi 6

MODERNITY & ENGLISH AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

C- The Puritans and their strong interest in the old English [17th century]

Puritans are the group of religious people who broke away from the Roman Catholic church and were led by the king Henry 8. Puritans wanted to establish a new English church based on Protestantism. Therefore, Puritans had a strong interest in old English and Anglo-Saxon culture which they celebrated as a golden age of freedom and equality. They deeply studied the old English manuscripts as well as English dialects. They were interested in old dialects because of their associations with the of English .Also they defended dialects as evidence of copiousness of English. In 1674, the Puritan John Ray published a collection of dialect words as an aspect of locality’s ‘natural history’.

Mr. Larbi 7

MODERNITY & ENGLISH AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

2- The process of standardization

Standardization means uniformity and consistency

English was transformed from a vernacular language [dialect] into one with a uniformed variety that could be identified with England as a nation state.

The standardization of English language required 4 main processes:

Standardization

3- Elaboration

1-Selection 2- Codification

4-Implementation

Mr. Larbi 8

Standardizing English

1-ImplementationA dialect can’t be standardized and putinto practice if it’s not believed by people:The last process of standardizing a dialect requires giving this dialect a kind ofcurrency: making texts available ,and not allowing the use of another dialect in officialdomains.

3-ElaborabtionEnglish language needed to be as eloquent asGreek and Latin. One linguistic dimension of eloquence was copiousness: have many words to represent every idea and avoid repetition of the same word. The word stock of English had to be increased. So, during the period 1500-1700, over 30.000new words were added to English language and a great part of them were adopted from Latin and Greek. Many Old English words were brought back into use with new meanings.

2-Codification The norms of grammar , vocabulary & spelling of the South-east Midlands dialect were unified. William’s Lily’s grammar book A Shorte Introduction of Grammar was issued in 1542: It Focused on “ Parts of Speech”Pronunciation: Great Vowel Shift:a shift From the Cockney’s pronunciation:London’s lower class dialect.

1-Selection The south-east Midlands dialect was selected by William Caxton to be the ‘national language’

MODERNITY & ENGLISH AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

Mr. Larbi 9

3- The development of scientific English

MODERNITY & ENGLISH AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

The Copernicus [1473-1543] revolution during the European Renaissance was the starting point of the scientific English.

Copernicus took advantage of the invention of the printer to publish his scientific idea: “The sun , rather than the earth is the center of the solar system.”

Copernicus scientific ideas weren’t welcomed by the Catholic church However, the Puritans welcomed them as they were attempting to set a free English society where democracy and independence of mind exist England was one of the first European countries where scientists adopted and publicized Copernicus scientific ideas with enthusiasm.

Before 17th century, the original science was all in Latin as English wasn’t well equipped: lack of sufficient scientific vocabulary and grammar resources.

Mr. Larbi 10

In 1664 the Royal Society was set by John Wilkins aiming at establishing new forms of English l: scientific English.

3- The development of scientific English

MODERNITY & ENGLISH AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

In 1665 , the first international English language scientific journal ‘Philosophical Transactions’ was issued. Latin was the main reference for scientific English vocabulary through borrowing and translation.

Some scientific words were also borrowed from Muslim and Greek sciences in the medieval period.

The English grammar was also transformed to fit the scientific style. Therefore, the use of the existing words was extended to new word class: “a noun can be used as a verb , and a verb as a noun”“Transforming the nouns to verbs not only allow the natural world

to be objectified but also enables the scientist to develop a complex and abstract argument”. M. Halliday,1993

Mr. Larbi 11

READING ASSIGNMENT for DISCUSSION

Chapter 4Reading AReading B

Pages.167- 179