Standardisation is a gradual process and began in England
around the 14th century. One of the most influential factors is
Samuel Jonson’s Dictionary which developed in 1755 which brought
standardisation to spelling, definitions and meanings. Jonson was well educated
and wealthy which contributes to a social and political issue as it is seems to
always be people of a higher social class that decides things for the rest of
us.
English is a hybrid
language and made up of different dialects which resulted in a language that
was inconsistent, therefore it was important that English needed to become
standard if it was going to be taken seriously. The diagram to the left shows the
4 stages of standardisation, by Haugen in 1966.
Robert Lowth was a bishop and wrote one of the most influential
textbooks of English grammar “ A short introduction to English grammar” . This website https://archive.org/details/shortintroductio00lowtrich
is his book and shows some really interesting bits of information and comments
on the way in which Shakespeare writes.
No comments:
Post a Comment