3.6.4

Middle English 2

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Religion and the Catholic Church

During this period, the Catholic Church held a great deal of power and authority, but still conducted much of their business and services in Latin.

The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church

The important thing to note for this period is that the power and authority comes from the Catholic Church, and as such, there is a great emphasis on religion.
Indeed, this period is often characterised by the battle for the language of the Bible.

Wycliffe

Wycliffe

At the start of the period the Bible and sermons were conducted in Latin, which wasn’t much use to the non-Latin speaking English people.
Around 1380, John Wycliffe translated the Bible from Latin to English.
This was ground-breaking work at this time.
Wycliffe had a team of men who travelled round the country to tell people about the Bible and to dispense them.

Issues

Issues

There were, however, a few issues with this.
In terms of readability, Wycliffe translated word-for-word, maintaining the Latin syntax which isn’t the same as English syntax.
In terms of legality, the Catholic Church banned the Bible and order its destruction as well as the arrest of Wycliffe and his associates.
The Catholic Church were that angry with Wycliffe that they ordered that his remains were to be dug up and burned.

Tyndale

Tyndale

In the early 1500s, we see the emergence of another new Bible, this time, translated by William Tyndale.
In writing his translation, he embedded rhythmic and simplistic phrases.
His Bible was still banned, but was very effective.
It became most effective following Henry VIII’s move to Christianity, in which he wanted an English Bible.

The King James Bible

The King James Bible

Tyndale’s Bible was in popular (but not full) use until King James ordered the creation of a standardised Bible.
85% of Tyndale’s translation made it into the King James Version.

Writing the KJV

Writing the KJV

The KJV was designed to sound archaic to make it sound like it spoke from experience and knowledge.
It was also designed with many pieces of rhetoric so that when read aloud, phrases became engrained in the heads of listeners – it was very much written to be read aloud.
It is still the version in use today.

Orthography and Pronunciation

Aside from Biblical developments, other advances were being made in the written mode during this time.

Henry V

Henry V

Henry V started writing letters home from the war in English – a move not previously taken by monarchs.
Following this, the Signet Office (the people who published all the King’s official documents) starting using English in publications.

Orthography

Orthography

However, this did cause an issue because the dialects and orthography (spelling system) of English were pre-standardisation and so very different from each other.
From this point, we start in motion the process of standardisation.
The Chancery (the civil service of the time) decided that verbs like ‘hath’ and ‘doth’ should stop being used and that the first person singular pronoun should be ‘I’.

Standardisation

Standardisation

Around this time, there were two groups of people with ideas about how English should construct its orthography.
The traditionalists wanted to spell in ways that we had always spelt and the reformers who wanted to spell things how they were pronounced – the traditionalists won this battle.
French words were adapted to appear more Latinate and words like ‘rhyme’ were given the to match words like ‘rhythm’.

The Great Vowel Shift

The Great Vowel Shift

Orthography wasn’t the only thing that was changing. An event called ‘The Great Vowel Shift’ changed the way English words were pronounced.
Over a number of years, we changed where we articulated long vowels, moving from the front of the mouth, to the back of the mouth.
For example, we used to pronounce ‘house’ as ‘hoose’. Short vowels were not affected by this.

The Printing Press

Perhaps the most important invention of the time was the printing press.

The printing press

The printing press

Perhaps the most important invention of the time was the printing press.
Originally formed in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg, the printing press allowed for many copies of a document to be quickly and cheaply produced – much easier than monks writing out everything by hand.

William Caxton

William Caxton

William Caxton brought the printing press to England (he DID NOT invent it!).
He published many famous works, most notably, Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’.

End of Middle English

End of Middle English

Caxton (and his workers) chose which spelling variations to publish and as such, made a massive contribution to the way we spell things today.
The opening of the printing press in London (in 1476) effectively symbolises the end of Middle English.

1

Language Levels

1.1

Assessment Objectives

1.1.1Assessment Objectives

1.2

Lexis

1.2.1Introduction 1.2.2Common, Proper, Abstract & Concrete Nouns 1.2.3Collective Nouns 1.2.4Adjectives 1.2.5Main, Auxiliary & Copular Verbs 1.2.6Dynamic & Stative Verbs 1.2.7Transitive, Intransitive, Active & Passive Verbs 1.2.8Mood of Verbs 1.2.9Adverbs 1.2.10Personal, Possessive & Reflexive Pronouns 1.2.11Relative & Demonstrative Pronouns 1.2.12Determiners 1.2.13Conjunctions 1.2.14Synonyms, Antonyms & Phonological Features 1.2.15End of Topic Test - Lexis

1.3

Grammar

1.3.1Morphology 1.3.2Clauses 1.3.3Phrases 1.3.4Present Tense 1.3.5Past Tense 1.3.6Future Tense 1.3.7End of Topic Test - Grammar

1.4

Semantics & Pragmatics

1.4.1Semantics 1.4.2Pragmatics

1.5

Discourse Structure, Graphology & Orthography

1.5.1Discourse Structure 1.5.2Graphology & Orthography 1.5.3End of Topic Test - Semantics, Graphology etc.

2

Language, The Individual & Society

2.1

Children’s Language Development

2.1.1The Exam 2.1.2Phonemes, Vocal Tract & Articulation 2.1.3Writing About Phonemes 2.1.4Phonological Simplification 2.1.5A Child's First Year & Consonant Acquisition 2.1.6Beginning Stages of Language 2.1.7Lexical Development 2.1.8Stages of Development 2.1.9End of Topic Test - Child Language Development

2.2

Children's Language Development - Theories

2.2.1Behaviourism 2.2.2Interactionism 2.2.3Challenging Interactionism 2.2.4Nativism 2.2.5Nativism - Exam Answer 2.2.6Cognitivism 2.2.7Social Constructionism 2.2.8Writing About Spoken Acquisition 2.2.9End of Topic Test - Development Theories

2.3

Literacy Development: Reading

2.3.1Introduction 2.3.2Phonics vs Whole Word 2.3.3Debates in Reading 2.3.4Modelling Reading Acquisition 2.3.5Other Reading Theories 2.3.6End of Topic Test - Reading

2.4

Literacy Development: Writing

2.4.1Orthography 2.4.2Kroll's Theory 2.4.3Barclay's Theory 2.4.4Creativity vs Accuracy 2.4.5Other Writing Theories 2.4.6The Exam 2.4.7End of Topic Test - Writing

3

Language Diversity & Change

3.1

The Importance of Gendered Language

3.1.1Writing About Gender 3.1.2Dominance Theory 3.1.3Interruptions - Zimmerman & West 3.1.4Deficit Theory 3.1.5Difference Model 3.1.6Difference Model - Men 3.1.7Diversity Model 3.1.8End of Topic Test - Gendered Language

3.2

Social Groups

3.2.1Writing About Social Groups 3.2.2Social Class 3.2.3Social Class 2 3.2.4Age 3.2.5Age - Teen Speak 3.2.6Milroy’s Belfast Study 3.2.7Labov’s Martha’s Vineyard Study 3.2.8End of Topic Test - Social Groups

3.3

Occupational Groups

3.3.1Writing About Occupational Groups 3.3.2Jargon 3.3.3Conversations 3.3.4Hierarchy & Power 3.3.5End of Topic Test - Occupational Groups

3.4

Accents & Dialects

3.4.1Writing About Accent & Dialect 3.4.2Introduction to Accents & Dialects 3.4.3Accents - Matched Guide Experiment 3.4.4Accents - Received Pronunciation & Brummie 3.4.5Dialects - Dialectal Variations 3.4.6Accent & Dialect Case Study - London 3.4.7End of Topic Test - Accents & Dialects

3.5

Language Change

3.5.1Writing About Language Change 3.5.2Modelling Change 3.5.3Modelling Change 2 3.5.4Lexical Change 3.5.5Semantic Change 3.5.6End of Topic Test - Language Change

3.6

History of English

3.6.1Old English 3.6.2Old English 2 3.6.3Middle English 3.6.4Middle English 2 3.6.5Early Modern English 3.6.6Late Modern English 3.6.7Present Day English 3.6.8Global English 3.6.9American English 3.6.10Modelling Global English 3.6.11End of Topic Test - History of English

Jump to other topics

1

Language Levels

1.1

Assessment Objectives

1.1.1Assessment Objectives

1.2

Lexis

1.2.1Introduction 1.2.2Common, Proper, Abstract & Concrete Nouns 1.2.3Collective Nouns 1.2.4Adjectives 1.2.5Main, Auxiliary & Copular Verbs 1.2.6Dynamic & Stative Verbs 1.2.7Transitive, Intransitive, Active & Passive Verbs 1.2.8Mood of Verbs 1.2.9Adverbs 1.2.10Personal, Possessive & Reflexive Pronouns 1.2.11Relative & Demonstrative Pronouns 1.2.12Determiners 1.2.13Conjunctions 1.2.14Synonyms, Antonyms & Phonological Features 1.2.15End of Topic Test - Lexis

1.3

Grammar

1.3.1Morphology 1.3.2Clauses 1.3.3Phrases 1.3.4Present Tense 1.3.5Past Tense 1.3.6Future Tense 1.3.7End of Topic Test - Grammar

1.4

Semantics & Pragmatics

1.4.1Semantics 1.4.2Pragmatics

1.5

Discourse Structure, Graphology & Orthography

1.5.1Discourse Structure 1.5.2Graphology & Orthography 1.5.3End of Topic Test - Semantics, Graphology etc.

2

Language, The Individual & Society

2.1

Children’s Language Development

2.1.1The Exam 2.1.2Phonemes, Vocal Tract & Articulation 2.1.3Writing About Phonemes 2.1.4Phonological Simplification 2.1.5A Child's First Year & Consonant Acquisition 2.1.6Beginning Stages of Language 2.1.7Lexical Development 2.1.8Stages of Development 2.1.9End of Topic Test - Child Language Development

2.2

Children's Language Development - Theories

2.2.1Behaviourism 2.2.2Interactionism 2.2.3Challenging Interactionism 2.2.4Nativism 2.2.5Nativism - Exam Answer 2.2.6Cognitivism 2.2.7Social Constructionism 2.2.8Writing About Spoken Acquisition 2.2.9End of Topic Test - Development Theories

2.3

Literacy Development: Reading

2.3.1Introduction 2.3.2Phonics vs Whole Word 2.3.3Debates in Reading 2.3.4Modelling Reading Acquisition 2.3.5Other Reading Theories 2.3.6End of Topic Test - Reading

2.4

Literacy Development: Writing

2.4.1Orthography 2.4.2Kroll's Theory 2.4.3Barclay's Theory 2.4.4Creativity vs Accuracy 2.4.5Other Writing Theories 2.4.6The Exam 2.4.7End of Topic Test - Writing

3

Language Diversity & Change

3.1

The Importance of Gendered Language

3.1.1Writing About Gender 3.1.2Dominance Theory 3.1.3Interruptions - Zimmerman & West 3.1.4Deficit Theory 3.1.5Difference Model 3.1.6Difference Model - Men 3.1.7Diversity Model 3.1.8End of Topic Test - Gendered Language

3.2

Social Groups

3.2.1Writing About Social Groups 3.2.2Social Class 3.2.3Social Class 2 3.2.4Age 3.2.5Age - Teen Speak 3.2.6Milroy’s Belfast Study 3.2.7Labov’s Martha’s Vineyard Study 3.2.8End of Topic Test - Social Groups

3.3

Occupational Groups

3.3.1Writing About Occupational Groups 3.3.2Jargon 3.3.3Conversations 3.3.4Hierarchy & Power 3.3.5End of Topic Test - Occupational Groups

3.4

Accents & Dialects

3.4.1Writing About Accent & Dialect 3.4.2Introduction to Accents & Dialects 3.4.3Accents - Matched Guide Experiment 3.4.4Accents - Received Pronunciation & Brummie 3.4.5Dialects - Dialectal Variations 3.4.6Accent & Dialect Case Study - London 3.4.7End of Topic Test - Accents & Dialects

3.5

Language Change

3.5.1Writing About Language Change 3.5.2Modelling Change 3.5.3Modelling Change 2 3.5.4Lexical Change 3.5.5Semantic Change 3.5.6End of Topic Test - Language Change

3.6

History of English

3.6.1Old English 3.6.2Old English 2 3.6.3Middle English 3.6.4Middle English 2 3.6.5Early Modern English 3.6.6Late Modern English 3.6.7Present Day English 3.6.8Global English 3.6.9American English 3.6.10Modelling Global English 3.6.11End of Topic Test - History of English

Practice questions on Middle English 2

Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

1
Who translated the Bible from Latin to English around 1380?Multiple choice
2
Issues with Wycliffe's bible:Fill in the list
3
Which English monarch started writing letters home from war in English?Multiple choice
4
‘The Great Vowel Shift’:Fill in the list
5
Facts about the printing press:True / false

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Middle English

Early Modern English