Early Modern English

Early Modern English refers to the period from around 1500 to 1800. The creation of the dictionary is of vital significance.

The British Navy

As we move into this period, we see an age of British naval supremacy.
As such, there are great deals of trade of products and words in this time.
For example, many of our expletives come from interactions with Dutch sailors.

The Renaissance

Beginning in the late 1500s, the Renaissance saw a ‘rebirth’ of Greek and Latin ideas in many different ways.
Despite not being spoken or used anymore, Latin was still being taught in schools and so when the educated scholars were working in the Renaissance, there was an upsurge of Latin and Greek words into our language.

Arguments

These words were being brought into our language by the educated, mostly for the purposes of science and medicine.
There were arguments over the high number of Greek and Latinate terms entering our language and this is called ‘the Inkhorn Controversy’.

The Inkhorn Controversy

This issue arose because, essentially, nobody had control over the English language.
In addition, people in this century had need and desire for categorising things.
As a result, we see the birth of the dictionary in this period.

D is for Dictionary (1 & 2)

Whilst there are many attempts to create a dictionary, these are the ones you should know about for your exam:

Dictionary number: 1

Who wrote it? Richard Mulcaster
Name: Elementarie.
Year: 1582 (the very first attempt).
Number of words: 8000.

Limitations

Limitations: This often isn’t considered a dictionary by some linguists.
Essentially, this was just a list of 8000 words – they were alphabetical, but had no definitions.
Not very useful or precise – who gets to decide what goes in?

Dictionary number: 2

Who wrote it? Robert Cawdrey.
Name: A Table Alphabeticall.
Year: 1604.
Number of words: 2453.

Limitations and aims

Limitations: Still a very small amount of words.
Not designed for scholarly use.
Aims: The main purpose of Cawdrey’s dictionary was to provide definitions and standardised spelling for the average person.

D is for Dictionary (3 & 4)

Whilst there are many attempts to create a dictionary, these are the ones you should know about for your exam:

Dictionary number: 3

Who wrote it? Samuel Johnson.
Name: Dictionary of the English Language.
Year: 1755 (took 8 years to complete) note this is not part of the EModE period.
Number of words: 40,000.

Limitations and aims

Aims: Johnson was commissioned to write the dictionary by booksellers who were displeased with the state of spoken English.
In his preface, Johnson notes that there is ‘perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated’.
Limitations: Johnson often used biased definitions in his book and didn’t include dialectal terms.

Key idea

Although Johnson’s prescriptivist views were that we needed to regulate language and prevent change, he admits in the preface that doing this is like trying to ‘lash the wind’, essentially saying that it cannot be done.
You can link this to ideas around standardisation.

Dictionary number: 4

Who wrote it? James Murray (et al).
Name: Oxford English Dictionary.
Year: 1928 (49 years to complete) note this is not part of the EModE period.
Number of words: Over 400,000 words.
This dictionary continues to grow and expand and aims to catalogue as many words as possible.

1Language Levels

1.1Assessment Objectives

1.1.1Assessment Objectives

1.2Lexis

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

1.3Grammar

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

1.4Semantics & Pragmatics

1.4.1Semantics

1.4.2Pragmatics

1.5Discourse Structure, Graphology & Orthography

1.5.1Discourse Structure

1.5.2Graphology & Orthography

1.5.3End of Topic Test - Semantics, Graphology etc.

2Language, The Individual & Society

2.1Children’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

2.2Children'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

2.3Literacy 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

2.4Literacy 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

3Language Diversity & Change

3.1The 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

3.2Social 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

3.3Occupational 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

3.4Accents & 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

3.5Language 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

3.6History 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

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