We
may take modern English for granted, but when you examine its roots and explore
how our language has evolved over the years, you begin to see patterns emerge. Once you feel you understand what English
really is, it changes on us, with new words coined daily and old rules thrown
to the side. If you want a very good, but
brief look at English, read The English
Language: A Very Short Introduction
by Simon Horobin (Oxford University Press).
Here
are some interesting excerpts, covering linguistics, dictionaries, Old English,
and unwritten rules:
1.
English
today is spoken by approximately 450 million people all over the world. But the language used by its many speakers
varies, in pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, to such an extent
that it seems necessary to ask whether these people can all be considered to be
speaking English. Even more people speak
English as a second language, with figures varying from 1 billion to 1.5
billion people, and with considerably greater levels of linguistic
divergence. Are all these people
speaking the same language, or are we witnessing the emergence of new
Englishes? Sine more than half of the
world’s native English speakers live in the USA, we might wonder whether the
balance of power has shifted such that to speak ‘English’ today is to speak
General American rather than Standard British English.
2.
English
has been in use for 1,500 years; during that time it has changed to such an
extent that the form of the language used by the Anglo-Saxons is unrecognizable
to contemporary English speakers. Today
we refer to this language as Old English, but should we perhaps think of it as
a different language altogether?
3.
What
is the status of foreign words in English today? Should we be restricting the number of words
adopted from other languages? Are
foreign words corrupting the purity of the English tongue, leaving it
impoverished and capable only of unintelligible gobbledygook, or do borrowed
words add to the diversity and richness of English?
4.
The
earliest recorded form of English is known as old English – a language used by
the Anglo-Saxons, as well as other Germanic tribes who came to Britain from
continental Europe in the 5th century, following the withdrawal of
the Roman legions. Despite the disparate
origins of the various Germanic tribes who settled in the British Isles during
this period, they eventually came to consider themselves a single people and
adopted the name of the Angles, from which the world English is derived.
5.
The
most obvious place to turn is to a dictionary, frequently held to be the
ultimate authority in discussions of usage.
But this is not as straightforward as it may seem. Where many people refer to the dictionary’ as
if there were a single such publication, the reality is considerably more
complex.
Does this mean it
is a legitimate word or not? Consulting
a dictionary for an authoritative pronouncement is not as straightforward a solution
as might initially appear.
The view that a
dictionary should set standards to be followed can be traced back to Dr.
Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language
(1755).
Although Johnson’s
Dictionary is often celebrated as the
first such work in English, earlier instances of the monolingual dictionary can
be traced in list of hard words. The
oldest example is Robert Cawdrey’s Table
Alphabeticall (1604), whose full title establishes its remit: A Table
Alphabeticall, conteyning and teaching the true writing, and understanding of
hard usuall English words, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, or French.etc.
6.
Today,
the inclusion of slang words, acronyms, and terms deriving from social media,
such as amazeballs, YOLO, and selfie, into updated editions of dictionaries often provoke
consternation among the media and the general public, who see such words as
unworthy of inclusion in such an authoritative repository. But since these words are in widespread use
among English speakers, it is proper that they should feature in a dictionary.
7.
The
popular view that a dictionary should uphold standards and prescribe, rather
than reflect, usage was perhaps most strongly demonstrated by the furore that
surrounded the publication of Webster’s Third
New International Dictionary in 1961, in which labels which had
traditionally commented on the acceptability or otherwise of certain words were
recast in a more neutral tone, reporting rather than dictating usage.
8.
Perhaps
the closest England has come to having an institutionalized academy is the
Society for Pure English, founded in 1913 by the poet Robert Bridges, who was
concerned by the ‘advancing decay’ of English caused by the laziness of its
speakers. Bridges attracted a number of
distinguished academic supporters for his mission to improve the language as an
aid for ‘the intercommunication of ideas’.
Yet, alongside his desire to promote intercultural harmony was a darker
purpose that sought to root out the ‘blundering corruptions’ caused by those
‘communities of other-speaking races’ whose imperfect acquisition of the
English language was infecting and mutilating the superior tongue. Bridges’ conflicted aims demonstrate how
attempts to purify and control English are often driven by social, moral, and
racial agendas; by seeking to keep English pure. Bridges was really concerned with the purity
of its speakers.
9.
If
dictionaries cannot be trusted to provide the kind of prescriptive authority
that people seek, and without an academy of distinguished scholars to draw
upon, where should we look for reliable and authoritative linguistic
pronouncements? An alternative source to
the dictionary is the usage guide, which tends to adopt a more prescriptive
approach and which focuses on a small subset of frequently disputed points of
usage. But where we might turn to such a
guide in search of a single, unassailable viewpoint, the reality is a wealth of
conflicting advice in a range of publications.
10.
The
importance of the canon of great literary writers continues to influence
debates over correct usage today.
Appealing to such precedents remains a common tactic among writers
seeking an authoritative basis upon which to sanction or outlaw a particular
usage.
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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and
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