ENG 346: Aspects of the English Language

 

ENG 346: Aspects of the English Language

Lesson 11: Modern English
Week: March 31-April 6, 2003

Place: Dial 147

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to do each of the following:

  • Describe the basic characteristics of and major developments in Modern English.
  • Describe the historical background of Modern English.
  • Identify a passage written in Modern English.
  • Define relevant terms.

Assignments

Revise one of your “Think Again” essays bring it to class on Wednesday.

Activities

Presentations: Introduction to Modern English (Professor Canada), Modern English morphology (Kelly), Modern English syntax (Rosa)

 

Cooperative Learning: Using what you have learned or reviewed in this lesson, analyze the passage I assign your group.  Specifically, identify the period in which the passage was composed and explain the factors that shaped the passage’s phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic, and orthographic features.

 

Workshop:  Exchange revised “Think Again” essays with a partner.  Write comments on your partner’s draft, focusing on the draft’s content, clarity, style, and integrity.

 

Announcements: We will wrap up this lesson with announcements regarding upcoming lessons, as well as other relevant subjects.

Terms

Make sure you know the meaning and significance of each of the following terms:

  • dictionary
  • Samuel Johnson
  • Lexicographer
  • standardization
  • Jonathan Swift
  • Noah Webster

Resources

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language contains extensive information on Modern English.

 

The Cambridge History of the English Language contains extensive information on Modern English.

 

The Origins and Development of the English Language contains extensive information on Modern English.

 

A History of the English Language contains extensive information on Modern English.

Updated March 21, 2003
© Mark Canada, 2003
mark.canada@uncp.edu
 

Introduction

In our last lesson, we looked at Early Modern English.  In this lesson, we turn to Modern English.

Discussion

Modern English

Because of their distinctive lexicon, morphology, orthography, and syntax, literary works written before 1700 pose various levels of difficulty for modern reader.  Beowulf, for example, is unintelligible to someone without a working knowledge of Old English.  Even the Canterbury Tales, which Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in Middle English, and William Shakespeare's plays, written in Early Modern English, require careful attention and access to a glossary.  On the other hand, reading books by Jonathan Swift, Jane Austen, Herman Melville, or Edith Wharton is relatively simple.  Although the syntax sometimes is elaborate and the vocabulary sophisticated, we generally understand the sentences without a specialized knowledge or access to many footnotes. 

The reason we can understand these four writers and their contemporaries is that all wrote in what we call Modern English, spoken from about 1700 until the present day.  For a variety of reasons, this brand of English has undergone relatively minor changes in the past 300 years.  It was during this period, for example, that dictionaries became extensive and widespread, helping to stabilize spelling.  Public schools and a vast communications industry also played a role in fixing the language, particularly by helping to establish standards.  New words, of course, continue to enter the language, and old words die, but English orthography, phonology, morphology, and syntax have remained largely the same since 1700.  Still, Modern English is dynamic, undergoing some interesting minor changes and playing host to a number of other developments in dialect, usage, jargon, and other areas.

Practice

Below are some activities designed to help you master the knowledge and skills covered in this unit.  

  1. Trace the history and impact of dictionaries from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755) to Joseph Worcester's A Dictionary of the English Language(1860). 
  2. From 449 to almost 1500, the English language largely evolved freely, responding to changes that speakers and writers made unconsciously. After 1475, however, people such as William Caxton, Jonathan Swift, and Noah Webster had some successes--and some failures--in trying to shape the language deliberately. Describe the efforts of these and other language reformers in the Modern English era and evaluate their success. 
  3. Analyze a literary work by George Eliot, Henry James, or another novelist from the 19th century. Identify a passage that, because of an archaic lexical or syntactic feature, might confuse or mislead a modern reader. Translate the passage into the form of English spoken today. You may need to refer to the Oxford English Dictionary or another reference work. Explain how understanding this passage helps us to interpret the work as a whole. 
  4. In what ways did the English language change in America in the 18th and 19th centuries? Explain the factors that brought about these changes. 

Conclusion

In this lesson, we examined the history and features of Middle English.  In our next lesson, we turn to psycholinguistics.