Week 9

Question 1

What was the significance of Chancery starting to keep records in English around 1430?

Answer 1

It marked the use of the East Midland dialect in official records, contributing to English gaining national status.

Question 2

When was the printing press introduced to England, and who introduced it?

Answer 2

In 1476, William Caxton introduced the printing press to England.

Question 3

Why was Caxton’s printing press significant for the English language?

Answer 3

The printing press created a market for English print, helping English to become more widely used and standardised.

Question 4

What action did Henry VII take in 1485 regarding the English language?

Answer 4

Henry VII made English the language of the court, replacing French statutes with English ones.

Question 5

What was the effect of Henry VII making English the court language?

Answer 5

English gained national importance and began to be seen as a language of government and law.

Question 6

What new problem arose as English gained national status?

Answer 6

There was a need to determine which dialect of English would be understood by the majority.

Question 7

What was Caxton’s “problem” in terms of dialect? What dialect was selected as the Standard during the Early Modern English period?

Answer 7

There was no standardised dialect, so Caxton had to choose a dialect accessible to most readers; he chose the London area dialect.

The dialect from the London area, supported by Chancery, printing, and court use, was selected as the Standard.

Question 8

What time frame defines the Early Modern English period?

Answer 8

Early Modern English is generally defined as c.1476 to 1700.

Question 9

How did spelling change during the Early Modern English period?

Answer 9

Spelling became less variable as standardisation efforts began to take hold.

Question 10

What major linguistic change began during the Early Modern English period? By what year was the Great Vowel Shift (GVS) largely completed?

Answer 10

The Great Vowel Shift (GVS) started during this period. It transformed the pronunciation of English long vowels, which moved “upward” in the mouth.

The vowel sound in “bite” (Middle English /i:/ as in “beet”) shifted to the modern /aɪ/.

The vowel sound in “meet” shifted from /e:/ to /i:/.

The GVS was mostly completed by 1700.

Question 11

What linguistic milestone was attempted around 1700?

Answer 11

The first attempt to establish rules for Standard English was made.

Question 12

How did the view of English and “Englishness” change during the Early Modern period?

Answer 12

English became seen as a language at the center of the world, aligning with the Renaissance’s peak in England, fostering national pride and an expanded role for English in literature, science, and government.

Question 13

Which intellectual movement encouraged freedom in exploration, discovery, and artistic expression during the Early Modern English period?

Answer 13

Humanism, which replaced the medieval focus on “memento mori” with “carpe diem,” encouraged exploration, creativity, and intellectual pursuits.

Question 14

What effect did the Renaissance have on language and vocabulary in England?

Answer 14

The Renaissance stimulated interest in classical languages and encouraged the borrowing and creation of new English words, particularly in arts, science, and invention.

Question 15

What was the impact of the Reformation on English language and literacy?

Answer 15

The Reformation broke the clergy’s monopoly, leading to English translations of the Bible, promoting lay literacy, and allowing the English language to be used in religious practices.

Question 16

How did urbanisation contribute to language change during the Early Modern period?

Answer 16

As peasants moved to cities, dialects mixed, fostering a blend of regional vocabulary and contributing to the development of a more standardised form of English.

Question 17

What was the linguistic outcome of rising national pride and expanded lay literacy?

Answer 17

English started to be used in academic, scientific, and governmental domains, areas previously dominated by Latin or Greek, marking it as a language worthy of intellectual and official functions.

Question 18

What notable invention led to new English terminology during this period?

Answer 18

The invention of the water closet, or flush toilet, by Sir John Harington, introduced new words and terms, reflecting England’s spirit of innovation.

Question 19

What was the “Inkhorn Controversy” in Early Modern English?

Answer 19

The Inkhorn Controversy was a debate over “Inkhorn terms,” or Latinate, sophisticated words introduced to enrich English. Proponents argued these terms enhanced English, while purists saw them as pretentious and obscure.

Question 20

Who were the “Pro-inkhornists,” and what was their view on new vocabulary?

Answer 20

Pro-inkhornists supported the inclusion of sophisticated, Latinate words, believing they added necessary complexity and refinement to English.

Question 21

Who were the purists, and what was their stance in the Inkhorn Controversy?

Answer 21

Purists argued against Inkhorn terms, advocating for native English alternatives to avoid creating obscure and overly academic vocabulary.

Question 22

Can you give examples of English words suggested by purists during the Inkhorn Controversy?

Answer 22

Some suggestions included “mooned” (for lunatic), “foresayer” (for prophet), “crossed” (for crucified), and “gainrising” (for resurrection).

Question 23

Name a few Inkhorn terms introduced during the Early Modern English period.

Answer 23

Terms like honorificabilitudinitatibus (honorable), temulent (drunk), adminiculation (aid), and nullifidian (atheist) emerged as part of the Inkhorn Controversy.

Question 24

List some “Inkhorn” nouns that became part of English vocabulary.

Name some adjectives that were coined during the Early Modern period as Inkhorn terms.

Which verbs were introduced during the Inkhorn period and became common in English?

Answer 24

Nouns: anachronism, atmosphere, autograph, denunciation, jurisprudence, emanation, and disability.

Adjectives: agile, appropriate, conspicuous, dexterous, habitual, hereditary, impersonal, and malignant.

Verbs: adapt, alienate, assassinate, emancipate, excavate, exhilarate, harass, and meditate.

Question 25

What was the “etymologising movement” in Early Modern English?

What issue arose from respelling words in Early Modern English to reflect Latin roots?

Answer 25

It involved the respelling of words to reflect Latin roots, even if they were already well-established in English, such as debt (from dette), doubt (from doute), and island (Old English iglund, Latin insula).

Respelling created mismatches between spelling and pronunciation, as it introduced silent letters; this was often influenced by the idea that “every letter should be pronounced.”

Question 26

What is an example of “spelling pronunciation” in Early Modern English?

Answer 26

Words like adventure evolved from the French aventure to reflect the Latin adventura, changing pronunciation to align with the new spelling.

Question 27

What was William Tyndale’s contribution to English language and literature?

Answer 27

Tyndale introduced memorable phrases in his Bible translations, including “seek and you shall find,” “let there be light,” “the powers that be,” and “the salt of the earth.”

Question 28

How did Martin Luther’s work influence Tyndale’s English translations?

Answer 28

Tyndale drew from Luther’s German Bible, often using similar phrasing, like Luther’s “Es werde Licht” (“It will be light”) as inspiration for “let there be light.”

Question 29

Why is Shakespeare celebrated in the context of Early Modern English?

Answer 29

He introduced a vast number of new words and idioms, such as “laughing stock,” “in stitches,” “star-crossed lovers,” and popularised the technique of conversion in English.

Question 30

What is “conversion,” and how did Shakespeare utilise it?

Answer 30

Conversion is the process of changing a word’s grammatical category without adding a derivational affix; for example, “Grace me no Grace” (from noun to verb).

Question 31

What morphological changes occurred with verbs in Early Modern English?

Answer 31

Some formerly weak verbs became strong, like “dig” and “stick,” and phrases such as “They shaked their heads” (from the KJV Bible) reflect these variations.

Question 32

How did possessive pronouns evolve during this period?

How did comparatives change in Early Modern English?

Answer 32

By analogy to possessive nouns, possessive forms like hers, yours, and its (replacing his for inanimate objects) became standard.

Words like “more” and “most” began to function as intensifiers, leading to double comparatives such as “the calmest and most stillest night.”

Question 33

What is an example of genitive re-analysis in Early Modern English?

Answer 33

Phrases like “the king his crown” and “Mars his heart” show an older possessive construction that used “his” to form possessives before modern possessive forms took hold.

Question 34

What were the uses of thou and you in Chaucer’s English versus Shakespeare’s English?

How did social context affect the choice of thou vs. you in Early Modern English?

Answer 34

In Chaucer’s system:

1. Thou was singular and informal, used to address close friends, social inferiors, or to show intimacy (e.g., “I meow at thee”).
2. Ye or you was plural, but also served as a formal singular pronoun for showing respect or politeness, especially when addressing social superiors or equals in formal settings (e.g., “I meow at you”).

Thou conveyed intimacy or lower status, while you was used formally for social equals or superiors, showing politeness—a trend that led to you predominating in formal and neutral usage.

Question 35

“Err”

Answer 35

Formality

Question 36

What was the effect of dialect mixing in 15th-century London?

Answer 36

People from the North, including many apprentices (46% by apprenticeship records), gravitated towards London, bringing northern dialect features that contributed to dialect mixing and helped shape a more standardised London-based English.

Question 37

What is the “dummy DO” in English syntax, and when is it used?

What are possible origins of “dummy DO” in English?

Answer 37

“Dummy DO” is used in sentences where no auxiliary is present in Negative, Interrogative, Conditional, and Emphatic (NICE) contexts, providing grammatical support in questions or negations (e.g., “Do you like apples?”).

It may derive from the causative use of do (e.g., “I will do paint”), from Celtic influence, or by analogy with other auxiliaries like have, can, and be; over time, it shifted to a simple tense marker in English’s analytic grammar.

Question 38

What was the effect of the Great Vowel Shift (GVS) on Middle English diphthongs?

Answer 38

The GVS changed the pronunciation of Middle English diphthongs /au/ and /ai/ (e.g., day /dæg/ became /dai/). However, in some short-vowel words like head, dead, and bread, GVS did not apply, preserving their shorter vowel sounds.

Question 39

Why did some words, like head and bread, avoid the Great Vowel Shift?

Answer 39

These words, typically one-syllable with short vowels, resisted the vowel lengthening and shifts of the GVS, maintaining their original short vowel sounds rather than becoming diphthongs.

Question 40

How did the Middle English diphthong /ou/ evolve during the GVS?

Answer 40

The diphthong /ou/ in words like soul and know underwent a shift as part of the broader vowel changes, aligning with changes in long vowel pronunciation.

Question 41

Which group helped influence the grammar-school syllabus be centred on Classical Latin from the early 16th c. onwards?

Answer 41

The humanists. Pupils learned the Latin language and Latin literature, rhetoric and history.