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Normalisation is the fixing of the norms and standards of a language to protect it from corruption and change.
Type of Standard | Written Standard | Spoken Standard |
Time Limits | by the 17th c. | end of the 18th c. |
Sources | Language of Chaucer (the London Dialect) | · private letters; · speech of characters in drama; · references to speech be scholars. |
Peculiarities | 1. less stabilised than at later stage; 2. wide range of variation (spelling, gr. forms, syntactical patterns, choice of words, etc.); 3. rivalry with Latin in the field of science, philosophy, didactics. | 1. As spoken standard the scholars considered the speech of educated people taught at school as “correct English”. This was the speech of London and that of Cambridge and Oxford Universities. |
The normalisation of the English language started in the 17th – 18th c. In 1710 Jonathan Swift published in his journal “The Tatler” an article titled “A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue”. J. Swift was a purist (struggled for the purity of the language) and suggested that a body of scholars should gather to fix the rules of the language usage.
The Normalisation of the English language consisted in publishing:
1. Grammar’s of English:
· John Wallis, “Grammatica Lingæ Anglicanæ” (prescriptive/normative grammar);
· Robert Lowth, “A Short Introduction to English Grammar” (Lowth distinguished 9 parts of speech; made consistent description of letters, syllables, words and sentences; rules of no-double negation (I don’t want no dinner – incorrect!) and no-double comparison (more better – incorrect!) appeared, etc.).
2. Dictionaries (18th c.):
· E. Coles, “Dictionary of Hard Words” (gave explanations of hard words and phrases);
· Samuel Johnson – one of the best-known English lexicographers. As well as J. Swift, he was a purist and believed that the English language should be purified and corrected. He was the first to compile a dictionary that resembles the present-day dictionaries. His “Dictionary of the English Language” is the finest example of his hard and productive work. The dictionary is organised as follows:
- entry;
- pronunciation;
- definition;
- illustrations (not self-invented examples but quotations from recognised authors that contain the word in question);
- notes on usage of the word;
- etymology of the word;
- stylistic comments.
The dictionary also contained a grammatical section describing the grammatical structure of the language.
Дата публикования: 2014-11-03; Прочитано: 622 | Нарушение авторского права страницы | Мы поможем в написании вашей работы!