Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of texts
- List of figures
- Preface
- List of symbols and abbreviations
- Chronological table
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 VARIETIES OF EARLY MODERN ENGLISH
- 3 WRITING AND SPELLING
- 4 PHONOLOGY
- 5 INFLEXIONAL MORPHOLOGY
- 6 SYNTAX
- 7 VOCABULARY
- TEXTS
- Bibliography
- Index of persons
- Index of topics
- Index of selected words
1 - INTRODUCTION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of texts
- List of figures
- Preface
- List of symbols and abbreviations
- Chronological table
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 VARIETIES OF EARLY MODERN ENGLISH
- 3 WRITING AND SPELLING
- 4 PHONOLOGY
- 5 INFLEXIONAL MORPHOLOGY
- 6 SYNTAX
- 7 VOCABULARY
- TEXTS
- Bibliography
- Index of persons
- Index of topics
- Index of selected words
Summary
Synchronic and diachronic methods
The English language, like every living language, is continually changing. All texts dating from an earlier period illustrate this fact. These changes mean that every period needs its own particular description or grammar. It also means that this grammar must clearly define its object of description, e.g. the beginning and the end of the period, geographical and social components, uses of the language described, etc.
Shakespeare's, Ben Jonson's, Milton's and Dryden's works as well as the Authorized Version (AV) of the Bible of 1611 were originally written in EModE, but they are also part of PrE. They belong to the PrE system in that they form part of the passive competence of present-day speakers. Such ‘diachrony in synchrony’, however, is never complete and brings with it problems of description.
The orthography and punctuation of EModE texts are normally adapted to suit present-day needs; pronunciation of the original texts, whether delivered on the stage or from the pulpit, is modern. However, the syntax remains more or less as in the original and except in some highly Latinized texts, it does not cause serious problems of comprehension. Such texts can, of course, sound artificial and odd, or even seem to the modern ear to contain mistakes.
Problems are most evident as regards the lexis. For simple contexts which are intelligible without the aid of a dictionary, a translation from the archaic register is still necessary: the AV's “with a girdle of a skin about his loines” (Mark 1.6), for example, is translated in the New English Bible (NEB) as “with a leather belt round his waist”.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Introduction to Early Modern English , pp. 1 - 7Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991