Post on 22-May-2015
transcript
William Shakespeare’s Contribution to the
Early Modern English
2005130885 Sungwoo Lee
2008130198 Yeseul Kim
William Shakespeare
English poet & playwriter, 1564~1616
38 plays, 154 son-nets
Used more than 30,000 words
Background for the Birth of Shakespearian English
1) English Renaissance (1500~1650)
2) Caxton Press (1476)
3) The form of English used in that period
English Renaissance
-1500~1650
-Protestant Reformation -The Copernican theory-Discovery of new lands
-Increase in demand for liberal arts
-Efforts to translate classics written in Latin or Greek into English
Caxton Press
William Caxton’s in-troducing the art of Printing to the United Kingdom in 1476.
The Art Of Printing
The price of a book, getting cheaper
The increase in Lit-eracy rate
No longer depend on a Patron, but Au-
thor's Royalty
Standardizing the spelling rule
Alleviating the dif-ference among di-
alects.
The Form of English used in that Period
Early Modern English Centered on London, East Midland Dialect evolved, → Obtaining the status of Standard Eng-lish
Shakespeare’s using English succeeds to East Midland Dialect of which Middle English consists
Characteristics of each period of English in the aspect of syntax
1) Period of Old English – Period of full Inflections2) Period of Middle English – Period of leveled Inflections.3) Period of Modern English – Period of lost Inflections.
What English Shakespeare used?
His English succeeds to Middle Eng-lish called Period of leveled Inflec-tions.
That means, He gets free from the restraint of Form of English.
Shakespeare’s Influences
Newly Coined Words
More than 1800 coinage words
Adopted a number of Latin or Greek words
A. accommodation, assassination, courtship, countless, fashionable, laughable, dwindle, eventful
B. exsufflicate, protractive, qustrist, soilure, tortive, unplausive
Idioms
A forgone conclusion (Othello) : A decision made before the evidence for it is known. An inevitable conclusion. OTHELLO: But this denoted a foregone conclusion: 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.
It’s Greek to me (Julius Caesar) : incomprehensible
But, for my own part, it was Greek to me.
Star-crossed (Romeo and Juliet) : unlucky; not favored by stars
A paire of starre-crost louers, take their life.
Salad Days (Antony and Cleopatra) : The days of one’s youthful experience
CLEOPATRA: My salad days, When I was green in judgment:
My mind’s eye (Hamlet) Love is blind (The Merchant of
Venice)
Puns
Richard III (Act I scene 1) “Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York…”
HenryⅣ (ActⅡ scene4)“If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.”
Hamlet (ActⅠ Scene2)
Claudius: “…But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son …” Hamlet: [aside] “A little more than kin, and less than kind.”
Grammar
A. Shift of Part of Speech
Music mads me. (King Richard Ⅱ)
He hath a person and a smooth dispose To be suspected…(Othello)
B. Agreement
But there is two hard things. (A Midsummer-Night’s Dream)
Every one of these letters are in my name. (Twelfth Night)
Thank You