Реферат: Standardization Of The English Language Essay Research

components of Standard English.

In the latter part of the fifteenth century the London standard had been

accepted in most parts of the country. By the middle of the century a fairly

cosistent variety of written English in both spelling and grammar had developed.

With the introdution of? printing in 1476 a new influence of great importance in

the spread of London English came into play. From the beginning London has been

the centre of book publishing in England. Caxton the first English printer, used

the current speech of London in his numerous translations, and the books the

issued from his press and from the presses of his successors gave a currency to

London English that assured more than anything else its rapid adoption. In the

sixteenth century the use of London English had become a matter of precept as

well as practice.

From the time of Caxton on, English is not merely a series of related oral

dialects, which are occasionaly written. It is a fully developed cultural tongue,

the equal, in its own fashion, of the Latin and Greek of Classical antiquity. It

is a language with a numerous body of unified speakers and writers, a language

with a vast potential and actual market. The modern English that emerges from

the era of Chaucer and Caxton is a tongue that still possesses vast

possibilities of change, channeled in the direction of vocabulary rather than of

sounds or grammatical structure.

Bibliography

1. Baugh, A. and Cable Thomas, A History of the English Language ( London, 1978

)

2. Berndt, Rolf, History of the English Language ( Leipzig, 1982 )

3. Blake, Norman, The Cambridge History of the English Language ( Cambridge,

1992 )

4. Burnley, David, The Language of Chaucer ( London, 1989 )

5. Pei, Mario, The Story of the English Language ( New York, 1967 )

6. Strang, Barbara, A History of English ( London, 1970 )