1. Early Modern English: Cont’d 1500-1800: Words & Grammar
453 Chapter 8
Early Modern English: Cont’d
: Words & Grammar

2. Standard Language Widespread Respected Codified Dictionaries
Grammar books

3. Dictionaries 1604: Cawdrey 1616 – 1750: Various 1755: Samuel Johnson
List of ‘hard’ & borrowed words
1616 – 1750: Various
Gradual progression toward ‘all words’
1755: Samuel Johnson
“Dictionary”
Recognized actual usage over Latin

4. Grammars Prescriptive Descriptive Based on Latin
Goal: to correct, improve & immortalize
Grammatical correctness ≈moral behavior
Descriptive
Linguists (only)

5. Early Modern Nouns Regularization Irregular Plurals -s (plural)
Brethren, children, oxen (by analogy)
Eyen, shoon, kine (now lost…)
Uninflected plurals (deer, sheep, folk, kind )

6. Whaddya Think?
Some English nouns differ from the patterns discussed above.
What are some?
Explain the differences.
(wkbk p. 175)

7. Early Modern Genitives
1600 (sister’s) & 1700s (sisters’)
His
Augustus his daughter
“the House of Lords their proceedings”
Group Genitive
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale”
Uninflected Genitive
“for conscience sake” (lost)

8. Early Modern Adj & Adv -er, -est mo, more, most
Double comparisons (for emphasis)
-ly suffix (unused or optional)

9. Early Modern Pronouns Capitalized “I” Phonological distinction
Me/Mine  __ Consonant
Thy/Thine  Elsewhere
2nd Person
Thee/Thou  Informal/Intimate
3rd Person
(h)it, its

10. Modern English Verbs Strong leftover classes (a sampling…)
drive, bite, shine, choose, begin, swing, find, break, bear, get
Confused & abused
sit, set
lie, lay

11. Early Modern Miscellany
Contractions
-n’t
an’t  ain’t
‘tis  it’s
-’ll 1st)
‘ld  ‘d
‘ve [v] ≈ of
Any differences from Today’s English?

12. Exercises To do together: To do alone: 8.2.1 8.4.1 & 2 8.6.1 & 2 8.2.2
8.7.2
8.8.8