Unit 7 Language & Literature 1

Fixing the English Language

1. What is the evolution of language from Old English, Middle English and Modern English? What are their features?
Old English, developed from the Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, was characterized by limited vocabulary with word endings that identified the gender, number and case of words.
Middle English was distinguished by a large influx of French words into the language, and the shift to more simplified word forms.
Modern English featured a move toward standardization of the language by formalizing both usage and spelling.

2. In the 17th and 18th century, why did some writers hold a low opinion of English? How did English writers at that time solve the problem?
Because French and Latin followed specific patterns and rules, these languages were more prestigious than English.
They advanced the idea of a language academy, modeled after the Italian and French academies, as a move toward standardization.

3. What is the purpose of English academy?
The English academy should create a standardized grammar and dictionary for the English language.

4. Describe prescriptive and descriptive grammar.
Such rules of double negatives, contractions, and spelling are known today as prescriptive grammar.
Descriptive grammar objectively described the rules native speakers seemed to follow.

5. Give me some examples of the debate between the prescriptivists and the descriptivists.
(1) Prescriptivists view that English sentences should never end with a preposition. In common usage, prepositions show up quite regularly at the end of sentences.
(2) Prescriptivists also view the usage of “ain’t” as a contraction of “am not” as inelegant and wrong, whereas many dictionaries list “ain’t”, indicating the word is used by speakers of English.
(3) Prescriptivists also disallow regional usage that does not follow the standard rules of English.

6. Is corruption of the English language a problem? What are the opinions of prescriptivists and descriptivists?
Prescriptivists claim the change of the English language is corruption, but descriptivists’ answer is contrary. The descriptivists say that English is changing as all languages, whether change is good or bad is not the question, because change is inevitable.