3. The formation of the national literary english language

Toward the end of the 14^th century there emerged a written language that in the course of the 15^th century won general recognition and has since developed into the recognized Standard one both in speech and in writing. The part of England that contributed most to the formation of the Standard was the East Midland district. And it was the East Midland type of English that became its basis, particularly the dialect of London.

The most influential factor in the rise of Standard English was the importance of London as the capital of England. London was the political and commercial centre of the country. It was the country’s seat of the court, of the higher tribunals, the centre of the social and intellectual activities. All official documents originating there were written in the London dialect. And in the latter half of the 15^th century the London Standard was accepted, at least in writing, in most parts of the country.

It is necessary to note that all attempts to fix English into a permanent form, made before the New English Period, have failed. It is the way the language is used that gives it life, and usage brings about change. Classical Greek and Latin are known as dead languages, because they are no longer used and, that’s why, remain stable.

Fixing a language and freezing it into a form that stands no change is very different from trying to regulate and standardize it so that communication between the inhabitants of various regions of the country is easy and effective.

Other important factors in establishing standard usage and many of the linguistic traits that exist in Modern English were the introduction of the printing press into England in 1477 by William Caxton, the revival of interest in the classics and the growth of popular education.

3.1. Historical Background from the 15^th to the 17^th century. We must mention at least two of the external factors that led to the formation of the national English language: the unification of the country and the progress of culture.

21.2 Growth of capitalist relations. Already between the 12^th and 14^th c. within the feudal system new economic relations began to take shape. With the increased interest in the commercial profits, feudal oppression grew and the conditions of the peasants became worse. Social discontent showed itself in the famous peasant revolts of the 14^th and 15^th c-s (the uprising of Wat Tyler in 1381 for instance).

The village artisans and craftsmen travelled about the country looking for a greater market for their produce. They settled in the old towns and founded new ones near big monasteries, on the rivers and cross-roads. The crafts became separated from agriculture, and new social groups came into being: the poor townspeople (apprentices and artisans), the town middle class and the rich merchants, owners of workshops, and money-lenders.

The 15^th and 16th c. saw other striking changes in the life of the country. Trade had extended beyond the local boundaries. So apart from farming and cattle-breeding an important wool trade and industry was carried on in the country-side. As the demand for wool and cloth rose, Britain began to export woolen cloth produced by the 1^st big enterprises, the “manufactures”. The landowners evicted the peasants and enclosed their land with ditches and fences, turning it into vast pastures.

The new nobility fused with the rich townspeople to form a new class, the bourgeoisie, while the evicted farmers, the poor artisans and monastic servants turned into farm labourers and wage workers or remained unemployed and joined the ranks of paupers, vagrants and highway robbers.

The changes in economic and social conditions were accompanied by the intermixture of people coming from different regions, the growth of towns with a mixed population, and the strengthening of social ties between the various regions. All these processes played an important role in the unification of the English language.

3.2. Centralization of the country. Foreign contacts. Towards the end of the 15^th century the period of feudal disunity in Britain came to an end. Britain became a centralized state.

After the end of the Hundred Years’ War (1337 - 1453) the feudal lords and their hired armies came home from France, and life in Britain became more turbulent than ever. The baronial families at the king’s court fought for power. It caused a civil war, known in history as the Wars of the Roses. It ended in 1485 with the establishment of a stronger royal power under Henry VII, who was the founder of the Tudor dynasty and of a new kind of monarchy based on new relations between classes.

Henry VII reduced the power of the old nobility and created new nobles out of the bourgeoisie and middle class who ardently supported him. The royal power grew still stronger and the power of the church weaker. Then his successor, Henry VIII, broke with the Pope and declared himself head of the English Church (1534).

The Tudors encouraged the development of trade inside and outside the country. The great geographical discoveries gave a new impetus to the progress of foreign trade. English traders set forth on daring journeys in search of gold and treasures. Sea-pirates and slave-traders were patronized by Queen Elisabeth as readily as traders in wool. They made large contributions to her treasury. Under the later Tudors England became one of the biggest trade and sea powers. She ousted her rivals from many markets and became involved in the political struggle of the European countries for supremacy. Most complicated were her relations with France and Portugal. In 1588 England defeated the Spanish fleet, the Invincible Armada, and dealt a final blow to Spain, her main rival in overseas trade and colonial expansion. In the late 16^th century England founded its first colonies abroad.

Thus the contacts of England with other nations – although not necessarily friendly – became closer, and new contacts were made in distant lands. These new ties could not but influence the development of the language.

3.3 Conditions for linguistic unity. All over the world the victory of capitalism over feudalism was linked up with the consolidation of people into nations and the unification of the regional dialects into a national language. It could also be called the formation of a superdialect form language used by a standard form of speech by the nation.

These conditions were formed in Britain in the 15^th and 16^th c. England needed a uniform standard language, because further linguistic disunity stood in the way of the country’s progress. The making of the English nation went hand in hand with the formation of the National English Language.

3.4 The introduction of printing. Printing was invented in Germany by Johan Gutenberg in 1438. Later it spread to Strasburg, then to Italy and to the Netherlands. It was in Flanders, in the town of Bruges , that William Caxton became acquainted with the art of printing. Returning to England, he founded the 1^st English printing office in London in 1476. The 1^st book to be printed in England, namely, “The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers”, appeared in 1477. The spread of printed books helped to make spelling more uniform. Individual spelling still appeared, but the establishment of spelling conventions was begun and the authority of printed word acted as a restraining influence.

As from the beginning London became the centre of book-publishing in England, Caxton used the current speech of Londoners in his numerous translations. The books that issued from his press and from the presses of his successors gave currency to London English. That fact assured more than anything else its rapid adoption by the population.

3.5 The language of the English literature of the period. The London dialect and its role in the formation of Standard English. More important than the use of English in official documents is its gradual advance to the position of a literary language for all England. The writers of the period from 1300 to Chaucer did not use the same dialect. Each chose the one with which he was familiar with, whether Northern, or Midland, or Southern. It is only from the time of Chaucer and his successors that the language they used became the literary language of the whole England. Latin was still used, but far less commonly than in the preceding century.

First came a great revival of poetry in the old alliterative verse (works of Langland). Next – Chaucer, and, at about the same time, the reformer Wycliff began to use English in controversial tracts and sermons in his appeal to the people against the clergy. The result of this was that English began to displace Latin among scholars.

During the whole century which follows Chaucer English was used in every kind of literature. At the end of the century the many works which Caxton printed and spread throughout England tended to strengthen the already established literary language.

The elevation of London English to the position of the standard literary language did not prevent other dialects from surviving among the common people, and continuing in use to the present time. But modern English dialects are far less important from the literary standpoint.

After the dialect of London had acquired the position of a standard, its further development proceeded following two tendencies that could be observed as early as in OE period, namely, the radical and the conservative tendency. The former manifested itself in the extensive adoption of foreign words and forming new ones of borrowed elements; as for the latter, it was suggested by purists, who objected to the introduction of foreign elements into English, and insisted on the use of the resources of native speech.

In the 16^th century there existed in English a strong desire to “improve” English and place it on a level with the classical tongues. But another group of writers thought that extensive borrowing from the classics was rather a corruption of the language than a real improvement. And hence the desire of the 18^th century writers to give the English language a polished, rational and permanent form. Dryden, Dr. Johnson, Swift and many others attempted to “purify” the language and “rid it of imperfections”. They wanted to stabilize the language, to establish it in a form which would be permanent. Swift even talked about “fixing” the language forever. They evidently believed that by taking certain measures they recommended it would be possible to suspend the process of development that characterize a living language.

They stressed the necessity of compiling a dictionary and a grammar of the language. Without these there could be no standard of correct construction. One need was supplied in 1755 by Johnson’s dictionary, the other in the course of the century by the early grammarians. In a paper published in the “Rambler” (№ 208) S. Johnson wrote: “I have laboured to refine our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms, and regular combinations.”

What Dr. Johnson has done for the vocabulary was attempted for syntax by the grammarians of the 18^th century. In 1761 G. Priestly published “The Rudiments of English Grammar”. It was followed a month later by Robert Lowth’s “Short Introduction to English Grammar” (1762). His grammar was more in accordance with the tendencies of the time and its influence was spread by numerous imitators. At the root of all the mistakes of those grammarians was their ignorance of the processes of linguistic change.

“The events of the 19^th century and that of the early 20^th century affecting the English speaking countries were of great political and social importance, but in their effect on the language they were not of a revolutionary character.” (A.C. Baugh , “The History of the English Language”).

Some of the events and changes of that period are reflected in the English vocabulary. But more influential in this respect is the great progress of science.

Most of the new words coming into the language since the New English Period have been derived from the same sources or created by the same methods as those that have long been familiar. Many of the new words have been taken over ready made from the language of the people from whom the idea or the thing designated had been obtained. A second source of new words is represented in the practice of making self-explaining compounds. Another method of enlarging the vocabulary is by adding prefixes or suffixes to existing words. A certain number of new words must be attributed to invention, e.g. nylon.

Many English words must have been derived from the names of persons and places, e.g.: sandwich, limousine, shrapnel (from the name of the British general), boycott (from the name of Ch. Boycott).

The resources of the vocabulary are sometimes extended from within by employing an old word in a new sense, e.g.: broadcast originally referred to seed, but its application to radio seems entirely appropriate; radiator was used for anything which radiated heat before it was applied specially to steam-heaters or the automobile.