● THE APPEAL TO AUTHORITY

✔ Effort and attempts to standardize, purify and firm English because English was considered as an
uncertain language, no uniformity in spelling pronunciation and grammar, it needs a fixed standard
and regulation.
✔ English was also considered as an “ill” language.
✔ A lot of effort were made:
Jonathan Swift in 1712 => wrote a proposal to Earl Robert.
● Thomas Cooke in 1729 => proposed strong verbs to weak forms, plural forms, using –s / -es,
and adjective comparison using only more/most.
● Samuel Johnson => 1755 => the most successful effort => published dictionary => his
followers called Johnsonian => dictionary by Johnson fixed spelling & standard use of words.
● Prescriptive Grammar/Traditional Grammar Latin-like grammar initiated by Robert Lowth, a
theologian, Hebraist, a professor of Poetry in Oxford university.
● Prescriptive grammar weakness => failed to recognize the changes of English.
● English is a living language => it keeps developing.
● Prescriptive => no description => told you what you have to do, dos & don’ts.
● In the same era, British Empire expanded their regions and colonized areas. They built the East
Indies company => its headquarter was in London, but its branches & centers were outside
Britain, such as India, Singapore, Barbados.
● British Empire introduced slave trading all around their regions => slaves from Africa to work
for their company.
● The Puritans refused loanwords => they refused foreign elements.
✔ In 1755 Samuel Johnson published his great two-volume Dictionary of the English Language.
✔ The publication of Johnson’s dictionary was certainly the most important linguistic event of the
eighteenth century, not to say the entire period under discussion, for to a large extent it “fixed”
English spelling and established a standard for the use of words.
✔ Double comparison: more fitter, better, more fairer, most worst, most stillest, and most unkindest.
✔ Uninflected plurals: deer, sheep, folk.
✔ Irregular plurals: feet, geese, teeth, lice, mice, men and women.
✔ Perspective Grammar: based on Latin => what is correct, what is incorrect => related to a set of
rules in a language (sentence structure: verb, noun, adjective).
✔ Weakness of the early grammarians:
● Failed to recognize changes in language
● Proscribed vocabulary (to purify the vocabulary) => move away “old” and “rude” words.
● Refused to borrow words from other languages and the existing loanwords.

● MODERN ENGLISH
✔ It is called the story of expansion.
✔ There are important factors triggering the spread of English:
a) The industrial reform.
b) The establishment of affordable newspaper and cheap postage.
c) The improvement of means of transportation, and development of facilities (road, railroad)
and communication (telegraph).
d) England’s colonies began to have influence.
e) The development of the US
f) The great development of science and every field of academic activity.
 g) The rapid development of sports, amusements, and mode of living.
✔ Those factors contributed to the English vocabulary.
✔ Words were added:
1. in science=> every field of science needed thousands of new terms.
2. Scientific discoveries and inventions gave birth to the new terms.
3. New words were resulted from the World Wars
4. English was a token of the progress of society. The more advanced the society was, the
more updated the words were.
5. The cosmopolitan nature of English vocabulary was still maintained. Thus, borrowing
kept going on.
6. New words were created from word formation (self-explaining compounds).
7. New word combinations were made by adding Latin prefixes and suffixes.
8. Coinage (invention)
9. New words were created from proper names (names of places and people)
10. New meanings of old words became a source of creating new words.
11. Magazines and newspapers played an important role in spreading new words.
12. The change of meaning showed that English was a living language.
13. Slang words enriched the English vocabulary.

✔ Cultural levels and Functional Varieties => spoken standard (language heard in the
conversation of educated people, conformity the rules of grammar, written standard (language
of books)
✔ The standard speech (Received Pronunciation) => spoken in the great public schools with a fair
degree of uniformity in Britain. However, in some other parts of Canada, the US, Australia, and
New Zealand, the educated people speak as standard as those in London or Oxford.
✔ English dialect => Hiberno-English (Irish, English), Scottish English.
✔ English world-wide => Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, West and East Africa, South
Asia, West and East Africa, South Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, The Carribean and
Canada.
✔ Pidgin and Creole:
● Pidgin => a simplified speech used for communication between people with different
languages (Merriam Webster’s 11 Collegiate Dictionary)
● Creole => standardized Pidgin.
✔ Gender issues and Linguistic change
● there is an effort to eliminate sexism in English
● mankind => human beings
● Everybody has to register for his/her further study, instead of Everybody has to register
his further study.
✔ World Englishes => resulted by British colonization (Pidgin + Creole)
● Singaporean English
● African English
● Carribean English
● Indian English
● Malaysian English
● Hong Kong English
✔ Salt chuck => “ocean” in Canada English
✔ Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
✔ Society for “pure” English
✔ Reducing and Eliminating sexism in English:
● Man => Human => mankind => humankind.
● Man => person => chairman => chairperson.
● Man => office => policeman => police officer.

● ENGLISH IN AMERICA
✔ Beginning the 17th century, immigrants from England & other parts of Europe went to the New
World (North America) the reasons:
● Potato crop failure in Ireland
● Political revolution failure in Germany
● Political religious conflicts in England
● Famine and lack of job vacancies in general Europe.
✔ They soon established settlements/colonies
✔ The 13 colonies were the foundation of the present United States of America
✔ All settlers/ colonists mingled well (no fight) despite their different background => salad bowl
and melting pot.
✔ American people were ready for uniformity in all aspects including in language (English). They
were ready to abbey rules/conformity.
✔ Noah Webster => a prominent figure in setting up spelling & pronunciation of American
English.
✔ Americanism => John Witherspoon
✔ American Linguists => Chomsky, Bloomfield, Labou.
✔ Characteristic of AmEng:
● Uniform => no much difference among dialect
● Archaic => the use of old terms left by British English
● Different from British English in terms of spelling, pronunciation, grammar,
vocabularies.
✔ Standard English in America is called GAE (General American English, has 6 dialects) =>GA
✔ 2 additional dialects:
● African-American Vernacular English / AAVE
● Hispanic English (Chicano English)
✔ English was brought to America by colonists and immigrants from England in the 17 th century in
the time of Shakespeare. Therefore, it was the language of Shakespeare, Milton, and Bunyan.
✔ The reasons for migrating to the New World were political conflict, economical problems, and
religious violation in England; the failure of the revolution in Germany, and the failure of the
potato crop in Ireland.
✔ There were originally thirteen colonies at that time => Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.
✔ The idea of Americanism:
● Proposed by John Witherspoon => phrases of terms, sentences which are different from
those in England.
● Americanism is considered as corrupting the language => adding “new and unfamiliar
words yet those are old words in England.
✔ Am E gives contribution to science of Language (linguistic) => historical and comparative
studies (conducted by linguistic scholars: Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, Leonard Bloomfield,
Noam Chomsky)
✔ Am E becomes the most prominent source of emerging global English.
✔ The characteristic of American English:
a. Am E is uniform
● The American people share an instinct of conformity. They are always ready to
accept the standardization including in linguistic matters. They respect the
authority in charge of managing the language.
● The existence of Webster’s spelling and pronunciation and Lindley Murray’s
grammar.
b. Am E preserves the archaism
● Old features are preserved by Am E. These features faded or were left by the
English speakers in England in the 18th century. However, they are well
preserved by Am E. It preserves r (teacher) and a flat ae (fast, path, glass, laugh,
grass)
● The difference in pronunciation (either, neither)
● The use of certain “old words” (got=> gotten, angry=> mad, autumn=> fall)
c. New Words are added
● Physical features of the land (mountains, rivers, forests) => gap, divide, clearing,
watershed.
● From the Native Americans => chipmunk, raccoon, skunk, oak, locust,
tomahawk, canoe, eggplant.
● Words used in government and administration => caucus, mass, meeting,
presidential, congressman, statehouse.
● New mode of life => popcorn, snow plow, sleigh
● From French > caribou, bureau
● From Dutch => cookie, boss
● From German => noodle, hamburger
d. There are nine dialects in Am E, however the differences among them are relatively
small.
✔ The characteristic of occupation in America:
● Settlers from different parts got along very well (mingled)
● The French and the Germans for instance, they opened a new section together.
● America was commonly known as a Salad Bowl or Melting Pot.