English Around Time By Samuel Johnson

The act of composing dictionaries, lexicography, was seen as peculiar; however, men such as Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster dared to defy such ideologies. Both men had their own reasons for taking on the daunting challenge of writing a dictionary of the English Language. Their reasons may greatly differ such as Webster’s motivation of strengthening the national identity and Johnson’s reason of standardizing words with his witty definitions. Despite of their different motives for defining words, Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster’s beliefs can cross paths, they both wanted certain words to be spelled more appropriately.

The government created a new form of English which was called, “Newspeak, in which vocabulary is strictly limited by government fiat. The goal is to make it increasingly difficult to express ideas that contradict the official line.”

The book Middle Passage by Charles Johnson tells a story about the triangular slave trade which took place early in America 's history. This book was written with such close attention to detail that it gave the reader a sense of what life was like on board a slave boat. Johnson 's writing style included many different techniques including the use of varying structure, imagery and language. All of these devices helped create a very successful story about slavery.

The English language is one of the most complex languages known to man. Words, sentences, and ideas can be built and misconstrued because of the language’s depth. In the novel Animal Farm, the head pigs in charge, Napoleon, twists words in order to gain control and power over the entire farm. The Manor Farm transforms from the totalitarian rule of Mr. Jones, a mean farmer who feeds his animals meager portions, to Napoleon, a pig that will have you liquidated for a bottle of liquor. Language is used as a means of social control because of its irony, it changes, and it’s illegible by some.

According to "Shakespeare: Words, Words, Words." "Old English was considered to be 446-1100 and Modern English was 1500-present. Shakespeare was in the time of the Modern english." Shakespeare was a well educated man and today we have many skilled workers. Back then there were lots of people who couldn't aford a good education, but Shakespeare he got a grand one. one skill that Shakespear did was give words lots of different meanings. There wasn't really any grammer rules back then, so he messed around with the spelling. In the article "Shakespeare: Words, Words, Words." They talk about how shakespear is intriguing, captivating, mind-teasing, beguiling, and euphonious. Today we can't really change words or meanings. We could use diffenrent words together. In Shakespear's plays people say you would have to listen to the tone of the words in order to get some meaning. Today we have changed the whole way we think and write.

5. If a new spirit is to be infused into this old country, there is one thorny and contentious reform which must be tackled, and that is the humanization and galvanization of the B.B.C. Timidity here will bespeak canker and atrophy of the soul. The heart of Britain may be sound and of strong beat, for instance, but the British lion's roar at present is like that of Bottom in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream -- as gentle as any sucking dove. A virile new Britain cannot continue indefinitely to be traduced in the eyes or rather ears, of the world by the effete languors of Langham Place, brazenly masquerading as "standard English." When the Voice of Britain is heard at nine o'clock, better far and infinitely less ludicrous to hear aitches honestly dropped than the present priggish, inflated, inhibited, school-ma'amish arch braying of blameless bashful mewing maidens!

Written in 1946, “Politics and the English Language” describes the decline of our language. George Orwell criticizes the English language as “ugly and inaccurate” in his essay (par 2). Throughout Orwell’s essay, he infers that this collapse is reversible when the society modifies the way we think and speak which would revise this long term habit.

Denoting particular connotations onto existing words enables philosophers to give voice to meanings that would be trying or even impossible to say, but the redefining of words can also bring confusion to the reader. As Lois Shawver points out in his article Postmodernizing the Unconscious, if one, as the reader, gives into the assumption that the language is used in the usual way, then the philosopher’s words will appear to be outlandish and enigmatic (Shawver, 1998).

However, the most important dictionary that played a great role in the stability of English language was Samuel Johnson's Dictionaries of the English language. Thomas Sheridan commented on this dictionary in (1762) that by producing this work, which was intended for fixing English language, "Johnson must be confided by all posterity on the founder, and this dictionary on the corner stone" (Beal, 2012). Mitchell argues that Johnson shared his contemporaries their worry for the future of English language that might not be understood in the future if these changes continued this way. This is because "the vernacular had been growing and changing in unpredictable ways to the extent that sixteenth century language contrasted significant with that of the eighteenth century" (Mitchell, 2005). Other important dictionaries that were produced during the eighteenth century were: dictionaries and William Pardon's New General English Dictionary (1735), which cornered "difficult

The English language changes dramatically over time, effecting how English writers formulate their words; some argue that these changes are not for the better. In the essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell evaluates both modern and past works, and elaborates on his views of how language degrades. He conveys that the modern writing style needs considerable improvement. Orwell wants writers and speakers, such as politicians, to adjust their phrasing to favor clarity. At first, Orwell uses modern language errors in his own writing to demonstrate their impracticality, then he reveals how modern writers dupe their readers, in the end Orwell warns his audience of the harmful effects of deficient writing.

A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson was done because Italian and French academies produced many dictionaries of their own tongues and the English century authors feared that their language would soon disappear because of absence of authority. They believed that a dictionary would do a big change since it will be a book that people will need to buy. They believed that Johnson, still an unknown author, would do a great job in creating a good dictionary. Johnson accepted and believed he would finish the dictionary in three years, but it took him nine in total; yet the quantity and quality of work was excellent. Johnson made a dictionary that it known for its size (which was forty thousand words), the illustrative quotations, and the outstanding definitions. He had used quotations from the best English writers, and most of the definitions are clear of any eccentricity.

Samuel Johnson wrote a “dictionary “A Dictionary of the English Language” in 1755. In his time, his dictionary was the best comprehensive, compiled and synchronized dictionary. It was very standardized and complete in itself that remains of a century. The dictionary was published in two editions. In the very first edition, he writes about the “Grammar and the history of the English Language” and it was also having so many quotes from different authors of English Language like; William Shakespeare, John Dryden and John Milton. And later in another edition more quotes and words were added”. (Ashurbanipal,

In the mid-seventeenth century, vocabularies, or word references, were simple in shape. Arrangements of Latin words had been around for a few hundreds of years. Word references in the vernacular, in any case, were seconds ago developing from basic hard-word records to suit individuals who did not know the meaning or the spelling of a word. Since the vernacular was just supplanting Latin, the dictionary had not balanced out and etymology had not been created as an ability. Abstract works and authority business exchanges were done in Latin so that lexicons of the vernacular were not sought after. There was no requirement for a thorough overview of English in the seventeenth century since it was not the dialect of the informed. Latin was transmitted by grammarians, individuals still looked to grammarians for etymological choices. Language structure books had an edge over lexicons in basic leadership about dialect. Language structure books had Latin-English word records, while lexicons had English-English postings. In the seventeenth century, punctuation books were still all Latin, notwithstanding

Who is Samuel Johnson? “He was an English writer and critic, and one of the most celebrated literary figures of the 18th century. His best-known work is his 'Dictionary of the English Language'”. (BBC, 2014). English language is a hybrid language that borrowed words from many origins such as Latin, French and German. The English language is also used by many people. Specialist started the process of English language standardization as early as the sixteenth century. Hogan (1966) pointed out that the process of standardization consists of: selection of dialect to be the standard, codification by which "norms are elucidated and captured in dictionaries or grammars" (Beal, 2012). This is followed by elaboration and implementation. Although, the process of standardization started in sixteenth century and eighteenth century, yet there was still a good deal of variability in language. This essay discusses the development of English language codified in both dictionaries and grammar books, with their descriptive and prescriptive approach.

2. What was the peculiarity of the Enlightenment in England as compared with that in France"