On the Latest Development of Modern English Vocabulary

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.

In the “Old Leisure” passage, the author George Eliot uses diction and point of view to convey her nostalgia towards Old Leisure, while suggesting that modern day advances in technology have replaced this simpler lifestyle. The diction depicts Eliot as reminiscent of Old Leisure, while the point of view relays her opinion that modern society has no time for simple leisure.

In the satire novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses imagery and diction to explore

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.”

Many people have began to boycott SeaWorld after hearing about their cruel and unethical treatment towards their Orca whales.

The first concept I am going to talk about is language borrowing. Language borrowing is basically when you loan a word that is imported into a certain language called loan form. These forms now function in the grammatical processes, with nouns taking plural or possessive forms of the new language receiving native morphemes. An example would be the English word alligator. Alligator came from the Spanish which is el largato. El largato in Spanish means lizard. Loanshift another process that occurs also known as calque is when adapting native words to the new meanings. "The verb bad mouth . . . is a calque or loan translation: it seems to come from Vai day ngatmay (a curse; literally, 'a bad mouth ').

Languages are always changing and evolving. The English language itself is full of words from other languages.

The evolution of Newspeak through the years aides to the creation of a flawed utopia in Oceania. Notably, newspeak has evolved language to be simple and direct. Vocabulary A’s intention express simple, purposive thoughts. Such as, “ hit, run, dog, tree, sugar” (Orwell 301). Vocabulary B are words that can be interchangeable between a noun, adjective, or adverb and to make it a negative just add the prefix un-. In addition to, vocabulary C consist entirely of scientific and technical terms and “could only be entertained in a vague wordless form…” (310). Although Newspeak has become simplistic way of communication

Noah Webster being an American with influences from the American ideals, and Samuel Johnson being British being influenced by British ideas, both made changes that supported their nationalistic view. With the difference in nationality, the dictionaries themselves should portray a nationalistic view to make the dictionary more special in respect to the two different countries, but it is not to say that these two dictionaries don’t have their similarities as well. They both in the end served to educate people and preserve their language. Even though Samuel Johnson may have done it for money since he stopped worrying about his writings when he acquired his pension, his dictionary and Webster’s dictionary served their purpose on educating the public of their view on the English

In Andrew Clements’ 1998 children’s book, Frindle, Nick Allen, a troublemaking fifth-grader, spent a great deal of effort changing the word pen to the word frindle, exasperating his teacher and gaining national notoriety for his invented word, which, in the story, stuck and was introduced into the English dictionary. In Clements’ book, he questions who it is that decides that words mean what words mean. His teacher, Mrs. Granger, responds, “You do, Nicholas. You and I and everyone in this class and this school and this town and this state and this country. We all agree” (Frindle 197). Unfortunately, deriving the etymology of words is not as simple as Mrs. Granger made it sound. Change in words – their meanings, spellings, and pronunciations - takes place over the divides of continents, ages, and languages. So, the analysis of words is more than a quest for definition; it is an exploration of history. The word “drum” is a fitting example of one suddenly appearing in the English language without strong, direct, reliable linkage to previous tongues.

Chapter 3 Vocabulary Vocabulary word: Economy Define In Your Own Words the wealth and resources of a country or region Related Words/Ideas recession Contrasting Words/Ideas addition Vocabulary word: mercantilism Define In Your Own Words Gaining wealth by controlling trade Related Words/Ideas commercialism Contrasting Words/Ideas communism Vocabulary word: charter Define In Your Own Word Papers issued by the king Related Words/Ideas pact Contrasting Words/Ideas disagreement Vocabulary word: democratic Define In Your Own Words Ruled by the people Related Words/Ideas socialist Contrasting Words/Ideas dictatorship Vocabulary word: Mayflower Compact Define In Your Own Words An agreement Related Words/Ideas solid Contrasting Words/Ideas

English went on a long and vigorous adventure to have become the vast language that we know, speak and read today. In this essay, the differences and similarities between Old English and Modern English will be discussed by referring to an extract of Matthew 2: 4-10 from The Gospel of Saint Matthew in West Saxon: edited from the manuscripts by James Wilson Bright (1910:5-6). In the discussion there will be referred to the differences and similarities in orthography, spelling, vocabulary and syntax. Conclusions will also be made about the nature of these chances as they occurred in the adventure from Old English to Modern English.

Among the most important concepts to emerge are those relating to dialects and language standards. Sociolinguists have documented the presence of dialects in every language. These dialects, all of which are legitimate, are associated with educational, economic, social and historical conditions. Hence, even if an individual scrupulously studies all the possible dictionaries of a random language, he would still be somewhat of a stranger to that language since he is unaware of all the dialectal changes.

Think of things that morph over time. What comes to mind? People may think about a music artist’s change from YouTube videos recorded on iPhones to sold-out concerts. Or, they may think about the changes an athlete makes from childhood to becoming a professional athlete. However, did you think about how much a language changes over a couple of years? Every year words are added to and taken from the dictionary. Words are formed and forgotten. Language changes because of a person’s vocabulary and location, but what happens to a language, like the English language, that is spread across the whole world?

It has been noted that while considering changing word meanings is vital to the diachronic study of language, the notion and practice of studying them has been historically belittled as an intellectual pursuit. Semantic change is often irregular and arbitrary as a concept, as its causes are wide-ranging and multi-faceted. However, critics such as Willem B. Hollmann now give weight and notoriety to studying semantics synchronically . By considering individual cases, one can explain some word changes and apply common rules. These often occur intra-linguistically or through common social or political changes, especially surrounding class conflict. However, although we can catalogue the semantic change of similar or groups of words, word