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The Scientific Revolution is an era associated
primarily with the 16th and 17th centuries
during which new ideas and knowledge in
physics, astronomy, biology, medicine and
chemistry transformed medieval and ancient
views of nature and laid the foundations for
modern science. According to most accounts, the
scientific revolution began in Europe towards the
end of the Renaissance era and continued
through the late 18th century, the later period
known as The Enlightenment.
Middle English and early Modern English: no standard spelling.
17th century: a standard spelling was established:
It was an archaic one; it represents the pronunciation of English
before the Great Vowel Shift, this explains the oddities of the present day
English spelling. Words still preserve letters which are not pronounced, for
example, the “k” in “knight”.
That is, there are inconsistencies into our spelling system.
One of the result of these inconsistencies is the prevalence of spelling
pronunciation which arise when a word is given a new pronunciation through
the influence of its spelling, for example, the word “schedule” which originally
was “sedule”, so pronunced /sedu(ǝ)l/ ; and in present day it is “schedule”, so
pronunced /ʃ/ in Britain and /sk/ in United States.
Scientists needed technical terms for an enormous
number of things, and in forming this enormous
vocabulary, they drawn on various sources:
 Taking a word in everyday use and give it a special
scientific meaning. For example, what chemist did
with “salt”, and zoologists with “parasite”.
 Taking over words from another language. From
Latin: abdomen, corolla, equilibrium; from German:
cobalt, paraffin.
 Taking the name of scientists, such as the name
“Pasteur”, adding the suffix –ize, so it formed
“pasteurize”.
16TH C.
17TH C.
18th C.
o Abdomen
o Skeleton
o Tendon
o Disease
o epilepsies
o Pneumonia
o Vertebra
o Acid
o Atmosphere
o Ratio
o Series
o Fauna
o Habitat
o Hydrogen
o Nitrogen
o Oxygen
19TH C.
20TH C.
o Cereal
o Metabolism
o Ozone
o pasteurize
o Neutron
o Antibiotics
o Penicillin
o Vitamin
o Biodegradable
o Ecosphere
Few words came from other languages:
Australia: budgerigar
China: ketchup
French: rouge, critique, elite, garage
Dutch: gin
Italian: diva, studio
German: blitz
The main ways of expanding general vocabulary have been:
AFFIXATION:
Prefixes: un, de, ant, dis, mis, non, pre, self
Suffixes: -ize, -ization, -able , -ly, -wise
COMPOUNDING: breakfast, holiday, graveyard, bandmaster, etc.
CONVERSION: the derivation of one word from another without any change
of form. For example, from the Noun “market” to the verb “to market”; from
the noun “audition” to the verb “to audition”.
BLENDING: combination of one part of a word with a part of another
word, example, “brunch” (breakfast and lunch).
BACK-FORMATION: the verb “to beg” was a back-formation from the noun
“beggar”; and the verb “to enthuse” from the noun “enthusiasm”
Due to the great expansion of vocabulary, critics were worried
about the uncontrolled way in which foreign words have come
into the language. They could see no order in the use of the
language.
• A feeling that English needed to be “ruled” or
regulated” appeared;
• A ruled language is one in which acceptable usage is
explicitly laid down, for example by grammars and
dictionaries, or by the ruling of an academy;
• Proposals for an academy came to nothing;
• 17th century: publication of the first grammars and
dictionaries of English;
• 18th century: publication of the first comprehensive
dictionaries, and a number of English grammar.
THE AGE OF THE DICTIONARY
The problem had been sensed when thousands of new words were entering
the language.
The first “dictionary of hard words” was published by Robert Cawdrey in
1604. It contained 3000 hard English words borrowed from the Hebrew,
Greek, Latin or French.
In 1721 Nathaniel Bailey published his Universal Etymological English
Dictionary.
By the end of the 17th century, critics were worried about the uncontrolled
way in which foreign words had come into the language. There were no
norms of spelling or punctuation.
Language was going downhill. It needed protection, and only dictionaries,
grammars, and other manuals could provide it.
The idea of an Academy never got off the ground, even though it received a
great deal of support at the time. And the first part of the solution, and
English dictionary, came from Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1755.
At about the same time, the first attempts to define the field of English
grammar began to appear. One of the most influential grammars of the time
was Robert Lowth´s “Short Introduction to English Grammar” (1762).
Samuel Johnson´s Dictionary
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Published in 1755;
Contained 43.500 words;
Focus on descriptions of practical
usage as well as literal meaning:
It included a history of the language,
grammar and an extensive list of
words representing basic vocabulary;
Two features: the original, definitions
of the language, and the copious
citations of quotations from English
literature.
The Oxford English Dictionary
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1858, a group of experts started to
work with it, and finally it was
published in 1928;
Contained 400.000 words and
phrases;
New words and new meanings of
existing words and words from the
previous 7 centuries;
Aim: to present the words that
formed the English vocabulary from
the Anglo-Saxon times, down to the
present day, with all the facts
concerning their form, sense-history,
pronunciation and etymology.
Features: it contains the standard
language of literature and
conversation, whether current at the
moment, or archaic, but also the
main technical vocabulary and a
large measure of dialectal usage and
slang.