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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 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 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.