How some of the greatest writers influenced the English language?



An 'authorism' is a new word. It means words and phrases invented or just popularised by well-known authors.



A great writer adds new words to his masterpiece, people read them often, these masterpieces are taught studied and enacted, and the words become part of common usage.



A lot of us make up new words, but the ones used by famous writers become popular and are included in the dictionary. It is important that new words are made and included in a language. A rigid no-space for-new-words language will soon be confined to the library.



Writer Paul Dickson researched how writers influenced the English language and helped it grow richer, and has put the conclusions in his book "Authorisms: Words Wrought by Writers". Let us see how some of the greatest writers influenced the English language.



William Shakespeare (1564-1616)



Shakespeare wrote plays, sonnets and songs. All of them are hugely popular. He is one of the most quoted writers. Some years ago, a woman watched a stage production of "Hamlet" by Shakespeare. As the play went on, she thought "I have heard all this before!" She knew the following sentences: "This above all, to thine own self be true." "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so," "To be or not to be, that is the question," "To sleep, perchance to dream," "Though there be madness, yet there is method to it." "Brevity is the soul of wit." "I must be cruel only to be kind." and "What a piece of work is a man!". The woman left the theatre saying. "This play is nothing but a string of quotes!"



Shakespeare used 17, 245 words and they included hundreds of authorisms. His words - including, bump, critical, roadway and scuffle are all part of our vocabulary today. Shakespeare used slang too (swag' in "Othello"). He borrowed words from classical literature and foreign languages. He broke grammar rules by changing nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives. He gave himself freedom to play with the English language. Addiction, belongings, cold blooded, salad-days, neither-here-nor-there and send-him packing are some of the contributions of the Bard.



Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)



Chaucer wrote in the Middle Ages, long before Shakespeare. When he wrote, the English language was a baby. His writings, mostly stories, gave the language dignity and recognition. Before he wrote, French and Latin were the dominant languages in England. Chaucer wrote in a kind of English that most people will not recognise today. His spellings were very different : little was littel, saw was saugh, and one sentence goes: "The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne." His "Canterbury Tales" is compulsory reading for those specialising in the English language.



His quotes, "f gold rusts, what then can iron do"?, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained", "The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people", Time and tide wait for no man", "The guilty think all talk is of themselves" are well known.



The authors of the King James Bible (written 1604-1611)



The King James Bible has had an enormous influence on the English language. Since 1611, the King James Bible has sold over one billion copies, making it one of the greatest selling books of all time The KJB added words like peacemaker and scapegoat to English. Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt once called the KJB "the most democratic book in the world."



These phrases were popularised by the King James Bible




  • A law unto themselves

  • A man after his own heart

  • A stumbling block

  • Born again

  • Bottomless pit

  • Eye for an eye

  • Fell flat on his face

  • From strength to strength

  • God forbid

  • In the twinkling of an eye

  • Left hand know what thy right hand doeth

  • Love thy neighbour as thyself

  • *Physician, heal thyself

  • Put the words in her mouth

  • Turn to him the other (cheek]

  • Two-edged sword



Mark Twain (1835-1910)



Mark Twain (real name: Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is one of the greatest American writers. You must have read passages from his classic books "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and its sequel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". These are perennial favourites. Clemens was a riverboat pilot before he became an author. His writing is known for humour, political satire and the language of the common people. The great author William Faulkner called him the father of American literature.



Mark Twain was witty, and here are some examples of his sayings: "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt", "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog", "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see", "The secret of getting ahead is getting started."



James Joyce (1882-1941)



James Joyce wrote a string of masterpieces - "Ulysses". "Dubliners" and "Finnegans Wake" are among them. These are considered exceptional in ideas and style. In 1999, Time Magazine named him one of the most important people of the 20th century: it said that he "revolutionised 20th century fiction." Joyce knew 17 languages, including Arabic, Sanskrit and Greek.



He also learnt Norwegian at the age of 19 so that he could read playwright Henrik Ibsen's work in its original language. For him, the days of the week were "Moanday, Tearday, Wailsday, Thumpsday, Frightday, Shattered Ay."



Some of his sayings are: "Life is too short to read a bad book", "I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day", "To learn one must be humble".



 



Picture Credit : Google


What is the English sonnet?



"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?" So goes one of William Shakespeare's famous sonnets. But what exactly is a sonnet? Not exactly a neither song nor prose, a sonnet is something special. Composed of just 14 lines, the sonnet is a poem written in iambic pentameter.



The word 'sonnet has been derived from the Italian word sonetto, meaning "a little sound or song." It first appeared in the poetry of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, in the 16th Century. Howard translated Italian sonnets into English and composed his own.



Writers often composed sonnets to make a living when theatres were closed due to the plague. Sonnets were considered to be an art form through which artists showed off their talents. Wealthy people paid Shakespeare to write sonnets for them.



Shakespeare's sonnets are composed of 14 lines, and most are divided into three quatrains and a final, concluding couplet, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. This sonnet form and rhyme scheme is known as the English' sonnet.



Different types of sonnets



Most of us might be familiar with Shakespeare's sonnets. Known as the English sonnet, it is the most common and simplest type. But did you know there are several other types too? Here's a look at some of them...




  • Petrarchan: The Petrarchan sonnet is named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch, a lyrical poet of 14th Century Italy.

  • Spensarian: This is a variation of the Shakespearean sonnet with a more challenging rhyme scheme: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.

  • Miltonic: These sonnets examined an internal struggle or conflict and sometimes stretched beyond traditional limits on rhyme or length.



Who created the first sonnet?



Italian poet Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the invention of the sonnet. A notary at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, da Lentini composed poetry in the literary Sicilian dialect in the 13th Century.



 



Picture Credit : Google