ENGL 5633: History of the English Language                Fall 2008                                  Mercer

 

Study Questions for Unit 3 Essay Exam

 

If possible, please come to my office at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 12, to begin your exam.  The subpoints (indicated by letters) indicate the specific content you should cover to answer the main questions (indicated by numbers), but the subpoints will not necessarily be provided for you on the exam.   

 

  1. What changes occurred in English spelling over the course of the Renaissance?
    1. What was the state of English spelling at the beginning of the Renaissance?
    2. What factors influenced English spelling during the Renaissance?
    3. What was the state of English spelling at the end of the Renaissance?

 

  1. What changes occurred in English vocabulary over the course of the Renaissance?
    1. What were the primary languages from which new words were introduced?
    2. By what primary means were new words introduced?
    3. To what extent did these newly introduced words become a permanent part of the English language?

 

  1. What was the “inkhorn” controversy, and how was it resolved?
    1. When did this controversy occur?
    2. What were inkhorn terms? 
    3. Why did some writers introduce inkhorn terms? 
    4. Why did some people oppose the use of inkhorn terms?
    5. What compromise was reached concerning the use of inkhorn terms?

 

  1. In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (also called the Restoration and Eighteenth Century), what was the controversy over the establishment of an English Academy, and how was this controversy resolved?
    1. Why did some people want to see the creation of an English Academy?  What functions would the English Academy have fulfilled?  
    2. Why was an English Academy never established?
    3. What helped to take the place of an English Academy?

 

  1. What are the main differences between the English dictionaries published in the Renaissance and Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755?
    1. What are the differences in the kinds of information provided?
    2. What are the differences in quantity and length?
    3. What are the differences in influence?

 

  1. As a group (without naming individuals), who were the eighteenth-century prescriptive grammarians and rhetoricians, and how does your textbook judge their efforts?
    1. What is meant by “prescriptive grammarians and rhetoricians”?
    2. What qualifications did they have?
    3. What kinds of decisions did they make concerning the English language?
    4. What was faulty about the methods and assumptions they used?