Shakespeare's Influences

William Shakespeare’s Contribution to the

Early Modern English

2005130885 Sungwoo Lee

2008130198 Yeseul Kim

William Shakespeare

English poet & playwriter, 1564~1616

38 plays, 154 son-nets

Used more than 30,000 words

Background for the Birth of Shakespearian English

1) English Renaissance (1500~1650)

2) Caxton Press (1476)

3) The form of English used in that period

English Renaissance

-1500~1650

-Protestant Reformation -The Copernican theory-Discovery of new lands

-Increase in demand for liberal arts

-Efforts to translate classics written in Latin or Greek into English

Caxton Press

William Caxton’s in-troducing the art of Printing to the United Kingdom in 1476.

The Art Of Printing

The price of a book, getting cheaper

The increase in Lit-eracy rate

No longer depend on a Patron, but Au-

thor's Royalty

Standardizing the spelling rule

Alleviating the dif-ference among di-

alects.

The Form of English used in that Period

Early Modern English Centered on London, East Midland Dialect evolved, → Obtaining the status of Standard Eng-lish

Shakespeare’s using English succeeds to East Midland Dialect of which Middle English consists

Characteristics of each period of English in the aspect of syntax

1) Period of Old English – Period of full Inflections2) Period of Middle English – Period of leveled Inflections.3) Period of Modern English – Period of lost Inflections.

What English Shakespeare used?

His English succeeds to Middle Eng-lish called Period of leveled Inflec-tions.

That means, He gets free from the restraint of Form of English.

Shakespeare’s Influences

Newly Coined Words

More than 1800 coinage words

Adopted a number of Latin or Greek words

A. accommodation, assassination, courtship, countless, fashionable, laughable, dwindle, eventful

B. exsufflicate, protractive, qustrist, soilure, tortive, unplausive

Idioms

A forgone conclusion (Othello) : A decision made before the evidence for it is known. An inevitable conclusion. OTHELLO: But this denoted a foregone conclusion: 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.

It’s Greek to me (Julius Caesar) : incomprehensible

But, for my own part, it was Greek to me.

Star-crossed (Romeo and Juliet) : unlucky; not favored by stars

A paire of starre-crost louers, take their life.

Salad Days (Antony and Cleopatra) : The days of one’s youthful experience

CLEOPATRA: My salad days, When I was green in judgment:

My mind’s eye (Hamlet) Love is blind (The Merchant of

Venice)

Puns

Richard III (Act I scene 1) “Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York…”

HenryⅣ (ActⅡ scene4)“If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.”

Hamlet (ActⅠ Scene2)

Claudius: “…But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son …” Hamlet: [aside] “A little more than kin, and less than kind.”

Grammar

A. Shift of Part of Speech

Music mads me. (King Richard Ⅱ)

He hath a person and a smooth dispose To be suspected…(Othello)

B. Agreement

But there is two hard things. (A Midsummer-Night’s Dream)

Every one of these letters are in my name. (Twelfth Night)

Thank You