[Lexicog] Re: Shakespeare's contribution

[Rudolph Troike]

Scott,

   Re your point:

"Or obviously if further documents in the vernacular of the common people,
or of commentators, or of scholars are uncovered, we could be helped in
this area. The problem here is the very medium of historical "written
documentation." Traditionally it is formal, structured, and conservative
(linguistically), expunged of jargon, clichés, localisms/regionalisms,
and as high-brow as the author's erudition and eloquence can concoct --
not conducive to excavating the "norms" of the language of that era."

   You are certainly right regarding the better-known (and historically
the only regarded sources), but large amounts of archival research into
the lesser-known writings of local folk, letters, ledgers, etc., is having
an enormous impact on our understanding of the dynamics of language change
in England during the early modern period and even earlier and later.
Charles Fries was one of the earliest to look at that dimension, though he
missed the sociolinguistic dynamics of emerging class distinctions in usage
(writing of "shall" vs "will"), as one of my students showed some years ago.
This is where corpus linguistics is helping, as with the Helsinki corpus of
early modern English.

   Rudy Troike




 
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