The English Language

Paper Summary:

This paper asserts that there is every reason to believe that the English language will continue to divide and sub-divide in much the same way as the ancient Indo-European language of which it is a descendant divided and sub-divided over time. The paper further asserts that one can reasonably expect to see the denotative and, especially, connotative meanings of words change as societal attitudes and perceptual paradigms change. Lastly, the paper asserts that, as society evolves and new innovations muscle their way to the fore, new words and expressions will enter the lexicon - helped along by the fact that English has always been very good at borrowing from other languages when striving to find an apt descriptor for a new "thing" or phenomenon. The paper concludes that, in the end, the English language will continue to grow more dynamic, larger, and will most likely continue to freely take from other languages.

From the Paper:

"For instance, Fred C. Robinson writes that a statement such as King Edward's in Henry VI, "Warwick was a bug that feared us all," would be incomprehensible to today's readers without an appreciation of how the noun, "bug," and the past-tense of the verb "fear", which is to say "feared," have both changed in meaning over the centuries. To be specific, in sixteenth and early seventeenth century England - the England of Shakespeare's time - a bug meant "an object of terror, a bug-bear," and the verb, "feared," meant something quite a bit different than the common modern-day understanding which holds that the subject in the sentence is afraid of someone or something."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Anthropological Linguistics." Monkeyshines on Health & Science, 6.1 (2002): 5-6.
• Plotnik, Arthur. "Are You Saxy enough?" Writer, 120.2 (2007): 15-17.
• Robinson, Fred C. "The History of English and Its Practical Uses." Sewanee Review, 112.3 (2004): 376-395.
• "Robot: Definition." Dictionary Results: Robot. 2007. YourDictionary.com, Inc. 27 Apr. 2007 <http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/r/r0272700.html>

More papers on The English Language:

• Term Paper # 133393 : "The Future of the English Language"
• Essay # 2646 : "Sounds for a System: Phonemes in the English Language"
• Term Paper # 146172 : "Language Bias and the Development of the English Language"
• Research Paper # 71752 : "The English Language "

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