Abstract
As the period from 1400 to 1660 is central to the development of Modern English and the formation of the standard, it needs much longer treatment than can be included in a single chapter. I have, therefore, divided it into two chapters, the first of which will deal with many of the concepts and attitudes which were in the air as the standard was being constructed and the second with linguistic features of English. This may lead to some overlap between the two chapters.
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Notes
See J. H. Fisher, The Emergence of Standard English (Lexington, Ky., 1996),
and D. A. Pearsall, ‘Hoccleve’s Regement of Princes: The Poetics of Royal Self-Representation’, Speculum, vol. 69 (1994) 386–410.
J. Otway-Ruthven, The King’s Secretary and the Signet Office in the XV Century (Cambridge, 1939) p. 46.
As given in R. W. Chambers and Marjorie Daunt, A Book of London English 1384–1425 (Oxford, 1931, repr. 1967) p. 139.
Details of spellings in Chancery documents are given in John H. Fisher, Malcolm Richardson and Jane L. Fisher, An Anthology of Chancery English (Knoxville, Tenn.,1984).
See C. Paul Christianson, ‘Chancery Standard and the Records of Old London Bridge’, in Joseph B. Trahern, Jr, Standardizing English: Essays in the History of Language Change (Knoxville, Tenn., 1989) pp. 82–112.
Norman Davis, ‘A Paston Hand’, Review of English Studies, n.s. 3 (1952) 209–21 and ‘The Language of the Pastons’, Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 40 (1954) 119–44.
See Amy J. Devitt, Standardizing Written English: Diffusion in the Case of Scotland 1520–1659 (Cambridge, 1989).
Dated about 1490 and quoted from N. F. Blake, Caxton’s Own Prose (London, 1973) p. 79.
M. Eccles, The Macro Plays, EETS 262 (London, 1969) p.155.
See A. L. Mayhew, The Promptorium Parvulorum: The First English-Latin Dictionary, EETS e.s. 102 (London, 1908).
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© 1996 N. F. Blake
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Blake, N.F. (1996). Political, Social and Pedagogical Background to the New Standard. In: A History of the English Language. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24954-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24954-1_7
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