Shakespeare’s Use of Language in His Play, King Lear

William Shakespeare is an outstanding pioneer of the English language in Early Modern English period between 1500 and 1700. Undeniably, he made a great contribution to the development of English language. His contribution is strongly related to Elizabethan English (Knowles, 1997). His literary works could reflect his language features and Early Modern English characteristics. King Lear selected in this essay is one of his famous tragedies. It was written by him between 1603 and 1608. This play revolves around king Lear and his three daughters. Old king believed in two hypocritical Goneril and Regan and gave realm to them. On the contrary, he disliked honest Cordelia and disinherited her. The king of France who was moved by Cordelia’s honesty married her. After knowing Lear’s miserable experience, she organizes an army and attacked Britain. Unfortunately, the army failed and she died. Finally, King Lear was sad for Cordelia and died. Specially, France’s speech in Act 1 scene i expressed his love for kind-hearted Cordelia by praising her virtue. This passage which will be analysed is selected from the First Folio which largely remains the language written by Shakespeare. In this essay, I will analyse and illustrate language used in this passage. In the first part, I will generally talk about social background. In the second part, I will focus on analysing main linguistics features in this text which includes spelling, pronouns, inflections and syntax. Additionally, I will cover the using of language and difference compared with Present-day English. In terms of vocabulary, I will emphasize the vocabulary utilized related to its contemporary context. In the final part, I will show how language appropriate to the character and situatio...

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...in France’s speech from King Lear in First Folio. Spelling, pronouns, syntax and inflections are four obvious characteristics that are reflected by this text. Regarding spelling, capitals, apostrophes and abbreviations, and the use of letter and are different from Present-day English. The unique of using pronouns which refer to ‘you’, ‘thou’ and ‘that’ presents the typical Early Modern English features. Considering syntax, inversion is prominent pattern in Shakespeare’s language. Referring to inflections, the differences compared with PDE was shown by noun plural, past participle and subjunctives. In addition, vocabulary employed in this passage is very new. Particularly, some words are first used by Shakespeare in this text. Furthermore, the special using of vocabulary, syntax and rhetoric devices makes the language suitable for France’s King and situation.