Grammatical Aspects In The Diary Of Henry Machyn's Diary

For my essay I will be analysing the grammatical aspects that are shown in Machyn’s diary. I will specifically look at the present day translation of the diary and focus on the changes that are within the extract and whether they show forms and structures that have now disappeared. The Diary of Henry Machyn is an eyewitness account of proceedings in London in the 17th century, in the form of a diary entry.

The Middle English period is characterised by the difference in grammar and vocabulary. The term Middle English describes the stage in the progression of the English language between 1100 and 1500. However, critics differ with regards to the actual time in which the Middle English period began and ended. The Middle English period falls between

As the English language was beginning to develop, words were being borrowed from the French, Latin, and Scandinavian. Majority of the words used in the diary entry are words from each of these countries. For example, the lexis ‘Admerall’ was of a French origin. The lexis ‘gunnes’ was of a Scandinavian orgin and finally the lexis ‘nobull’ was of a Latin origin. All these words are commonly used in Present Day English, however, the spelling of the words are dissimilar. Large-scale borrowing of new words often had serious consequences for the meanings and the stylistic register of those words, but, various new stylistic layers emerged in the lexicon, which could be employed for a variety of different

You may still find the word order is somewhat less inflexible than in the current tongue. During that period tenses were introduced and then became common. The use of auxiliaries and verb phrases ‘be’ in ‘Now thank be unto God’. Tenses were introduced, with 'be ' as auxiliary. Future tenses are also located within the diary entry such as, ‘with’ and ‘will’ auxiliaries. However, this wasn’t something I had to alter when translating the text because the tenses in the diary entry were clear and weren’t forms or constructions that have disappeared.

Furthermore, I didn’t have to adjust the pronouns of the diary because it was a recount of events that took place, therefore it would be written in 3rd person. The fact that this wasn’t something I had to amend connotes that this isn’t a construction that was