Codification of English
Standardization refers to the process by which a language has been codified in some way (Wardhaugh and Fuller, n.d. 2010: p31). It involves four stages; selection of norms, codification of form, elaboration of function, and implementation by the speech community. Standardization is concerned with codification as a linguistic form. According to Einar Haugen; codification leads to 'minimal variation in form' (Stein & Tieken-Boon van Ostade, n.d. 1994: p160), therefore it reinforces a certain variety which has been selected and accepted.
Codification is an ongoing process, even though it is the second stage in the standardization. The linguistic term codification refers to the process of standardizing and developing a
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Johnson's Dictionary was significant because it sat the standard for lexicon in both Britain and the United States, besides it was the major work of codification, and the first acknowledge variation in meaning and usage. As there was no recognized academy in Britain, Dr. Johnson had done his huge work in two large volumes over eight years. His dictionary which wrote with personal efforts contains more than 40000 words, and about 114000 supporting quotations. He used several techniques which helped him to write his dictionary perfectly, such as incorporating usage note and making decisions on correctness (Seargeant and Swann, 2012). Later, Noah Webster who became the father of American English (Uni-due.de, 2017), wrote his dictionary (1828) based on American dialects to distinguish between American English and the British one.
The process of codification has some important influences; the kings English to provide for administrative and legal language. Literary English was incorporated to be used by great literature and for printing and publishing. Oxford English was incorporated too to be used for education and religious purposes. (ThoughtCo,
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Most dictionaries depended on personal invitations, and were codified a list of words that most writers thought that these words would be useful. For example; Shakespeare, the great writer and poet, invented over 1700 words like swagger and torture. However, modern dictionaries don’t allow personal invitations, their criteria depend on words used by various writers, not just one writer 'as in Shakespeare period', so these words become candidates to include them into dictionaries. Oxford University Press developed criteria for including words in the dictionary, they called it corpus which is a database contains 'a collection of texts of written or spoken language presented in electronic form' (Anon, 2017). Corpus help lexicographers to decide if new words will include in the dictionary or not. Corpus contains 2.5 million words of the 21st century, and editors update corpus every three months. This process mainly based on three stages: reading, recording, and
Noah Webster made many contributions to public education. One of these was suggesting that all British school books be removed from America after the Revolutionary War. Along with this, he created the “Blue-Black Speller,” which was used to teach many children a new version of English. This new English excluded many terms that the British used and so, it was the basis on which American English was born.
2 Delbridge, A., Bernard, J. R. L., Blair, D., Peters, P., Butler, S., Eds., The Macquarie Dictionary, Second Ed., Macquarie: Macquarie, 1995, p. 826.
Webster. Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language. Clevland; New York: William Collins+World Publishing Company, 1977.
This tip also refers back to drawing boxes around different words, and McPhee refers to thesauruses as “dangerous” (4). “It goes on to tell you the differences all the way down to line----how each listed word differs from all the others” (McPhee 4). Though I concede that dictionaries are the first option to utilize, I still insist that a thesaurus is took into consideration as a backup after the dictionary to insure the best word choice.
Noah Webster, familiar to most Americans as the writer of the first American dictionary, worked as a schoolteacher in the late eighteenth century. As he taught, he came to realize that there were some major problems with the way English was taught in the American schools. The United States of America had recently declared its independence from England, and was struggling to form its own identity. The schools were still using textbooks from England, and these books varied in consistency when it came to spelling, pronunciation and grammar (Short Summary Website). As a teacher, and as a patriot, Webster felt a need for an American textbook. He wanted consistency and he wanted it to reflect that there was an American dialect of English that was distinctive from that of England (Bett Website). He had also noted that the social classes of England were often distinguished by differences in dialect, and he wished the United States to have a single, distinctive dialect that would rise above differences in class (Bett Website).
These countries were very important contributors to the development of the English language. The two main types of English from 449 to 1485 were the “Old English” and “Middle English” (Middle English. 449). The Old English period that started from 449 to 1066 was introduced by the Anglo-Saxon and their descendants (Middle English. 449). Old English was an early form of English; therefore the future development of English grammar was highly connected to the Old English. People during this period also paid lots of attentions on manuscripts.
After selecting the English language to be standard, codification -Early Modern English (1500-1800)is the second step in standardization of language, it deal with grammar and vocabulary, grammatical rules and lexicon in grammar and dictionaries. That often happen when the language written for the first time, or when it developing as standard, or after a time of great and huge changing as after the demise of colonialism , which made language planning necessary .Wikipedia
Pearsall J (1999) The Concise Oxford Dictionary Tenth Edition page 286 by Oxford University Press in Oxford New York, America
The main focus of the people whose job is to create the Newspeak dictionary is to simplify and alter the English dictionary. “Newspeak is designed to be a self-contained linguistic system replacing, not grafted on, the English language,” (Fowler). The new linguistic system not only alters words, but grammar, compounds, and suffixes as well (Orwell 376- 381). In addition, Newspeak can be divided into three different categories: A Vocabulary, B Vocabulary, and C Vocabulary. A Vocabulary mainly consists of everyday, ordinary words used “for such things as eating, drinking, working,” etc. (Orwell 378). On the other hand, the B Vocabulary consisted of the words utilized for political purposes. The C Vocabulary consisted solemnly of scientific and technical terms. Even though Newspeak was founded on the English language, English speakers would find it almost impossible to comprehend many Newspeak
In a sociolinguist perspective “the idea of a spoken standardized language is a hypothetical construct” (Lippi-Green, 2012, pp. 57). They are the form of Britain English and American English that are used in textbooks and on broadcasting. Giles and Coupland observe that “A standard variety is the one that is most often associated with high socioeconomic status, power and media usage in a particular community” (1991, p. 38). Both native speakers and learners of English, where English is taught as a second or foreign language (hereafter ESL/EFL), speak dialect of English in everyday conversation (Kachru, 2006, pp. 10-11; Owens 2012, p.
According to Anne Curzan, a language historian, it's important to note that humans make dictionaries, therefore a dictionary only provides the opinions of the most commonly used meanings of a word. It's not a set list of “right definitions” because people use them differently for how they see fit. Words’ meanings can evolve over time due to slang usage and the influence of other languages and cultures. When a bigger group of people discover a slang version of a word, it might become popular, which could make that the most common meaning for the word. Also, a word in one society might mean something completely different in another society. If languages or cultures intertwine with others, then the common definitions used might change with it. All of this can contribute to the evolution of a word's meaning, and this is acceptable because even though words may change over time, so does the language as a whole
Language is a method in which individuals communicate to get their opinion and ideas across to the other party. It varies in its communication methods; it can be verbal and physical i.e. body language. A language is significantly related to the speaker’s language culture and identity, any alteration in language causes an effect on identity. Therefore I believe that language should be standardized under specific rules, regulations that support the language and prevent merging with other languages to avoid cultural assimilation. However, this standardization does not discriminate or disallow any other language to be practiced, by accepting diversity i.e. allowing English to be spoken in a Spanish speaking country, but disallowing Spang-lish. Thus I believe that language blend is unacceptable. Moreover, with rules and regulations speakers should respect their language and avoid its alternation, since it is part of who they are and what makes them special.
According to Hudson, a variety is ‘a set of linguistic items with similar social distribution’ . Since the term dialect has acquired a negative connotation throughout the years, academics have started to use the term variety, which is considered more neutral, instead.
The development of an American language is a long and interesting account of preservation as well as change and development of a living language, and it is the purpose of this essay to examine to some extent several items related to the factors that brought English to America and the features of American English that developed thereafter, with several sections focusing on the history of the arrival of the English language in America, definitions of what British English (BrE) and American English (AmE) are, and finally three specific areas of discussion i.e. phonological, lexical, and syntactical features of American English.
Standardization of the English Language There are several important events before 1500 that, when listed together, show a series of steps in the struggle for English language supremacy. These steps are mainly governmental, legal and official events that pushed English usage. In 1356 The Sheriff's Court in London and Middlesex were conducted in English for the first time. When Parliament opened in 1362 the Statute of Pleading was issued declaring English as a language of the courts as well as of Parliament, but it was not until 1413 that English became the official language of the courts everywhere. Thirteen years later in 1423, Parliament records start being written in English.