Shakespeare Influence on Language

 Shakespeare
is on of the most famous
Englishmen
 Shakespeare is famous for the effect he
had on the English language
 Shakespeare did this without even
realizing the changes he was making
 People modernized it and used it in their
work day speech
 The
endings on words were changing
 The suffixes disappeared that let people
know the grammatical functions of that
word
 Due to the Renaissance explosion the
Modern English became very flexible
 Shakespeare was a leading figure in
making the language flexible
Shakespeare began to change phrases
 The English language was being set free and
writers wanted to use it in their own poetry
 Shakespeare was transforming his language,
pointing it in the direction we use today
 Modern English changes and develops as we use
new phrases, foreign words, and incorporate
different dialects as we speak

 The
Renaissance caused the European
Language to mix into the English
Language
 This mixture made Shakespeare excited
and it gave him endless possibilities to do
what he wanted with the English language
 “Light seeking light, doth light of light
beguile”

Intellect, wisdom, eyesight, and daylight
 “you”
Both singular and plural
 Old English


Thou: used for addressing one person
Ye: more than one person
 By
the time of Early Modern English these
words seemed old fashioned to us and “you”
became the norm for all grammatical
functions
 When we see the words “ye” and “thou” we
always say that is old fashioned
 “Thou”






and “Thee”
Higher rank to those people beneath them
Address God, ghosts, witches
Males address their wife with “thou” and the
wives answer respectfully with “you”
Special intimacy, affection, formality, politeness,
and distance
Inferior to a superior
Express feelings of anger and insulting or
disrespect
 “You”



Lower status to those above them
Formal way of upper class to talk to one another
When a husband would address his wife she
would respectfully respond using the word “You”
 Created
words, but also created nouns into
verbs
 To eyeball/ elbow someone
 To be caked in something
 To label someone
 Something is “flawed”
 Mabillard,
Amanda. Words Shakespeare
Invented Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000.
11 April 2011.
 “Shakespeare’s Development of Middle
English to Early modern English.”
nosweatshakespeare. 7 April 2011. Web.

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