Vocabulary and summaries interlanguage A language or use of language having features of two others, often a pidgin or dialect form. "interlanguage noun" The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Katherine Barber. Oxford University Press 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/EN T RY.html?Subview=Main&entry=t150.e35349> protolanguage An unattested language from which a group of attested languages are taken to be historically derived. Thus Proto-Indo-European is the protolanguage posited as a source for all the Indo-European languages, Proto-Germanic the source for English and the other Germanic languages, and so on. "protolanguage" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. P. H. Matthews. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTR Y .html?Subview=Main&entry=t36.e2736> ablaut n. A change of vowel in related words or forms, e.g., in sing, sang, sung. The Oxford American Dictionary of Current English. Oxford University Press, 1999. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY. h tml?Subview=Main&entry=t21.e56

diachronic Relating to historical change over a span of time. The revolution in linguistics begun by Ferdinand de Saussure in the Cours de linguistique g¨¦n¨¦rale ( 1915 ) is founded partly on the distinction between the diachronic study of linguistic features evolving in time and the synchronic study of a language as a complete system operating at a given moment. Saussure argued, against the historical bias of 19th-century philology , that the synchronic dimension or ¡®axis¡¯ must be given precedence. Noun : diachrony .

The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Chris Baldick. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY . html?Subview=Main&entry=t56.e304

synchronic Concerned only with the state of something at a given time, rather than with its historical development. In modern linguistics, the synchronic study of language as it is has generally been preferred to the diachronic study of changes in language that dominated the concerns of 19th©\century philology . Noun : synchrony .

The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Chris Baldick. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTR Y .html?Subview=Main&entry=t56.e1114

Vernacular

n. 1. the language or dialect of a particular country (Latin gave place to the vernacular). 2. the language of a particular clan or group. 3. plain, direct speech.
adj. (of language) of one’s native country; not of foreign origin or of learned formation.
"vernacular n. & adj." The Oxford American Dictionary of Current English. Oxford University Press, 1999. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 27 March 2009

scare quotes Quotation marks placed round a word or phrase to draw attention to an unusual or arguably inaccurate use. "scare quotes plural noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/EN T RY.html?Subview=Main&entry=t140.e68695 implicature [Mass noun] the action of implying a meaning beyond the literal sense of what is explicitly stated, for example saying the frame is nice and implying I don't like the picture in it. • [count noun] an implied meaning. "implicature noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/EN T RY.html?Subview=Main&entry=t140.e37618> dissimilation Change or process by which two sounds in a sequence become less like each other. E.g. French pèlerin ‘pilgrim’ is from Latin peregrin (us) ‘foreigner’ by, among other things, dissimilation to l of the first of two r's. Often sporadic: see Grassmann's Law for a more regular instance. "dissimilation" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. P. H. Matthews. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY . html?Subview=Main&entry=t36.e943> unattested (Linguistics) denoting a form or usage or pronunciation of a word for which there is no evidence: logically possible but unattested word- formation. "unattested adj." The New Oxford American Dictionary, second edition. Ed. Erin mckean. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/EN T RY.html?Subview=Main&entry=t183.e82417> wave thory In historical linguistics, the wave model or wave theory (German Wellentheorie) is a model of language change in which new features of a language spread from a central point in continuously weakening concentric circles, similar to the waves created when a stone is thrown into a body of water. This should lead to convergence among dissimilar languages. The theory was directed against the doctrine of sound laws and the strict tree model introduced by the Neogrammarians and laid the foundations of modern sociolinguistics. Advocacy of the wave theory is attributed to Johannes Schmidt and Hugo Schuchardt. In modern linguistics, the wave model has contributed greatly to improve the tree model approach of the Comparative method.[1] "wave model" Wikipedia. 2 March 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_model_(linguistics) > language family A group of languages which are assumed to have arisen from a single source: ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, GREEK, PERSIAN, RUSSIAN, SANSKRIT, and WELSH are all members of the INDO-EUROPEAN language family, and are considered to have descended from a common ancestor. Common ancestry is established by finding systematic correspondences between languages: English repeatedly has /f/ where Latin has /p/ in words with similar meaning, as in father/pater, fish/piscis, flow/pluo rain. It also often has /s/ where Greek has /h/, as in six/héx, seven/heptá, serpent/hérpein to creep. In addition, English and German compare adjectives in similar ways, as in rich, richer, richest: reich, reicher, reichste. These and other correspondences indicate that the languages are cognate (genetically related). Various related words can be compared in order to reconstruct sections of a hypothetical ancestor language. The process of comparison and reconstruction is traditionally known as comparative PHILOLOGY, more recently as comparative historical linguistics. This process formed the backbone of 19c language study, though in the 20c it has become one branch among many. A ‘family tree’ diagram (not unlike a genealogy) is commonly used to represent the relationships between the members of a linguistic family, in which an initial parent language ‘gives birth’ to a number of ‘daughters’, which in turn give birth to others. This can be useful, but is rarely an accurate representation of how languages develop, since it suggests clean cuts between ‘generations’ and between ‘sister’ languages, and implies that languages always become more divergent. In fact, languages generally change gradually, and there is often considerable intermixing among those which remain geographically adjacent. See LANGUAGE CHANGE, LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY.

"LANGUAGE FAMILY" Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Ed. Tom mcarthur. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 2 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENT R Y. html?Subview=Main&entry=t29.e686>

IndoEuropean languages

Family of languages spoken in Europe and SW and S Asia, and used in all areas of European settlement, such as Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, the USA and Latin America. It consists of the following subgroups: Germanic, Celtic and Indo-Iranian (including Persian, Avestan and the Indic languages - Sanskrit, Pali and modern Hindi). Other languages and groups in the family are Armenian, Albanian, Greek, the Italic languages (including Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages), the Baltic group (including Latvian and Lithuanian) and the Slavic group (including Old Church Slavonic, Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbian, Croatian and others). About half the world's population speaks an Indo-European language.

"Indo-European languages" World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 4 March 2009 <http://www.oxfordrefere n ce.com/views/ENTRY.html? entry=t142.e5734&srn=1&ssid=213506446#FIRSTHIT> shop
noun
a building or part of a building where goods or services are sold: a video shop | a barber's shop. • [in sing.] informal an act of going shopping: she slogged her way round the supermarket doing the weekly shop.
(From The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

verb
In BrE the verb is used intransitively (i.e. without an object) in its meaning ‘to buy things at shops’, whereas in AmE it is also used transitively with the meaning ‘to examine or buy goods at (a store)’: One man who had shopped the entire store ...
(From Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage in English Language Reference)

hindu

( pl. Hindus ) a follower of Hinduism. (From The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

theft

[mass noun] the action or crime of stealing: he was convicted of theft | [count noun] the latest theft happened at a garage.
(From The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

Rude

a. An impolite or unsophisticated person. b. = rude boy s.v. RUDE a. 15. 1961 J. DAWSON Ha-Ha iv. 74 No Brains' Trust will work so long as you've always got to have a gaggle of rudes and silly old sages to balance the bright young men. 1975 [see rude boy s.v. RUDE a. 15].

A. adj. I. 1. a. Uneducated, unlearned; ignorant; lacking in knowledge or book-learning. ?a1366 CHAUCER Rom. Rose 752 She was nought rude ne vnmete, But couthe ynow of sich doyng As longeth vnto karolyng. 1390 GOWER Conf. II. 33, I am so rude in my degree And ek mi wittes ben so dulle. c1430 LYDG. Minor Poems (Percy Soc.) 81 To voyde al errour fro folkis that ben rude. 1508 DUNBAR Tua Mariit Wemen 368 Hely raise my renovne amang the rude peple. 1536 CROMWELL in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 27 They shall leave their cure not to a rude and unlerned person but to a good, lerned & experte curate. 1609 BIBLE (Douay) Gen. xvi. Comm., Some obey whilest they are rude or in a low state, but having got a little knowledge or advancement disdaine their advancers. 1651 HOBBES Leviath. II. xxvi. 141 The rude people taking pleasure in singing, or reciting them. c1710 C. FIENNES Diary (1888) 11 The Country people being a Clownish rude people. 1849 MACAULAY Hist. Eng. vi. II. 107 The London clergy..set an example which was bravely followed by their ruder brethren all over the country. 1865 MOZLEY Miracles 209 The new religion was first promulgated by rude men unacquainted with learning and rhetoric. b. absol. as pl. The unlearned or ignorant. c1400 Rom. Rose 2268 Loke..that they sitte so fetisly, That these ruyde may vttirly Merveyle. c1460 G. ASHBY Dicta Philos. 534 He muste abstene from Rude & Unkunnyng, And al suche vnthrifty folkys despise. 1515 BARCLAY Egloges iv. (1570) Cvjb, His sight infourmeth the rude & ignorant. 1568 T. HOWELL Arb. Amitie (1879) 53 Unto the weake shee was a strength,..Unto the rude, a lamp of light. 1655-60 STANLEY Hist. Philos. (1701) 121/2 Whatsoever they have, to the good seems sufficient, to the rude too little. [1892 PATER Wks. (1901) VIII. 228 Fritillaries.., Snake's heads, the rude call them, for their shape.]
From The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

Shit house
shit-house a privy; also in gen. use as a term of disgust or contempt

Slovenry

The quality or condition of being slovenly; neglect of neatness or cleanliness; slovenliness, carelessness, negligence. Common c 1600- 1650; now rare. 1542 UDALL Erasm. Apoph. 74 Persones yt dooe glorie & braggue of their niggyshe sloovenry. 1586 HOOKER Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 86/2 The onelie meane..whereby hir husband his countrie was reclamed from sluttishnesse and slouenrie. 1648 J. BEAUMONT Psyche I. clxii, Never did Slovenry more misbecome Nor more confute its nasty self than here. 1681 RYCAUT tr. Gracian's Critick 198 It is a barbarous Slovenry after we have blown our Nose, to look on the Snot in our Handkerchief. 1847 Blackw. Mag. LXII. 662 It has a little dash of slovenry. 1895 Sotheran's Catal. Jan. 11 This first edition of the two novels is curiously mis-titled through the publisher's slovenry.

Mind boggling

Overwhelming, startling, amazing. 1955 E. FROMM Sane Soc. 46 Consumerism in the America of the 1950s constructed a culture of mind-boggling banality and stifling homogeneity. 1964 Punch 19 Feb. 257/1 A lot of mind-boggling statistics. 1973 C. BONINGTON Next Horizon x. 146 A monstrous bergschrund, a huge, mind- boggling chasm about fifteen feet across. 1980 J. A. HOSTETLER Amish Society (ed. 3) xiii. 277 The symbols over which they dispute appear to be diverse... The list is mind-boggling. 1997 Art Room Catal. Midsummer 20/1 Escher's mind-bending visual puzzles are all the more mind- boggling when applied to this three- dimensional puzzle.

Great vowel shift=A sound change that began c.1400 and ended c.1600, changing late MIDDLE ENGLISH long, stressed MONOPHTHONGS from something like the sounds of mainland European languages to those that they now have: for example, Middle English fine had an i like Italian fino. Words that entered English after the completion of the shift have often retained the original sound, as in police: compare polite, which entered earlier. In terms of articulation, the Middle English front VOWELS raised and fronted and the back vowels raised and backed; vowels already at the top became DIPHTHONGS with ah as the first element and the old vowel as the second, as in fine (see diagram). The shift marked a major change in the transition to EARLY MODERN ENGLISH, and is one reason the works of Geoffrey CHAUCER and his contemporaries sound so unlike present-day English. Chaucer's a in fame sounded much like the a in present-day father, his e in see like the a in same, the i in fine like the ee in fee, the o in so like the aw in saw, the o in to like the oe in toe, and the ou or ow in crowd like the u in crude. See E, LATIN, JESPERSEN, VOWEL SHIFT. Compare GRIMM'S LAW.
"GREAT VOWEL SHIFT" Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Ed. Tom McArthur. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

George Benard Shaw=Even this alphabet is reduced to absurdity by a foolish orthography based on the notion that the business of spelling is to represent the origin and history of a word instead of its sound and meaning. Shaw's rationale for the new script is utilitarian - adopting a new alphabet would save time and effort. "The waste of time in spelling imaginary sounds and their history (or etymology as it is called) is monstrous in English and French." p. 28 It typically takes over 500 letters to indicate less than 400 sounds, so a unigraphic system would save 20% off the top. Cut spelling, by removing superfluous words, achieves a similar savings. Later after documenting problems with pronunciation caused by the lack of unigraphic sound signs ["..we cannot note down the diphthongal pronunciation until we have a A HREF="shaw-pref- 2.html#36dips">separate single letter for every vowel"], Shaw reiterates, "My concern here, however, is not with pronunciation but with the saving of time wasted. "We try to extend our alphabet by writing two letters instead of one; but we make a mess of this device. "With reckless inconsistency we write sweat and sweet, and then write whet and wheat, just the contrary." According to Shaw, "Our present spelling is incapable of indicating the sounds of our words and does not pretend to; but the new spelling would prescribe an official pronunciation." Shaw believes that English has 42 distinctive sounds (18 vowels, 24 consonants) and calls for a new alphabet with one letter for each sound. Shaw thinks that most of the work has been completed, "What remains to be done is to make the stroke and hooks and curves and circles look nice." p. 43 The new alphabet must be so different that no one could possibly mistake the new [42 character] alphabet for the old. Shaw also believed in simplifying both the English language and its writing system. "... 'broken English,' which is a sort of home made pidgin, is quite sufficient for intelligible speech. Instead of laughing at them and mimicking them derisively we should learn from them." He was a supporter of BASIC English "a thought out pidgin, ...[that] gets rid of much of our grammatical superfluities."
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/vangogh/555/Spell/shaw-pref.html

Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September 1709 [O.S. 7 September] – 13 December 1784) was an English author. Beginning as a Grub Street journalist, he made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and political conservative, and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". [1] He is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.[2] Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and attended Pembroke College, Oxford for a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher he moved to London, where he began to write essays for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755; it had a far-reaching impact on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship".[3] The Dictionary brought Johnson popularity and success; until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary, 150 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary.[4] His later works included essays, an influential annotated edition of William Shakespeare's plays, and the widely read novel Rasselas. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; Johnson described their travels in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, a collection of biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets. Johnson had a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tics were confusing to some on their first encounter with him. Boswell's Life, along with other biographies, documented Johnson's behaviour and mannerisms in such detail that they have informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS),[5] a condition unknown in the 18th century. After a series of illnesses he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In the years following his death, Johnson began to be recognised as having had a lasting effect on literary criticism, and even as the only great critic of English literature.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson Noah Webster=1758–1843, American lexicographer. His American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) in two volumes was the first dictionary to give comprehensive coverage of American usage and his name survives in the many dictionaries produced by the American publishing house Merriam-Webster.
"Webster, Noah2 " The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary. Tony Deverson. Oxford University Press 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

Great Bible=→ noun the edition of the English Bible which Thomas Cromwell ordered to be set up in every parish church. It was the work of Miles Coverdale, and was first issued in 1539.
"Great Bible noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

Book of common prayer=the official service book of the Church of England. It was compiled through the efforts of Thomas Cranmer (1489– 1556) and others as a simplified and condensed English version of the Latin service books used by the medieval Church and was first issued in 1549. After the book had been in turn revised and suppressed under different monarchs, a version came out in 1662, which remained almost unchanged until the 20th century. Measures of 1965 and 1974 authorised the use also of alternative services and in 1980 the Alternative Service Book presented these alternative services (in modern English) in a canonical form.
"Book of Common Prayer" The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd edition. Ed. Bruce Moore. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

English Renaissance=13. Enlightenment (1660–1843): language and literature If the Bannatyne and Maitland anthologies, which had self‐ consciously compiled a ‘treasure house’ of Middle Scots literature, reminded Scots of their distinctive literary heritage before the Union of the Crowns, so the parliamentary Union of 1707 was anticipated by George Watson's Choice Collection. While the continued existence of writing in Latin, Gaelic, Scots, and English was confirmed in this anthology, the increasing dominance of English was the major, defensive motivation for publication (see printing and publishing). It follows from this that the phrase ‘Vernacular revival’, as applied to the early 18th‐century movement initiated by Allan Ramsay (1684–1758), consolidated by Robert Fergusson (1750–74), and immortalized by Robert Burns (1759–96) is, strictly speaking, a misnomer. What Ramsay initiated was a return to the polymathic breadth threatened by the weakening of the Scots line within the admixture. That his first printed poem, ‘To the Memory of Archibald Pitcairne M.D.’, is an undisguised statement of Scottish nationalist sentiment, written in English about a Latin poet, encapsulates the situation neatly. Neither Ramsay nor Fergusson negated the value of English and Latin in order to advance Scots and Scottishness. Instead they united decorous and political approaches to language while bridging the gap between courtly and popular traditions, which had been allowed to grow. This allowed the continuation of the strong Scottish line in European pastoral and Georgic literature within a modally and linguistically broadened context. Barbour, Dunbar, and Lindsay would surely have applauded both the English of Fergusson's ‘Damon to his Friends’ and its Scottish parodic counterpart ‘On Seeing a Butterfly in the Street’. Drummond and (particularly) Ayton would have welcomed Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd as a continuation in justifiably heavier Scots, for new persuasive purposes, within a new political climate.
Anna Ritchie, Michael Lynch, Roger A. Mason, Alexander Broadie, R. D. S. Jack, Theo van Heijnsbergen, Duncan Macmillan, Jamie Reid Baxter, David Allan, Ian Campbell, John Burnett, †A. C. Cheyne, Cairns Craig, Richard Finlay, Elaine Thomson "culture" The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. Michael Lynch. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

Royal Shakespeare Company= ( abbrev.: RSC )a British professional theatre company founded in 1961. It is based at Stratford- upon-Avon and at the Barbican Centre in London.
"Royal Shakespeare Company" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

Cambridge University=dates back to 1209 , when, after a serious clash with the townspeople, some of the clerks at Oxford migrated to Cambridge. The first college, on a very modest scale, was Peterhouse, established in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham , bishop of Ely. Although it modelled itself mainly on the Oxford pattern, with the teachers forming the studium generale or corporation, Cambridge did not escape ecclesiastical control from Ely until the 15th cent. Royal patronage led to expansion: Henry VI founded King's College in 1441 and Henry VIII established Trinity College in 1546 . After the Reformation, the poor students largely disappeared, to be replaced by the sons of aristocratic and wealthy families. Many of the leading figures of the Renaissance of learning were associated with Cambridge, including Erasmus, long resident at Queen's College, Ascham , and Fisher . An Elizabethan statute of 1570 had the effect of making the wealthy constituent colleges more independent of the university. As puritanism flourished in East Anglia, and many of the students were local, Cambridge supported the parliamentary cause in the Civil War, while Oxford was the headquarters of the royalists: these political sympathies died hard and in the 18th cent. Whiggish Cambridge gave a much more enthusiastic welcome to the Hanoverians than did Oxford. Academically, Cambridge was characterized by the growth of science, or natural philosophy as it was called, with Newton at Trinity its best- known exponent. By the middle of the 19th cent. reform was long overdue. Cambridge supported the notion of a royal commission which investigated the two universities from 1850 . Two Acts, in 1856 and 1877 , did much to break the oligarchical nature of the government of the university. In 1871 Anglican religious exclusiveness was ended. Cambridge's scientific reputation was further enhanced with the opening of the Cavendish Laboratory in 1873 , which became famous for its work in experimental physics. Two women's colleges were established at this time, Girton in 1869 , Newnham in 1871 . The majority of the heads of colleges are called master. For the first six centuries of its existence, Cambridge, like Oxford, was a seminary, and until 1871 fellows were required to be celibates in holy orders. There are now over 30 colleges. The older foundations date from the Middle Ages, like Corpus Christi College ( 1352 ), Pembroke ( 1357 ), and Trinity Hall ( 1390 ). Several are Tudor, such as Christ's ( 1505 ), Trinity, and Emmanuel ( 1584 ). Downing was founded in 1800 after a protracted and troublesome legal action over the original bequest by Sir George Downing in 1717 . Selwyn and St Edmunds came in the late 19th cent. ( 1882 , 1896 ). During the 1960s, no fewer than six new colleges came into existence, Churchill ( 1960 ), Darwin ( 1964 ), Lucy Cavendish ( 1965 ), Clare Hall ( 1966 ), Fitzwilliam ( 1966 ), and Wolfson ( 1969 ). Robinson College opened in 1977 .
Peter Gordon "Cambridge University" The Oxford Companion to British History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford University Press, 1997. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

Warwickshire=a county of central England; county town, Warwick.
"Warwickshire" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

Gielgud, Sir (Arthur ) JOHN/'gi:lgd/=(1904–2000), English actor and director. A notable Shakespearean actor, particularly remembered for his interpretation of the role of Hamlet, he also appeared in contemporary plays and films and won an Oscar for his role as a butler in Arthur (1980).
"Gielgud, Sir (Arthur) John" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

John Barton=(b. 1928), British director, whose career has been almost entirely with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Joining Peter Hall at Stratford in 1960 , he contributed much to philosophy and style in the early years, particularly in the realms of verse-speaking, vocal training, and directorial interpretation. Chiefly interested in making Shakespeare understandable for contemporary audiences, Barton has never been a purist: he adapted the English histories into a seven- part cycle called The Wars of the Roses, directed by Hall in 1963 – 4 , slashing large sections of text of the Henry VI plays and adding some 1,000 lines of pseudo-Elizabethan verse to fill the gaps. He also wrote a successful platform piece for RSC actors, The Hollow Crown ( 1961 ). His own directing has been consistently intelligent and accessible. Troilus and Cressida ( 1968 ) made the Trojan War into an erotic experience; Twelfth Night ( 1969 ) stressed melancholy and fear; Richard II ( 1973 ) underlined the doubled identity of Richard and Bolingbroke by placing two huge escalators on stage and alternating the actors Richard Pasco and Ian Richardson in the roles. Barton was the only member of the original team still closely associated with the RSC at the end of the century, 40 years after its founding. A great teacher, his TV series Playing Shakespeare (published as a book in 1984 ) summarized his approach and had a large influence on a new generation of actors.
Dennis Kennedy "Barton, John" The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells. Oxford University Press, 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009
Sir Thomas More=(1478–1535), English scholar and statesman, Lord Chancellor 1529–32; canonized as St Thomas More. His Utopia (1516), describing an ideal city state, established him as a leading humanist of the Renaissance. He was imprisoned in 1534 after opposing Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn, and beheaded for opposing the Act of Supremacy. Feast day, 22 June.

"More, Sir Thomas1 " The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009

Queen Victoria(1819–1901), queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1877–1901). Victoria would have agreed that her life fell into three parts—before Albert, with Albert, after Albert. The death in childbirth in November 1817 of Princess Charlotte, only daughter and heir to the prince regent, prompted a famous ‘rush to the altar’. The duke of Cambridge married in May 1818. His elder brothers, the dukes of Clarence and Kent, were married in a joint ceremony a month later. Clarence's two daughters died as infants, leaving the probable succession to the duke of Kent's daughter the Princess Victoria, born 18 May 1819, christened Alexandrina, and known at first as ‘Drina’. Eight months later her father was dead, taken off by pneumonia in winter at Sidmouth, leaving her to be brought up in a household almost totally female and totally German. Her mother, Princess Victoria of Leiningen, was of the house of Saxe‐Coburg: recently arrived in England, she found the language difficult. The other person in constant attendance was Fräulein Lehzen, brought over as governess and companion from Hanover when the princess was 6 months old. They lived at Kensington palace, Victoria sleeping in her mother's room until she came to the throne. The centre of the princess's life was her 132 dolls, given imposing names and elaborate costumes. Victoria grew up intelligent and self‐possessed. Her upbringing, though sheltered, endowed her with an artlessness and directness—a lack of introspection—which is rare, and never left her. Inevitably the duchess of Kent was on bad terms with George IV and even worse with his successor William IV, to whose demise she looked forward with ill‐ concealed relish. A clash over precedence meant that the duchess and the young princess boycotted William's coronation in 1831, the princess writing that not even her dolls could console her. ‘I longed sadly for some gaiety’, she wrote to her uncle Leopold at 16, ‘but we have been for the last three months immured within our old palace.’ As news of the gravity of King William's illness emerged in 1837 she wrote to Leopold: ‘I look forward to the event which it seems is likely to occur soon with calm and quietness: I am not alarmed at it.’ At her first council, Charles Greville wrote that ‘she appeared to be awed, but not daunted’. Victoria's education for life started with her first prime minister Melbourne, whom she liked from their first audience, and who stood for father‐figure and first love. His kind and pleasant manner, mellow and relaxed, eased her into her new duties: after five days she wrote to Leopold, ‘I do regular, hard, but to me delightful work.’ Greville wrote, not unkindly, in 1839 when the queen's affection for Melbourne had dragged her into the Bedchamber crisis, ‘Melbourne is everything to her … her feelings are sexual, though she does not know it.’ She told Melbourne that she might not marry at all: ‘I don't know about that,’ replied Melbourne, sensibly. In October 1839 Leopold played his trump card, sending Victoria's cousin Albert over from Saxe‐Coburg on approval. In the event, one look was enough. ‘It was with some emotion that I beheld Albert,’ she wrote, ‘who is beautiful … so excessively handsome.’ Two days later, even disconcerting the urbane Melbourne, she declared that no time should be lost, and the following day she sent for Albert to propose marriage. The second phase of her life had begun. Victoria took to matrimony con brio. ‘We did not sleep much,’ she confided to her journal after the wedding night. Then, to her dismay, within six weeks there were signs of pregnancy. Victoria was quite unsentimental about babies—‘nasty objects’—but after the birth of the princess royal in November 1840, eight more arrived in rapid succession. Her life became a strange juxtaposition of public and private. April 1841 found her with Princess Victoria 6 months old and war with China: ‘Albert is so much amused at my having got the Island of Hong Kong, and we think Victoria ought to be called Princess of Hong Kong in addition to Princess Royal.’ Albert's influence grew with the years, particularly after the success of the Great Exhibition in 1851, and in 1857 Victoria gave him the unprecedented title of prince consort. But pressure of work and his own sense of duty took its toll. In December 1861, he caught typhoid and died at the age of 42. Victoria faced a widowhood of 40 years. To some, even in her own day, her grief seemed excessive. There was a touch of morbidness and some gestures were repeated when the estimable John Brown, her Scottish manservant, died in 1883. For several years, her disappearance from public life was total. But slowly the family took over as it grew inexorably—such ‘swarms of children’, wrote Victoria without enthusiasm. Life became a welter of match‐ making,weddings, christenings, teething, mumps, visits, and birthdays (remembered or missed)—and, the penalty of advancing years, of deaths. Disraeli, once detested for his unkindness to Sir Robert Peel, long a dear friend, died in 1881, ‘the Queen bowed down with this misfortune’. In 1892 a terrible shock when ‘Eddy’, the prince of Wales's eldest son, succumbed to pneumonia at Sandringham. And gradually the courts and thrones of Europe filled up with Victoria's relatives and descendants. The tiny lady in the wheelchair was ‘the matriarch of Europe’. Her political influence as queen has been much debated and analysed, but the more extravagant claims should not be entertained. The two politicians she most distrusted were Palmerston (‘Pilgerstein’) and Gladstone (‘half‐crazy’), but this did not stop the former being prime minister for nearly ten years and dying in office at the age of 81, nor the latter being prime minister on four occasions. Her importance lies in her role, with Albert, in restoring the dignity and reputation of the monarchy. Victoria's standing rose with the years, and she enjoyed memorable triumphs at her Golden and Diamond Jubilees in 1887 and 1897. Much of it, of course, was illusion. The queen mother and empress was a tiny, fat old lady, painfully short‐sighted, gobbling her food and eating too much. But nobody took liberties. The ribald jokes about John Brown had bounced off her. Though the queen herself did not fit the stereotype of ‘Victorian England’ (she never quite got over the dislike she had taken to bishops as a toddler), the phrase took hold so firmly that one wonders how other countries manage without the adjective. She remained to the end a mass of contradictions—self‐centred yet considerate and dutiful; homely yet grand; excitable and passionate but with shrewd judgement. She died at Osborne on 23 January 1901 and was buried alongside Albert in the mausoleum at Frogmore.

"Victoria" A Dictionary of British History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford University Press, 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009

Joseph Addison(1672–1719) English essayist, poet, and politician. Addison's poetic celebration of Marlborough's victory at the Battle of Blenheim, The Campaign (1704), led to a government appointment. He is remembered as a brilliant essayist and his stylish articles were a major reason for the success of the newly established Tatler and Spectator periodicals. He was secretary of state (1717–18) and an MP (1708–19).

"Addison, Joseph" World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009

Act of Union(in British history) either of the parliamentary acts by which the countries of the United Kingdom were brought together as a political whole. By the first Act of Union (1707) Scotland was joined with England to form Great Britain, with Scotland losing its Parliament (the crowns of the two countries had been united in 1603). The second Act of Union, in 1801, established the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and abolished the free Protestant Parliament of Ireland. Wales had been incorporated with England, and given parliamentary representation, in 1536.

"Union, Act of" The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary. Tony Deverson. Oxford University Press 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009

Elizabeth I (1533–1603) Queen of England (1558–1603), daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. During the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I, her half-brother and half-sister, she avoided political disputes. Once crowned, she reestablished Protestantism. The Elizabethan Settlement saw the Church of England adopt the 39 Articles (1571). Various plots to murder Elizabeth and place the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne resulted in Mary's imprisonment and execution (1587), and increasing discrimation against Catholics. Elizabeth adhered to a small group of advisers, such as Lord Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham. For most of her reign, England was at peace, and commerce and industry prospered. The expansion of the navy saw the development of the first British Empire. The hostility of Spain resulted in war and the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588). Despite pressure to marry, Elizabeth remained single. Her favourites included Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who later attempted to overthrow her. Elizabeth was the last of the Tudors, and she was succeeded by James I, a Stuart.

"Elizabeth I" World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009

James I(1566–1625) King of England (1603–25) and, as James VI, king of Scotland (1567–1625). Son of Mary, Queen of Scots, he acceded to the Scottish throne as an infant on his mother's abdication. In 1589, he married Anne of Denmark. He inherited the English throne on the death (1603) of Elizabeth I, and thereafter confined his attention to England. James supported the Anglican Church, thus antagonizing the Puritans, and sponsored the publication (1611) of the Authorized, or King James, Version of the Bible. The Gunpowder Plot (1605) was foiled and James suppressed the Catholics. In 1607, the first English colony in America (Jamestown) was founded. James's insistence on the divine right of kings brought conflict with Parliament. In 1611 he dissolved Parliament, and (excluding the 1614 Addled Parliament) ruled without one until 1621. The death (1612) of Robert Cecil saw James increasingly dependent on corrupt favourites such as Robert Carr and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. He was succeeded by his son, Charles I. See also Jacobean

"James I" World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009

Henry VIII (1491–1547), son of Henry VII, reigned 1509–47. Henry had six wives (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Katherine Parr); he executed two and divorced two. His first divorce, from Catherine of Aragon, was opposed by the Pope, leading to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church.

"Henry1 " The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009

Daniel Defoe( 1660 – 1731 ), born in London, the son of James Foe , a butcher. He changed his name to Defoe from c. 1695 . He attended Morton's academy for Dissenters at Newington Green with a view to the ministry, but by the time he married Mary Tuffley in 1683/4 he was established as a hosiery merchant in Cornhill, having travelled to Europe. He took part in Monmouth's rebellion, and in 1688 joined the advancing forces of William III . His first important signed work was An Essay upon Projects ( 1697 ), followed by The True‐Born Englishman ( 1701 ), an immensely popular satirical poem attacking the prejudice against a king of foreign birth and his Dutch friends. In 1702 appeared The Shortest Way with Dissenters, a notorious pamphlet in which Defoe, himself a Dissenter, ironically demanded the total and savage suppression of dissent; for this he was fined, imprisoned ( May–Nov. 1703 ), and pilloried. While in prison he wrote his mock‐Pindaric ode Hymn to the Pillory. Harley employed him as a secret agent; between 1703 and 1714 Defoe travelled around the country for Harley and Godolphin, gathering information and testing the political climate. Defoe wrote many pamphlets for Harley, and in 1704 began the Review , and in 1706 True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs Veal, probably by Defoe , a vivid report of a current ghost story. Certain anti‐ Jacobite pamphlets in 1712 – 13 led to his prosecution by the Whigs and to a brief imprisonment. He now started a new trade journal, Mercator, in place of the Review. Defoe produced some 250 books, pamphlets, and journals, but the works for which he is best known belong to his later years. Robinson Crusoe appeared in 1719 , the Farther Adventures following a few months later. The next five years saw the appearance of his most important works of fiction: Adventures of Captain Singleton ( 1720 ); Moll Flanders , A Journal of the Plague Year , and Colonel Jack in 1722 ; Roxana , the Memoirs of a Cavalier (now considered to be certainly by Defoe), and his tracts on Jack Sheppard in 1724 . The Memoirs of Captain George Carleton ( 1728 ) were probably largely by his hand. His Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain, a guide‐ book in 3 vols ( 1724 – 6 ), is a vivid first‐hand account of the state of the country. Defoe's influence on the evolution of the English novel was enormous, and many regard him as the first true novelist. He was a master of plain prose and powerful narrative, with a journalist's curiosity and love of realistic detail; his peculiar gifts made him one of the greatest reporters of his time, as well as a great imaginative writer who in Robinson Crusoe created one of the most familiar and resonant myths of modern literature.

" Defoe, Daniel " The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. Margaret Drabble and Jenny Stringer. Oxford university Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009

loyalist-noun
a person who remains loyal to the established ruler or government, especially in the face of a revolt.
• ( Loyalist ) a supporter of union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. •
( Loyalist ) a colonist of the American revolutionary period who ...
(From The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

Elocution
The study and practice of oral delivery, including control of breath, VOICE , PRONUNCIATION , stance, and gesture; the way in which someone speaks or reads aloud, especially in public.
(From Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language in English Language Reference)

Shibboleth

(a) M17 A word used as a test for detecting people from another district or country by their pronunciation; a word or sound very difficult for foreigners to pronounce correctly. (b) M17 A peculiarity of pronunciation or accent indicative of a person's origin; the distinctive mode of speech of a profession, class, etc. (c) E19 A custom, habit, style of dressing, etc., distinguishing a particular class or group of people.
"shibboleth noun" The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English. Ed. Jennifer Speake. Berkley Books, 1999. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 27 March 2009

To talk shop

Disscuss matters concerning one's work, especially at a social occasion when this is inappropriate.
"shop noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 27 March 2009

Whig noun
a member of the British reforming and constitutional party that sought the supremacy of Parliament and was eventually succeeded in the 19th century by the Liberal Party.
(From The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

Tory noun
(in the UK) a member or supporter of the Conservative Party.
• a member of the English political party opposing the exclusion of James II from the succession. It remained the name for members of the English, later British, parliamentary party ...
(From The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

Tory Party
British political party traditionally opposed to the Whigs . In 1670 , the supporters of the Stuart monarchy were called Tories (Irish bandits) by their opponents. Under James II , the Tories represented the interests of landowners.
(From World Encyclopedia in Encyclopedia)