WARS OF WORDS: THE ROLES OF LANGUAGE IN 18TH
CEBTURY
1. What does
"elocution" mean? What are elocution lessons? Do they exist in
Spanish?
(page 54)
1. The
art of public speaking in which gesture, vocal production, and delivery are
emphasized.
2. A
style or manner of speaking, especially in public.
http://www.answers.com/topic/elocution
Elocution
emerged as a formal discipline during the eighteenth century. One of its
important figures was Thomas Sheridan, actor and father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Thomas
Sheridan's lectures on elocution, collected in Lectures on Elocution
(1762) and his Lectures on Reading (1775), provided directions for
marking and reading aloud passages from literature. Another actor, John Walker,
published his two-volume Elements of Elocution in 1781, which provided
detailed instruction on voice control, gestures, pronunciation, and emphasis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elocution
We can find elocution not only in Spanish but in every language over the
world.
2. What do
"polyglossia" and "monoglossia" mean? (page 55)
ü
Polyglossia—The coexistence of multiple languages en the same area or
speech community. For instance of English
and French in medieval England
ü
Monoglossia--Absolute dominance of one language
among one territory, typical of such an ancient city as Athens.
3. What kind of English does Puttenham recommend? (page 55)
According to Puttenham´s Arte of English Poesie (1589); he says, ´the poet shall therefore take that usual speech of the court, and that of London and the shires lying about london, within lx miles, and not such above. (Puttenham 1936: 144-5).
4. What does "copious" mean? Look up pronunciation. (page 56, paragraph 2)
Spelled
pronunciation: 
1. large in quantity or number; abundant;
plentiful: copious amounts of food.
2. having or yielding an abundant supply: a
copious harvest.
3. exhibiting
abundance or fullness, as thoughts or words.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?dict=CALD&key=17049&ph=on
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copious
5. What does
"trope" mean? (page 57, para. 2)
1. A figure of speech using words in nonliteral ways,
such as a metaphor.
2. A word or phrase interpolated as an embellishment in
the sung parts of certain medieval liturgies.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trope
6. Why does Crowley call
the standardization process a war? (page 57)
It was because of two reasons: firstly because that
linkage between war and literature was a trope very used. And secondly, because
in some contexts, texts are no fully understood.
7. Wat does
"encomium" mean (page 58, para. 2)
Encomium
is a Latin word deriving from the Classical
Greek ἐγκώμιον (encomion)
meaning the praise of a person or thing. Related to this general meaning,
"encomium" also identifies several distinct aspects of rhetoric:
·
A general category of oratory
·
A method within rhetorical pedagogy
·
A figure of speech. As a
figure, encomium means praising a person or thing, but occurring on a smaller
scale than an entire speech.
·
The eighth exercise in the progymnasmata
series
· A genre of literature that included five elements: prologue, birth and
upbringing, acts of the person's life, comparisons used to praise the subject,
and an epilogue.
A formal or high-flown expression
of praise; a eulogy, panegyric.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encomium
8. Who wrote the
"Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English
Tongue" (1712)? (page 59)
Jonathan
Swift wrote that Proposal. He was an Anglo-Irish
satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer
(first for Whigs then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean
of St. Patrick's, Dublin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift
9. Do Johnson and Swift agree
that the English language has degenerated? (page 60)
Absolutely
yes. Also in Johnson´s plea in the Preface to the Dictionary:´tongues, like
governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration [...]´
10. Swift proposed an
academy. Who else? (page 61)
The idea of an academy was not an unusual one in the eighteenth century: it was proposed also by John Dryden, Daniel Defoe, Addison and Wilson (anonymously in 1724)
11. Why were the Whigs
(See Whigs and Tories in Wikipaedia) against an academy? (page 61, bottom of
page)
The Whigs were alienated by Swift´s essay for two reasons. First, the academy was identified, to Whig eyes at least, with France, and thus with the stuart claimants to the monarchy; and, second, it had been instituted by Cardinal Richelieu (who signed its statutes and rules), an aristocratic Catholic.
12. What does Sheridan
mean by "the genius of our people"? (page 62, para. 4)
He referrs to the metaphysical constitution and
spirit of the British people.
13. What reason does
Swift give for the "decay of Latin" (page 63, bottom)
He
thinks that the decay of Latin happen due to the totalitarian power; there was
a change into a Tyranny, they have lots of possessions which were far from Rome
and of course because of the Invasions of the Goths and Vandals.
14. What does
"suffer" in line 2 of page 66 mean?
Writers
were worried that if they wrote in English, in the future, people would not be
able to understand their texts because the language was constantly changing.
15. Who was the first
person, involved in German cultural nationalism, to make the link between
language and nation? (page 67 para. 2)
Herder (Johann Gottfried von Herder) was the first to establish the link between language and nation at a theoetical level into german Romanticism.
16. What was Sheridan's
solution to the problem of divergence in pronunciation? (page 69, bottom)
Sheridan proposed that clergy should be taught pronunciation in order
taht they could act as the medium by which it could be propagated. It is
part of duty of every person in the nation to attend divine service at least one day in the week”
Church, state & the principles of evolution are yoked together in an
attempt by centripetalising forces to bring about a new linguistic and
historical order.
17. How did several
authors describe other European languages? Do you agree with this kind of
classification? (page 71)
Peyton said that English took the“good properties”
from other languages, and therefore was superior to them. Lemon talked about
French being “flimsy”; Italian being merely “neat”; Spanish “grave”; Saxon,
High Dutch `Belgic´ and the Teutonic tongues being natively “hoarse” &
“rough”
Certainly I do not agree with this affirmation. To classify a language for how it sounds or the etymological origin of its lexicon is a banal activity and out of place in the world of the linguistics.
18. In which novel did
Daniel Defoe capture the "colonial fantasy"? (page 72, top)
In Daniel Defoe´s Robinson Crusoe (1719)
19. Locke thought that
learning Latin was not necessary for which group of people? (page 77 -also 75)
Tradesmen; “the tradesmen are ‘wasting their children's
time to no manner of purpose.'[...]'they ought to learn to write their own
language correctly'.”
20. How
did learning to speak English using standard English empower people? (page 78)
Because
if they know how to speak properly they will obtain respect from the other
people and if they have this respect they will be able to live better or earn
more money.
Language
was used such a vehicle of economic, social & political life.
21. What kind of English
is deemed to be "proper" English? (page 80, bottom-page 81, top)
That
variety of English found in the upper & middle classes; the rest were
ridiculed.
22. How was the
inculcation of linguistic patterns carried out with middle-class children (page
84, bottom, page 85, top)
Rewards & punishments went hand in hand in the hole process of giving children the ortographic and semantic skills required for their social position.
The children were asked to spell words, if they were
right they join the right group, if not they join the left group. They were
divided in two groups depending on how quickly they learn.
23. What was the purpose
of training women linguistically in the 18th century according to Crowley?
(page 90, middle)
Women were to be linguistically educated then for 2 purposes:
1.
to fulfil the role of the
mother, passing on pure language to the child.
2.
to act as companion to the male in the public sphere.
24. Why did Locke warn
against children talking to servants? (page 93, top)
Because children have to be kept from the contagion of ill precedents, both in civility and virtue, horribly affects children. They frequently learn, for such unbred or debauched servants, such a language, untowardly tricks and vices, as otherwise they possibly would be ignorant.
Children would
pick up bad speaking habits from them.
25. What was the
difference between the mistakes made by the working classes and those made by
the gentry according to Sheridan? (page 96, bottom)
Sheridan argued that, unlike working-classes
speech, the gentry´s mistakes were not structural. Amongst the gentry he
writes, ´there does not seem to be any general error of this sort; their
deviations being for the most part, only in certain words´.