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William Shakespeare Research Paper

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William Shakespeare’s Influence on Modern Day English
The English language has been evolving constantly throughout its history, but the most significant transformation in modern day English can be credited to William Shakespeare. The language in which Shakespeare wrote is referred to as Early Modern English or sometimes called, Elizabethan English. It falls between two of the biggest stages in the history of the English language: Middle English, which is the language that was written and spoken during the Middle Ages, and Modern English, which is what we speak and write today. By the end of the 16th century, the English language had changed a significant amount from Middle English, and is not far from what we speak today (Dobson Wells 121). …show more content…

In fact, the Oxford Dictionary attributes over 2000 words to William Shakespeare. Although, many people argue that Shakespeare did not come up with all of these words by himself and that he was just the first to record them. For example, in today’s world were not sure who coined the word “Selfie”, we just know of its first recorded use in Australia 14 years ago (pri.org). Shakespeare was able to create words in multiple ways, including changing nouns to verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and coming up with words that were completely original (pathguy.com). Shakespearian words include “assassination” and even “obscene” (McCrum, Cran, MacNeil 99), along with words such as “gloomy” and “gossip”, which are used by English speakers daily (pathguy.com). An example of a noun that Shakespeare turned into a verb would be “The wild disguise has almost anticked us all” (excerpt from Julius Caesar). Shakespeare took the noun “antick” which is a synonym for fool, and changed it to a verb. Along with the creation of words, Shakespeare also contributed to the standardization of grammar and spelling (Bryson 139). Although many writers have used the English language to their advantage, no other writer has been able to contribute as much to the language as Shakespeare was able to

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