Tag Archives: english literature

Words and Reason: Hear Ye, Hear Ye

by Cynthia Clampitt

Cynthia Clampitt
Cynthia Clampitt

It is unlikely that any of you have ever heard Old English (and, to be honest, it’s not highly likely that loads of you have even heard Middle English, unless you studied Chaucer in school). Most people are surprised to learn that Shakespeare was writing in Modern English, but that’s what it was. However, as you’re probably aware, a few things have changed since the bard’s day.

One thing that makes a big difference is the change in the size of the working vocabulary of the general population. Shakespeare’s vocabulary ran around 25,000 words (though I’ve seen higher estimates), while the average vocabulary of English speakers today ranges between 3,000 and 5,000 words. Granted, there are some of us who collect words as if they were gold, but that is becoming less common.

Pity that working vocabularies are so low today, as English is a wildly rich language. Because it in essence merged two languages (Anglo-Saxon and French, after the Norman Conquest in 1066), and has since that time adopted words freely from languages around the world, it has vastly more words than any other language—something like three times as many words as our nearest competitor, German.

English is an amazing language, evolving and absorbing words: kangaroo, pecan, rodeo, pajama, shampoo, kimono, chipmunk, safari, barbecue, and thousands more. However, some of the evolution in modern English makes it harder to understand what one is reading, even when reading things written as recently as the first half of the 20th century.

Today, I thought I’d share a couple of things that could help you if you’re visiting England or if you’re reading anything written a while back (in some cases, that includes anything before about 1970). Continue reading Words and Reason: Hear Ye, Hear Ye

Words And Reason: Biblical Allusions

by Cynthia Clampitt

Cynthia Clampitt
Cynthia Clampitt

Northrop Frye, professor and author of literary theory and criticism wrote: “the student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a good deal of what is going on in what he reads. The Bible is clearly a major element in our own imaginative tradition, whatever we may think or believe about it.” E. D. Hirsch, author of the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, is even more emphatic: “No one in the English-speaking world can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible.” Only reading the Bible will really give you all possible allusions, but I hope to share at least a few of them with you, as well as some common phrases and ideas that are part of our language.

Beelzebub In the Old Testament, Beelzebub is a prince of the devils. His name translated is “Lord of the Flies,” which was used as the title of a novel by William Golding. (The name also appears in shortened form in the classic John Collier short story, “Thus I Refute Beelzy.”)

A house divided against itself cannot stand When Abraham Lincoln spoke these words during the American Civil War, he was quoting a verse in the Gospel of Matthew.

Doubting Thomas Of the 12 Apostles (or, to be perfectly correct, 11 remaining apostles, as Judas was gone by this point), Thomas was the one who did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. When Jesus later appears to Thomas, Thomas immediately declares that he now believes, but Jesus said there is greater blessing for those who believe without seeing. The expression “doubting Thomas” is still used to describe people who refuse to believe anything, even from extremely reliable witnesses, unless they see it for themselves.

Going the second mile Continue reading Words And Reason: Biblical Allusions