Contributions of Writers to English Language
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Many people have contributed to the evolution of the English language in ways that may or may not have been intended but that have had profound effects over time. During the period of Norman rule, there was a proliferation of English dialects that meant that by the fifteenth century people in one part of England could not understand people in another. William Caxton was the first person to print a book in English, and as more and more books increased the possibilities of education, they also helped create a common language rather than such a babble of tongues. Caxton also translated numerous foreign works and at the same time introduced many foreign words into the English language.William Shakespeare contributed to the language by perpetuating a large vocabulary--and many have cited the large vocabulary of the plays as evidence that the largely uneducated Shakespeare could not have written the works attributed to him--and also in the poetic nature of the dialogue he created. Many aphorisms and enriching, poetic descriptions and terms have been carried through from Shakespeare to common usage and to other literary works. The popularity of Shakespeare's works over many centuries has helped perpetuate the power of this language, and again and again other writers have turned to Shakespeare for inspiration and for some phrase that would then become popular even to many who did not know its origins. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in an English most people today can barely read at
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uld be either a man or a woman makes it seem that males are more important than females. Certain terms used in business also tend to emphasize men over women, and this is especially true of job classifications such as "chairman" or "foreman." The question is always raised as to how the use of language shapes the world in which we live, with some feeling that it does not and that instead we use language to communicate and are not otherwise affected by it. The words we select to use show how we think, though, and in turn the perpetuation of these ideas is accomplished through the use of the words. This is an unconscious process. As young people hear these words over and over again, they come to accept their unconscious message.
That message usually is such as to relegate women to specific jobs while allowing males to have a much wider field of opportunity. Men do not have to break into new job classifications, for nearly all job classifications are open to males, with many classifications having a title that already implies that a male will hold the position. We have words like "mailman," "fireman," "policeman," and so on. We also use certain words for females that seem to place them in a specific milieu, such as "housew
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3399
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)
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