Think On My Words: Exploring Shakespeare's Language

by David Crystal

• ISBN13: 9780521700351
• ISBN10: 0521700353
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-03
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

You speak a language that I understand not. Hermiones words to Leontes in The Winters Tale are likely to ring true with many people reading or watching Shakespeares plays today. For decades, people have been studying Shakespeares life and times, and in recent years there has been a renewed surge of interest into aspects of his language. So how can we better understand Shakespeare? How did he manipulate language to produce such an unrivalled body of work, which has enthralled generations both as theatre and as literature? David Crystal addresses these and many other questions in this lively and original introduction to Shakespeares language. Covering in turn the five main dimensions of language structure - writing system, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and conversational style - the book shows how examining these linguistic nuts and bolts can help us achieve a greater appreciation of Shakespeares linguistic creativity.

Author Biography

David Crystal is one of the world's foremost authorities on language

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. xi
'You speak a language that I understand not': myths and realities	p. 1
The quantity myth	p. 2
The invention myth	p. 8
The translation myth	p. 10
The style myth	p. 15
'Now, sir, what is your text?' Knowing the sources	p. 22
Texts	p. 22
Printing	p. 27
Manuscripts?	p. 31
Shakespeare's language?	p. 40
'In print I found it': Shakespearean graphology	p. 42
The alphabet	p. 43
Capitalization	p. 48
Space-savers	p. 53
Spelling	p. 58
'Know my stops': Shakespearean punctuation	p. 64
Exclamation marks	p. 72
Parentheses	p. 78
Apostrophes	p. 83
Italics	p. 88
Inverted commas	p. 94
Hyphens	p. 96
'Speak the speech': Shakespearean phonology	p. 100
The way they said it	p. 101
Prosody	p. 105
Why pentameters?	p. 112
'Trippingly upon the tongue': Shakespearean pronunciation	p. 125
The evidence	p. 130
Insights	p. 143
'Think on my words': Shakespearean vocabulary	p. 146
Easy words	p. 147
Metrical constraints	p. 150
Difficult words	p. 152
False friends	p. 156
Old and new words	p. 159
Coinages	p. 161
Clusters	p. 165
Repetitions	p. 168
Signposts	p. 171
Collocations	p. 173
Perspective	p. 175
'Talk of a noun and a verb': Shakespearean grammar	p. 178
Similarities and differences	p. 181
Nouns	p. 184
Adjectives	p. 186
Verbs	p. 188
Pronouns	p. 193
Word order	p. 199
'Hear sweet discourse': Shakespearean conversation	p. 207
Verse and prose	p. 208
Metre in discourse	p. 219
Varieties of language	p. 221
A legal example	p. 224
Epilogue - 'Your daring tongue': Shakespearean creativity	p. 230
An A-to-Z of Shakespeare's false friends	p. 234
Notes	p. 245
References and further reading	p. 247
Index	p. 249
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