Shakespeare's Impact on Language - Then & Now

When Shakespeare’s impact on Language began between two major linguistic stages in the history of English - Middle English, the language written and spoken during the Middle Ages (most famously by Chaucer) and Modern English, the language in which we write and speak today. Prior to and during Shakespeare’s time, the rules of English including grammar were not standardised. At the time, Modern English was becoming flexible and this was because of the Renaissance. During this time, Language was constantly being invented which is evident in Literature at the time and Shakespeare was leading figure. At the time there was a huge inflow of other European vocabulary into the English Language as a result of Renaissance “cross-pollination” and borrowing.

Once Shakespeare’s plays became popular in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, they helped contribute to the standardization of the English language to make it what it is today. Many Shakespearean words and phrases have become embedded in the English language, particularly through projects such as Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language which quoted Shakespeare more than any other writer. Shakespeare expanded the scope of English literature by introducing new words and phrases, experimenting with blank verse, and also introducing new poetic and grammatical structures. One of the ways in which grammar was changing at the time was through inflectional endings (suffixes that indicated the word’s grammatical functions in the way that many modern languages still have), they were beginning to disappear which is evident today as Modern English isn't a highly inflected language as it once was. Shakespeare helped to further develop style and structure to an otherwise loose, spontaneous language. Written Elizabethan English stylistically closely followed the spoken language. The naturalness gave force and freedom since there was no formalized prescriptive grammar binding the expression. While a lack of prescribed grammatical rules at the time introduced vagueness in literature, it also expressed feelings with profound vividness and emotion which created, "freedom of expression" and "vividness of presentment". It was a language which expressed feelings explicitly. Shakespeare's gift involved using the exuberance of the language and decasyllabic structure in prose and poetry of his plays to reach the masses and the result was "a constant two way exchange between learned and the popular, together producing the unique combination of racy tang and the majestic stateliness that informs the language of Shakespeare”. Another way in which Shakespeare affected language was through conversion for example he made fool, which was a noun, into a verb within his writing. Also, in Love’s Labour's Lost Shakespeare was able to exploit multiple meanings of one word to create a sentence such as “Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile”. In this sentence “light” has connotations of intellect, wisdom, daylight etc all connotations the word light has today. Among Shakespeare's greatest contributions to the English language, the most important must be the introduction of new vocabulary and phrases which have enriched the language making it more colourful and expressive. Warren King clarifies the number of words Shakespeare coined by saying that, "In all of his work – the plays, the sonnets and the narrative poems – Shakespeare uses 17,677 words: Of those, 1,700 were first used by Shakespeare.”

Shakespeare added a considerable amount of words to the English Language when compared to additions made at other times. He is also well known for borrowing words from classical literature and foreign languages. Some of the words Shakespeare coined which are still present in Modern English include: laughable, assassination, advertising and gossip. As well as coining new words, Shakespeare coined phrases some of which are still embedding in Modern English today. Phrases include: “it’s Greek to me”, “green eyed jealousy”, “laughed yourself into stitches” and “breaking the ice”.

One interesting word that Shakespeare coined was “swag” which is interesting because some people believe that “swag” is a relatively new addition to the dictionary and not one which people would believe to be that old or to have been used a long time ago. Shakespeare first used the term in Othello saying “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at, for thy beauty swags the heavens for I am not what I am”. By looking at the context which the term is being used it seems as though it has kept its denotation from many years and it doesn't seem as though it has undergone broadening in order for it to mean what it does today.