By Jonathan Culpeper, Lancaster University And Matthew GillingsVienna University of Economics and Business.
Vienna: ShakespeareThe English language is widely considered to represent the pinnacle of English. But that position is underpinned by a number of myths – ideas about language that have been shied away from reality (or that which is even plausible).
Those myths send us down the rabbit hole and give us what’s really impressive about Shakespeare – what he did with his words.
The Encyclopedia of Shakespeare’s Language project at Lancaster University, the deployment of large-scale computer analysis, is changing what we know about Shakespeare’s language.
Here, covering some of its findings, we revisit five things you probably thought you knew about Shakespeare but were actually untrue.
1. Shakespeare created a large number of words
Well, they did, but not as many people think – even reputable sources believe more than 1,000.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust puts it at 1,700, but add note that this number is related to words that have an early appearance in Shakespeare’s works.
The word “hobnell” first appears in a text attributed to Shakespeare, but it is difficult to imagine that it originated from a creative poetic work.
More likely, it was in the spoken language of the time and Shakespeare’s use is the earliest recording of it.
The estimation of how many words Shakespeare allegedly coined does not usually distinguish between the words he coined creatively and the first recorded in a written document he wrote.
Even if you don’t make that distinction and include all the words that come first in a work attributed to Shakespeare, whether coined or recorded, the numbers add up a whole lot. .
Working with Literature and Linguistics Academics Jonathan Hope And Sam Hollands, we’re using computers to search millions of words in texts before Shakespeare.
By this method, we find that only about 500 words appear for the first time in Shakespeare.
Of course, 500 is still too big and most authors neither coin a new word nor make the first recording.
2. Shakespeare is the English language
The myth that Shakespeare coined a plethora of words has partly fueled the myth that Shakespeare’s language constitutes one-quarter, half, or even all of the words in today’s English language.
The number of different words in Shakespeare’s texts is about 21,000 words. Some of those words are repeated, thus we get a total of about a million words in the works attributed to Shakespeare. (For example, the previous sentence has 26 words in total, but “k”, “word” and “to” are repeated, so the number of distinct words is 22).
The Oxford English Dictionary contains about 600,000 different words, but many obscure technical terms. So, let’s round down to 500,000.
Even if every word within Shakespeare was coined by him (which it certainly isn’t, as noted above), that would still be only 4.2 percent of today’s English language.
Therefore, Shakespeare could only ever contribute a very small fraction, though possibly more than most writers.
3. Shakespeare Had a Huge Vocabulary
Ridiculously, popular claims about Shakespeare’s vast vocabulary seem to be motivated by the fact that his writings as a whole contain a large number of different words (about 21,0000, as noted above).
But the more you write, the more opportunities you get to use different words.
This means it is likely to come on top of any speculation about Shakespeare’s vocabulary size, as he has an extraordinarily large surviving body of work.
Some researchers have used other methods to make better guesses (they always guess, because you can’t count the words in someone’s mind).
For example, Hugh Craig, the Shakespeare scholar who pioneered the use of computers, looked at the average number of different words used in samples of writing of equal length.
He found that, relative to his contemporaries, the average frequency encountered with individual words in Shakespeare’s work is clearly … average.
4. Shakespeare’s Universal Meaning
Certainly, some subjects or aspects of the human condition are universal, but let us not be deluded and say that their language is universal.
The mantra of the historical linguist is that the whole language changes – and Shakespeare isThere is no discount.
Changes can be subtle and easily missed. Take the word “time” – surely a universal term denoting a universal concept? not good.
For each word in Shakespeare, we used a computer to identify the other words to which they are associated, and those associations reveal the meaning of the words.
For example, “time” often comes with “day” or “night” (for example, from Hamlet: “how do you grab this night’s time”).
This reflects an understanding of time in the early modern world (circa 1450–1750), which was more closely linked to the cycles of the Moon and the Sun, and thus the wider forces of the universe.
In contrast, today, related terms such as “waste”, “consumption” and “spend” suggest that time is often treated as a precious resource under human control.
5. Shakespeare did not know much Latin
The above myths are popular myths, spread by academics and non-academics alike (which is why they are easy to find on the internet). Myths can be more restrictive.
Within some theatrical circles, the idea emerged that Shakespeare did not know much Latin.
Indeed, contemporary playwright Ben Jonson famously wrote that Shakespeare had “little Latin, and less Greek”.
Shakespeare lacked a university education. The university-educated, jealous, cunning playwright might have been more than willing to take her down a peg.
working with a latin scholar katrina guardmagnaWe found that Shakespeare used 245 different Latin words, compared to just 28 in the matching set of plays by other playwrights – which is contrary to myth.
Shakespeare used Latin so much without a university education, his achievement in using it becomes even greater. (Conversation)
Vienna: ShakespeareThe English language is widely considered to represent the pinnacle of English. But that position is underpinned by a number of myths – ideas about language that have been shied away from reality (or that which is even plausible).
Those myths send us down the rabbit hole and give us what’s really impressive about Shakespeare – what he did with his words.
The Encyclopedia of Shakespeare’s Language project at Lancaster University, the deployment of large-scale computer analysis, is changing what we know about Shakespeare’s language.
Here, covering some of its findings, we revisit five things you probably thought you knew about Shakespeare but were actually untrue.
1. Shakespeare created a large number of words
Well, they did, but not as many people think – even reputable sources believe more than 1,000.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust puts it at 1,700, but add note that this number is related to words that have an early appearance in Shakespeare’s works.
The word “hobnell” first appears in a text attributed to Shakespeare, but it is difficult to imagine that it originated from a creative poetic work.
More likely, it was in the spoken language of the time and Shakespeare’s use is the earliest recording of it.
The estimation of how many words Shakespeare allegedly coined does not usually distinguish between the words he coined creatively and the first recorded in a written document he wrote.
Even if you don’t make that distinction and include all the words that come first in a work attributed to Shakespeare, whether coined or recorded, the numbers add up a whole lot. .
Working with Literature and Linguistics Academics Jonathan Hope And Sam Hollands, we’re using computers to search millions of words in texts before Shakespeare.
By this method, we find that only about 500 words appear for the first time in Shakespeare.
Of course, 500 is still too big and most authors neither coin a new word nor make the first recording.
2. Shakespeare is the English language
The myth that Shakespeare coined a plethora of words has partly fueled the myth that Shakespeare’s language constitutes one-quarter, half, or even all of the words in today’s English language.
The number of different words in Shakespeare’s texts is about 21,000 words. Some of those words are repeated, thus we get a total of about a million words in the works attributed to Shakespeare. (For example, the previous sentence has 26 words in total, but “k”, “word” and “to” are repeated, so the number of distinct words is 22).
The Oxford English Dictionary contains about 600,000 different words, but many obscure technical terms. So, let’s round down to 500,000.
Even if every word within Shakespeare was coined by him (which it certainly isn’t, as noted above), that would still be only 4.2 percent of today’s English language.
Therefore, Shakespeare could only ever contribute a very small fraction, though possibly more than most writers.
3. Shakespeare Had a Huge Vocabulary
Ridiculously, popular claims about Shakespeare’s vast vocabulary seem to be motivated by the fact that his writings as a whole contain a large number of different words (about 21,0000, as noted above).
But the more you write, the more opportunities you get to use different words.
This means it is likely to come on top of any speculation about Shakespeare’s vocabulary size, as he has an extraordinarily large surviving body of work.
Some researchers have used other methods to make better guesses (they always guess, because you can’t count the words in someone’s mind).
For example, Hugh Craig, the Shakespeare scholar who pioneered the use of computers, looked at the average number of different words used in samples of writing of equal length.
He found that, relative to his contemporaries, the average frequency encountered with individual words in Shakespeare’s work is clearly … average.
4. Shakespeare’s Universal Meaning
Certainly, some subjects or aspects of the human condition are universal, but let us not be deluded and say that their language is universal.
The mantra of the historical linguist is that the whole language changes – and Shakespeare isThere is no discount.
Changes can be subtle and easily missed. Take the word “time” – surely a universal term denoting a universal concept? not good.
For each word in Shakespeare, we used a computer to identify the other words to which they are associated, and those associations reveal the meaning of the words.
For example, “time” often comes with “day” or “night” (for example, from Hamlet: “how do you grab this night’s time”).
This reflects an understanding of time in the early modern world (circa 1450–1750), which was more closely linked to the cycles of the Moon and the Sun, and thus the wider forces of the universe.
In contrast, today, related terms such as “waste”, “consumption” and “spend” suggest that time is often treated as a precious resource under human control.
5. Shakespeare did not know much Latin
The above myths are popular myths, spread by academics and non-academics alike (which is why they are easy to find on the internet). Myths can be more restrictive.
Within some theatrical circles, the idea emerged that Shakespeare did not know much Latin.
Indeed, contemporary playwright Ben Jonson famously wrote that Shakespeare had “little Latin, and less Greek”.
Shakespeare lacked a university education. The university-educated, jealous, cunning playwright might have been more than willing to take her down a peg.
working with a latin scholar katrina guardmagnaWe found that Shakespeare used 245 different Latin words, compared to just 28 in the matching set of plays by other playwrights – which is contrary to myth.
Shakespeare used Latin so much without a university education, his achievement in using it becomes even greater. (Conversation)