Kinds of writingthe history of English writing as context

The linguistic value of different text types The knowledge of stages of English is handed down to us in the form of texts.

These come in various guises AND the linguist is to determines to what extent the genre affects the manner in which the author used the language variety spoken at his/her time.

Different text types entail the use of different styles.

It is common in poetry, most probably in epic poetry (such as Old English Beowulf) that archaic language is used to create a distinctive atmosphere within the text.

Other text types are restricted in their stylistic range, for instance ecclesiastical texts, are usually quite confined in the varieties of language which they evince such as the use of colloquial language.

The linguistic value of different text typesVarious parameters influence the type of language in which a text is written . It may be extrapolated that the language used by an author may have been

spoken in the society of the time. Following are questions to ask for commentary on linguistic style :

(1) Is a text fictional or non-fictional?(2) Is a text verse or prose? (3) What genre does a text represent? (4) Is the author male or female? (5) What is the age of an author? (6) What was the social rank of an author ?(7) Is there a recognisable target audience?(8) Could one state what the relationship of a text to spoken language was?

Old English periodThis period contains both original texts and translations. It starts with runes and inscriptions, both of which are formulaic in

character. Early texts include glossaries, providing English translations of Latin

words and expressions. Larger translations also exist, for instance of the four gospels and

there are prefaces by King Alfred (848-899) to translations which he either did himself or commissioned.

There is much poetic material, such as the elegies and smaller poems. The monk Caedmon (7th century) was the first to compose a hymn.

Later poetry was both of a religious and a secular nature. And of course there is the main English epic, Beowulf.

Old English period A specific genre of historical writing is available in the Old English period, the chronicle, which consists of brief entries for various years and which recount important military events, especially during the Scandinavian period.

Middle English periodThere is greater variety among the texts of the Middle English period. It begins with some remnants of the Old English chronicle, e.g. in the Peterborough Chronicle from around the mid 12th century, followed by poetic works like The Owl and the Nightingale (late 12th century).

Middle English periodThe 13th and 14th centuries saw a great flourishing in text

types and culminated in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer in the late 14th century.

The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer illustrates many of the literary genres popular at this time.

The Middle English period also contains much religious writing, some of it hagiographical (about the lives of saints) for example South English Legendary- Ancrene Wisse ‘The guide for anchoresses (head nuns)’.

Some literary forms of the Middle English periodMorality plays :allegorical plays in which the figures represent human qualities which engaged in disputes. The most famous is Everyman, a short play of 921 lines from the beginning of the 16th century.

Some literary forms of the Middle English periodThe morality plays are the precursor of later naturalistic

plays which then, in the later 16th century, led to Elizabethan drama.

Mystery Plays which deal with biblical themes and are associated with feasts of the church calendar such as Corpus Christi.

Mystery plays were popular between the 13th and 16th centuries.

(the term refers to the trade of the performers and not to an unsolved mystery)

Some literary forms of the Middle English period

Fabliau : a short tale recounted in verse and dealing in comic form with some

incident from everyday life .For example Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale.

Romance : courtly stories in verse which involve chivalric figures and generally interweave magical and supranatural elements to make a moral point. There are many Arthurian legends from the later Middle English period, the most important of which is the cycle known as Le Morte D'Arthur (completed c. 1470) by Sir Thomas Malory (died

1471).

Some literary forms of the Middle English periodBreton Lays : short stories in rhyme in the style of Marie de France (French poet from about 1160-90 who wrote 12 lays) and exemplified in English by Chaucer’s The Franklin’s Tale.

Travel literature : for example The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, a 14th century Anglo-Norman text (surviving in many English manuscripts) which initiated a long fascination with the orient. At this time the question of whether the travels actually took place was irrelevant, the popularity derived from the description of foreign places and customs.

Early Modern periodDrama :So great is the figure of Shakespeare that drama of the early

modern period is associated primarily with his name. Elizabethan drama types :(i) comedy, (ii) tragedy and (iii) historical drama all of which are amply represented in the works of Shakespeare. Given the generally elevated tone of tragedy and historical drama, the language is assumed to be of a higher register and hence not as indicative of colloquial speech .

Early Modern periodPoetry:Poetry Poetic literature continued through the early modern

period in an unbroken fashion. A form which was particularly popular was the sonnet (first

popularised in European literature by the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, 1304-1374) which had a strict form of 14 lines, the last two forming a rhyming couplet.

Early Modern periodNovel :This a term which derives from Italian novella, originally referring to

a tale in the Decamerone by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). The label is used for a large piece of narrative fiction usually

covering a considerable span of time and involving a series of characters and told by a narrator (of which there are different types).

The novel arose in 18th century England as a major literary genre with authors like Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), Henry Fielding (1707-1754), Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) and Laurence Sterne (1713-1768).

Many of the first novels were in epistolary form, that is they consisted of letters supposedly written by the characters of the novel to one another.

Non-fictional literaturePersonal correspondence :private letters are a source of

information on language use and language change.

From the Middle English period onwards there are collections of letters which have been preserved which give insights into English of the time.

One of the most famous families is the Paston family from Norfolk the members of which wrote a large number of letters to each other between about 1420 and 1504.

Non-fictional literatureOther sets of letters are the Stonor letters and the Lisle letters. The McMahon letters from 18th

century Ireland offer insights into the nature of Irish English at the time.

The letters in all these cases typically involve relationships within the family, business dealings and petitions from people outside the family to prominent members within (as with the Lisle and the McMahon letters).

Non-fictional literatureTechnical literatureThe great expansion in the natural sciences, one of the main

legacies of the Renaissance, led to literature dealing with scientific topics.

With regard to language, one can note the appearance in the 16th century and later of a large body of literature concerned with the structure of English, its orthography, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.

One of the first and most important authors in this field is John Hart (died 1574), the author of An orthographie of English (1569), one of the first works which suggested a spelling reform for English.

Non-fictional literatureTechnical literatureIn the 18th century a tradition arose which came to be called

the prescriptive tradition. Introducing grammars which lay down rules for the supposedly correct use of English. Of the many authors who have become known in this field,

the most significant (in terms of influence) in Bishop Lowth, the author of a prescriptive grammar.

Elocutionist tradition, concerned with acceptable or standard, pronunciation of English, which flourished in the late 18th century with figures like Sheridan and Walker .

Journalistic literaturePamphlets is a piece of polemical writing, a booklet,

aimed at a large audience. Pamphlets arose during the Reformation

period as a means of spreading radical religious and political views and continued until well into the 18th century, for instance with the author Jonathan Swift (1667-1745).

Periodicals Weekly periodicals largely replaced

pamphlets (though there was a slight revival in the 19th century).

These were often aimed at an audience interested in literature and contributed greatly to the dissemination of creative literature, for instance in their serialisation of major novels such as many by Dickens.

At the beginning of the 18th century major literary figures, such as Addison and Steele, used the periodical to make their ideas known, e.g. with The Tatler (1709-11) and later The Spectator (1711-12).

Later others arose, such as The Gentleman’s Magazine and The Analytical Review. The longest surviving of these was Blackwood’s Magazine which ran from 1817 to 1980.

Journalistic literatureNewspapers Newspapers have their origin in the early 17th century and stem from short, single-sheet

publications with news from abroad, a subject of natural interest to colonial powers - something which explains why they were popular in Holland (present-day Netherlands).

They quickly began to proliferate in England so that by the mid-17th century there were several produced in London.

During the interregnum of the monarchy (from 1649 to 1660) they were largely suppressed but during the Restoration period began to flourish again. The major newspapers, which have survived into our times, were first published in the 18th

century.

In England national newspapers are published in London with the exception being The Guardian (founded in 1821 as a weekly, after 1855 published as a daily) produced in Manchester.

The term broadsheets is generally used nowadays for serious newspapers, usually in a large format, which are regarded as distinct from tabloids.

Source https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/SHE_Text_Types.htm