Theories, Definitions, and More

The English language got to a point that because of it being the most popular language of all, some controversies started appearing. In my opinion I believe that this is normal and that it was something we all saw coming. It is almost impossible for a language that became so world wide to not have any misunderstandings. People from different regions start creating their own version of English. Creating new accents, new words, as well as new definitions. The most effective way that ideas were transferred from place to place was from written texts. You can imagine in which language were those publications written on. English.

 John Locke was an English philosopher that believed that by getting the language clear there would be no misunderstandings within the humans. He states, “If the definition of the words could be agreed and misunderstandings avoided, peace would follow” (2:24). I agree with him because the only way we are not going to have misunderstandings is by having the same sets of definitions to the words. Since a lot of variations of English have evolved through out the world, it is very difficult for each word to have the same definition. John would have number one fan of the Oxford Dictionary!
The best way one can expand a language is by creating new words. Not only it is fun, but also creative and fun to do. Newton was one who gave new words to scientific terms. In his book Opticks he gave words some new definitions as well as created new words. This helped the English language become more complete.

Unlike John Locke, Jonathan Swift didn’t believe in the “vulgar liberties.” He didn’t believe that the modifications that the people did to the English language actually helped the language become more complete. In a certain way I believe that we should all have some basic rules for how to speak it and this way for it to function correctly. But on the other hand I also believe that one should have the freedom to speak as one wants. The world is full of limitations, lets don’t allow our way of speaking have limitations too. Not only would be not fair, but also very hard. We have seen how popular the English language is and how many varieties have been created. Good luck education almost all the world on the correct way of speaking it.
Unlike Swift, Samuel Johnson would have got along with Locke. He created the one of the most famous dictionary of all times. Yet he had a little problem. He didn’t include the words he didn’t understand. Some might consider this as an act of laziness, but after all he didn’t had any other options. How could he have learned the rest of the other definitions without having any kind of dictionary?

Jane Austen didn’t use “any words of the street” (33:26). This makes it clear that she used the language to judge the social statues of each person. This continues to happen now days. In some cases you can determine the statues of a person by the way they speak and the words they use. Thomas Paine stated, “simpler language could carry precise thought” (38:24). I agree with him. The simpler the things the better. The more complex something is, the less is going to be understood by others. A great example of this are the poems wrote by William Wordsworth. He rather use simple words for the readers to understand, than use complex rules and the readers not being able to understand his message. He was pretty clever, in my opinion. Last but not least we have William Cobbet, who studies the slang. Or the day by day English, since we all now speak in abbreviations. G2G.

The Adventure of English. Dir. Nigel Wattis. Perf. Amanda Root and David Gwillim. LWT, 2003. Youtube. 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 27 Jan. 2013.