Telegraph: For centuries Shakespeare has been celebrated not just for his genius as a playwright, but for creating many of today’s most commonly used words and phrases.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Shakespeare's skill was in his grammar not his language, academic claims
Telegraph: For centuries Shakespeare has been celebrated not just for his genius as a playwright, but for creating many of today’s most commonly used words and phrases.
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5 comments:
I guess the author makes a valid point, that Shakespeare's grammar was more inventive than his vocabulary. I don't think this argument is at all groundbreaking, because it's very clear that Shakespeare's cleverness comes not from the sheer number and variety of words he uses, but how he puts them together in poetic ways, and how he uses double entendre in interesting ways. Furthermore, I disagree with the author's analysis that grammar is separate from language. Grammar is every bit as important to language as vocabulary is, in that a jumble of interesting words is useless if the syntax of the sentences they make up is all the same. I think it's also important to note that a lot of Shakespeare's syntax (like the line quoted from Hamlet) follows French sentence structure fairly closely (putting the direct object of a sentence in front of the verb is a common occurance in modern French), a fact of which Shakespeare was probably aware.
Wow. I actually completely agree with Lindsay on this one. Arguing that grammar is separate from language is like arguing that bark is separate from trees. I can barely take this article seriously. What new points are being made? What discovery is this about? Nothing. It just seems incredibly obvious to me, and I would think that anyone who has read or scene any Shakespeare at all would pick up on the grammar. This hardly qualifies as an "academic" claim. There's nothing academic about forgetting about grammar for a while and then suddenly remembering that it's important in literature so iconic as Shakespeare. Really? Come on. Shakespeare's plays would not be nearly as valuable without the artful use of different grammatical arrangements and tactics. That's what holds the text together and propels the story, adding character and nuances. How could that possibly be separate from language? How could that possibly be undiscovered until 2012? No. Just no.
When we talk about Shakespeare, there are so many elements that contribute to his fame and and the mark that he left in literature. So it goes without saying that the choice of words could be at the same level of his contemporaries, but like Lindsay and Abby, it is his syntax and the way he writes poetically that separates him from the other writers. On top of that, there was the way in which he used plot and the way that he created these timeless stories that stay with us. The one thing about Shakespeare that is infinitely important is that his plays don't have a given place in history. These stories are pertinent to any place in time.
It is probably why they are a theater favorite. You can use the script and place wherever you need to, like all three versions of "Hamlet", Lawrence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh, and Michael Almereyda. The simple use of storyline is also popular and you get the Hollywood film collection of "Westside Story", "10 Things I Hate About You", or "She's the Man". It can be performed in a park, a parking lot, an opera, or a world class theater. Shakespeare will always be relatable and completely frameless. That is what makes him so famous on a universal level, I think. Not the word choice, maybe the syntax, but mostly the content.
The author makes a valid point. But its nothing new in my opinion, Shakespeare yes had innovative tales for his time but in most of his dramas and in his comedies you can find the same plot from time to time. Shakespeare created something around over one hundred words for the english language. Next time you call someone "weird" that can be accredited to. Not to mention how versatile his use and manipulation of the english language is, especially for his time. I personally have always seen a majority of shakespeare's genius coming from his language.
I'm slightly confused as to how the author tries to analyze the grammar and the language as separate things. It was the combination of the two which made Shakespeare famous. His chosen grammar and syntax gave flow and poetry to the words, but the choice of words gave his writing character and power. I don't believe that Shakespeare would still be read today were it not for his clever use of both language and grammar.
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