Focus and Content

• The Early Modern Period - Sociohistorical Context
  • Timeline
  • The Printing Press
  • Standardisation
  • Renaissance
  • Reformation
  • Elizabethan Age
  • Jacobean Age
  • The Status of the English Language
  • Literacy
  • Most Important Communicative Needs And Genres
  • Lexical Inventory
  • Shakespearean Firsts

• Identifying central problems
  • Phonology
    • Definition
      • Great Vowel Shift
    • Now it is your turn 1
      • Mission I
      • Mission II
      • Mission III
      • Mission IV
      • Mission V

  • Morphonology
    • Definition Morphonology
      • Morphonology in word classes
    • Now it is your turn 2
      • Misson A
        • Part 1: Romeo and Juliet
        • Part 2: The nightingale
      • Mission B
      • Mission C
      • Mission D

  • Morphology
    • Morphology Task 1
    • Morphology Task 2
    • Morphology Task 3
    • Morphology Task 4
    • Morphology Task 5
    • Possessive Case
    • Verb Endings
    • Verb Endings

  • Syntax
    • In the Spotlight
    • Word-Order Developments
    • Triggering Inversion
    • Inversion Tasks?
      • Task 1: Sentence- and Clause-Initial Elements
      • Task 2: Verb-Second Constraint
    • Auxiliary do
    • Auxiliary Tasks
      • Task 1: Patterns of Affirmative Sentences
      • Task 2: Patterns of Interrogatives
      • Task 3: Patterns in Shakespeare?
    • Modals
      • Modals Task 1
      • Modals Task 2
      • Modals Task 3
      • Modals Task 4
    • Negation
      • Negation Task 1
      • Negation Task 2
      • Negation Task 3
      • Negation Task 4

  • Semantics
    • In the Spotlight
    • The Necessity for Lexical Enrichment
    • Borrowings or Loan Words
    • Borrowings or Loan Words Tasks
      • Task 1: Confusion of Terms?
      • Task 2: Etymology and Trailing
      • Task 3: How to Borrow Words
    • Word Coinage
    • Word Coinage Tasks
      • Task 1: How to Coin a New Word
      • Task 2: Reconstructing Neologisms
    • The "Inkhorn" Debate
    • "Inkhorn" Tasks
      • Task 1: Inkpot and Quills?
      • Task 2: Searching for Elegant Terms
    • Bibliography

  • Pragmatics
    • Deixis - An introduction
      • The deictic center
      • Different usages of deixis
        • Deictic gestural usage
        • Deictic symbolic usage
        • Non-deictic anaphoric usage
        • Non-deictic non-anaphoric usage
        • Exercises to different usages of deixis
      • Different forms of deixis
        • Personal deixis
          • Exercises to personal deixis
        • Temporal deixis
          • Exercises to temporal deixis
        • Spatial deixis
          • Exercises to spatial deixis
        • Social deixis
          • Exercises to Social deixis
        • Discourse deixis
          • Exercises to discourse deixis
      • Conclusion and further exercises

    • The use of "thou" and "you"
      • Introduction or: Why deal with pronouns of address?
      • Development of "thou" and "you"
        • How did "you" come into play?
        • Why - and when - did "thou" disappear?
        • Check your knowledge Part 1
      • Sources for research
        • Records of trials
          • Example 1
          • Example 2
        • Shakespeare's plays
        • Check you knowledge Part 2
      • When did you use which pronoun?
        • Check you knowledge Part 3
        • Explore "thou" and "you" in Shakespeare's plays
      • "Thou" after the Early Modern English period
        • Excursus: The use of "thou" in church
        • The use of "thou" by the Quakers
        • Check you knowledge Part 4
      • A few closing remarks

    • Insults
      • Theoretical background
        • Grice’s maxims of conversations
        • Politeness theory and face
        • Face-threatening acts
        • Distance, power and impostion
        • Exercises to the theoretical background
      • Definition: What is an insult?
        • What is an insult - part 1
        • What is an insult - part 2
      • The history of insults
        • Old English Period
        • Middle English Period

        • Early Modern English Period
          • Name-calling
          • Creative name-calling
          • Non-verbal insults
          • Verbal duels
            • Exercises to the Early Modern English Period

        • Contemporary English
        • Exercises to the historical background
    • Bibliography

  • Lexicography
    • What is a dictionary?
    • Johnson's Dictionary
      • The Early Years
      • First Attempts
      • A Dictionary of the English Language
      • The Problems of Lexicography
        • Development of a Method
        • Failure of the First Attempt
      • Johnson's Method
        • The Quotations
        • The First Manuscript
    • The Oxford English Dictionary
      • How it Began
      • Writing the Dictionary
        • Collecting and Sorting
        • Defining Words
        • First Achievements
      • More Editors
      • First Edition
      • Keeping it up-to-date
      • Making it Modern
    • Create Your Own Dictionary Entry
      • Note
      • Bridle
        • Get Creative
    • Different types of dictionaries
    • Key elements and important aspects of dictionaries
      • The entry term
      • Alphabetization
      • Grammatical information
      • Pronunciation
      • Etymology
      • Synonymy
      • Front and back matter
      • Defining
    • Comparison of Dictionaries
    • Works cited

• Morphology in Early Modern English
  • General Overview
  • The noun
    • The old weak plurals {-n}
    • The umlaut plurals
    • The zero plurals
    • The dominant plural
      • The Middle English changes
      • The ‘automatic’ tactical adjustment
  • The pronoun
    • The replacement of neuter
    • The loss of the sg./ pl. distinction in the second person
  • The verb
    • Verbs in Old English
    • Verbs in Middle English
    • Verbs in Early Modern and Modern English
  • Tasks
  • Results
  • Bibliography

• Phonology in Early Modern English
  • I Vowel Changes
    • The Great Vowel Shift
    • Diphthongs
    • Short Vowels
    • Exercises Vowel Changes
    • Solution Vowel Changes
  • II Consonant Changes
    • Sound Changes In Early Modern English – Consonants
    • Exercises Consonant Changes
    • Exercises
  • III Stress Shifts
  • IV Final Exercise

• The invention of new words by Shakespeare
  • The English language at Shakespeare’s time
  • Reactions on the introduction of new words in England
  • eanings and Origins?
  • How Shakespeare invented words
    • Examples: Using old words to form a new one
  • Our Little Shakespeare Quiz
  • Examples: Using old words to form a new one
  • List of words coined by Shakespeare
  • How many words did Shakespeare know?
  • Suggested Reading and Bibliography