The changing English language

Extract

[...] and others all used in the Canterbury tales trace their origin to the French elements in Chaucer's times rather than Old English. Extract from Clive Cussler's Sahara (1992) The Gauntlet She seemed to float above the ghostly evening mist like a menacing beast rising from the primeval ooze. (Word count: 18) Her low silhouette stood black and ominous against the backdrop of the trees along the shoreline. (Word count: 16) Shadowy, phantom-like images of men moved across her decks under the eerie yellow glow of lanterns as moisture trickled down her gray, sloping sides and dripped into the sluggish current of the James River. [...]

[...] This trend has continued to date, and the establishment of English as the global language for computing, communication and entertainment has resulted in conformity and standardization of the language and the dominance of a direct approach free from cliques and redundancies. A study of the evolutionary principles of the language over the last twelve hundred years by scientists of the Harvard University indicate that of the one hundred and forty five irregular verbs of Middle English taken up for analysis, only ninety eight remain irregular today. [...]

[...] The use of active tense, the short and brisk sentences, the use of new words to describe processes or ideas as needed, the incorporation of foreign words into the language on a need basis all stand testimony to this fact. The change in literary features of language between Chaucer and Cussler's time The differences in linguistic features in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Cussler's Sahara relate to the cultural differences of the age. Starting from the 16th Century, the continuous intermingling of the English people with different languages and cultures in distant colonies led to the enhancement of the vocabulary. [...]