13. The Return of English as a Standard

This lecture surveys the history of English from the late 14 th to the early 16 th centuries, to illustrate the ways in which political and social attitudes returned it to the status of the prestige vernacular (over French). It also looks at some of the important institutions—the court, the law, and commerce, in particular—that helped effect the return of English as a standard. Finally, this lecture examines some attitudes of the time toward the status of English in relationship to French, and toward the question of English regional dialects. The importation of the printing press by William Caxton in the 1470s had a significant effect on what kind of English came to be read and written and, in turn, what the relationships were between literary English and “official” English.