Elizabethan English

Mobility of Word Classes

• adjectives, nouns and verbs were not confined to particular classes
• adjectives used as nouns e.g. Prologue Act II : "sweet" as a noun
• verbs used as nouns e.g. Act II, sc.5, l. 26: "jaunce"
• adjectives used as adverbs e.g. Act I, sc. 2, l. 101 "scant"

Changes in Word Meaning

• meanings of words undergo changes e.g. Act II, sc.1, l. 11: "gossip" which meant good-natured

Vocabulary Loss

• words are frequently discarded from the language
• words are no longer current in English, but their meanings can sometimes be gauged from the context

Verbs

• differ in three main ways:
  
  1. Questions and negatives without using "do"/"did", e.g. Act II, sc. 4, l. 1: "Came he not home tonight?"
  2. Past participles and past tense forms are used ungrammatically, e.g. Act IV, sc. 2, l. 26:"And gave him what becomed love I might"
  3. Archaic verb forms occur with "thou" and with "he/she/it", e.g. Act III, sc. 1, l. 64: "I see thou knowest me not"

Pronouns

• thou: used in addressing a person who was one's equal or social inferior, e.g. Act I, sc. 3, l. 10: Lady Capulet to the Nurse: "Thou knowest my daughter's of a pretty age."
• you: used in addressing more than one person or to indicate respect, e.g. Act I, sc. 3, l. 6: Juliet to her mother: "Madam, I am here, what is your will ?"

Prepositions

• less standardized, e.g. "by" for "because of": Act II, sc. 4, l. 194: "So the remembrance of my former love / Is by a newer object quite forgotten."

Multiple Negation

• Shakespeare often used two or more negatives for emphasis, e.g. Act III, sc. 5, l. 21:" Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat"

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