ABSTRACT
As we have seen, it has been estimated that between 1500 and 1650 around 12,000 new words were introduced into the English language. At the same time, English grammar and vocabulary, heavily influenced by other languages, none the less became sufficiently nativised and ‘Englished’ for a number of writers to feel that the English language should be more definitively described and recorded. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were periods in which several grammars of English, dictionaries of English and even pronunciation guides to English were published. This movement was given impetus by the establishment in 1662 of The Royal Society. The Society’s main purpose was to guide and promote the development of science and scientific exploration, but it created a climate in which language itself could be subjected to greater investigation.
