ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the roots of 'modern' English, at the standardisation processes that have accompanied the language and its evolution into a 'global' language and international lingua franca. During the Early Modern English phase a number of highly significant and liberating changes took place in English society that were to have a profound effect on the way the language was to be used and regarded. The English lexicon increased dramatically between 1500 and 1700, when it is thought that about 30,000 words were added to it. William Shakespeare is the writer whose work casts most light on what was happening to the English language at the time, whether we think of pronunciation, vocabulary and word formation, syntax or the social use of the language. The dictionary that has done most to reflect the globalisation of English, however, is undoubtedly the Encarta World English Dictionary, referred to earlier and published in 1999.
