Following on from the AHRC-funded Encyclopedia of Shakespeare\u2019s Language project, we are pleased to announce that we have been successfully awarded a grant (\u00a39,740.15) from the British Academy. The project will establish whether, and to what extent, widely held views about Shakespeare\u2019s neologisms are a myth, and also improve our understanding and appreciation of his words.<\/p>\n
The website of the well-respected Shakespeare Birthplace Trust proclaims that \u201cWilliam Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words\u201d, with similar estimates being found across non-academic and academic works alike. However, these estimates are often based on the number of words in the Oxford English Dictionary that have as their first citation a work attributed to Shakespeare. No study, however, has systematically scrutinized each of these words, hunting for earlier uses.<\/p>\n
The recent advent of Early English Books Online (the largest repository of historical English printed works), paired with the recently-released Enhanced Shakespearean Corpus, means that it is timely to undertake such a study. This study will also investigate a further set of potential neologisms based on a list of words that only occur in texts attributed to Shakespeare.<\/p>\n
The project will be led by Prof. Jonathan Culpeper<\/a>, with Prof. Jonathan Hope<\/a> acting as a consultant, and Isolde van Dorst<\/a> providing research assistance.<\/p>\n Following on from the AHRC-funded Encyclopedia of Shakespeare\u2019s Language project, we are pleased to announce that we have been successfully awarded a grant (\u00a39,740.15) from the British Academy. The project will establish whether, and to what extent, widely held views … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespearelang\/files\/2019\/11\/BA_Primary-Logo-Black-scaled.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"