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What can we learn from Jane Austen? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4816 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 1 of 5 31 December 2013 at 11:41pm | IP Logged |
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I was relatively late in discovering Jane Austen, although I know that she is very
popular among lovers of classic literature, and brought to a wider public by TV costume-drama renderings of the books over the years. The specific event leading to my personal discovery was because a German audiobook and e-book version of "Pride and Prejudice" came into my hands, and I thought it might be a good idea to read the English original as well. I enjoyed all three versions. Now, I have seen the view expressed here that reading TL translations of that kind of work is of no value in learning the TL. I will put that question to one side for the purposes of this thread, which is actually about the opposite: How much could a learner of English learn from a book like "Pride and Prejudice", or an author like Jane Austen, whose most famous works appeared during the relatively short period of about 1811 to 1818. (The latter works were published posthumously). I have always defended, or even promoted, the reading of classic books, even if (as I have sometimes said) the language used in them is not the same as that generally in use today. However, I've recently been reading Northanger Abbey and it struck me that although perhaps the words in this book might not be used always in quite the same way as today, very few of them would be unknown today. Roughly on average, I'd say only one or two words per page might be unfamiliar to an English native speaker. Some of the spellings are not what we would today expect, but we can still immediately recognise the words. Occasionally words have changed their meaning: the notes give "disgusting" as one example, which is not used as pejoratively as it would be today. Interestingly, Austen devotes a whole paragraph to one character explaining that the word "nice" has come to be used in so many circumstances as to have almost lost its value. I can remember being discouraged from using that word when writing compositions and essays at school - but probably teachers have been saying the same thing for a lot longer than I had realised. Taking a few pages at random: (Penguin Classic Edition): P156: There are no words which a modern native speaker would not recognise. "Counterpane" is probably not so common these days. 172: There are no words which a modern native speaker would not recognise 192: Ditto. "Surprize" is not the usual modern British spelling ("surprise"). Similarly "connexions" ("connections"). So what is the difference between Jane Austen's English and modern British English? Well, her sentences tend to be longer. The dialogue is more elaborate. The main difference is, I would say, the way the words are put together into elaborate sentences and long sentences into longer paragraphs. So the learner of English in the 21st century, while he or she might have to be careful in using Jane Austen as a model in making his or her own sentences, could fairly happily use her for collecting vocabulary, I would suggest, as well as for cultural, historical and literary reasons. I suppose I should qualify this by adding that Northanger Abbey, although it was not published until after her death, in 1818, was the first of her novels to be written with publication in mind. It could be that she had not yet fully developed her style, and that the language used in later novels was more ambitious, and more complex. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4856 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 2 of 5 01 January 2014 at 1:54am | IP Logged |
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I learned a lot of English by reading the classics. Burnett's Little Princess, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Villette, Dickens' Hard Times and Little Dorrit, to name a few I still remember having read as an intermediate student. It did my knowledge of vocabulary and less run-off-the-mill grammar points a whole lot of good, I think. By now, as an English major, I've read a good portion of the canon. I wouldn't be surprised if the occasional elegant turn of phrase I use in my essays was learned through reading the classics.
What I like most about getting exposed to a lot of different registers from different times is that I get a good idea of what is actually possible in the language. It makes for more flexibility in expressing myself through English. Any educated native speaker can play with numerous different registers of the language - as non-native speaker it's great to be able to do the same, albeit to a lesser degree. Edited by druckfehler on 01 January 2014 at 1:56am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5379 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 3 of 5 01 January 2014 at 3:05am | IP Logged |
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I don't think Jane Austen is too antiquated for those learning English to get something out of. As long as the person is getting a good mix of exposure to different sources it shouldn't "harm" their language skills in any way. Granted, someone shouldn't try to learn all her dialogue by heart for use in casual conversations. It would be a pitfall to force someone with no interest in Jane Austen or classical literature to read it (though in an ESL class you can certainly impose excerpts on students) and a learner should be cautioned that there are aspects of her novels that many/most natives don't understand well without obtaining some background knowledge first - such as conventions of inheritance and land ownership at the time.
Will a learner reading a lot of classic literature turn out to speak very anachronistically? Maybe they'd make the wrong word choice here and there or pick up a structure that isn't used much anymore but I think there's the same danger in learning from any native sources (accidentally using an offensive word, for example). This is why it helps a lot to have a language partner who can guide you without judgment. Now, what do you all think about reading Shakespeare or the New King James Bible? 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4653 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 5 01 January 2014 at 1:40pm | IP Logged |
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The *New* King James is the modernized one, I believe. If they read the older King James obsessively and uncritically, certainly they could end up employing a bunch of "thou", "lo", "verily" and "begotten" that would sound kind of ridiculous to modern English native ears. :-) Edited by tastyonions on 01 January 2014 at 1:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elanguest Newbie Malta elanguest.com Joined 3854 days ago 19 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 5 12 May 2014 at 11:13am | IP Logged |
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I think it really depends on the person's level. If they are advanced, they may really benefit from Jane Austen et al. I
have a Chinese friend who reads a lot of English classics, including Jane Austen's works, and really enjoys them. I wouldn't recommend them to a beginner though, because I think they would be more confusing than constructive. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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