By  Junaid Ahmed Sohoo

No doubt, William Shakespeare is one of the pre-eminent luminaries of English literature. He is a highly acclaimed dramatist, playwright, and poet in this contemporary age. He transformed and overhauled the entire English Language and Literature with his peculiar wit and acumen. The masterpieces of William Shakespeare have an exceptional influence on the English language. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Shakespeare was a master of lexical work such as forming new words and employing them in his plays and poetry. The pioneering of these new words by Shakespeare enriched the English Language tremendously. However, he proved himself as a man of literature by playing a significant role and left a great treasure in books for us. Undoubtedly, William Shakespeare played a great role in the English language.

Moreover, his remarkable magnum opuses like Othello, Macbeth, and King John are full of the originated words which ameliorated the diction and syntax of the English language. Likewise, his language provided us with a dynamic road map to express despondency, temper, affection, and passion. The noted phrases like ‘wild goose chase’, ‘in a pickle’, ‘the green-eyed monster’, ‘with bated breath’, and ‘A heart of Gold’ was first used in his comic, romantic, and tragic plays like ‘The Tempest’, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and ‘ Romeo and Juliet ‘.

In addition, a multitude of literary scholars has also undertaken research through quantitative analysis. The findings include that Shakespeare formulated approximately two thousand words that were derived from other lingua francas.  These include words like ‘accused’ which he used in the play Richard Ц and the word ‘unreal’ which appeared in Macbeth Act Ш.  The modus operandi used by Shakespeare includes altering the verbs in adjectives and adding suffixes and prefixes. In contrast, few researchers maintained that he used an approach called neologism too for the pioneering of novel words and structures.

Furthermore, a revolutionary publication like “The Dictionary of the English Language” by Samuel Johnson contains English words that were coined by William Shakespeare. Samuel Johnson relied heavily on the pragmatic approach of Shakespeare while fashioning his career in Lexicography. On the other hand, one can gauge the superiority of Shakespeare in the English Language by leafing through the proclaimed words of renowned critic Thomas Carlyle who said that there are innumerable western and eastern dramatists, but no one is equivalent to the cognitive approach of Shakespeare.

In last, Shakespeare metamorphosed the entire English Poetry with his magnificent imagination. The romantic poet John Keats was so inclined towards Shakespeare that he replicated his composition based on the Shakespearean approach. In addition, Shakespeare is said to be the originator of Iambic Pentameter, a form of poetry used globally. Iambic Pentameter refers to a metrical speech rhythm comprising five iambs in each line.

To conclude, William Shakespeare is one of the most striking figures in English Literature. He has a great influence on Arts, Literature, and Language.  So, it is high time that we should make an attempt to learn and use the Shakespearean Language in order to understand the crux of the world. Indeed, William Shakespeare played a crucial role in the English language.