In ‘Robinson Crusoe’ both Defoe and Crusoe use Latin based English because at the time it is more common to use a lot of Latin based English but now because of the change in education people use mostly French and Anglo Saxon based English but it doesn’t mean that we don’t use it completely any more we just use less of it.
When Robinson Crusoe speaks he uses a lot of Latin based English because he is portrayed as an intelligent time and like I said before at the time when the book was wrote it was more common to speak using a lot of Latin based English.
When Ralph speaks he uses mostly Anglo Saxon based English this is because he is only a boy and hasn’t been taught these words yet but when Golding narrates he uses mostly French based English this is because the time he wrote the book it was less common to speak like Defoe.
Ralph uses a lot of slang like most boys his age do. He uses words and phrases such as: ‘Sucks to your_____’
‘gosh’ ‘smashing’
‘wacco’ ‘Waxy’
‘wizard’ ‘doink’
‘golly’ ‘bong’
Whereas Robinson Crusoe’s language is much more complex with words like: ‘Expostulating’
‘Vicissitudes’
‘Precipitate’
‘Elopement’
If Ralph were to write a good against evil column it would probably read like this:
Good Evil
I have crashed on an island luckily I have survived and I have
With no grown ups to save me other boys with me too
Here is an extract from ‘Robinson Crusoe’ showing the different types of language he has used in the extract.
‘Being the 3rd son of the family and not bred to any trade my head began to fill with rambling thoughts. I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea my inclination lead me so strongly against the will of my commands and nay the commands of my father and against all the entries and persuasions of my mother and other friends that there seemed to be something fatal in the propension of nature and tending me to the life of misery that was to befall me’
Because of the time it was wrote in some of these words seem quite old and hardly ever used anymore such as befall, propenssion and nay.
Here is and extract from ‘Lord of the Flies’ this shows Ralph and the other boys language and Defoe’s language too.
‘ “This is real exploring,” Said jack “I bet no-one has been here before.”
“We ought to draw a map,” said Ralph “only we have no paper.”
“We could make scratches on the bark” said Simon “and rub black stuff in it.”
Again came the solemn communication of shining eyes in the gloom.
“Wacco!”
“Wizard!”’
In this extract we can see the difference between the boy’s language and Golding’s. We can see that the boys use much more simpler language then Golding for example Golding uses words like ‘solemn’ whereas the boys use more simple language such as ‘rub’, and ‘stuff’.
