Origins of English

Old English- 5th century:

English developed from the language from Saxons (Anglo-saxon) English was also influenced by the Old Norse language.
Latin was regarded as the language of a really formal civilisation.
The different areas of settlement of the different civilisations resulted in different dialects.
At this time the English language was mainly spoken using phonetic sounds and it was never really written down so there was little consistency.
This added many Scandinavian terms into the English lexis.

Middle English- 11th century:

The Norman invasion has a massive influence on the English language and became the spoken language in courts and Latin became important for written documentation, especially in the church.
Dialectal differences remained with marked differences throughout the country. This turned many French terms into the English lexicon; many of these were used in administration by law.

Early Modern English- 15th century:

Caxton introduced the printing press to Europe, helping to contribute to the standard form of English.
English was spoken more with pride and people like Shakespeare started writing his works as well as James I who commissioned the first Authorisation of the Bible. English became more useful and was used for a variety of purposes like literature, science, and religion. Increased travel has also given rise to the extensive borrowings from around the world. Some disagreed with this rapid expansion of language so this led to the emergence of prescriptivist ideas, leading to the development of dictionary grammar guides, forming correct ways of speaking.

Modern English- 18th century:

English has grown at a rapid rate with words being borrowed from Latin, Greek and around the world. There was now a correct way of speaking and writing which had been structured around the way people spoke and used words.

Present day English:

English has continued to develop and be influenced by the media, technology and travel and has now become a global language.

English facts:

Its a hybrid language that has been made up from multiple sources including, Germanic tribes, Norman French, Vikings and Latin.

The Inkhorn Controversy:

The "Inkhorn controversy" is the name generally given to the extended dispute, largely in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, over whether English should continue to add words from Latin and Greek (prescriptive attitudes).

Response to the article in The Daily Mail in 2014 written by Simon Heffer 'The Pedant's Revolt: In this joyously combative series, Simon Heffer goes to war on sloppy English'

Even at the start of the article in the title, Simon Heffer describes this article as a 'combative series' which suggests this article is illustrating the ideas strong opinions that he has on modern day language users and how they use their language. By using the pre modifier 'joyously' is almost contradicting about what is going to be said next and creates a slight sense of mockery like this article is going to be a battle of what's right and what's wrong with language pronunciation. Similarly, the title also says 'Simon Heffer goes to war', the noun 'war' suggests to the audience that he has strong opinions and he's ready to prove his point until he wins- this suggests that he has a extremely strong prescriptive attitude. He describes modern English as becoming 'sloppy', the adjective shows that we should be becoming more aware of our language and that possibly modern language has become 'lazy' and people could be less interested in how we use our language nowadays. His lexical choices in words like 'abomination' and 'violence' describing language change and adaptation suggest a strongly prescriptive attitude, they also create connotations of negative opinions and the ultimate sin which shows Heffer is using hyperbole to exaggerate the changes in the occurrence of our language.
He uses a formal language throughout the text, and in some way his language diverges from that of his audience possibly to create a clear distinction of authority and knowledge, which may be trying to create this idea that he knows what he is talking about so we should listen to what he has to say and agree with him. Heffer's choice of lexis also links to the idea of 'correctness', he incorporates many terms like 'wrong', 'correct', 'problem' and 'misused', this is again supporting his prescriptive attitude and is exaggerating his strong opinions in how language is changing while still comparing language to how it used to be years ago.