Episode 191: A Vision of the Future

As the English Civil War raged in the 1640s, English grammarians wrote about several developments in the language, including a new sound appearing in the word “vision” and new ways of describing future actions and events. The military conflict was also shaping the language by contributing new terms to the lexicon. And a new sense of “self” was emerging, which had far-reaching consequences for philosophy, politics, and the English language. In this episode, we explore how these developments shaped the language we speak today and provided a vision of the future.