共用题干 Few men have influenced the development of American English to the extent that Noah Webster did...

共用题干
Few men have influenced the development of American English to the extent that Noah Webster did.After a short career in law,he turned to teaching,but he discovered how inadequate the available schoolbooks were for the children of a new and independent nation.
In response to the need for truly American textbooks,Webster published A Grammatical Institute of the English Language,a three-volume work that consisted of a speller,a grammar,and a reader.The first volume,which was generally known as The American Spelling Book,was so popular that eventually it sold more than 80 million copies and provided him with a considerable income for the rest of his life.Can you imagine that?
Anyway,in 1807,Noah Webster began his greatest work,An American Dictionary of the English Language.In preparing the manuscript,he devoted ten years to the study of English and its relationship to other languages,and seven more years to the writing itself. Published in two volumes in 1828,An American Dictionary of the English Language has become the recognized authority for usage in the United States.Webster's purpose in writing it was to demonstrate that the American language was developing distinct meanings,pronunciations,and spellings from those of British English. He is responsible for advancing many of the simplified spelling forms that distinguish American English from British.
Webster was the first author to gain copyright protection in the United States by being awarded a copyright for The American Spelling Book and he continued to lobby over the next fifty years for the protection of intellectual properties,that is,for author's rights.By the time that Webster brought out the second edition of his dictionary,which included 70,000 entries instead of the original 38,000, the name Webster had become synonymous with American dictionaries.It was this second edition that served as the basis for the many revisions that have been produced by others, ironically,under the uncopyrighted Webster name.