Answer:
Caxton’s standardization of English spelling for printing…
<u>b. was outdated in just a hundred years due to changes in pronunciation, and it contributed to today’s spelling confusion.</u>
Explanation:
We can reach the conclusion as to what the correct answer is by using some historical knowledge and logic.
Letter A is incorrect because Caxton and Shakespeare were not contemporaries, and Caxton was the one who lived first, so to speak. While Caxton was born in 1422, Shakespeare was born in 1564. Therefore, there was no way for Caxton to have knowledge of Shakespeare.
Letter C is also incorrect because Caxton was a translator, fluent in French. He also learned the art of printing while living in Germany, so we can assume he had some knowledge of German as well.
<u>The correct option is letter B. The books Caxton received to publish were written with different spellings. It was up to him to choose a way to standardize such spelling, so that different books did not come out with completely different looking words. However, the English language rapidly evolved and adapted in pronunciation. That evolution was not accompanied by the written counterpart of the language, which makes spelling confusing nowadays.</u>
