- •1. When did the historical study of languages begin? Who was the first to prove the relations of many languages to each other and the existence of their common source?
- •2. What is the character of internal and external language changes?
- •3. What are considered to be the main reasons for language changes?
- •4. What groups belong to the Indo-European family of languages? What are Satem and Centum languages?
- •5. What group does English belong to? Name the closest linguistic relations of English.
- •6. What territory did the ancient Germanic tribes inhabited?
- •7. What are the distinctive features of Germanic languages that made them different from other Indo-European languages?
- •8. What is the nature of the First Consonant Shift? Who was the first to explain its regularities?
- •9. Who was the first to explain the irregularities in the First Consonant Shift?
- •Ie voiceless stop was preceded by an unstressed vowel, the voiceless fricative
- •10. How long is the history of the English language?
- •11. What periods do we distinguish in the History of the English language?
- •12. What languages were spoken in the British Isles before the Germanic invasion? Which of their descendants have survived today?
- •13. When did the Germanic invasion in the British Isles begin? What Germanic tribes came to live there?
- •14. What Germanic kingdoms existed on the British Isles?
- •15. How did the country acquire the name of England?
- •16. What important event took place at the end of the 8th century ad on the territory of the British Isles?
- •17. What alphabet did Anglo-Saxons used for their writings? What written records have survived from that time?
- •18. What vowels existed in Old English? How were they represented in writing?
- •19. What consonants existed in Old English? How were they represented in writing?
- •20. What main phonetic changes occurred during the Old English period?
- •Vowel changes
- •Consonants changes
- •21. What was the etymological composition of the oe vocabulary? What languages did the loan words come there from? Composition
- •Foreign influences on Old English
- •22. What word building patterns were common in oe?
- •23. What categories did the oe noun have?
- •24. What categories did the oe adjective have?
- •25. What were the classes of oe pronouns?
- •26. What categories did the oe verb have?
- •27. What were the most common syntactical patterns in oe?
- •28. Did there exist any analytical forms in oe?
- •29. What events of the Modern English period launched the process of forming the National English Language?
- •30. What important changes in phonetic system happened in Early ModE?
- •The Great Vowel Shift
- •31. What was the Nature of the Great Vowel Shift?
- •32. Describe the main changes in grammar system in Modern English.
- •33. Changes in the categories of nouns and adjectives. What old forms of substantive plural survived in ModE? Changes and features of ModE noun system
- •34. Describe the main changes in the ModE pronoun system.
- •35. Describe the main changes in the categories of verb in ModE. Changes and features of Early ModE verbal system
- •36. Describe the main changes in ModE syntax.
- •37. Describe the main changes in vocabulary system in Early Modern English.
35. Describe the main changes in the categories of verb in ModE. Changes and features of Early ModE verbal system
Transformation of strong verbs into weak.
Further reduction of verbal inflections: the ending –e of the 1st person
singular, of the plural present and infinitive were lost.
Decline in use of subjunctive.
Strong verbs were becoming weak, e.g. help.
Infinitive -n ending disappeared.
Present indicative plural endings -n or -th disappeared.
-ing became universal present participle ending.
In the 3rd person singular present indicative the ending –th was eventually
replaced by –s.
In Early ModE the auxiliary verb do was widely used as an auxiliary.
Two-part phrasal verbs become common (shorten up, wear out, cut off).
The system of perfect form, which had arisen in OE and developed in
MidE, went on unfolding.
The category of continuous aspect was developed only in ModE period.
The perfect continuous forms became widely used only in the 19th century.
36. Describe the main changes in ModE syntax.
Early Modern English syntax was generally marked by more flexibility than today.
SVO order was regular in independent and dependent declarative clauses.
SOV was acceptable for pronoun objects and for emphasis
(as the law should them direct, Richard that dead is).
VSO was used in questions and conditional statements
(how hast thou offended?, Were he my kinsman ...).
Imperatives often had expressed subject
(go, my servant, to the kitchen; do thou but call my resolution wise).
OSV or OVS were used to emphasize object.
37. Describe the main changes in vocabulary system in Early Modern English.
The transition from MidE to ModE began in the 16thcentury when several
factors came together to produce a period of extraordinary progress in the
development of the language. During the Renaissance period a great revival of
interest in learning swept over England and much of Europe, leading people to
become more aware of the importance of language as they studied the writings of
the past. Furthermore, many words from other languages (especially Latin and
Greek) were introduced into English as a result of this growing interest in the
writings of antiquity.
Until the 16thcentury, French continued to be the prestigious literary
language, and Latin remained the international language for serious schlarly work
for some centuries afterwards. However, the influence of other languages gradually
diminished as the English language continued to develop.
That time was also the beginning of the Great Geographical Discoveries era,
the increase in contacts with other counties. Seafarers brought many new words
borrowed from England’s allies and foes in the seas (Spanish, Dutch and others).
The emigrants brought English in the African, American and Australian colonies,
thus marking the new era of English outside England.
Below you will find some inkhorn terms (an affectedly learned borrowings
from another language, esp. Greek or Latin) and other early modern English
borrowings:
Latin: ability, dedicate, education, extinguish, reciprocal, scientific;
Greek: anonymous, catastrophe, criterion, democracy;
Some rejected inkhorn terms (those which eventually came out of use, ot were
replaced by other simpler words): deruncinate – `to weed' (cf. eradicate),
adminiculation – `aid', cohibit – `to restrain' (cf. inhibit), expede – `to accomplish'
(cf. impede), demit – `to send away' (cf. submit).