Bilety2kurs / Obschaya_lingvokultura

WORD COMPOSITION.

Noun + noun – the most productive (“heafod-mann” – leader, “song-craeft” – poetry). There were some syntactical compounds (“witena-gemot” – Assembly of Elders).Adjective + noun – less productive (“cwic-seolfor” – quicksilver). Noun + adjective (“mod-cearig” – sorrowful). Adjective + adjective (“wid – cuþ” – widely known).

Bahuvrihi type (“mild-heort” – merciful, later “an-hyrnede” – one horned). Stylistic reference of OE words:

1)neutral words;

2)learned words:

3)poetic words.

11. The Scandinavian Invasions. The Age of Vikings.

As you know Scandinavian invasions had a great impact for the course of the English history and the development of the English language. Scandinavian raids into the territory of Britain started in the 8th century. By the second half of the 9th century the Scandinavians had conquered a considerable part of England to the North of the Thames and according to the conditions of the Wed more treaty of 878 that territory was passed to the invaders. The part of the country occupied by the Scandinavians acquired a special status and was called Danelag (the “Territory of the Danish Law). The treaty obliged the Scandinavians to recognize the sovereignty of the English king. But the peace between England and the Scandinavians was not stable. In the end of the 10th century the war resumed and at the beginning of the 11th century all England was conquered by the Scandinavians. England became a part of the vast Scandinavian Empire and was ruled by the Danish king Cnut (or Canut). The Scandinavian reign in England lasted up to 1042 when the restoration of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty took place in the country.

Viking (from Old Norse) – the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants and pirates who raided, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia, the North Atlantic Islands (8-11centuries).

The Vikings:

Came from Scandinavia

Spoke Old Germanic dialects (Old Danish, Old Swedish)

Lived in tribes, they were pagans

Their source of profit was slave taking

Their ideology was force, ruthless and power.

12.The circumstances of Anglo-Scandinavian Contacts. Scandinavian influence on the

English language.

The Scandinavian dialects spoken by the invaders were well understood by the inhabitants of England. The influence of the Scandinavian dialects, especially in the lexicon, was considerable already in the Old English period. It is natural that the lexical influence was stronger in the North of the country, in the “Territory of the Danish Law”.

The fact that The English population and the Scandinavian invaders could understand each other comparatively easily is explained by the close relation of their languages: both English and Old Scandinavian belong to the same West Germanic subgroup of the Germanic group of the Indo-European family of languages. Besides, The English population and the invaders were approximately on the same level social, economic and cultural development.

Many words in English and in Scandinavian had no distinctions above the structural phonetic and morphological characteristics of the two languages.

OE fisc ‘fish’ vs. OScan fiskr OE sunu ‘son’ vs. OScan sunr

The above mentioned close relation of Old English and Old Scandinavian caused the specific mechanism of the penetration of Scandinavian words into the English lexicon. As A.I.Smirnitsky wrote, there was interaction between English and Scandinavian dialect variants which were perceived as regular variants of one and the same word. As a result of this interaction in the language there appeared a third variant which combined the features of both the dialectal variants - English and Scandinavian.

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13. Scandinavian borrowings

The Scandinavian words borrowed by the English language on the verge of the Old English and Middle English periods were mainly words of everyday life. The Scandinavian borrowings enriched the Middle English lexicon with synonyms.

Thus, from the Old Scandinavian word angr ‘grief’ the Middle English anger ‘grief; anger’ was originated.

The derivative adjective angry ‘angry, irritated’ came into use as a synonym of the original adjective wrooth ‘angry, cross’.

The Scandinavian word skye ‘sky’ came into use alongside with original heven ‘sky, heaven’. Later these synonyms developed as stylistically differentiated words.

The word skile ‘skill’ of the Scandinavian origin replaced a more bulky Old English word orthanc ‘art, skill’. The Scandinavian verb taka ‘to take’ was borrowed in the Middle English language in the form taken ‘to take’

and gradually replaced the original verb niman having the same meaning.

Among the Scandinavian borrowings there is such a word as sister ‘sister’ This word was phonetically close to the original word with the same meaning. The Old English noun sweostor through the intermediate form swustor by the 14th century had passed into the form suster. But the form suster replaced by the Scandinavian form syster which later changed into sister.

Alongside with the frequent words of everyday use some military terms were borrowed from the Scandinavian language, e.g.: fylcian ‘to form up the troops’, lith ‘fleet’. Later these words were replaced by French borrowings.

Other words that have come from the Scandinavian language are as follows: lagu ‘law’; wrang ‘injustice’; husbonda ‘host’; casten ‘to cast’; callen ‘to call’; feolaga ‘companion, fellow-traveler’; egg ‘egg’; fitten ‘to fit’; fro ‘back’; hap ‘chance, luck’; hitten ‘to hit’; leg ‘leg’; low ‘low’; meek ‘meek’; scathe ‘harm, damage’; swayn ‘boy, young man’; til ‘before, till, until’; thwert ‘across’; want ‘need, want’, etc.

It is remarkable that even the system of pronouns underwent the Scandinavian influence.

The Scandinavian form of the personal pronoun of the 3rd person plural thei or they (from the Scandinavian form their) replaced the original pronoun hie. From the Scandinavian form of the Genitive case theirra and the Dative case theim the Middle English forms their and them were produced.

According to V.D.Arakin’s evaluation the Middle English lexicon was enriched by 650 words of the Scandinavian origin.

14. The Norman Conquest (1066). The circumstances of Anglo-Norman contacts.

In 1066, upon Edward the Confessor’s death, the Elders of England proclaimed Harold Godwin king of England. As soon as the news reached William, Duke of Normandy, he mustered a big army by promise of land and plunder (one third of his soldiers were Normans, others, mercenaries from all over Europe) and, with the support of the Pope, landed in Britain.

In the battle of Hastings, fought in October 1066, Harold was killed and the English were defeated. This date is commonly known as the date of the Norman Conquest. William was crowned and became the king of England. Most of the lands of the Anglo-Saxon lords passed into the hands of the Norman barons, William’s own possessions comprising about one third of the country. The Normans occupied all the important posts in the church, in the government, and in the army.

Following the conquest hundreds of people from France crossed the Channel to make their home in Britain. They came to Britain as French speakers and bearers of French culture.

The most immediate consequence of the Norman domination in Britain is to be seen in the wide use of the French language in many spheres of life. For almost 3 hundred years French was the official language of administration. It was:

The language of the king’s court;

The law courts;

The church;

The army and the castle.

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The intellectual life, literature and education were in the hands of French-speaking people.

French alongside with Latin was the language of writing. Nevertheless, England never stopped being an English-speaking country. The majority of the population used their own language.

At first 2 languages existed side by side without mingling but then they began to penetrate into each other. The Norman barons and the French town-dwellers had to pick up English words to make themselves understood, while the English began to use French words in current speech.

The earliest sign of the official recognition of English by the Norman kings was the famous Proclamation issued by Henry III in 1258 to the councilors in Parliament. It was written in 3 languages: French, Latin and English.

The influence of the Norman Conquest on the vocabulary and spelling was direct. The influence upon the vocabulary was extensive but not deep. As for the spelling – new letters – k, q, w, v – appeared in English, as well as new spelling devices – sh, ch, ou.

The influence in the sphere of phonetics was indirect. There appeared secondary stress.

New words:

1.Government and legislation (e.g. government, court)

2.Military life (e.g. army, battle, peace, victory, general, colonel)

3.Religion (e.g. pray, saint, clergy)

4.Names of cities and crafts (e.g. painter, carpenter, barber)

5.Words of everyday life (e.g. air, place, cousin)

6.Entertainment (e.g. dance, cards, dinner, breakfast)

Different processes with the words:

A native word changed its meaning (e.g. at the beginning ‘harvest’ meant ‘autumn’)

Both words were preserved but they became stylistically different (begin – commence, leave –

abandon)

Etymological doublets (yard – garden)

The use of a foreign tongue as a state language, the diversity of the dialects and the decline of the written form of English created a situation extremely favourable for increased variation and for more intensive linguistic change.

15. Linguistic situation after the Norman Conquest. Middle English dialects

1. The Norman Conquest is the greatest event in the history of the English Language. The three hundred years of the domination of French affected English more than any other foreign influence before or later.

As a result of long wars with Franca John Lackland lost the French provinces including the dukedom of Normandy. It cut off the Normans in Britain from France and speeded up the decline of Anglo-French language (It was French in fact. Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman is a name of the tongue that was spoken by Norman conquerors, but differed from Parisian French a bit).

The most immediate consequence of the Norman domination in Britain is to be seen in the wide use of the French language. It became the language of:

official documents and administration

king’s court

the church

the army

education and writing (as well as Latin)

every-day language of nobles, the higher clergy and many towns-people in the South

But for all that many people still spoke English. The lower classes in the towns and in the country-side continued to speak it. Since most of lower-class-people were illiterate, English mostly used for spoken classification

It’s important to notice that two languages were not absolutely separated from each other, of course. At first they existed side by side without much mingling, but then they slowly began to penetrate each other. The Norman nobility and town-dwellers had to learn English words to make themselves understood and the English began to use French words in current speech as it could mark them as people of higher standing could provide them social prestige. Many people became bilingual.

After a while English became a living language of entire people while French was a language of certain social spheres official events (The earliest sight of the official recognition of English – PROCLAMATION by Henry III, it was written in 3 languages: Latin, French and English).

The French influence added new features to the regional and social differentiation of the language. New words were not adopted immediately by all speakers of English, they were first used in some variations that differed from region to region. This led to growing dialectal differences, regional and social.

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2. Middle English Dialects

The regional ME dialects had developed from respective OE dialects. It’s hard to create a map of all the dialects, as there was very few written, dated and localized documents.

But the following dialects could be distinguished:

Southern group

The Kentish and the Southern-Western dialects. Kentish – from OE Kentish dialect, but it had extended its

area.

Southern-West – from OE Saxon dialects (East and West Saxon). East Saxon dialects became more important, since it made the basis of the dialect of London in 12th 13th c.

+ Gloucester dialect and London Dialect

Midland (Central) dialects – From OE Mercian dialects (divided into West Midland and East

Midland)

It subdivided than into North-East Midland, South-West Midland and North-West Midland. In ME the Midland area became more diversified linguistically than the OE Mercia.

The Northern dialects – from OE Northumbrian (Many dialects including the Yorkshire, the Lancashire dialects and the dialects that later became known as Scottish dialect)

The EME dialectal division was preserved in the succeeding centuries, though even in Late ME the linguistic situation changed. English was reestablished as the main language. One of the regional dialects, the London Dialect, prevailed over the others.

16. Effect of the Norman Conquest upon the English language development.

The Early ME Period 1066-1350

The origin of normans: Normans= OE Northmen. Scandinavians who settled in Northern France and formed the Dukedom of Normandy , they were bearers of French culture and the French language.

Events preceding the Norman Conquest:

1)After the collapse of the Scandinavian rule the Anglo-Saxon rule was restored but not for long. The new English King Edward the Confessor had been brought up in France and had many relatives there. He invited To England many Norman advisors, gave them lands and appointed them for important positions in the government and church.

2)Edward managed the ensure that both Harold the Earl of Wessex and William the Duke of Normandy could claim the throne.

3)After Edward`s death Harold was proclaimed by Elders of England Witanaзemot King of England. The

Norman Duke William mastered a big army and with support of the Pope of Rome landed in England and invaded the country.

The Battle of Hastings (October 14,1066)

King Harold was killed and William proclaimed himself a King and was later crowned in Westminster.

Circumstances of Anglo-norman contacts and of the conquest:

1)During the Scandinavian Conquest there were no social and political barriers between the invaders and native population, but the Norman conquerors formed a ruling class.

2)The ruling class of the Anglo-Saxon nobility vanished completely during and after the Norman Conquest. Some of them perished in battles, others were executed, those who stayed alive emigrated and so the native nobility was replaced by Norman Barons.

3)The Normans were culturally and linguistically different. For more than 2 centuries after the conquest the English country was ruled by French Speaking Kings and nobility. French was the language of state, law, church.

4)There was a linguistic gap between 2 social groups:

the English lower social strata ( peasantry and townspeople)

the French nobility

Situation in England after the conquest:

1)The lands of England became William`s personal property (20 %- King, 25 % - church , 50 %- nobles)

2)Feudalism was established, (feu) from French the land, given for duty or service to a lord

King

vassal greater nobles

knights	Freemen
serfs	serfs

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3) Domesday Book appeared (1086)- the day of Judgement.

It took several years to subjugate the whole country (Mercia and Northumbria). All the uprisings were put down, and the rebels were punished severely. Anglo-Saxon wooden buildings were replaced by castles.

Changes in the life of Anglo-Saxsons.

The abolition of the great Earldoms			The country was divided into shires or counties
(Northumbria, Mercia and Wesse[, established in the
time of the Scandinavian ruke
The Witenagemot			Great council of bishop and barons

2) Sheriffs appeared- a royal official in each shire, who administered justice, presided in the King`s name over the shire courts, collected taxes. They were responsible for gathering army for the king.

Supporters of William`s severe policy.

1) Norman barons; 2) those Anglo-saxon lords who were left in prossession of their estates and needed a strong king to protect them against the tyranny of barons; 3) the Church of England that was granted some privileges and was the greatest feudal lord in the country ;4) townspeople

Prosessions of William the First

1)Normandy was given to him by his father, so, in fact William was a duke of Normandy and had to recognize the King of France his Lord.

2)England was won in the war, so the management of Normandy and England became a family business/

John Lacklander

In the early 13 th c John Lacklander was on the throne. He was unpopular with 3 most important groups: nobles, merchants, church, as he was a greedy man and he wasn`t a good king. He took money but couldn`t protect his vassals during the hostilities with France.

2)John called on lords to fight for him in France but they no longer trusted him, they joined angry merchants in London and John had to sign an agreement known as Magna Carta . The aim of this was to make sure that John would never go beyond his rights as a feudal lord.

3)Finally, a committee of 24 lords was established to make sure that King John would keep his promises

4)Magna Carta is known as a stage in the collapse of English feudalism based on links between lord and

vassal.

5)Nobles no longer acted as vassals but as a class.

Linguistic situation after Norman Conquest:

Consequences:

1)The most immediate consequence was the wide use of French in many spheres of life.

2)French became an official language of administration, church, nobility, education, literature.

3)Alongside the Latin was the language of writing

4)Teaching was largely conducted in French and Latin texts were translated into French instead of English

5)Latin was continued to be used in religious rituals, in legal documents and in the texts of a scientific and philosophical character.

6)English in its spoken form was used by lower classes in the countryside

A linguistic gap appeared. There were French nobility, native lower classes, a group of bilingual population (bilingual populations means tradesmen, craftsmen, merchants who in their creativity had to maintain contracts between peasantry and nobility.

7)The Norman Conquest put an end to the domination of West-Saxon dialect

8)At first English and French existed side by side without mingling, but slowly they began to permeate each other, the Norman barons and French town-dwellers had to pick up English words to make themselves understood, while the English began to use French words in current speech.

17. Written Records of the Early Middle English Period

For a long time after the Norman Conquest there were two written languages in England, both of them foreign: Latin and French. English was held as a tongue used only by common illiterate people and not fit for writing.

The earliest samples of Early ME prose are the new entries made in the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLES from the year 1122 to the year 1154, known as the PETERBOROUGH CHRONICLE.

He works in the vernacular were mostly of a religious nature. The earliest of these religious works, the POEMA MORALE represents the Kentish dialect of the late 12th or the early 13th c.

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Of particular interest for the history of the language as ORMULUM a poem composed by the monk Orm in about 1200 in the North-East Midland dialect. It consists of unrhymed metrical paraphrases of the Gospels. Its most outstanding feature is the spelling system devised by the author. He doubted the consonants after short vowels in closed syllables and used special semicircular marks over short vowels in open syllables.

Among other works of religious nature we may mention ANCRENE RIWLE, a prose treatise in the SouthWestern dialect of the early 13th c. and two later poems in the Northern dialect: CURSOR MUNDI, an amplified version of the Gospels, and the PRICKE OF CONSCIENCE, a translation attributed to Richard Rolle of Hampole.

Alongside these religious works there sprang up a new kind of literature inspired by the French romances of chivalry. Romances were long compositions in verse or prose, describing the life and adventures of knights.

One of the earliest poems of this type was BRUT composed by Layamon in the early 13th c. It’s a free rendering of the BRUT D’ANGLETERRE by Wace, an Anglo-Norman writer of the 12th c. It’s noteworthy that the

West Midland dialect of BRUT contains very few French words.

Some romances deal with more recent events and distinctly English themes: HAVELOK THE DANE (East Midland dialect of the late 13th c.), KING HORN.

Among the Early ME text in the South-Western dialects we should mention THE LONDON PROCLAMATION of the year 1258 and the political poems of the early 14 th c. which voiced the complaint of the poor against their oppressors. In the poem EVIL TIMES OF EDWARD II the unknown author described the vices of the clergy and the nobility as the causes of the wretched condition of the people.

As seen from this survey Early ME written records represent different local dialects. The dialects were relatively equal as forms of the written language, beneath the twofold oppression of Anglo-Norman and Latin writing. They retained a certain literary authority until it was overshadowed in the 14th c. by the prestige of the London written language.

18. Social and political situation in the Classical Middle English period. Crown and Parliament

After the Norman Conquest it became harder to grow enough food for everyone. There was a great poverty and hunger. The peasants were driven out of forests and punished severely if they killed any forest animals.

The charges often made landlords richer and peasants poorer. Larger landlords had to pay fewer feudal taxes, many couldn`t afford to pay rent and they lost their lands. Some of those landless villagers went into towns to become blacksmiths, carpenters and tillers.

The kings granted charters of freedom freeing the inhabitants from feudal duties to the local lord. Inside the town walls people were able to develop social and economic organizations free from feudal rule.

Guilds controlled society and the economy within towns and cities. There were brotherhoods of merchants and craftsmen. They wanted the beginnings of a middle class and capitalist economy.

London at that time was a very important commercial, political and cultural centre. The capital was transferred there a few years before the Norman Conquest. English kings were crowned in West Abbey, it was the seat of Administration.

The 14th was the century of war, plague and disorder. Probably 1/3 of Europe`s population died of plague. Britain suffered from the damages of war:

1.with Scots, Ireland and Wales, which were trying to throw off the English rule

2.a long struggle against the French Crown

England was almost exhausted economically by cost of maintaining armies.

Crown and Parliament

Lords were less able to provide the king with the money he needed. By the end of 13th century the income from the land was less than 40% of the royal income. The king needed more and more money and for this purpose he created a Representative institution to provide the money by taxation.

The development of parliament caused to the beginnings of a new relationship between the middle class and the king. When asked for money by the king, Parliament asked to see the royal accounts. For the 1st time the king allowed himself to be accountable to Parliament.

Merchants and country gentlemen wanted to protect their interests and were very anxious to influence the king`s policies both at home and abroad.

During the expensive wars against France and Scotland the tax was increased to ten times the previous amount and there was an immediate revolt in East Anglia and Kent, two of the richer parts of the country.

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Wat Tyler – was a leader of the Peasant`s Revolt 1381 in England. He was the first to call for fair treatment of poor people, he believed that when God created man he did not make one man master over another.

The revolt only lasted 4 weeks. During that period the peasants took control of much of London. A number of poorer townspeople also revolted.

When Wat Tyler was killed (1381) the King skillfully quieted the angry crowd and promised to meet the people`s demand including the end of serfdom. However he did not keep his promise and said: “Serfs you are and serfs you shall remain”.

The danger of revolt was a warning to the kings and the wealthy. It was the first sign of growing discontent with the state.

19. French Cultural Patterns. The Age of Chivalry

At that time Latin was considered to be the language of the Church and education, French – of law and the nobles. Most English people spoke neither, it was a long time before English became the language of the ruling class.

The term Chivalry appears in the early 12th, it can be traced through French to Latin caballus – a Roman cavalryman`s horse. The link was between the fighter on horseback, the knight and the brave and honorable behavior that he was expected to display. By the Middle Ages knight had taken on the connotations of bravery, decency, modesty.

Chivalry was a useful way of persuading to fight by creating the idea that war was a noble and glorious thing. The Code of Chivalry described the way in which a perfect knight should behave: to fight for his good name if

insulted, to serve God and the King and help a lady in need. It contained the conceptions of honor and duty to the king`s lord or senior, which had originated in France.

The Black Prince

Edward III and his son, the Black Prince, were greatly admired in England for their courage on the battlefield and for their courtly manners. The Black Prince, who was a living example of chivalry in England, was feared in France for his cruelty.

King Arthur

During the reign of King Edward III (13th c.) interest grew in the legendary King Arthur. He was probably a Celtic ruler who fought the Anglo-Saxons. The 14th legend, created around Arthur and the round table, included both the imagined magic and mystery of the Celts and also the knightly values of the court.

20. Restoration of English in Law, State, Literature and Education

For almost 3 hundred years French was the official language of administration, Latin was the language of writing and English in its spoken form was used only by the lower class in towns or in the countryside. Socially they were craftsmen, tradesmen, merchants who in their activity had to maintain contacts between the nobility and the peasantry. Besides a good command of French was a matter of social prestige.

The famous London Proclamation issued by Henry III in 1258 was written in three languages, English including. By the end of the 14th c. English was restored in the law, the state and finally literature and education. About the same time the Norman French nobility lost its domination and importance. Norman French was no longer prestigious, being regarded provincial or even corrupt. The French of the centre of France (of Paris) was gaining influence and was already taught a foreign language.

Between 1380 and 1384 there was made, by Wycliff and his followers, the translation of the Bible from Latin into English. They believed that everyone should be able to read the Bible in English and be guided by it independently of church control. Wycliff`s translation of the Bible was: written in the London dialect and copied in manuscript; read by many people all over the country; spread this form of English.

It was the beginning of the struggle of the English church for its independence of the papacy, the Roman Catholic Church.

21. Written records of the classical Middle English Period

The second half of the 14th century can be characterized as the flourishing of literature. At that time most authors wrote in the London dialect and by the end of the 14th century it became a sort of literary pattern to be imitated by provincial authors. The literary texts of the time belong to different genres but poetry prevails over prose.

The Middle English period can be also called the age of Chaucer. His Canterbury Tales show a vivid picture of contemporary England. Chaucer describes people of all walks of life, who performed a pilgrimage to the shrine of

St Tomas Becket at Canterbury. Chaucer’s literary language, based on the London dialect, is known as Classical Middle English. Although he didn’t create a literary language he set up a pattern to be followed in the 15th century.

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Another writer of the period is William Langland (1332~1400). He wrote Piers Plowman [pɪəz plaumən] – a satire attacking the vices and weakness of various social classes and sympathizing with the poor. The poem describes a vision in which different objects represent good and evil, and how Piers helps a group of people to search for truth through Christianity. It describes the life of ordinary people in great detail and criticizes the social and moral evils of the time. It is written in a dialect combining West Midland and London features.

John Gower (Chaucer’s friend) was an outstanding poet of his time who wrote in London dialect. He wrote a vast collection of stories arranged to illustrate the seven deadly sins – Confessio Amantis.

Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory continued the popular Arthurian cycle of knightly romances(inspired by French literature).

John Barbour – the Scottish poet of the 14th century who wrote The Bruce. He describes the real history of Robert Bruce, a hero and military chief who defeated the English army in the fight for the independence of Scotland.

22. Middle English Spelling.

The written forms of the words in Late ME texts resemble their modern forms, though the pronunciation of the words was different. Many new devices were introduced into the system of spelling; some of them reflected the sound changes which had been completed or were still in progress in ME; others were graphic replacement of OE letters by new letters and digraphs.

Modified runes:

Ƥ ‘thorn’	Digraph ‘th’
‘wynn’	‘w’
‘ӕ’,’œ’	Fell into disuse
ʒ ‘yoh’	‘g’

There were many innovations in ME spelling which reveal an influence of the French scribal tradition:

a)New letters (k, q, w, v, j)

b)New spelling devices:

Digraphs for both vowels and consonants (ou/ow, gh, th, ch, sh)

Doubling of the letter to show the length of the root syllable (root)

The final e for the same purpose (rote)

c)Y and w were used at the end of a word for ornamental purposes: OE bysiʒ - ModE bysy

OE boʒa – ModE bow

d)To avoid confusion of resembling letters, o was employed to indicate short [u] (next to n,m,x) as letters with down strokes were hard to distinguish in a hand-written text:

OE sunu – ME sone – ModE son

e)The one-to-one correspondence of letters and sounds was lost:

O – [o], [o:], [u] U, V – [u] C – [k], [s] G – [g], [dʒ]

Spelling was created in ME under the influence of French. It preserves its principle features in modern times.

23. Middle English vocabulary

Many Scandinavian and French words were borrowed by the English language. (Outer means of enriching the vocabulary.)

Borrowings from Scandinavian dialects (Old Norse): 400-500 remain in use (law, sky, egg, wrong, take, they/them, same etc)

The semantic spheres of Scandinavian borrowings were everyday life:

Scandinavian place names (1500 places in Northern England): -by (Derby, Rugby), -thorp(Bishopthorp, Althorp), -thwaite(Longthwaite), -toft(Nottoft, Brimtoft), -ster(Ulster).

Scandinavian personal names: modern family names hat end in -son (Davidson,Johnson)

Conditions and consequences

The Eng lang borrowed words for which there were no synonyms (husband, law,fellow)

The Eng synonym was ousted by the Scandinavian borrowing (eng. Niman – sc.taken

Both the eng. And sc. Words were preserved, but became different in meaning (native – heaven, sc. Sky)

A sc. And an eng. Word formed etyological doublets, as they originated from the same Common

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Germanic source( Com Germ Skurt – native Shirt, sc. Skirt)

Words were the same semantically, but differed phonetically. Native words acquired sc. Pronounciation (OE зiefan – Sc gefa – ModE to give)

OR the pronounciaton was preserved, but the meaning changed under sc. Influence (dream: OE joy, pleasure – ModE sleeping, vision)

Both an Old Norse and an OE words were used for the same idea (OE wish – ON want, OE sick – ON ill)

24. Means of enriching vocabulary in ME: inner and outer.

OUTER MEANS. In ME the English language was rapidly changing in the vocabulary with tens of thousands of new words arriving from French, Latin and Scandinavian dialects. From French alone 10000 words were taken into English between 1100 and 1500, three quarters of which are still in use.

These are

1) government and legislation terms such as government, court, judge, crime, prison, parliament, and such titles as baron, prince and duke (but not king and queen, which are native words).

2)Good many words describing military life are French borrowings as well: army, battle, colonel, lieutenant, major, banner, etc.

3)Names of city crafts such as painter, tailor, grocer, barber and carpenter (not country occupations, which preserved their English names: shepherd, smith) as well as

4)names of meals and some food (supper, dinner, beef, mutton, pork, but not breakfast) also came from

French.

5)Some words denoting leisure activities (feast, dance, pleasure, music), science and art terms (grammar, literature, medicine, painting, poet, square) are of French origin. Besides,

6)French everyday words such as place, large, age, choice, brush, catch; words denoting things in a house

(chair, table, lamp, ceiling), describing nature (air, flower, forest, ocean, river) and relationship ( uncle and aunt, cousin and nephew) came into English in the Middle E. period. Sometimes there was no native word corresponding to a borrowed one (parliament, colonel, government). Sometimes they coexisted, but the English word was either ousted (micel was replaced by large, leode by people, here by army) or it changed its meaning (harvest – осень, now –

урожай, Fr. Autumn – осень) Besides, E. and F. synonyms became often stylistically different: in most cases a French word was of a more elevated style (leave – abandon, wedding – marriage, ship –vessel, ask – demand, work – labour) but still there were some exceptions (thus, E. foe is bookish compared to the F. enemy). Very often there appeared families of words, where some were native and others – French (mouth – oral, see – vision).One more peculiarity is that the E. and the F. word formed etymological doublets: either from Common Endo-European (the E. fatherly and the F. paternal), or from Germanic (yard and garden) and Latin (mint ( OE borrowing from L)and money) Translation loans were also typical of that period (Out of doubt – Hors de doute)

INNER MEANS such as word derivation, composition and conversion became productive from the 15th c. 1)Most OE suffixes have survived: end, en, ester were lost and became inseparable parts of the stem (fyxen),

but ere, ness, ing, dom, hood, ship ( former OE dom, had, scipe), ish, ly, less, full became most productive in that period (partner, darkness, hunting, freedom, childhood, friendship, bluish, angry, friendly,doubtless/full). Besides, some suffixes such as ment (parliament),a/ence (ignorance), able (admirable), ess and age were borrowed from F.

2)On the contrary, many OE prefixes (a, to, an, of , зe) dropped out of use; still some of them continued to be used: be(behave),mis (mistake),un(unable),ut(outcome),ofer (overgrowen),under(unpleasant). Such prefixes as re,de,dis were borrowed from French (redressen,disgiven)

3)Word composition was less productive than in OE, but still there were such patterns as noun+noun (householder) and a verbal noun + noun (working day)(more productive); and noun+adj (headstrong) and adj+noun (sweetheart) (less productive). The most productive type: adj+noun+ed (light-hearted).

4)Conversion was a rather productive means in Late ME, and mainly verbs developed from nouns (fire - fyren,time – timen). Still the reverse process was also possible, though rare (breken –breke, looken –looke). Historical homonyms (words which sounded similar due to the loss if endgins, but were different parts of speech) were typical of Late ME (OEdrinc – druncan; ME – drink-drink).

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25. Social and political situation at the end of the 14th c. and the beginning of the 15th c. The Hundred Years War (1337-1453). The War of the Roses (1455-1485). The Tudor period.

In the 13th c. within the feudal system began to take shape new economic relations. The villain was gradually superseded by the copy-holder, and ultimately, by the rent-paying tenant. Feudal oppression grew and the conditions of the peasants deteriorated which led to the famous peasants’ rebellions of the 14th and 15th c. The village craftsmen travelled about the country looking for a greater market for their produce, so they became separated from agriculture and formed new social groups:

poor town artisans

the town middle class

rich merchants

owners of workshops

money-lenders

The changes in the economic and social conditions resulted in the intermixture of people coming from different regions and in the strengthening of social ties between the various parts of the country. These changes were also accompanied by political unification: the end of the Hundred Years’ War (a series of wars between England and

France which powerfully strengthened the sense of national identity in both England and France, and created a mutual antagonism) when the feudal lords and their hired armies came home from France, life in Britain became more turbulent than ever, since the warlike nobles, disappointed with their defeat in France, fought for power at the King’s

Court; continued anarchy and violence broke out into a civil war known as the Wars of the Roses (called so by Walter Scott in the 19th c.). It’s political result – the rise of Absolute Monarchy on British soil with Henry Tudor as the 1st absolute monarch supported by the gentry and merchants (the future middle class).

Some other results of the Wars of the Roses:

1.By 1485 the “old” nobility had nearly destroyed itself: almost half the lords of the 60 noble families had died in the wars and their lands had gone to the king.

2.As a result Henry 7 had more power and money than the earlier kings.

3.The king kept the friendship of the merchants and the gentry.

4.The two social groups that were beginning to overlap wanted peace and prosperity.

5.The king created a “new” nobility from among them, and men unknown before now became Henry’s

statesmen.

1485 marks also the end of the Middle Ages in England. In the late Middle Ages the society was still based upon rank.

The Tudor Period

The absolute monarchy of the Tudors was based on a new relation of class forces: the crown had the support of the middle class. Henry 7 reduced the power of the old nobles and created a new aristocracy out of the rural and town bourgeoisie. The next step in the creation of an absolute monarchy was to break the monopoly of the medieval Papacy. This was achieved by his successor, Henry 8, who quarreled with the Pope, declared himself head of the English Church and dissolved the monasteries: the victory of the Crown was complete.

26. The English Reformation. Translation of the Bible.

The English Reformation (1529-1536) was in the first place a political movement. Henry VIII, who quarrelled with the Pope, declared himself head of the English Church (Act of Supremacy) and dissolved the monasteries. The reform provided the king with new sources of money and played a decisive role in political and economical unification of England. It was the next step in the establishing of an absolute monarchy.

The main factors of the Reformation:

1)decline of feudalism

2)rise of nationalism

3)rise of common law

4)new knowledge

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