Booklet_4th_ed_12-13_injaz

M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

6.3. on sūþeweardum þ m lande (‘in the southern part of the land’).

It is however perfectly possible for adjectives to follow the noun, or for one to precede it and another to follow it:

6.4.denum eallum(‘to all the Danes’);

6.5.micle meras fersce(‘big fresh-water meres’).

Itisevenpossibleforadeterminertofollowthe noun,especiallyif itis emphatic:

6.6. Ic eom micle yldra þonne ymbh-wyrft þes. (‘I am much older than this world’).

7. Titles of rank usually follow the name they qualify:

7.1. Ælfred cyninʒ (‘King Alfred’).

8. The Subject of a sentence or clause was frequently unexpressed. In OE there was a range of verbs (so called ‘inpersonal verbs’) which could occur without a subject in the nominative case, though there was often the possibility of these verbs also occur with a ‘normal’ subject:

8.1.Norþan snīwde. (‘From the North snowed’).

8.2.‘Buʒon tō bence’. (‘[They] bent to the bench’).

Topic 2. Middle English Syntax

1.Subject began to be expressed even in impersonal sentences:

1.1.‘Me thinketh it’ → ‘It seemed me’ → ‘It seemed to me’.

2. Position and order of adjectives in a sentence:

2.1. ‘… a gentyl and noble esquyer’.

2.2. ‘… meny cites and tounes, faire, noble and ryche’.

3. Widespread use of prepositions, some of them still occasionally followed the object:

3.1.‘… to Caunterbury they wende’. (‘They went to Canterbury’).

3.2.‘… after þe lawes of oure londe … (‘… according to the laws of our land’).

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

3.3.‘… he seyd him to…’ (‘ …he said to him…’);

3.4.‘the place that I of speak’.

4. The verb to be developed as a passive auxiliary; by developed as the agent marker:

4.1. ‘(men) that wol nat be governed by hir wyves’.

5. Though single negative began to be used in the 14th century, multiple negation was still widely spread:

5.1. ‘Ne schalnon werienno linnene cloth’ (‘No oneshallwear anylinenclothes’).

Topic 3. Early New English Syntax

1.Direct word order was finally established by the 17th century:

1.1.‘I know not how to tell thee who I am:

My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,

Because it is an enemy to thee…’ (Romeo & Juliet).

2. Until about 1700 do had no emphatic function in the context: 2.1. we did approach; seamen doe call; the seas doe mount.

2.2. ‘If they do see thee, they will murder thee’ (Romeo & Juliet). 3. Negatives could be formed either with or without do (an auxiliary verb)

3.1. I doubt it not (Romeo & Juliet);

I do not doubt you (Henry IV);

Or if there were, it not belongs to you (Henry IV).

4. Yes – No and Wh – questions could be formed either by Subject – Verb inversion, or by Subject – Aux Verb inversion:

4.1.Came he not home tonight? (Romeo & Juliet);

4.2.Do you not love me? (Much Ado about Nothing);

4.3.What sayde he? (As You Like It);

4.4.What do you see? (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). 5. Structural substitutes developed:

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

5.1.And there is the most fayr Chirche: and it is that of Seynt Sophie.

5.2.His mother was a witch and one so strong, that could control the moone.

5.3.There’s a man there.

5.4.It is pleasant to dance.

5.5.I find it pleasant to dance.

5.6.The work is a remarkable one.

5.7.They married just as your father did.

6.Multiple negation in Shakespeare:

6.1.I am not valiant neither (Othello).

6.2.Is’tnot enough, young man,

6.3.That I did never, nonor never can (AMidsummer Night’s Dream).

7. Predicative constructions developed:

7.1.She had no desire for me to stay.

7.2.I saw her dancing.

7.3.They could not go anywhere without his seeing how all the men

were attracted by her.

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

Historical Development of the English Vocabulary

Topic 1. The Indo-European and Germanic heritage

1.IE vocabulary.

a)kinship terms: father, mother, brother;

b)basic verbs: be, lie, eat;

c)basic adjectives: long, red;

d)terms for natural phenomena: sun, moon;

e)parts of the body: foot, head;

f)numerals: two, three;

2.Germanic vocabulary: eorðe (earth), ʒrēn, hors, hand, land, smæl.

3.Specifically OE words: OE. clipian (E. call), OE. brid (E. bird);

wīfman / wimman < wīf + man; hlāford < hlāf (NE. loaf) + weard

(“keeper”); hlæfdiʒe < hlāf + diʒe “knead”; scīrʒerefa (“chief of the

shire”, NE. sheriff).

4.Semantic shifts from IE to PG: Latin vesper (“evening”)> PG west.

5.Sound Interchange: rīdan (v) – rād (n); sinʒan (v) – sonʒ (n); fōd

(n) – fēdan (v); full (adj) – fyllan (v) [NE. full – to fill]; lonʒ (adj) –

lenʒðu (n) [NE. long – length].

Topic 2. Word-building and Loan Words

1. Affixation:

Suffixes to produce Nouns:

•Suffix –ere (to denote people, trade, profession): bæcere < bacan (to

bake); fiscere < fisc (fish); bōcere, wrītere (E. writer) < wrītan;

–estre: bæcestre (woman baker), spinnestre (spinner);

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

• Suffix –inʒ (to denote people who belong to tribes, clans): king <

cyn(n) [‘clan’] + –inʒ (cynninʒ ‘head of clan or tribe’);

•–dom (quality): wīsdom < wīs; frēodom < frēo;

•–scipe (derives from the noun scipe [‘form, position, state’]): frēondscipe < frēond (E. friend);

•–inʒ / –unʒ (abstract nouns to denote process, action, state, result were built from verbs): leornunʒ (E. learning) < learnian ; warnunʒ (E. warning) < warnian (E. to warn);

•–ness / –nis: deorcnis (< deorc ‘dark’); sēocnis (< sēoc ‘sick’),

ʒōd-nis (‘goodness’).

Suffixes to produce Adjectives:

•–iʒ : clūdiʒ < clūd (rocks, stones); mihtiʒ (E. mighty) < miht;

ʒræd-iʒ (‘greedy’);

•–lic (used to mean ‘body’, but evidently lost all semantic ties with the latter): frēondlic < frēond; nihtlic (E. nightly) < niht;

•–full, –leas: ðancfull < ðanc (E. thankful); helpleas < help;

•–isc(denotedbelongingtothetribeorpeople):Enʒlisc<Enʒle(theAngles).

Prefixes to denote nouns and verbs with negative meaning:

•mis–:misdæd(E.misdeed)<dæd;misbēodan(E.totreatbadly)<bēodan;

•un–: unfrīð (OE. war) < frīð (OE. peace); unfæʒer (OE. ugly) <

fæʒer (OE. beautiful), un-riht (OE.‘wrong’) < riht (OE. ‘right’).

2.Compounding.

•N (in nom. case) + N: folc (E. people) + toʒa (‘the one who leads’) > folctoʒa (E. chief, leader); tunʒol (‘star’) + witeʒa (‘scientist’) >

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

tunʒolwiteʒa (‘astrologist’); læce (‘treatment, cure’) + cræft (‘art’) > læcecræft (‘medicine’); hēafod-mann (‘leader’, ‘head-man’); stān-brycʒ

(‘stone bridge’); bōc-cræft ‘literature’ (‘book craft’); eorð-cræft ‘geography’ (OE. eorðe, NE. earth); mann-cynn (‘mankind’); āc-trēo (‘oak-tree’); cradocild (‘a child in cradle, infant’); brēost-hord ‘treasure of the breast’ > ‘heart’,‘thought’;bān-cofa‘chamberforbones’>‘body’.

•N (in gen. case) + N: wītena (gen. pl. of wita [‘a wise man, the oldest’]) +

ʒemōt (‘assembly, council)’ > wītenaʒemōt (‘assembly of Elders’);

Mōnandæʒ (E. Monday) < mōnan (gen. of mōna [‘moon’]) + dæʒ;

Enʒlenaland (E. England) < Enʒlena (gen. of Enʒle) + land; dæʒes (gen. of daʒ) + ēaʒe > ‘day’s eye’ (E. daisy);

•Adj + N: hāliʒ (‘holy’) + dæʒ > hāliʒdæʒ (‘holiday’);

•N + ParticipleI: sæ (‘sea’) + liðend (‘travelling’) > sæliðend (‘sailor’);

•V + N: bæc-hūs (‘bakery’);

Complex adjectives:

•N + Adj: īs (‘ice’) + ceald (‘cold’) > īsceald (‘icecold’);

•Adj + N: stip (‘strong’) + mōd (‘mood, character’) > stipmōd (‘brave’);

•Adj + Adj: fela–mōdiʒ (‘very brave’).

Compound adverbs:

•N (Nomin.) + N (Dative): stycce (‘a piece’) + mælum (dat. pl. of mæl ‘part’) > stycce-mælum (‘here and there’); drop + mælum > dropmælum (‘drop by drop’);

•Preposition + N (not in Nominative): on (‘in, on’) + weʒ> onweʒ

(‘away, away from’); tō + ēacan (dat. sg. of ēaca (‘addition’) > tō-ēacan (‘in addition to…’);

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

More than two-component compounds:

•ryhtnorðanwind (ryht + norðan + wind) > ‘good wind from the north’;

•nihtbutorflēoʒe = NE. night butterfly

Topic 3. Anglo-Saxon and foreign elements in place-names

1)Anglo-Saxon elements in place-names: –borough (‘fortified place’); –ing,

–stow, –sted, –(h)all, –wic (all these words mean ‘place / village’); –ton

(often from OE. tūn ‘enclosure, farmstead’, but also a fairly common development of OE. dūn ‘large hill with a level top’); –ham (OE. hām

‘homestead’ and hamm ‘area enclosed (generally) by water, such as a water meadow’); –worth (OE. worþ ‘enclosure’); –ing (OE. –inʒas

‘the people of’); –feld (OE. feld ‘open country’). –ley (OE. lēah

‘glade, clearing, wood) is one of the most common topographical names in Old English.

Sometimes these elements occur with the name of a man, such as Beorn in Barnsley, or Becca in Beckley: Buckingham (‘the meadow of Bucca’s people’), Nottingham (OE. Snotinʒahām) means ‘the homestead of Snot’s people’. These are probably the names of the original holders of the land.

Anglo-Saxon elements could also be combined with many other kinds of natural and agricultural elements, such as: trees – āc “oak” (Oakley), æsc “ash” (Ashley), beorc “birch” (Berkeley), þorn “thorn” (Thornley); crops and plants – æte “oats” (Oatley), hiewe “hay” (Hailey), hwæte “wheat” (Wheatley); physical features – brād

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

“broad” (Bradley), efen “even, smooth” (Evenley), lanw= “long” (Langley), mōr “marsh” (Morley), stān “stone” (Stanley).

2)Celtic elements in place names:

•they have been preserved as dwr / dover / dor, meaning ‘water’ (Dover), glen (‘valley’), kil (‘church’), mor / maur (‘great’). Among words of Celtic origin in ModE are Kent, Usk, Devon, Cornwall, Cumberland (means ‘the landoftheCymry,thatis,the Welsh)’, London, Winchester, Wye;

•Rivers in Great Britain often have Celtic names: Avon and Ouse are Celtic

words for ‘water’ or ‘stream’; Derwent, Darent and Dart are all forms of the British name for ‘oak river’; the Thames is the ‘dark river’; the Trent has been interpreted as meaning ‘trespasser’, that is, a river with a tendency to flood.

3)Scandinavian elements in place names include –by (‘abode, village’ in Dannish and Norwegian, ‘farm, town’); –toft (‘hoamstead’ in Dannish, ‘hedges place’);

–thorp(e) (‘village’ in Dannish); –thwaite (‘field’ in Norwegian), –beck

(‘stream, spring’).

Topic 4. Loan words

A.Celtic words: bannok (‘bit’); bin (‘bin’); brock (‘badger’); luh/loch (‘lake’); cumb (‘deep valley’); dunn (‘hill, dun’); cross; clugge (‘bell, clock’); bratt (‘cloak’); carr (‘rock’); torr (‘rock’).

B.Latin borrowings:

B1. Before the Anglo-Saxon invasion – wine, pepper, cheese, pear, pea, plant, beet, dish, silk, copper; pound, inch, mile; –caster (–chester, –cester): Lancaster, Manchester, Gloucester;

B2. With introduction of Christianity: pope, bishop, clerk, creed (‘belief’), candle, altar, monk, priest, school, master (‘teacher’);

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

B3. In ENE period (words connected to science, culture, medicine, law, literature):

sculpture, collect, immortal, history, library, solar, recipe, genius.

C.Scandinavian borrowings: law, husband, fellow, window, egg, guest, birth, root, sister, bloom (‘flower’), bread, skirt, sky, smile, tidings; to call, to take, to cast (‘throw’), to lift, to want, to raise; they, them, their; till, fro.

D.French borrowings are represented by a number of semantic groups, among them are terms used:

1)in government – government, royal, state, prince, duke, marshal, warden, treasure;

2)in law – judge, jury, estate, verdict, crime;

3)in learning – study, anatomy, geometry, square, medicine;

4)in art and fashion – art, sculpture, music, colour, image, poet, fashion,

dress, veil, garment, couch, chair, cushion;

5)inreligion–temptation,salvation,confess,convert,charity,solemn,divine;

6)for food – dinner, supper, feast, taste, salmon, beef, veal, mutton, pork, pastry, lemon, orange, raisin.

Topic 5. English as a global language

American English is anything but homogeneous – the notion encompasses not only a rich array of regional forms and some social variation but also, and increasingly so, ethnic varieties shaped by effects of language contact and differential degrees of integration of generations of immigrants into the American mainstream culture. On closer investigation American dialects show a great deal of phonetic, lexical, and grammatical variability. Traditionally, American English versus BrE is reported to include the lexical items: gas (vs. petrol), fall (vs. autumn), railroad (vs. railway), etc.; the pronunciation differences /æ/ (vs. /a:/) in dance, grass, or can’t, unrounded /m/ (vs. /l/) in lot or dollar, and postvocalic /ê/ in car, card, and so on; on the grammatical level, use of have (vs. have got) for possession, will (vs. shall) for 1st person future reference, and a more liberal use of the past (for the present perfect) tense; and

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M. Babenko. Lecture Notes and Practical Tasks in the History of English Language and its Varieties

spellings differences like theater, honor, recognize, and plow (vs. theatre,

honour, recognise, plough). For example, consider the following differences in vocabulary:

American English (AmE)	British English (BrE)
apartment	flat
corn	maize
potato chips	crisps
broiled meat	grilled meat
elevator	lift
first floor	ground floor
radio	wireless
line	queue
bar	pub
vacation	holiday
can	tin
faucet	tap
subway	underground, tube
downtown	uptown
trash can	rubbish bin

Canadian English is traditionally described as a mix of British and American features, with the balance between the two varying by region, by generation (an ongoing Americanization has been observed among the young), and by language level (while the pronunciation base is strongly American, the British component is more clearly visible in some vocabulary items and some spelling practices). This means that Canadian English has a great deal in common with American English, although it is sometimes similar to British English, especially in spelling. Because many of the English speakers who originally inhabited Canada came from the US, there is little difference in the American and Canadian dialects of English. There are also many words and expressions that are unique to Canadian English. Among them, Mountie (a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), chesterfield (sofa, couch), riding (a political constituency), reeve (mayor), first nations (indigenious peoples), housecoat (‘dressing gown’ in AmE or ‘robe’ in BrE), running shoes / runners (‘sneakers’ in AmE or ‘trainers’ in BrE), shack (hut), loonie (informal, the Canadian one-dollar coin), converter (a TV remote control),

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