Download History of English part 2

History of English
part 2
SEMANTIC CHANGE
meaning: combination of the semantic components of a concept
= distinctive features of a referent which the speakers consider contrastive and
relevant
“girl”
not adult
female
human
blond
mob
(un)married
lovely
playful
long-haired
strong-willed
mob
pig-headed
mob
positive
negative
connotation = subjective/cultural association
Semantic change = the change of meaning:
- metaphorical/metonymical use > secondary meaning > primary meaning?
girl
not adult
bird
female
human
blond
mob
(un)married
lovely
playful
long-haired
mob
playful ?
lovely ?
Semantic components are added/dropped/ turned prominent/trivial
appliance
electrical
made by Hoover
by vacuum suction
cleaner
hoover
Examples of semantic changes:
metaphorical: gay (cheerful), alarm (to the arms), big (strong) bitter (biting),
spinster (spinning woman), tall (hadsome), travel (labour)
metonymical: prison (capturing), marathon, road (ride), sky (cloud)
budget (bougette ‘leather bag’), cash (caisse, cassa ‘box), courage (heart)
farm (firma – rent)
expansion: hooligan < Houlihan (Irish surname), Yankee, awful (inspiring
awe), friend (lover)…
narrowing: meat (food), accident, advice, kill (strike), knight, loaf,
maid, husband (house bound), penthouse (appendage)
cattle, chattel (capital ‘wealth), science
deterioration: negro (black), conceit (thought), imbecile (weak)
jeopardy (jeu parti), poison (potion), silly (happy)
amelioration: nice (ignorant), amuse (deceive), humour (moisture),
pretty (crafty, sly)
complex: toilet < toile > toilette > grooming,dressing up > lavatory
IDIOMS AND PHRASES:
time out, big league, out of someone’s league…
front runner, head start, also-ran, give s.o. a run for their money, neck to
neck…
give it the best shot, bark up the wrong tree, hot shot, big shot, long shot…
hat-trick,
rain check, curve ball, ballpark (figure), strike three/out, grand slam,
step up to the plate
kick-off,
throw in the towel, real McCoy, hit below the belt
blue-chip, under the table,
call the shots
learn the ropes
bootleg, highjack, kidnap
freelance, (wear) heart on one’s sleeve, round table,
Pyrrhic victory (“one more such victory and we are lost”)
peeping Tom
red tape
on/off the wagon
rain cats and dogs
kick the bucket, spitting image
POLYSEMY – WHICH MEANING IS THE RIGHT ONE?
PRAGMATIC INFERENCE
RELYANCE ON PRAGMATIC INFERENCE – PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES
GRAMMATICAL CHANGES
grammar – a system of morpho-syntactic tools which the speakers of a language
use to convey mandatory information (grammatical categories)
two aspects of grammatical change:
- the number (list) grammatical categories changes:
the emergence of feminine gender in Indo-European languages,
the loss of dual in most Indo-European languages, the loss of
aorist in Slovene, the general loss of grammatical categories in
pidgin languages, the emergence of grammatical categories in
creole languages
- the encodement of grammatical categories changes
grammaticalization – full content words become function words and
function words can subsequently turn into inflections
Grammatical categories
Word classes in Old English
nouns
verbs
pronouns:
-personal
-demonstrative
-possessive
adjectives
numerals:
-cardinal
-ordinal
verbs
adverbs
prepositions
conjunctions
grammatical categories associated with the noun:
OLD ENGLISH
MODERN ENGLISH
number: singular, plural
singular, plural
case:
nominative, genitive, dative, common case,
accusative
possessive case
gender: masculine, feminine, neuter natural gender
grammatical categories associated with the verb:
OLD ENGLISH
person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
tense: present, preterite
mood:
aspect:
voice:
indicative, imperative, subjunctive
active, passive
MODERN ENGLISH
1st, 2nd, 3rd
present, present perfect, past,
past perfect, future, future perfect
indicative, imperative, (subjunctive)
progressive, non-progressive
active, passive
OLD ENGLISH – INFLECTIONAL LANGUAGE:
Grammatical categories
NOUNS: namena
number
case
gender
inflections
VERBS: wrītest
person
number
tense
mood
OLD ENGLISH – concordial language
Grammatical categories
encoded redundantly
agreement, concord, redundancy = adjustment of word forms within
phrases and/or between the subject and the predicator
Ælc þāra
þe
þās
mīn word
biþ
þǣm wīsan were þe
each of those who these my
is
ʒelīc
similar to that wise
words
ʒehīerþ and þā
hears
his hūs
and those
man who his house
with the word order
works
ofer stān ʒetimbrode.
upn a rock built
Like most Indo-European languages
OLD ENGLISH was
wyrcþ
a gender language
an accusative language
S-V-O,
THE ENCODEMENT OF NUMBER IN NOUNS
OLD ENGLISH
N.
G.
D.
A.
sg
stān
stānes
stāne
stān
pl
stānas
stāna
stānum
stānas
sg
nama
naman
naman
naman
N.
G.
D.
A.
hūs
hūses
hūse
hūs
hūs
hūsa
hūsum
hūs
gesceaft
gesceafte
gesceafte
gesceafte
pl
naman
namena
namum
naman
gesceafta
gesceafta
gesceaftum
gesceafta
sg
pl
mann
menn
mannes manna
menn
mannum
mann
menn
DECLENSIONS = patterns of case/number endings
5 major, several minor: vocalic or strong, consonantal or weak,
root declensions
MIDDLE ENGLISH
two “declensions” expanded: the a-declension and
the weak declension (in the south)
OE stānas > ME stǭnes
OE naman > ME nāmen
OE hūs > ME hūs, hūses, hūsen
OE bēc > ME beech, bookes, booken
Eventually the {es} morpheme prevailed. All other endings are
relics of the old declensions and considered irregular:
- the –en plurals: oxen, children, bretren, kine
- the mutalion plurals: feet, mice, lice, men, geese…
- the zero plurals: sheep, deer, fish…
-the voicing of final fricatives: wolf-wolves
OE Nsg wulf, N/A pl wulfas
In completely voiced environment OE fricatives became voiced
OE wulfas > ME wulves > NE [‘wʊlvz] wolves
also: thieves, halves, lives, loaves…
THE ENCODEMENT OF NUMBER IN PERSONAL PRONOUNS
1st person:
singular: ic > ME i, ī > NE [aɪ] I
plural:
wē > ME wē > NE [wi:] we
2nd person:
singular: þū > ME thū > NE [ðaʊ] thou
plural:
ʒē > ME yē > NE [yi:] ye
NE [ju:] you < ME you < OE D/A pl ēow
3rd person
singular masc.
singular fem.
singular neut.
OE hē > ME hē > NE [hi:] he
OE hēo > ME hē, schē > NE [ʃi:]
OE hit > Me hit > NE it
plural:
OE hīe > ME hē, thei > NE [ðeɪ] they
NUMBER CONCORD (AGREEMENT)
within the NP:
OE modifiers and determiners displayed number agreement with the headword
of the nominal phrase
ān gōd mann, fīf gōd-e menn
mīn bōc, mīn-e bēc
The most common plural ending of adjectival words was –e in OE, which
weakened to [ə] and disappeared in ME.
The number distinction survived only in demonstratives:
this – these, that - those
between the subject and the verb:
OE wē/ʒē/ hī wrītaþ > ME wrīten > NE [raɪt] write (present indicative)
OE
writon > ME writen, wrǭt > NE [rəʊt] wrote (preterite)
The plural personal endings and forms were lost in Middle English.
CASE ENCODEMENT FROM OE TO NE
definition:
formal encodement of semantic roles, spacial and temporal relation
synthetic languages: case endings
inflexional languages: case and number endings merged
OLD ENGLISH:
semantic roles:
cases:
agent, doer
nominative
origin
genitive
recepient
dative
patient
accusative
THE ENCODEMENT OF CASE IN NOUNS
OLD ENGLISH
N.
G.
D.
A.
sg
stān
stānes
stāne
stān
pl
stānas
stāna
stānum
stānas
sg
nama
naman
naman
naman
N.
G.
D.
A.
hūs
hūses
hūse
hūs
hūs
hūsa
hūsum
hūs
gesceaft
gesceafte
gesceafte
gesceafte
pl
naman
namena
namum
naman
gesceafta
gesceafta
gesceaftum
gesceafta
sg
pl
mann
menn
mannes manna
menn
mannum
mann
menn
The only surviving ending : -es (Genitive singular, a-declension)
OE –es > ME – [əz] > NE [z] Mary’s
> NE [s] Mat’s
> NE [ız] Bruce’s
From late OE – spreading to all masculine, all neuter, all feminine and plural nouns
Apostrophe: since 1650 in singular, since 1780 in plural
In ME case endings replaced with prepostional endings
OE ….hit licode Herode and eallum þe him mid sæton…
ME … and (it) pleside to Eroude and also to men restynge…
NE … and pleased Herod and them that sat with him
THE ENCODEMENT OF CASE IN PERSONAL PRONOUNS
1st singular
2nd singular
3rd singular
ic
mīn
mē
mē
þū
þīn
þē
þē
hē
his
him
hine
1st plural 2nd plural
wē
ūre
ūs
ūs
ʒē
ēower
ēow
ēow
hēo
hiere
hiere
hēo
3rd plural
hīe
hīera
him, hem
hīe
OE genitive forms preserved as possessive pronouns
OE dative forms preserved as objective case forms
hit
his
him
hit
OE agreement: within the NP
modifiers and determiners agreed with the headword
OE ….. ǣlc biþ gelīc þǣm wīsan were
OE government: different verbs, adjectives and pronouns governed
different cases
OE ….hit licode Herode and eallum þe him mid sæton…
ME … and (it) pleside to Eroude and also to men restynge…
NE … and pleased Herod and them that sat with him
THE FUNCTION OF SAXON GENITIVE MORE EXTENSIVE IN OE
OE Hwæs bidde ic? …. Iohannes heofod þæs fulluhteres…
In NE – mostly restricted to possessive function and human beings
GENDER
In OE grammatical, from ME natural
In OE gender agreement between modifiers/determiners and headwords
in NP, pronominal reference
Gender encodement in NE:
man
girl
bull
fox
woman
boy
cow
ox
vixen
prince
tiger
princess
tigress
tom cat
billy goat
cock sparrow
he wolf
tabby cat
nanny goat
hen sparrow
she wolf
REFERENCE: SPECIFIC vs. NON-SPECIFIC
In OE specific/non-specific reference of the NP was encoded through
a)the use of two different declensions of adjectives
(sum) gōd mann… (se) gōda mann ….
b) the use of ān, sum (non-specific)
.. ān mann wæs eardiende on Israhēla þēode… ‘a man lived in Israel’
... nim sume tigelan… ‘take a tablet’
OE ān > ME ǭn, wǭn, wōn > NE wūn, wun > [‘wʌn] one
OE °ān > ME an, a(n) > NE [ən], [ə] an, a
c) the use of demonstratives
masc. sg.
fem. sg. neut. sg.
N. se
G. þes
D. þǣm
A. þone
sēo
þǣre
þǣre
þā
pl.
þæt
þes
þǣm
þæt
þā
þāra
þǣm
þā
Ælc þāra þe þās mīn word ʒehīerþ and þā wyrcþ biþ gelīc
þǣm wīsan were þe his hūs ofer stān ʒetimbrode.
ME the > NE [ðə], [ði:] the
From ME period on, the use of the article spread.
THE ENCODEMENT OF VERBAL CATEGORIES
THE PERSON
personal endings – agreement of the verbal form with the subject
The only personal ending in NE –(e)s in the 3rd person singular of the present
indicative
OE present tense (indicative) :
wrīt-e
wrīt-est
wrīt-eþ
wrīt-aþ
OE –(e)þ, -t (in contracted forms) remains in ME, but gradually
replaced with –es from the north
OE –es > ME [ə]s, [ə][z] > NE
THE HISTORY OF TENSE
ENCODEMENT
TENSE = THE SYSTEM OF ENCODING MANDATORY TEMPORAL
INFORMATION
OLD ENGLISH: two formal tenses: preterite and present (non-preterite)
NON-PRETERITE
PRETERITE
NOW
PRESENT TENSE: BASE FORM (+ PERSONAL ENDINGS)
PRETERITE TENSE: the marking depended on the type of the verb
4 types of verbs:
1.
2.
3.
4.
STRONG VERBS
WEAK VERBS
PRETERITE PRESENT VERBS
ANOMALOUS VERBS
STRONG VERBS
Indo-European vowel gradation
gradation (Ablaut) = alteration of vowels in the stems of related
words or different grammatical forms of the same word
The preterite forms of Germanic verbs from Indo-European perfect forms
IE present stem: accented, the vowel *e
IE perfect stem: anaccented, the vowel reduced (dynamic accent) or
changed in the direction of *o (pitch accent)
present stem:
IE * u̯rei̯t- > Germ. ** u̯rīt- > OE wrīt- > ME wrīt- > NE [‘raɪt] write
perfect stem:
IE * u̯roi̯t- > Germ. *u̯rai̯t- > OE wrāt > ME wrǭt > NE [‘rəʊt] wrote
IE * u̯ri̯t- > Germ. * u̯ri̯t- > OE –writ- > NE [‘rɪtən] written
SEVEN CLASSES OF STRONG VERBS
class
Infinitive
1/3 pret.sg
Plural
preterite
Past
participle
I
wrītan
wrāt
writon
-writen
write
II
cēosan
cēas
curon
-curen
choose
III
drincan
dranc
druncon
-druncen
drink
IV
beran
bær
bǣron
-boren
bear
V
sprecan
spræc
sprǣcon
-sprecen
speak
VI
scacan
scōc
scōcon
-scacen
shake
VII
feallan
fēoll
fēollon
-feallen
fall
WEAK VERBS
new Germanic formation:
only one stem (present stem)
tense encoded in the dental sufifix
OE -ede, -ode > ME [ə]d[ə] > NE [d], [t], [ɪd]
played, worked, embedded
PRETERITE PRESENT VERBS
one stem (perfect stem)
preterite tense – dental suffix
OE
mæʒ, pret. mihte
cann, cūþe
sceal, scōlde
STRONG
PRESENT
STEM
PERFECT
STEM
DENTAL
SUFFIX
WEAK
PRETERITE
PRESENT
FROM OE TO NE:
• Many strong verbs became “weak” : helpen, healp, geholpen > help-ed
•The classes are no longer transparent
• Many weak verbs became irregular:
OE cēpan cēpte gecēpt
ME kēpen kepte ykept
NE [ki:p] [kept] [kept]
PERIPHRASTIC TENSES
OE PRESENT TENSE – “real” present, universal time, future reference:
Þā flōtmenn cumaþ and þē gebindaþ – ‘the pirates are coming
and they will fetter you’
OE PRETERITE TENSE – a single act in the past, a continuous act in the past, present
perfect, past perfect
þā þā menn slēpon, þā cōm his fēonda sum – ‘when the men were sleeping,
one of his enemies came’
ic mid ealre heortan þē gewilnode – ‘I have wished for you wilth all my heart’
PERIPHRASTIC TENSES COMMON IN OE, BUT THEIR USE NOT CONSISTENT WITH THEIR
MODERN ENGLISH FUNCTIONS:
a) bēon/wesan + present participle -ende
From 16th century on, the use of “expanded” tenses spread from the north,
since 18th century in the function of progressive tenses
b) bēon/wesan/habban + past participle
In OE the auxiliary habban was used with transitive, bēon/wesan with
intransitive verbs, the meaning of the construction not necessarily perfect
In ME the auxiliary haven spread to intransitive verbs, and the past participle
lost its adjectival properties. The use became consistent with the function of
perfect tenses.
Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales:
15
20
25
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
Bifil that in that sesoun, on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To Caunterbury with ful devout courage,
At nyght were come into that hostelrye
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye
Of sondry folk...
c) willan/sculan + infinitive
After the year 1200 shal ‘to be oblidged to’ and will ‘to
want’ lost some of their modal meanings and started to
be used for future time reference.
In the 18th century: will reported as expressing simple
futurity in the 2nd and 3rd person, volition in the 1st
person; shall reported as expressing simple futurity in
1st person, obligation in 2nd and 3rd.
THE HISTORY OF MOOD ENCODEMENT
OE: indicative, imperative, subjunctive
imperative singular: base form (SV) or base + e/a (WV)
imperative plural: same as present indicative plural
Lufa þīn nēahstan! Nim sume tiʒele!
Bycʒaþ ēow ele!
subjunctive singular:
present stem + e
perfect stem + e
subjuntive plural: present stem + en
perfect stem + en
The use of subjunctive in OE:
• in independent sentences to express wish or command:
Gōd sīe þē milde!
Ne hē ealu ne drince oþþe wīn!
• in dependent clauses after verbs of desire, command, purpose,
potentiality, hypothetical comparison, concession…
Geongum mannum gedafenaþ þæt hīe leornien sumne
wīsdōm.
Ic wilnode þæt þū! hām wǣre
In ME both subjunctive endings were lost. The only distinctive preterite
subjunctive form left is were.
The use of modal auxiliaries spread in ME and NE.
Modal Verbs
can < OE cann (inf. cunnan ‘know’) > ME can > NE [‘kæn]
could < OE cūþe (preterite of cann), remodelled after would, should
may < OE mæʒ (inf. magon ‘to be able to) > ME may > NE [meɪ]
might < OE meahte, mihte (preterite of mæʒ) > ME mighte > NE [maɪt]
must < OE mōste (preterite of mōt, mōton ‘to be allowed to’)
The old meaning preserved in mustn’t
shall < OE sceal (inf. sculan ‘to be obliged to’) > ME shal > NE [‘ʃæl]
should < OE scōlde (preterite of sceal) > ME shōlde > NE [ʃʊd]
will < OE wille (inf. willan ‘to want)
would < OE wōlde (preterite of wille) > ME wōlde > NE [wʊd]
ought to < OE āhte (preterite of āh/āʒ, inf. āgan ‘to possess and to owe’)
THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH PHONEMIC SYSTEM
SOUND CHANGE
phonetic innovation
easing the transition between segments
maintaining (increasing) contrastiveness
phonetic variation
free: economic, begin, poor…
positional: sport - put, works - plays, bank - band…
phonetic change → phonemic split, phonemic merger
phonemic split: sing – sin , zip – sip, very – ferry
phonemic merger: beet – beat, male – mail, tower - tyre
Types of sound (phonetic) changes:
dependent, independent
dependent changes:
a) assimilation = one or more articulatory feature(s) linger(s) or is
anticipated
In West Germanic languages, voiceless fricatives became voiced in
voiced environment
OE wulf (N.sg), wulfas (N. pl.)
ME wulf, wulves
Also: impossible, irregular, illegal….
b) dissimilation = one or more articulatory feature(s) become(s)
dissimilar
OE seofon, seofoþa, fēower, fēorþa
but:
OE siex, siexta
OE fīfe, fīfta > ME fīve, fifte > NE [faiv], [fift] > [fifθ]
c) palatalization = the place of articulation moves towards the hard palate
(usually triggered off by the front vowel i or the palatal approximant j
•palatal mutation
Germ. * mūs-, *mūs-iz- > OE mūs, mȳs > NE [maʊs], [maɪs]
•consonantal palatalization (17th century)
[s, z, t, d] > [ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ] / [+accented vowel] _ j
Russia, Parisian, nature, soldier….
c) intrusion (prothesis, epenthesis, anapthesis) = easing the
transition between two segments
prothesis:
OE ān > ME ǭn > wǭn > wọ̄n NE wūn, wun > [wʌn] one
epenthesis:
OE ganra > NE gander
law and order, vanilla ice cream, central diphthongs and triphthongs
anapthesis:
ice cream > aisukuremu
syllabe structure - onset – head/peak – coda
phonotactic restrictions
d) weakening and loss = articulation with lower energy input
•lenition of consonants (sonorisation)
sonority scale:
[p t k] < [b d ɡ] < [s f θ] < [z v ð] < [m n] < [l] < [r] < [i u] < [e o] < [a]
In ME, voiceless fricatives became voiced in final position:
of : off, with, is, was, has, Greenwich, churches…
Also: intervocalic alveolar flapping in AE, approximation of l in Cockney:
Paul, milk…
•centralization of vowels in unaccented syllables
In ME, unaccented vowels were levelled to [ə] → syncretism of cases
•elision (apheresis, syncope, apocope)
‘im, knight, gnaw, write;
vegetable;
sing, comb, hand in hand
Independent phonetic changes
Grimm’s Law (the First or Proto-Germanic Consonant Shift)
IE voiceless plosives → Germ voiceless fricatives
pet : five, prijatelj : friend, tri : three, tanek : thin …
IE voiced non-aspirated plosives → Germ. voiceless plosives
blato : pool, slab : sleep, dva : two, drevo : tree…
IE voiced aspirated plosives → Germ. voiced fricatives → voiced plosives
brat : brother, biti : be, duri : door ….
OE and ME vowel systems:
i
u
y
e
o
i
u
e
o
æ
a
a
The Great Vowel Shift (1500 – 1700)
1400
ī
ū
1500
ij
uw
ẹ̄
ọ̄
1700
ei
ou
[aɪ]
[aʊ]
rīsan > [raɪz] rise
hūs > [haʊs] house
[i:]
[u:]
fẹ̄t > [fi:t] feet
fọ̄l > [fu:l] fool
ẹ̄
ọ̄
[i:]
[ou]
strę̄m > [stri:m] stream
bǭt > [bəʊt] boat
ẹ̄
[eɪ]
ī
ū
ē̜
ǭ
ā
1600
ǣ
nāme > [neɪm]
The complexity and interdependence of linguistic change
grammaticalisation of phonetic variation
• palatal mutation → mutation plurals
• Indo-European vowel gradation → Germanic system of strong verbs
contraction of periphrastic structures ….
…..