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The English language: A historicalintroduction

Terminology

PhonemeA phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound (e.g.: /m/, /i:/, ...). Aphoneme could be thought of as a family of related phones, called allophones.English language has about 45 phonemes.

MorphemeA morpheme is the smallest meaningful element in a language. There are twokinds of morphemes: bound morphemes and free morphemes. A boundmorpheme cannot exist except when it is joined to other morphemes (e.g.: re-).A free morpheme can exist on its own (e.g.: fill ). A word may consist of one

morpheme or of many.

AffixationAffixation is one of the commonest methods of word-formation. There is adistinction between prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes occur at the beginning of aword (e.g.: un-, re-) whereas suffixes occur at the end (e.g.: -ness, -ize).

CompoundingCompounding is one of the commonest methods of word-formation. A compoundword is formed by the joining of two or more free morphemes. Compound wordsare nearly all nouns and the commonest type is Noun + Noun (e.g.: waterdock ).There are also a fair number of the type Adjective + Noun (e.g.: Frenchwoman )

and of the type Verb + Noun (e.g.: scrape-penny ).ConversionConversion is one of the commonest methods of word-formation. It is the processby which one word is derived from another with no change of form. Three typesare especially common: the formation of verbs from nouns (e.g.: to gossip ), theformation of nouns from adjectives (e.g.: an ancient ) and the formation of nounsfrom verbs (e.g.: an invite ) or verb phrase (e.g.: a handout ).

Blends/portmanteau wordsBlending is a method of word-formation. It is the process by which a part of oneword is combined with a part of another word (e.g.: brunch , motel ). Such blendsare sometimes called "portmanteau words".

Back-formationBack-formation is a method of word-formation. It is the creation of a new word byreinterpreting an earlier word as a derivation and removing apparent affixes fromit (e.g.: the verb to resurrect, which was formed from the Latin-borrowed nounresurrection ).

Derivation versus inflectionInflection is the process of adding inflectional morphemes to a word, which mayindicate grammatical information such as case, number, person, gender or tense(e.g.: cat/cats, eat/ate/eaten ). Compare with derivation, which create, a newword from an existing word by using affixes, sometimes by simply changinggrammatical category like turning a noun into a verb (e.g.: glory glorify, drink drinkable ).

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Rhotic versus non-rhoticRhotic varieties of English are varieties in which the loss of final and pre-consonantal /r/ does not take place (e.g.: North American English, Irish English).Non-rhotic varieties of English are varieties in which the loss of final and pre-consonantal /r/ takes place (e.g.: Australian, South African English).

Intrusive "r"In a dialect with intrusive " r ", a " r " is added in the pronunciation after a word thatends in a non-high vowel or semivowel if the next word begins with a vowel,regardless whether the first word historically ended with " r " or not (e.g.: I saw(r)a film today, vodka(r) and orange ).

PolysemyA word can in time come to have numerous meanings, this phenomenon is calledpolysemy (e.g.: the English word horn , which can mean a pointed projection of the skin of various animals, or a music instrument, or a person who plays such aninstrument, or a motor-car's klaxon, etc).

Synthetic versus analytic languagesAn analytic language is one that uses very few bound morphemes (e.g.: Chineseis a highly analytic language). A synthetic language, by contrast, uses largenumbers of bound morphemes, and often combines long strings of them to forma single word (e.g.: Turkish is a highly synthetic language). Most languages liebetween these extremes. English language, in the course of its history, hasbecome less synthetic and more analytic.

Absolute and implicational universalsThe search for linguistic universals was given considerable impetus by the work of Noam Chomsky. He maintains, because of the ease with which children learn

language, that human language is innate and that all languages have the sameunderlying structure and that it should be possible to demonstrate the existenceof universals. Some proposed universals are absolute i.e., they apply for alllanguages (e.g.: the fact that all languages have vowels). Implicationaluniversals, on the other hand, are more strong tendencies than universalsbecause there are counter examples. They are of the type "If A, then B" (e.g.: "If a language has V-S-O as its basic word-order, then it invariably hasprepositions).

Names of characters:

Yogh

The letter yogh (represented by the symbol 3) is descended from Old Englishscript and was used in Middle English and Middle Scots, representing y (/j/) andvarious velar phonemes.

ThornThe symbol (called thorn) is equivalent to the modern th . It was a letter in theAnglo-Saxon and Icelandic alphabets.

EthEth (represented by the symbol ) is a letter used in Old English and present-dayIcelandic. It was replaced by d.

Ash was a letter used in Old English texts and commonly called "ash". It ispronounced like the vowel of the word hat in Received Pronunciation.

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WynnWynn (represented by the symbol ) is a letter of the Old English alphabet. Itwas used to represent the sound /w/.

FuthorcThe English from the Old English Period used a form of the runic alphabet which,from its first six letters, is known as the "futhorc". Runes were used for shortinscriptions, they were of angular form and they were thought to have magicalpower.

Phonological changes:

AssimilationAssimilation is the changing of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one(e.g.: the word scant was once skamt , but the /m/ has been changed to /n/under the influence of the following /t/, which is articulated in the same place). Itis a very common kind of change.

HaplologyHaplology is the fact that a whole syllable is dropped out when two successivesyllables begin with the same consonant (e.g.: temporary , which in Britain isoften pronounced as if it were * tempory ).

MetathesisMetathesis occurs when the ease of pronunciation apparently leads us to reversethe order of two phonemes in a word (e.g.: wasp , which by regular developmentwould has been * waps ).

Analogical change

Analogy is the process of inventing a new element in conformity with some partof the language system that you already know (e.g.: a child learns pairs likedog/dogs, bed/beds , ... and is then able to form other plurals). The way in whichanalogy can lead to change is seen when the child learns words like man andmouse , and forms the analogical plurals *mans and *mouses .

Combinative changeLet's begin with an example: the prehistoric Old English form of heath wassomething like hapi ; the final -i caused the to change to w, and was later itself lost by a regular sound law. Dependent sound-changes of this kind greatlycomplicate the task of establishing correspondences and are called "combinativechanges.

Language familyA language family is a number of languages that are related. They have grown bya process of continuous change out of a single original language, but because of divergent development there are now many languages instead of one (e.g.:Romance languages i.e., Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, ... which have allevolved from Latin). A language which has arisen by the process of divergentdevelopment may itself give rise to further languages by a continuation of thesame process (e.g.: Semitic languages). It would not be surprising if many of theworld's languages, or indeed all of them, went back ultimately to some commonancestor.

Proto-lndo-European (PIE)The PIE is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. Itmust have been spoken thousands of years ago by some comparatively small

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body of people in a relatively restricted geographical area. Here are somecharacteristics of the PIE:

Inflectional systemIt was a highly inflected language. It had at least 8 cases (nominative,accusative, dative, genitive, instrumental, vocative, locative ...). There were also3 genders (singular, plural and dual). Noun and adjective inflections were thesame. There was also a great array of inflections for verbs.

PhonologyPIE probably made great use of musical accent (also called free accent) i.e., theaccent could fall on any syllable of a word. There was also a rich array of stopconsonants.

Vowel systemThe 3 most important vowels in PIE were a, e and o, each of which could beeither short or long. There was also short i and u , which could operate either asunstressed vowels or as consonants (i.e. [j] and [w]) according to their position,and could also be combined with any of the 3 main vowels to form diphthongs.There were also a disputed number of vowels used only in unstressed syllables,and a number of syllabic consonants. The vowels played an important part in thegrammar of PIE, because of the way they alternated in related forms (as in oursing/sang/sung ).

Kentum and Satem languagesThere was an early division of the Indo-Europeans, which had already taken placeround about 1500 BC, into two main areas: an Easter group and a Western group.There were a number of differences in phonology, grammar and vocabulary. TheEaster group spoke the so-called Satem languages whereas the Western groupspoke the so-called Kentum languages. One of the distinctive differences in

phonology between the two groups is the treatment of Proto-Indo-Europeanpalatal k , which appears as a velar [k] in the Western languages, but as somekind of palatal fricative, [s] or [ ], in the Easter languages.

IsoglossAn isogloss is a dividing line on a map that marks the border between twolinguistic regions, insofar as they have different dialectical features (e.g. use of aparticular word on one side of the line and not on the other, differentpronunciations, etc.).For instance: isogloss for the use of the word " lop " in North-Eastern England (as aloan from Scandinavian) as opposed to the word " flea ", which is used on theother side of the line.

DeclensionsDeclensions are patterns, or sets of cases, i.e. particular groups of inflectingfeatures determining the function of a word or a group of words in a sentence(e.g. nominative case for subject or subject complement, accusative for directobject, etc.). If a word fits into one declension, it will adopt its way of inflecting,and not that of another declension.For instance: the first declension in Latin (nominative -a) is basically composed of feminine nouns, the second (nominative -us or -um) of masculine and neuternouns respectively.

PurismLinguistic purism consists in a (somewhat nationalistic) desire for the language toremain "pure", i.e. free of any foreign influences such as loan-words. Puristsinstead champion the introduction of neologisms.

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For instance: in 1573, Ralph Lever invented new technical terms with nativeelements, such as " endsay " (conclusion), " saywhat " (definition) and " witcraft "(logic).

Inkhorn termsAre borrowings from another language (usually Latin), that have no utilitarianfunction, i.e. that were not borrowed in order to define a new thing or concept,but as fashionable replacements for already existing terms in English. They areoften very pompous, and thus ridiculed because they can be regarded as asymptom of sheer ostentation and superficiality. However, some of those wordsare nowadays considered perfectly neutral.For instance: two pompous inkhorn terms are " furibund " (furious) and " turgidous "(swollen, puffed up). Another that was once considered pompous, but no more:"reciprocal ".

Dummy auxiliary"Do" as an auxiliary (as opposed to a full verb) is considered empty in meaning,thus a dummy auxiliary. It occurs immediately before " not " in a negative

sentence, before the subject in a question or at the end of the sentence whenquestioning and repeating the beginning; it can also be used emphatically. " Do" isused in these four cases when none of the meanings of other auxiliaries isrequired.For instance: "You do not mean it"; "Do you mean it?"; "You do not mean it, doyou?"; "Alright, you do mean it" .

Internal loanAn internal loan consists in borrowing terms from regional or professional dialectsto expand the general language of the same country.For instance: since the Industrial Revolution, a gradient on a British railway is notcalled a hill, but a " bank " (from northern dialect).

Antipodean EnglishUsed as a general definition for the varieties of English that are spoken inAustralia and New Zealand. (???)

Pidgins & CreolesA pidgin is an "intermediate" language between two or more languages coming incontact with one another, which has the purpose of facilitating communication(e.g. for trade matters) between users of these different languages. It is usually asimplification of the dominant one with influences from the other(s).When a pidgin becomes the first language of a group, it is called a creole.For instance: the "Gullah" creole is spoken by about 250 000 people living along

the South-Eastern coastal areas of the USA.SlangDescribes the use of highly informal words and expressions that are notconsidered standard in a given language. It is very often specific to a particularcontext or group. For instance: " square " means "conventional, old-fashioned" in

jazzmen's slang.

MalapropismA malapropism is the incorrect placement of a word by using it instead of thecorrect, similar-sounding term; as it is a kind of slip, it usually has comic effect.The origin of the word comes from Mrs. Malaprop (whose name is probablyderived from French "mal propos"), a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan'scomedy " The Rivals " (1775) who always commits this kind of mistake.For instance: "He is the very pineapple of politeness": " pineapple " is wrongly used

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instead of " pinnacle ".

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Translations

King James Bible (1611) Parabol of the Prodigal Son, early ModernEnglish, p. 34Now the elder son was out on the farm; and on his way back, as he approachedthe house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants and askedwhat it meant. The servant told him: "You brother has come home, and yourfather has killed the fatted calf because he has him back safe and sound". But hewas angry and refused to go in. His father came out and pleaded with him, but heretorted: "You know how I have slaved for you all these years, I never oncedisobeyed your orders, and you never gave me so much as a kid, for a feast withmy friends. But now that this son of yours turns up, after running through yourmoney with his women, you kill the fatted calf for him". "My boy", said the father,"you were always with me, and everything I have is yours. How could we helpcelebrating this happy day? Your brother here was dead and has come back tolife, was lost and is found".

Excerpt form lfric's Colloquy (c. 990), Old English, p. 124Teacher : Do you have any companion?Pupil : I have a certain boy driving oxen with goad-iron, who likewise now hoarseis on account of cold and shouting.Teacher : What more do you do during the day?Pupil : Certainly then more I do. I have to fill mangers of oxen with hay, and waterthem, and dung of them carry out [that is, carry out their dung].Teacher : Oh! Oh! Great labour is it.Pupil : Sir, great labour it is, because I am not free.

Excerpt from "The Nun's Priest's Tale", p. 168"I dreamt that I was strolling up and down in our yard, where I saw an animal(which) was like a dog, and (which) wished to seize my body and to kill me. Its

colour was between yellow and red, and its tail and both its ears were tipped withblack, unlike the rest of its hairs; its muzzle (was) slender, with two glowing eyes;I still almost die of fear at its look. This caused me my groaning, undoubtedly.""Really!" she said, "Fie on you, spiritless. Alas", she said, "for, by God above, nowhave you lost my heart and all my love. I cannot love a coward, by my faith. Forassuredly, whatever any woman may say, we all wish, if possible, to havehusbands that are brave, wise and generous, and discreet, and no miser and nofool, nor one that is frightened of every weapon, nor a boaster. By God above,how did you dare, for shame, to say to your love that anything could make youfrightened? Do you lack the courage of a man, and have a beard?"

End of the parable of the Progigal Son, short piece of Nigerian pidgin, p.

260"The father said: "My child, you know that you have always been with me, andeverything I have is your own. But (???) happy, because your brother had diedand he has returned from death again; was lost and we found him again."

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Questions

Chapter 2: The flux of language

How is the history of English usually divided into periods, and why?

History of the English language: 3 periods1. The Old English period: from the 1 st Anglo-Saxon settlements in England to 1100. Late Old English: 900 - 1100

2. The Middle English: 1100- 15003. The Modem English (= New English): 1500 - now. Early modern English 1500

- 1650

Through history we can see that the space of change varies, which makes itconvenient to divide English in three broad periods. For example, we can see thatthe 12 th and 15 th centuries are periods of rapid change in English.

Which language-external and language-internal reasons can beconsidered valid to explain changes in pronunciation over time?The changes in pronunciation have caused a lot of disagreement.Reasons for the changes in pronunciation:

The influence of one language on another; The speech habits of non native speakers modify the foreign language; Historical changes: conquering minority that imposes its language on a

conquered population has its language modified by its victims; Fashion: a person imitates another and people with the most prestige are

more likely imitated. Fashion is exclusive. Social groups usingcharacteristic styles of language to mark themselves off from othergroups. A group of high prestige may find that its style of speech is beingimitated by other groups and then its members may begin to change it,perhaps by exaggerating its distinction characteristics;

The principle of ease; Geographic and climatic (mountain/plan); Biological and racial with thick lips; That children grow vocals organs.

Explain what makes the so-called "principle of ease" possible, but alsowhat imposes limitations on it.The principle of ease (= the minimization of effort) = change in pronunciation of aword to economize energy.The principle of ease is possible because a language always provides more signalsthan the absolute minimum necessary for the transmission of the message, togive a margin of safety: like all good communication-systems, human languagehas built into it a considerable amount of redundancy.BUT there is a limit:

The necessities of communication, the urgent needs of humans as users of language, provide a counterforce to the principle of minimum effort.

An excessive economy of effort would lead to an utterance that is notunderstandable or misunderstood (and so the sayer would have to repeat it).

There is a constant conflict between the principle of minimum effort and thedemands of communication.

Chapter 3: The Indo-European languages

To which branches of the Indo-European language family do Gothic, OldEnglish, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit belong?The Indo-European language is a large family that includes most of the languages

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of Europe and India and that is divided in many branches. Sanskrit belongs to the Aryan branch and more precisely to the Indian branch.

It was standardized in the 4 th century and has since then been the learnedlanguage of India;

Greek belongs to the Greek branch; Latin belongs to the Italic branch; Old English belongs to the West Germanic branch and more precisely to the

Anglo-Frisian subbranch; Gothic belongs to the East-Germanic branch.

Explain briefly the traditional and the more modern view on who the'Indo-Europeans' were and how and when their expansion began. Whattechnical factor may have been very important in this expansion?The traditional view argues that Indo-Europeans were a nomadic or semi-nomadic people who invaded neighbouring agricultural or urban areas andimposed their language on them.According to this theory, the expansion would have begun around 4000 BC orlater. The expansion is considered as conquering armies and mass-movements of populations.

The more modern view is the one argued by Colin Renfew, according to whichthe initial expansions of the Indo-Europeans was simply the pushing-out of thefrontiers of an agricultural people, who over centuries introduced agriculture intothe more thinly populated country round their periphery, inhabited by huntersAccording to him, the expansion would have begun in about 7000 BC.

At the moment there is insufficient evidence to decide between the two.

The technical factor which played a part in the expansion and conquests of Indo-Europeans is the use of horse-drawn vehicles, which was characteristic of

Proto-Indo European society.It is the use of wheeled vehicles, especially the fast horse-drawn chariot thatenabled them to overrun such a large part of the Eurasian continent.

At the start of its expansion, would you say PIE was a single languagewithout significant dialect differences, or not? Why?No: The Indo-European language is divided in many branches and evensubbranches. But sometimes, a language shows the closest resemblance to alanguage that doesn't belong to the same branch at all. And there is no way of removing those discrepancies by juggling with the different branches.So, at the start of the expansion, PIE had already broken up into a number of dialects before the dispersal began. Indeed, changes can occur in various centres

of the same region, influenced by their neighbours (who were speaking a differentlanguage than the other neighbours at the other end of the region).At the start of the expansion, PIE had already broken up into a number of dialectsbefore the dispersal began. Indeed, changes can occur in various centres of thesame region, influenced by their neighbours (who were speaking a differentlanguage than the other neighbours at the other end of the region).

What does PIE vocabulary tell us about the world the 'Indo-Europeans'lived in?The vocabulary tells us a lot about the world of the Indo-Europeans. If words existed, the things they denoted existed too and must have beenfamiliar to them.

BUT: The absence of a word doesn't mean that the object didn't exist. The loss of

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words is indeed common; We may be deceived by loan-words (words borrowed to another language).

The world of the Indo-Europeans: They had cattle and sheep ( (semi)-nomadic pastorals) and other domestic

animals: dog, pig, goat & goose. They also had horses; They had vehicles of some kind (Wheel, axle, nave & yoke); Cheese & butter; Grain, plough & furrow agriculturists; Tools & weapons made of stones (arrows); Metal: copper, bronze, gold & silver; Familiar with pottery & weaving; House, door but no window (more than a tent); Rain, snow but hot summer continental climate; Wild animals: wolves, bears, otters, mice, hares & beavers (but no tigers,

lions & elephants cool tempered zone, farther West); Beach tree, salmon & eel; Rivers & streams (but no sea & ocean) inland people; Ships to cross the river or for fishing; Family relationship (family important, women lived by husband's family); Gods: personification of natural forces (Sky God: prominent).

This enables to guess where they lived. However all these clues are not sufficientto pin down a particularity, although there have been many attempts to it.

Chapter 4: The Germanic languages

Which present-day languages (if any) derive from North, East and WestGermanic respectively? Which of these is most closely related to English?To North Germanic belong the modern Scandinavian languages: Norwegian,Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, Forese and Gutnish (Faroese) (language of the islandof Gottond).To West Germanic belong: the High German dialects of southern Germany, thelow German dialects of northern Germany, Dutch, Frisian and English.No East Germanic language has survived into our own times. Dialects as theGoths and Gothic were the only languages spoken.

The language most closely related to English is Frisian , which was once spokenalong the coast of the North Sea from Northern Holland to central Denmark, butwhich is now heard only in a few coastal regions and on some of the Dutchislands.The Anglo-Saxons must have been near neighbours of the Frisians before theirmigration, and we can postulate a prehistoric Anglo-Frisian dialect.

Which grammatical features of nouns, adjectives and verbs arecharacteristic of both Proto-Germanic and Old English (OE), but have notsurvived into Present-Day English (PDE)?The inflectional system of Proto-Germanic.Proto-Germanic is a highly inflected language. It makes indeed great use of variations in the endings of words.In Modern English, word-order is used to show who carries the information but inan inflected language, the information is carried by the inflection which does thework of a preposition in some case.

The nouns are so inflected for case. In Latin there are for example 6 differentcases: Nominative, Vocative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Ablative.

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Moreover there are separate inflections for the singular and the plural. Latininherited this system from PIE, like Proto-Germanic.In Proto-Germanic, there was no single set of case-inflections used for all nounsalike, but several different sets. That is, there were various declensions of nouns.All nouns, furthermore, had grammatical gender and had to be either masculine,feminine or neuter.

Similar considerations apply to adjectives.They had to be put in the same case and number as the man they were attachedto, they had also to agree with the noun in gender.

Magnus dominusMagnum opus

In Proto-Germanic, two distinct sets of inflections for the adjectives developed,which were called the strong and the weak declensions and had not survived inME.

There was also a system of cases for the pronouns and articles.Where ME has the one form "the" Proto-Germanic had a whole series of form

according to the case, number and gender of the noun that followed.There was also inflections to mark the passive.

PIE also had a great array of inflections for its verbs. Proto-Germanic retainedmany of these, but it simplified the system. For example, it had only two tensesof the verb a present and a post tense. Within these 2 tenses, Proto-Germanichad different endings for different persons and numbers (conta-contat-contant)Proto-Germanic had two sets of inflections for the verbs, one indicative and onesubjunctive.

PG: Two distinct sets of inflection for the adjectives the strong and weakdeclensions of the adjective;

OE: Also strong and weak forms of adjectives.

Cases:

PG: system of cases for articles, pronouns and similar words. Forarticles: whole serie of forms according to the case, number andgender of the noun that followed.

OE: also the declension of the definite article and of the personalpronouns.

Verbs: PG: Strong verbs = change of tense by changing the vowel of their

stem. Weak verbs = past tense by adding an inflection to the verb-stem (-ed)

Dominant in Germanic language

OE: Weak verbs are already the majority. Since then, many strongverbs (=minority) have changed over weak (=norm)

Which important phonological difference distinguished Proto-Germanicfrom PIE, and what was its most far-reaching consequence in theGermanic languages?In pronunciation, PIE underwent considerable changes in developing into Proto-

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Germanic. One big change is in the matter of accent. The accent on a syllabledepends partly on stress, partly on intention, but some languages rely more onone than on the other. PIE mode great use of musical accent (intonation), but inProto-Germanic, the stress accent became predominant. At the same time, therewas a tendency in Proto-Germanic to stabilize the accent on the first syllable of aword. This was not the case in PIE where the accent could fall on any syllable of aword.The tendency in Proto-Germanic to stabilize the accent on the first syllable,together with the adoption of a predominantly stress type of accent hadconsequences: indeed, it led to a weakening and often to a less of unstressedsyllables, especially at the end of a word.This trend moreover continued in the Germanic languages throughout theirhistory. For example, the PIE form of the verb "bear" was something like*bheronom , which in Proto-Germanic became something like * beranan. The final"-an" had been weakened and then lost and so the Old English form is beran .In early Middle English, beran became beren . The final "n" was then lost, and theword became bere . At the end of the Middle English Period, this final e of berewas also lost, the modern form is bear .

Explain briefly the main features of Grimm's Law. (Page 93 94)"The Grimms Law" or sometimes "the first sound shifting" represents the mostimportant series of changes in the system of stop consonants underwent in Proto-Germanic which were analyzed after the early 19 th century by the philologistJakob Grimm.The main features of the first sound-shifting are shown here :

Aspirated Voiced Voiceless Voicelessvoiced stops stops stops fricativesbh -------------------> b -------------------> p -------------------> f

dh -------------------> d -------------------> t ------------------->

gh -------------------> g -------------------> k -------------------> h

PIE /p/ became Germanic /f/: pedem in Latin - fot (foot) in Old EnglishPIE /t/ became Proto-Germanic voiceless / /; in some cases this has becomevoiced //:tres in Latin - three in EnglishPIE /k/ became in Germanic the sound [x]. In Old English and other earlyGermanic languages it usually appears with the spelling h

cordem in Latin - heart in EnglishThe Indo-European voiced stops /b/, /d/ and /g/ became in Germanic thecorresponding voiceless stops /p/, /t/ and /k/edo in Latin - eat in Englishgelidus in Latin - cold in English

PIE had a series of phonemes which appeared in Sanskrit as bh , dh , and gh andin Greek as the letters phi , theta , and chi . The exact nature of the originalsounds is disputed, but traditionally they have been called aspirated voiced stops,and represented by the symbols bd , dh, and gh . They have changed in Proto-Germanic /b/, /d/, and /g/.The English verb to bear corresponds to Sanskrit bharami and Greek phero .

Chapter 5: Old English

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Discuss briefly the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain (don't forget tosituate in time as well). How did it affect the culture and language of thepeople living there at the time of this Anglo-Saxon conquest? (p.100 102)Anglo-Saxon were composed of more than one Germanic tribe: they were theSaxons, the Angles and the Jutes coming from North-West Germany (at thattime, the Germanic people were in a state of flux and movement). After theRoman legions had withdrawn from Britain in AD 410, various uncoordinatedbands of adventurers arrived in different parts of the country in the middle of thefifth century.The Anglo-Saxon settled in Britain, they struggled with the population livingthere: the Romano Celtic population. By about 700, the Anglo-Saxons hadoccupied most of England and a part of southern Scotland (not Wales). Closelyrelated in language (even though there was dialect differentiation) and regardingthem selves as one people, they defeated the language of the Celtic population.Their language was indeed dominant; Celtic lost his influence and received a lowstatus. There are few traces of Celtic in Old English (except: nouns of river,towns, ). There were defeated people and their language had no prestige.

By what time and because of which language-external factors did a kindof standard language (or at least a literary standard) arise in the OldEnglish period? (p. 104)The unification of England under the West-Saxon kings led to the recognition of the West Saxon dialect as a literary standard during the 9 th C. (Alfred saved theSouth and West of England from the Danes, Alfreds successors reconquered theNorth and the East,). England was durably unified from the 10 th C. onwards.

There were at that time, in fact, four main dialects (Kentish, Mencion,Northumbrion dialects and West-Saxon) but due to the tendency for manuscriptsto be copied by West-Saxon suites (and so, to be put into West-Saxon four) the

West-Saxon dialect became the literary standard.

What was the most important linguistic consequence of the conversion toChristianity? Situate in time as well. (p.106-107)Christianity introduced the Anglo-Saxons to writing (which was in the hands of the clerics). The conversion of the English to Christianity began about the year600 and took a century to complete. The English had already a form of writing,

runes (go back to some sort of the Greek alphabet), but these were used onlyfor short inscriptions. When the clerics introduced writing to England, they used aCeltic version of the Latin alphabet, but eked it out with runic symbols from thefuthorc. A lot of changes occurred in pronunciation. OE shows show phonologicaldevelopments of its own compared with the other Germanic languages. A number

of combinative sound-changes took place ("front-mutation", "breaking" or"fracture"). Changes also occurred in morphology, syntax and vocabulary(suffixation, compounding).

True or false? "Like PDE, OE had /f, v, s, z, , / in its phonemeinventory." Explain briefly why this is true or false. (p.109-110)Old English had no [v], the symbol [f] was used to represent both [f ] and [v].The reason is that, in Old English, [f] and [v] were members of the samephoneme. It was pronounce [v] before a voiced sound and was not doubled(giefan < to give ), [f] in all other positions (faeder).

OE had no [z], but [s] was used to represent both [z] and [s]. The reason is that,in Old English, [s] and [z] were members of a single phoneme.It was pronounced [z] before a voiced sound, [s] in all other position.

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The voiceless [ ] and the voiced [] were represented by two symbols: the runicsymbol , called "thorn" and the symbol , called "eth". They used them bothindiscriminately and the distribution of the allophones was he same as in theother two pairs.

In the 3 cases, Old English has a single phoneme consisting of a pair of voicedand voiceless allophones, where PDE has 2 separate phonemes.

Compare briefly OE and PDE word order. (p. 118-119-120)Because of its inflectional system, Old English had greater freedom of word-orderthan present Day English.It favoured 3 particular types of word-order:

S V O in normal clauses; S O V in subordinate clauses; V S O in questions when the clause begins with an adverbial expression.Whereas PDE uses SVO and SSO (in questions)

The word-order in the noun phrase is quite similar: determiner adjective nounBut there are of course some exceptions, these precede the determiner:

"eall " ( all ) " begen " ( both ) adjectives ending in weard It is even possible for a determiner to follow the noun, especially if it is emphatic.Titles of rank usually follow the name they qualify.

What sort of loanwords were borrowed into OE? (p. 120-121-122)OE made a considerable use of its native language material. In order to enlarge avocabulary, OE had inherited many ways of forming new words from PIE,especially by the use of prefixes and suffixes.OE did however borrow a small number of words from other languages, especially

for the concepts and institutions of Christianity.e.g.: OE cirice or cyrce "church" is derived form the Greek kuriakn , meaning"(house) of the Lord ".

Most of the words connected with Christianity date from after the Conversion andare from Latin. E.g.: munuc "monk", Latin monachus.

Sometimes existing words were simply transferred to Christian use as withEaster , hell and holy .

Chapter 6: Norsemen and Normans

Explain the circumstances that led to the establishment of a so-called"Danelaw". Situate in time as well. (p. 127, 128)The harrying (destruction, ravagement) of Europe by the Scandinavian Vikings,which took place between about 750 and 1050, was the last phase of theexpansion of the early Germanic peoples. Its basic cause was perhapsoverpopulation in a region of poor natural resources, but there were othercontributory causes. The custom of leaving the inheritance to the eldest sonmeant that there were always younger sons wanting to carve out inheritances forthemselves. Political conflicts drove many noblemen into exile. And then, in thelate eighth century, Charlemagne destroyed the power of the Frisians, who hadhitherto been the greatest maritime power of North-West Europe, and thereby leftopen the sea-route southward for the Vikings. At about the same date, the

ancient craft of boat-building in Scandinavia reached the stage at which it couldproduce the magnificent ocean-going sailing-ships which served the Vikings fortrade, piracy, and colonization.

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The Vikings were great traders, but it is for their more predatory activities thatthey are most remembered. Their attacks varied from piratical expeditions bysingle ships to the invasion of a country by enormous fleets and armies.The Vikings consisted of Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. The Swedes mostlywent eastwards, to the Baltic countries and Russia, while the Norwegians andDanes tended to go westwards and southwards. The Vikings who attackedEngland were referred to by the Anglo-Saxons as Dene "Danes", but there werealso Norwegians among them. The first attack probably took place round about800, and by 838 they had become serious. At first there were mere piratical raidsin search of a plunder; then large groups took to spending the winter in England,as happened in 850 in 854; then large armies stayed for longer periods; andfinally came conquest and settlement, which began in the last few decades of theninth century. The Vikings came very near to conquering the whole of England,but King Alfred held the South and the West against them, the turning-pointbeing his defeat of Guthrum at Chippenham in 878; the boundary betweenAlfred's territories and the Danelaw ran roughly along a line from London toChester. In the tenth century, the West Saxon Kings reconquered the North andEast, but in the meantime the Vikings established kingdoms in those areas, and

there was massive Scandinavian settlement.

Compare the influx of Old Norse and Old French loanwords into English interms of the period in which and the extent to which words wereborrowed from these languages, and in terms of the type of vocabularyborrowed.Most of the Scandinavians loan-words first appear in writing in the Middle Englishperiod, but their form shows that they had been taken into English in the late OEperiod, for they have undergone the sound-changes that mark the transition fromOld to Middle English. They do not appear earlier in writing because at that timethere was no literary tradition in the Danelaw, and most surviving texts are in theWest Saxon dialect, which was the one least influenced by Old Norse. A few loans,

however, do occur in OE texts. In the early days of the Vikings raids there wasprobably not much opportunity for conversation between Englishmen and Vikings;the only loans from this period are a few words for Viking ships and weapons,which have not survived into the modern language. Later, when the Vikings hadbegun to settle in England, a number of words were borrowed relating to law andadministration, for the Danes had a Highly developed legal sense, they includethrall and the word law itself.But what is most striking about the Scandinavian loan-words as a whole is thatthey are such ordinary words. The English and the Scandinavians had very similarcultures, and the fusion of the two peoples was a close one; many of the wordstaken over, in consequence, were homely everyday ones, words belonging to thecentral core of the vocabulary. The names of close family relationships are part of the central core of vocabulary, so are the names of parts of the body. Othercommon nouns include bag, cake, dirt, fellow, fog, knife, skill, skin, sky, andwindow. Everyday adjectives, everyday verbs and some grammatical words arefrom Scandinavian, namely the conjunctions though, till, and until, and thepronouns they, them and their, which in Old English were hie, him, and hiera. TheScandinavians pronouns no doubt had an advantage because they were less likelyto be confused with the words for him and her. The total number of Scandinavianloans is in fact rather small, compared with the number of words later borrowedfrom French and Latin; on the other hand, many of them are words in veryfrequent use, and there is a Scandinavian enclave in the very central regions of the English vocabulary. In the areas of densest Viking settlement, a largervocabulary of Scandinavians loanwords is preserved in regional dialects, so thatthere are still parts of England and Scotland where you can hear goodScandinavian words.French loanwords, on the contrary, first appeared most densely around London,

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the centre of fashion and administration, and spread northwards and westwardsfrom there; by the fourteenth century, they were being used freely all over thecountry. An enormous number of French loan-words came into the languageduring the English Middle period. We have to treat the datings of these loan-words with some caution: there are fewer texts in Early Middle English than inLate Middle English, and some of the loans first recorded in the fourteenthcentury may have enter the language much earlier. Nevertheless, it seems clearthat they came in fastest when French was dying out. In the eleventh and twelfthcenturies, when French was the unchallenged language of the upper classes, thenumber of words borrowed by English was not great, but in the thirteenth, andstill more the fourteenth century, there was a flood of loan-words.The influx of French words differed in several ways from the influx of theScandinavian words. The Scandinavian words spread from the Danelaw, whereasFrench words tended to spread from London and from the court, and locally fromthe lord's castle. Moreover, the French words were on the whole not such homelyones as the Scandinavians words: the Vikings had mixed in with the English onmore or less equal terms, but the Normans formed a separate caste that imposedmuch of their culture on their subordinates; many of the French loanwords reflect

this cultural and political dominance: they are often words to do with war,ecclesiastical matters, the law, haunting, heraldry, the arts, and fashion. For thesame reason, French words tended to penetrate downwards in society, whereasthe Scandinavian words came on the ground floor. Finally, the French words wereentirely new ones, with no obvious resemblance to anything in English, whereasmany of the Scandinavian loans were merely dialectical variants of their Englishcounterparts, titles of rank tended to be taken from French.

WHEN? Old Norse loanwords have been taken into English in the late OE but

first appeared in writing in ME; Old French Loanwords came into English during the ME period. In the

10th

c they were wed freely all over the country.WHAT? Old Norse loanwords:

Related to low administration (the Danes had a highlydeveloped legal sense);

But mainly ordinary words, from homely everyday life: Family relationship, Parts of the body, Everyday adj, verbs, grammatical words (till, they,)

Old French loanwords: refled the Normanscultural political dominance:

War,

Ecclesiastical matters, Law, Hunting, heraldry, arts, fashion, Title of ranks.

WHERE / WHO? Old Norse loanwords:

Spread from the Danelaw; Came on the ground floor.

Old French loanwords: Spread from London, from the court from the Card a castle; Tented to penetrate downwards in society.

Discuss briefly the language and culture of the Normans of the "Norman

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invasion" in comparison with the Anglo-Saxons (situate in time as well).(p. 134, 135)By the middle of the eleventh century the Normans had long lost theirScandinavian speech: they spoke French and were essentially French in culture.People sometimes talk, therefore, as though the Norman Conquest were thecoming of a higher civilization to the backward and Barbaric Anglo-Saxons. This,however, is a misapprehension. Six hundred years had passed since the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, and in that time the English had developed asophisticated civilization.The Normans demonstrated their superiority in military techniques, for they hadthe new heavy cavalry that had been developed on the continent by the Franks,while the Anglo-Saxons still fought on foot behind a wall of round shields. TheNormans also showed themselves superior at the construction of castles, andafter the conquest they built some fine churches and cathedrals. But it is difficultto see in what other ways they were culturally superior to the people theyconquered.The Anglo-Saxons had a fine literature both in verse and in prose. They hadtraditions of scholarship which went back to the 7 th century, and when

Charlemagne, at the end of the eighth century, wanted to reform his educationalsystem, he imported an Englishman to do it for him. This tradition had been badlydisrupted by the Vikings invasions, but there was a revival under West-Saxonleadership in the second half of the tenth century. The Anglo-Saxons were alsofine artists and craftsmen: they produced beautiful carved crosses, jeweller'swork, and illuminated manuscripts to compare with any of the world. They werealso famous for their needlework, and the celebrated Bayeux Tapestry wasprobably made in England.

Following the Norman Conquest, which language(s) was or were theprestige language(s)? By which time and why was English re-establishedas the dominant language, and which variety of English in particular

became the (literary) standard? (p.140, 141, 142, 144, 145)After the Norman Conquest the prestige languages in England were Latin andFrench. Latin was the international language of the church, of scholarship, and of international communication; after the Conquest it was also important foradministration, but it gradually gave way to French. The invaders of 1066 spokeNorman French, a northern dialect of the language, and in England this developedcharacteristics of its own, and its then called Anglo-Norman. In the thirteenthcentury, however, when the central French dialect of Paris had begun to exert astrong influence on the rest of France, the Anglo-Norman dialect lost some of itsprestige in England: it was regarded as rather old-fashioned and rustic, and thecourtly language was Central French. In the thirteenth century, French was stillbeing spoken at the English court, and literature was being written in French for

the nobility of England; but it is this century that sees the tipping of the balanceaway from French and back to English. Although French was for a long time thelanguage prestige in England, it was never the majority of the population. Aconsiderable number of Normans settled in England after the conquest, but theynever outnumbered the English in the way the Anglo-Saxon must haveoutnumbered the Britons, and ultimately the French died out in England. An eventwhich contributed to the triumph of English was King John's loss of Normandy tothe French crown in the opening years of the thirteenth century. Many of theEnglish nobility had estates in Normandy as well as in England, and now had todecide which of the two they belonged to. A common solution was for one son toinherit the English estates, and the another son the Norman estates, and this canbe seen going on in the first half of the thirteenth century. Thus the ties withNormandy were severed, and the ex-Norman nobility gradually became English.The English crown, indeed, continued to own lands in France, especially inSouthern Aquitaine, and went on importing Frenchmen to its court, but the

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The groups like wu, un, uv, um weredifficult to distinguish from one another.

So scribe took the writing o instead of uwhen it occurred in groups of this kind.

Oe sunun, cumin, lufu Me comen sone love

This was a change in spelling, not inpronunciation

The OE, as many other established literary languages, is quite conservative inspelling: the changes occur in pronunciation but the written language remains thesame.

The change from OE to ME was really marked when the spelling also changed,reflecting the changes in the oral language. This change was caused by theNorman Conquest that introduced new spelling-conventions. The Norman scribesdisregarded the traditional English spelling and simply spelt the language as theyheard it, using many conventions of Norman French. As a consequence, manychanges that had not been reflected in OE spelling emerged clearly. The newspelling gave English writing a new look.

Besides the new spelling, they also introduced a new handwriting which made itdifficult to distinguish groups like " wu " " un " " uv " " um ". So, the scribes took towriting " o" instead of " u " when it occurred in group of this kind. So, changes alsoin words because of the new spelling ( ex: " luv " "love ").

What was the most important morphological development in ME? Whatcaused it, and what were its syntactic consequences?The most important morphological development in ME was the reduction of theinflectional system from the OE. There were a number of causes for this.One was the mixing of OE with Old Norse. As a result there was a confusion aboutthe correct form of ending the words had to have. People had to rely on othergrammatical devices. The existence and growth of such others devices must itself have contributed to the decay of the inflectional system.Another cause was phonological: the loss and weakening of unstressed syllablesat the ends of words destroyed many of the distinctive inflexions of OE. Many

endings became identical (-e, -en, -es, -ep -e) and the effect on the inflectionalsystem was disastrous. It was simplified and the number of different cases wasreduced.

Examples: Two main declensions were generalized for the nouns. However a few relics of

others declensions were still found in mutated plurals, uninfected plurals orwords borrowed from Latin and Greek;

The same process of a loose of case-distinctions took place in adjectives anddemonstratives. Towards the end of the ME period, the adjective becameindeclinable as it is today and " the " is the only form of the definite article.

As a consequence of this development the word order in the clause became moreimportant and people had to use separate words to perform the functions

formerly carried out by word-endings.

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What kind of impersonal construction was not uncommon in OE and MEbut sounds very strange to a speaker of PDE? (p.163)Cfr p. 171 + "The Nuns Priests Tale" p.168"Me mette " "I dreamed " (translation) but literally " (it) dreamed to me ". " Me"being a dative.Such constructions are not uncommon in OE and ME, giving expressions like " himhungreth " "he is hungry " and " me lyst raedan " "it is pleasing to me to read ".They were rare by the sixteenth century, but one survival is " methinks ", from OE"me think(e)th " "it seems to me ".

Discuss briefly the position of Scots from the 16 th century up to thepresent day.Records of the Scots literature language date from the second half of the 14 th c.16 th century: Scots was increasingly influenced by the Southern language.

Reasons : Prestige of the English poets (Chaucer, Gower,...); Influence of Biblical translations The Reformation was marked by a

whole series of such translations in English, but not in Scotland. (e g theGeneva Bible);

Late 16 th century. Many books in the Southern language were printed inScotland;

In 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England. The Southerninfluence increased;

By the end of the 17 th century the Scots literary language had practicallyceased to exist. The great 18th century Scots thinkers and men of letters(Adam Smith, David Hume) wrote in the Southern literary language. Thisdoesn't mean that people in Scotland stopped speaking Scots, but simplythat in writing they adopted the convention of the South.

This, combined with Scots national feeling, led to the creation of a Scots dialectliterature. But having a dialect literature is still different than having a standardliterary language. Father of the movement was Allan Ramsay (1886-1758)Key figure: Robert Burns.This literary movement still continues today.Since the 18 th century, there have been works of literature in Scots, but thehistory of books and the contracts and the chemistry text-books have beenwritten in the Southern literary language, with few especially Scottish variations.

Chapter 8: Early Modern English

In the 16 th and 17 th centuries, what caused the defeat of Latin in favourof English? In spite of its rapid decline, in what area was Latin veryinfluential in this same period? (p. 176)1 st factor: the religious disputes that raged from the 15 th to the 17 th c. causedthe defeat of Latin in favour of English. During the Reformation, people engagedin controversy (Protestants) wanted to be read by the largest public.

People attracted by Protestantism often lacked a classical education; Controversial books + pamphlets written in English (Ex: Milton

controversial prose); Bible translated into English + church services in English; Protestants regarded Latin as a Popish language, used to keep ordinary people

in ignorance.

2 nd factor: increase in national feelingThe medieval feeling that a person belonged to Christendom was replaced by the

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modern feeling that a person is English/French/Italian/...(belongs to a specificcountry). Nationalism led to conscious efforts to create a vernacular litterature.

3 rd factor: the rise of social and occupational groups , which had little or noLatin but which wanted to read and learn in English. (ex: navigators, explorers,soldiers,... whose subjects were practical: geometry, warfare,...) they wantedbooks in English.

In spite of its rapid decline, in what area was Latin very influential in thissame period?Latin was influential in literature, history, rhetorical theories and in language. TheRenaissance was the period of the rediscovery of the classics in Europe.

What is meant by the Renaissance "etymologizing" or "remodelling" of words? Give an example. (p. 180)Because of Latin influence, existing words had to be reshaped (= remodelled) inaccordance with their real or supposed Latin etymology.For example: debt and doubt their earlier spellings were dette and doute ,which were their forms in Old French. They have been "remodelled": the b wasinserted through the influence of Latin debitum and dubitare .

PS: Some of these Renaissance remodellings are based on false etymologies(combining pedantry with inadequate scholarschips) advance remodelled fromME avance . The modern forms obviously arose from the belief that the initial arepresented the Latin -ad but in fact both words derive from French avant , whichcomes from Latin ab ante .

What was the functional difference between you and thou in EarlyModern English? (p.186)

YOU THOU

In the plural

In the singular: choice

When addressing sby bytheir title or surname MrJones, you ...

When addressing sby bytheir first name Mary,thou...

Addressing children,animals

Lower-class speakeraddressing sby of decidedlyhigher rank (compulsory!)

Higher-class speakeraddressing people of alower social class

People of the lower classesto one another

Emotionally-charged formof the "polite" classes(intimacy, affection, anger,contemption)

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Addressing deityabstractions, materialobjects

17 th -c: supplanted thou in

the speech of the gentryand the citizenry

Used in literary language

Esp. in poetry

End of 17 th -c: normal form Lower classes

Survives in modern dialects(N&W England)

The form you is used for both nominative and accusative. By Shakespeares time,you was the normal form, and the original nominative ye was a less commonvariant; both of them could be either nominative or accusative. There is also thepronoun thou . In the plural, only you could be used, but in the singular there wasa choice between you and thou. The difference between them was somewhat likethe present-day different between addressing somebody by their first name,"John, Marie" (= thou), and addressing them by their title and surname "MrJones, Mrs Smith" (= you). Children and animals were addressed as thou; sowere people of a decidedly lower social class, but in this case the higher- classspeaker might fluctuate between thou and you, sometimes being morepatronizing, sometimes more complaisant; for the lower-class speaker, howeveryou was compulsory, for it was insulting to say thou to somebody of decidedlyhigher rank. People of the lower classes normally used thou to one another.Among the polite classes, thou was the emotionally-charged form: it could beused to express intimacy and affection, but also to express anger and contempt.It was also normal to use thou when addressing the deity, or abstractions, ormaterial objects. During the seventeenth century, you gradually supplanted thouin the speech of the gentry and the citizenry, and by the end of the century wasthe normal form; thou, however, continued to be used in the literary language,especially in poetry. The lower classes, too, continued to use thou, and it survivesin some modern dialects in northern and western England.

Locate the Great Vowel Shift in time and explain in general terms whichvowels were affected in which way. (p. 191-192)The Great Vowel Shift is a change in the quality of all the long vowels. It beganearly in the 15 th century and was not fully completed until late in the 17 th

All vowels became closer in quality, except for the two which were already asclosed as they could be. The two became diphthongized; change the position of the starting points of the diphthongs in questions.Great Vowel Shift = asymmetrical: 4 long front vowels three long back vowelsIn both Middle English and Early Middle English: sporadic shortening of longvowels in words of one syllable, especially those ending in a single consonant. Bycontrast, there was relatively little change in the short vowels.

Chapter 9: English in the scientific age

What accounts historically for the difficult and inconsistent spelling of

English? (P. 201-2)In Middle English and Early Modern English, there had been no standard spelling:

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Because of the vocabulary expansion andinkhorn terms, a need was felt for workswhich would explain the meaning of obscure words

Progressively including more informationsuch as etymology and differences of style Ordinary everyday words includedThe first = A New English dictionary byJohn Kersey

The most important: Samuel Johnson'sdictionary:- it included extensive quotations fromearlier authors to illustrate word-meanings- it helped to stabilize spellings and wordmeanings treated as authorities

Which kinds of criteria were used by prescriptivists? Give one example of each type of criterion. (P.205)The advocates of "correctness" had no clear criteria for their prescriptions, whichin consequence are often confused and contradictory.

Sometimes they appealed to logic, as when they condemned multiple negations(2 negatives make an affirmative) as well as double comparatives andsuperlatives, which were common use until the 17 th c. (ex.: Shakespeare " morenearer " or " the most unkindest ").Other idea behind these prescriptions: there is a universal grammar to which thelanguage should be made to conform. In practice, the Example turned out to be

the grammar of Latin, consequences adverbs should be clearly distinguishedfrom adjectives; past tenses and past participles of strong verbs should also bedistinguished (ex.: early 18 th c.: some writers said " I have wrote " or " I havechose ").

Etymology : in 2 domains: Word-meanings: the "correct" meaning of a word was the meaning of some

earlier form (English or Latin) from which it was descended. Ex.: mutual means reciprocal and not common ;

Constructions: it was argued that averse from is preferable to averse to . Linked to the appeal to custom or usage, the usage of early 18 th c. classicslike Pope or Addison was often attacked as well as Johnson's Dictionary from

including "incorrect" usages from earlier authors among its citations.These 18 th c. grammarians and correctors did not always agree with one another.Because of the widely differing criteria appealed to, there were often hot disputesabout points of usage.

Has British English always been non-rhotic? Explain. (pp. 210-11)NO.Before 1700 , the /r/ has always been pronounced in words like barn , person andfather .Since 1700 , there has been a change in pronunciation: the disappearance of /r/before consonants and before a pause. (/r/ is only pronounced if it occursimmediately before a vowel father and mother )

The weakening of /r/ before consonants and before a pause had begun by the

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16 th c. The final disappearance of /r/ did not take place until the middle of the 18 thc.

BUT this disappearance did not take place in all varieties of English. Example:most North American speech is rhotic, Scots- and Irish English and the West-country of England. Australian, New Zealand and South African are non-rhotic,like RP and England.

What sources have scientists drawn on to form the new scientificvocabulary since the 18 th century? Give one example of each kind of source. (p.216) Take a word of everyday use and give it a special scientific meaning, which is

what the chemists have done with salt, the botanists with pollen and fruit, Take over words directly from another language: abdomen , cortex , saliva

(Latin); ion , iris , larynx (Greek); cobalt , quartz (German). A few words arederived from the names of modern European scientists: ampre , watt , volt ,etc;

Extremely common way: invent them, using Greek ( electron , zoology ) andLatin ( atmosphere , hibernate ) material; ???

The Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius (16 th c.) had a profound impact onthe Elizabethan imagination. That's why many words concerning the humanbody come from this period ( skeleton , tibia , tendon );

French scientists (and esp. Lavoisier) played a major part in the foundation of modern chemistry (late 18 th c.: hydrogen , molecule , nitrogen , oxygen )

In our own century, the flow has continued, especially in the newer fields likegenetics and nuclear physics.

Discuss possible reasons for the loss of words. (p. 226) The word is no longer needed. For example, we do not need words for the

various parts of a suit of armour for everyday purposes ( cuisse , greave ,...)

But they may survive in historical contexts; There is a danger of confusion when phonetic change causes two words tobecome homophones ( queen & quean );

A phonetic change makes a word too short to be distinctive. Speakers replaceit by a longer word, which gives a bigger margin of safety (OE word ea for"river "). But, the fact that a word is reduced to a single phoneme does notnecessarily mean that it will disappear ( eau ).

It is often difficult to say exactly what has caused one word to die out andanother to survive.

Name and exemplify five types of meaning change that words mayundergo. (p.228-232)

Polysemy: when a new meaning co-exists with an earlier one, so that a wordcan in time come to have numerous meanings. (Ex.: horn : original meaningwas "pointed projections on the heads oxen, sheep, etc.", in the OE period, itwas extended to mean the musical instrument. Later still, it was used todenote noise-producing instruments like those on motorcars. + many othermeanings. These new meanings arose by a shift in the speaker's and hearer'scentre of interest when the word was used. (see p.229 for striking example"bead ");

Words denoting occupation or social rank developing meanings referring tothe moral qualities of people in that station (Ex.: gentle which meant well-born, of good family became generous, merciful, courteous because thesewere the qualities often attributed to people of that class). (Other ex.:

bourgeois , villain); Sometimes a change of meaning is triggered by the form of a word: one wordis confused with another that it resembles in some way. In Early Modern

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English the word obnoxious often had the meaning of its Latin original. Itsmodern meaning "offensive, objectionable", is due to the influence of theword noxious;

Euphemism: words for things which are unpleasant or which are hedgedabout with taboos (sex, death, defecation) are often replaced by aeuphemism. Because of the human need to exaggerate for effect, such wordsrapidly lose their intensity and have to be replaced by others. Ex.: hard of hearing instead of deaf , to pass away instead of dying ;

Dead metaphors originally, a speaker referring to the foot of a hill or to themouth of a river was using a metaphor, but by constant use they have ceasedto be metaphorical and are simply 2 common meanings of the nouns inquestion. Examples from our own time include ceiling "upper limit ", headache" problem ".

Chapter 10: English as a world language

Explain the difference between English as a foreign language (EFL) andEnglish as a second language (ESL), and discuss an example of a countrywhere English is a second language. (p.238)A second language is used alongside one or more local languages for publicpurposes and often for communication between different language-groups in thecommunity. e.g.: In India, English is used as a second language. It is one of theofficial languages, alongside Hindi and others languages recognised as regionallanguages. English is there widely used as a language of administration andcommerce.

A foreign language is not used to communicate with other people of one'scountry (e.g.: Germany or Norway) but is a language learned and used tocommunicate with foreigners only. There is no native tradition of English-speakingin these countries and the learner will usually be taught either standard BritishEnglish or standard American English.

Name and exemplify two grammatical and two phonological differencesbetween present-day American and British English. (P.243 252)Grammatical differences:

With collective nouns ( army, committee, crew, government, team ... ), on theone hand, RP English uses sometimes a plural verb and sometimes a singularone: When they consider the group as a single unity, they use a singular verb.When the attention is focused on the individuals of a group, they use theplural verb form. On the other hand, American English prefers singular verbswith collective nouns.

e.g.:

The army is a voluntary one.The army art above average height.

Concerning the use of past tenses of verbs:Among pas tenses of verbs, some American English has the forms dove , fit , andsnuck (British dived, fitted, sneaked ) and in a number of forms uses /-d/ whereBritish English has /-t/ (for example: burned, learned, spelled, spilled ). In someverbs of this latter type, British English changes the stem-vowel from /i:/ to /e/ inthe past tense, whereas in AE it remains /i/. In addition an American often usesdo have where a Briton uses have got .

Phonological differences:

Present-day American English and RP English can differ in the realization of many phonemes:

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A difference in consonant-realization concerns /t/ and /d/: /t/ is intervocalio in words like pretty and letter.Americans, usually make the /t/ with a single rapid tap of the tongue, andfrequently also voice it. So that it sounds kike /d/.

In RP, there are two main allophones of /l/:- "clear [l]" has a front kind of vowel resonance, and is used before vowels and

before /j/, as in look and million .- "dark [l]" has a back kind of vowel resonance, the tongue being raised towardsthe position used for [u], as in old and mill .American English has also the both /l/ but their distribution differs from that of RP, since in general American English "dark [l]" is used in intervocalic position, inwords like Billy and yellow .

Discuss briefly the main phonological features (both segmental andsuprasegmental) distinguishing ESL from standard English. (p. 247- 249)Main phonological features:

The number of phonemes is often much reduced in ESL.e.g.: Nigerian has only one phoneme corresponding to Standard English. Forexample, there is only one phoneme corresponding to RP /I/ and /i:/ (i.e.: instandard English, we have /I/ and /i:/ as in bead and bid , whereas in Nigerianthey don't make this difference and pronounce both word /bid/); only onephoneme corresponding to RP / / and /u:/, so that look and Luke are both /luk/,etc.

Nigerian English also have no diphthongs: speakers tend to replace them by asequence of two vowels: the word ear , for example, is [i-a], pronounced astwo syllables.

Nigerian English is syllable-timed, not stressed-timed. It means that all the

syllables in a phrase seemingly occur at equal intervals not just the stressedsyllables. ESL lacks the use of contrastive stress and tends to use pitch ratherthan stress to mark syllable accent.

There is also a reduction of the vowel-phonemes in African English (ESL).Elsewhere: ESL tends to be nearer to RP in its phoneme system.

In the varieties of ESL, the phonemes have a wide range of differentrealization, depending on the first language of the speaker.

In ESL, as for the distribution of phonemes, there is a tendency to usespelling-pronunciation, and especially to replace unstressed /I/ and /schwa/

by other vowels suggested by the spelling. E.g.: suffixes like -able and -enceare often given full vowels.

Explain and exemplify the following statement: "It will be seen thatpidgins are extreme forms of analytic languages" (p. 259)An analytic language is a language that uses very few bound forms such asprefixes, suffixes (re-, -all) and in the inflections (grammatical endings) of Englishnouns and verbs ( boxes , talkies , talked ...).

Pidgins are extreme form of analytic language because they use very few boundmorphemes. They mostly lack inflection and rely on free morphemes to indicategrammatical relations. Therefore is the word-order very important.

The third person inflection -es is missing so that the same verb-form isused throughout the present tense:a kari or mi kari = I carry

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yu kari = you carry I kari = he carries

Nouns and verbs commonly have no plural form:Wan man = one personTen man = ten personsPlenty man = many persons

There is a simplification of the pronoun system: i = he, she or it ; wi = we, us andour ; dem = they, them and their .

They have no past or future tenses: bin placed before the verb = past tense ( i binkam = he came ); don = perfect ( I don kam = he has come ); go = future ( I gokam = he will come ).

Chapter 11: English today and tomorrow

"In the English language today we can see both centrifugal andcentripetal tendencies" (p. 262): explain and discuss in relation toEnglish as a first and as a second language, and to English within Britain.In the English language today we can see both centrifugal and centripetaltendencies.

We can find the centrifugal tendency in countries where English is used as asecond language. There has been a trend during the past half-century for localstandards to become established, and for the language to develop independentlyof British or American English. If this trend continues, these local varieties mayultimately diverge widely from Standard World English, and become separatelanguages.

On the other hand, the centripetal tendency is found in countries where English isthe first language. The major forms (in Britain, North America, Australia, NewZealand) are not diverging any longer but seem to be converging and willcontinue to constitute a more-or-less unified language as a major medium of international intercourse.

The slowing down of the divergent trend has been due to the great developmentof communications and the rise of mass media. These things have enabled thedifferent regional varieties of English to influence mutually one another, and soreduce their differences. But the major influence is the language of the UnitedStates. It is due to the economic and political power of the US but also becauseAmericans form the largest single body of speakers of English. This influence

penetrates everywhere where English is spoken as a first language, especially alexical influence (vocabulary). For example, tornado is an Americanism. Othervarieties of English have their own modest exports (Australia).

Another centripetal tendency is found in the English within Britain. The differentdialects are being mixed and levelled. This is due to the influence of the massmedia, the influence of universal and compulsory education (which has workedagainst the broader dialect elements, both regional and social).Moreover, the population has been more mobile: migration to the great cities, twoworld wars in which men were mixed in armies. As a result, the traditionaldialects have vanished, and have been replaced by new mixed dialects, based onthe great urban centres.

Discuss briefly the notion of "ungrammaticality" in connection withstandard and non-standard varieties of a language. Include an example

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of a common non-standard grammatical feature. (p. 264)In non-standard English, people use the past participles as past-tense forms ( I seen him = I saw him ; they never done it = they did not do it ) and use the sameform for adjectives or adverbs ( the lads played real good = the boys played really well ). Standard speakers describe these usages as "ungrammatical" but it isactually not a good desparition.Standard and non-standard English speakers both have a strict grammar but theyare different.For non-standard English speakers seen and done are the past tense of to seeand to do .

What is meant by "continental pronunciations"? Give three examplesillustrating this phenomenon for words with different language origins.(p.273)Words borrowed from other languages get assimilated to an English stylepronunciation. Nowadays, however, such words are often given a "foreign" (="continental") kind of pronunciation again.e.g.: armada, gaza, gala : in traditional pronunciation the stress are pronounced

/ei/, but in continental pronunciation, /a:/; beret, richochet, valet : pronounced with /t/, but in continental pronunciation

(now) without /t/; Marlowe's Dr Faustus is given the /a / of the German Faust instead of the

traditional English / o long/.

Discuss and exemplify three recent or ongoing changes in Englishgrammar. (p. 274-276)

When we compare adjectives in comparison and superlatives: -er and -est areless used than before. Tendency in recent year to use more and most insteadof -er and -est with two-syllables words (with whom we usually use -er and

-est): more common; most common (instead of commoner and commonest ).More and most have also been spreading to adjectives of one syllable: " J. ismore keen than R. " or " It was more crude than I expected ".

Dare and need are basically auxiliaries but people tend to use them asordinary lexical verbs. It is thus increasingly normal to say: " Do you need togo? " and " I don't dare to go " rather than " Need you go? " and " I dare not go".

The group of learned nouns borrowed from Greek and Latin have originalplural forms: dogma/dogmata ; formula/formulae ; genus/genera ... Such wordsare more and more often given analogical pluralism in -(e)s: formulas,genuses, dogmas ...

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