INTRODUCTION TO

MORPHOLOGY AND

LEXICOLOGY

UNIT 2: WHERE DO ENGLISH

WORDS COME FROM?

16th March 2016

Ch2: Where do English words come

from?

2.1 The origin of English

2.2 Historical development of English

vocabulary

2.3 Native English vocabulary

2.4 The process of borrowing

2.5 Creating new English words

2.6 Characteristics of modern English

vocabulary

Classification of languages

About 5000 languages in the world

About 300 language families (based on

similarities in basic word stock and grammars)

English language:

Indo-European language family

Germanic branch

West Germanic branch

The Indo-European language

family

Most of Europe, The Near East, North India

Branches (examples):

Italic Latin Romance languages

Hellenic Greek

Celtic Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic; Breton,

Welsh

Balto-Slavic Lithuanian; [Old Slavic ]

Russian, Polish, Czech,...

Indian Sanskrit Hindi

Iranian

Germanic

Germanic branch

East Germanic branch

E.g., Gothic, Vandalic, Burgundian [extinct]

North Germanic branch

E.g., Danish, Sweedish, Norwegian, Icelandic

West Germanic branch

E.g., modern German, Dutch, Frisian (NW

Netherlands + Friesland), and English

Q: Which of the languages is the closest relative to

English?

How English came to England

Celts – the first known inhabitants, I-E

language

55-54 BC – Roman invasion (attempt to add

the land to the Roman Empire), Romans

defeated

AD 43-410 the island of Britain occupied by

the Romans (military & government officials)

Settlements: Doncaster, Gloucester, Lancaster <

lat. CASTRA, ‘camp‘

How English came to England

Withdrawal of Romans invasion of lowlands

by the Picts and Scots (tribes in the north of

Britain)

Celts ask Germanic tribes from across the North

Sea for aid (Angles, Saxons, Frisians, and

Jutes)

The allies became the conquerors

Celts were pushed to the fringes of the country

(Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria, Scottish highlands) or

they left for French Brittany; those who stayed

become assimilated to Anglo-Saxon society.

The name of the language

The Celts called the invaders Sassenachs

‘Saxons‘

by the end of 6th century – the term was

replaced by the term Angli ‘Angles‘

C17 – the usual Latin name for the country

was Angli or Anglia Engle in OE, language

= Englisc [‘sc‘ /∫/]

C10 – Englaland [ England]

2.2 Historical development of English vocabulary

The Old English period (450-1066)

The Middle English period (1066-1500)

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

The Modern English period (1800-present)

The Old English period (450-

1066)

C5-C6 the first scattered OE manuscripts in

runic alphabet brought by Anglo-Saxons

C6 – arrival of Christian missionaries from

Rome = beginning of literary age

Around 700 – glossaries of Latin translated

into OE

Around1000 – Beowulf (heroic poem)

C9 – Kind Alfred; Latin works translated into

OE

Corpus of OE: 3.5 million words

OE letters, spelling and words

Absence of capital letters

Different shapes of some letters; Roman

symbols

Variation is spelling (even with a single scribe)

Words in prose – close to Modern English X

poetry

OE vs. Modern English: omitting the ge- prefix

Geseted > -seted (seated)

Geseah > -seah (saw)

Gehyrde > -hyrde (heard)

X glimplice (suitable), beboden (entrusted),...

OE lexicon: Kennings

Frequent coinages (kennings)

Kennings = vivid figurative descriptions often

involving compounds (Old Norse)

Sometimes difficult interpretation (synonyms –

shades of meaning; 20 terms for man in Beowulf;

poetry)

Hronrad (whaleroad) = sea; banhus (bone-house)

= body; Moncynnes wead (guardian of mankind)

= God

Lexicon: OE vs. Modern English

1. OE: strong preference for synonymous expressions

and the construction of compounds

2. OE: word-formation based on native elements

families of morphologically related words

3. OE: Introduction of loan translations (calques)

Praepositio/ unicornis (Lat.) – foresetnys/ anhorn

(OE) – preposition/ unicorn (ModE)

4. Grammatical relationships expressed by inflexional

endings (vs. word order) – C11-C12 – main stress at the

beginning of the word – difficult to hear the endings

5. OE corpus: 24.000 different lexical items, mainly

germanic, only 3% loanwords (ModE 70%)

The Middle English Period (1066-1500)

Much richer documentation than in OE X early

material written in Latin or French (surveys

commissioned by monarchy) – places, names

C14 – increase in translated writings from Latin

and French, texts teaching Latin or French

MidE poetry influenced by French literary

tradition

Literature – authors start to be known: Geoffrey

Chaucer, John Wyckliff, William Langland;

‘Scottish Chaucerians‘ (poets)

The Middle English Period (1066-1500)

Diversity in spelling greater than in OE, e.g.,

NEVER [neuer] spelled as naure, noeure, ner,

and neure.

Altegaedere (altogether), cyrceiaerd

(churchyard),...

Borrowing: after 1066 – massive borrowing from

French (EN-FR bilingualism)

In the early Middle English period – over 90% of

the lexicon was of native English origine X at the

end – 75%

Word formation: compounding, affixation

Early Modern English (1500-

1800)

1476 – PRINTING REVOLUTION - William

Caxton set up his press in Westminster

(beginning of Early ModE) norms of spelling

and pronunciation, wide circulation of published

works

C16 Scholars start being interested in language

(grammar, lexis, writing system, style)

Middle of C15 – 1650 – Renaissance (renewed

interest in classical languages and literatures;

science, arts); Protestant reformation, discoveries,

explorations impact on English, esp. lexis

Early Modern English (1500-

1800)

Latin words introduced (translations –

theology, medicine)

Purists (against borrowings)

Renaissance

W. Shakespeare, 1564-1616, info about

pronunciation, word formation, syntax, and

language use; introduced/ popularized new words

King James Bible, 1611, appointed to be read

throughout the kingdom, the translators aimed for

a dignified style, older forms of language (despite

the existing modern ones), conservative

King James Bible

Contains many phrases that have entered the

language as idioms, e.g., can the leopard

change its spots, fight the good fight, if the

blind lead the blind...

TASK:

Complete the following idioms:

King James Bible

Idioms:

A ---- in sheep‘s clothing

In the t-------- of an eye ( = in a very short time)

Money is the ---- of all evil

The ---- of the earth (the ones who ‘enhance‘

the flavour of life in this world)

By the ---- of my teeth (to describe a situation

one barely managed to escape from)

A t---- in the flesh (a constant bother/

annoyance to someone)

Early Modern English (1500-

1800)

Borrowing, word formation; semantic changes

C17 many critics felt that English was

changing to rapidly and randomly

Need to stabilize the language debates on

language corruption public attention

Grammars, spelling guides, pronunciation

manuals, dictionaries (e.g., Robert Cawdrey,

‘dictionary of hard words‘, 3000 entries, mostly

borrowings, e.g., abbettors glossed as

‘counselors‘, 1st synonym dict. )

Dictionaries

Robert Cawdrey

Nathaniel Bailey – Universal Etymological

English Dictionary

Samuel Johnson – Dictionary of the English

Language (1755)

Descriptive approach in lexicography

The first accurate description of the complexity of

the lexicon and of word usage

The Modern English Period (1800 –

present)

Gradual change from Early Modern to ModE

Lexis – 3 main features:

Growth of scientific vocabulary

C19, industrial revolution, exploration, discovery;

‘scientific English‘ as a variety of the language

American English as a dominant variety

C20 – US – leading economic power, involved in

world affairs, Europe (incl. UK) open to US culture,

mass media, US and UK Eng. – more and more

alike, US + UK – 70% of all Eng.speakers (En.1st lg)

The emergence of ‘New Englishes‘ (varieties)

The Modern English Period (1800 –

present)

‘New Englishes‘

Influenced by the other languages of the regions

where they are used

Origin in colonial era

Indian English, Philippine English, Singapore

English, African Englishes...

Varieties associated with geographical era OR

subject matter (telecommunication, computing;

religious and legal English)

English-speaking countries

(classification)

Classification based on the status of the language,

Kachru (1983)

1. INNER CIRCLE (English = primary language)

(Task: Name some of the countries.)

2. OUTER/ EXTENDED CIRCLE (English = second

language in a multilingual setting, used in the leading

institutions; countries affected by collonization) ....

(Examples?)

3. EXPANDING CIRCLE (countries with no history of

colonization, English has no special administrative

status X recognized as important)

(Examples?)

Native English Vocabulary

What is the origin of the native English

vocabulary? (i.e, „Who brought it & who

influenced it?“)

Anglo-Saxon words

Represent the native English vocabulary (which is also

influenced by the Celtic language)

Most of them – common words of the language, the

nucelus of the English language

Generally short and concrete

Parts of the body (arm, bone, chest, eye, ear, foot,

hand)

The natural landscape (field, hedge, hill, meadow, land)

Domestic life and animals (door, house; cow, dog, fish)

The calendar (day, month, moon, sun, year)

Common adjectives and verbs (dark, wide; do, go, kiss)

The influence of Celtic on English

Not very significant (cf. the conditions of the cultural

contact); regionalisms; just a few have survived

Binn (bin), carr (rock), luh (Scots: loch, Irish: lough) lake

Celtic-based place names: Avon (river), Thames, Don

Town names: Dover (water), Eccles (church), London

Introduction of a few Celtic words into English from Irish

Gaelic (C17) – brogue, galore, shamrock and from Welsh –

crag.

Celtic has a rather negligible influence of English.

Practice and revision:

1 Give the basic characteristics of the Old

English vocabulary.

Practice and revision:

2 Give the basic characteristics of the Middle

English vocabulary.

Practice and revision:

3 Give the basic characteristics of the Early

Modern English vocabulary.

Practice and revision:

4 Give the basic characteristics of the Modern

English vocabulary.

Practice and revision:

Try and identify the language of origin of the

following words:

addendum

baguette

cannelloni

con brio

criterion

Practice and revision:

Try and identify the language of origin of the

following words:

id est (i.e.)

in loco parentis

mañana

sang-froid

vis-à-vis

Practice and revision:

Try and identify the language of origin of the

following words:

zucchini

robot

piano

yougurt

zebra

Practice and revision:

Try and identify the language of origin of the

following words:

lilac

alcohol

pretzel

power politics

gas

quark

Thank you for you attention!

Enjoy the rest of the semester!