Fricatives of ME and Early NE
In OE the pairs of fricative consonants – [ƒ] and [v], [θ] and [ð], [s] and [z] – were treated as positional variants or allophones; in intervocal position they appeared as voiced, otherwise – as voiceless. In ME and in Early NE these allophones became independent phonemes. Compare ME veyne and feine (NE vein, feign). The two other pairs [ð, θ] and [s, z] so far functioned as allophones.
Loss of Consonants
The system of consonants underwent important changes in ME and Early NE. It acquired new phonemes and new phonemic distinctions, namely a distinction between plosives, sibilants and affricates. On the other hand, some changes led to the reduction of the consonant system and also to certain restrictions in the use of consonants.
In Early NE the aspirate [h] was lost initially before vowels – though not in all the words:
e.g. ME honour [ho˙'nu:r] > NE honour,
ME hit > NE it, but ME hope ['hב:pэ] > NE hope.
In Early NE the initial consonant sequences [kn] and [gn] were simplified to [n], as in ME knowen ['knבwэn], gnat [gnat], NE know, gnat.
Simplifications of final clusters produced words like NE dumb, climb in which [mb] lost the final [b].
Historical foundations of Modern English Spelling
The introduction of printing and the spread of printed books perpetuated the written forms of the words reproduced from the manuscripts. They reflected the pronunciation of the age and the accepted devices of spelling.
The phoneticians and spelling reformers of the 16th c. strove to restrict the freedom of variation and to improve English orphography by a more consistent use of letters and digraphs, and by the introduction of new symbols.
In the 18th c. the sound changes slowed down. Standard pronunciation (later known as RP – Received Pronunciation) and standard spelling were firmly established form and the gap between the spoken and written of the word was perpetuated. The conventional use of letters had prevailed over their original, “phonetic” use.
Those are the main historical reasons for the gap between Mod.E spelling and pronunciation and for specifically English use of Latin letters.
Тема лекції: Граматична будова мови новоанглійського періоду. Словниковий склад.
ЗМІСТ ЛЕКЦІЇ
1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYNTACTIC SYSTEM IN EARLY NEW ENGLISH
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- Survey of the evolution of the English Language Morphology.
- The Phrase.
- The Simple Sentence.
- Word order.
- Predicative Constructions.
1. Survey of the evolution of the English Language Morphology
The drastic transformation of the morphological system in the history of English was on the whole completed in the 14th – 15th c., when some of the coexisting forms and syntactic patterns used in free variation were selected and adopted by the language system and by the prevailing literary dialect – the dialect of London.
The history of the Gen. case and the category of number require special consideration.
The number of cases in the noun paradigm was reduced from 4 to 2. The syncretism of the Nom., Acc. and Dat. resulted in what is called now the Common case. The Gen. case kept an explicit formal distinction in the singular – -es. The ending –es of the Gen. sg had become almost universal since the 14th c. In the plural the Gen. case had no special marker, it was not distinguished from the Common case pl. In the 17th and 18th c. a new graphic marker of the Gen. case came into use – -’s (e.g. John’s, children’s). This device removed grammatical homonymy in at least writing.
The Comm. case pl ending –es was the prevalent marker of plurality in Late ME. In Early NE it extended to still more nouns.
The ME pl ending –en, used as a variant marker with some nouns lost its former productivity, so that in Modern English it is found only in ‘oxen’, ‘brethren’ and ‘children’.
The small group of ME nouns (descendants of long-stemmed Neuters) with homonymous forms of number was reduced to 3 “exceptions” in Mod. E: ‘deer’, ‘sheep’ and ‘swine’.
The group of former root-stems underwent OE i-mutation. Since then the mutated vowel has proved to be the only marker of the plural form: men, feet and teeth.
In Early NE Personal pronouns were subjected to considerable grammatical changes. The Nom. case began to merge with the Obj. case. Yet the tendency to reduce the case system of personal pronouns you and it lost all case distinctions in NE. The other pronouns have preserved the distinction of two cases, Nom. and Obj. (I – me, she-her, etc).
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In Early NE there arose a new possessive pronoun its derived from ‘it’; ‘its’ was built on the analogy of the Gen. case of nouns.
In the 17th and 18th c. The two variants of the possessive pronouns split into two distinct sets of forms differing in syntactic functions. In modern grammars they are called “conjoint” and “absolute”.
Reflexive pronouns developed from combinations of some forms of personal pronouns with the adjective ‘self’.
Adjectives lost all the grammatical categories in the course of the ME period, the degrees of comparison being preserved. In Early NE adjectives admitted the so-called ‘double comparatives’ and ‘double superlatives’ (more better; most unkindest).
The evolution of finite and non-finite forms of the verb was mostly accomplished in the ME period.
The Phrase
In OE the dependent components of noun patterns agreed with the noun in case, number and gender, if they were expressed by adjectives, adjective-pronouns or participles. If expressed by nouns, they either agreed with the head-noun in case and number or had the form of the Gen. case.
By Late ME agreement in the noun patterns had practically disappeared, except for some instances of agreement in number. Formal markers of number had been preserved in nouns, demonstrative pronouns and some survivals of the strong declension of adjectives. The last traces of agreement in adjectives were lost in the 15th c. when the inflection –ewas dropped; only the demonstrative pronouns, the indefinite article and nouns in apposition indicated the number of the head-word, like in ModE. When the adjective had lost its forms of agreement, its relationships with the noun were shown by its position; it was placed before the noun, or between the noun and its determiners (articles, pronouns). Sometimes in Late ME the adjective stood in post-position, which can be attributed to the influence of French syntax (in French the adjective was placed after the noun). Relics of this practice are now found as some modern set phrases, such as ‘court martial’, ‘time immemorial’.
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In the age of the literary Renaissance the noun patterns became fixed syntactic frames in which every position had a specific functional significance. The attribute in preposition was enclosed between the determiner and the head-word; hence every word occupying this position was an attribute. This is evidenced by the wide use of nouns as attributes in noun pattern at the time of Shakespeare.
The standardized frame of the noun pattern is also confirmed by the fact that the position of the head noun could not be left vacant – it was at that time that the indefinite pronoun ‘one’ and the demonstrative ‘that’ began to be used as the so-called “prop-words”.
In Early NE noun pattern began to include syntactic complexes: predicative constructions with the Gerund and the Infinitive.
The Simple Sentence
In OE the ties between the words in the sentence were shown mainly by means of government and agreement, with the help of numerous inflections. In ME and Early NE, with most of the inflectional endings levelled or dropped, the relationships between the parts of the sentence were shown by their relative position, environment, semantic ties, prepositions, and by a more rigid structure.
Every place in the sentence came to be associated with a certain syntactic function: in the new structure of the sentence syntactic functions were determined by position, and no position could remain vacant. This is evidenced by the obligatory use of the subject. For instance, in OE the formal subject, expressed by the pronoun ‘hit’, was used only in some types of impersonal sentences, namely those indicating weather phenomena. In ME the subject ‘it’ occurs in all types of impersonal sentences.
The use of the verb-substitute ‘do’ as well as the use of auxiliary and modal verbs without the notional verb proves that the position of the predicate could not be vacant either. This is evident in short answers and other statements with the notional verb left out, e.g.:
Stand! So I do, against my will… (Shakespeare)
One of the peculiar features of the OE sentence was multiple negation. The use of several negative particles and forms continued throughout the ME period. Gradually double negation went out of use. In the age of Correctness (the normalising 18th c.) when the scholars tried to improve and perfect the language, multiple negation was banned as illogical. These logical restrictions on the use of negations became a strict rule of English grammar.
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Word Order
In ME and Early NE the order of words in the sentence underwent noticeable changes; it has become fixed and direct: subject plus predicate plus object (S+P+O).
Stabilisation of the word order was a slow process, which took many hundreds of years: from Early ME until the 16th or 17th c. The fixation of the word order proceeded together with reduction and loss of inflectional endings.
In the 17th and 18th c. the order of words in the sentence was generally determined by the same rules as operate in English today.
In questions the word order was partially inverted – unless the question referred to the subject group. The analytical forms of the verb and the use of the do-periphrasis instead of simple forms made it possible to place the notional part of the Predicate after the Subject even with simple Predicate.
“Did he never make you laugh?” (Shakespeare).
Predicative Constructions
One of the most important developments in Late ME and Early NE syntax was the growth of predicative constructions.
Predicative constructions date from the OE period, when Dat. Absolute was used in translations from Latin and the Acc. with the Inf. – in original English texts; the latter construction occurred only with verbs of physical perception; a short time later a new type of construction appeared after verbs of physical perception: the Acc. with Part. I.
Now types of predicative constructions appeared in Late ME and Early NE texts:
1) the Nom. with the Inf. and with Part. II (also known as Subjective predicative constructions),
2) the Nom. Absolute construction,
3) the Absolute construction with prepositions,
4) the Gerundial construction.
The earliest instances of the Acc. with the Inf. are found in Beowulf, an original OE epic.
2. HISTORY OF WORD-FORMATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 15TH – 17TH C.
1.Word stress
2.Prefixation
3.Suffixation
The growth of the English vocabulary from international sources can be observed in all periods of history. Word formation falls into two types: word derivation (1) and word composition (2).
Word Stress
The role of stress in word building grew in ME and Early NE due to the weakening and loss of many suffixes and grammatical endings. Word stress acquired greater positional freedom: it was commonly moved in derivatives of borrowed words (e.g. Early NE confide – confidence, precede – precedence, prefer – preference). The verb prefix is unstressed, while the corresponding nouns take the stress to the first syllable. This distinction is important in words having no other differences: NE ´contrast (n) – con'trast (v)
´export (n) – ex'port (v)
´conduct (n) – con'duct (v)
Thus word stress became the only distinctive mark in some pairs of modern words. (In some pairs of words stress is not used for differentiation (neglect n, v; comment n, v).
Prefixation
During the ME period prefixes were use in derivation less frequently than before. The loss of some verbs with prefixes in ME can be ascribed to replacement of native words by borrowings: OE forfarenwas replaced by ME perishen(from OFr), OE forzān by ME passen (NE perish, pass).
Native prefixes OE un- was mainly used with nouns and adjectives; it remained productive in all the periods. New formations in ME are unable, unknown, in Early NE – unhook, unload.
The OE prefix be- yielded ME beseechen (NE beseech), bewitchen (NE bewitch); NE befriend, belittle, becircle.
Several prefixes which had developed from OE adverbs and prepositions yielded an increasing number of words in ME and NE.
OE under, ME under-: ME underwrite (n), NE underfeed, undermine.
Borrowed Prefixes In Late ME and Early NE new prefixes began to be employed in word derivation in English, French, Latin and Greek. Assimilation of a foreign prefix can be illustrated by in the history of the French prefix re-.
Between the years 1200 and 1500 English borrowed many French words with the prefix re-. Re –was separated, as an element of the word, its meaning became clear to the speakers and in the 16th c. it began to be applied as a means of word derivation:
16th c. examples: re-greer, re-kondle, re-live.
17th c. and 18th c. – re-act, re-adjust, re-fill, re-construct, re-open.
19th c. – re-attack, re-awake.
As seen from the examples, re-was used both with foreign and native stems fill, live, open. Eventually it grew into one of the most productive verb prefixes in English.
The verb prefixes de- and dis- of Romance origin (French and Latin) entered the English language in many loan-words: disconnect, disbelieve, dislike, disown.
The prefix en-, in- displayed high productivity in Early NE. It means “to bring into a certain condition”: encamp, enlist, enrich, enclose.
The adjectival prefix in- (and its variants in- /im- /il- /ir-) was one of many ME prefixes of negative meaning: impossible, infirm.
The negative prefix non- of Franco-Latin origin developed into a highly productive English prefix: NE non-attendance, non-Germanic, non-aggression, non-existent, etc.
A number of new prefixes employed since the 17th c. had entered English in numerous classical borrowings – Latin and Greek. Since most of the classical loan-words belonged to the sphere of science, philosophy and literature, the use of new prefixes was confined to these spheres. Within these spheres many Greek and Latin prefixes have become highly productive. Like many Latin and Greek roots, these affixes belong to the international layer: anti-aircraft, anti-climax; co-exist, co-operate, co-ordinate; ex-champion, ex-president; extra-mural, extra-ordinary; post-position, post-war; pre-classical, pre-written; semi-circle, semi-official.
3. Suffixationhas remained the most productive way of word derivation through all historical periods.
OE –ere developed into the most productive suffix of agent nouns in ME and NE: type-writer, boiler, hearer, etc.
The suffix –ness was equally productive in all historical periods: NE politeness, consciousness.
Another highly productive suffix of abstract nouns was ME -ing, which had replaced two OE suffixes: -inz| -unz.It was applied to verbal stems without restrictions.
OE –isc, ME –ish was added to nouns to indicate qualities and states: sleepish, foolish, bookish.
OE –iz, ME –y was a suffix of wide application: NE hairy, risky, faulty, etc.
The OE adjectival suffix –lic, ME and NE –ly: fatherly, manly, masterly.
ME –less (from OE adjective and suffix –leas ‘devoid of’) has developed into one of the most productive suffixes: NE motionless, powerless.
OE and ME –ful owes its origin to morphological simplification. It had developed from the OE adjective full and was a genuine suffix as early as ME: harmful, willful.
Borrowed Suffixes entered the English Language with the two biggest waves of loan-words: French loans in ME and classical loans in Early NE.
The French suffix –ess replaced the native –estre. It yielded many words: governess, butleress, priestess.
The French suffix –ee becomes productive in NE: employee, addressee, trustee.
The suffix –or (from Fr.): collector, educator.
-ance| -ence; -ment; -tion| -sion; -ist, -ism.
ENE VOCABULARY
The end of the MEP and the beginning of the NEP and further on witnessed an intensive development of the wordstock. It was connected with the general development of the country, its political and social development, the development of culture and education.
The end of the MEP witnessed the development of 3 sciences: theology, medicine and philosophy (many special terms except from Latin and Greek entered the E language and many of the have become international terms).
But a real flourish is witnessed during the beginning of the new E period and all through the NEP => it’s a period of European Renaissance which began in Italy and flourished in many other countries. Together with the Renaissance came great interest in culture, art, classical languages => the revival of learning and of interest for Latin; later Italian and still later French. In the OEP there were about 30000 words, whereas now we find about 50000 words. Together with the development of the language there developed new ways of the formation of the new words (OE: affixation, sound gradation, word composition):
1. due to the fact that E has become analytical - conversion developed (many words are root words which may have diff. functions) now it’s the main way.
2. change of stress: present - to present.
3. shortening - Fridge
there appeared many synonyms: sometimes they borrowed words for the nations for which they had already words: native - colloquial
to begin - to start - to commence, borrowed - bookish
(native) (early borrowed) (bookish)
there have appeared many etymological doublets: they are words which have one and the same origin, but they were borrowed at the different chronological periods:
capital - chapter (a later borrowing)
[t ] - new affricate
there appeared etymological hybrids - many words were formed in which diff. parts have diff. origin: beautiful - beautiful
French German
readable
a native word
ENGLISH TODAY.
3 forms:
1. The language of the nation (with its literary norm).
2. The Variants.
3. The Dialects.
(4). Hybrid languages: the pigin languages &the creolized languages.
The Variant ó the Dialect (on the surface they look alike).
A Variant is a language which is closely connected with the language from which it developed, which is spoken in another country and has its own literary norm.
A Dialect is a variation of a sentral language spoked on the same territory by certain groups of population => they are usually referred to as lokal dialects.
THE VARIANTS.
American E - a state language.
Canadian E - one of the two state languages.
Australian E, New Zealand E, Irish E, South African E and Indian E - the main language.
Where do the variants differ from the English language:
1. The phonetic system Am.: ,r, voicing Austr.: labialised vowels.
2. more narrow range of speech.
3. differences in the wordstock: at the expense of native words; different words for the same phenomenon.
THE DIALECTS.
1. The General (The Midland).
2. The Northern.
3. The Southern.
4. The Western.
5. The Eastern.
Where do the dialects differ:
- The sound system.
The reasons: some phonetic processes did not take place in the dialect, whereas they took place in the E l. North: the house [u:].
+ dropping - final consonants, and sometimes even initial (for ex. ch.)
+ some consonants are voiced (like in American English)
- The wordstock: we find some local words; the more remote the dialect is the more local word we find.
- We don’t have (in the V. and in the D.)many grammatical differences.
American English: Past Indefinite ó Present Perfect
Synthetic Subjunctive Mood
gotten ó got
dropping of the art
team, family (‘is’ only)
- The general trend - simplification (in spelling also).
HYBRID LANGUAGES.
The Hybrid languages are tongues formed on the basis of a certain civilized languages: they originated in the colonies first for the purpose of trade and commerce.
2 types:
1. Pigin languages.
«pigin» is a pronunciation of the English word business (в китайском).
A pigin Language is a very primitive language based on the certain civilized language, and it is primitive both in the vocabulary and the grammatical system.
2. A creolized language - is a language which is more developed than a pigin, which has a system and which has become the written and the spoken language of the population.
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