The concept of linguistic change

Вопросы к экзамену

 

1. The subject and aims of the History of English. – +

2. Characteristics of Germanic languages.+

3. Periodisation of the English language.+

4. Written records of Old English.+

5. The Indo-European family of languages.+

6. Dialects in Old English.+

7. The first vowel shift. Grimm's law.+

8. The accent shift and Verner's law.+

9. Rhotacism. OE vowels. Breaking. The palatal mutation.+

10.  Old English period: phonetics.+

11.  Old English period: the Nominal system.+

12.  Old English period: the Verbal system.+

13.  Old English period: Word formation. +

14.  Ancient Germanic tribes and their classification. +

15.  The East Germanic grouр. +

16. The North Germanic group. +

17.  Middle English period: phonetic changes.+

18.  Middle English Morphology: Nominal system.+

19.  Middle English Morphology: Verbal system.+

20.  The Formation of the National English Language.+

21.  The Great Vowel Shift. Theories about its Origin and Cause.+

22.  New English period: phonetic changes.+

23.  New English period: the Nominal system.+

24.  Development of the System of Verbs and their Grammatical Categories+

25.  Development of the Syntactic Structure of the Simple Sentence.+

26.  Etymological strata in the English vocabulary in Modern English. +

27.  The First English Standard of the 7^th-9^th centuries.+

28.  Early Modern English. Lexicology+

 

 

1. Subject & aims of the History of English.

This outline history covers the main events in the historical development of the EL:

a) the history of its phonetic structure and spelling;

b) the evolution of its grammatical system;

c) the growth of its vocabulary;

d) and also the changing historical conditions of English-speaking communities relevant to language history.

 

Through learning the H of the EL we achieve the variety of aims, both practical & theoretical.

 

One of the aims of this course is to provide with knowledge of linguistic history sufficient to account for the principal features of present-day E.

Through the following examples we can show how modern linguistic features can be explained by applying to history. Any student of E is well aware of the reading difficulties and E spelling. The written form of the E word is conventional rather than phonetic. The values of Latin letters as used in E differ greatly from their perspective values in other languages, e.g. French, German, and Latin.

 

Bit- [bit] 3 letters-3 sounds	full correspondence between Latin letters & E sounds
bite- [bait] 4 letters-3 sounds	no correspondence between the vowels & their graphic representation, the final e is not pron., but convention preceding letter i has its E alphabetic value which is [ai], not [i] as in other languages.
Knight- [nait] 6 letters-3 sounds	the letters k and gh do not stand for any sounds but gh evidently shows that i stands for [ai].

 

Another illustration may be drawn from the vocabulary. Since E belongs to the Germanic group of languages German, Swedish, Danish and others. Instead, we find many more words in Mod. E having exact parallels the Romans languages: French, Latin, Spanish.

 

English languages	Other Germanic languages	Romance
give OE ʒiefan	geben (G) giwa (Sw)	_
peace OE frið	Frieden (G) fred (Sw) Vrede (Dutch)	paix (Fr) pace L pace It paz Sp
army OE here	Heer G har Sw	armee Fr armata It

 

As far as grammar is concerned, it can only be noted at this stage that the History of language will supply explanation both for the general, regular features of the grammatical structure and for its specific peculiarities and exceptions.

                                                                 

Another important aim of this course is of a more theoretical nature. While tracing the evolution of the EL, we will be confronted with a number of theoretical questions such as:

a) the relationship between statics and dynamics in language;

b) the role of linguistic and extralinguistic factors;

c) the interdependence of different process in language history.

 

These problems may be considered on a theoretical lane within the scope of general linguistics.

                                                  

One more aim is to provide a wider linguistic and philological outlook.

The History of English shows the place of English in the linguistic world;

it reveals its ties and contacts with other related and unrelated tongues.

 

2. Statics & dynamics in Language History

There exist certain permanent universal properties to be found in all languages at any period of time:

a) the division of sounds into vowels and consonants;

b) the distinction between the main parts of speech< the parts of the sentence.

 

In addition to these universal properties, English, like other languages, has many stable characteristics which have proved almost immune to the impact of time.

 

Some parts of the English vocabulary have been preserved through ages;

to this stable part belong most of the pronouns,

many form-words and word indicating the basic concepts of life  

                              

Many ways of word-formation have remained historically stable.

 

Some grammatical categories, e.g. number in nouns, degrees of comparison in adjectives, have suffered little alteration while other categories, such as case or gender, have undergone profound changes.

                                                            

The proportion of stable and changeable features varies at different historical periods and at different linguistic levels but there is no doubt that we can find statics and dynamics in synchrony and in diachrony.

 

Dynamics in diachrony, that is linguistic change, requires special consideration.

 

The concept of linguistic change

One can distinguish 3 main types of difference in language: geographical, social and temporal.

 

Linguistic changes imply temporal differences, which become apparent if the same elements or parts of the language are compared at successive historical stages; they are transformations of the same units in time which can be registered as distinct steps in the evolution.

 

For instance, the OE of the Past tense pl. Ind. Mood of the verb to find- fundon [‘fundon] became founden [‘fu:nden] in the 12th-13th c. and found in Modem English.

The continuity of the item was not broken, though we can register several changes:

a) phonetic and spelling changes as the root vowel [u] became [u:] and then [au]. The letter u was replaced by digraph ou;

b) phonetic and morphological changes in the inflection -on>-en> (the sign> means "became, developed into");

c) morphological changes in the place of the form in the verb paradigm and its grammatical meaning: fundon was Past tense pl. of the Ind. Mood;

d) its descendant founden was also the form of Past pl. Subj. and P these three forms had fallen together; art as

e) the modem found has further extended its function - it stands now both for the singular and plural, since these forms are not distinguished in the Past tense.

 

All these changes can be defined as structural or intralinguistic as they belong to the language system.

 

The concept of linguistic change is not limited to internal, structural change.

It also includes temporal differences in the position of the given units in language space that is the extent of its spread in the functional varieties of the language new feature – a word, a form, a sound – can be recognized as a linguistic change only after it has been accepted for general use in most varieties of the language or in its main "prestige" variety – the Literary Standard.

 

For instance, in the 10^th-11^th c. many Scandinavian words penetrated into the Northern dialects of the EL (as a result of Scandinavian invasions and mixture of population), e.g. sky, they, call; later they entered literary English.

 

In addition to the distinctions described above various classifications of linguistic changes are used to achieve an orderly analysis and presentation. It is obvious from the examples quoted that Linguistic Changes are conveniently classified and described in accordance with linguistic levels we can speak of:

1) phonetic and phonological changes (also sound changes);

2) spelling changes;

3) grammatical changes, incl. morphology and syntax,

4) lexical

5) stylistic changes.

 

At these levels further subdivisions are made:

§ phonetic changes include vowel and consonant changes,

§ qualitative and quantitative changes,

§ positional and independent changes.

 

Changes at a higher levels fall into formal and semantic, since they can affect the plane of expression and the plane of content. Semantic changes, in their turn, may take various forms: narrowing or widening of meaning, metaphoric and metonymic changes.