Changes in me vocabulary

French influence led to different kind of changes in the vocabulary.

1. Introduction of the new objects and concepts require lexical innovations: baron – a feudal title (no English counterpart)

2. Replacement of some native words by French equivalents: the ratio of the Romance roots in the language grew: OE ēa – F river, þegnian – serven, onfōn ‘receive’ – receven.

3. Existence of French and English synonyms differed in style, shades of meaning, combinability. The influx of French words is one of the main historical reasons for the abundance of synonyms in MnE. French and native words differed in stylistic connotation; French words are of bookish literary character: begin – commence, hide – conceal, look for – search, wish – desire, smell – odour.

Adoption of affixes

The English vocabulary was enriched by the adoption of French affixes. Affixes entered the language with the words and later were separated by the speakers and used in derivation. The use of affixes dates from the NE period.

suffixes: -ment, -ty, -ess, -et, -let, -age, -ion, -ee, -ard, -al, -able, -ible etc.

prefixes: re-, de-, dis, des-, en-.

Assimilation of French words

French belonged to a different linguistic group and the French words were difficult to pronounce. Slowly the borrowed words were adapted to the norms of English pronunciation and unusual French sounds were replaced by the resembling English vowels.

l’, n’ – ordinary l, n

compagnie - companye

The end of the ME period (15^th c.) –

the beginning of the NE period (16^th c.)

Classical and Romance element in English

The Latin language continued to be used in English in religious rituals, in legal documents, in philosophical and scientifical texts though the Latin borrowings were less numerous than French borrowings.

In the age of the Renaissance a new wave of Latin and Greek languages penetrated English. O. Jespersen wrote about the Renaissance: The Renaissance is the rivaval of learning. Through Italy and France the Renaissance came to be felt in English as early as the 14^th c. The number of borrowings from classical languages grew in the 14^th and 16^th c. In English this influence was stronger due to the French loan-words.

Borrowings from Latin and Greek

1. The classical borrowings indicated abstract concepts. Thomas More: anticipate, contradictory, exact, exaggerate, explain, fact, monopoly, necessitate, pretext.

2. Loan-words 16^th – 17^th c.: anonymous (Gk), aspiration, census, contempt, criterion (Gk), explicit, genius, gesture, history, index, include, individual, inferior, interrupt, item, major, minor, ostracise (Gk), popular, reject, submit, suppress.

3. Some borrowings belonged to a scientific terminology – they go back to Greek prototypes: acid, analysis, antenna, apparatus, appendix, atom, axis, complex, curriculum, diagnosis, energy, formula, maximum, minimum, nucleus, radius, species, terminus

4. Greek loan-words pertained to theatre, literature, rhetoric: anapest, comedy, critic, dialogue, drama, elegy, epilogue, episode, metaphor, prologue, rhythm, scene, theatre.

Lecture 12. Evolution of the ME Lexical System.

Contents:

1. Evolution of the ME semantics.

2. Semantic changes in ME.

Evolution of the ME semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning: namely, the historical and psychological study of meaning, the study of the classification of changes in the signification of words.

These changes can be viewed as important factors in linguistic development and include such phenomena as:

specialization and expansion of meaning

meliorative and pejorative tendencies.

OE semantics underwent deep and profound changes as the history of semantics is connected with the history of the words.

Semantic changes in ME

There are various theories concerning the semantic changes and their nomenclature. E.g. B.Warren proposed a classification of semantic changes into:

- particularization (уточнение)

- implication (импликация)

- metaphor

- metonymy

According to traditional classification the semantic changes in OE and ME are usually divided into shifts: expansion (widening – расширение, генерализация), specialization (narrowing – сужение, специализация) of meaning, pejoration (пейорация - ухудшение), mejoration (амелиорация - улучшение), methaphoric and metonymic shifts. Lapshina adds смещение (shift).

1. The examples of narrowing are found in the history of

OE dēor animal which changed into deer,

OE mete food > NE meat,

OE sellan give, sell > NE sell,

OE mōtan may, must > NE must,

OE talu number, story > NE tale,

OE loc fastening, prison > NE lock,

ME accident event > NE accident

ME client one who is under the protection of another, a dependant > NE a customer

ME engineer one who designs or invests > NE one who designs and constructs military engines or works of public utility

Narrowing of meaning can often be observed in groups of synonyms: in the course of time each synonym acquires its own, more specialised, narrow sphere of application: e.g.

deer was a synonym of animal and beest in ME, must – may, lock – prison

14^th c. nature: inherent force directing the world, or the human race > the physical world

2. Widening of meaning can be illustrated by

journey which meant a day’ work or a day’s journey,

holiday – was formerly a religious festival (the first component comes from OE hālig holy)

dog ME dog of a particular breed > NE any dog

rubbish ME broken stones and building material, fragments of plaster > NE anything useless or worthless

3. Many words of concrete meaning came to be used figuratively, which is the example of widening of meaning and of metaphoric change. Thus the verbs

grasp, drive, go, start, handle, stop etc. formerly denoted physical actions but then have acquired a more general, non-concrete meaning through metaphoric use. The change of

ME vixen she-fox to bad-tempered, quarrelsome woman can be interpreted as metaphor or metonymy.

4. A well-known example of metonymic change is

pen which meant a goose quill (feather) used in writing

MnE: any of various instruments used for writing or drawing with ink

Gang meant a set of tools > a group of workmen, people; the meaning of caravan was transferred from a company of travellers into wagon.

5. Shift (смещение). Meliorative and pejorative tendencies. The meaning of the word can be shifted and evaluated, thus - meliorated or pejorated: e.g.

professor – any person wearing glasses

blackguard a servant > one of the criminal class

boss employer, master > anyone thought to be the most wonderful, exciting

cobbler one who mends shoes > a clumsy workman

daddy father > the most respected performer in a field

Greek a native of Greece > a swindler, rogue

butcher one whose trade is to slaughter large tame animals for food > a man of blood, a brutal murderer

dog, lion, wolf, ape, swine

6. Some semantic changes are miscellaneous because they involve different kinds of semantic changes and sometimes structural changes too (e.g. the simplification or contraction of compounds and word phrases).

lord: OE hlāford = hlāf loaf + weard keeper. This compound word was simplified and shortened to NE lord.

lady: OE hlæfdige = hlāf + dige knead (bread-kneading), later simplified to NE lady.

daisy: OE dæges-ēage (eye of the day)

window: OE windoge < OIcel wind-auga (eye for the wind)

alone: OE all one

always: OE ealne weg (all the way)

good-bye: OE God be with you, an old form of farewell

Lecture 13. Evolution of the ME Nominal Morphology.

Contents:

1. Decay of noun declensions in ME.

2. Evolution of grammatical categories of the noun.

Decay of noun declensions in ME

The main direction of development for the nominal parts of speech can be defined as morphological simplification. The period between 1000 and 1300 was called an age of great changes: the entire morphological nominal system underwent the decline and transformation.

OE distinguished the elaborate system of noun declensions. In ME this system was rearranged and simplified chiefly by the process of analogy. The most numerous OE morphological classes of nouns were a-, ō- and n-stems. In late OE the endings used in these types were added by analogy to other kinds of nouns, especially if they belonged to the same gender. Thus the noun declensions tended to be rearranged on the basis of gender.

The decline of the OE declensions started in the North as early as the 10^th c. and gradually spread southwards. In the Southern dialects the old inflectional forms were preserved even in the 14^th c.

In the Midland and Northern dialects there was 1 major type of declension: the majority of nouns took the endings of OE masculine a-stems: -(e)s in the genitive sg, -(e)s in the pl.

The survivals of OE minor declensions as weak declension or root-stems were rare and should be treated as exceptions than as separate paradigms. But some nouns retained weak forms with the ending –en alongside new forms in –es. The pattern of noun declension in the dialect of London prevailed in literary English. In late ME the simplification of noun morphology was on the whole completed.

Most nouns distinguished 2 forms: the basic forms with the zero ending and the form in –(e)s (gen. sg., com. pl.).

Evolution of grammatical categories of the noun

Simplification of noun morphology affected the grammatical categories of the noun in different ways.

Gender

The OE gender and stems were classifying features of the noun declensions. In ME the nouns were grouped mainly by gender, not by stems gender being the only classifying feature. With the loss of the OE declensions the gender distinctions were neutralised, the weakened adjective endings ceased to indicate gender and in Chaucer’s time gender became a lexical category: nouns are referred to as ‘he’ and ‘she’ if they denote human beings.

The formal groupings into genders were superseded by a semantic division into inanimate and animate nouns, with a further subdivision into males and females.

Case

The number of cases in the noun paradigm was reduced from 4 to 2 in late ME. First Nominative and Accusative cases fell together in both numbers. Later Nom, Acc. and Dative fell together because in the strong declension the Dat. was sometimes marked by –e in the Southern dialects, though not in the North or in the Midlands. The syncretic case is called the Common Case.

The Genitive Case was kept separate from the other forms. In the 14^th c. the ending –es of the Gen. sg became almost universal. Several nouns with a weak pl ending in –en or with the vowel interchange: oxen, men, added the marker of the Gen. -es to these forms: oxenes, mennes.

In the 17-18^th c. a new graphic marker of the Gen. case came into use: the apostrophe – man’s: this device could be employed only in writing, in oral speech the forms of the Gen. and the pl forms remained homonymous – peoples : people’s.

Gen. Case can no longer be employed in the function of an object to a V or A. It is used only attributively – to modify a N. In this function - Gen. Case is then replaced by of-phrase which application grew rapidly in the 13-14^th centuries.

In some texts there is a certain differentiation between the synonyms: the inflectional Gen. is preferred with animate nouns, while the of-phrase – with inanimate ones:

his lordes (= ’s) were

the kingdom of the hevens

Number

Number was the most stable nominal category. It preserved the formal distinction of 2 numbers through all historical periods.

In ME the ending –es was the dominant marker of pl nouns.

The pl ending –en (from the weak declension) lost its productivity and now is found only in oxen, brethren, children.

The small group of ME nouns with homonymous forms of number – deer, hors, thing, sheep, swine – was reduced to 3 exceptions in ME: deer, sheep swine.

The group of former root-stems survived as exceptions: man, tooth, goose, mouse.

Lecture 14. Evolution of the ME Nominal Morphology.

Contents:

1. Adjective. Decay of declensions and grammatical categories of the adjective.

2. Pronouns.

3. Development of articles.

In ME the adjectives underwent greater simplifying changes than any other part of speech. The adjective lost all its grammatical categories except the degrees of comparison.

In OE adjective indicated the gender, case and number of the noun it modified, it had 2 declensions – weak and strong and a five-case paradigm.

The strong and the weak forms of adjectives were often confused in EME texts. Sometimes a strong form was used after a demonstrative pronoun: in þere wildere sæ in that wild sea instead of wilden sæ.

In the 14^th century the difference between the strong and weak form is sometimes indicated in the singular with the help of –e:

Str. sg blind pl blinde

w. sg blinde pl blinde

By the end of the OE period the agreement of the adjective with the noun became looser and in ME it was lost. This process began in the North and spread in the South.

The 1^st category to disappear was gender: it was not distinguished by the adjectives in the 11^th century.

The number of cases shown in the adjective paradigm was reduced: the Inst. case fused with the Dat. by the end of OE; distinction of other cases in early ME was unsteady – many variant forms of different cases which arose in ME, coincided.

In the 13^th c. case was indicated only by some adjective endings in the strong declension (but not by the weak forms); towards the end of the century all case distinctions were lost.

Number was the most stable nominal category in all the periods. In the 14^th c. plural forms were contrasted to the singular forms with the help of the ending –e in the strong declension. This marker was regarded as insufficient, for in the 13^th and 14^th c. there appeared a new plural ending –s.

The use of –s is attributed either to the influence of the ending –s of nouns or to the influence of French adjectives which take –s in the plural:

In other places delitables ‘in other delightful places’.

In the age of Chaucer the adjective paradigm consisted of 4 forms distinguished by the ending –e.

sg pl

s. blind blinde

w. blinde blinde

These endings were used only for monosyllabic adjectives bad, good, long. Polysyllabic adjectives took no endings: ME able, swete, bisy were uninflected. So singular and plural forms were often confused: arves, bright and kene ‘arrows bright and keen’.

The distinctions between the singular and plural forms, weak and strong forms could not be preserved for long – the reduced ending [∂] was very unstable. In Chaucer’s poems –e was always missed out in accordance with the requirements of the rhythm.

Conclusion. The loss of final –e in the late ME made the adjective an uninflected part of speech.

Pronouns

The morphology of pronouns like the morphology of other nominal parts of speech was simplified.

Some lexical replacements in the sphere of personal pronouns of the 3p.sg. were introduced. Pronoun hēo she was replaced by the group of variants: he, ho, sce, sho, she. The latter –she- prevailed. It developed from the OE demonstrative form seo that. The form she was a marked one: it was preserved in E to avoid homonymy and not to be coincided with masc. he.

In ME the OE 3p.pl. hie ‘они’ was replaced by the Scandinavian loan-word they. It came from the North and was adopted by the London dialect. It ousted the nom. hie, while them and their replaced the OE oblique cases hem and heora. But both sets of forms occur side by side in ME:

That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

In the 17^th and 18^th c. the plural forms of the 2p. –ye, you, your were applied generally to individuals ousting the OE thou, thee, thy. Thou became obsolete and now it’s used in poetry, religion, dialects. In Shakespeare’s time both forms are interchanged:

But if thou life, remember’d not to be,

Die single, and thine image dies with thee.

Or I shall live your epitaph to make

Or you survive when I in earth am rotten.

Demonstrative Pronouns. Development of Articles

Demonstrative Pronouns were Adjective-pronouns and in ME they lost most of their inflected forms. OE se тот, seo та, þæt то, þes этот, þēos эта, þis это – became this этот, that тот, thise (these) эти, those те.

The Pl number in Dem. Pronoun is now an archaic trait because no other noun modifier agrees with the N in number.

In OE the pronouns se, sēo, þæt were used as N-determiners with a weakened meaning, approaching that of the modern definite articles. In the 11-12^th centuries this use of the dem. Pronoun becomes more common. The article became an uninflected form – the chiknes.

In ME the definite article came to be opposed to the indefinite article, which developed from the OE numeral and indefinite pronoun ān.

In ME ān lost its inflections and became an indefinite article: a worthy man.

But sometimes we find the instances of absence of the articles contrary to MnE rules (e.g. no article before a countable concrete N used in indef. sense).

The growth of the articles was connected with syntactical and morphological changes:

1. Relative freedom in Word Order in OE made it possible to use WO for communicative purposes – to present a new thing or to refer to a familiar thing. After the loss of inflections the WO assumed a grammatical function – to show the S, O etc and their fixed places. The communicative functions passed to the articles.

2. The development of the def. article is connected with the loss of distinctions between strong and weak adjectives. Strong Adj. revealed the meaning if indefiniteness which later was transferred to ān. Weak Adj. were used with the demonstrative Pronouns and revealed the meaning of definiteness. The decay of Adj. declensions speeded up the growth of articles.