- •1. Old English – The story of Jacob’s Deceit
- •Phonetic analysis
- •Grammatical analysis
- •Etymological analysis
- •2. Middle English – From Capgrave’s Chronicle of England
- •Grammar analysis
- •Etymological analysis
- •3. New English – d.Chrystal, The Cambrige Encyclopedia of the English Language, 1995
- •Phonetic analysis
- •Grammar and etymological analysis
3. New English – d.Chrystal, The Cambrige Encyclopedia of the English Language, 1995
Many observations concerning the English language have been based on the analysis of language data samples collected together as a corpus. Compiling a corpus is very different from the traditional practices of citation-gathering or word-watching which have guided work on dictionaries since the time of Dr. Johnson, Corpora are large and systematic enterprises: whole texts or whole sections of text are included, such as conversations, magazine articles, brochures, newspapers, lectures, sermons, broadcasts and chapters of novels. Considerable thought is given to the selection of material so that, in the most general case, the corpus can stand as a reasonably representative sample of the language as a whole a general, or standard corpus. A well-constructed general corpus turns out to be useful in several ways. It enables investigators to make more objective and confident descriptions of usage that would be possible through introspection. It allows them to make statements about frequency of usage in the language as a whole, as well as comparative statements about usage in different varieties. It permits them, in principle, to arrive at a total account of the linguistic features in any of the texts contained in the corpus. And it provides them with a source of hypotheses about the way the language works. In addition, a corpus which is widely accessible enables researchers in separate locations to collaborate in the analysis of particular problems, and means that results from a range of projects are likely to be somewhat more comparable than if different corpora had been employed.
Phonetic analysis
Word as it is used in the text |
Changes of spelling and sounds |
||
OE |
ME |
NE |
|
1. language |
- |
langage [a] +w under the influence |
language [æ] of lungua (L) |
2. English |
EnƷlisc [sk’]
|
Englische [sk’] ->> [ʃ] Ʒ ->> g |
English [ʃ] |
3. that |
Þæt [æ] [θ] |
Þat [æ] ->>a [θ]
|
that [θ] ->>[ð] Þ – replaced by th |
4.with |
wiÞ [θ]
|
with [θ] Þ replaced by th |
with [θ] ->> [ð]
|
5. lecture |
- |
letture, L-lectūra
|
lecture t->c under the influence of latin form. |
6.have |
haveÞ [a] |
habb(að) [a] v->>bb |
have [a]->> [æ] |
7.material |
- |
materyal L- māteriālis |
material y->>i due to changing of quality |
8.whole |
hāl [a:] |
hal [a:] ->> [a] due to changes of long monophtongs in ME |
whole a ->>o [a]->[əʊ] vowel became more narrow and more front h->wh |
9.which |
hwilc [k’]
[hw] |
which [k’] ->> [tʃ] due to development of affricate consonants [hw] hw ->wh c->>ch |
[tʃ] [w] |
10.make |
maciað [a]
c-[k’] |
maken [a]->>[a:] due to open syllable c->>k [k’]->>[k] |
make [a:]->>[ei] due to The Great Vowel shift |
11.ways |
weƷ [e+j] |
wey\way [eɪ] Ʒ->>y
|
way [eɪ] |
12.many |
måniƷ [å]
|
many [a] Ʒ->> y |
Many [æ] |
13. would |
woldon [o] |
wolden before ld [o] ->>[o:]->>[u:] |
would [u] before a dental cons. [l] lost in NE |
14.is |
is [s] |
is [s] |
is [s]->>[z] due to Verners law in NE |
15.widely |
wīd [i:] |
wyd+ly [i:] |
widely [aɪ] e - is not pronounced |
16. had |
hæfde [æ] [f] |
hadde [æ]->>a lost in ME æ ->> a |
had [æ] |
17. reasonably |
- |
resoun+ly [e:] [u] |
reason [i:] [u] unstressed->> [ə] |
18. more |
māra [a:] |
more [o:]
|
more [o:]+ vocalized [r]->>[ɔ:] |
19. can |
cån [å] |
can [a] |
can [æ] |
20. somewhat |
Sum hwæt [u]
[æ]
|
Som-what [u] u->>o (a ME speling device) [æ] ->> [a] after [w] hw->>wh æ ->> a |
Somewhat [ʌ]
[a]->>[ͻ] [hw]->>[w] |