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creator, saviour, saint, trinity, virgin; charity, damnation, devotion, faith, mercy, mystery, obedience, piety, pity, reverence, temptation, virtue; devout, divine, solemn; adore, anoint, chant, confess, convert, ordain, pray, preach, repent, sacrifice
3.Law: bar, crime, justice, judgement, plea, suit; attorney, defendant, judge, jury, plaintiff, felon; complaint, petition, evidence, proof, bail, verdict, sentence, award, fine, punishment; prison, jail; adultery, arson, fraud, libel, perjury, slander; executor, heir, legacy, property, tenant; accuse, acquit, arrest, blame, condem, plead, pardon, sue, seize; innocent, just
4.Fashion, meals, social life: boots, dress, cloak, coat, collar, fashion, garment, gown, robe, veil, button, embroidery, garter, lace; adorn, embellish; beaver, ermine, fur, sable, satin; blue, brown, saffron, scarlet, vermilion, tawny; jewel, ornament, ivory; crystal, diamond, emerald, ruby, pearl; appetite, dinner, feast, supper, taste; mackerel, oyster, perch, salmon, sole; beef, pork, mutton, poultry, veal, venison; bacon, loin, sausage; biscuit, cream, gravy, sugar, toast, lettuce, salad; almonds, cherry, date, fig, grape, lemon, orange, peach; clove, herb, mustard, nutmeg, spice, thyme, vinegar; blanch, boil, fry, grate, roast, stew
All in all, around 10,000 French words were introduced into English during the Middle English period, of which about 75 per cent are still in current use.
4.3.2.3Latin
Latin, as the language of the church, scholarship, and partly of law, normally acted only as a written source. Typical loans from these areas are: diocese, psalm, requiem, redemptor, allegory, cause, contradiction, desk, scribe; explicit, formal, major, minor; client, conviction, executor, memorandum, prosecute, proviso, testify, legitimate. Others belonging to more general domains are: adjacent, conspiracy, contempt, custody, distract, frustrate, genius, history, immune, include, incredible, individual, inferior, infinite, intellect, interrupt, lunatic, magnify, mechanical, moderate, necessary, nervous, notary, picture, polite, popular, prevent, project, promote, quiet, rational, reject, script(ure), secular, solar, spacious, subordinate, subscribe, substitute, summary, suppress, tributary, ulcer.
4.3.3 |
Word formation |
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Middle English is the starting point of a development which resulted in a restructuring of the English word-formation system by borrowing from French and Latin, and which was intensified in early Modern English. This led to a system with two derivational strata, a native and a foreign one, which, however, partially overlap. The former is word-based and base-invariant, whereas the latter
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is at least partly stem-based and exhibits morphophonemic alternations of the base (see Kastovsky, 1994). Thus with -able we find besides word-based allowable, understand-able also stem-based charit-able, navig-able (besides navigatable), cultiv-able (besides cultivat-able). The alternations -ate -acy, as in piratepira-cy, obstinate obstina-cy, -ant -ancy, as in sergeant sergean-cy, innocent innocen-cy, were adopted in Middle English from French. Other examples are edify edific-ation, rectify rectific-ation, astrology astrolog-er, etc.
The origin of these non-native patterns was the borrowing of individual lexical items which had already been derivationally related in the source languages, e.g. allow disallow, arm disarm, chain enchain, enter re-enter, establish restablish; accept acceptable, blame blamable, arrive arrival, suppose supposal, accept acceptance, endure endurance, excellent excellency, sufficient sufficiency, edify edification, organise organisation, assign assignee, grant grantee, rob robbery, etc. Once a number of such pairs had been borrowed, a derivational relationship could also be established in English, from which it could then be extended to new formations not necessarily having a parallel in the source language, probably first by individual analogical formations, until the pattern finally became productive on a larger scale (see Kastovsky, 1986). Traditionally, it has been assumed that non-native, especially French patterns had become productive fairly early. However, in a corpus-based study of nominal suffixes Dalton-Puffer (1996) has argued that the Romance suffixes had not really become productive in Middle English. Hybrid formations containing a Germanic base and a Romance affix, such as spekable, knowable, bondage, aldermanrie, outlawery, hunteresse, worshippour and a few others (Dalton-Puffer, 1996: 221), which might be indicative of beginning productivity, are according to her due to direct analogy; only with -able ‘we must indeed be observing a budding derivational rule for deverbal adjectives’ (Dalton-Puffer, 1996: 221). Burnley (1992: 447 ff.) seems to favour late Middle English as the starting point, especially for prefixation. Here, additional studies are necessary, especially since Middle English word formation in general is a rather underresearched area. Following this line of argument, the real productivity of many Romance and Latin derivational patterns only started during the late Middle and early Modern English period, when apparently a critical mass of borrowings and analogical formations had accumulated to get the derivational processes going (see also Nevalainen, 1999: 378ff.). Dalton-Puffer’s study only covers nominal derivations. In view of the number of prefixes and suffixes entering the English language in Middle English according to Marchand (1969) and as listed below, the increase of productivity must have been gradual and certainly differed from affix to affix.
Another aspect, already discussed with regard to phonology in general in Section 2.6.2.4, is the impact of this borrowing process on the morphophonemic system of derivational patterns. Originally, lexical items had their stress on the first syllable except for certain prefixed verbs, and stress assignment was from
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left to right independent of syllable weight. The loans from French and Latin had a different prosodic structure, viz. non-initial, partly movable stress. Here, stress assignment operates from right to left, taking into account syllable weight. Stress could therefore be placed on the final (licour´), penultimate (engendred´) or antepenultimate (pardoner´) syllable, depending on weight distribution, with considerable variation. This automatically led to movable stress in derivationally related patterns, especially since suffixes could bear stress themselves (employ´employee´, Japan´ Japanese´) or determine the position of stress (h´ıstory historic´ histor´ıcity, adm´ıre admirable/adm´´ırable). This affected the English phonological system profoundly, since stress position additionally led to phonological alternations between full vowels in stressed and schwa in unstressed position. It must therefore be assumed that Middle English (as well as Modern English) operates with two competing stress systems, the continuation of the original Germanic one and the new Romance one (see also Dalton-Puffer, 2002, where she investigates variation between these stress patterns, as in admirable/adm´´ırable, etc., proving that both patterns are equally relevant and in competition).
Moreover, alternations originally due to stress assignment were affected by shortening processes in connection with the number of syllables involved, e.g. sæn¯ sæ´nity, div¯ın div´ınity, etc., which after the Great Vowel Shift also led to segmental alternations such as /seIn/ /sænIti/, /dIvaIn/ /dIvInIti/. Whether such alternations (dubbed Trisyllabic Laxing in Chomsky & Halle, 1968) have really become productive in English is questionable (cf. Minkova & Stockwell, 1998). On the other hand, the alternation called Velar Softening, i.e. the alternation between a velar stop and a palatal or alveolar fricative or affricate, as in historic historicity, magic magician, concept conceptual, etc., certainly is productive, although tied to the respective non-native suffixes and therefore morphologicallylexically conditioned.
Thus the borrowing process not only changed the overall phonological system of English, especially with regard to stress alternations and concomitant segmental alternations, but also the morphophonemic system of derivational morphology, establishing two derivational levels.
A third aspect is the loss of patterns. Thus a number of OE suffixes were lost, e.g. the Agent noun suffix -end, the adjectival suffixes -bære,¯-ende, all verbal suffixes with the exception of -en, which made room for Romance -ate, -ify and -ise. Even more significant is the almost complete loss of the OE verbal prefixes. This paved the way for the large-scale adoption of the Romance and Latin prefixes (see the list in Section 4.3.3.2), which also filled a number of semantic gaps, such as ablative verbs of the type dislodge (1450), displace (1551), which had no Old English counterparts and which may have caused the extension of privative un- as in unsaddle ‘remove the saddle’ to ablative un- as in unsaddle ‘remove the rider from the saddle’ (see Kastovsky, 2002b: 106ff.; Nevalainen, 1999: 378ff.).
One further important development is the almost complete loss of the ablaut nouns and adjectives, which in Old English had been part of the core vocabulary. Why German preserved these derivatives and English lost them requires an
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explanation, although this can only be speculative. It would seem that this development is connected with the general restructuring of the morphological system of English. English had more and more shifted towards a word-based morphology both in inflection and in derivation, with a progressive loss of morphophonemic alternations, whereas German had preserved stem-based morphology to a much greater extent. Also, the preservation of umlaut as a productive process in German (even though only morphologically conditioned) made ablaut alternations more acceptable. The loss of ablaut nouns is thus in all probability triggered by the reorientation towards a word-based English morphological system in Middle English, which favoured non-alternating derivations. The introduction of morphophonemic alternations in non-native derivation can therefore be seen as a consequence of the reintroduction of stem-based morphology.
4.3.3.1Compounding
With the exception of a few instances, the OE patterns continued and partly extended their semantic range or were reinterpreted morphologically. But there were also a number of new patterns, which emerged partly as a native development, partly as the result of foreign influence.
In OE, the pattern bræding¯-panne ‘frying-pan’ was an N + N combination, since the suffixes -ing/-ung derived verbal nouns. In ME, -ing-formations gradually adopted participial (and gerundial) functions, which in the fourteenth century resulted in the reinterpretation of such formations along the lines of the V + N pattern whet-stone, i.e. as a verbal nexus combination, of which it became a morphological rival, i.e. the -ing-form functioned as a verbal predicate: bræding¯- panne ‘pan for frying’ > ‘pan in which one can fry’.
The pattern N + deverbal Agent noun (e.g. OE blod¯ -lætere¯ ‘blood-letter’) got a new boost as of the fourteenth century and has remained strong ever since.
New is the sex-denoting type he-lamb, she-ass, which begins to appear in the thirteenth century, and in the fourteenth century we find the first instances of the type Tom Fool, tomcat.
A further innovation is the level-stressed N + N compound type stone´ wall´, whose origin still needs closer investigation. In OE, nominal compounds were always forestressed (as they are in German), with stress reduction of the second member, the dm. The new type has no reduction of the stress on the second member, but for rhythmic reasons may reduce the stress on the first member, i.e. stone´ wall´ stone` wall´. As to the status of the two types of compounds, see Section 4.1.5 above.
With adjective compounds, the majority of the OE patterns continued and increased their productivity (cf. Marchand, 1969: 84–95). But there are also a few new types. Thus the type icy-cold seems to have arisen in the fourteenth century, the earliest formations being red-hot, lukewarm, wordly-wise, light green from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The type heart-breaking, oceangoing also arose in Middle English in connection with -ing developing participial function, replacing the Old English type hunig˙-flowende¯ , land-buende¯ , and has
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subsequently become extremely productive until today. The same is true of the type moss-grown, moth-eaten, which existed in Old English, but increased its productivity considerably during Middle English and is still very much alive. Finally, another type developing in this period is high-born, where the participial dm is modified by an adjective which historically at least partly goes back to an adverb, e.g. new-born, new-clad, dead-born, new-sown from the fourteenth century; real productivity, however, starts in the second half of the sixteenth century.
Compound verbs of the type outbid (outlive, outride), override (overreach, oversleep), underbid (undervalue, underrate), where the dt has a metaphorical meaning ‘do in excess’ or ‘below the expected limit’, continuing the locative particles with originally a literal meaning, appear in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and have preserved a moderate productivity till today, whereas their literal counterparts have become unproductive. A replacement for the latter is phrasal verbs such as go out, come in, put up. This type starts to be generalised in the fourteenth century and is more or less established in the fifteenth century (with some fluctuation).
4.3.3.2Prefixation
The Old English prefixes be-, fore-, mis-, un- and a few others continued to be productive in Middle English, but most of the other verbal ones lost their productivity and also their morphosemantic transparency. This paved the way for borrowing from French and Latin. How far these prefixes had already become productive in Middle English is difficult to judge, since it is not always possible to decide whether the derivationally related forms were independent borrowings or already English formations using a non-native or even nativised pattern. The following prefixes make their appearance in Middle English, often filling semantic gaps in the English derivational system: arch- (arch-dean, arch-priest), co- (co-executor, co-inheritor, co-heir), counter- (counterpoise, counter-guard, counterplea), dis- (discharge, disobey, fourteenth century; dishonest, disloyal, fourteenth–fifteenth centuries), en- (embow, ennoble, enlighten, fifteenth century), in- (incomprehensible, infinite, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), inter- (interchange, interspace, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), mis-, fusing with French mes- (misdo, misapply, misconceive), non- (non-age, non-payment, fourteenth century), re- (re-enter, re-establish, fifteenth century), vice- (viceadmiral, vice-consul, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries).
4.3.3.3Suffixation
Here we witness a greater continuity than with prefixes, but there are also many new, foreign patterns, and some old ones which died out.
Among the suffixes adopted in Middle English, whether just as part of the borrowing process or already with incipient productivity, are -able (acceptable, blamable, desirable, loans from French; believable, eatable, unknowable, unthinkable, English coinings with a native basis); -acy -ate (prelacy prelate,