Linguistique anglaise10 07.11.08 97-2003

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The English language: A historicalintroduction

Chapter I : terminology

- PhonemeA phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound (e.g.: /m/, /i:/, ...). A phoneme could bethought of as a family of related phones, called allophones, that the speakers of a language think of, and hear or see, as being categorically the same and differing only in the phoneticenvironment in which they occur. English language has about 45 phonemes.

- Morpheme

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful element in a language. There are two kinds of morphemes: bound morphemes and free morphemes. A bound morpheme cannot exist exceptwhen it is joined to other morphemes (e.g.: re-). A free morpheme can exist on its own (e.g.: fill).A word may consist of one morpheme or of many.

- AffixationAffixation is one of the commonest methods of word-formation. There is a distinction between

prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word (e.g.: un-, re-) whereas suffixesoccur at the end (e.g.: -ness, -ize).

- Compounding

Compounding is one of the commonest methods of word-formation. A compound word is formed by the joining of two or more free morphemes. Compound words are nearly all nouns and thecommonest type is Noun+Noun (e.g.: waterdock). There are also a fair number of the typeAdjective+Noun (e.g.: Frenchwoman) and of the type Verb+Noun (e.g.: scrape-penny).

- ConversionConversion is one of the commonest methods of word-formation. It is the process by which oneword is derived from another with no change of form. Three types are especially common: theformation of verbs from nouns (e.g.: to gossip), the formation of nouns from adjectives (e.g.: anancient) and the formation of nouns from verbs (e.g.: an invite) or verb phrase (e.g.: a handout).

- Blends/portmanteau wordsBlending is a method of word-formation. It is the process by which a part of one word iscombined with a part of another word (e.g.: brunch, motel). Such blends are sometimes called"portmanteau words".

- Back-formationBack-formation is a method of word-formation. It is the creation of a new word by reinterpretingan earlier word as a derivation and removing apparent affixes from it (e.g.: The verb to sidle,which was formed in the 17th century from the adverb sideling. The verb to resurrect, which wasformed from the Latin-borrowed noun resurrection).



- Derivation versus inflectionInflection is the process of adding inflectional morphemes to a word, which may indicategrammatical information such as case, number, person, gender or tense (e.g.: cat/cats,eat/ate/eaten). Compare with derivation, which create, a new word from an existing word byusing affixes, sometimes by simply changing grammatical category like turning a noun into averb (e.g.: glory glorify, drink drinkable).

- Rhotic versus non-rhoticRhotic varieties of English are varieties in which the loss of final and preconsonantal /r/ does nottake place (e.g.: North American English, Irish English). Non-rhotic varieties of English arevarieties in which the loss of final and pre-consonantal /r/ takes place (e.g.: Australian, SouthAfrican English).

- Intrusive "r"In a dialect with intrusive "r", a "r" is added in the pronunciation after a word that ends in a non-high vowel or semivowel if the next word begins with a vowel, regardless whether the first wordhistorically ended with "r" or not (e.g.: I saw(r) a film today, vodka (r) and orange).

- PolysemyA word can in time come to have numerous meanings, this phenomenon is called polysemy (e.g.:the English word hom, which can mean a pointed projection of the skin of various animals, or amusic instrument, or a person who plays such an instrument, or a motor-car's klaxon, etc).

- Synthetic versus analytic languagesAn analytic language is one that uses very few bound morphemes (e.g.: Chinese is a highlyanalytic language). A synthetic language, by contrast, uses large numbers of bound morphemes,and often combines long strings of them to form a single word (e.g.: Turkish is a highly syntheticlanguage). Most languages lie between these extremes. English language in the course of itshistory has become less synthetic and more analytic

- Absolute and implicational universalsThe search for linguistic universals was given considerable impetus by the work of NoamChomsky. He maintains, because of the ease with which children learn language, that humanlanguage is innate and that all languages have the same underlying structure and that it should be

possible to demonstrate the existence of universals. Some proposed universals are absolute i.e.,they apply for all languages (e.g.: the fact that all languages have vowels). Implicationaluniversals, on the other hand, are more strong tendencies than universals because there arecounter examples. They are of the type "If A, then B" (e.g.: "If a language has V-S-O as its basicword-order, then it invariably has prepositions”).

- Names of characters

*YoghThe letter yogh (represented by the symbol 3) is descended from Old English script and was usedin Middle English and Middle Scots, representing y (/j/) and various velar phonemes.

*ThornThe symbol P (called thorn) is equivalent to the modern th. It was a letter in the Anglo-Saxon andIcelandic alphabets.



*EthEth (represented by the symbol D) is a letter used in Old English and present-day Icelandic. Itwas replaced by d.

*Ash/E was a letter used in Old English texts and commonly called "ash". It is pronounced like thevowel of the word hat in Received Pronunciation.

*WynnWynn (represented by the symbol p) is a letter of the Old English alphabet. It was used torepresent the sound /w/.

- FuthorcThe English from the Old English Period used a form of the runic alphabet which, from its firstsix letters, is known as the "futhorc". Runes were used for short inscriptions, they were of angular form and they were thought to have magical power.

- Phonological changes

*AssimilationAssimilation is the changing of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one (e.g.: the wordscant was once skamt, but the /m/ has been changed to /n/ under the influence of the following /t/,which is articulated in the same place). It is a very common kind of change.

*HaplologyHaplology is the fact that a whole syllable is dropped out when two successive syllables beginwith the same consonant (e.g.: temporary, which in Britain is often pronounced as if it weretempory).

*MetathesisMetathesis occurs when the ease of pronunciation apparently leads us to reverse the order of two

phonemes in a word (e.g.: wasp and bum, which by regular development would have been wapsand brin or bren).

- Analogical changeAnalogy is the process of inventing a new element in conformity with some part of the languagesystem that you already know (e.g.: a child learns pairs like dog/dogs, bed/beds, ... and is thenable to form other plurals). The way in which analogy can lead to change is seen when the childlearns words like man and mouse, and forms the analogical plurals mans and mouses.

- Combinative changeLet's begin an example: the prehistoric Old English form of heath was something like hapi; thefinal -i caused the á to change to w, and was later itself lost by a regular sound law. Dependentsound-changes of this kind greatly complicate the task of establishing correspondences and arecalled "combinative changes”.

- Language familyA language family is a number of languages that are related. They have grown by a process of continuous change out of a single original language, but because of divergent development thereare now many languages instead of one (e.g.: Romance languages i.e., Portuguese, Spanish,Italian, French, ... which have all evolved from Latin). A language which has arisen by the



process of divergent development may itself give rise to further languages by a continuation of the same process (e.g.: Semitic languages). It would not be surprising if many of the world'slanguages, or indeed all of them, went back ultimately to some common ancestor.

- Proto-lndo-European (PIE)The PIE is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. It must have beenspoken thousands of years ago by some comparatively small body of people in a relatively

restricted geographical area. Here are some characteristics of the PIE:

Inflectional systemIt was a highly inflected language. It had at least 8 cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive,instrumental, vocative, locative ...). There were also 3 genders (singular, plural and dual). Nounand adjective inflections were the same. There was also a great array of inflections for verbs.

PhonologyPIE probably made great use of musical accent (also called free accent) i.e., the accent could fallon any syllable of a word. There was also a rich array of stop consonants.

Vowel systemThe 3 most important vowels in PIE were a, e and o, each of which could be either short or long.There was also short i and u, which could operate either as unstressed vowels or as consonants(i.e. [j] and [w]) according to their position, and could also be combined with any of the 3 mainvowels to form diphthongs. There were also a disputed number of vowels used only in unstressedsyllables, and a number of syllabic consonants. The vowels played an important part in thegrammar of PIE, because of the way they alternated in related forms (as in our sing/sang/sung).

Kentum and Satem languagesThere was an early division of the Indo-Europeans, which had already taken place round about1500 BC, into two main areas: an Eastern Group and a Western Group. There were a number of

differences in phonology, grammar and vocabulary. The Eastern group spoke the so-called Satemlanguages whereas the Western group spoke the so-called Kentum languages.

- IsoglossAn isogloss is a dividing line on a map that marks the border between two linguistic regions,insofar as they have different dialectical features (e.g. use of a particular word on one side of theline and not on the other, different pronunciations, etc.).For instance: isogloss for the use of the word "lop" in North-Eastern England (as a loan fromScandinavian) as opposed to the word "flea", which is used on the other side of the line.

- Declensions

Declensions are patterns, or sets of cases, i.e. particular groups of inflecting features determiningthe function of a word or a group of words in a sentence (e.g. nominative case for subject or subject complement, accusative for direct object, etc.). If a word fits into one declension, it willadopt its way of inflecting, and not that of another declension.For instance: the first declension in Latin (nominative -a) is basically composed of femininenouns, the second (nominative -us or -um) of masculine and neuter nouns respectively.

- PurismLinguistic purism consists in a (somewhat nationalistic) desire for the language to remain "pure",



i.e. free of any foreign influences such as loan-words. Purists instead champion the introductionof neologisms.For instance: in 1573, Ralph Lever invented new technical terms with native elements, such as"endsay" (conclusion), "saywhat" (definition) and "witcraft" (logic).

-Inkhorn termsAre borrowings from another language (usually Latin), that have no utilitarian function, i.e. that

were not borrowed in order to define a new thing or concept, but as fashionable replacements for already existing terms in English. They are often very pompous, and thus ridiculed because theycan be regarded as a symptom of sheer ostentation and superficiality. However, some of thosewords are nowadays considered perfectly neutral.For instance: two pompous inkhorn terms are "furibund" (furious) and "turgidous" (swollen,

puffed up). Another that was once considered pompous, but no more: "reciprocal".

-Dummy auxiliary"Do" as an auxiliary (as opposed to a full verb) is considered empty in meaning, thus a dummyauxiliary. It occurs immediately before "not" in a negative sentence, before the subject in aquestion or at the end of the sentence when questioning and repeating the beginning; it can also

be used emphatically. "Do" is used in these four cases when none of the meanings of other auxiliaries is required.For instance: "You do not mean it."; "Do you mean it?"; "You do not mean it, do you?"; "Alright,you do mean it."

-Internal loanAn internal loan consists in borrowing terms from regional or professional dialects to expand thegeneral language of the same country.For instance: since the Industrial Revolution, a gradient on a British railway is not called a hill,

but a "bank" (from northern dialect).

-Antipodean EnglishUsed as a general definition for the varieties of English that are spoken in Australia and NewZealand. (???)

-Pidgins & CreolesA pidgin is an "intermediate" language between two or more languages coming in contact withone another, which has the purpose of facilitating communication (e.g. for trade matters) betweenusers of these different languages. It is usually a simplification of the dominant one withinfluences from the other(s).When a pidgin becomes the first language of a group, it is called a creole.For instance: the "Gullah" creole is spoken by about 250 000 people living along the South-Eastern coastal areas of the USA.

-SlangDescribes the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in agiven language. It is very often specific to a particular context or group. For instance: "square"means "conventional, old-fashioned" in jazzmen's slang.

-MalapropismA malapropism is the incorrect placement of a word by using it instead of the correct, similar-sounding term; as it is a kind of slip, it usually has comic effect. The origin of the word comesfrom Mrs. Malaprop (whose name is probably derived from French "mal à propos"), a character



in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy "The Rivals" (1775) who always commits this kind of mistake.For instance: "He is the very pineapple of politeness.": "pineapple" is wrongly used instead of "pinnacle".

-GlottochronologyThe use of lexicostatistics to establish that languages are historically related.

-Dialect levellingDialect levelling is the means by which dialect differences decrease. For example, in rural areasof Britain, although English is widely spoken, the pronunciation and grammar have historicallyvaried (African dialect, etc.)

-Greengrocer’s apostropheThe incorrect use of an apostrophe to form the plural of a word. It is believed that the term wascoined in the middle of the 20th century by a teacher of languages working in Liverpool, at a timewhen such mistakes were common in the handwritten signs and advertisements of greengrocers(e.g., Apple's 1/- a pound, Orange's 1/6d a pound).

-PejorationThe downgrading or depreciation of a word's meaning, as when a word with a positive sensedevelops a negative one.

-AmeliorationThe upgrading or elevation of a word's meaning, as when a word with a negative sense developsa positive one.

-EuphemismSubstitution of an inoffensive term (such as "passed away") for one considered offensivelyexplicit ("died").

-Spelling pronunciationA pronunciation of a word that is influenced by its spelling and does not follow standard usage(e.g. often pronounced with /t/)

-Popular etymologyA modification of a word resulting from a misunderstanding of its etymology, as in shamefacedfor earlier shamfast, "bound by shame," or cutlet from French côtelette, "little rib."



Chapter 2: The flux of language

- How is the history of English usually divided into periods, and why?

History of the English language: 3 periodsThe Old English period: from the 1 St Anglo-Saxon settlements in England to ± 1100

Late Old English: 900 - ± 1100The Middle English: 1100- 1500The Modem English (= New English): 1500 - now

Early modern English 1500 - 1650

Through history we can see that the pace of change-varies, which makes it convenient to divideEnglish in three broad periods. For example, we can see that the 12 th and 15 th centuries are

periods of rapid change in English.

- Which language-external and language-internal reasons can be considered valid toexplain changes in pronunciation over time?

The changes in pronunciation have caused a lot of disagreement.Reasons for the changes in pronunciation:

1. The influence of one language on another 2. The speech habits of non native speakers modify the foreign language.3. Historical changes: conquering minority that imposes its language on a conquered

population has its language modified by its victims.4. Fashion: a person imitates another and people with the most prestige are more likely

imitated. Fashion is exclusive. Social groups using characteristic styles of language tomark themselves off from other groups. A group of high prestige may find that its style of speech is being imitated by other groups and then its members may begin to change it,

perhaps by exaggerating its distinction characteristics.5. The principle of ease6. Geographic and climatic (mountain/plan)7. Biological and racial thick lips8. That children grow vocals organs

- Explain what makes the so-called `principle of ease' possible, but also what imposeslimitations on it.

The principle of ease (= the minimization of effort) = change in pronunciation of a word toeconomize energy.The principle of ease is possible because a language always provides more signals than theabsolute minimum necessary for the transmission of the message, to give a margin of safety: likeall good communication-systems, human language has built in to it a considerable amount of redundancy.BUT: There is a limit:The necessities of communication, the urgent needs of humans as users of language, provide acounterforce to the principle of minimum effort.

• An excessive economy of effort would lead to an utterance that is not understandable or misunderstood (and so the sayer would have to repeat).

• There is a constant conflict between the principle of minimum effort and the demands of communication.



Chapter 3: The Indo-European languages

- To which branches of the Indo-European language family do Gothic, Old English, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit belong?

The Indo-European language is a large family that includes moot of the languages of Europe and India and that is divided in many branches.

Sanskrit belongs to the Aryan branch and more precisely to the Indian branch. It wasstandardized in the 4 th century and has since then been the learned language of India.Greek belongs to the Greek branch.Latin belongs to the Italic branchOld English belongs to the West Germanic branch and more precisely to the Anglo-Frisian subbranchGothic belongs to the East-Germanic branch.

- Explain briefly the traditional and the more modem view on who the 'Indo-Europeans' were and how and when their expansion began.

The traditional view argues that Indo-Europeans were a nomadic or semi-nomadic people whoinvaded neighboring agricultural or urban areas and imposed their language on them.According to this theory, the expansion would have begun around 4000 BC or later. Theexpansion is considered as conquering armies and mass-movements of populations.

The more modern view is the one argued by Colin Renfew, according to which the initialexpansions of the Indo-Europeans was simply the pushing-out of the frontiers of an agricultural

people, who over centuries introduced agriculture into the more thinly populated country roundtheir periphery, inhabited by hunters According to him, the expansion would have begun in about7000 BC.

At the moment there is insufficient evidence to decide between the two.

- At the start of its expansion, would you say PIE was a single language withoutsignificant dialect differences, or not? Why?

No: The Indo-European language is divided in many branches and even subbranches. Butsometimes, a language shows the closest resemblance to a language that doesn't belong to thesame branch at all.And there is no way of removing those discrepancies by juggling with the different branches

PIE had broken up into a number of dialects before the dispersal started.Dialects features appeared in various permutations & combinations throughout the wholeregion

- What does PIE vocabulary tell us about the world the 'Indo-Europeans' lived in?

The vocabulary tells us a lot about the world of the Indo-Europeans.If words existed, the things they denoted existed too and must have been familiar to them.

BUT:The absence of a word doesn't mean that the object didn't exist. The loss of words is



indeed common.We may be deceived by loan-words (words borrowed to another language)

The world of the Indo-Europeans:They had cattle and sheep (=> (semi)-nomadic pastorals) and other domestic animals:dog, pig, goat & goose. They also had horses.They had vehicles of some kind.

Wheel, axle, nave & yokeCheese & butter Grain, plough & furrow => agricultaristsTools & weapons => made of stonesArowsMetal: copper, bronze, gold & silver Familiar with pottery & weavingHouse, door but no windowMore than a tentRain, snow but hot summer => continental climate

Wild animals: wolves, bears, otters, mice, hares & beaversBut no tiggers, lions & elephants => cool tempered zone, farther WestBeach tree, salmon & eelRivers & streams (but no sea & ocean) => inland peolpleShips to cross the river or for fishingFamily relationshipFamily importantWomen lived by husband's familyGods: personification of natural forces (Sky God: prominent)

This enables to guess where they livedHowever all these clues are not sufficient to pin down a particularity, although there have beenmany attempts to it.



Chapter 4: The Germanic languages

- Which present-day languages (if any) derive from North, East and West Germanicrespectively? Which of these is most closely related to English?

To North Germanic belong the modern Scandinavian languages: Norwegian, Swedish, Danish,Icelandic, Forese and Gutnish (Faroese) (language of the island of Gottond)

To West Germanic belong the High German dialects of southern Germany, the low Germandialects of northern Germany, Dutch, Frision and English.No East Germanic language has survived into our own times. (Dialects as the Goths and Gothicwere the only languages spoken)

The language most closely related to English is frisian , which was once spoken along the coastof the North Sea from Northern Holland to central Denmark, but which is now heard only in afew coastal regions and on some of the Dutch islands.They (the Anglo-Saxons) must have been near neighbours of the Frisians before their migration,and we con postulate a prehistoric Anglo-Frisian dialect

- Which grammatical features of nouns, adjectives and verbs are characteristic of both Proto-Germanic and Old English (OE), but have not survived into Present-DayEnglish (PDE)?

The inflectional system of Proto-Germanic:Proto-Germanic is a highly inflected language. It makes indeed great use of variations inthe endings of words.In Modern English, word-order is used to show who carry the information but in oninfected language, the information is carried by the inflection which does so the work of a

preposition in some case.

• The nouns are so infected for case. In Latin there au for example 6 different cases: Nominative, Vocative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Ablative

Moreover there are separate inflections for the singular and the plural.Latin inherited this system from PIE, like Proto-Germanic)

In Proto-Germanic, there was no single set of case-infections used for all nouns alike, but severed different sets. That is, there were various declensions of nouns.All nouns, furthermore, had grammatical gender had to be either masculine,feminine or neuter

• Similar considerations apply to adjectives.They had to be put in the some case and number as the man they were attached to, theyhad also to agree with the noun in gender.

Magnus dominusMagnum opus

In Proto-Germanic, two distinct sets of inflections for the adjectives developed, they werecalled the strong and the weak declensions which had not survived in ME.

• There was also a system of cases for the pronouns and articles.Where ME has the one form “the” Proto-Germanic had a whole series of form accordingto the case, number and gender of the noun that followed!



• There was also inflections to mark the passive

• PIE also had a great array of inflections for its verbsProto-Germanic retained many of these, but it simplified the system. For example, it hadonly two tenses of the verb – a present and a post tense. Within these 2 tenses, Proto-Germanic had different endings for different persons and numbers (conta-contat-contant)Proto-Germanic had two sets of inflections for the verbs, one indicative and one

subjunctive.

- Which important phonological difference distinguished Proto-Germanic from PIE, and what was its most far-reaching consequence in the Germanic languages?

In pronunciation, PIE underwent considerable changes in developing into Proto-Germanic. One big change is in the matter of accent. The accent on a syllable depends portly on stress, partly onintention, but some languages rely more on are thon on the PIE mode great use of musicalaccent (intonation), but in Proto-Germanic, the stress accent became predominant. At the sametime, there was a tendency in Proto-Germanic to stabilize the accent on the first syllable of aword. This was not the case in PIE where the accent could fall on any syllable of a word.

Free accent

The tendency in Proto-Germanic to stabilize the accent on the first syllable, together with theadoption of a predominantly stress type of accent had consequences: indeed, it led to a weakeningand often to a less of unstressed syllables, especially at the end of a word.This trend moreover continued in the Germanic languages throughout the history.

For example, the PIE form of the verb “bear” was bheronom in Proto-Germanic it became beranan the find “an” had been weakened and then lost so the OldEnglish form is beran.In early Middle English, beran became beren. The find “n” was then lost, and theword became bere. At the end of the Middle English Period, this final e of bere was

also lost, the modern form is bear.

- Explain briefly the main features of Grimm's Law. ( Page 93 – 94)

“The Grimm’s Law” or sometimes “the first sound shifting” represents the mostimportant series of changes in the system of stop consonants underwent in Proto-Germanic which were analyzed after the early 19 th century by the philologist JakobGrimm.The main features of the first sound-shifting are shown here :

bh ------------------- b ------------------- p ------------------- f

dh------------------- d ------------------- t ------------------- θ

gh ------------------- g ------------------- k ------------------- h

aspirated voiced voiceless voicelessvoiced stops stops stops fricatives

PIE /p/ became Germanic /f/ pedem in Latin - fot in Old EnglishPIE /h/ became Proto-Germanic / θ / très in Latin - three in English



PIE /k/ became Germanic /x/, in Old English it usually appears with the spelling hCordem in Latin - heart in English

The Indo-European voiced stops /b/, /d/ and /g/ became in Germanic thecorresponding voiceless stops /p/, /t/ and /k/

i.e. edo in Latin - eat in English

gelidus in Latin - cold in English

PIE phonemes /bh/, /dh/, /gh/ are shown as changing into Proto-Germanic /b/, /d/and /g/ (bharami in Sanskrit bear in English)

(plaar is cognate with Greek thura



Chapter 5: Old English

- Discuss briefly the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain (don't forget to situate in timeas well). How did it affect the culture and language of the people living there at thetime of this Anglo-Saxon conquest? (p.100-101-102)

Anglo-Saxon were composed of more than one Germanic tribe they were the Saxons, the Anglesand the Jutes coming from North-West Germany (At that time, the Germanic people were in astate of flux and movement). After the Roman legions had withdrawn from Britain in AD 410,various uncoordinated bands of adventurers penetrated /arrived in different parts of the country inthe middle of the fifth century.The Anglo-Saxon settled in Britain, they struggled with the population living there: the romano-celtic population. By about 700, the Anglo-Saxons had occupied most of England and a part of southern Scotland (not Wales). Closely related in language (even though there was dialectdifferentiation) and regarding them selves as one people, they defeated the language of the Celtic

population. Their language was indeed dominant; Celtic lost his influence and received a lowstatus. There are few traces of Celtic in Old English (except: nouns of river, towns, …) There

were defected people and their language had no prestige.

- By what time and because of which language-external factors did a kind of standardlanguage (or at least a literary standard) arise in the Old English period? (p. 104)

The unification of England under the West-Saxon kings led to the recognition of the West Saxondialect as a literary standard during the 9 th c. Alfred saved the South and West of England fromthe Danes, Alfred’s successors reconquered the North and the East,…). England was durablyunified from the 10 th c. onwards.

There were at that time, in fact, four main dialects (Kentish, Mencion, Northumbrion dialects and

West-Saxon) but due to the tendency for manuscripts to be copied by West-Saxon suites (and so,to be put into West-Saxon four) the West-Saxon dialect became the literary standard.

- What was the most important linguistic consequence of the conversion toChristianity? Situate in time as well. (p.106-107)

The conversion of the English to Christianity began in about the year 600 and took a century tocomplete (It was carried from to directions: the Celtic church penetrating from the North-Westand the church penetrating from the South-East)

With Christianity came writing.

The English had already one form of writing: the runes but it was only used for short inscriptions.When the clerics introduced writing they used a Celtic version of the Latin alphabet and eked itout with runic symbols from the Futhorc (forms of the runic alphabet which has first six letters).

- True or false? "Like PDE, OE had /f, v, s, z, θ , ð/ in its phoneme inventory."Explain briefly why this is true or false. (p.109-110)

• Old English had no [v], but the symbol [f] was used to represent both [f] and [v].They were in fact members of the some phoneme

It was pronounce [v] before a voiced sound (giefen)



[f] in all other positions (faeden)

OE had no [z], but [s] was used to represent both [z] and [s]They were members of a single phoneme

It was pronounced [z] before a voiced sound[s] in all other position

In order to represent [ θ ] and [ð], there were two symbols but they were usedindiscriminately (sans distinction): / / ϸ thorn and /ð/ eth

In the 3 cases, Old English has a single phoneme consisting of a pair of voiced and voicelessallophones, where PDE has 2 separate phonemes

- Compare briefly OE and PDE word order. (p. 118-119-120)

Because of its inflectional system, Old English had greater freedom of word-order than presentDay English.

It favoured 3 particular types of word-order : S – V – O in normal clauses

S – O – V in subordinate clausesV – S – O in questions when the clause

begins with an adverbial expression

Whereas PDE users SVO and SSO (in questions)

The word-order in the noun phrase is quite similar: determiner – adjective – nounBut there are of course some exceptions:

− “all“ (call)“both” (begen)+ adjectives ending in – weard have to precede the determiner.

− it is perfectly possible for adjectives ho follow the noun, or for one to precede it andanother to follow it

− it is possible for a determiner to follow the noun

- What sort of loanwords were borrowed into OE? (p. 120-121-122)

OE made a considerable use of its native language material. In order to enlarge a vocabulary, OEhad inherited many ways of forming new words from PIE (Proto-Indo European).

For example affixation and compounding.SO, OE borrowed few words from other languages, but it borrowed especially wordsfor the concepts and institutions of Christianity.

Example = church derived from Greek “Kuriakon”apostle “apostal”monk derived from Latin “munuc”bischop “ biscop” …

(Must of the words connected with Christianity date from after the conversion andare from Latin)



Sometimes existing words were simply transferred to christen use Easter, hell, holy, …

Chapter 6: Norsemen and Normans

- Explain the circumstances that led to the establishment of a so-called "Danelaw". Situate in time as well. (p 127, 128)

The harrying (destruction, ravagement) of Europe by the Scandinavian Vikings, which took place between about 750 and 1050, was the last phase of the expansion of the early Germanic peoples?Its basic cause was perhaps overpopulation in a region of poor natural resources, but there wereother contributory causes. The custom of leaving the inheritance to the eldest son meant that therewere always younger sons wanting to carve out inheritances for themselves. Political conflictsdrove many noblemen into exile. And then, in the late eighth century, Charlemagne destroyed the

power of the Frisians, who had hitherto been the greatest maritime power of North-West Europe,and thereby left open the sea-route southward for the Vikings. At about the same date, the ancientcraft of boat-building in Scandinavia reached the stage at which it could produce the magnificentocean-going sailing-ships which served the Vikings for trade, piracy, and colonization.The Vikings were great traders, but it is for their more predatory activities that they are most

remembered. Their attacks varied from piratical expeditions by single ships to the invasion of acountry by enormous fleets and armies.The Vikings consisted of Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. The Swedes mostly went eastwards,to the Baltic countries and Russia, while the Norwegians and Danes tended to go westwards andsouthwards. The Vikings who attacked England were referred to by the Anglo-Saxons as Dene"Danes", but there were also Norwegians among them. The first attack probably took place roundabout 800, and by 838 they had become serious. At first there were mere piratical raids in searchof a plunder; then large groups took to spending the winter in England, as happened in 850 in854; then large armies stayed for longer periods; and finally came conquest and settlement, which

began in the last few decades of the ninth century. The Vikings came very near to conquering thewhole of England, but King Alfred held the South and the West against them, the turning-point

being his defeat of Guthrum at Chippenham in 878; the boundary between Alfred's territories andthe Danelaw ran roughly along a line from London to Chester. In the tenth century, the WestSaxon Kings reconquered the North and East, but in the meantime the Vikings establishedkingdoms in those areas, and there was massive Scandinavian settlement.

- Compare the influx of Old Norse and Old French loanwords into English in terms of the period in which and the extent to which words were borrowed from theselanguages, and in terms of the type of vocabulary borrowed.

Most of the Scandinavians loan-words first appear in writing in the Middle English period, buttheir form shows that they had been taken into English in the late OE period, for they have

undergone the sound-changes that mark the transition from Old to Middle English. They do notappear earlier in writing because at that time there was no literary tradition in the Danelaw, andmost surviving texts are in the West Saxon dialect, which was the one least influenced by Old

Norse. A few loans, however, do occur in OE texts. In the early days of the Vikings raids therewas probably not much opportunity for conversation between Englishmen and Vikings; the onlyloans from this period are a few words for Viking ships and weapons, which have not survivedinto he modern language. Later; when the Vikings had begun to settle in England, a number of words were borrowed relating to law and administration, for the danes had a Highly developedlegal sense, they include thrall and the word law itself.



But what is most striking about the Scandinavian loan-words as a whole is that they are suchordinary words? The English and the Scandinavians had very similar cultures, and the fusion of the two peoples was a close one; many of the words taken over, in consequence, were homelyeveryday ones, words belonging to the central core of the vocabulary. The names of close familyrelationships are part of the central core of vocabulary, so are the names of parts of the body.

Other common nouns include bag, cake, dirt, fellow, fog, knife, skill, skin, sky, and window.Everyday adjectives, everyday verbs and some grammatical words are from Scandinavian,namely the conjunctions though, till, and until, and the pronouns they, them and their, which inOld English were hie, him, and hiera. The Scandinavians pronouns no doubt had an advantage

because they were less likely to be confused with the words for him and her. The total number of Scandinavian loans is in fact rather small, compared with the number of words later borrowedfrom French and Latin; on the other hand, many of them are words in very frequent use, and thereis a Scandinavian enclave in the very central regions of the English vocabulary. In the areas of densest Viking settlement, a larger vocabulary of Scandinavians loanwords is preserved inregional dialects, so that there are still parts of England and Scotland where you can hear goodScandinavian words. French loanwords: French loanwords, on the contrary, first appeared mostdensely around London, the centre of fashion and administration, and spread northwards andwestwards from there; by the fourteenth century, they were being used freely all over the country.An enormous number of French loan-words came into the language during the English Middle

period. We have to treat the datings of these loan-words with some caution: there are fewer textsin Early Middle English than in Late Middle English, and some of the loans first recorded in thefourteenth century may have enter the language much earlier. Nevertheless, it seems clear thatthey came in fastest when French was dying out. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, whenFrench was the unchallenged language of the upper classes, the number of words borrowed byEnglish was not great, but in the thirteenth, and still more the fourteenth century, there was aflood of loan-words.The influx of French words differed in several ways from the influx of the Scandinavian words.The Scandinavian words spread from the Danelaw, whereas French words tended to spread fromLondon and from the court, and locally from the lord's castle. Moreover, the French words wereon the whole not such homely ones as the Scandinavians words: the Vikings had mixed in withthe English on more or less equal terms, but the Normans formed a separate caste that imposedmuch of their culture on their subordinates; Many of the French loanwords reflect this culturaland political dominance: they are often words to do with war, ecclesiastical matters, the law,haunting, heraldry, the arts, and fashion. For the same reason, French words tended to penetratedownwards in society, whereas the Scandinavian words came on the ground floor. Finally, theFrench words were entirely new ones, with no obvious resemblance to anything in English,whereas many of the Scandinavian loans were merely dialectical variants of their Englishcounterparts, titles of rank tended to be taken from French.

WHEN?Old Norse loanwords have been taken into English in the late OE but first appeared inwriting in MEOld French Loanwords came into English during the ME period in the 10 th c theywere wed freely all over the country.

WHAT?Old Norse loanwords :

• Related to low administration (the Danes had a highly developed legal sense)• But mainly ordinary words, from homely everyday life.



o Family relationshipo Pasts of the bodyo Everyday adj, verbs, grammatical words (till, they, …)

Old French loanwords :refled the Normans’cultural political dominance

o war o ecclesiastical matterso lawo hunting, heraldry, arts, fashiono title of ranks.

WHERE / WHO?Old Norse loanwords :

Spread from the DanelawCame on the ground floor

Old French loanwords :Spread from London, from the court from the Card a castle

Tented to penetrate downwards in society

- Discuss briefly the language and culture of the Normans of the `Norman invasion' incomparison with the Anglo-Saxons (situate in time as well). ( p. 134, 135)

By the middle of the eleventh century, however, the Normans had long lost their Scandinavianspeech: they spoke French and were essentially French in culture. People sometimes talk,therefore, as though the Norman Conquest were the coming of a higher civilization to the

backward and Barbaric Anglo-Saxons. This, however, is a misapprehension. Six hundred yearshad passed since the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, and in that time the English had developeda sophisticated civilization.

The Normans demonstrated their superiority in military techniques, for they had the new heavycavalry that had been developed on the continent by the Franks, while the Anglo-Saxons stillfought on foot behind a wall of round shields. The Normans also showed themselves superior atthe construction of castles, and after the conquest they built some fine churches and cathedrals.But it is difficult to see in what other ways they were culturally superior to the people theyconquered.The Anglo-Saxons had a fine literature both in verse and in prose. They had traditions of scholarship which went back to the 7 th century, and when Charlemagne, at the end of the, eighthcentury, wanted to reform his educational system, he imported an Englishman to do it for him.This tradition had been badly disrupted by the Vikings invasions, but there was a revival under West-Saxon leadership in the second half of the tenth century. The Anglo-Saxons were also fine

artists and craftsmen: they produced beautiful carved crosses, and jeweller's work, andilluminated manuscripts to compare with any of the world. They were also famous for their needlework, and the celebrated Bayeux Tapestry was probably made in England.

- Following the Norman Conquest, which language(s) was or were the prestigelanguage(s)? By which time and why was English re-established as the dominantlanguage, and which variety of English in particular became the (literary) standard?(p.140, 141, 142, 144, 145)

After the conquest the prestige languages in England were Latin and French. Latin was the



international language of the church, of scholarship, and of international communication; after the Conquest it was also important for administration, but it gradually gave way to French. Theinvaders of 1066 spoke Norman French, a northern dialect of the language, and in England thisdeveloped characteristics of its own, and its then called Anglo-Norman. In the thirteenth century,however, when the central French dialect of Paris had begun to exert a strong influence on therest of France, the Anglo-Norman dialect lost some of its prestige in England: it was regarded asrather old-fashioned and rustic, and the courtly language was Central French. In the thirteenth

century, French was still being spoken at the English court, and literature was being written inFrench for the nobility of England; but it is this century that sees the tipping of the balance awayfrom French and back to English. Although French was for a long time the language prestige inEngland, it was never the majority of the population. A considerable number of Normans settledin England after the conquest, but they never outnumbered the English in the way the Anglo-Saxon must have outnumbered the Britons, and ultimately the French died out in England. Anevent which contributed to the triumph of English was King John's loss of Normandy to theFrench crown in the opening years of the thirteenth century. Many of the English nobility hadestates in Normandy as well as in England, and now had to decide which of the two they

belonged to. A common solution was for one son to inherit the English estates, and the another son the Norman estates, and this can be seen going on in the first half of the thirteenth century.Thus the ties with Normandy were severed, and the ex-Norman nobility gradually becameEnglish. The English crown, indeed, continued to own lands in France, especially in SouthernAquitaine, and went on importing Frenchmen to its court, but the English nobility were jealous of such royal favourites, and in the Baron's wars against Henri 3, in the middle of the century therewas a good deal of anti-foreigner propaganda. National feeling was beginning to arise inEngland, as in other countries of western Europe, and this must have raised the prestige of theEnglish language.The 14 th century sees the definitive triumph of English. French was now rapidly ceasing to be themother- tongue even of the nobility, and those who wanted to speak French had to learn it.Literature, even the most courtly literature, was written more and more in English, and in thesecond half of the century there was a great literary upsurge, with Chaucer as its major figure.English was also used more and more in administration. In 1362 the King's speech at the openingof Parliament was made in English, and in the same year an Act was passed making English theofficial language of the law's courts instead of French, though their records were to be kept inLatin. The fourteenth century also saw the switch from

French to English as the medium of grammar-school education.With the re-establishment of English as the language of administration and culture came the re-establishment of an English literary language, a standard form which can be regarded as thenorm. In fact there were two standard forms of English, that of England and of Scotland, thelatter now usually being called the Middle Scots. In England the new standard language whicharose in the late Middle Ages was not descended from the West-Saxon literary language. It wasin fact based on the east Midland dialect of Middle English. An East Midland dialect was the

basis of London speech, and London was the seat of government and the cultural centre of thenation, besides being the largest city of the country. The establishment of a standard language didnot take place overnight. Gradually the prestige of the London language grew, and in the 15 th

century its influence was increased by the introduction of printing. In the sixteenth century therewas wide recognition of the language of the court at Westminster as the "best" English but eventhen it was no disgrace for a gentleman to speak with a regional accent. Nevertheless, the literarylanguage had been largely standardized by the end of the fifteenth century, and in the Modernlanguage period you cannot tell what part of the country people come from by examining their writings, as you could in the Middle English period.



Q and y were superfous, was not a satisfactoryspelling for (u: ) because it was also, used torepresent two different Me diphthongs; ONE

ODDITY of Me spelling which is still with us wasthe result of a change of script.

OE METhere was an insular script of OE The Normans scribes introduced a continental style

of handwriting. -it was difficult to, tell how manystokes had been made when letters like m, n, v, w,and u occurred together.

The groups like wu, un, uv, um were difficult todistinguish from one another.

So scribe took the writing o instead of u when itoccurred in groups of this kind.

Oe sunun, cumin, lufu Me comen sone love

This was a change in spelling, not in pronunciation

- What was the most important morphological development in ME? What caused it, and what were its syntactic consequences?

Reduction in the inflectional system inherited from old EnglishThere was a great reduction of the inflectional system inherited from OE.ME is often referred to as the period of weakened inflections.

Causes : a) the mixing of Old English and Old Norseo Frequently the English and Scandinavian words were sufficiently similar

to be recognizable but had decidedly different sets of inflections• Doubt & confusion may arise about the correct form of ending to

use• In bilingual situation, speakers would, tend to rely on other

grammatical devices when they lay at hand- This contributed to the decay of the inflectional system (while being itself stimulated by

this decay).

b) Phonological cause:o The weakening & loose of unstressed syllables at the end of words

destroyed many of the distinctive inflections of OE

CSQ : disastrous effect on the inflectional system since many endings became similar o The inflectional system was simplifiedo The number of the different cares was reduced (for nouns, adj. &



demonstrative) 2 main declensions were generalized (for nouns)Syntactic csq :

o The word order became more important• S.V.O. became dominant

o Use of separate words to perform the functions formerly carried out by wordendings.

• Prepositions translate OE inflectional

Period of weakened inflections.

The Causes of this:

1) The mixing of Old English and Old NorseFrequently, the English and Scandinavian words were sufficiently similar to be recognizable

but had decidedly different sets of inflections.doubt and confusion would arise about the correct form of endings to usespeakers in bilingual situations would tend to rely on other grammatical devices wherethese la y to hand

contributed to the decay of inflectional system while itself was being stimulated by this decay

2) A phonological cause-Loss and weakening of unstressed syllables at the end of words destroyed many of thedistinctive inflections of OE(word final -e, -a, -u become -e => also disappeared in the ME period

- -an, -on -un -um =< all become and later reduced to -e

Consequences : Changes had disastrous effects on the inflectional system since many endingsnow became identical.

Inflectional system became simplified Number of different cases was reduced (= loss of case-distinctions for nouns, adjectives,demonstratives)

Among the nouns: 2 main declensions were generalized1St one in OE 2 nd one in the South

Its genitive nominative plural in -as and its genitivesingular in -es

- stanas: stones

- stones: of a stone

Dominant in the northern dialect

It was the -en declension that became dominant bythe middle of this period.

A few relics of other declensions : there are themutated plural like - geese- feet, mice, men

Process of loss of case distinctions: a) in adjectives b) in demonstratives; too

Syntactic consequences:



The word order became more important. SVO was the dominant word order in ME periodUse of separate words (with, by, in,...) to perform the functions formerly carried out byword-endings. Those prepositions translate OE inflectional endings.

- What kind of impersonal construction was not uncommon in OE and ME butsounds very strange to a speaker of PDE? (p.163)?

There are examples of continuous tenses in the passage. See Chaucer’s passage; I romed vp anddoun'..

The openings words of the passage: me mette, have been translated “I dreamed”But literally: however, they mean something -like (it) dreamed to me: me; being a dative.

Such impersonal constructions are not uncommon in Old and Middle English, giving expressionslike: ' him hungreth : ' he is hungry

- Discuss briefly the position of Scots from the 16 th century up to the present day.

Records of the Scots literature language date from: the second half of the 14th

c.- 16 th century: Scots was increasingly influenced by the Southern language.

Reasons :− Prestige of the English poets (Chaucer, Gower, ...)− Influence of Biblical translations => The Reformation was marked by a wholeseries of such translations in English, but not in Scotland. (e g the Geneva Bible)− Late 16 th century. Many books in the Southern language were printed in Scotland.− In 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England. The Southern influenceincreased.− By the end of the 17 th century. The Scots literary language had practically ceased

to exist. The great 18th century Scots thinkers and men of letters (Adam Smith, David Hume)wrote in the Southern literary language. This doesn't mean that people in Scotland stoppedspeaking Scots, but simply that in writing they adopted the convention of the South.

This, combined with Scots national feeling, led to the creation of a Scots dialect literature. Buthaving a dialect literature is still different than having a standard literary language. Father of themovement was Allan Ramsay (1886-1758)Key figure: Robert BurnsThis literary movement still continues today

Since the 18 th century, there have been works of literature in Scots, but the history of books and

the contracts and the chemistry text-books have been written in the Southern literary language,with few especially Scottish variations.



Chapter 8: Early Modern English

- In the 16 th and 17 th centuries, what caused the defeat of Latin in favour of English?In spite of its rapid decline, in what area was Latin very influential in this same

period? ( p. 176)

1st factorThe religious disputes that raged from the 15 th to the 17 th c. caused the defeat of Latin in favour of English. During the Reformation, people engaged in controversy (Protestants) wanted to beread by the largest public.

People attracted by Protestantism often lacked a classical educationcontroversial books + pamphlets written in English(Ex : Milton : controversial prose)Bible translated into English + church services in Engl.Protestants regarded Latin as a Popish language, used to keep ordinary people inignorance.

2nd factor : increase in national feelingThe medieval feeling that a person belonged to Christendom was replaced by the modern feelingthat a person is English/French/Italian/...(belongs to a specific country) Nationalism led toconscious efforts to create a vernacular litterature.

3rd factorThe rise of social and occupational groups , which had little or no Latin but they wanted to readand to learn in English. (ex: navigators, explorers, soldiers, ... ; their subjects were practical :geometry, warfare, ...) they wanted books in Eg.

- In spite of its rapid decline, in what area was Latin very influential in this sameperiod?

Latin was influential in literature, history, rhetorical theories and in language. The Renaissancewas the period of the rediscovery of the classics in Europe.

- What is meant by the Renaissance 'etymologizing' or `remodelling' of words? Givean example. ( P. 180)

Because of Latin influence, existing words had to be reshaped (= remodelled) in accordance withtheir real or supposed Latin etymology.For example: debt and doubt : their earlier spellings were dette and doute, which were their formsin Old French. They have been « remodelled »: the « b » was inserted through the influence of Latin debitum and dubitare.

PS: Some of these Renaissance remodellings are based on false etymologies (combining pedantrywith inadequate scholarschips) => advance remodelled from ME avance. The modern formsobviously arose from the belief that the initial "a" represented the Latin "-ad" but in fact bothwords derive from French "avant", which comes from Latin "ab ante".



- What was the functional difference between you and thou in Early Modern English?English? (p. 186)

YOU THOU

in the plural

in the singular : choice

when addressing sby by their titleor surname Mr Jones, you ...

when addressing sby by their first name Mary, thou...

Addressing children, animals

Lower-class speaker addressingsby of decidedly higher rank (compulsory !)

Higher-class speaker addressing people of a lower social class

People of the lower classes toone another

Emotionally-charged form of the« polite » classes (intimacy,affection, anger, contemption)

Addressing deity abstractions,material objects

17 th-c: supplanted thou in thespeech of the gentry and thecitizenry

Used in literary language Esp. in poetry

End of 17 th-c : normal form Lower classes

Survives in modern dialects(N&W England)

- Locate the Great Vowel Shift in time and explain in general terms which vowelswere affected in which way. ( P. 191-192)

The Great Vowel Shift began in the 15th-c and was not fully completed until the 17th-c.

It was a change in the quality of all the long vowels: all vowels became closer in quality, exceptfor the 2 which were already close: MEì & Meù became diphtongized in the 15 th-c. ?????



Chapter 9: English in the scientific age

- What accounts historically for the difficult and inconsistent spelling of English? ( P.201-2)

In Middle English and Early Modern English, there had been no standard spelling: spellingsvaried from writer to writer and even within the work of a writer. Even proper names were notfixed (cfr. Shakespeare).Appearance of a force for standardization and widely accepted conventions around 16 th c. + endof Early Modern Period (17 th c.): spelling had become standardized in printed books. However, itwas an archaic one, representing pronunciation of English before the Great Vowel Shift.Explains many of the oddities of present-day English spelling.Examples : a) We still preserve letters in our spelling which represent sounds which long ago

ceased to be pronounced (k in knight, t in castle)b) Distinctions in spelling while none in pronunciation (meat/meet, sea/see)

Conversely new distinctions have arisen without being recognised in spelling, so that we usethe same letter to represent the vowel of put and putt.

c) Diphthongs (as the vowel in mice) are often represented by a single letter becausethe phoneme was a pure vowel in Middle English.

Conversely modern monophthongs are sometimes represented by diagraphs, like àu' in author or òu' in cough.+ Effects of Renaissance etymologizing, which accounts for such things as the b in subtle and the

p in receipt.Such things have introduced considerable inconsistencies into our own spelling-system.

- If we compare 17th

century to 18th

century dictionaries of English, what are the maindifferences? Which of the 18 th century dictionaries is the most important? (pp. 203-4)

Proposals for an English academy (1650-1760) whose functions would have been to refine or correct the English language and to lay down correct usage came to nothing.BUT the 18 th c. saw the publication of the first grammars and dictionaries of English--which wereconsidered as authorities, commonly regarded, not as records of usage, but as prescriptions for correct usage. English dictionaries didn't exist until the 17 th c. Before then, there were 2-languagedictionaries (French-English; Latin-English).The earliest dictionary devoted to English alone was published in 1604 (dictionary of `hardwords' by Robert Cawdrey). Because of the great vocab expansion in the later 16 th c., a need was

felt for works which would explain the meaning of obscure words. Evidence of this expansion:2,500 words in Cawdrey's whereas 25,000 Elisha Cole's in 1676.Progressively, dictionaries included more information, such as etymology and differences of styleor acceptability.

Not until the 18 th c., however, did dictionaries attempt to record the ordinary everyday words of the language, the first being à new English dictionary', 1702, by John Kersey.

1721: Nathan Bailey1755: Samuel Johnson (includes quotations from earlier authors to illustrate word--meanings)

These dictionaries helped to stabilize spellings and word meanings.



17 th 18 th

English dictionaries (to English only!)

Because of the vocabulary expansion andinkhorn terms, a need was felt for works whichwould explain the meaning of obscure words

Progressively including more information suchas etymology and differences of style

Ordinary everyday words includedThe first = A New English dictionary by JohnKersey

The most important: Samuel Johnson'sdictionary :-it included extensive quotations from earlier authors to illustrate word-meanings-it helped to stabilize spellings and wordmeanings treated as authorities

- Which kinds of criteria were used by prescriptivists? Give one example of each typeof criterion. ( P.205)

The advocates of `correctness' had no clear criteria for their prescriptions, which in consequenceare often confused and contradictory.

Sometimes they appealed to logic, as when they condemned multiple negations (2 negativesmake an affirmative) as well as double comparatives and superlatives, which were common useuntil the 17 th c. (ex.: Shakespeare `more nearer' or `the most unkindest').Other idea behind these prescriptions: there is a universal grammar to which the language should

be made to conform. In practice, the Example turned out to be the grammar of Latin,consequences adverbs should be clearly distinguished from adjectives; past tenses and past

participles of strong verbs should also be distinguished (ex.: early 18 th c.: some writers said Ìhave wrote' or Ì have chose') - clear influence of Latin ???

Etymology : in 2 domains:a. Word-meanings: the `correct' meaning of a word was the meaning of some earlier

form (English or Latin) from which it was descended. Ex.: mutual meansreciprocal and not common.

b. Constructions: it was argued that averse from is preferable to averse to. Linkedto the appeal to custom or usage, the usage of early 18 th c. classics like Pope or Addison was often attacked as well as Johnson's Dictionary from includingìncorrect' usages from earlier authors among its citations.

These 18 th c. grammarians and correctors did not always agree with one another. Because of thewidely differing criteria appealed to, there were often hot disputes about points of usage.



- Has British English always been non-rhotic? Explain. ( pp. 210-11)

NO:Before 1700 , the /r/ has always been pronounced in words like barn, person and father. ???Since 1700 , there has been a change in pronunciation: the disappearance of /r/ before consonants

and before a pause. (/r/ is only pronounced if it occurs immediately before a vowel father andmother)

The weakening of /r/ before consonants and before a pause had begun by the 16 th c. The finaldisappearance of /r/ did not take place until the middle of the 18 th c.

BUT this disappearance did not take place in all varieties of English: example: most NorthAmerican speech is rhotic, Scots- and Irish English and the West-country of England. Australian,

New Zealand and South African are non-rhotic, like RP and England.

- What sources have scientists drawn on to form the new scientific vocabulary since

the 18th

century? Give one example of each kind of source. ( p.216)• Take a word of everyday use and give it a special scientific meaning, which is what thechemists have done with salt, the botanists with pollen and fruit, ...

• Take over words directly from another language: abdomen, cortex, saliva (Latin); ion,iris, larynx (Greek); cobalt, quartz (German). A few words are derived from the names of modern European scientists: ampère, watt, volt, etc.

• Extremely common way: invent them, using Greek (electron, zoology) and Latin(atmosphere, hibernate) material. ???

• The Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius (16 th c.) had a profound impact on theElizabethan imagination. That's why many words concerning the human body come fromthis period (skeleton, tibia, tendon)

• French scientists (and esp. Lavoisier) played a major part in the foundation of modernchemistry (late 18 th c.: hydrogen, molecule, nitrogen, oxygen)

In our own century, the flow has continued, especially in the newer fields like genetics andnuclear physics.



Phonological differences:1). Present-day American English and RP English can differ in the realization of many

phonemes:A difference in consonant-realization concerns /t/ and /d/:/t/ is intervocalio in words like pretty and letter.Americans, usually make the /t/ with a single rapid tap of the tongue, and frequently also voice it.So that it sounds kike /d/.

2). In RP, there are two main allophones of /l/:- `clear [1]' has a front kind of vowel resonance, and is used before vowels and before /j/, as in

look and million.- `dark [1]' has a back kind of vowel resonance, the tongue being raised towards the position usedfor [u], as in old and mill.American English has also the both /1/ but their distribution differs from that of RP, since ingeneral American English `dark [l]' is used in intervocalic position, in words like Billy andyellow.

- Discuss briefly the main phonological features (both segmental and suprasegmental)distinguishing ESL from standard English. (p. 247-> 249)

Main phonological features:

1). The number of phonemes id often much reduced in ESL.

e.g.: Nigerian has only one phoneme corresponding to Standard English: For example, there isonly one phoneme corresponding to RP /I/ and /i:/ (i.e.: in standard English, we have /I/ and I /i:/as in bead and bid, whereas in Nigerian they don't make this difference and pronounce bothword /bid/) ; only on phoneme corresponding to RP /u/ and /u:/, so that look and Luke are both/luk/, etc.

2). Nigerian English also have no diphthongs: speakers tend to replace them by a sequence of twovowels: the word ear, for example, is [i-a], pronounced as two syllables.

3). Nigerian English is syllable-timed, not stressed-timed. It means that all the syllables in a phrase seemingly occur at equal intervals not just the stressed syllables. ESL lacks the use of contrastive stress and tends to use pitch rather than stress to mark syllable accent.

4). There is also a reduction of the vowel-phonemes in African English (ESL). Elsewhere: ESLtends to be nearer to RP in its phoneme system.

5). In the varieties of ESL, the phonemes have a wide range of different realization, depending onthe first language of the speaker.

6). In ESL, as for the distribution of phonemes, there is a tendency to use spelling-pronunciation,and especially to replace unstressed /I/ and / / (schwa) by other vowels suggested by the spelling.ǝ E.g.: suffixes like -able and -ence are often given full vowels. ??????

- Explain and exemplify the following statement: "It will be seen that pidgins areextreme forms of analytic languages" (p. 259). (p. 259, 259)

An analytic language is a language that uses very few bound forms such as prefixes, suffixes (re



all, slow) and in the inflections (grammatical endings) of English nouns and verbs (boxes, talkies,talked...).

Pidgins are extreme form of analytic language because they use very few bound morphemes.They mostly lack inflection and rely on free morphemes to indicate grammatical relations.Therefore is the word-order very important.

• The third person inflection -es is missing so that the same verb-form Is used throughout

the present tense:a kari or mi kari = I carryyu kari = you carryI kari = he carries

• Nouns and verbs commonly have no plural form:Wan man = one personTen man = ten personsPlenty man = many persons

There is a simplification of the pronoun system: i = he, she or it; wi = we, us and our; dem = they,

them and their.

They have no past or future tenses: bin placed before the verb = past tense (i bin kam = he came);don = perfect (I don kam = he has come); go = future (I go kam = he will come).



Chapter 11: English today and tomorrow

- "In the English language today we can see both centrifugal and centripetaltendencies" (p. 262): explain and discuss in relation to English as a first and as asecond language, and to English within Britain.

In the English language today we can see both centrifugal and centripetal tendencies.

We can find the centrifugal tendency in countries where English is used as a second language.There has been a trend during the past half-century for local standards to become established, andfor the language to develop independently of British or American English. If this trend continues,these local varieties may ultimately diverge widely from Standard World English, and becomeseparate languages.

On the other hand, the centripetal tendency is found in countries where English is the firstlanguage. The major forms (in Britain, North America, Australia, New Zealand) are not divergingany longer but seem to be converging and will continue to constitute a more-or-less unified

language as a major medium of international intercourse.

The slowing down of the divergent trend has been due to the great development of communications and the rise of mass media. These things have enabled the different regionalvarieties of English to influence mutually one another, and so reduce their differences. But themajor influence is the language of the United States. It is due to the economic and political power of the US but also because Americans form the largest single body of speakers of English. Thisinfluence penetrates everywhere where English is spoken as a first language, especially a lexicalinfluence (vocabulary). For example, tornado is an Americanism. Other varieties of English havetheir own modest exports (Australia).

Another centripetal tendency is found in the English within Britain. The different dialects are being mixed and levelled. This is due to the influence of the mass media, the influence of universal and compulsory education (which has worked against the broader dialect elements, bothregional and social).Moreover, the population has been more mobile: migration to the great cities, two world wars inwhich men were mixed in armies. As a result, the traditional dialects have vanished, and have

been replaced by new mixed dialects, based on the great urban centres.

- Discuss briefly the notion of `ungrammaticality' in connection with standard andnon-standard varieties of a language. Include an example of a common non-standardgrammatical feature. (p. 264)

In non-standard English, people use the past participles as past-tense forms (I seen him = I sawhim; they never done it = they did not do it) and use the same form for adjectives or adverbs (thelads played real good = the boys played really well). Standard speakers describe these usages as"ungrammatical" but it is actually not a good desparitionStandard and non-standard English speakers both have a strict grammar but they are different.For non-standard English speakers seen and done are the past tense of to see and to do. ?????



- What is meant by `continental pronunciations'? Give three examples illustrating thisphenomenon for words with different language origins. (p.273)

Words borrowed from other languages get assimilated to an English style pronunciation. Nowadays, however, such words are often given a "foreign" (= "continental") kind of pronunciation again.e.g.: - armada, gaza, gala: in traditional pronunciation the stress are pronounced /ei/, but in

continental pronunciation, /a:/.- beret, richochet, valet: pronounced with /t/, but in continental pronunciation (now) without /t/???????

- Discuss and exemplify three recent or ongoing changes in English grammar. (p. 274-276)

1). When we compare adjectives in comparison and superlatives: -er and -est are less udes than before. Tendency in recent year to use more and most instead of -er and -est with two-syllableswords (with whom we usually use -er and -est): more common; most common (instead of commoner and commonest). More and most have also been spreading to adjectives of onesyllable: "J is more keen than R. " or "It was more crude than I expected."

2). Dare and need are basically auxiliaries but people tend to use themes ordinary lexical verbs: Itis thus increasingly normal to say : "do you need to go?" and "I don't dare to go." rather than"Need you go? " and "I dare not go."

3). The group of learned nouns borrowed from Greek and Latin have original plural forms:dogma/ dogmata; formula/ formulae; genus/ genera...Such words are more and more often given analogical pluralism in -(e)s: formulas, genuses,dogmas...

Linguistique anglaise10 07.11.08 97-2003

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