语言学教程Language change and history

1、Language Change and HistoryOutlineo Introductiono Major periods in the history of Englisho Old Englisho Middle Englisho Modern Englisho Changes in the development of languageo sound changeo syntactic changeo lexical changeo ConclusionLanguage changeThe history of Englisho Old English (450-1100 AD) o

2、 Middle English (1100-1500) o Modern Englishn Early Modern English (1500-1800) n Late Modern English (1800-Present) Late Modern English (1800-Present) main difference: vocabulary o Late Modern English: many more wordso two factors: nthe Industrial Revolution and technology nthe British Empire at its

3、 height covered one quarter of the earths surfaceLanguage change Aspects of Changes:n Phonological n Morphologicaln Semantic Phonological changesOld English n stnn hmn wrtn rdModern English un stonen homen wroten rodePhonological changesMiddle English i: u: :Modern English ai au uE.g., mice, mouse,

4、broke wife, house, homeSemantic changes o Semantic broadening o Semantic narrowingo Semantic shift Semantic broadening o holiday: +specific holy day +general any rest dayo tail: +specific tail of a horse +general tail of any animal Semantic narrowingo deer: any animal a particular kind of animalo me

5、at: food edible part of an animal Semantic shift o nice: ignorant (1000 years ago) good, fineo silly: happy naive, foolish Old EnglishPart of Beowulfoabout half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English rootsOld English(4501150) Old English(4501150)o Gods wrath toward Britai

6、n:Angles,Saxons,Jutes o Christianity(6th8th)o Viking (8th9th)What the Romans did for English o Julius Caesar(55BC410AD) :Britain was under control for 300years by Romans. o Official language: Latin (but most people speak Celtic(凯尔特语)o 10000 words from French came into common usage in English.o Roman

7、s gradually withdraw from Britain and then Germanic tribes came.The arrival of Anglo-Saxonso Status： Most basic terms in our language o Beowulf (贝奥武夫): 1069 compound words in this epic which is totally 3183 lines.o Affix(词缀): for-，in-，-ful，-dom，-hood，-ship，-ness，-the，-ful，-ish Latin elementso Christ

8、ianity: many words about religion and foreign products were borrowed.l E.g. angel, bishop, candle, church, school, priest,copper,pine,etc.o Alliteration(头韵)l E.g. might and main friend and foe labor of loveThe Viking o Scandinavia o Influence: o Culture fusion o old Norse brings a number of common m

9、odern terms (e.g. give,law,skin,take,etc)古英语的词汇不是完全由日尔曼语的成分组成，古英语的词汇不是完全由日尔曼语的成分组成，日尔曼语的成分是主要地位，但同时也有一些借日尔曼语的成分是主要地位，但同时也有一些借词词o 凯尔特借字凯尔特借字：Lunden “London,伦敦” cumb “deep valley luh “lake 湖” cursian “curse 诅咒”o 拉丁语借字拉丁语借字：caseus “cheese干酪” signum“sign ,符号,标记”o 斯堪的维亚语借字斯堪的维亚语借字：人名和地名中 -by,-thorp,-thwa

10、ite,-toft 日常生活用语，形容词，动词等。Historical Backgroundo What are the important events in this period?o The Norman Conquesto 1381 uprisingo Hundred Years War(1337-1453)o War of Roses (1455-1485)The Norman Conquesto In 1066, at the battle of Hastings, William, the energetic Duke of Normandy, defeated the Angl

11、o-Saxons and became the kingo The Consequence of the Conquesto Politically, a feudal system and a centralized government established .o Religiously, the Catholic Church had a much stronger control. 1. Normans brought to England their own literature.The Norman Conquesto In 1066, at the battle of Hast

12、ings, William, the energetic Duke of Normandy, defeated the Anglo-Saxons and became the kingo The Consequence of the Conquesto Politically, a feudal system and a centralized government established .o Religiously, the Catholic Church had a much stronger control. 1. Normans brought to England their ow

13、n literature.Impact of Norman French vocabulary o 1) governmental: noble, parliament. o 2) military: battle, navy, aid, march, enemy, escape, peace, war. o 3) judicial system: judge, justice, court, suit, defendant, crime, murder, attorney, heir.o 4) ecclesiastical（教会的）（教会的）: clergy, altar, pray . o

14、 5) cuisine: sauce, boil, soup, pastry, fry, roast, toast.o 6) personal names: Charles, William, RichardMiddle English Literatureo a wider range of subjects o a greater diversity of styles and genres. o reflects the medieval Christian doctrine Middle English (1100-1500) For a period there was a kind

15、 of linguistic division，where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French.o linguistic class divisionnlower classes Englishnupper classes French Middle English the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400) An example of Middle English by Chaucer. Early Modern English (15

16、00-1800) othe 16th century -o1.contact with many peoples from around the world. o2.the Renaissance of Classical learningoThe invention of printing the standardization of English (the dialect of London )oIn 1604o the first English dictionary was publishedTo be, or not to be by Shakespeare. Sound Chan

17、ge The Great Vowel Shift（元音大换位） was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in England between 1350 and 1500. The key pronunciation features of the Great Vowel Shift are the following: Vowel raising, Vowel fronting,DiphthongizationSound Change The Great Vowel Shif

18、tauaii:eieu:a:uMice mi:s maisMouse mu:s mausSound/phonological change: systematic; regular pattern of pronunciation changes a) Vowel sound change Great Vowel Shift（元音大换位）, which occurred at the end of the Middle English period, approximately between 1400 and 1600 and which involved 7 long vowels, le

19、d to one of the major disagreements between the pronunciation and the spelling system of Modern English. For example: Middle English Modern English Five fi:v faiv mouse mu:s maUs feet fe:t fi:tmood m : d mu:d break br Z : ken breik broke br C: ken br EU k Name na:me neim b) Sound loss Some sounds in

20、 English have simply disappeared from the general pronunciation of English. -the voiceless velar fricative / x /, nicht /nixt/ night sorh /sorx/ sorrow- /k/ sound in /kn - / clusters in the word initial position knight“ knee -Another sound loss is the deletion of a word-final vowel segment, a phenom

21、enon called apocope.词尾脱落 /na:m / / neim/ /l Q v/ /l Q v/c) Sound addition Sound addition includes the gain or insertion of a sound. A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as epenthesis插音 , for example: emty empty glimse glimpse spinle spin

22、dled) Sound movement Metathesis 换位 refers to sound change because of a reversal in the positions of two neighboring sounds. bridd bird hros horseuAddition of affixesuLoss of affixesuChange of word orderuChange in negation ruleAddition of affixes(词缀)lIn English,many affixes are borrowed from French w

23、ords which contain suffixes during the Middle English period.lSuch as : 1.the suffix -ment from French E.g. accomplishment acknowlegement 2. -able v.+-able=adj. E.g. favorable conceivable .Fusion Fusion refers to this type of grammaticalization(语法化) in which words develop into affixes(词缀), either pr

24、efixes(前缀) or (suffixes)后缀.E.g. base 基础词+ affix (suffixation) rich + ful = richful后缀法E.g. affix+ base (prefixation) dis + like = dislike前缀法2. Loss of affixes Old English had a number of case（格） and gender distinctions which were lost during the Middle English period，which was the most Significant ch

25、ange in English. In Old English,nouns were divided into three gender classes:musculine 阳性 neuter 中性 feminine阴性 E.g. Wfmann (woman) 阳性阳性 Wf(woman) 中性中性 geif(gift) 阴性阴性 3. Change of word order Obviously,the most common order in the Mordern English is the subject-verb-object order,which can also be see

26、n in Old English texts. The word orders in Old English included SVO,VSO, SOV and OSV, but Modern English has lost the majority of case markers, therefore a basic word order of SVO has to be followed.For example 1. When the direct objects was a pronoun in Old English,the order was: S O V she him advi

27、sed (Old English) = she advised him （Mordern English） 2.The object can be placed at the beginning of the sentence Him man ne sealde. （Old English） Him man no gave. No man gave(any) to him.（Mordern English）4.Change in negation rule The use of the nagtive also differs from Modern English. E.g. Old Eng

28、lish: Modern version: Forget-me-not Dont forget me. They love thee not. They dont love you. He saw you not. He did not see you. Lexical changes一.Borrowing二.Loss of word三.Semantic changes 1.broadening 2.narrowing 3.shifting四. The process of changeBorrowingDefinition: when different cultures come into

29、 contact, words are often “borrowed ”from one language to another .Latin .Greek. FrenchLatin: cancer, tumorGreek：electricity, atom, obstetricsChinese: wok, kung-fu Japanese: karate 空手道whats moreFood and cooking FrenchMusic Italian Loss of wordsWords can be lost from a language as time goes by.One of

30、 the loss of lexical items is the discontinuation of the object they name.Example:The old English “were” means “man” , now is not used in modern English“Rice” means “kingdom”Semantic changes Over the time many words remain in use, but their meanings have changed.Three sections:BroadeningNarrowing ShiftingSemantic broadeningIt refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation.Examples: religious feastHoly day general b