英语语言文化史

1、A Cultural History of the English Language1AgendaIntroduction Old EnglishMiddle English Early Modern English Present-Day English World Englishes2Introduction Definition of LanguageFunctions of the LanguageThe Origin of LanguageFamilies of Languages The Indo-European FamilyLanguages Change3What is La

2、nguage? Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas,emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols. Sapir (1921) 萨丕尔（1921）: 语言是人类的非本能的交际方式，通过有意发出的声音或写出语言符号等手段，来达到传递思想、交流感情和满足欲望的目的。Language is a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed ou

3、t of a finite set of elements. Chomsky (1957) : 乔姆斯基（1957）：语言是一套句子的集合，每句长度有限，且由有限的语言成分组成。4HumanSymbolsSystemCommunication5Funtions of Language?6The Origin of LanguageThe Tower of Babel 7Five Theories of the Origins of LanguageThe Bow-Wow TheoryThe Pooh-Pooh Theory The Ding-Dong TheoryThe o-he-Ho The

4、oryThe La-la Theory Otto Jespersen (1860-1943) , Danish linguist8The top 20 languages1. Mandarin Chinese2. English3. Spanish4. Hindi 5. Arabic6. Portuguese7. Bengali 孟加拉语8. Russian9. Japanese10. German11. French 12. Javaness13. Korean14 ItalianD. Crystal, (2001) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Languag

5、e9Language Families10Types of Linguistic Classification Genetic Classification 谱系分类法Typological classification 类型分类法11Typologcial classification is to group the langauges into structural types, on the basis of phonology, grammar or vocabulary rather than in terms of any real or assumed historical re

6、lationshop.12Isolating, analytic or root languages Inflectional (Fusional) languagesAgglutinating languages Polysynthetic languages13Isolating, analytic or root languages : words consist of single morphemes; most words consist only of a root. Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese; 孤立语我 买 橘子 吃14Inflectional (

7、Fusional) languages 屈折语: words consist of stem and affixes which often mark several grammatical categories simultaneously. Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Russian.e.g. The biggest boys have been asking.15Agglutinating languages : 粘着语: words are built up out of a long sequentce of units, with each unit expre

8、ssing a particular grammatical meaning, in a clear one-to-one way. Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, Swahili斯瓦希里人语, Turkish, Japanese form words in this way.Examples in Estonian1. Ta on kohvikus.he is coffeehouseinHe is in the coffee house.2. Lhme kohvikusse.gowe coffeehouseintoLet us go into the coffee

9、 house.3. Ma tulen uuest kohvikust.I come newfrom coffeehousefromI am coming out of the new coffee house.16Polysynthetic languages 多式综合语: words are foten very long and complex, containing a mixture of aglutinating and inflectional features. They consist of long strings of stems and affixes, which ma

10、y translate as an entire English sentence, as in Eskimo, Mohawk, Australian languages.1. rikuyki I see you.2. rikuykiik I see you all.3. rikuykiku We see you.riku: seeyki: first person singular actor and second person singular objectik: marks object as pluralku: marks actor as plural17The Language F

11、amilies of the World 18The Indo-European Family EnglishGermanSwedishFrenchItalianSpanishwinterWinterWinterHiverInvernoInviernofootFus FotPeidPeidePietwozweiTvaDeuxDueDosmemichMigMoiMe me19Discovery of Sanskrit“The Sanskrit language, , is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more co

12、pious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Celtic , though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit; and the Old Persian might be added to the same family” Sir

13、William Jones (1746-94)20Indo-European family of languages 印度-欧罗巴语系Latin and the modern Romance languages拉丁语，罗曼诸语言The Germanic languages日尔曼语族The Indo-Iranian languages, 印度-伊朗语族including Hindi and Sanskrit梵语The Slavic Languages:斯拉夫语族e.g. RussianThe Celtic Languages凯尔特语族，包括爱尔兰语，苏格兰盖尔语，Gaelic languages

14、高卢语，康沃尔语，威尔士语及布列塔尼语The Balticlanguages 波罗地语族of Latvian and Lithuanian (but not Estonian); Greek.21Germanic East NorthWest Gothic IcelandicNorwegianDanishSwedishHigh Low German Yiddish DutchFlemishAfrikaansEnglsih 22Language ChangeWhat changes? How does language change ?Why 23Sound changeGrammatical

15、changeSpelling changeSemantic change24Some types of semantic changeExtension : e.g. office, salaryNarrowing : e.g. meat, deer, girl, starve, Shift : e.g. navigator, Figurative use e.g. craneAmelioration: e.g. naughtyPejoration 语义转贬: e.g. nortorious New words and old25Some surprising etymologies: vil

16、lainfarm labourertaxation fault findingprettyingenious 机灵的, 有独创性的,vulgarordinaryslywiseorchardgarden ( without fruit trees) 26bribesteal dout fear handsome easy to handle ( 15th century)happyluckysillyhappy ( 13th century) tall handsome( 14th century) wallet bag for holding goods for journeyholidayholy day27How