教book3课件背景素材文字history of english

1、ABriefLookattheHistoryofThe history of English is conventionally(按惯例), if perhaps too y(巧妙地o three periods usually called OldABriefLookattheHistoryofThe history of English is conventionally(按惯例), if perhaps too y(巧妙地o three periods usually called Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), English, and Modern Eng

2、lish. The st period begins with the migration of Germanic tribes from the continent to he fifth century A. D., though records of their language survive from before the seventh century, and it of the eleventh century or a bit later. t time Latin, Old Norse language of the Viking invaders), and lly th

3、e Anglo-Norman French of dominant(占优势的) class after the Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have substantial impact(冲击) onthe lexicon(词法), and the well-developed inflectional(尾变化的) t typifies(代表the grammarof OldEnglish had begunto down. The following brief le of Old English prose illustrates severa

4、l of significantwaysinwhichchangehassotransformed(转化) t wemust carefully to find s of resemblance(相似) n the language of the centuryandour own. It istakenfromAelfricsHomilyonSt. GregorytheGreatconcerns the famous story of t pope came to send aries(传教士) convert(使.改变信仰) the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity

5、 after seeing Anglo-boysforsaleasslavesinA few of these words will be recognized as identical(一致) in spelling with modern equivalents(对应词) - he, of, him, for, and, on - and the resemblance of few others to familiar words may be guessed - nama to name, comon to come, to were, w?s to was - but only th

6、ose who have made a l study of Old will be able to read the passage with understanding. The sense of it is as Again he St. Gregory asked what might be thenamewill be able to read the passage with understanding. The sense of it is as Again he St. Gregory asked what might be thename of thepeoplefrom w

7、hich came.ItwasansweredtottheywerenamedAngles. Thenhesaid,Rightlytheycalled Anglesbecause they havethe beauty els, and it istsuch they should be angels companions in heaven. Some of the words in the have survived in altered form, including axode (asked), hu (how), rihtlice engla (angels), habbae (ha

8、ve), swilcum (such), heofonum (heaven), and beon Others, however, have vanished from our lexicon, mostly race, t were quite common words in Old English: eft again, eeode nation, cw?e said, spoke, gehatene called, named, wlite appearance, and geferan companions. Recognition of some words is naturally

9、 hindered by presence of two l characters, t, called thorn, and e, called edh, which inOldEnglishtorepresentthesoundsnowspelledwithos worth noting include the t the pronoun system did not late tenth century, include the plural forms beginning with th-: hi where we would use they. Several aspects(方面)

10、 of word order will also strike reader as oddly unlike ours. Subject and verb are inverted(倒装) after an adverb - cw?e he Then said he - a phenomenon(现象) not odern English now restricted to a few adverbs such as never and requiring the presence of auxiliary verb like do or have. In subordinate(复合句) c

11、lauses the main verb must last, and so an object or a ition may precede it in a way no longer natural: te of comon which they from came, for ean ee hi engla wlite habbae because angelsbeautyPerhaps the most distinctive difference n Old and Modern English reflected Aelfricsistheelaborate(细微) system o

12、f inflectionsof whichweangelsbeautyPerhaps the most distinctive difference n Old and Modern English reflected Aelfricsistheelaborate(细微) system of inflectionsof whichwenowonly remnants. Nouns, adjectives, and eventhedefinite articleareinflected case(格), and number: e?re eeode (of) the people is femi

13、nine(女性的), genitive(格的), and singular, Angle Angles is 的), accusative(宾格的), plural, and swilcum such is masculine, dative(与格的), and plural. The system inflections for verbs was also more n ours: for le, habbae ends with the -ae suffix characteristic(特性) of plural present indicative verbs. addition,

14、there were two imperative(祈使) forms, four subjunctive forms (two for present tense and two for the preterit, or past, tense), and several others which we longer have. Even whereModern English retains(保留) aparticular category(范围) inflection, the form has often changed. OldEnglish present participles

15、ended in -not-ing, andpastparticiplesboreaprefixge-(asgeandwyrdansweredTheperiodofMiddleEnglishextendsroughly(大概) fromthetwelfthcenturythe fifteenth. The influence of French (and Latin, often by way of French) upon lexicon continued throughout this period, the loss of some inflections and reduction

16、of others (often to a final unstressed(非读的) vowel spelled -accelerated(加强), and many changestook place he phonological(音韵的) grammaticalsystemsofthelanguage.Atypicalprosepassage,lly one fromart of theperiod,will vesuchaforeign looktousasAelfricsprose(散文has; but it will not be mistaken for contemporar

17、y writing either. The following passage is drawn from a work of the late fourteenth century called Travels. It is fiction(小说) in the guise(外观) travel literature, and, passage is drawn from a work of the late fourteenth century called Travels. It is fiction(小说) in the guise(外观) travel literature, and

18、, though purports(主旨) to be from the pen of an ight, it was originally written French and later o Latin and his extract(摘录) describes the land of Bactria, apparently not an altogether inviting place, as it inhabited(居住byfullyueleevilfolkandfullThe spelling is often peculiar by modern standards and e

19、ven inconsistent(不一致hese few (contrand contree, o griffoun and a gret hors, and tan, for le). Moreover, in the original text, there is in addition to another old character 3, called yogh, to make difficulty. It can represent sounds but here may be thought of as equivalent to y. Even the older (inclu

20、ding those where u stands for v or vice versa) are recognizable, however, there are only a few words like ipotaynes hippopotamuses and sithes thave dropped out of the language altogether. We may notice a few words and ve meanings no longer commonsuch as byttere salty, o thishalf oneof the world, and

21、 at the poynt to hand, and the effect of the centuries-) of French on the vocabulary is evident in many familiar which could not have occurred in Aelfrics writing even if his subject had them,wordslikecontree,ryueres,plentee, egle, andIn general word order is now very close t of our time, though we

22、constructionslikehaththebody moregret and threesithesmoretanisthewater ofsee.Wealsot present tense verbs still receive a plural inflection as in dwellen, han, and ben t while nominative(主格的) tei has replaced Aelfrics he plural,theformfor objectsisstill hem.All thesame, thenumber inflections nouns, a

23、djectives, and verbs hasdwellen, han, and ben t while nominative(主格的) tei has replaced Aelfrics he plural,theformfor objectsisstill hem.All thesame, thenumber inflections nouns, adjectives, and verbs has been y reduced, and in respectsMandevilleisclosertontoOldTheperiod of ModernEnglish extendsfrom

24、thesixteenth century toour ownday. early part of this period saw the completion of a he phonology(音韵学of d begun in late Middle English t effectively redistributed(分散) the occurrence( 发生) of the vowel phonemes( 音素) to approximating(接近) their present pattern. (Mandevilles English wouldhave even less f

25、amiliar to nit looks.) Other important early developments include stabilizing(固定) effect on spelling of the ing press and the beginning of direct influence of Latin and, to a lesser extent, Greek on the lexicon. Later, English o contact with other cultures around the world and distinctive(的) dialect

26、s方言) of English developed in the many areas which Britain colonized, numerous other languages made small eresting contributions(贡献toourword-The historical aspect of English passes(包括) n the stages(阶段) of development just under consideration. English has what might called a prehistory(史前的) as well. A

27、s we have seen, our language did not o existence; it was brought from the Continent by Germanic tribes who no form of writing and hence left no records. Philologists(语言学家) t ve spoken a dialect of a t can be called West Germanic tother dialects of this unknown language must have included the tors(祖先) suchlanguagesasGerman,h, LowGerman, andother dialects of this unknown language must have included the tors(祖先) suchlanguagesasGerman,h, LowGerman, andFrisian. Theykno