大学英语词汇学SECTION-B-The-Development-of-the-English-Vocabulary

SECTIONBTheDevelopmentoftheEnglishVocabulary英语词汇的发展Objectives:

IntroducethehistoryandthegeneralcharacteristicsofEnglish;LetstudentsknowthegrowthofcontemporaryEnglishvocabularyandthemodesofvocabularydevelopmentTeachingfocus:theIndo-EuropeanlanguagefamilythreephasesofthehistoricaldevelopmentgeneralcharacteristicsofEnglishthreesourcesofcontemporaryEnglishvocabularymodesofvocabularydevelopment2.1TheIndo-EuropeanLanguagefamilyTheIndo-EuropeanlanguagefamilyismadeupofmostlanguagesofEurope,theNearEast,andIndia.TheclassificationofIndo-Europeanlanguagefamily:Accordingtovariousdegreesofsimilarityandtheir

geographicaldistribution,thesurvivinglanguagesofIndo-Europeanlanguagefamilyfallinto10principalgroups,whichcanbegroupedintoanEasternsetandWesternset.theNearEast欧洲人指亚洲西南部和非洲东北部地区,但伊朗、阿富汗除外。近东通常指地中海东部沿岸地区。包括非洲东北部和亚洲西南部，有时还包括巴尔干半岛。TheEasternset:Balto-Slavic波罗的斯拉夫语族(thebiggestone)Prussian普鲁士语Lithuanian立陶宛语Polish波兰语Czech捷克语Bulgarian保加利亚语Slovenian斯洛文尼亚语Russian俄罗斯语Indo-Iranian印伊语族Persian波斯语Bengali孟加拉语Hindi北印度语Romany吉普赛语Armenian亚美尼亚语族ArmenianAlbanian阿尔巴尼语族Albanian

TheWesternSetHellenic希腊语族GreekCeltic凯尔特语族Scotish苏格兰语Irish爱尔兰语Welsh威尔士Breton布列塔尼语Pictish皮克特语Hittite希泰语族Tocharian吐火罗语族Italic意大利语族（5romancelanguages）Portuguese葡萄牙语Spanish西班牙语French法语Italian意大利语Rumanian罗马尼亚语Germanic日耳曼族English英语German德语Dutch荷兰语Flemish弗来芒语ScandinavianlanguagesNorwegian挪威语Icelandic冰岛语Danish丹麦语Swedish瑞典语2.2ThreePhasesoftheHistoricalDevelopment

Foreachphaseofthedevelopment,thefollowingpointsmustbemadeclear:TimerangeFeaturesofEnglishSocialandhistoricaleventsthatinfluencedEnglishgreatlyOldEnglish(450-1150)Fourquestionsfordiscussion:WhoweretheearliestinhabitantsontheBritishIsles?WhatareincludedinGermanictribes?WhatdoesEnglandmeanandwhywasthecountrycalledEnglandandthelanguageEnglish?WhatisthefeatureofOldEnglish?ThefirstpeoplesknowntoinhabitthelandwereCelts.TheGermanictribesincludeAngles,Saxons,andJutes.TheywerefirstalliesofCeltstofightagainstPictsandScots,butthentheybecamenewconquerors.Angles,SaxonsandJutesallhavetheirdialects.TheSaxonswerenumericallysuperiortotheAngles,thelatterwereinfluentialenoughtoimposetheirnameonthewhole.OldEnglisharealmostmonogeneousandentirelyGermanicwithonlyafewborrowingsfromLatinandScandinavian.Itwasahighlyinflectedlanguage,ofwhichnouns,pronouns,adjectives,verbs,andadverbshadcomplexsystemsofendingsorvowelchangesorboth.MiddleEnglish(1150-1500)TheNormanConquestanditsinfluenceonEnglandAnewandlargercontinentalculturewasbroughttoEngland.ItforcedonEngland“Thenationalidea”.Thesituationofthesimultaneousexistenceofthreelanguages:English----French-----Latin-----adespisedlanguageusedbyboorsandserfsThoseinpower,includingthosewhoheldpoliticalorsocialpowerandthoseinpowerfulChurchpositions.ThosewhowanttomakealivingasascribeandthoseinchurchesFeatures:Aperiodofgreatchanges,changesmoreextensiveandfundamentalthanthosethathadtakenplaceatanytimebeforeandsince.SteadyerosionoftheOldEnglishinflectionalsystems:endingsofnounsandadjectivesmarkingdistinctionofnumberandcaseandoftenofgenderlosttheirdistinctiveforms.ModernEnglish(1500uptothepresent)ModernEnglishBeganwiththeestablishmentofprintinginEnglandTheRenaissance:morethan25%ofModernEnglishcamefromLatinandGreekTheIndustrialRevolution&Colonization:absorbingwordsfromallmajorlanguagesoftheworldAfterWWII:NewwordsmultipliedinallwalksoflifeEnglishhasevolvedfromasyntheticlanguage(OldEnglish)tothepresentanalyticlanguageAcomparisonofthreephasesOldEnglishAperiodoffullendingsMiddleEnglishAperiodofleveledendingsModernEnglishAperiodoflostendings2.3GeneralCharacteristicsReceptivity,adaptabilityandheterogeneityVariety,heterogeneousnesswithforeignelementsSimplicityofinflection:OldEnglishisasyntheticlanguageModernEnglishisaanalyticlanguageRelativelyfixedword-ordersyntheticlanguagesyntheticlanguage,inlinguistictypology,isalanguagewithahighmorpheme-per-wordratio,asopposedtoalowmorpheme-per-wordratioinwhatisdescribedasanisolatinglanguage.Thislinguisticclassificationislargelyindependentofmorpheme-usageclassifications(suchasfusional,agglutinative,etc.),althoughthereisacommontendencyforagglutinativelanguagestoexhibitsyntheticproperties.Syntheticlanguagesarenumerousandwell-attested,themostcommonlycitedbeingIndo-EuropeanlanguagessuchasSanskrit,Spanish,Persian,Greek,Latin,Lithuanian,German,Italian,French,Romanian,Russian,Ukrainian,PolishandCzech,aswellasmanylanguagesoftheAmericas,includingNavajo,Nahuatl,MohawkandQuechua.Inderivationalsynthesis,morphemesofdifferenttypes(nouns,verbs,affixes,etc.)arejoinedtocreatenewwords.Forexample:反对解散国教主义English:antidisestablishmentarianism=>"against-ending-institutionalize-condition-advocate-ideology"meaning"themovementtopreventrevokingtheChurchofEngland'sstatusastheofficialchurch"(ofEngland,Ireland,andWales).Isolatinglanguageoranalyticlanguageisalinguistictypologycategorythatdefinesalanguagewithalowmorpheme-per-wordratio–intheextremecaseofisolatinglanguageoranalyticlanguagewordsarecomposedofasinglemorpheme.Sincewordsarenotmarkedbymorphologyshowingtheirroleinthesentence,wordordertendstocarryalotofimportanceinisolatinglanguages.Forexample,Chinesemakesuseofwordordertoshowsubject–objectrelationships.MandarinChinese(ofallvarieties)isperhapsthebest-knownanalyticlanguage.Thetermanalytic,referringtoamorphologicaltype,issynonymouswiththetermisolatinginmostcontexts.However,itispossibletodefineanalyticasreferringtotheexpressionofsyntacticinformationviaseparategrammaticalwordsinsteadofviamorphology(withboundmorphemes).Obviously,usingseparatewordstoexpresssyntacticrelationshipswouldleadtoamoreisolatingtendencywhileusinginflectionalmorphologywouldleadtothelanguagehavingamoresynthetictendency..2.4ForeignElementsintheEnglishVocabularyThemajorcontributorstoEnglishareLatin,Greek,FrenchandScandinavian.2.5GrowthofContemporaryEnglishVocabularyThreemainsourcesofnewwords:Rapiddevelopmentofmodernscienceand