INTRODUCTION TO MORPHOLOGY AND LEXICOLOGY · · 2016-03-23INTRODUCTION TO MORPHOLOGY AND...
Transcript of INTRODUCTION TO MORPHOLOGY AND LEXICOLOGY · · 2016-03-23INTRODUCTION TO MORPHOLOGY AND...
INTRODUCTION TO
MORPHOLOGY AND
LEXICOLOGY
UNIT 2: WHERE DO ENGLISH
WORDS COME FROM?
16th March 2016
Ch2: Where do English words come
from?
2.1 The origin of English
2.2 Historical development of English
vocabulary
2.3 Native English vocabulary
2.4 The process of borrowing
2.5 Creating new English words
2.6 Characteristics of modern English
vocabulary
Classification of languages
About 5000 languages in the world
About 300 language families (based on
similarities in basic word stock and grammars)
English language:
Indo-European language family
Germanic branch
West Germanic branch
The Indo-European language
family
Most of Europe, The Near East, North India
Branches (examples):
Italic Latin Romance languages
Hellenic Greek
Celtic Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic; Breton,
Welsh
Balto-Slavic Lithuanian; [Old Slavic ]
Russian, Polish, Czech,...
Indian Sanskrit Hindi
Iranian
Germanic
Germanic branch
East Germanic branch
E.g., Gothic, Vandalic, Burgundian [extinct]
North Germanic branch
E.g., Danish, Sweedish, Norwegian, Icelandic
West Germanic branch
E.g., modern German, Dutch, Frisian (NW
Netherlands + Friesland), and English
Q: Which of the languages is the closest relative to
English?
How English came to England
Celts – the first known inhabitants, I-E
language
55-54 BC – Roman invasion (attempt to add
the land to the Roman Empire), Romans
defeated
AD 43-410 the island of Britain occupied by
the Romans (military & government officials)
Settlements: Doncaster, Gloucester, Lancaster <
lat. CASTRA, ‘camp‘
How English came to England
Withdrawal of Romans invasion of lowlands
by the Picts and Scots (tribes in the north of
Britain)
Celts ask Germanic tribes from across the North
Sea for aid (Angles, Saxons, Frisians, and
Jutes)
The allies became the conquerors
Celts were pushed to the fringes of the country
(Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria, Scottish highlands) or
they left for French Brittany; those who stayed
become assimilated to Anglo-Saxon society.
The name of the language
The Celts called the invaders Sassenachs
‘Saxons‘
by the end of 6th century – the term was
replaced by the term Angli ‘Angles‘
C17 – the usual Latin name for the country
was Angli or Anglia Engle in OE, language
= Englisc [‘sc‘ /∫/]
C10 – Englaland [ England]
2.2 Historical development of English vocabulary
The Old English period (450-1066)
The Middle English period (1066-1500)
Early Modern English (1500-1800)
The Modern English period (1800-present)
The Old English period (450-
1066)
C5-C6 the first scattered OE manuscripts in
runic alphabet brought by Anglo-Saxons
C6 – arrival of Christian missionaries from
Rome = beginning of literary age
Around 700 – glossaries of Latin translated
into OE
Around1000 – Beowulf (heroic poem)
C9 – Kind Alfred; Latin works translated into
OE
Corpus of OE: 3.5 million words
OE letters, spelling and words
Absence of capital letters
Different shapes of some letters; Roman
symbols
Variation is spelling (even with a single scribe)
Words in prose – close to Modern English X
poetry
OE vs. Modern English: omitting the ge- prefix
Geseted > -seted (seated)
Geseah > -seah (saw)
Gehyrde > -hyrde (heard)
X glimplice (suitable), beboden (entrusted),...
OE lexicon: Kennings
Frequent coinages (kennings)
Kennings = vivid figurative descriptions often
involving compounds (Old Norse)
Sometimes difficult interpretation (synonyms –
shades of meaning; 20 terms for man in Beowulf;
poetry)
Hronrad (whaleroad) = sea; banhus (bone-house)
= body; Moncynnes wead (guardian of mankind)
= God
Lexicon: OE vs. Modern English
1. OE: strong preference for synonymous expressions
and the construction of compounds
2. OE: word-formation based on native elements
families of morphologically related words
3. OE: Introduction of loan translations (calques)
Praepositio/ unicornis (Lat.) – foresetnys/ anhorn
(OE) – preposition/ unicorn (ModE)
4. Grammatical relationships expressed by inflexional
endings (vs. word order) – C11-C12 – main stress at the
beginning of the word – difficult to hear the endings
5. OE corpus: 24.000 different lexical items, mainly
germanic, only 3% loanwords (ModE 70%)
The Middle English Period (1066-1500)
Much richer documentation than in OE X early
material written in Latin or French (surveys
commissioned by monarchy) – places, names
C14 – increase in translated writings from Latin
and French, texts teaching Latin or French
MidE poetry influenced by French literary
tradition
Literature – authors start to be known: Geoffrey
Chaucer, John Wyckliff, William Langland;
‘Scottish Chaucerians‘ (poets)
The Middle English Period (1066-1500)
Diversity in spelling greater than in OE, e.g.,
NEVER [neuer] spelled as naure, noeure, ner,
and neure.
Altegaedere (altogether), cyrceiaerd
(churchyard),...
Borrowing: after 1066 – massive borrowing from
French (EN-FR bilingualism)
In the early Middle English period – over 90% of
the lexicon was of native English origine X at the
end – 75%
Word formation: compounding, affixation
Early Modern English (1500-
1800)
1476 – PRINTING REVOLUTION - William
Caxton set up his press in Westminster
(beginning of Early ModE) norms of spelling
and pronunciation, wide circulation of published
works
C16 Scholars start being interested in language
(grammar, lexis, writing system, style)
Middle of C15 – 1650 – Renaissance (renewed
interest in classical languages and literatures;
science, arts); Protestant reformation, discoveries,
explorations impact on English, esp. lexis
Early Modern English (1500-
1800)
Latin words introduced (translations –
theology, medicine)
Purists (against borrowings)
Renaissance
W. Shakespeare, 1564-1616, info about
pronunciation, word formation, syntax, and
language use; introduced/ popularized new words
King James Bible, 1611, appointed to be read
throughout the kingdom, the translators aimed for
a dignified style, older forms of language (despite
the existing modern ones), conservative
King James Bible
Contains many phrases that have entered the
language as idioms, e.g., can the leopard
change its spots, fight the good fight, if the
blind lead the blind...
TASK:
Complete the following idioms:
King James Bible
Idioms:
A ---- in sheep‘s clothing
In the t-------- of an eye ( = in a very short time)
Money is the ---- of all evil
The ---- of the earth (the ones who ‘enhance‘
the flavour of life in this world)
By the ---- of my teeth (to describe a situation
one barely managed to escape from)
A t---- in the flesh (a constant bother/
annoyance to someone)
Early Modern English (1500-
1800)
Borrowing, word formation; semantic changes
C17 many critics felt that English was
changing to rapidly and randomly
Need to stabilize the language debates on
language corruption public attention
Grammars, spelling guides, pronunciation
manuals, dictionaries (e.g., Robert Cawdrey,
‘dictionary of hard words‘, 3000 entries, mostly
borrowings, e.g., abbettors glossed as
‘counselors‘, 1st synonym dict. )
Dictionaries
Robert Cawdrey
Nathaniel Bailey – Universal Etymological
English Dictionary
Samuel Johnson – Dictionary of the English
Language (1755)
Descriptive approach in lexicography
The first accurate description of the complexity of
the lexicon and of word usage
The Modern English Period (1800 –
present)
Gradual change from Early Modern to ModE
Lexis – 3 main features:
Growth of scientific vocabulary
C19, industrial revolution, exploration, discovery;
‘scientific English‘ as a variety of the language
American English as a dominant variety
C20 – US – leading economic power, involved in
world affairs, Europe (incl. UK) open to US culture,
mass media, US and UK Eng. – more and more
alike, US + UK – 70% of all Eng.speakers (En.1st lg)
The emergence of ‘New Englishes‘ (varieties)
The Modern English Period (1800 –
present)
‘New Englishes‘
Influenced by the other languages of the regions
where they are used
Origin in colonial era
Indian English, Philippine English, Singapore
English, African Englishes...
Varieties associated with geographical era OR
subject matter (telecommunication, computing;
religious and legal English)
English-speaking countries
(classification)
Classification based on the status of the language,
Kachru (1983)
1. INNER CIRCLE (English = primary language)
(Task: Name some of the countries.)
2. OUTER/ EXTENDED CIRCLE (English = second
language in a multilingual setting, used in the leading
institutions; countries affected by collonization) ....
(Examples?)
3. EXPANDING CIRCLE (countries with no history of
colonization, English has no special administrative
status X recognized as important)
(Examples?)
Native English Vocabulary
What is the origin of the native English
vocabulary? (i.e, „Who brought it & who
influenced it?“)
Anglo-Saxon words
Represent the native English vocabulary (which is also
influenced by the Celtic language)
Most of them – common words of the language, the
nucelus of the English language
Generally short and concrete
Parts of the body (arm, bone, chest, eye, ear, foot,
hand)
The natural landscape (field, hedge, hill, meadow, land)
Domestic life and animals (door, house; cow, dog, fish)
The calendar (day, month, moon, sun, year)
Common adjectives and verbs (dark, wide; do, go, kiss)
The influence of Celtic on English
Not very significant (cf. the conditions of the cultural
contact); regionalisms; just a few have survived
Binn (bin), carr (rock), luh (Scots: loch, Irish: lough) lake
Celtic-based place names: Avon (river), Thames, Don
Town names: Dover (water), Eccles (church), London
Introduction of a few Celtic words into English from Irish
Gaelic (C17) – brogue, galore, shamrock and from Welsh –
crag.
Celtic has a rather negligible influence of English.
Practice and revision:
1 Give the basic characteristics of the Old
English vocabulary.
Practice and revision:
2 Give the basic characteristics of the Middle
English vocabulary.
Practice and revision:
3 Give the basic characteristics of the Early
Modern English vocabulary.
Practice and revision:
4 Give the basic characteristics of the Modern
English vocabulary.
Practice and revision:
Try and identify the language of origin of the
following words:
addendum
baguette
cannelloni
con brio
criterion
Practice and revision:
Try and identify the language of origin of the
following words:
id est (i.e.)
in loco parentis
mañana
sang-froid
vis-à-vis
Practice and revision:
Try and identify the language of origin of the
following words:
zucchini
robot
piano
yougurt
zebra
Practice and revision:
Try and identify the language of origin of the
following words:
lilac
alcohol
pretzel
power politics
gas
quark
Thank you for you attention!
Enjoy the rest of the semester!