Chapter 7 Language change 1 language change is

Chapter 7 Language change § 1. language change is the field of study of historical / diachronic linguistics § 2. purpose of study: § look into the nature of language change and the causes that lead to language § reconstruct linguistic history and establish the relationship between languages that belong to the same language family. ( e. g. 30 language families have been established. Four most important language families are Indo-European family, Sino. Tibetan family, Niger-Congo languages , Afro-asiatic family（ 非亚语系）. English, French and German all belong to Indo. European language family) § 3. topics to discuss: the nature of language, the historical development of english, the causes of language change

语言的谱系分类法 § 1. Indo-European languages 46%(Europe, Southwest to south Asian, America, Oceania) § 2. Sino-Tibetan languages 21% (East Asia) § 3. Niger-Congo languages 6. 4% (Sub-Saharan Africa) § 4. Afro-Asiatic languages 6. 0% (North Africa to Horn of Africa, Southwest Asia) § 5. Austronesian languages 5. 9% (Oceania, Madagascar, maritime Southeast Asia)

§ 6. Dravidian languages 3. 7% (South Asia) § 7. Altaic languages 2. 3% (Central Asia, Northern Asia, Anatolia, Siberia) § 8. Japonic languages 2. 1% (Japan) § 9. Austro-Asiatic languages 1. 7% (mainland Southeast Asia) § 10. Tai-Kadai languages 1. 3% (Southeast Asia)

Nature of language change § Universal § Continuous, constant, gradual § Regular and systematic

Historical development of English § major periods in the history of English: § 1) old English: dated back to the mid-fifth century when Anglo-Saxons invaded the british Isles from northern Europe. Many of the basic terms in the English language originate from old English. E. g mann--man, wif---woman, cild---child, etam---eat 2） middle English: began with the arrival of the Norman French invaders in England under William the Conqueror in 1066. after Norman Conquest, French remained as the language of the ruling classes while English remained as the language of the poor classes, middle English was deeply influenced by Norman French in vocabulary and grammar. E. g. such terms as “ army, court, prison, tax” came from French. 3) modern English: the use of the printing machine in Britain which was invented by William Caxton simbolized the beginning of modern English. European renaissance movement also was believed to bring changes to English. the influence of Renaissance movement reached England in the late fifteenth century. It brought a bout the revival of classical art and literature. Latin became the literary language and enjoyed a prestigious position in education and culture. Many Latin words entered into English language. § § §

Linguistic change of English § § § Sound change Morphological change syntactic change Vocabulary change Semantic change

Sound change § Vowel sound change § Sound loss § Sound addition § Sound movement

Vowel sound change § the important changes occurred at the end of the Middle English period between 1400 and 1600. these changes led to the great difference between pronunciation and spelling system of the Modern English. this is known as the Great Vowel Shift in the history of English. The changes involve seven long vowels.

Change of 7 long vowels Middle English Modern English five Fi: v faiv mouse Mu: s maus feet Fe: t Fi: t mood Mo: d Mu: d break Br : ken breik broke Br : ken Br uk name Na: m neim

Sound loss § some sounds simply disappeared from the general pronunciation of English § § § Eg 1. The voiceless velar fricative/x/ existed in Oe, but absent in MODE OE MODE nicht/nixt/ night/nait/ § E. g 2. when the /kn-/ clusters is in the word-initial position, in old and middle English, both /k/ and /n/ were pronounced, but in modern English the /k/ sound is no longer pronounced. Such as “ knight, knee” § § E. g 3. deletion of a word –final vowel segment ( apocope词尾音脱落) OE ME MODE /na: ma: / /na: m ә / /neim/ “name” /lufu/ /luv ә / /lΛv/ “love”

Sound addition § to insert a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word ( epenthesis插入音 ) § E. g. time----timer---timber glimse---glimpse, emty-empty

Sound movement § involves a reversal in position of two adjoining sound segments ( metathesis语音变位) § e. g. OE MODE § bridd bird § hros horse § as/aks/ ask § the movement of /r/ sound to the right of the vowel sounds

Morphological change § Loss of affixes § Addition of affixes

Affix loss § the most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of gender and case markings. § Old English: synthetic language-----the syntactic relation is realized by inflexions. § Modern English: analytic language---- the syntactic relation is realized by functional words. ( e. g. conjunctions) and word order. § OE is a synthetic language and had complicated inflexions. the inflexions can be added to nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs to show the change in gender, case and number. Take nouns for example, in old English, nouns were divided into three gender classes(masculine, neuter, feminine)and four cases( nominative case, genitive case, dative case, accusative case)

Old English gender and case affixes(singular) masculine neuter feminine Hund “dog” Deor “animal” Gief “gift” nominative hund deor Gief-u accusative hund deor Gief-e genitive Hund-es Deor-es Gief-e dative Hund-e Deor-e Gief-e

Old English gender and case affixes(plural) masculin e neuter feminine hund deor gief nominativ Hund-as e deor Gief-a accusativ Hund-as e deor Gief-a genitive Hund-a Deor-a Gief-a dative Hund-um Deor-um Gief-um

Affix Addition § The influence of foreign languages triggered many morphological changes in English. For example, some of the most widely used affixes of MODE came from French. § e. g. the addition of “-able” to a verb, such as “readable”. Initially, words ending in “-able”, such as ‘ favourable” were borrowed from French. Then this suffix became a productive rule in English that was used with other verbs to form adjectives. Eg. Pay-able, wash-able § French words such as “ accomplishment, commencement” enter English language after Norman Conquest. the suffix “-ment” finally became a productive suffix in English. .

Syntactic Change § Change in “agreement” rule § Change in negation rule § Change in word order

Change in agreement rule § Noun and pronoun agreement: (see page 96 example) § Adjective agreement: in OE, the endings of adjectives must agree with the head noun in case, number and gender, but in modern English, this rule was dropped out.

Change in negation rule § in old English syntax, one could merely add “not” at the end of an affirmative sentence to negate it. E. g “I love thee not”. “he saw you not. ” § Now , except for some non-standard English varieties , such as black English, this negation construction is no longer considered acceptable by most educated speakers of English

Change in word order § Old English had a complex case marking system. This allowed its word order to be more variable than that of modern English. . because modern English has a much weaker case marking system, its sentences have to follow a basic order of SVO. § In OE, word orders included SVO, VSO, SOV and OSV. § e. g. SVO : He geseah pone mann. ( he saw the man) § VSO: Pa sende se cyning pone disc. ( then sent the king the dish) § SOV: He hine geseah. ( he him saw) § OSV: Hine man ne sealde. ( him man not gave)

Vocabulary change § Addition of new words § Loss of words

Addition of new words § § § § § coinage(创新词) clipped words(缩略词) blending(紧缩法) acronyms(词首字母缩略词) back-formation(逆构词法) Abbreviation functional shift Derivation compounding borrowing

Coinage ----A new word can be coined outright to fit some purpose, e. g. § walkman § Kodak § Xerox § Ford § Benz § Toyota

Clipped words ----The abbreviation of longer words or phrases, e. g. § gym—gymnasium § memo—memorandum § disco—discotheque § fridge—refrigerator

Blending ----A blend is a word formed by combining parts of other words, e. g. § smog—smoke + fog § motel—motor + hotel § camcorder—camera + recorder

Acronyms ----Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words, e. g. § CBS---- Columbia Broad casting system § ISBN----International Standard Book Number § WTO WHO PLA AIDS UNESCO APEC OPEC CAD SARS

Back-formation ----New words may be coined from already existing words by “subtracting” an affix thought to be part of the old word. § editor § hawker § beggar § baby-sitter

Functional shift ----Words may shift from one part of speech to another without the addition of affixes, e. g. § § Noun verb: to knee, to bug, to tape, to brake… Verb noun: a hold, a flyby, a reject, a retreat… Adj. verb: to cool, to narrow, to dim, to slow… Adj. noun: a daily, a Christian, the rich, the impossible…

Abbreviation § A shortened form of a word or phrase which represents the complete form. § E. g. TV Dr.

Derivation and compounding • Derivation: refer to the process by which new words are formed by the addition of affixes to the roots, stems or words. • compounding: a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit: blackboard, greenhouse, hotdog

Borrowing § ----When different cultures come into contact, words are often borrowed from one language to another. The following are some of the loan words in English (see more in P 100 -101). § Latin bonus education exit § German beer waltz quartz § Chinese tea kowtow sampan § Russian sputnik commissar vodka § Arabic zero algebra alcohol

Loss of words § Words can be lost from a language as time goes by. The following words, taken from Romeo and Juliet, have faded out of the English language. § Beseem to be suitable § Wot to know § Gyve a fetter § Wherefore why

Semantic changes § Semantic broadening § Semantic narrowing § Semantic shift

Semantic broadening § Holiday: [+specific] holy day [+general] any rest day § Tail: [+specific] tail of a horse [+general] tail of any animal

Semantic narrowing § hound: any dog a special kind of dog § girl: young person of either sex young people of female sex § deer: any animal a particular kind of animal § meat: food edible part of an animal § corn: grain a particular grain

Semantic shift § inn: a small, old hotel or pub well-known, nice hotel § nice: ignorant (1000 years ago) good, fine § lust: pleasure with negative and sexual overtones § silly: happy naïve, foolish

Some recent trends § Moving towards greater informality § The influence of American English § The influence of science and technology

The influence of science and technology § Space travel § Computer and internet language § Ecology

Causes of the language change § § § § Sound assimilation The rapid development of science and technology; Social and political changes and political needs Children’s approximation toward the adult grammar “ Economy of memory” results in grammar simplification; Rule elaboration Theory of least effort

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