History of English part 2. SEMANTIC CHANGE meaning: combination of the semantic components of a concept = distinctive features of a referent which the.

History of English part 2

SEMANTIC CHANGE

meaning: combination of the semantic components of a concept= distinctive features of a referent which the speakers consider contrastive and relevant

“girl”

mob

human

femalenot adult

blond

playful(un)married

long-hairedlovely

strong-willed pig-headed

mob

positive

mob

negative

connotation = subjective/cultural association

Semantic change = the change of meaning:

- metaphorical/metonymical use > secondary meaning > primary meaning?

girl

mob

human

femalenot adult

blond

playful(un)married

long-hairedlovely

bird

mobplayful ?

lovely ?

Semantic components are added/dropped/ turned prominent/trivial

hoover

cleaner

by vacuum suction

made by Hoover

appliance

electrical

Examples of semantic changes:

metaphorical: gay (cheerful), alarm (to the arms), big (strong) bitter (biting), spinster (spinning woman), tall (hadsome), travel (labour)metonymical: prison (capturing), marathon, road (ride), sky (cloud)budget (bougette ‘leather bag’), cash (caisse, cassa ‘box), courage (heart)farm (firma – rent)expansion: hooligan < Houlihan (Irish surname), Yankee, awful (inspiring awe), friend (lover)…narrowing: meat (food), accident, advice, kill (strike), knight, loaf,maid, husband (house bound), penthouse (appendage)cattle, chattel (capital ‘wealth), sciencedeterioration: negro (black), conceit (thought), imbecile (weak)jeopardy (jeu parti), poison (potion), silly (happy)amelioration: nice (ignorant), amuse (deceive), humour (moisture), pretty (crafty, sly)complex: toilet < toile > toilette > grooming,dressing up > lavatory

IDIOMS AND PHRASES:

time out, big league, out of someone’s league…front runner, head start, also-ran, give s.o. a run for their money, neck to neck…give it the best shot, bark up the wrong tree, hot shot, big shot, long shot…hat-trick, rain check, curve ball, ballpark (figure), strike three/out, grand slam,step up to the platekick-off, throw in the towel, real McCoy, hit below the beltblue-chip, under the table, call the shotslearn the ropes

bootleg, highjack, kidnapfreelance, (wear) heart on one’s sleeve, round table, Pyrrhic victory (“one more such victory and we are lost”)peeping Tomred tapeon/off the wagonrain cats and dogskick the bucket, spitting image

POLYSEMY – WHICH MEANING IS THE RIGHT ONE?

PRAGMATIC INFERENCE

RELYANCE ON PRAGMATIC INFERENCE – PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES

GRAMMATICAL CHANGES

grammar – a system of morpho-syntactic tools which the speakers of a language use to convey mandatory information (grammatical categories)

two aspects of grammatical change:- the number (list) grammatical categories changes:

the emergence of feminine gender in Indo-European languages, the loss of dual in most Indo-European languages, the loss of

aorist in Slovene, the general loss of grammatical categories in pidgin languages, the emergence of grammatical categories in creole languages- the encodement of grammatical categories changes

grammaticalization – full content words become function words and function words can subsequently turn into inflections

Grammatical categories

Word classes in Old English

nounsverbspronouns: -personal-demonstrative-possessiveadjectivesnumerals: -cardinal-ordinal verbsadverbsprepositionsconjunctions

grammatical categories associated with the noun:

OLD ENGLISHOLD ENGLISH MODERN ENGLISHMODERN ENGLISH

number: singular, plural singular, pluralcase: nominative, genitive, dative, common case,

accusative possessive casegender: masculine, feminine, neuter natural gender

grammatical categories associated with the verb:

OLD ENGLISHOLD ENGLISH MODERN ENGLISHMODERN ENGLISH

person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd 1st, 2nd, 3rdtense: present, preterite present, present perfect, past,

past perfect, future, future perfectmood: indicative, imperative, subjunctive indicative, imperative, (subjunctive)aspect: - progressive, non-progressivevoice: active, passive active, passive

OLD ENGLISH – INFLECTIONAL LANGUAGE:

Grammatical categories inflections

number casegender

NOUNS: namena

personnumber tense mood

VERBS: wrītest

OLD ENGLISH – concordial language

Grammatical categories encoded redundantly agreement, concord, redundancy = adjustment of word forms withinphrases and/or between the subject and the predicator

Ælc þāra þe þās mīn word ʒehīerþ and þā wyrcþeach of those who these my words hears and those worksbiþ ʒelīc þǣm wīsan were þe his hūs ofer stān ʒetimbrode.is similar to that wise man who his house upn a rock built

Like most Indo-European languages

OLD ENGLISH was a gender language an accusative language

with the word order S-V-O,

sg pl sg pl sg plN. stān stānas nama naman mann mennG. stānes stāna naman namena mannes mannaD. stāne stānum naman namum menn mannumA. stān stānas naman naman mann menn

N. hūs hūs gesceaft gesceaftaG. hūses hūsa gesceafte gesceaftaD. hūse hūsum gesceafte gesceaftum A. hūs hūs gesceafte gesceafta

THE ENCODEMENT OF NUMBER IN NOUNS

OLD ENGLISH

DECLENSIONS = patterns of case/number endings

5 major, several minor: vocalic or strong, consonantal or weak, root declensions

MIDDLE ENGLISH

two “declensions” expanded: the a-declension and the weak declension (in the south)

OE stānas > ME stǭnesOE naman > ME nāmen

OE hūs > ME hūs, hūses, hūsenOE bēc > ME beech, bookes, booken

Eventually the {es} morpheme prevailed. All other endings are relics of the old declensions and considered irregular:- the –en plurals: oxen, children, bretren, kine- the mutalion plurals: feet, mice, lice, men, geese…- the zero plurals: sheep, deer, fish…

-the voicing of final fricatives: wolf-wolvesOE Nsg wulf, N/A pl wulfas

In completely voiced environment OE fricatives became voiced

OE wulfas > ME wulves > NE [‘wʊlvz] wolves

also: thieves, halves, lives, loaves…

THE ENCODEMENT OF NUMBER IN PERSONAL PRONOUNS

1st person:

singular: ic > ME i, ī > NE [aɪ] Iplural: wē > ME wē > NE [wi:] we

2nd person:

singular: þū > ME thū > NE [ðaʊ] thouplural: ʒē > ME yē > NE [yi:] ye

NE [ju:] you < ME you < OE D/A pl ēow

3rd person

singular masc. OE hē > ME hē > NE [hi:] hesingular fem. OE hēo > ME hē, schē > NE [ʃi:]singular neut. OE hit > Me hit > NE it

plural: OE hīe > ME hē, thei > NE [ðeɪ] they

NUMBER CONCORD (AGREEMENT)

within the NP:

OE modifiers and determiners displayed number agreement with the headword of the nominal phrase

ān gōd mann, fīf gōd-e mennmīn bōc, mīn-e bēc

The most common plural ending of adjectival words was –e in OE, which weakened to [ə] and disappeared in ME.

The number distinction survived only in demonstratives: this – these, that - those

between the subject and the verb:

OE wē/ʒē/ hī wrītaþ > ME wrīten > NE [raɪt] write (present indicative)

OE writon > ME writen, wrǭt > NE [rəʊt] wrote (preterite)

The plural personal endings and forms were lost in Middle English.

CASE ENCODEMENT FROM OE TO NE

definition:

formal encodement of semantic roles, spacial and temporal relation

synthetic languages: case endingsinflexional languages: case and number endings merged

OLD ENGLISH:

semantic roles: cases:

agent, doer nominative

origin genitive

recepient dative

patient accusative

sg pl sg pl sg plN. stān stānas nama naman mann mennG. stānes stāna naman namena mannes mannaD. stāne stānum naman namum menn mannumA. stān stānas naman naman mann menn

N. hūs hūs gesceaft gesceaftaG. hūses hūsa gesceafte gesceaftaD. hūse hūsum gesceafte gesceaftum A. hūs hūs gesceafte gesceafta

THE ENCODEMENT OF CASE IN NOUNS

OLD ENGLISH

The only surviving ending : -es (Genitive singular, a-declension)

OE –es > ME – [əz] > NE [z] Mary’s > NE [s] Mat’s > NE [ız] Bruce’s

From late OE – spreading to all masculine, all neuter, all feminine and plural nouns

Apostrophe: since 1650 in singular, since 1780 in plural

In ME case endings replaced with prepostional endings

OE ….hit licode Herode and eallum þe him mid sæton…ME … and (it) pleside to Eroude and also to men restynge…NE … and pleased Herod and them that sat with him

THE ENCODEMENT OF CASE IN PERSONAL PRONOUNSTHE ENCODEMENT OF CASE IN PERSONAL PRONOUNS

1st singular 2nd singular 3rd singular

ic þū hē hēo hitmīn þīn his hiere hismē þē him hiere himmē þē hine hēo hit

1st plural 2nd plural 3rd plural

wē ʒē hīeūre ēower hīeraūs ēow him, hemūs ēow hīe

OE genitive forms preserved as possessive pronouns

OE dative forms preserved as objective case forms

OE agreement: within the NP

modifiers and determiners agreed with the headword

OE ….. ǣlc biþ gelīc þǣm wīsan were

OE government: different verbs, adjectives and pronouns governeddifferent cases

OE ….hit licode Herode and eallum þe him mid sæton…ME … and (it) pleside to Eroude and also to men restynge…NE … and pleased Herod and them that sat with him

THE FUNCTION OF SAXON GENITIVE MORE EXTENSIVE IN OE

OE Hwæs bidde ic? …. Iohannes heofod þæs fulluhteres…

In NE – mostly restricted to possessive function and human beings

GENDER

In OE grammatical, from ME natural

In OE gender agreement between modifiers/determiners and headwords in NP, pronominal reference

Gender encodement in NE:

man womangirl boybull cow oxfox vixen

prince princesstiger tigress

tom cat tabby catbilly goat nanny goatcock sparrow hen sparrowhe wolf she wolf

REFERENCE: SPECIFIC vs. NON-SPECIFIC

In OE specific/non-specific reference of the NP was encoded through

a)the use of two different declensions of adjectives(sum) gōd mann… (se) gōda mann ….

b) the use of ān, sum (non-specific)

.. ān mann wæs eardiende on Israhēla þēode… ‘a man lived in Israel’

... nim sume tigelan… ‘take a tablet’

OE ān > ME ǭn, wǭn, wōn > NE wūn, wun > [‘wʌn] oneOE °ān > ME an, a(n) > NE [ən], [ə] an, a

c) the use of demonstratives

masc. sg. masc. sg. fem. sg. fem. sg. neut. sg. neut. sg. pl.pl.

NN. se. se ssēoēo þætþæt þāþāG. þesG. þes þǣreþǣre þesþes þāraþāraD. þǣmD. þǣm þǣreþǣre þǣmþǣm þǣmþǣm

A. þoneA. þone þā þā þætþæt þāþā

Ælc þāra þe þās mīn word ʒehīerþ and þā wyrcþ biþ gelīc þǣm wīsan were þe his hūs ofer stān ʒetimbrode.

ME the > NE [ðə], [ði:] the

From ME period on, the use of the article spread.

THE ENCODEMENT OF VERBAL CATEGORIES

THE PERSON

personal endings – agreement of the verbal form with the subject

The only personal ending in NE –(e)s in the 3rd person singular of the present indicative

OE present tense (indicative) :

wrīt-e wrīt-aþwrīt-estwrīt-eþ

OE –(e)þ, -t (in contracted forms) remains in ME, but gradually replaced with –es from the north

OE –es > ME [ə]s, [ə][z] > NE

TENSE = THE SYSTEM OF ENCODING MANDATORY TEMPORAL INFORMATION

OLD ENGLISH: two formal tenses: preterite and present (non-preterite)

NOWNOW

PRETERITENON-PRETERITE

THE HISTORY OF TENSE ENCODEMENT

PRESENT TENSE: PRESENT TENSE: BASE FORM (+ PERSONAL ENDINGS)BASE FORM (+ PERSONAL ENDINGS)

PRETERITE TENSE: the marking depended on the type of the verbPRETERITE TENSE: the marking depended on the type of the verb

4 types of verbs:4 types of verbs:

1.1.STRONG VERBSSTRONG VERBS2.2.WEAK VERBSWEAK VERBS3.3.PRETERITE PRESENT VERBSPRETERITE PRESENT VERBS4.4.ANOMALOUS VERBSANOMALOUS VERBS

STRONG VERBS

Indo-European vowel gradation

gradation (Ablaut) = alteration of vowels in the stems of related words or different grammatical forms of the same word

The preterite forms of Germanic verbs from Indo-European perfect forms

IE present stem: accented, the vowel *eIE perfect stem: anaccented, the vowel reduced (dynamic accent) or changed in the direction of *o (pitch accent)

present stem: IE * uUrei Ut- > Germ. ** uUrīt- > OE wrīt- > ME wrīt- > NE [‘raɪt] write

perfect stem:IE * uUroi Ut- > Germ. *uUrai Ut- > OE wrāt > ME wrǭt > NE [‘rəʊt] wrote

IE * uUri Ut- > Germ. * uUri Ut- > OE –writ- > NE [‘rɪtən] written

SEVEN CLASSES OF STRONG SEVEN CLASSES OF STRONG VERBSVERBS

class Infinitive 1/3 pret.sg

Plural preterite

Past participle

I wrītan wrāt writon -writen write

II cēosan cēas curon -curen choose

III drincan dranc druncon -druncen drink

IV beran bær bǣron -boren bear

V sprecan spræc sprǣcon -sprecen speak

VI scacan scōc scōcon -scacen shake

VII feallan fēoll fēollon -feallen fall

WEAK VERBSWEAK VERBS

new Germanic formation:new Germanic formation:

only one stem (present stem)only one stem (present stem)

tense encoded in the dental sufifixtense encoded in the dental sufifix

OE -ede, -ode > ME [OE -ede, -ode > ME [ə]d[ə] > NE [d], [t], [ɪd] ə]d[ə] > NE [d], [t], [ɪd]

played, worked, embeddedplayed, worked, embedded

PRETERITE PRESENT VERBSPRETERITE PRESENT VERBS

one stem (perfect stem)one stem (perfect stem)

preterite tense – dental suffixpreterite tense – dental suffix

OE mæʒ, pret. mihtecann, cūþesceal, scōlde

STRONG WEAK PRETERITE PRESENT

PRESENT STEM

PERFECT STEM

DENTAL SUFFIX

FROM OE TO NE:FROM OE TO NE:

• Many strong verbs became “weak” : helpen, healp, geholpen > help-ed

•The classes are no longer transparent

• Many weak verbs became irregular:

OE cēpan cēpte gecēptME kēpen kepte ykeptNE [ki:p] [kept] [kept]

PERIPHRASTIC TENSES

OE PRESENT TENSE – “real” present, universal time, future reference:

Þā flōtmenn cumaþ and þē gebindaþ – ‘the pirates are comingand they will fetter you’

OE PRETERITE TENSE – a single act in the past, a continuous act in the past, present perfect, past perfect

þā þā menn slēpon, þā cōm his fēonda sum – ‘when the men were sleeping, one of his enemies came’

ic mid ealre heortan þē gewilnode – ‘I have wished for you wilth all my heart’

PERIPHRASTIC TENSES COMMON IN OE, BUT THEIR USE NOT CONSISTENT WITH THEIR MODERN ENGLISH FUNCTIONS:

a) bēon/wesan + present participle -endeFrom 16th century on, the use of “expanded” tenses spread from the north,since 18th century in the function of progressive tenses

b) bēon/wesan/habban + past participle

In OE the auxiliary habban was used with transitive, bēon/wesan with intransitive verbs, the meaning of the construction not necessarily perfect

In ME the auxiliary haven spread to intransitive verbs, and the past participle lost its adjectival properties. The use became consistent with the function of perfect tenses.

Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales:

15 And specially from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,

The hooly blisful martir for to sekeThat hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke. 

Bifil that in that sesoun, on a day, 20 In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay

Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage To Caunterbury with ful devout courage,At nyght were come into that hostelrye Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye

25 Of sondry folk... 

c) willan/sculan + infinitive

After the year 1200 shal ‘to be oblidged to’ and will ‘to want’ lost some of their modal meanings and started to be used for future time reference.

In the 18th century: will reported as expressing simple futurity in the 2nd and 3rd person, volition in the 1st person; shall reported as expressing simple futurity in 1st person, obligation in 2nd and 3rd.

THE HISTORY OF MOOD ENCODEMENT

OE: indicative, imperative, subjunctive

imperative singular: base form (SV) or base + e/a (WV)

imperative plural: same as present indicative plural

Lufa þīn nēahstan! Nim sume tiʒele!Bycʒaþ ēow ele!

subjunctive singular: present stem + eperfect stem + e

subjuntive plural: present stem + enperfect stem + en

The use of subjunctive in OE:

• in independent sentences to express wish or command:Gōd sīe þē milde!Ne hē ealu ne drince oþþe wīn!

• in dependent clauses after verbs of desire, command, purpose, potentiality, hypothetical comparison, concession…

Geongum mannum gedafenaþ þæt hīe leornien sumne wīsdōm.

Ic wilnode þæt þū! hām wǣre

In ME both subjunctive endings were lost. The only distinctive preterite subjunctive form left is were.

The use of modal auxiliaries spread in ME and NE.

Modal Verbs

can < OE cann (inf. cunnan ‘know’) > ME can > NE [‘kæn]could < OE cūþe (preterite of cann), remodelled after would, should

may < OE mæʒ (inf. magon ‘to be able to) > ME may > NE [meɪ]might < OE meahte, mihte (preterite of mæʒ) > ME mighte > NE [maɪt]

must < OE mōste (preterite of mōt, mōton ‘to be allowed to’)The old meaning preserved in mustn’t

shall < OE sceal (inf. sculan ‘to be obliged to’) > ME shal > NE [‘ʃæl]should < OE scōlde (preterite of sceal) > ME shōlde > NE [ʃʊd]

will < OE wille (inf. willan ‘to want)would < OE wōlde (preterite of wille) > ME wōlde > NE [wʊd]

ought to < OE āhte (preterite of āh/āʒ, inf. āgan ‘to possess and to owe’)

THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH PHONEMIC SYSTEMTHE HISTORY OF ENGLISH PHONEMIC SYSTEM

SOUND CHANGE

phonetic innovation easing the transition between segmentsmaintaining (increasing) contrastiveness

phonetic variationfree: economic, begin, poor…positional: sport - put, works - plays, bank - band…

phonetic change → phonemic split, phonemic mergerphonemic split: sing – sin , zip – sip, very – ferryphonemic merger: beet – beat, male – mail, tower - tyre

Types of sound (phonetic) changes:

dependent, independent

dependent changes:

a)assimilation = one or more articulatory feature(s) linger(s) or is anticipated

In West Germanic languages, voiceless fricatives became voiced in voiced environment

OE wulf (N.sg), wulfas (N. pl.)ME wulf, wulves Also: impossible, irregular, illegal….

b) dissimilation = one or more articulatory feature(s) become(s) dissimilar

OE seofon, seofoþa, fēower, fēorþabut:OE siex, siextaOE fīfe, fīfta > ME fīve, fifte > NE [faiv], [fift] > [fifθ]

c) palatalization = the place of articulation moves towards the hard palate(usually triggered off by the front vowel i or the palatal approximant j

•palatal mutation

Germ. * mūs-, *mūs-iz- > OE mūs, mys > NE [maʊs], [maɪs]

•consonantal palatalization (17th century)

[s, z, t, d] > [ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ] / [+accented vowel] _ j

Russia, Parisian, nature, soldier….

c) intrusion (prothesis, epenthesis, anapthesis) = easing the transition between two segments

prothesis:

OE ān > ME ǭn > wǭn > wōgn NE wūn, wun > [wʌn] one

epenthesis:

OE ganra > NE ganderlaw and order, vanilla ice cream, central diphthongs and triphthongs

anapthesis:

ice cream > aisukuremu

syllabe structure - onset – head/peak – codaphonotactic restrictions

d) weakening and loss = articulation with lower energy input

•lenition of consonants (sonorisation)

sonority scale:[p t k] < [b d ɡ] < [s f θ] < [z v ð] < [m n] < [l] < [r] < [i u] < [e o] < [a]

In ME, voiceless fricatives became voiced in final position:

of : off, with, is, was, has, Greenwich, churches…

Also: intervocalic alveolar flapping in AE, approximation of l in Cockney: Paul, milk…

•centralization of vowels in unaccented syllablesIn ME, unaccented vowels were levelled to [ə] → syncretism of cases

•elision (apheresis, syncope, apocope)

‘im, knight, gnaw, write;

vegetable;

sing, comb, hand in hand

Independent phonetic changes

Grimm’s Law (the First or Proto-Germanic Consonant Shift)

IE voiceless plosives → Germ voiceless fricativespet : five, prijatelj : friend, tri : three, tanek : thin …IE voiced non-aspirated plosives → Germ. voiceless plosivesblato : pool, slab : sleep, dva : two, drevo : tree…IE voiced aspirated plosives → Germ. voiced fricatives → voiced plosivesbrat : brother, biti : be, duri : door ….

OE and ME vowel systems:

uu

a

i y

æ

eo

i

e

a

o

The Great Vowel Shift (1500 – 1700)

1400 1500 1600 1700

ī ij ei [aɪ] rīsan > [raɪz] riseū uw ou [aʊ] hūs > [haʊs] house

ēg ī [i:] fēgt > [fi:t] feetōg ū [u:] fōgl > [fu:l] fool

ēl ēg [i:] strēm > [stri:m] streamǭ ōg [ou] bǭt > [bəʊt] boat

ā ǣ ēg [eɪ] nāme > [neɪm]

The complexity and interdependence of linguistic change

grammaticalisation of phonetic variation

• palatal mutation → mutation plurals• Indo-European vowel gradation → Germanic system of strong verbs contraction of periphrastic structures ….…..