英语词汇学教程课件第3章English-Lexicology-3

1、English LexicologyLecture ThreeEnglish LexicologyLecture ThreThe Development of EnglishThe 5000 or so languages of the world can be grouped into about 300 language families, on the basis of similarities in their basic word stock and grammars. English belongs to the Indo-European family, which includ

2、es most of the languages of Europe, the Near East, and North India. The Development of EnglishThe One branch of the Indo-European family is called Italic, from which Latin and later the Romance languages developed. Another is called Germanic, which is subdivided into the North Germanic branch, the E

3、ast Germanic branch and the West Germanic branch. English is one of the languages in the West Germanic branch. One branch of the Indo-EuropeaCelts are believed to be the first people who inhabited the land that was later to become England. They came to the island around the middle of the fifth mille

4、nnium BC. Their languages were yet another branch of the Indo-European language family. Most of the island of Britain was occupied by the Romans from about 43 AD until 410 AD. When the Romans withdrew from Britain, they left behind many settlements with names such as Doncaster, Gloucester, Lancaster

5、 and Worcester - all derived in part from the Latin word castra camp. Celts are believed to be the fAfter the withdrawal of the Romans, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes moved into England in about 450 AD and began to take it over. It is at this time when the English language began. The Angles were name

6、d from Engle, their land of origin. Their language was called Englisc from which the word, English derives. English spread through the island. Yet, the Highlands of Scotland still spoke their Celtic speech, Gaelic. Wales stuck to its native tongue, Welsh. After the withdrawal of the RoAt the very be

7、ginning of English as a separate language there was no one simple standard. By the 10th century, the West Saxon dialect became the official language of Britain. Written Old English is mainly known from this period. It was written in an alphabet called Runic. The Latin Alphabet was brought over from

8、Ireland by Christian missionaries. This has remained the writing system of English.At the very beginning of EngliThe early English settlers do not seem to have made much of an effort to understand the language of the Britons. They did not learn many words from the Celts. The English added only a han

9、dful of Celtic words to their language, like clout, cradle, crock, dun, slough, cumb (valley), torr (hill). Place names formed a large group. Thames, Wye and Avon are Celtic river names, and so are some city names like York, London, Kent. These words came into English as the result of daily contact

10、between Celt and Anglo-Saxon. The early English settlers do However, the Celts did not directly affect the language. A few words were introduced by Irish missionaries, who taught the Anglo-Saxons words like ancor (hermit), cross, clugge (bill), mind (diadem), dry (magician). However, the Celts did n

11、ot dirBecause of these and other influences, the English vocabulary changed enormously and became the largest and most complex in the world, and the grammar changed its emphasis from inflections to word order.Because of these and other infThe Historical Periods of EnglishThe period from 450 to 1066

12、is known as Old English. From 1066 to 1500 the language is known as Middle English. The language from 1500 to 1800 is considered the Early Modern English period. The language since 1800 is called Modern English. The Historical Periods of EnglOld English Period (450-1066) Old English was the speech o

13、f the earliest Germanic inhabitants of Britain. The vocabulary of Old English is almost purely Germanic. When the Norman Conquest brought French into England as the language of the higher classes, much of the Old English vocabulary appropriate to literature and learning died out and was replaced lat

14、er by words borrowed from French and Latin. Old English Period (450-1066) About 85 percent of the words in Old English are no longer in use. Those that survive are basic elements of our vocabulary. They make up a large part of any English sentence. Apart from pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, au

15、xiliary verbs, and the like, they express fundamental concepts like mann (man), wf (wife, woman), cild (child); weall (wall), mete (meat, food), laf (leaf), fugol (fowl, bird), gd (good), strang (strong), etan (eat), drincan (drink). About 85 percent of the words A characteristic of Old English is t

16、he frequent use of coinages known as kennings, which refers to vivid figurative descriptions often involving compounds. Famous kennings include hronrad (whale-road for the sea), banhus (bone-house for a persons body). A characteristic of Old EnglisIn kennings, phrases and compound words are often us

17、ed. God, for example, is described as heofonrinces weard, guardian of heavens kingdom, and as mon-cynnes weard guardian of mankind. In kennings, phrases and compoThere are many differences between the way vocabulary was used in Old English and the way it is used today. First, the Anglo-Saxon prefere

18、nce for expressions that are synonymous, or nearly so, far exceeds that found in Modern English. There are many differences betSecond, the absence of a wide-ranging vocabulary of loanwords also forces them to rely more on word-formation processes based on native elements. Third, the latter period of

19、 Old English was characterized by the introduction of a number of loan translations. These lexical items are translated part-by-part into another language, e.g. as superman was translated from German bermensch. Second, the absence of a wide-Fourthly, grammatical relationships in Old English were exp

20、ressed mainly by the use of inflectional endings. This period is sometimes described as the period of full inflections, because the endings of the noun, the adjective, and the verb are preserved more or less umimpaired. Fourthly, grammatical relationFinally, Old English is believed to contain about

21、24,000 different lexical items. Only about 3 per cent of words in Old English are loanwords. Old English vocabulary was predominantly Germanic. Finally, Old English is believThe Middle English Period (1066-1500)The Middle English period was marked by extensive changes. In 1066 the Normans conquered

22、Britain. The changes in this period affected English both in its grammar and its vocabulary. In grammar, English changed from a highly inflected language to an analytical one. The English vocabulary was characterized by the loss of a large part of the Old English word-stock and the addition of thous

23、ands of words from French and Latin. The Middle English Period (106Because the English underclass cooked for the Norman upper class, the words for most domestic animals are English (ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine, deer) while the words for the meats derived from them are French (beef, veal, mutton, por

24、k, bacon, venison). French also affected spelling so that the cw sound came to be written as qu (eg. cween became queen).Because the English underclassThe Germanic form of plurals (house, housen; shoe, shoen) was eventually displaced by the French method of making plurals: adding an s (house, houses

25、; shoe, shoes). Only a few words have retained their Germanic plurals: men, oxen, feet, teeth, children. The Germanic form of plurals (In the 14th century, English became dominant in Britain again. By the end of the 14th century, the dialect of London had emerged as the standard dialect of what we n

26、ow call Middle English. Chaucer wrote in this language.In the 14th century, English bInflections, which had begun to break down toward the end of the Old English period, were greatly reduced in Middle English. Thus, this period is also known as the period of leveled inflections. Endings of the noun

27、and adjectives marking distinctions of number, case and gender were lost. Inflections, which had begun tThe generalized plural marker became -s, but it still competed with -n. Adjectives lost agreement with the noun, but the weak ending -e still remained. The comparative form became -er and the supe

28、rlative became -est. The adverb ending -li became -ly; however, some flat adverbs did not add the -ly: fast, late, and hard. The generalized plural marker Middle English is particularly characterized by intensive and extensive borrowing from other languages. In particular the Norman Conquest of 1066

29、 paved the way for a massive borrowing of French words into the English vocabulary. Middle English is particularlySeveral French words (around 10,000) were borrowed into English between 1250 and 1500. Many of the words were related to government (e.g. sovereign, empire), law (e.g. judge, jury, justi

30、ce, attorney, felony, larceny), social life (e.g. fashion, embroidery, cuisine, appetite) and learning (e.g. poet, logic, physician). Furthermore, the legal system retained parts of French word order (the adjective following the noun) in such terms as fee simple, attorney general and accounts payabl

31、e. Several French words (around 1 In early Middle English, over 90 per cent of the lexicon was of native English (Anglo-Saxon) origin. By the end of the Middle English period, this proportion had fallen to around 75 per cent. However, loanwords were by no means the only way in which the vocabulary o

32、f Middle English increased. The processes of word formation, such as compounding and affixation, which were already established in Old English, continued to be used, and were extended in various ways. In early Middle English, overEarly Modern English Period (1500-1800)This period is the transitional

33、 period from Middle English to Modern English. The advent of the printing revolution marked its beginning. In 1476, William Caxton set up his press in Westminster. The printing press helped to standardize the spelling of English in its modern stages. Printing played a major role in fostering the nor

34、ms of spelling and pronunciation. Early Modern English Period (1In the sixteenth century, scholars began seriously to talk about their language, making observations on grammar, vocabulary, the writing system and style. This period includes the Renaissance from the middle of the fifteenth century unt

35、il around 1650.In the sixteenth century, schoEnglish vocabulary grew extremely fast during the period between 1530 and the Restoration in 1660. This period witnessed large-scale lexical growth through extensive borrowing and expansion of word-formation patterns. The major source language was Latin,

36、but loans from other languages, in particular French, were also frequent. Many words were added to English as writers created new words by using Greek and Latin affixes. English vocabulary grew extremSome words, such as devulgate, attemptate and dispraise, are no longer used in English, but several

37、words were also borrowed from other languages as well as from Chaucers works. The increase in foreign borrowings is the most distinctive feature of the Renaissance for English. Writers began to borrow from other European languages to express the new concepts, techniques and inventions that first cam

38、e from Europe. Some words, such as devulgate,Words also came into English from North America, Africa and Asia. Some came directly, while others came indirectly via other European languages. Furthermore, thousands of Latin and Greek words were introduced, especially in fields such as medicine and the

39、ology. Words also came into English fThere are two most important influences on the development of the English language during the last decades of the Renaissance: the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and the King James Bible of 1611. Shakespeares poems and plays introduced or popularized th

40、ousands of new words in the language. There are two most important iThere are many phrases in the King James Bible that have entered the language as idioms, e.g. an eye for an eye, fight the good fight, if the blind lead the blind, a wolf in sheeps clothing, in the twinkling of an eye, money is the

41、root of all evil, new wine in old bottles, the skin of my teeth, the straight and narrow, a thorn in the flesh. There are many phrases in the By 1750 most of the Old English irregular verbs had either dropped out of use or become regular: help and holp had become help and helped; wash and wesh had b

42、ecome wash and washed, etc. Some authors were writing blowed instead of blew, throwed instead of threw, etc.By 1750 most of the Old EnglisIn this period, adjectives lost all endings except for in the comparative and superlative forms. The neuter pronoun it was first used as well as who as a relative

43、 pronoun. The class distinctions between formal and informal you were decreasing. The third person singular form became -(e)s instead of -(e)th. There was a more limited use of the progressive and auxiliary verbs than there is now, however. Negatives followed the verb and multiple negatives were sti

44、ll used.In this period, adjectives losBecause of the rapid change of English, efforts were made to produce grammars, spelling guides, pronunciation manuals and dictionaries, from which it was expected that standards of correctness would emerge. In 1604, Robert Cawdrey published the first dictionary

45、of hard words, which had about 3000 entries of hard vsuall English wordes, mostly borrowings, such as abettors (counsellors), and abbruiat (to shorten). It was in fact the first synonym dictionary. Because of the rapid change ofIn 1755, Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary of the English Language

46、. This dictionary is the first attempt at a truly principled lexicography. It was also the first accurate description of the complexity of the lexicon and of word usage.In 1755, Samuel Johnson publisThe Modern English Period (1800-present) Jackson and Amvela (2000) characterize three main features o

47、f Modern English as the unprecedented growth of scientific vocabulary, the assertion of American English as a dominant variety of the language, and the emergence of other varieties known as New Englishes.The Modern English Period (180Since the time of Shakespeare, English has continued to change. Se

48、ttlers from Britain moved across the world - to the USA, Australia, New Zealand, India, Asia and Africa, and in each place, the language changed and developed, and took in words from other local languages. Since the time of Shakespeare,With the increase in communication, travel, radio and television

49、, all these different types of English have mixed. Words from many other languages - French, German, Spanish, Arabic, even Nepali - have been borrowed. So English continues to change and develop, with hundreds of new words arriving every year. English has become the language of science, air traffic

50、control, the world of computers, and most of the Internet. With the increase in communicaEnglish scientific and technical vocabulary has been growing steadily since the Renaissance. As a result of the industrial revolution and the subsequent period of scientific exploration and discovery, the ninete

51、enth century saw an unprecedented growth in this domain. Some sciences, such as chemistry, physics and biology, made spectacular lexical developments during this period. English scientific and technicAs the USA emerged as one of the economic powers of the twentieth century, American English has beco

52、me a dominant variety of the language. The characteristics of American English can be felt directly in the areas of pronunciation and grammar, but more especially at the lexical level. As the USA emerged as one of tAmerican EnglishIn the early part of the seventeenth century English settlers began t

53、o bring their language to America. American English began simply as earlier British English. However, the new life, the new habits of thought, the new influences operative in America made the language spoken in America unlike that spoken in England. American EnglishIn the early pFamiliar English words were put to new us