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ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ АГЕНТСТВО ПО ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ Пензенский государственный педагогический университет

им. В.Г. Белинского

Кафедра английского языка

УЧЕБНО-МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЙ КОМПЛЕКС ПО ДИСЦИПЛИНЕ «ИСТОРИЯ ЯЗЫКА»

Специальность № 050303 Иностранный язык

Пенза – 2007

Требования ГОС по дисциплине

Предмет истории языка. Основные законы исторического развития языка.

Сравнительно-исторический метод изучения языков. Основные этапы

исторического развития изучаемого языка, становление национального

литературного языка в связи со становлением нации. Формирование системы

изучаемого языка в различные исторические периоды его развития (фонетика,

грамматика, лексика, графика). Литературный язык и диалекты.

ЦЕЛИ И ЗАДАЧИ ДИСЦИПЛИНЫ

Цели дисциплины:

• систематическое изложение развития английского языка с самых

ранних времен его существования до наших дней

• выявление места английского языка в системе индоевропейских

языков и в системе германской языковой группы

• рассмотрение на фоне древних языков германской группы, в

частности, самого древнего из них - готского, и в сравнении с

современными ему германскими языками с древненемецким. Глубокое

знание истории языка дает перспективное видение возникновения и

эволюции языка, фонетической системы, орфографии

• рассмотрение английского языка не только как этап развития

современного английского языка, но и как динамическое явление,

имеющее свою предысторию и характеризующееся специфическими

чертами, во многом определяющими его развитие. История языка

неотделима от истории нации, изучение этого предмета развивает

лингвострановедческий подход к словам и формам языка. Знание

истории языка помогает правильно интерпретировать явления,

связанные с обогащением лексики, заимствованиями из других языков

• формирование лингвофилософского мировоззрения у студентов,

понимание роли языка в жизни общества, законов его развития и

становления.

Задачи дисциплины:

• сообщить студентам факты из истории языка, которые полно и

всесторонне раскрывают особенности развития языка

• подвести студентов к пониманию, что каждое конкретное явление

языка, с одной стороны, связано исторической преемственностью с

определенными предшествующими явлениями, которые

представляют собой те или другие фазы развития данного явления, с

другой стороны, связано с определенными отношениями.

Место дисциплины в профессиональной подготовке

Данная дисциплина входит в блок дисциплин предметной подготовки

федерального компонента специальности 050303 «Иностранный язык» (ДПП.Ф.02)

Распределение времени, отведенного на изучение дисциплины по учебному плану:

Форма обучения

заочная очная 6 лет 3,5 года Базовое обр.:

высш. проф. по

семестрампо семестрам

Форма учебной работы

VI V VI III

IV

III

IV

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8

Общая трудоемкость, всего часов

90 76 72 60 60 60 60

Аудиторные занятия (АЗ)

45 10 16 10 12 10 12

Лекции (Л) 30 10 8 10 4 10 4

Лабораторные занятия(ЛЗ)

15 8 8 8

Самостоятельная работа (СР)

45 66 56 50 48 50 48

Контрольная работа + + +

Курсовая работа

Компьютерное тестирование

Форма зачёт

итогового контроля

экзамен + + + +

Форма обучения заочная Очная

6 лет

3,5 года

Базовое обр:высш. проф.

АЗ АЗ АЗ АЗ

№ Наименование

разделов и тем

Л ПЗ СР Л ПЗ

СР Л ПЗ СР Л ПЗ

СР

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

1

Лингвистические особенности древних языков германской группы, в частности -готского

2 1 4 2 1 10 1 1 9 1 1 9

2

Происхождение английского языка. Периодизация английского языка. Древнеанглийский период. Фонетические изменения.

4 2 4 2 1 10 2 1 9 2 1 9

3

Древнеанглийский язык. Изменения в морфологии.

4 2 4 2 1 10 1 1 9 1 1 9

4

Синтаксис простого и сложного предложения в древнеанглийский период.

2 2 4 2 1 10 1 1 9 1 1 9

5

Среднеанглийский период. Фонетическая структура и орфография.

4 1 4 2 1 10 1 1 9 1 1 9

6 Среднеанглийская грамматика.

2 1 4 1 1 15 1 1 7 1 1 7

Развитие английских форм глагола.

7

Особенности синтаксической системы среднеанглийского языка.

2 1 4 1 15 2 1 9 2 1 9

8

Новоанглийский период: английский язык в меняющемся мире.

2 1 4 1 10 1 9 1 9

9

Фонетические изменения в новоанглийском языке. Великий сдвиг гласных.

2 1 4 2 1 10 1 1 10 1 1 10

10 Новоанглийская грамматика.

2 1 4 1 10 1 9 1 9

11

Обогащение словаря в новоанглийский период.

4 2 5 1 1 12 2 9 2 9

ВСЕГО: 30 15 45 18 8 122 14 8 98 14 8 98

Тематический план

Содержание разделов дисциплины

1. Лингвистические особенности древних языков германской группы, в

частности - готского.

История языка как раздел языкознания, место истории языка в ряду других

лингвистических дисциплин. Предмет, содержание и задачи дисциплины.

Древние германцы и их разделение территориальному признаку. Изменение

согласных звуков в германских языках. Закон Грима или первый сдвиг согласных

звуков в германских языках. Словесное ударение. Закон Вернера.

2. Происхождение английского языка. Периодизация английского языка.

Древнеанглийский период. Фонетические изменения.

Первые упоминания о Британии в произведениях античных авторов. Римский

период истории Британии. Вторжение в Британию англов, саксов и готов в середине

5 века. Возникновение английского языка на основе западногерманских диалектов.

Возвышение Уэссекса в 9 веке. Руническое письмо. Графика и звуковые значения

букв. Фонетические принципы древнеанглийского письма. Смешанный характер

древнеанглийского алфавита. Чтение согласных звуков в интервокальной позиции.

Диакритические знаки в древнеанглийском алфавите.

3. Древнеанглийский язык. Изменение в морфологии.

Имя существительное в древнеанглийском языке. Грамматические категории

имени существительного: род, число, падеж. Категория рода.

Особенности категории числа. Падежная система как средство выражения

синтаксических связей в предложении. Своеобразие парадигм склонения в

древнеанглийском языке. Существительные сильного склонения, слабого

склонения. Имя прилагательное в древнеанглийском языке. Категории имени

прилагательного: род, число, падеж, степени сравнения. Род, число, падеж как

категории согласования. Сильное и слабое склонение прилагательных. Степени

сравнения и морфологические формы их выражения. Местоимения в английском

языке. Разряды древнеанглийских местоимений. Личные местоимения и их

категории: лицо, число, падеж, род. Указательные местоимения. Артиклеобразная

функция указательного местоимения. Древнеанглийский глагол и его категории.

Морфологическая классификация древнеанглийских глаголов: сильные, слабые,

претерито-презентивные глаголы, неправильные глаголы. Классы сильных

глаголов. Спряжение глаголов. Претерито-презентивные глаголы, их

семантические, морфологические и валентные особенности.

4. Синтаксис простого и сложного предложения в древнеанглийский

период.

Структура простого предложения. Древнеанглийский язык

характеризуется развитой системой окончаний, что создавало возможность

свободной расстановкой слов в предложении. Основной особенностью синтаксиса

был свободный порядок слов. Особый порядок слов существовал в придаточном

предложении, где сказуемое всегда выступало на последнем месте. Такой порядок

слов получил название синтаксического. Предложение могло быть бесподлежащим

и иметь несколько отрицаний. Сложносочиненные и сложноподчиненные

предложения.

5. Среднеанглийский период. Фонетическая структура и орфография.

Исторические события второй половины 11 века. Норманнское завоевание.

Языковая ситуация в Англии после Норманнского завоевания. Фонетические

изменения среднеанглийского периода. Изменения в системе гласных

монофтонгов. Сокращение гласных в закрытом слоге. Удлинение гласных в

открытом слоге. Ослабление неударных гласных. Изменения в системе согласных.

Завершение палатализации согласных и возникновение шипящих. Вокализация и

выпадение согласного [ г ] перед другими согласными. Отпадение согласного [ h ]

перед [ г ], [ 1 ], [ n ] в начале слова. Переход заднеязычного щелевого [ g ] в

двугубный [ w ] после [ г ] , [ 1 ]. Среднеанглийская орфография. Изменение

алфавита. Влияние французского языка на английскую орфографию. Появление

сложных графем.

6. Среднеанглийская грамматика. Развитие английских форм глагола.

Глагол в среднеанглийском языке. Совпадение окончаний в результате

редукции неударных гласных. Развитие грамматической омонимии. Тенденция к

аналитизму (развитие аналитических форм перфекта, длительного вида, будущего

времени и пассивного залога). Развитие системы вспомогательных глаголов. Для

среднеанглийского периода характерна вариативность предлогов, вводящих

«агенс» действия при пассивной конструкции. Перфектные формы получили статус

грамматических аналитических форм. При этом в качестве вспомогательных

глаголов использовались глаголы haben и ben. Возникновение форм длительного

аспекта относится к 15 веку. Одним из источников их возникновения является

составное сказуемое, образованное из глагола-связки и причастия 1.

7. Особенности синтаксической системы среднеанглийского периода.

В среднеанглийском языке порядок слов в предложении был более

свободным, чем в современном языке, но менее свободным, чем в

древнеанглийском. Подлежащее всегда предшествовало сказуемому. Прямое

дополнение занимало позицию после глагола в личной форме. Однако, если прямое

дополнение было выражено местоимением, оно часто стояло перед глаголом.

Порядок следования остальных членов предложения был свободный. Подвергается

перестройке сложное предложение, что связано с уточнением средств союзной

связи. Продолжается процесс создания союзных слов путем употребления

местоимения или наречия вместе с союзом. Союзы, которые выступали в

древнеанглийском как составные, стали выступать самостоятельно.

8. Новоанглийский период: английский язык в меняющемся мире.

Война Алой и Белой Розы. Поражение Англии в Столетней войне.

Реставрация дома Ланкастеров. Свержение Генриха 6 в 1471 году. Ричард 3 -

историческое лицо и персонаж драмы Шекспира. Генрих 7-основоположник

династии Тюдоров. Объединение страны и дальнейшее распространение

лондонской литературной нормы. Великое изобретение Гуттенберга. Роль

книгопечатания для прогресса культуры. Уильям Кэкстон - английский

первопечатник. Первые печатные книги на английском языке. Отражение

лондонского и кентского диалектов в книгах Кэкстона. Закрепление

орфографических норм. Фонетическая и грамматическая вариативность в раннем

новоанглийском языке. Творчество Шекспира.

9. Фонетические изменения в новоанглийском языке.

Великий сдвиг гласных.

Изменения в системе гласных. «Великий сдвиг гласных». Вариант «великого

сдвига» перед согласным [ г ]. Выпадение нейтрального безударного гласного.

Переход [ег] в [аг] . Выпадение гласного в среднем слоге в многосложных словах.

Переход [а] в [эе]. Развитие долгого [ о: ]. Переход [а1] в [au1] . Монофтонгизация.

Изменение дифтонгов.

Изменения в системе согласных. Выпадение согласного [ 1 ] перед [ d ],[ f ], [ v ] , [

k ], [ m ]. Появление двугубного сонанта [ w ] перед гласным в начале слова.

Выпадение [ w ] в неударном слоге после согласного. Выпадение согласных [ q ] и [

k ] перед [ n ] в начале слова.

В ранненовоанглииский период произошло системное изменение долгих гласных,

которое получило название «Великого сдвига гласных». В результате этого

изменения все долгие гласные подвергались сужению или дифтонгизации. В начале

16 века [ е ] уже подверглось сдвигу и перешло в [ i: ], а [ e ] перешло в закрытое

«е». Для разграничения этих двух случаев изменения звука «е» были введены

разные диграфы: «ее» и «еа». Аналогичное орфографическое новшество было

введено и для разграничения среднеанглийских [О] и [О], так как в результате

сдвига они значительно изменили свой фонетический статус. Для обозначения [ o ]

, перешедшего в 16 веке в[u:] , закрепился диаграф «оо», а для обозначения [о],

перешедшего в 16 веке в [ou ], был введен диаграф «оа».

Наиболее важным изменением этого периода является вокализация [г] и его

переход в [ э ], что привело к созданию целого ряда новых дифтонгов. Основной

характеристикой новых дифтонгов является наличие в их составе нейтрального

гласного. Если в результате сдвига гласных образовался дифтонг, то в результате

вокализации [г] появляются принципиально новые фонетические образования-

трифтонги. Некоторые дифтонги при вокализации [г] теряли второй элемент и

превращались не в трифтонг, а в дифтонг нового типа. Краткие гласные в позиции

перед [г] также подвергались изменению. В этом случае вокализация вызвала

удлинение, а не дифтонгизацию гласных.

10. Новоанглийская грамматика.

Морфологические изменения в системе имени существительного 15 и 16

вв.: развитие в направлении дальнейшего упрощения и унификации форм. Общий и

притяжательный падеж. Семантика притяжательного падежа. Изменение в системе

личных местоимений. Унификация формы первого лица единственного числа.

Употребление форм местоимения третьего лица множественного числа в

ранненовоанглийском языке.

Изменения в системе глагола. Формы спряжения в ранненовоанглийском

языке. Дальнейшее развитие аналитических форм. Становление глагола to do как

оформителя вопросительных, отрицательных и эмфатических предложений.

Дальнейшее развитие перфектных форм. Становление герундия и формирование

современной системы неличных форм глагола. Изменения в системе имени

прилагательного. Новоанглийское прилагательное - неизменяемая часть речи.

11. Обогащение словаря в новоанглийский период.

Развитие исконной лексики в новоанглийском языке. Дальнейшее развитие

словообразования. Слова, образованные при помощи аффиксации. Заимствования из

французского языка. Заимствования из латинского языка. Латинский язык как

источник научных терминов. Латино-французские этимологические дублеты.

Заимствования из греческого языка.

Греческие элементы в научно-технической терминологии. Заимствования из

итальянского языка. Лексика, связанная с искусством. Музыкальная терминология.

Заимствования из испанского языка. Заимствования из немецкого языка.

Заимствования из русского языка. Русские заимствования. «Советизмы». Новейшие

русские слова в английском языке.

Рекомендуемая литература

Основная литература:

1. Аракин В. Д. Очерки по истории английского языка. - М.,1985

2. Зайцева С.Д. Англия в далеком прошлом. - М.,Просвещение, 1975.

3. Ильиш Б. А. История английского языка. - Л., 1973 (на англ. яз.)

4. Иванова И. П. Хрестоматия по истории английского языка. - Л., 1973.

5. Иванова И. П., Чахоян Л., Беляева Т. История английского языка.

6. Линский С.С. Сборник упражнений по истории английского языка.- Л.,1963

7. Маерко Л.А. Этимология английского языка через историю народа - Рязань, 1998.

8. Иванова И. П., Чахоян Л., Беляева Т. Практикум по истории

английского языка. - М.,1985

9. Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка.- М., Высшая

10. Смирницкий А..И. Хрестоматия по истории английского языка с 7 по 16 век. - М.,

1998.

11. Смирницкий А.И. Древнеанглийский язык.- М.,1998.

Дополнительная литература:

1. Кузьменко Ю.К. Фонологическая эволюция германских языков.- Л.,

1991.

2. Плоткин В.Я. Динамика английской фонологической системы.-

Новосибсриск, 1967.

3. Хлебникова И.Б. Введение в германскую филологию. - М., Высшая

школа, 1996.

4. Ярцева В.Н. Исторический синтаксис английского языка. - М.-Л, 1961.

5. Ярцева В.Н. Развитие национального литературного английского

языка. - М.,1969.

6. Blair P.N. An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. – Cambridge, 1977.

7. Blake N. The English Language in Medieval Literature. – London, 1983.

8. Halliday E.A.A Concise History of England. London, 1983.

9. Hughes U. Word in Time: A Social History of the English Vocabulary.-

Oxford, 1979.

10.Kenyon J.P. The Wordsnorth Dictionary of British History-1994.

11.Mc Crum R. The Story of English. -London-Boston, 1987.

12.Mezenin S.M. Life of Language: A History of English.-M.,1987.

13.Williams J.M. Origins of the English Language.- New York, 1975.

14.Morton A.L. A People's History of England, - New York, 1968.

15.The Cambridge History of the English Language. - Cambridge, 1993.

16. Fisiak J. A Short Grammar of Middle English. - Warszawa, 1968.

17.Peter Ackroyd. London: the Biography. - London,2005.

18. Julian Barnes. England, England. - London, Picador, 2001.

Требования к уровню освоения программы

Студент должен:

• владеть основными понятиями, связанными с историей английского;

• иметь представление о понятиях, связанных с причинами изменения того

или другого явления языка;

• уметь анализировать языковые особенности, владеть элементами

сравнительно-исторического метода, сравнительного описания или

сопоставительного метода;

• видеть основные явления, относящиеся к культуре дописьменного и

письменного языка, знать причины того, что английский язык

неоднороден в различных местах его распространения;

• владеть системой представления о языковой системе как целостном,

исторически сложившемся функциональном образовании, социальной

природе языка, роли языка в жизни общества;

• осознать связи языка, истории и культуры народа, о

функционировании и месте языка в обществе, национально-

культурной специфике стран изучаемого языка.

История языка связана с теоретическими и практическими

дисциплинами. История языка подводит студента к пониманию:

• закономерностей орфографии английского языка;

• изменения произношения слов, этимологии слов, прочих изменений

значения слов, источников заимствований по составу слова.

История языка подводит студента к глубокому пониманию текста с учетом

исторических изменений языка:

• учит студентов видеть связь изменения языка с изменениями жизни

общества;

• развивать языковую догадку;

• помогает объяснить сложности современного языка в области

орфографии, произношения, семантики слов, словообразования.

Примерный перечень вопросов к экзамену

1. История языка и ее место в ряду других лингвистических дисциплин.

2. Периодизация истории английского языка.

3. Сравнительно-исторический метод. -

4. Памятники письменности древнеанглийского периода.

5. Фонетическая система древнеанглийского языка.

6. Имя существительное в древнеанглийском языке.

7. Глагол в древнеанглийском языке.

8. Сильные и слабые склонения прилагательных.

9. Сильные глаголы. Спряжение сильных глаголов.

10.Слабые глаголы. Спряжение слабых глаголов.

11.Претерито-презентные глаголы.

12.Синтаксис простого предложения в древнеанглийском языке.

13. Местоимения в древнеанглийском языке.

14. Лексика древнеанглийского периода. Заимствования

древнеанглийского периода.

15. Норманнское завоевание и его последствия.

16. Изменения в орфографии древнеанглийского периода.

17. Изменения согласных в среднеанглийском языке.

18. Имя существительное в среднеанглийском языке.

19. Глагол в среднеанглийском языке.

20. Местоимение в среднеанглийском языке.

21. Особенности синтаксической системы среднеанглийского языка.

22. Заимствования среднеанглийского периода.

23. Изменения гласных в новоанглийском языке.

24. «Великий сдвиг гласных».

25. Характер лексики новоанглийского языка.

26. Глагол в новоанглийском языке.

27. Образование национального английского языка.

Примерная тематика рефератов, курсовых работ.

1. Словарный состав современного английского языка как продукт его

развития

2. Морфологи прилагательного в историческом развитии английского языка.

3. Ранняя история Британии.

4. Латинские, скандинавские и французские заимствования в английском

языке.

5. Английский язык после Норманнского завоевания.

6. Системное отношение переходных глаголов, управляющих дательным

падежом в древнеанглийском языке.

7. Особенности переходного глагола в истории развития английского языка.

8. Образование английского национального языка.

9. Простые предложения в древнеанглийском языке.

10.Категории глагола и их спряжения в древнеанглийский и

среднеанглийский периоды.

11. Становление аналитических форм английского глагола.

12.Лондонский диалект английского языка в среднеанглийский период.

Методические рекомендации студентам по написанию дипломной работы по

истории английского языка

Дипломная работа по истории английского языка является завершающей

научной работой студента по лингвистике, защита студентом дипломной работы

показывает уровень знаний студента. Это самостоятельная, творческая работа,

которая имеет исследовательскую часть.

При написании дипломной работы студент должен проявить:

- умение самостоятельно работать с научной литературой;

- уметь творчески подходить к теоретической литературе по предмету

исследования, анализировать, делать выводы, выделять проблему исследования.

К проблематике дипломных работ по истории английского языка входят

исследования различных сторон развития языка. Они охватывают следующие

аспекты: филологию, лексикологию, синтаксис, морфологию языка. Специально

выделены проблемы становления национального языка и развитие разных частей

языковой системы.

Рекомендации к структуре и содержанию дипломной работы

Дипломная работа должна содержать введение, главы - теоретическую и

исследовательскую, заключение, список использованной литературы и, возможно,

приложение.

Во введении обосновывается выбор темы, излагаются цели и объект исследования,

формируются его задачи, указывается, на каком лингвистическом материале и

какими методами проводится исследование.

В теоретической главе даётся обзор теоретической литературы по теме

исследования, излагаются основные взгляды на проблему исследования,

выделяется круг еще не решенных вопросов, связанных с анализируемым

явлением, разъясняются исходные теоретические положения и основная

терминология, определяются задачи исследования.

В обзоре литературы необходимо провести критический анализ работ по теме

исследования, сопоставить различные взгляды, сделать выводы для своей работы в

плане разделяемой точки зрения. Раскрывая и обосновывая свою точку зрения,

студент должен показать владение основополагающей теорией в лингвистике, а

также показать умение применять достижения языкознания в анализе фактов языка

и использовать адекватный метод исследования. При изучении научной

литературы студенту приходится знакомиться с различными точками зрения на

языки и те же языковые явления. Следовательно, нужно научиться сопоставлять

мнения ученых и выбирать для последующего анализа конкретного материала

определенную научную основу и попытаться изложить и обосновать свое мнение

по данному вопросу. Надо также учесть, что не во всех работах студент найдет

прямой ответ на вопрос, поставленный в теме исследования. Изучение

основополагающих трудов по языкознанию помогает повысить теоретический

уровень, углубить понимание предмета и быстрее разобраться в проблеме

исследования. Сплошное конспектирование или дословное переписывание текста

оригинала мало полезно. При написании научной работы студент должен

стремиться передать мысли рассмотренных им авторов и дать им свою оценку.

Включение в текст дипломной работы цитаты оформляются сносками. Сама цитата

заключается в кавычки. Сноски могут выноситься в конец работы. В случае

изложения своими словами мыслей, высказанных другими авторами, сноски в

тексте на них обязательны, но сноски могут носить более общий характер, а

именно, можно указать всю работу, без указания страниц.

В исследовательской главе дается последовательное описание результатов

проведенного анализа, обеспечивающего решение задач, сформированных в

введении. Исследовательская глава должна показать владение студентом

основными приемами научно-исследовательской работы, умение проводить

самостоятельные наблюдения над фактами языка, классифицировать их в

соответствии с задачами исследования, делать выводы и обобщения. Для удобства

чтения дипломной работы главы могут подразделяться на части или параграфы. В

работу смогут помещаться таблицы, графики и другие наглядные представления

материала исследования, которые более целесообразно выделить в приложение.

В заключении приводятся общие выводы по результатам исследования. Следует

особо выделить практическое значение выполненного в ходе работы исследования.

Одним из элементов окончательного оформления дипломной работы является

грамотное составление библиографии. Библиография должна содержать не только

цитируемую в работе литературу, но и всю литературу по данному вопросу,

прочитанную и изученную студентом. К работе следует приложить список

исследуемых текстов, словарей. Библиография составляется по алфавиту с

полными исходными данными: фамилия и инициалы автора, полное заглавие

работы. Если это статья, указывается также журнал и сборник, место и год издания.

Литература на иностранном языке обычно следует за литературой на русском

языке. Работа может завершаться списком художественных произведений, из

которых взяты примеры. Работа должна быть хорошо оформлена, оглавление

работы должно содержать полное название глав и разделов с указанием страниц.

Примерная тематика дипломных работ

1. Проблема вида в английском языке.

2. К вопросу о сослагательном наклонении в английском языке.

3. Субстантивные вторичные предикативы в английском языке.

4. Семантическая парадигма подлежащего в английском языке.

5. Контаминированное сказуемое в английском языке.


1. Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. — М.: Физматлит, ZUUJ. —272 с.

2. Бруннер К. История английского языка. В 2 томах. — М.: Едиториал

УРСС, 2003. —720 с.

3. Гельберг С.Я. Курс истории английского языка. — Ижевск:

Удмуртский университет, 2003. — 282 с.

4. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Г.М. История английского языка.

— М.: Авалон, 2006 — 560 с.

5. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Jl.IL, Беляева Г.М. Практикум по истории

английского языка. — М.: Авалон, 2005. — 192 с.

6. Матвеева Е.А. История английского языка. — М.: НВИ-Тезаурус,

2006.— 104 с.

7. Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка. Учебник для вузов. —

М.: ACT, 2001. — 352 с.

8. Резник Р.В., Сорокина Т.А., Резник И.В. История английского языка /

A History of the English Language. — M.: Наука, Флинта, 2003. — 496 с.


1.Льюис Г.. Педерсен X. Краткая сравнительная грамматика кельтских

языков. — М.: Едиториал УРСС. 2002. — 512 с.

2.Макаев Э.А. Язык древнейших рунических надписей.

Лингвистический и историко-филологический анализ. — М:

Едиториал УРСС, 2002. — 156 с.

3.Мейе А. Основные особенности германской группы языков. — М.:


4.Ору С. История. Эпистемология. Язык. — М.: Изд. группа «Прогресс»,

2000.— 408 с.

6. Предложения с вставной коммуникативной единицей в английском языке.

7. Объектно-предикативный член в английском языке.

8. Сказуемое как выражение предикации в английском языке.

9. Обстоятельство в строе предложения в английском языке.

10.Включенный предикат и способы его выражения в английском языке.


1.Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка. Учебник для вузов. —

М.: ACT, 2001. — 352 с.

2.Резник Р.В., Сорокина Т.А., Резник И.В. История английского языка /


3.Язык: теория, история, типология // Сборник статей, освященный

Ярцевой В.Н. Под редакцией Н.С.Баоенко. — М.: Едиториал УРСС,

2000.—512с.

4. Сухачев Н.Л. Перспектива истории в индоевропеистике. К

проблеме "индоевропейских древностей". — М.: Едиториал УРСС,

2007. —234 с.

5.Тройский И.М. Общеиндоевропейское языковое состояние.

Вопросы реконструкции. — ML: Едиториал УРСС, 2004. — 104 с.


1.Трубецкой Н.С. История. Культура. Язык. — М.: Прогресс, 1995.

— 800 с.

2.Шухардт Г. Избранные статьи по языкознанию. — М.: Едиториал

УРСС, 2003. —296 с.

3.Юрченко B.C. Философия языка и философия языкознания. —

М.: Едиториал УРСС, 2005. — 368 с.

4.Вайсгербер Й.Л. Родной язык и формирование духа. — М.: Едиториал.

УРСС, 2004. —232 с.

5.Вандриес Ж. Язык. Лингвистическое введение в историю. — М.:


11. Аспектуальное значение глагольных форм в английском языке.

12. Проблема номинализации сказуемого в английском языке.

13. Реализация причинных отношений в английском языке.

14. Логика и синтаксис сравнения в английском языке.

15. Парцелляция – один из способов реализации эмоционального мышления на

синтаксическом уровне языка.


1.Сухачев Н.Л. Перспектива истории в индоевропеистике. К


2007. —234 с.

2.Тройский И.М. Общеиндоевропейское языковое состояние.


3.Трубецкой Н.С. История. Культура. Язык. — М.: Прогресс, 1995.

— 800 с.

4.Шухардт Г. Избранные статьи по языкознанию. — М.: Едиториал

УРСС, 2003. —296 с.

5.Юрченко B.C. Философия языка и философия языкознания. —


6.Вайсгербер Й.Л. Родной язык и формирование духа. — М.: Едиториал.

УРСС, 2004. —232 с.


1. Хлебникова И.Б. Введение в германскую филологию и историю английского

языка (фонология, морфология). — М., 2001. — 184 с.

2. Ярцева В.Н Развитие национального литературного английского

языка. — М.: Едиториал УРСС, 2004. — 288 с.

3. Язык: теория, история, типология // Сборник статей, освященный


2000.-—512с.



2007. —234 с.

5. Тройский И.М. Общеиндоевропейское языковое состояние.

16. Пресуппозиции и типы предложений в английском языке.

17. Роль вторичной предикации в построении связного текста в английском

языке.

18. Семантические основы и источники синтаксической синонимии в

английском языке.

19. О факультативности и обязательности компонентов синтаксической

структуры в английском языке.

20. Синтагматическое развертывание текста в реализации хода времени в

английском языке.


1.Кондильяк Э.Б О языке и методе. — М.: КомКнига. 2006. — 184 с.

2.Куриловнч Е. Очерки по лингвистике. — М.: Тривиум, 2000. — 490 с.

3Льюис Г.. Педерсен X. Краткая сравнительная грамматика кельтских

языков. — М.: Едиториал УРСС. 2002. — 512 с.

4.Макаев Э.А. Язык древнейших рунических надписей.



5.Мейе А. Основные особенности германской группы языков. — М.:


6.Ору С. История. Эпистемология. Язык. — М.: Изд. группа «Прогресс»,

2000.— 408 с.


1.Матвеева Е.А. История английского языка. — М.: НВИ-Тезаурус,

2006.— 104 с.

2.Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка. Учебник для вузов. —

М.: ACT, 2001. — 352 с.

3.Резник Р.В., Сорокина Т.А., Резник И.В. История английского языка /


4.Смирницкий А.И. Лекции по истории английского языка. — М.:

Добросвет, 2006. — 236 с.


языка (фонология, морфология). — М.: ЧеРо, 2001.

6. Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. — М.: Физматлит, ZUUJ. —

272 с.


УРСС, 2003. —720 с.

8. I ельберг С.Я. Курс истории английского языка. — Ижевск:



— М.: Авалон, 2006 — 560 с.




2006.— 104 с.


М.: ACT, 2001. — 352 с.



14. Смирницкий А.И. Лекции по истории английского языка. — М.:



языка (фонология, морфология). — М.: ЧеРо, 2001. — 184

11Ярцева В.Н Развитие национального литературного английского




2000.-—512с.



2007. —234 с.



15. Трубецкой Н.С. История. Культура. Язык. — М.: Прогресс, 1995.

— 800 с.

16. Шухардт Г. Избранные статьи по языкознанию. — М.: Едиториал

УРСС, 2003. —296 с.

17. Юрченко B.C. Философия языка и философия языкознания. —


18. Вайсгербер Й.Л. Родной язык и формирование духа. — М.: Едиториал.

УРСС, 2004. —232 с.

19. Вандриес Ж. Язык. Лингвистическое введение в историю. — М.:


20. Десницкая А.В. Сравнительное языкознание и история языков. — М.:


21. Кондильяк Э.Б О языке и методе. — М.: КомКнига. 2006. — 184 с.

22. Куриловнч Е. Очерки по лингвистике. — М.: Тривиум, 2000. — 490 с.

23. Льюис Г.. Педерсен X. Краткая сравнительная грамматика кельтских

языков. — М.: Едиториал УРСС. 2002. -— 512 с.

24. Макаев Э.А. Язык древнейших рунических надписей.



25. Мейе А. Основные особенности германской группы языков. — М.:


26. Ору С. История. Эпистемология. Язык. — М.: Изд. группа «Прогресс»,

2000.— 408 с.

27.Пауль Е. Принципы истории языка. — М.: издательство

иностранной литературы, 1960. — 500 с.

28.Смирницкая СВ. Труды по германистике и истории

языкознания. — М.: Наука, 2002. — 320 с.

29. Algeo J.A. History of the English Language.-Routledge, 5 Rev Ed (March 21, 2002)-464 p.

30. Algeo J.A. The Origins and Development of the English Language.-Heinle, 5 edition (February 25, 2004)-384

p.

31. Morton A.L. A People’s History of England, - New York, 1968

32. Peter Ackroyd. London: the Biography.- London,2005

33. The Cambridge History of the English Language.- Cambridge, 1993

34. Julian Barnes. England, England.- London, Picador,2001

35. G.Chaucer. The Canterbury Fales. Selected with translation.,New York,2006,550 p.

36. The Wordsnorth Dictionary of British History.London, 2006

Методические рекомендации студентам

по написанию курсовых работ по истории английского языка.

Курсовая работа по истории английского языка является завершающим

звеном в работе студента по владению теорией по предмету «История английского

языка». Это самостоятельная творческая работа, она также имеет научный,

реферативный и в какой-то степени исследовательский характер.

При написании курсовой работы студент должен проявить:

- умение самостоятельно работать с научной литературой, уметь творчески

подходить к теоретической литературе по предмету исследования, анализировать,

делать выводы, выделять проблему исследования.

- уметь применять теоретические положения при анализе, сопоставлении

аналогичных проблем по периодам развития английского языка.

- планировать работу над определенным материалом, выделять главные и

второстепенные вопросы по теме исследования, выявить и показать связь истории

языка с другими лингвистическими дисциплинами.

Требования к курсовой работе и некоторые рекомендации по ее написанию.

Содержание работы

Курсовая работа по истории английского языка должна состоять из

следующих разделов:

Введение. Здесь обосновывается актуальность темы курсовой работы, ставятся

задачи исследования и выделяются цели исследования. Далее следует содержание

курсовой работы, этот материал подразделяется на несколько глав.

В главе 1 описывается проблема исследования, описываются различные точки

зрения на проблему исследования. Выделяется точка зрения, с которой автор

курсовой работы соглашается и доказывает преимущества выделенного подхода к

проблеме.

Излагая позицию того или другого автора, нельзя допускать сплошного списывания

без упоминания имени автора и указания источника. Желательно, чтобы автор

курсовой работы высказывал свое мнение по каждому вопросу проблемы

исследования и обосновывал свое приятие или отрицательное отношение по тому

или иному вопросу исследования.

Следующий раздел курсовой работы содержит непосредственное

исследование проблемы. Здесь многосторонне описаны вопросы исследования с

примерами, подтверждающими выбранную точку зрения. Все пункты теории

вопроса должны найти практическое подтверждение в примерах, взятых из

доступных текстов по истории английского языка.

В разделе «Заключение» могут быть кратко отражены все положения данной

проблемы, дано краткое описание каждого раздела курсовой работы.

Список литературы следует составлять в алфавитном порядке, по фамилии автора.

Фамилия автора должна быть с инициалами. Затем название книги или статьи с

выходными данными. После книг на русском языке может идти список книг на

иностранном языке.

Примечание: данные разделы не являются планом, а служат лишь каркасом для его

написания.

Примерный объем курсовой работы- 25-30 страниц машинописного текста.

Примерная тематика курсовых работ.

1. Словарный состав современного английского языка как продукт его развития

в течение ряда эпох.

2. Морфология прилагательного в историческом развитии английского языка.

3. Ранняя история Британии.

4. Латинские, скандинавские и французские заимствования в английском языке.

5. Английский язык после Норманнского завоевания.

6. Системное отношение переходных глаголов, управляющих дательным

падежом в древнеанглийском языке.

7. Особенности переходного глагола в истории развития английского языка.

8. Образование английского национального языка.

9. Синтаксис простых предложений в древнеанглийском языке.

10. Категории глагола и их спряжения в древнеанглийском и среднеанглийском

периоде.

11. Становление орфографии современного английского языка в результате

изменений по периодам его развития.

Рекомендуемая литература.

1. Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. — М.: Физматлит, ZUUJ. —

272 с.


УРСС, 2003. —720 с.

3. I ельберг С.Я. Курс истории английского языка. — Ижевск:



— М.: Авалон, 2006 — 560 с.




2006.— 104 с.


М.: ACT, 2001. — 352 с.



9. Смирницкий А.И. Лекции по истории английского языка. — М.:



языка (фонология, морфология). — М.: ЧеРо, 2001. — 184

11Ярцева В.Н Развитие национального литературного английского



Ярцевой В.Н. Под редакцией Н.С.Бабенко. — М.: Едиториал УРСС,

2000.-—512с.



2007. —234 с.



29. Трубецкой Н.С. История. Культура. Язык. — М.: Прогресс, 1995.

— 800 с.

30. Шухардт Г. Избранные статьи по языкознанию. — М.: Едиториал

УРСС, 2003. —296 с.

31. Юрченко B.C. Философия языка и философия языкознания. —


32. Вайсгербер Й.Л. Родной язык и формирование духа. — М.: Едиториал.

УРСС, 2004. —232 с.

33. Вандриес Ж. Язык. Лингвистическое введение в историю. — М.:


34. Десницкая А.В. Сравнительное языкознание и история языков. — М.:


35. Кондильяк Э.Б О языке и методе. — М.: КомКнига. 2006. — 184 с.

36. Куриловнч Е. Очерки по лингвистике. — М.: Тривиум, 2000. — 490 с.

37. Льюис Г.. Педерсен X. Краткая сравнительная грамматика кельтских

языков. — М.: Едиториал УРСС. 2002. -— 512 с.

38. Макаев Э.А. Язык древнейших рунических надписей.



39. Мейе А. Основные особенности германской группы языков. — М.:


40. Ору С. История. Эпистемология. Язык. — М.: Изд. группа «Прогресс»,

2000.— 408 с.

27.Пауль Е. Принципы истории языка. — М.: издательство

иностранной литературы, 1960. — 500 с.

28.Смирницкая СВ. Труды по германистике и истории

языкознания. — М.: Наука, 2002. — 320 с.

29. Algeo J.A. History of the English Language.-Routledge, 5 Rev Ed (March 21, 2002)-464 p.

30. Algeo J.A. The Origins and Development of the English Language.-Heinle, 5 edition (February 25, 2004)-

384 p.

31. Morton A.L. A People’s History of England, - New York, 1968

32. Peter Ackroyd. London: the Biography.- London,2005

33. The Cambridge History of the English Language.- Cambridge, 1993

34. Julian Barnes. England, England.- London, Picador,2001

35. G.Chaucer. The Canterbury Fales. Selected with translation.,New York,2006,550

p.

36. The Wordsnorth Dictionary of British History.London, 2006.

УЧЕБНО-МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЕ МАТЕРИАЛЫ

Lecture 1

Generalities about Germanic Languages

1. Ancient Germanic Tribes and their classification.

2. Place of English among other languages of the world.

3. Old Germanic Languages.

Literature: Ilyish p.3-11; Rastorgueva p.13-23.

I.The earliest information concerning the Germanic tribes who spoke different

Germanic languages in the remote past was finished by the old Greek traveller Pytheas.

In 325 BC after a journey to the Amber Shore Pytheas wrote about two Germanic tribes:

the Teutons and the Guttons. A detailed description of the Germanic tribes and their way

of life was given by Julius Caesar in his “Notes on the Gallic War” in the 1st century BC.

Very important data on the distribution, social organization and religious beliefs of the

Germanic tribes are also found in the literary works of the famous historian Cornelius

Tacitus (55-120 AD) and the Roman scholar Pliny (27-75 AD). The latter made a

classification of the Germanic tribes according to which Germans can be grouped as

follows:

1. The Vindili living in the basin of the Elbe river.

2. The Ingaevones living on the shore of the North Sea.

3. The Iscaevones living on the eastern bank of the Rhine.

4. The Herminones who settled on the territory of Southern Germany.

5. The Hillaeviones who settled on the Danish Isles and in Scandinavia.

6. The Pevkines living in the neighbourhood of present Rumania.

F.Engels in his work “On the History of the Old Germans” quotes Pliny’s

classification and commends it. The only amendment made by Engels was to reclassify

the Vindili and the Pevkines as a single group. In all other respects Engels found Pliny’s

classification perfect for it proved to be strikingly compatible with the classification of

the Germanic dialects made by linguists in the XIX century. This classification includes

three groups of dialects:

1. East Germanic spoken by the Vindili;

2. West Germanic spoken by the Ingaevones, Iscaevones and Herminones.

3. North Germanic spoken by the Hillaeviones.

The Germanic tribes at the time of Caesar had been at the stage of the primitive

communal system. There were no clearly marked differences between the common

people and the representatives of power. 150 years later in the epoch of Tacitus the social

life of the Germanic tribes was marked by a higher level of development: they began to

lead a settled life ant to give preference to agriculture over animal husbandry. Common

people began to be dominated by the tribal nobility whose development was fostered by

numerous wars and raids. Prisoners of war were turned into slaves and booty came to be

a source of enrichment for the nobility. The tribal system began to decay, however, class

distinctions were still embryonic.

II. English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. Indo-European was

spoken about 3500-3000 BC by nomadic tribes which wandered in the lands about the

Black Sea area and might have reached as far as Liberia. The number of people forming a

primitive tribe cannot be large as their means of gathering food are extremely limited.

Therefore each tribe has to split up after reaching a certain number of members. Thus the

parent Indo-European tribe must have split gradually into sections which moved on their

own and went in various directions across the continents of Europe and Asia. Losing

contact with the parent language each section would develop its language along its own

lines. Thus at first arose dialects of the parent language which gradually turned into

separate languages. It is believed that by 2000 BC the original Indo-European had split

up into 11 language groups or branches, each of which developed independently and gave

rise to a number of languages which partly disappeared sometimes leaving behind

inscriptions or other texts were deciphered at a later period. The rest of these languages

continued their development and in their turn gave rise to a number of modern languages.

The following is a list of the 11 branches of the Indo-European parent language:

1. The Indian languages: Sanscrit (now obsolete), Hindustani, Gipsy.

2. The Iranian languages: spoken in Iran; to this group belong Tajik, Ossetic and

Kurdish.

3. The Slavonic languages: this group falls into three divisions:

a) Western Slavonic, including Polish, Czeck and Slovakian.

b) Southern Slavonic, including Bulgarian, Serbian, Slovenian and Croatian.

c) Eastern Slavonic, including Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian.

4. The Baltic languages: Old Prussian (now obsolete), Lithuanian and Latvian.

5. The Roman languages: Latin (now obsolete), French, Italian, Spanish,

Portuguese, Rumanian and Moldavian.

6. The Celtic languages: Scotch, Irish, Welsh, Breton and a number of languages

(now obsolete) spoken in England, France and other territories before the Roman

invasion.

7. The Greek language.

8. The Armenian language.

9. The Hittite Language (now obsolete).

10. The Tocharian language (now obsolete)

11. The Germanic languages: this group falls into three divisions:

a) East Germanic, including Gothic, Vandal and Burgundial (all obsolete);

b) North Germanic, including old Scandinavian (obsolete), Danish, Swedish,

Icelandic, Norwegian and Faroese;

c) West Germanic, including Old English, Old High German, Old Low German

(all obsolete), English, Frisian, German, Dutch and Boer.

Thus, English stems from the West Germanic division of the Germanic group of the

Indo-European family of languages. A wide-spread language, English is spoken on the

British Isles, in the USA, Canada, India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand.

Lecture 2

Phonetic Peculiarities of Germanic Languages.

Consonants.

1. The First Consonant Shift or Grimm’s law.

2. Verner’s Law.

3. Stress in Germanic languages.

4. Substratum theory.

5. West-Germanic lengthening of consonants.

6. The Second Consonant Shift.

Literature: Ilyish p.12-20; rastorgueva p.40-51.

I. The Germanic languages in the course of their development acquired some

specific properties which differentiate them as a branch from the rest of the Indo-

European Language. These properties may be treated as resulting from the tendencies

inherited in these languages, or they might have arisen under the influence of languages

belonging to non-Indo-European stock.

The first distinctive property of the Germanic languages in the domain phonology is

their almost regular shifting of certain Indo-European consonants or the so-called the

First Consonant Shift. This regularity was found out by comparative linguists. Rasmus

Christian Park (1787-1832), one of the founders of the Neo-Grammarian school, was the

first to notice this regularity. Afterwards it was itemized by the great German linguist and

fairy-tales collector Jacob Ludwig Grimm (1785-1863).

The earliest statement of the shift was given in the second edition of Grimm’s work

“German Grammar” which was published in 1822. Accordingly the law is also often

called Grimm’s Law. This law expresses regular correspondences between consonants of

Germanic and those of other Indo-European languages.

Here are the principles formulated by Grimm’s Law:

I. IE voiceless stops [p, t, k] correspond to Germanic voiceless fricatives [f, Þ,

h].

II. IE voiced stops [b, d, g] correspond to Germanic voiceless stops [p, t, k].

III. IE voiced aspirated stops [bh, dh, gh] correspond to Germanic voiced stops

without aspiration [b, d, g].

Table 1

sounds examples examples

IE Ger IE Germanic

p f Lat-piscis; Rus-пескарь; OE-fisk; NE-fish; Goth-fisks;

t Þ Lat-tres; Rus-три; Goth-Þreis; OE-Þreo; NE-three;

k h Lat-noctem; Lat-cor; Goth-nahts; Goth-hairto; OE-heorte;

b p Rus-болото; Rus-слабеть; OE-pōl; NE-pool; Goth-slēpan; NE-

sleep;

d t Lat-edere; Goth-itan; OE-etan; NE-eat;

g k Lat-granum (grain) Goth-kaurn [korn]; NE-corn;

bh b Sansc-bhratar; Lat-ferō;

Greek-pherō; Rus-беру;

Goth-brōÞar; Goth-bairan; OE-

beran; NE-bear;

dh d Sansc-madher; Rus-мёд; OE-medu;

gh g Lat-hostis (enemy); Rus-гость; Goth-gasts; Germ-Gast; NE-guest;

In the given table not al correspondences are equally clear. The examples to

illustrate the correspondence IE [b]- Germ [p] are not fully convincing. By the way, for

some unknown reason, the consonant [p] is very rare in native Germanic words. So the

examples Rus- слабый, Goth- slēpan, Eng-sleep, Rus-болото, Eng-pool, though the

meaning do not fully coincide, can be considered rather satisfactory.

But there is difficulty with the examples of the last group. IE voiced aspirated stops-

Germanic voiced stops without aspiration. As voiced aspirated stops can actually be

found only in Sanscrit, so it is a custom to take Sanscrit as the representative of IE

languages, supposing that Sanscrit has preserved the original state of the consonants. In

the case of IE [gh] and Germ [g] a voiced aspirated [gh] is only reconstructed on the basis

of the correspondence between Latin [h] “hostis” and Germanic [g] Goth “gasts”.

The connection between the meanings “enemy” and “guest” is very easily

established on the ground of the original meaning “foreigner” which developed in two

different directions:

1) hostile foreigner-enemy;

2) friendly foreigner-guest.

So, the Germanic sounds are the result of a development of the original IE sounds.

And the First Consonant Shift may be formulated in the following manner:

IE – Germanic IE – Germanic IE - Germanic

p > f b > p bh > b

t > Þ d > t dh > d

k > h g > k gh > g

It should be mentioned that in some cases the results of the First Consonant Shift

differ from those that is expected in accordance with the rule, e.g. Latin-noctem;

Gothic-nahts.

In this case IE has not been affected by the consonant shift, it has not changed into

Þ, it is due to the phonetic environment of the sound. It is preceded by a voiceless

fricative [h] or [s] respectively. If [t], according to the general law of the shift, had

developed into Þ, a cluster consisting of the two voiceless fricatives would have arisen.

Now such clusters are avoided in Germanic languages. Thus, in these cases the IE [t]

has not undergone the shift in Germanic.

II. The above-noticed correspondences, however very regular only if the non-fixed

IE stress fell on the vowel preceding the consonant or if the consonant stood at the

beginning of the word: e.g. Greek-deka; Rus-десять; Goth-taihum.

If, however, the preceding vowel in the IE and early Germanic was not stressed,

the IE [p, t, k] appeared in the Germanic languages as voiced stops rather than voiceless

fricatives: e.g. Greek-dekas; Rus-десяток; Goth- tigus.

These apparent exceptions to Grimm’s Law were explained by the Danish scholar

Karl Verner in 1877, and after him they have been called Verner’s Law.

According to verner’s Law the voiceless fricatives [f, Þ, h] which resulted from the

shifting of the IE [p, t, k], first changed representing to the voiced fricatives [v,δ, g]

then in the west Germanic languages [δ] was shifted to [d] and the voiced fricative [v]

at the end of the word changed into [b].

Similar modifications were also adhered to by the fricative [s], which was first

voiced into [z], and then [z] in Western Germanic and Northern Germanic languages

(but not in Gothic) modified into [r]. The change of [z] into [r] was termed “rholacism”:

e.g. compare Goth-hausjan, OE-hūras, Germ-hören.

Verner’s Law accounts, e.g., for consonant change in the modern forms of was-

were (with the original stress of wás and wéson).

III. The next distinctive feature of the Germanic languages concerns their word-

stress. It follows from Verner’s Law thet word-stress in Germanic as well as in other IE

languages has been free or variable. It might be on any part of a word. This free accent

has been preserved in Sanscrit, Greek and in some other IE languages. As far as the

Germanic languages are concerned, this free accent in them in the times preceding the

earliest available written records had later been replaced by a fixed stress falling

regularly on the first syllable. The effect which this fixed accent has had on the

structure of English is considerable: many important changes have taken place in the

unstressed syllables. Unaccented vowels in inflexions tended to become weakened and

were eventually lost. All this has ultimately led to crucial simplifications in the system

of English paradigms.

IV. Such important events in the history of Germanic languages as the First

Consonant Shift and change in the stress-system pose an important questions: what

could be the cause of these phenomena. This question has been a matter of discussions

and controversy ever since it was discovered. There are two possible ways of seeking an

explanation. It may be internal factors or some external influences. As for the external

influences it is the so-called substratum theory. The essence of it is the following. The

First Consonant Shift and the change in the stress system were caused by events in the

social life of tribes speaking Germanic languages. According to this theory, Germanic

languages arose as a result of part of the tribes, who spoke IE languages conquering

some other tribes, who presumably spoke some non-IE languages. The conquered tribes

acquired the language of the conquerors, so they introduced some of their own

pronunciation habits, characteristic of the language they had been originally speaking.

These pronunciation habits determined the characteristic phonetic features of Germanic

languages, which came into being as a result of conquest.

As for the system of stress, it is supposed that the original language of the

conquered tribes had a fixed stress on the first syllable, which was adopted be Germanic

languages.

As for the consonant system, the French scholar Antoine Meillet (1866-1936)

explained all parts of the consonant shift by one tendency. He thought the main

principle was the Lateness of the vocal chords articulation in comparison with the lips

and the tongue.

One more theory by the Polish scholar E.Kurylovich proposed a new approach to

the problem of the consonant shift. He considers that the oppositions p-b, t-d, k-g were

based on the principle voiceless versus voiced. The phonemes b, d, g had the

differential quality of voice, thus, they were the marked members of the opposition.

This question was superseded by an opposition of weak and strong consonants: the

phonemes p, t, k the strong ones, while b, d, g- the weak, i.e. the unmarked ones. This

led to a future strengthening of the articulation of the strong phonemes p, t, k and as a

result they became the fricatives f, Þ, h. But nevertheless this theory deserves further

consideration.

V. The essence of this phenomenon is the following. Every consonant (except r) is

lengthened if it is preceded by a short vowel and followed by the consonant [j]: e.g. OE

satian>settan. The phonetic essence of lengthening is assimilation, the consonant [j] is

assimilated to the preceding consonant. This change may be due to an influence of

substratum. In writing the long consonant is represented by doubling the consonant

letter, so we may say “West-Germanic Doubling of Consonants”: e.g. OE tælian>tellan;

OE framian>fremman (fulfil).

VI. The Germanic consonant shift is called the first to distinguish it from the

second consonant shift. It occurred only in High Germanic dialects, e.g.:

Common Germanic High Germanic

OE – dōn tun

Goth – badi bett

OE – pōl pfuhl

Goth – taihum zehn

Goth – itan essen

The correspondences of this shift are


Initially and after consonant After a vowel

b p p

d k t

g k k

p pf f

t z [ts] s

k kh ch [h]

The Second Consonant Shift occurred between the 5th and 7th centuries AD, but not

these changes penetrated into the literary Germanic language.

Some time later between the 8th and the 12th centuries one more change took place.

The common Germanic [d] developed into [t] in High Germanic. So the Germanic

consonant system had no [d] sound. But it appeared coming from the common

Germanic Þ.


Goth – Þreis drei

Goth – broÞar bruder

Thus, the gap in the High Germanic consonant system was filled. Modern literary

German again has a complete system [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g].

Lecture 3

The Vocalic System of Germanic Languages

1. Vowels

2. Germanic structure

3. Gradation or ablout

Literature: Ilyish p.20-24; Rastorgueva p.33-40.

I. The vocalic system of Germanic languages has developed from the IE system

altered in accordance with some Germanic tendencies.

The vowels in Germanic languages were on the whole very unstable:

1) They underwent different changes, qualitative and quantitative, dependent

and independent. (Qualitative changes affect the quality of a vowel, e.g.

a>o; quantitative changes make long vowels short or short vowels-long,

e.g. e>ē; o>ō.

2) The vowels depended on Germanic on Germanic word-stress. The stressed

syllables were emphasized and pronounced more distinctly; the unstressed

syllables tended to become less distinct. Thus, in Germanic languages there

gradually developed two subsystems of vowels; one functioning in stressed

syllables, the other-in unstressed ones.

3) The changes of vowels in Germanic languages were numerous. The

division of vowels into long and and short in stressed syllables was

supported by some independent qualitative historical changes: short vowels

tended to become more open, long vowels were narrowed and closed. So

IE [o] became more open and was reflected as [a] in Common Germanic:

Rus-яблоко; Greek-okto; Germanic-apfel; germ-acht. IE [ā] was narrowed

to [ō] in Common Germanic: Sansc-bhrātar; OE-broÞor.

4) The development of vowels in the Germanic group was characterized by a

strong tendency to assimilate change. The pronunciation of vowels in some

cases was modified under the influence of following or preceding

consonants. The earliest manifestation of this principle has been termed

Germanic Breaking or Fracture. This assimilative process consists in the

qualitative change of certain vowels depending on the sounds that follow.

There are two vowels that are submitted to breaking: the IE e in the root

corresponds in the Germanic languages to i if it is followed by i, j or by a

nasal plus another consonant. Otherwise, the IE e corresponds in Germanic

to i, e.g. Lat- medium; Lat- ventus; OE- midle (middle); OE- wind; but

Lat- edere; OE- etan.

5) The IE u in the root corresponds in the Germanic languages to u if it is

followed by u or by a nasal plus other consonant. Otherwise the IE u

corresponds in Germanic to o, e.g. Sansc- sunus, OE- sunu; Lat- uigum,

OE- зloc.

6) The most important property in the domain of vowels of the GL-s is

Gradation or Ablaut. Gradation is a spontaneous vowel variation mostly

inside a root common to all IE l-s. So far as Germanic ablaut is concerned,

it goes back to some regular phonetic processes inherent in the IE parent

language. Gradation was primarily a phonetic process. In GL-s it is widely

employed as a grammatical means, particularly in the verb system. The

origin of gradation has been a matter for discussion for about a century.

First it was dependent on the quality of the stress falling on the root vowel.

The root-vowel either changed its quality (qualitative gradation) or

changed its length (quantitative gradation), e.g. Rus- нести-носит; беру-

сбор-брал. This kind of gradation is called qualitative ablaut as the quality

of the vowel is changed. The quantitative ablaut is based on a difference in

quantity: long vowels alternate with short ones and with the reduced or

zero grade, which means that the vowel is neutral or lost. In Germanic both

kinds of ablaut were used. IE qualitative gradation series a-o was changed

e/i-a in Germanic while the qualitative gradation a- ā was modified. As it

has been mentioned, this vowel variation became a very important

grammatical means especially in the verb system where it employed for

(the building of the principle forms). The system of gradation is best seen

in the strong verb of the gothic language.

The Vocalic System of Germanic Languages

IE Ablaut e o zero zero NE

Corresponding

Common

Germanic

Vowel

Gradation

e/i

a

zero

zero

Class I reisan rais risum risans rise

Class II kiusan kaus kusum kusans choose

Class III bindan band bundum bundaus bind

Class IV stilan stal stelum stulans steal

Class V giban gat gebum gebans give

Infinitive Past

singular

Past plural Past

participle

As you see in each class the alternative vowel is combined with a different sound or

sound combination: with i in class I, u in class II. Nowadays some Common Germanic

gradation series in a modified form are still used to differentiate between words and

forms: e.g. sing-sang-sung; song-singer.

Parts of Speech and their Grammatical Categories

GL-s have approximately the same division of words into parts of speech as other

groups: the substantive, the pronoun, the numeral, the verb, the adverb, the conjunction

and the preposition.

In Common Germanic the substantive, the pronoun and the adjective had the

grammatical categories of gender, number and case. GL-s distinguished three genders:

masculine, feminine and neutral. As far as number is concerned, some of the Old

Germanic dialects distinguished three numbers: singular, plural and dual number of

personal pronoun.

The substantive in Old Germanic consisted of three elements: 1) root, 2) a stem-

building suffix, 3) a case inflexion. The meaning of the root is the lexical meaning of the

substantive. The meaning of the case-inflexion expresses the grammatical category. The

meaning of the stem-building suffix is much more difficult to define. Originally stem-

building suffixes were a means of classifying substantives denoting relationship and

derived by means of the stem forming suffix “r”, e.g. fadar-broÞar. The substantive in

Germanic was remarked for the elaborate system of declensions which rested on the

division of nouns into stems. According to the strong declension the substantives with

vocalic stems a-o-i-u were declined. Substantives with n-stems were declined according

to the weak declension.

The next two distinguishing characteristics of the GL-s bear upon the declension of

the adjectives and upon the verb system.

Every adjective had to be declined according to the strong declension if it alone

modified the substantive it referred to. When the adjective was preceded by a

demonstrative pronoun or any other defining element it had to be declined according to

the weak declension. The strong declension corresponds to the inflexion of the adjective

in the rest of IE L-s whereas the weak form is regarded as a peculiarity of the GL-s

since was developed by the parent Germanic.

Strong Weak

e.g. OE- gōde menn OE Þās gōdan menn

(good people) (these good people)

The verb in GL-s distinguished the following grammatical categories: number,

person, mood (Indicate, Imperative, Conjunctive, and Subjunctive), the category of

tense (there were no future forms in Old Germanic). Aspect distinguishers were shown

very irregularly, more by lexical than grammatical means; so aspect cannot be regarded

as a grammatical category. As for the voice, it did not exist in Common Germanic in the

meaning known today.

According to the means of form-building, the verbs in GL-s are divided into strong

and weak. Strong verbs built their principal forms by means of vowel gradation. There

existed 7 classes of strong verbs in Germanic. Five classes of strong verbs had the

ablaut series i-a zero, the sixth class a-ō, the seventh had a consonant alternation,

reduplication that is addition of an extra syllable consisting of the initial consonant and

the vowel [e] (spelt ai) in the past tense both singular and plural, e.g. lētan – lailōt –

lailotum – lelaus.

Weak verbs (4 classes) formed their past tense by adding the suffix d/t. It is

believed that the suffix d (t) originated from the verb OE- dōn, Germanic- tun. In

subsequent centuries weak verbs in the GL-s have been on the constant increase while

the number of the strong verbs gradually diminished. The application of the dental

suffix eventually spread to many former strong verbs and on the whole has proved to be

a far more productive means than vowel gradation. This means is used now by the

English regular verbs.

Lecture 4 The Old English Period. Phonetic Changes. Vowels

All English vowels including diphthongs can be either short or long. The system of vowel phonemes consisted of the following:

i-ī e-ē a-ā o-ō u-ū y-ֿy å å an open or nasalized o[ο], [ֿõ] ea, eo, io, ie, ֿea, eo, ֿio, ֿie are diphthongs

So we see, the system of vowels was not symmetrical on the phonetic level and the long phonemes in OE outnumbered the short ones. Consonants in OE consisted of the following: labial p b m, labia-dental f, v, dental t, d, ֿp, ð, n, s, r, l, velar c, z, h. The letter ‘x’ was used instead of the group ‘cs’. Vowels Among the most outstanding processes in the OE sound system, the process of assimilation has perhaps had the most important consequences almost all the English diphthongs were originated by various assimilative processes such as fracture, mutation and palatalization. Each of these processes requires fuller explanation. Old English Fractures (Breaking) преломление. Fracture occurred most regularly in the Wessex dialect. It consisted in diphthongization of front vowels before certain consonants. As a result a glide- sound appeared as a transitional element from a front vowel to a consonant. It is the vowels ‘a’ [æ] and ‘e’ that undergo fracture.

1) a[æ]>ea before the elucters r+cons, l+cons, h+cons and before h final. Eg. ærm>earm; æld>eald; æhto>eahta; sæh>seah. 2) e>eo before r, lc, h+a consonant, h final Eg. melcan>meolcan

herte>heorte selk>seolk (seal) feh>feoh (cattle) The phonetic essence of fracture is that the front vowel is partially assimilated to the following hard consonant by forming a glide, which combines with the vowel to form a diphthong. So, fracture took place in the 6th century, in some dialects, such as Mercian, it did not occur, and the vowel [æ] became ‘a’ Eg. ærm>arm, old, ahta, sah. Mutation or Umlaut (перегласовка) Mutation is a change of vowel caused by partial assimilation to the following vowel. Mutation brings about a complete change in vowel quality: one phoneme is replaced by another. The process of mutation began in the 5th or 6th century. The most important type of mutation is that caused by an “i” or “j” of the following syllable, that is i-mutation. The OE mutation affects 7 vowels and 4 diphthongs, only short “e” and “i” were not submitted to it. [І] i or [j] umlaut Under the influence of i or semivowel [j] the root vowel is rendered more front and close. Having caused umlaut the i or j either disappears or turns into an unstressed vowel “e” or “i” Ex. a>e sandian>sendan (to send) æ>e tælian>tellan ā>æ lārian>læran (teach) o>e ofstian>efstan (hurry) ō>ē dōmian>dēman (think) u>y fulian>fyllan (fill) ū>yֿ cūþian>cyֿþan (to make known) Umlauted diphthong ea>ie hleahian>hliehhan (laugh) ֿea>ie hֿearian>hieran (hear) eo>ie afeorrian>afierran (remove) ֿeo>ֿie cֿeosan>ciesþ (chooses) The i-mutation was significant for the phonemic structure of OE. This mutation accounts for the appearance of the new vowels “y” and “ֿy” from “u” and “ū” respectively. I-umlaut or palatal mutation was certainly the most comprehensive process as it could affect most OE vowels. It has led to the appearance of new phonemes and numerous instances of vowel-variations in the root morpheme.

Old English Phonetic Changes. Back or Velar Mutation. This kind of mutation was caused by a back vowel (u, o, a) of the following syllable. The root vowel was diphthongized under the influence of (u, o, a) in the next syllable. Ex. e>eo herot>heorot (heart) a>ea sary>seary (armour) i>io hira>hiora (their) One more type of mutation before h is found in OE, but the essence of it remains somewhat obscure. As we see, under mutation and fracture short and long vowels and diphthongs underwent qualitative changes. Quantitative changes occurred when

1. the vowels were lengthened. This phenomenon took place in the 9th century. The vowels were lengthened before the lengthened nd, ld, mb.

Ex. bindan>bīndan; wild>wīld; cild>cīld, but if the cluster was followed by another consonant, lengthening did not take place, ex. cildru.

2. the vowel was also lengthened if the following consonant was dropped, Ex. sæzde>sæde; mæzden>mæden

3. if the consonants ‘m, n’ were lost before the fricatives ‘f, s, þ, h’ the vowels were lengthened: ex. finf>fīf; bronhte>brōhte; uns>ūs; onþer>ōþer (other).

Consonants. 1. The most peculiar feature of consonants was the existence in OE either

backlingual or velar consonants. Practically every backlingual or velar consonant k, q, x, þ had a corresponding palatal consonant k’ q’ j

palatal velar voiceless k’ k plosive voiced q’ q voiceless x’ x fricative voiced j j

Now in ME there only 2 backlingual or velar consonants (k, g)

2. The voiceless consonants f, s, þ and their correspondences voiced v, z, ð had

the phonemic difference v, z, ð were the variants of f, s, þ and appeared only in the position between 2 vowels.

3. In OE there were no affricates and sibilants. The main changes in the consonantal system in OE were the following:

a) palatalization; b) voicing and voicing of fractures; c) quantitative changes; germination (удвоение), loss of consonants; d) metathesis (метатеза).

Palatalization or the Formation of Affricates and Sibilants. This process lacked the whole period up to the 11th century. In the position before a front vowel the consonant [k] c and the cluster [sk] sc were palatalized and approximated, respectively the affricate [t∫] Ex. cild>cīld>chīld. And the sibilant [∫] in the word ‘scip’ [ski:p]. The consonant [g] g was also palatalized in the position before a front vowel and at the end of a word. It approximated the affricate [dz] in the word. Ex. bricg [brig]>bridge. The sibilant [z] was borrowed from French. Voicing and Invoicing of Fricatives. If a voiceless fricative was surrounded by voiced sounds it becomes voiced and a voiced fricative when final is unvoiced. Ex. wīf but wīfes, wife or weorþan but wearþ. Assimilation. The cluster fn becomes ‘mn’ by assimilation. Ex. efn>emn (even) stefn>stemn; fm>mm; nefman>nemman. Loss of Consonants ‘n’ was lost before the fricatives. The preceding vowel was lengthened. Ex. finf>fīf. ‘h’ was lost between vowels, ex. tehan>teon (accuss) ‘z’ was lost before d and n, ex. sæzde>sֿæde. Germination (удвоение). Most consonants were lengthened before the semi-vowel [j]. The process is known as germination or doubling of consonants. Germination of consonants before [j] occurred only after a short syllable. In the process or the letter [j] j disappeared, ex. sætjan>settan, but domjan>dēman. Metathesis is a phonetic change consisting in the sounds exchanging their places. It frequently concerns the consonant ‘r’. Ex. rinnan>irnan, iernan wascan>wasean (wash).

Lecture 5 Morphology

The Substantive, the Pronoun, the Adjective, the Numeral, the Adverb

Being a group of old Germanic dialects, old English shared all common grammatical characteristics of the German branch. Old English possessed a well developed morphological system made up of synthetic grammatical forms. It is important to note that no analytical forms existed in old English. It is believed that towards the end of the period some analytical verb-forms began to develop. In old English the substantive, the pronoun, the numeral, the adjective had the categories of gender, number and case. The categories were independent in the Substantive while in the Adjective and the Pronoun they were dependent. They merely showed argument with a corresponding noun. Gender was represented by three distinctive groups of substantives. Masculine, Feminine and Neuter, the difference being grammatical rather than semantic. The old English gender is on the whole grammatical, that is male by being need not necessary be denoted тин nouns of the masculine gender. The same applied to nouns denoted female beings. Thus, foe example, the old English noun wif (wife) is neuter, and the old English noun wifman (woman) is masculine. Very often old English gender corresponds to natural sex distinctions. Contrary to the rule in Russian, the old English gender is not distinguished either by the substantive’s inflection or type of declension, the only exception being the o-stems, which include only the substantives of feminine gender. All other declensions include two or even three genders. To a certain extent, the gender of old English substantive could be identified by the demonstrative pronoun or adjective preceding the substantive. In later old English some attempts were observed to adjust the gender of substantives to semantic in most cases, e.g. wifman began to be treated as Feminine instead of masculine. Old English substantives were inflicted to show number. There were two numbers: singular and plural. The category of case was represented by four cases: Nominative, Genetic, Dative and Accusative. The dative case is also used for old Instrumental. The most peculiar feature of old English substantives was their division into several types of declensions, known as stems. The nouns a-stems, o-stems have purely historical significance and merely point to the origin of different paradigms. It is customary to distinguish three types of substantive declensions in Old English a-stem, o-stem, i-stem, u-stem. Vocalic stems form the strong declension and consonantal and root stems often belong to the irregular and minor declension. The division into stems doesn’t coincide with the division into genders. Some stems were confined to one or two genders only. Thus a-stem was only masculine and neuter, o-stems were always feminine, other included nouns of any gender. The a-stem declension include masculine and neuter substantives. The plural neuter Nominative and Accusative inflections depend upon the number of syllables the substantive contains and on whether the root syllable is short or long.

Monosyllable substantive with a short root syllable has no inflection in these cases. In the same cases dissyllabic substantives with a short root syllable do not take any inflections while dissyllabic substantives with a long root syllable take “u” inflection. The n-stems declension comprises masculine, feminine and neuter substantives. In the Nominative singular masculine substantives take the inflection “a”, and the feminine and neuter substantives take the inflection “e”. In all other cases the inflections are alike for all the genders. The Nominative case neuter always coincides with the accusative case. The root-stem declension includes feminine, masculine and neuter substantives which do not contain any stem-suffix, where inflections are added straight to the root. Feminine substantives with a short root syllable have in the nominative singular the inflexion “u”, substantives with a long root syllable do not take any inflections in this case. In three case forms: in Dative singular and in Nominative and Accusative plural there is a result of mutation. Probably the original form of the Dative singular must have been manni. The ending I was attached to the root causing mutation and then disappeared. Thus the fact that the case endings were joined on immediately to the root in words of this type led to a change in the root vowel. Consequences of this change make themselves felt in several English substantives present nowadays: man-men, foot-feet, goose-geese. It may be concluded that the system of declension in old English lacked consistency and precision. Numerous homonymous forms occurred systematically in all the paradigms. These features have favored the growth of other means of word connection in the sentence which came to be used instead of forming case-forms. So we can see the morphological system of old English substantives is represented due to the traditional approach. According to it the old English is regarded as a stage in the historical development of the Germanic languages. Such types of substantives as a-stems, o-stems, u-stems, n-stems are distinguished although there is little in the Old English forms themselves to show any traces of these stems. This is a traditional (diachronic) view which is followed in the book by Ilyish. The other view takes the Old English substantives as such, purely synchronically and classifies them according to the facts immediately visible in the old English texts. This view is to be found in the book by Randolph Quirk. An Old English Grammar, published in 1955. Here the morphological system of old English substantives is presented in the following manner.

a- general masculine declension, b-general neuter declension, c-general feminine declension- the n declension, e- irregular declension.

The Pronoun.

Etymologically the Modern English pronoun is a rather heterogenious part of speech. The personal and demonstrative pronouns are of common Indo-European stock. Others originated only in Old English and Middle English periods.e.g.possessive and relative pronouns. It must be noted that the paradigms of the pronoun show no traces of influence exercised by the nominal declension which is a proof that the pronoun followed a parth autonomous from that of the sustensive or the adjective. Old English pronouns fell under the same classes as modern English pronouns: personal, demonstrative, interrogative and relative. We are going to deal with only the personal and demonstrative pronouns. The personal pronouns of the 3d person distinguished between three genders, while in the 1st and 2d person there were three numbers:singular, plural and dual. The dual number was confined to two pronouns and must be regarded as an isolated archaic trait in the grammar system. Personal pronouns were declined according to a four-case system. As we see the case-forms of personal pronouns were built in a different way: the forms of the oblique cases differed greatly from the basic. Nominative case-form as most of the sounds were changed, the ancient ending and the root had fused into one morpheme. The pronouns of the 1st person had suppletive forms. The pronouns in the genitive case were used in an attributive function.and thus constituted a set of possessive pronouns.

Demonstrative Pronouns In Old English there existed two parallel rows of demonstrative pronouns. They had three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter; two numbers singular and plural and five cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative and Instrumental. Demonstrative pronouns took specific pronominal endings in some case-forms.In Old English texts it is widely used before the substantives with the weakened demonstrative meaning approaching that of the definite article and may help to determine the case, gender and noun of the corresponding substantive and adjective. The Adjective In Old English adjective has the following morphological characteristics:

a) it has distinctions of the masculine, feminine and neuter gender. b) it also has two number : singular and plural and five cases: Nominative, Genitive,

Dative, Accusative. A characteristic feature of the Old English adjective is that it agrees with the substantive in gender, number and case. The adjective has two types of declensions: weak and strong. Unlike the substantives almost any adjective could be declined according to the weak and to the strong declension. The choice of declensions depended on:

a) the preceding pronouns which modified the same substantive b) the syntactical function of the adjective c) the degree of comparison.

Adjective in the comparative and inperlative degrees were declined as weak: weak forms were used if the adjective was preceded by a demonstrative pronoun. The endings of the adjectives of the weak declension are the same as the endings of the substantives of the strong declension. Some endings employed in the strong declension of adjectives coincide with the endings of the strong declension of substantives: other endings have come from pronouns, that is why the strong declension of adjectives is termed “pronominal”. The Old English Degrees of comparison were built with the help of two suffixes: “r”- for the comparative degree and “st” for the superlative degree. Originally both could be preceded either by the vowel sounds o or i. The root vowel of those adjectives which contained i before r or st was umlauted in the comparative and superlative forms. Several adjectives had suppletive forms of comparison. Thus, all adjectives may be sorted out into three groups according to how they formed degrees of comparision.

1) adjectives with an unchanged root-vowel 2) adjectives with an umlauted root-vowel 3) adjectives having suppletive forms of comparison

Suppletive forms, representing a very old technique of comparing various degrees of a quality, have survived in all Indo-European languages: e.g. хороший –лучший- наилучший Gut-besser- der best in German

Lecture 6. Old English Verb.

The majority of verbs in Germanic Languages - including Old English - fell into large groups according to the way they build principal forms- "strong and weak". Beside the two major groups of verbs there existed some minor groups:suppletive, anomalous, preterite- presents.

Strong Verbs.

In the OE language there must have been three hundred strong verbs. There are seven classes of strong verbs differing in the root vowels of their four stems (except for the 7th class)

These four stems are: 1. the stem of the Infinitive and the Present Tense; 2. the stem of the 1st and the 3d persons singular, Past Tense Indicative;

3. the stem of the 2d person singular Past tense, all the persons, Past Tense plural and all the persons Past Subjunctive;

4. the stem of the Past Perfect. The first three classes are made up of strong verbs with qualitative gradation. The

vowel of the first stem in these classes corresponds to the original reduction grade into e>i

The vowel of the second stem corresponds to the original fall grade Indo-European O> Germanic A/ It must be noted that in OE the original Germanic system of gradation underwent various complications brought about by phonetic changes.

In the third stem the stress originally fell on the suffix and consequently the root had a zero grade of the vowel.

Yet in the first two classes it always contained a short vowel belonging to the root. In class III the third stem had an epenthetic vowel ( epenthetic vowels appeared in the 3d and in the 4th stems after the stress in Germanic Languages had been shifted to the root syllable). And in class IV and V it had a long vowel the origin of which is not clear.

The fourth stem in the first two classes contained a short vowel belonging to the root and in class III, IV and V it had an epenthetic vowel. Class IV is made up of strong verbs with quantative gradation and class VII includes strong verbs with reduplicated stems. The four stems are best seen in the principle forms of strong verbs: The Infinitive, the Past singular, the past plural and the Past Participle.

Class II a) before nasal+consonant

Class III

b) before e+consonant

c) before z; h + consonant

Class IV

Class V

Class VI Class VII

The vowel alternations in OE strong verbs were due to vowel gradation. That is they went back to the Indo- Europ ablaut, the original sounds had been modified due to the Common Germanic and specifically OE changes.

As we see, the first classes are variants of one system, due to the consonant or vowel following the root vowel undergoing gradation. There are some peculiarities of the OE gradation system in comparison with the Gothic. They are due to the phenomena of Germanic Fracture an OE fracture.

Thus in class II the difference between the 'U' of the past plural and the 'O' of the second Participle is due to the fact that in the Past plural there had been originally been in 'U' in the plural suffix which presented the root vowel 'U' from changing into 'O\ whereas in the second Participle the original vowel of the suffix had been a and before this a the root vowel u could not remain u and became o. In the Past plural and the Past Participle (3d and 4th stems) the change of V into 'r' is in accordance with Verner's Law. In classes III to V the gradation vowel was followed by consonants hence the vowels un the first stems were short and did not differ much from the original Germanic Series.

In class VII the vowel of the 1st and the 4th stems alternates with o of the 2d and the 3d stems (quantitative gradation). The verb of class VII originally had reduplicated stems in the Past Tense and the Past plural. Reduplicated were presented in Gothic

'e'. g. In OE a few remains of reduplication survived only in the North dialect e.g.

Weak Verbs.

OE weak verbs were divided into classes distinguished by the primary stem-suffix inherent in all verbs of a class. The number of weak verbs in OE by far exceeded that of strong verbs and was obviously growing. There are three classes of weak verbs in OE, corresponding to classes I, II, III of weak verbs in Gothic. Class IV of Gothic verbs has to counterpart in other Germanic languages. Every weak verb is characterized by three forms: Infinitive, Past Tense and second Participle. All the weak verbs built their principle forms by adding a dental suffix d or t to the Present tense stem, but there were some specific peculiarities in the three classes of weak verbs.

Class I.

To this class belong verbs whose stem-suffix was originally ‘I’ or 'j'. These verbs were mostly derived from substantial adjectival and verbal stems. The weak verbs of the 1st class fall into 2 subdivisions: regular verbs and irregular ones.

1. Regular verbs. The root-vowel of these verbs is mutated in all forms due to the influence of the stem-suffix i/j.

1) In long-syllable stems the i/j dropped out and no matter what consonant preceded it.

2) Verbs with a short root vowel followed by r keep the T and the 'r' is not lengthened. Verbs with a short root vowel followed by a consonant other that 'r' drop the ‘I’ and their consonant is lengthened.

e.g.

When the 'd' of the suffix is preceded by a voiceless consonant it changes into 't' in the second Participle both ‘t' and 'ed' are found

If the verb stem ends in consonant +d or consonant +t the second Participle can end either in 'd' or 'ted', 'ded'.

2. Irregular verbs. In this subdivision the stem-syllable i/j was contained only in the stem of the Infinitive and the Present tense. In the Past Participle the dental suffix was added straight to the root. Consequently the root vowel of the Infinitive and the Present tense was regularly mutated with the stems of the Past and the Past Partisiple retained the original vowel unchanged.

e.g. The verb buan (inhabit) also has a peculiar system of forms: its past tense is that of

a weak verb but its second participle takes the 'n' suffix like a strong verb. e. g. buan - bude — bun

The first class includes the so-called causative verbs derived from the second stem of strong verbs and their meaning is 'make smb or smth perform the action denoted by the strong verb'

e. g. weak verb strong verb

Class II. The weak verbs referring to this class are the easiest to identify: they are known as

'o- stem', which means that they were originally built with the help of the stem-suffix 'o'. the verb had lost 'o' in the Infinitive but retained its traces in the other principle forms:

ode > od

macian- macode- macod

Verbs of this class were the most numerous and also the most regular of all the classes of OE weak verbs.

Class III. Verbs of this class originally had the stem- suffix 'ai', only a few of them survived

in OE. The quarter part had passed over into class I and II:

e.g.

The root vowel in the Infinitive of the verb 'secgan' is umlauted due to the influence of i>ai. In 'habban' there is no umlaut since T was lost before umlaut. The consonant 'b' however is geminated. In the Past and the Past Participle the dental suffix was added straight to the root without the linking T for which reason the root vowel of 'secgan' in these two stems is not umlauted.

Minor Groups of Verbs. Preterete - present. Suppletive Anomalous Verbs.

Some minor groups of verbs of diverse origin could be referred to neither weak nor strong verbs. The most interesting group is the so-called Preterete-present verbs. In OE there were 12 such verbs. The Present tense forms of these verbs were originally Past tense forms which have acquired the meaning of the present. They have the same endings as the Past tense of strong verbs. To express the meaning of the Past these verbs developed new weak Past tense forms on the analogy of weak verbs.

Here is the conjugation system of the verb 'cunnan' (can)

Present Past

Indicative Subjunctive Indicative Subjunctive

So you see that the 3d person singular has no inflection. This fact explains why the modern English Model Verbs which are historically preterete-present do not have 's' inflection in the 3d person present tense singular.

Suppletive (irregular) Verbs.

These verbs differ from all other verbs in that their forms are derived from different roots, e.g. their system is based on suppletirity. Forms of the verb 'to be' are derived from three roots: 'wes' — 'es' and be. Interpretation of wesan and beon as fors of one verb is not certain. We might also take a different view: we might state a supple the verb 'wesan' having forms of the roots 'wes' and 'es' and the verb 'beon' having no past tense.

The suppletive system of these verbs seems to be due to the fact that its elements originally had different meanings, which were more concrete than the abstract meaning 'be'. One of these roots had the meaning 'grow'. This is the root : Germ -be, Lat - bee, Russ — бы

Lecture 7 The History of Old English Syntax

In dealing with the historical development of English syntax it is necessary

to admit the fact that OE was largely a synthetic type of language and its syntax was based on inflection. But in the course of time analytical tendencies have actually reshaped the syntactical structure of English both by generating a new scope of syntactic distinctions and of new means of expressing them.

The Word-Order in Old English and its Further Development

Old English texts reveal a variety of types of sentences: simple, compound

and complex. According to the aim of communication they may be declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory. In other words, all the basic types of sentences that occur in Modern English have their counterparts in OE. But the syntax of the OE sentence is characterized by a number of peculiarities which distinguish it from the Modern English sentence.

I. OE can build sentences that do not include any formal subject. e.g. mē þuhte (it seemed to me)

The subject may also be omitted if it can be guessed from the context. There may be more than one negation referring to one and the same predicate group, which is impossible in Modern English.

e.g. Ne mette he ær nan gebun land (he did not meet any inhabited land before) This construction is called polynegative. It is typical for all old Germanic languages. One of the most important characteristic features of the OE sentence is that its word order can be relatively free. Since syntactic relationship were fairly well known by inflections. Word Order was of the less importance for this purpose. It plays a grammatical role only in interrogative sentences in which the subject normally occupies the position of the predicate. In declarative sentences the Word Order is direct. 1. Subject + predicate e.g. Sē cyning and þa ricostan men drineas myran meolc. 2. The indirect Word-Order: predicate + subject e.g. to dæhað hē his feoh or adverbial modifier + predicate + subject e.g. Donne sceolon beon esamnode ealla zamenn.

This type of WO is frequent if the sentence begins with a secondary part either with an object or an adverbial modifier. The indirect Word-order is used

when smth new and unexpected is introduced into the narration. (Old English WO from the view point of the functional sentence perspective was investigated by Jan Firbas “Some Thoughts on the Function of WO in OE and ME”)

e.g. Jela spella sædon þa Beormas (many stories told him those Beormas). In this sentence the first position is occupied by the direct object. Then follow the indirect object, the predicate and in the final position stands the subject. Such a WO-pattern, however cannot be considered binding for all sentences of this kind. Sometimes a whole group of adverbial modifiers opens a sentence, nevertheless the subject comes before the predicate. e.g. þyder he cwæð

One more WO-pattern is found mainly in subordinate clauses. Here there is a tendency to place the predicate verb at the end of the clause.

e.g. oþ hit bið pæt feoh…. It was typical of OE to have secondary parts of the sentence stand between

the subject and the predicate (so called synthetic WO), the main parts form a kind of frame which encloses the secondary ones. In English this pattern has become extinct while in German it has become to be a standard.

II. With the development of analytic tendencies in the language a rather fixed and rigid WO began to establish itself. This change in the structure of English was largely determined by the gradual disappearance of case forms. In OE it was the inflexion that showed what part of the sentence the respective word was.

In ME the syntactical function of the lost inflexion of the word in the sentence come to be the main factor determining its syntactical function, i.e. WO was becoming grammatical by taking over some of the functions of the lost inflexions.

For some period in passing from OE to ME the WO remained unfixed even after the loss of inflections and the function of the word in the sentence could be identified only of a more or less broad context was taken into consideration, but in the XIVth and XVth centuries the sequence: subject – predicate – object was becoming more and more regular.

e.g. And smāle fowles mahen melogye. However, the sentence opened with an adverbial modifier indirect WO was

still very frequent. e.g. Than longer folk to goon on pilgrimages. So called synthetic order (the predicate coming at the end of the sentence) is

much rarer in Mid Eng than in OE. e.g. She hir love him graunted (she granted him her love).

III. At the beginning of the New English period the WO: subject – predicate – object was firmly established in most declarative sentences. e.g. Their Condles are all out.

In Modern English this WO-pattern can be deviated from in declarative sentences beginning with the words: there is, there came, there stood and with adverbial modifier.

e.g. On the terrace stood a knot of distinguished visitors. Other cases of inversion in declarative sentences may be accounted for from

the viewpoint of the functional sentence perspective: the predicate is often placed before the subject if some member of the sentence is put in a prominent position, so as to be made the rheme of the sentence.

e.g. Away rolled a wheel and over went the chaise (фаэтон)

Ways of expressing syntactical relations

These may be classed under four headings: agreement, government, joining, enclosure.

a) By agreement is meant such a syntactic relationship in which the inflexion of the head is repeated in the latter: adjunct. In OE agreement in gender, member and case occurs: e.g. anre mile, þæm lande.

b) The components of a phrase are connected by means of government if the adjunct takes a grammatical form required by the head. Government does not imply any coincidence in form of the governing word and its adjunct. In OE government is widely used as a means of syntactical bond. e.g. the verb may govern the Accusat case, the Dative case, the Genitive case.

The notion of government also applied to a noun which may govern the genitive case of another noun.

c) Joining implies such subordination of the adjunct to its head which is achieved by their position and their meanings but not by agreement or government or by any other special forms. e.g. ham eode

d) Enclosure is a means of expressing syntactical relations is of minor importance in OE. By enclosure we understand the putting of a component of a phrase between two constituent elements of another component. e.g. þæt neste land

The gradual weakening and the eventual loss of many of the inflexional elements and on the whole the great changes that took place in the morphological

system of the language during the Mid Eng period brought about modification in the means of expressing syntactical relations.

Agreement is reduced to a small number of cases. In New English period agreement was totally lost except between the demonstrative pronoun and noun: e.g. this book, these books.

Government is retained in Mid English in so far as case inflections are preserved. A verb may govern the objective case of a pronoun or the Common case of a noun. In the New English period government decreased greatly. It applies only to the objective case of personal pronouns.

Joining gains ground in the ME period since not only are adverbs subordinated to verbs by means of it, but also some adjectives and pronouns used as attributes are merely joined to their heads.

e.g. his schoures sate (its sweet showers). In the New English period joining unlike governing or agreement is on the

increase. As no agreement is possible between the adjective and the noun joining becomes the only means of syntactical bond between them.

The role of enclosure in the Mid Eng period increases. It becomes more and more important in the identification of the attributive function of the word which happens to be enclosed between an article or a preposition and the head-word. Enclosure becomes as significant in Modern English as joining. Not only adjectives and nouns but also other clauses of words and even entire phrases can be found enclosed between a preposition or an article and the noun which they refer to: e.g. the then government.

In OE already there existed a rather distinct system of both compound and complex sentences which do yield to classification and description.

The Complex Sentence

There were different types of complex sentences in OE. Subordinate conjunctions were of major importance in making possible a variety of syntactical relations between the principal and the subordinate clauses. As an additional means signalizing interdependence of the clauses there should be mentioned the use of the subjunctive mood in indirect discourse for forming different types of subordinate object clauses and also in causal, resultative, conditional and some other clauses. Although the Mid English complex sentence preserved many features inherited

from OE which illustrated incomplete subordination, it had at the same time acquired new properties attesting to the gradual elaboration of subordinate clauses.

The long periodic statements with many subordinate clauses which were typical of the ME and NE complex sentence gradually give way to what can be termed conventional (традиционный) English sentence structure. The means of expressing subordination are growing more and more stabilized. In certain types of subordinate clauses, first of all in Object clauses and in adverbial clauses of purpose, the tense forms a predicate verb in the main clause. This phenomenon termed ‘sequence of tenses’ is commonly considered now one of the means of expressing subordination.

The OE conjunctive mood forms used as a means of subordination in some varieties of complex sentences are already going out of use in Middle English.

Middle English

Lectures 1, 2 The Main Changes in English Spelling in the Middle English Period The change in spelling conventions was one of the most noticeable features of the

transition from Old to Middle English. The influence of French scribes made itself felt in two ways. The more obvious way was in the introduction into English of spelling conventions which had previously been found only in French, but another result of French influence more important for the study of the history of the English pronunciation, was that French scribes represented more or less phonetically the sounds that they heard, whereas Anglo-Saxon scribes were strongly influenced by West Saxon scribal tradition. The traces of French influence remain up to our days – some chabges in the alphabet.

1) The letter з is generally replaced by the letter “g” and “y” e. g. OE зod – ME god 2) The ligature æ also comes into disuse in ME/ 3) The letter “z” is introduced to denote the consonant [z] Next changes in spelling habits In the sphere of vowels French influence made itself felt in the following points:

1) The sound [u:] represented by the letter ‘u’ in OE, came to be spelt ‘ou’ e. g. OE hūs – ME hous [u:] 2) The OE letter ‘u’ [u:] was supplemented by o [u:] before and after the letters “n, m, u, r” to avoid confusion. e. g. OE sum - ME som [su:m] , OE sunu – ME sone [su:nə] 3) After the analogy of the spelling in the French borrowings, such as chief [∫tə:f], the letters ‘ie’ began to be used in come native ENGLISH WORDS FOR THE oe [ə:]

e. g. OE feld – ME field [fə:ld] 4) The OE [y:] which remained in use in West Midland began to be represented by the symbols ‘u, ui’ e. g. OE fŷr – ME fur, fuir [fy:r], OE fyldon - ME builden [by:ldn]

In the sphere of the consonants French spelling also had some influence. 1) The OE variant phoneme [v] which occurred in the intervocalic position or between a vowel and a voiced consonant began to be represented by the letter v instead of the OE ‘f’: e. g. OE ofer [over] – ME over [o:ver] The ME letter ‘v’ often afterwards with ‘u’: e. g. love – loue [luve] 2) The OE letters ∂, þ were supplemented by the symbol ‘th’ e. g. OE þis – ME this 3) The digraph ‘ch’ was introduced for [t∫]: e. g. OE cild – ME child 4) The digraph ‘sh’ was introduced for [∫]: e. g. scip - ME ship 5) The symbols ‘j, dg, gg’ were introduced for [dз]: e. g. OE bricg – ME bridge [bridзe] 6) The OE letter ‘c’ [k] is presented only before back vowels: e. g. OE cumin – ME comen [kumen] In the position before a front vowel the ‘c’ was supplemented by the letter ‘k’ e. g. OE cyning – ME king The letter ‘k’ also began to be used for [k] before the letter ‘n’: e. g. cnāwan – knowen 7) The OE [h] continued to be spelt ‘h’ while x’ and ‘x’ began to be represented by the letter combination ‘gh’ e. g. lext [lix’t] – light; brōhte – broughte [brouhte] 8) In OE [g, j, y] were all represented by the letter ‘y’. In ME the consonant [g] continued to be spelt ‘g’: e. g. gōd – good [go:d] The consonant [j] came to be represented by the symbol ‘y’: e. g. geong – yong [jung] The consonant [y] when occurring after back vowels began to form the diphthongs [au], [ou] spelt as aw, ow: e. g. dragon – drawen [drauen] When preceded by the vowels [u] and [u:] [y] formed [u:] spelt as ou, ow: fugol – foul [fu:l]. After the consonant l and r changed into [w]: e. g. murgen – morwen [morwen] 9) The OE letter combination ’cw’ was substituted by ‘qu’: e. g. cwen – quen [kwe:n] 10) For the graphical reasons the letter ‘I’ in final position began to be replacrd by the letter ‘y’. Similarly, the letter ‘u’ in final position was substituted by the letter ‘w’.

On the whole ME spelling is far from uniform. Purely phonetic spellings mix with French spelling habits and also with traditions inherited from OE. Besides, there are differences between dialects in this respect, too.

The Main Changes in the Vowel System in ME Period.

The ME period is marked with crucial development in the phonological system. The most important of these may be summed up under the following headlines:

1) The weakening of vowels in unaccented syllables and their subsequent loss in period from ME to Modern English. This process is closely related to the gradual loss of inflections.

2) The change of the language rhythm consisting in the lengthening of short vowels in open syllables and in the shortening of long vowels before certain consonants.

3) The rise of new phonemes. 4) The loss of the OE diphthongs. 5) The formation of the diphthongs of a new type. To fully understand the importance of these changes it is necessary to

summarize the essential characteristics of the OE vowel system. OE had both short and long vowel phonemes which were absolutely independent phonemic units. As a result of important changes coming into the vowel system in the 10th and 12th centuries, the ME vowel system was basically different. While in OE quantity (length, shortness) was a distinctive phonemic feature, in ME this is no longer so.

The situation in ME is this: in some phonemic environments only short vowels can appear, while in other phonemic environments only long vowels can appear. So. Quantity ceases being a phonemically relevant feature and becomes a merely phonetic peculiarity of a vowel sound.

Some Items of this Development 1) An important change of characteristics of the ME period affected

unstressed vowels. Vowels in unstressed syllables were reduced to a neutral vowel [ə] which was denoted by the letter ‘e’. This process was closely connected with the development of the morphological system. So, the OE Infinitive suffix ‘an’ changed to ‘en’: e. g. writan – written.

The OE plural suffix of the noun -as – changed to ‘es’: stanas – stanes. The OE suffix ‘a’ changed to ‘e’, ‘u’ changed to ‘e’ From the phonemic viewpoint this change indicates decided separation of the

unstressed vowel phonemic system from that of the stressed vowel. Thus, while in OE there was no difference between the number of vowel phonemes in stressed and unstressed syllables, in ME there arises a very significant difference in this respect.

2) An important development of the ME period was the change of the language rhythm brought about by the leveling of the time unit used for the pronouncing of the English syllable whether short or long. It is a well-known fact that in Modern English long as well as short syllables are pronounced in approximately the same time unit. This typically English trait developed in the ME

period after vowels in long syllables were shortened while in short syllables they were lengthened.

a) In OE short vowels were already lengthened before the consonantal combinations ‘nd, mb, ld, rd’. In ME short vowels were lengthened in open syllables. It is one of the items of the development which deprived quantity (length, shortness) of its status as a phonemic feature.

So, OE [a] > ME [a:]: macian> maken [maken] OE [e] > ME [e:]: sprecan > speken [spe:ken] OE [ o] > ME [o:]: hopian > hopen [ho:pen] So, lengthening affected these vowels a, o, e. The narrow vowels ‘i’ and ‘u’

remained unaffected by this change. This phenomenon took place in the 13th century. In a number of words the quantity of the vowel was vacillating. Thus, in the OE noun [huæk] ‘whale’ the nominative singular ‘ huæl’ would yield a ME ‘whāle’ with long ‘ā’. In some words there are variants in the vowel quantity depending on phonemic environment. So, the substantive ‘cild’ had its vowel lengthening and has yielded Modern English [t∫aild], but its plural form ‘cildru’ preserved its [i] short has yielded Modern English ‘children’.

The preservation of short [i] in the substantive ‘wind’ may be due to the fact that this word was often used as a component of compounds as in “windmill”.

b) The shortening of long vowels before two or more consonants had already begun in OE and continued in ME period: e. g. hūsbonda > husbonde; wifman > wimman. However, long vowels remain long before “the lengthening” consonant groups – ld, nd, mb, etc.: wende > wēnde. And before such consonant clusters as belonged to the following syllable. This mainly affects the group ‘st’: e. g. læsta > lēst.

3) The OE vowels [i:, e, ē, o, a, ō, u, ū] did not suffer any change during the ME period. The rest of the OE vowels underwent various qualitative or quantitative changes. There are as follows:

1) The OE [a:] changed into [o:] in ME and was spelt ‘oo, o’ except in the Northern dialect where it remained unchanged: e. g. stān > stoon [sto:n], stōn

2) The OE [æ[ changed into ME [a:] in most dialects: e. g. glæd > glād. In the West Midland and Kentish dialects [æ] was changed into [e]: efter,

wes, gled. 3) The OE [æ] changed to ME long open [e] spelt as ‘e, ea, ee’: e. g. slæpan >

slepen [slepen] 4) The OE ŷ [u:] appears in ME as ‘i’ in the Northern and East Midland

dialects, as [e] in Kent and remains unchanged in the West Midland dialects: e. g. byrgon (to bury) – birien (North and East), burien (West), berien (Kent).

5) The Oe [y:], [u:] developed parallel with the short “y”. In writing it was represented by ‘i, ee, u, ui’ respectively: e. g. OE fur – fir (North, East), fur / fuir [fu:r] (West), feer [fer] (Kent). All OE Diphthongs were monophthongized in ME period.

a) Most short diphthongs appeared in the Wessex dialect as a result of OE fracture. In the ME period they returned to their original form. So, OE short ‘ea’ became a paning through the stage of ‘æ’ as in: e. g. eald > æld > ald. There was practically no fracture in the Northern and Midland dialects. In the Northern dialect the non-fractured [a] lengthened before ‘ld’: e. g. ald > āld [a:ld] as was retained as such.

The OE ‘eo’ changed to ME [e]: hearte > herte b) The OE long eo was simplified into ē [e]: e. g. leaf > leaf [lea:f] The OE eo was monophthongized into a tense, closed ē [e] often spelt as

‘ee’: e. g. ceosan > chesen [e] 6) In ME a number of diphthongs of a new type arose from groups consisting

of a vowel and either a palatal or velar fricative, i. e. through the development of a glide between a vowel and one of the following semi – vowel ‘j, h, y, w’. The second element of these newly formed diphthongs unlike those in OE, came to be narrower than the first. So the first group:

1) rise of diphthong in ‘i’: aз > ai > ay: dæз > dai: day eз > ei, ey: neз > nei 2) rise of diphthongs in w: aз > aw: saзn > sawe, saw More Phonetic Changes When a vowel was followed b the voiceless fricative (spirant) [h] a glide

developed between them and a diphthong rose: A + h > auh, aught: naht < nauiht > naught Ā+ h > ough in Midland Southern dialect: dāh > dough; in northern dialects

ā+ h > agh, dagh O+h > ough: brohte > broughte Ō + h > ough: зenōh > inough (enough) The OE ‘y’ [u:] in the 13th century in the West Midland and South West

changed into ‘u’ before [t∫, dз, snt∫]: e. g. mycel > [müt∫l] > mut∫l The Main Changes in Consonantal System One of the characteristic features of the OE consonantal system was the

absence of sibilants. In the ME period the OE palatal c[k] befpre front vowels became assimilated into [t∫] written ‘ch’:

e. g. cild > child [t∫i:ld] In the Northern dialects variants are also found with [k] sound/ These are due

to Scandinavian influence: e. g. mikel [large], kirh [church]. The preservation of the [k] sound un the verbs ‘sīken, thinken’ and some others may be due to the influence of the short forms of the 2dn and 3d persons singular? Present Indicative: secst. secþ, þencst, where the consonant was followed by another consonant ‘s’ or ‘þ”. The OE cluster ‘sc’ changed into [∫]: e. g. scip > ship. In a few cases ME has variants with [k] and [t∫], [sk], [∫]: bank – bench

An Analogous pair ‘shirt – skirt’ and also ‘screcker – shreken’ is probably due to Scandinavian origin of North variants. The OE long consonant denoted by the spelling ‘cз’ developed into the voice affricate [dз]: crycз > dridge. Alongside with ‘seggen, leggen’ the forms of ‘seien, sayen, leyen, layen’ are also found. These are due to the analogy of the Past tense forms ‘seide, saide < sæзde’; ‘leide, laide < læзde’. In the Southern dialects initial [f] became voiced as in ‘fæder > vader.

In Kent initial ‘s’ in words of OE origin was also voiced as in ‘synne > zenne. In a few words the consonant ‘v’ when followed by another consonant

changed into ‘u’ as in ‘hafoc, gen, sing’. So, to sum it up we may say that the ME sound system differs from the OE

system in the following: 1) OE diphthongs of the ‘ea’ and ‘eo’ type have disappeared. 2) Diphthongs of the ‘ei, ai’ type have arisen containing a closed second

element. 3) Vowel quantity (shortness, length) has become dependent on phonetic

environment. 4) The affricates [t∫] and [dз] have arisen. Now we shall stick to the following point. 1) Some Debatable Aspects of the ME Period This question concerns specifically the problem of explaining the OE sound

change whereby vowels were lengthened before certain consonant groups like ‘nd, ld, rd’. By the way, the vowel lengthening in question, however, can’t be explained without reference to a second OE sound change, whereby vowels were shortened before two or more consonants. Some scholars treat this problem in the following ways:

Zuick has offered two explanations. According to this explanation the cause of the lengthening is accentual, the syllable receiving a circumplex accent as compensation for the loss of the final unstressed syllable.

Morsback suggests that the normal vowel shortening before two or more consonants was due to a shift from ‘grave [gra:v]’ to acute accent, which caused the first of the two consonants to lengthen and the vowel therefore to shorten.

As for Norman Eliason, his proposed explanation of these sound changes is this:

1) These two sound changes (shortness, lengthening) began at the same time. These changes have in common certain similarities: both involve the change in vowel quantity; both depend upon the number and nature of post-vocalic consonants; both are affected by the number of unstressed syllables which follow. He gives the following reformulation of the two “sound Lons”.

1) Vowel shortening occurred before two or moreheterosyllabic consonants. Originally the shortening occurred in disyllables, for in monosyllables the consonants couldn’t be heterosyllabic.

This quantity change is phonetically explainable. a) The shortening in monosyllables was analogical. b) Vowel shortening failed in disyllables if the consonants were

tautosyllabic. Such atutosyllabic consonants could be an initial cluster: e. g. preo-stas.

2) Vowel lengthening occurred before nasals or liquid followed by such consonants as combined therewith to produce tautosyllabic clusters. This quantity change is not phonetically explainable, but the results as a reflex of vowel shortening before two or more consonants. That vowel lengthening before ‘nd’ is not a direct result of phonetic change, but an indirect result due to analogy seems to Norman Eliasion, the only sound inference to be drawn from the finding of E. A. Meyer concerning vowel and consonant quantity in Modern English.

A. Meyer (1866 – 1936), a French scholar, one of the greatest linguists at the beginning of the XXth century, the founder of the sociological trend in French linguistics. The relevant part of his findings may be summarized thus:

1) Vowels are regularly shorter before two consonants than brfore one. This is true when the post-vocal consonants are ‘nt’ (i. e. nasal or liquids + voiceless consonants), ‘st’ (i. e. consonants which may function as the initial cluster of the second syllable), “lg’ (i. e. liquid and nasals + voiced consonants).

2) Vowels are not shorter before ‘nd’ than before a single consonant. 3) Vowels are not longer before ‘nd’ than before a single consonant. 4) What causes such variations in vowel quantity id the difference in energy

which the number and the nature of the postvocalic consonants require. If we apply these findings of Meyer to two sound changes the following

seems to be justified.

1) Vowel shortening occurred when the additional energy required by the two or more postvocalic consonants was provided at the expense of the quantity of the vowel.

2) Vowel shortening failed before ‘nd’, for sich consonants required less energy than combinations of other consonants.

3) Vowel lengthening before ‘nd’ is a reflex of vowel shortening before groups of other consonants.

Lectures 3, 4 The Main Changes in the Vowel System in the New English

Period

The Great Vowel Shift (Long Protracted Shift) The great revolution that has taken place in the phonetic system of English is

the vowel shift, which began (according to O. Jesterson) in the 11th century and resulted in the general raising of ME long vowels, with the exception of the two highest [i:], [u:] which couldn’t be further raised but were diphthongized into [ai], [ou]. In a word, the essence of the shift was narrowing of all ME long vowels, and diphthongization of the narrowed long ones.

The shift can be represented in the following way: i: > ai i: < e: > ε: ei > a: ou < o: u: < o: u: > au ə, e:, j, e, ε: < æ, ea

Examples: a: > ei a: > æ: > ei name [na:me] > næm > neim ε: > e: > i: speak > spe:k > spi: k ε > i field [fe:ld] > [fi:ld] i: > ai riden > raid o: > ou go [go:] > gou o: > u: moon [mo:n] > mu:n u: > au house [hu:s] > haus In the 16th century the vowel [e:] from ME [ə:] differed from the vowel [i:]

from the ME [e:] and the words – speak, beat, mean – didn’t rhythm with the words – meek, meet, keen. In the late 17th century [e:] changed into [i:] and the difference between two vowels disappeared. To denote the vowel ‘e: < ε < æ < ea’ the spelling ‘ea’ was introduced, thus was to distinguish this sound from another vowel [ε:] which according to the vowel shift changed into [i:] and was denoted by the spelling ‘ee’, when in the 17th century the former vowel also changed into [i:], the difference between the two spellings lost its phonetic value, but the spelling ‘ea’ and ‘ee’ serve to distinguish between two words pronounced in the same way: e. g. see and sea.

In a few words ME [ə:] which in the vowel shift became [i:] is denoted by the spelling ‘ie”, e. g. field, occasionally also ‘ei’, e. g. receive.

ME long [o:] became [ou] and was denoted by ‘oa’ as boat [bo:t], [bout]. The vowel shift proved to be of different character if the long vowel was

followed by [r]. Examples: 1) The ME [a:] followed by [r] didn’t change into [ei] but combining with [r]

formed the diphthong [εə] spelt ‘are’: e. g. hare [ha:re] > hare [hεə]. 2) The ME [ə:] in the combination with [r] doesn’t change into [i:], but forms

the diphthongs [εə] and [iə] spelt ‘air, ear’: e. g. pair [pə:r] > pair [pεə]. 3) [ə:] + r > [iə] spelt ‘eer, er, ear’: e. g. beer [bə:r] > [biə]. 4) o: > uə: e. g. poore [po:re] > poor [puə]. 5) u: > o: or into a triphthong: e. g. power [pu:er] > power [pauə]. As a result of the above noticed phonetic changes the new phonemes ‘εə, iə,

uə’ came into being in the English language. Special Cases Some words have sounds which do not correspond to the general laws of the

vowel shift. a) Long [u:] remained unchanged when followed by a labial consonant: e. g.

droop, room. Rūm > roum > room. Here the ‘oo’ spelling was introduced to denote the vowel [u:]. In the word

‘group’ and ‘soup’ the [u:] is due to the words of French origin: e. g. route [ru:t]. [u:] has also remained unchanged in the substantive and in the words like “wound” [wu:nd].

b) [a:] has also remained unchanged in the borrowed words as “vase”, charade [∫ə’ra:d].

c) ME long open [ə:] did not always change into [ə: > i:]. In some words it was shortened to [e] before the narrowing had begun. This shortening is mainly found before [d] and [θ] as in “bread, death”, also before [t]: let, ate. Sweat, get. The vowel is also shortened before [s] as in ‘less, lest” and before [f] as in “leaf”.

ME [ə:] was shortened in ‘friend’. However, there was no shortening before the same consonants in other words as ‘read, sheath”. In two words long [i:] was shortened to [i]: e. g. breeches, sick (ME sēke).

It does without saying that all these changes occurred gradually, without being noticed by the speakers. E. g. on its way from [a:] to [ei] the vowel must have passed through a number of intermediate changes, smth like ‘a: < æ > ə: . e > ei.

The Great Vowel Shift affected the English vowel system so much that it has attracted the attention of many linguists. But the causes of the shift have not yet been clarified. So, the Berlin scholars W. Hoen and M. Lehnert point out that the pronunciation og a vowel with a high tone (in emotional speech) contributes to a

narrowing of its articulation. But this approach doesn’t seem to give an adequate explanation of all the phenomena involved.

Some authors point out the more immediate causes of the shift within or outside the phonological system. It has been suggested that the great vowel shift began as early as the 12th or 13th century when two short vowels [u] and [i] became more open and began to be contrasted to the long [e:] and [o:], leaving their counterparts [i:] and [u:] isolated.

The isolation of [i:] and [u:] in the otherwise well balanced system correlated pairs stimulated their modification onto diphthongs and this initial change started the shift. Some scholars look for the causes of the shift is the interdependence of the development of vowels and consonants. So, when the quantity of vowels in ME was partly diphthongized, the loss may have been compensated by the opposition of short and long vowels. The Great Vowel Shift began only when the ling consonants ceased to exist.

According to the following view resorting to morphological as well as phonetic factors in explaining of the shift, the Great Vowel Shift became necessary after the loss of final [ə] in Early New English period. All these theories have certain drawbacks and we must conclude that the problem of the Great Vowel Shift remains unresolved.

As for the chronological frame of the shift it remains somewhat doubtful. Henry Sweet (1845 – 1912) and O Jesperson thought that the shift was only completed in the 18th century and the pronunciation of the 16th and 17th centuries was intermediate between the ME and Modern pronunciation.

E. g. bite - Chaucer [bi:t] - Shakespeare [beit] - Present day [bait]. Prof. H. C. Wyld considered that the shift was completed by the late 16th

century. As for Prof. B. A. Ilyish and I. P. Ivanova they consider beginning of the

Great Vowel Shift in the 14-15th centuries and the end – in the 16th c. Changes in Some Vowels in Early New English In comparison with G V Shift the other vowel changes of the Early New

English period look isolated and insignificant. Yet, they account for the modern system of vowels and clarify certain points in the modern graphic system.

I) ME [a:] is reflected as [æ] in the New English vowel system. This change affected all words containing [a:] except those where it was preceded by ‘w’: e. g. man > mæn. But if it is preceded by a labial semi-vowel [w] it changed into [o]: e. g. OE wæs > ME was > NE woz.

The change [wa:] > [wo] didn’t take place when [a] was followed by one of the velar consonants {k, g, ŋ}, in thes4e cases [a:] developed into [æ]: e. g. wax, wag.

In the 15th century [a:] before [l] developed into [aul] and the words – ‘all, call, talk, walk’ – were pronounced [aul], [kaul], [taul], [waul]. In the 16th c. the diphthong [au] changed into [o:], while the spelling “au” or ‘ou” remained unchanged: e. g. cause, autumn. The words in which the diphthong [au] had developed from [a:] before ;l’ retained their spelling: e. g. all, call, tall, talk.

In the 16th c. a new ling vowel appeared that is [a:]. The scholars state that two main sources of modern [a:] – [A;] and [au]. The development in this case appears to have been [a > æ > æ: > a:]. 1) [a:] before fricatives [θ], [∂]: bath, path, rather, father. 2) [a:] before ‘s’: class, brass. When the ‘s’ is followed by a vowel [æ] is sounded: e. g. passage.

3) [a:] before [st]: cast, last, vast, but plastic. 4) [a:] before ‘sk’: ask, mask. 5) [a:] before [sp]: gasp, rasp. II) au > a: a + l +consonant > au> a: III) [a:] developed before ‘lf, lv’: half, calf, but salve, valve. The development of [au] before the clusters ‘n + consonant’ and ‘m + consonant’. It may be:

[æ] – cant, scant; [a:] – plant, chance; [o:] – haunt. Before [ndз] the vowel is usually [ei]: change, strange. IV) 1) short [u] changed into [λ] – cut, but – with ‘u’-spelling; with ‘o’-spelling – come[kum] > kλm, some [sum] > sam. These are also a few words with the ‘ou’-spelling – enough [e’nu:f] > [e’nλf].

The vowel [λ] is also found in a few words which in ME had a long [o:]: e. g. with ‘o’-spelling – month (ME moneth [mo:nθ] > mu:nθ > munθ > mλnθ), Monday, mother.

The spelling ‘oo’ is found in two words – blood, flood. Short [u] remained unchanged when it was preceded by a labial consonant: e. g. bull, put, bullet, wolf. But sometimes [u] after a labial consonant became [λ]: e. g. pulse, butter.

2) Long [u:] was shortened before [k] – cook, look – and occasionally before some other consonants: e. g. good, stood, foot, wool, wood. But brood, food, mood, rood have preserved a long vowel [u:].

V) In the 16th c. long [o:] appears. The evolution og it is the following. [a + l + conson. > au > o:]: e. g. all, tall.

In a few words long o: shortened into [o] – cloth.

In the 16th c. a new vowel appears, namely [ə:]. Its rise is closely connected with the vocalization of [r].

1) [ə:] arises in the following cases: I + r: fir, sir U + r: fur, curt O + r after w: worm, world E + r: heard, learn. Changes in Diphthongs. The diphthong [au] and [ei] were merged into [æi] as “day, way” and then æi > ei [dei, wei]. The diphthong [ei] merged with ‘ei’ from ME [a:], a few pairs of homophones resulted from this: ail – ale, maid – made. ME [eu] spelt ‘eu, ew’ changed into [ju:] through the stage [eu > iu > ju:]: e. g. dew. This change affected French words as pure, nature. The sounds [o] and [ō] were merged into one, again pairs of homophones appear: e. g. grown – groan, know – no. [o: + ou > ou} – slow, stone. In the forms: says, saith, said. The vowel was shortened to [e]: [sez], [seθ], [sed]. Loss of Unstressed [ə] In the 15th c. the vowel [ə] of unstressed endings was lost. The vowel [ə] was lost when it was final and also when it was followed by a consonant, as in the plural forms of substantives: e. g. labels, books; in the 3rd person singular present indicative: likes, sets. And in the Past tense and Participle II: lived, walked. However, the neutral sound [ə] was preserved and later changed into [i] in the groups [səz], [təd]. As in ‘asses, houses, wanted’ loss of unstressed [ə]is connected with important changes in grammatical structure: with this loss the Infinitive of many verbs coincided in its phonetic form with substantives: e.g. love, hand. Development of Unstressed Vowels. Most unstressed vowels were reduced to [i] or [ə]. 1) in the second syllable of disyllabic words: wishes, village. 2) in the first syllable of disyllabic words: begin, return, admire. In some words the unstressed vowel was not weakened if the unstressed syllable is part of a compound word. Its vowel may preserve its full articulation: doorstep. Unstressed [ou] often preserves its quantity: window, fellow. The vowel [ə] between a consonant a ‘n’ tends to disappear. The ‘n’ becomes then syllabic: e. g. nation [nei∫ən] > [nei∫n].

The Main Changes in the Consonant System of the New English Period I. Development of [æ] In the 15th c. the guttural x and mediolingual x’ which occurred after [i] were lost but the spelling remained unchanged: e. g. ME night [nix’t] – NE night [ni:t] > nait a) In the first two words after the disappearance of the consonant x’ the preceding vowel was lengthened and underwent the G V Shift by changing into [ai] and in the following word [au] developed into [o:] b) In the final position after back vowel the consonant x changed: e. g. rough, enough [I’nu:x] > [I’nuf] > [I’nλ] II. The sound [l] was dropped out when followed by ‘k, m, f, n’: e. g. walk, calf, half. But [l] was preserved in the words of the Latin origin as in ‘resolve, dissolve’ [l] was also lost before [d] in “should” and “would”. III. Appearance and loss of [w] In a few words with an initial labialized vowel there appeared an initial so-called prothetic [w]: e. g. one. The evolution of this word seems to be following: [o:n] > [wo:n] / [wu:n] > [wun] > [wλn]. [w] also appeared in the word ‘woof’. But [w] was dropped out in an unaccented syllable after a consonant in the words: answer, Greenwich. Nevertheless, [w] remained in the words containing the suffix ‘ward’: e. g. forward, also in the word ‘language’. In the stressed syllable [w] disappeared in the group: conson. + w + labialized vowel – sword, two. In the word ‘whole’ the letter ‘w’ was introduced in spelling on the analogy of “who, whose”.

Voiced and Voiceless Fricatives. In unaccented syllables, the consonants ‘θ, f, s’ and the affricate [t∫] were

voiced. This voicing took place mostly in form words since they usually occurred in unstressed positions: e. g. [s] > [z] “is” [is] > [iz]

[f] > [v] only one example “of” [of] > [ov]. The consonant cluster [ks] was also voiced if it occurred in unstreeed syllables:

e. g. example, exhibit. The consonant [r] was vocalized in the 17-78th c. The vowel preceding the [r]

was lengthened: farm [farm] > [fa:m], horse [hors] > [ho:s]. In the 17th c. the dentals [d, t, s, z] before j became palatalized and turned into

the sibilants [dз, t∫, ∫, з ], respectively the j dropping out: e. g. session [sesjen] > [se∫n]. This development resulted in the appearance of a new phoneme [з]. In these

cases the [j] was absorbed by the preceding consonant yielding a fricative or an affricate. In the following cases the [j] is lost after the liquid consonants [r] and [l]: crew [kriu] > krju > kru: ( GROW, RUDE): e. g. blue, plural – both pronunciations are possible in the words salute, resolution.

Loss of consonants in clusters. In certain consonant clusters one or even two consonants were lost.

1) In the 16th c. the clusters “mb, mn, ln” were simplified to “m, n, l”: e. g. lamb [lamb] > [læm], autumn > autumn [o:tm].

In the above given words the letters ‘b, n’ have been preserved in Modern English spelling.

2) The clusters “stl, stn, ftn” containing two or more consentual consonants, lost their ‘t’ in the 16th c.: e. g. rustle > [rλsl], often > [ofn].

But in compound words all sounds are preserved: postman, Christmas, exactly.

On the other hand, words having one final consonant sometimes require another: e. g. soun > sound.

Some words of French origin with final ‘n’ have acquired ‘t’: e. g. peasant, pleasant.

A final ‘t’ appeared in several prepositions an dconjunctions: e. g. aagines > against, amongst > amongst.

Initially the clusters “kn, gn, wr” lost their first consonants in the 17ht c. : e. g. knee [kne:] > [ni:], gnawen [gnauen] > [gnaw] > [no:].

When “kn: or “gn” precede by a vowel, it was preserved: e. g. acknowledge. The consonant [d] > [∂] in the neighbourhood “gr” in the words: fader >

father, moder > mother. Lecture 5

Changes in the Verb System in Middle and New English Period

1. The development of strong verbs

2. The development of weak verbs

3. The development of irregular verbs

4. Preterite-present verbs and their development

5. Conjugation

I. The seven classes of strong verbs underwent multiple changes due to the

phonetic modification of vowels. The chief changes were caused by the general

tendency towards the gradual loss of inflections of the OE Infinitive –an and the past

tense plural –on were reduced to –en.

The suffix зe first was reduced to –I and then lost altogether. The grammatical

alternation of consonants was also lost. The four principle forms of the OE strong

verbs began to be reduced to three. This process most probably started in the VI and

VII classes where the Past Singular and the Past Plural forms already had identified

stem vowels in OE. Besides, in ME the Past Plural begins to be leveled along the

pattern of the past singular (IV and V classes) and the gradual vowel of the Past

Participle passes over to the Past Plural (II and III classes) thus furthering the above-

mentioned process.

Already in OE the distinction of root-vowels in the four stems was not

maintained in all the classes of strong verbs: classes VI and VII distinguished but

two root-vowels, class I, class V and some subdivisions of class III used as a series

of three vowels. In ME more and more verbs lost the differences in the root-vowels

between the four stems. This lack of regularity led to the leveling of stems by

analogy and the ultimate reduction in the number of principle forms in strong verbs.

In the XV and XVI centuries the distinctions of number in the past tense of

strong verbs disappeared and the four principle forms were reduced to three: the

Infinitive, the Past tense, the Past Participle. This leveling of the two past forms was

taking place along the pattern of either the Past singular or the Past plural. In some

classes the form of the Past participle displaced both the past singular and the past

plural. In Class II the past plural is leveled out in the singular. In Class III the past

singular is leveled out into the plural. In class IV the vowel of the Past participle is

leveled out into both the Past singular and the past plural. In class V the vowel of the

Past Participle is leveled out into both the past singular and the past plural. In class

VI the vowels of the past singular and the past plural fell together in ME. In class

VII the vowels of the past singular and the past plural fell together as well.

Apart from the phonetic and grammatical changes, the strong verbs were

subjected to one more change: their number was greatly reduced. In OE there were

over 300 strong verbs, in ME some of them died out, while other began to build

new, weak forms by adding the dental suffix on an analogy with the overwhelming

majority of English verbs.

II. The development of weak verbs in ME and early NE shows that they

displayed a strong tendency towards regularity and system. In ME the difference

between the tree classes of weak verbs tended to disappear. This tendency was

facilitated by the following changes:

1) In the XIV century the unvoicing of the dental suffix ‘d’ from the verbs:

kepte, mette spread over the verbs whose stems ended in nd, ld, rd and also in l, m,

n, v, e.g.: OE sendan sende send

ME senden sente sent

2) The stem suffix ‘o’ of the second class was reduced to ‘e’. Preceding the

dental suffix ‘d’ in the past tense this ‘e’ remained the only feature distinguishing

class II from class I

3) The Infinitive of class I and II lost ‘i’

4) The double consonants in ‘habban’, ‘secgan’ were contrasted; ‘b’ in ‘habben’

was replaced by ‘v’ after analogy of the forms with class V

5) The irregular verbs of class I preserved their umlauted forms in the Infinitive

and the Present tense. In ME the number of weak verbs grew steadily because most

of the newly formed verbs and those borrowed from Anglo-Norman and

Scandinavian came to be conjugated according to the pattern of the weak class.

In NE after the syncopation of the unstressed ‘e’ in the past tense of class II the

differences between class I and class II disappeared.

On the one hand, there is a majority of verbs which build their main forms by

only adding the dental suffix –ed.

On the other hand, a comparatively small number build their past and past

participle forms otherwise; by means of a vowel-change, with the help of the suffix

‘t’; sometimes in conjugation with a root vowel alternation.

It must be born in mind that the group of regular verbs included etymologically

both weak and strong verbs while in the group of NE irregular verbs there are a

number of etymologically weak verbs such as ‘teach, seek, sleep, put, send’ etc. All

of them have retained their original weak-verb characteristic- the dental suffix

‘t’(‘d’). Their irregularities can mostly be explained by the normal sound changes

that have taken place in the course of their development. The group of irregular

verbs in ME includes also the defective verbs, e.g. can-could.

III. In ME the verb ‘beon’ remained suppletive but it loses the parallel forms:

the Infinitive ‘wesan’ falls into disuse. The present participle ‘wesende’ was ousted

by the form ‘beinde’. The past participle ‘ben’ came into use providing the meaning

form.

The plural forms of the present indicative ‘sint, sindon’ were gradually

displaced by ‘aren’. In NE ‘are’ became standard throughout England.

The verb ‘gan’ also remains suppletive, but its past tense ‘eode’ was substituted

in ME by ‘went’, the past tense stem of the verb ‘wenden’ which survives now only

in the phrase ‘wend one’s way’.

The verb ‘don’ underwent only phonetic changes, the verbs ‘will, would’

developed into an auxiliary and are used as a means of building the future, the

future-in-the-past and the conditional mood forms. In Modern English ‘will’, when

used in its primary meaning of volition, is also a modal verb.

IV. In OE the preterite-present verbs were 12 in number. In ME only one verb

‘geneak’ (to be enough) was lost.

The rest of the preterite-present verbs are well preserved though with some

changes in their meanings and phonetic structure. Later, in NE their number was

reduced to six. Of these verbs; can, may, must, dare form the group of modal verbs

having different shades of modal meaning.

The verb ‘dare’ has developed another form of the past tense ‘dared’ after the

analogy of the regular verbs. The verb ‘owe’ gradually lost its primary meaning and

began to denote ‘be in debt’ with ‘owed’ as the past tense.

The verb ‘witan’ was ousted by its synonym ‘know’. The old infinitive ‘wit’

has survived only in ‘wit’ (namely). The form of the present singular ‘wot’ has

survived in the expression ‘Got wot’ (Бог знает).

Conjugation underwent considerable changes in ME. The inflexion ‘eÞ’ of the

strong verb in the 3d person singular is retained in the Midland and Southern

dialects. In the Northern dialects ‘eth’ was ousted by ‘es’ (he writes).

The inflexion ‘aÞ’ of the plural present tense indicative also changes according

to dialect. In the South ‘eth’ was retained (he writeth). In the Midland dialect ‘aÞ’

was displaced by ‘ren’ which apparently was borrowed from the plural forms ‘in’,

‘en’.

In the past plural of weak verbs the inflexion ‘on’ was reduced to ‘en’. In the

16th century the Northern ‘s’ of the 3d person singular begins to appear in use ihn

the Midland as well as in the Southern dialects and later becomes established in the

National language.

In the 17th century ‘s’ had become the standard form while ‘eth’ was restricted

to liturgical and stately styles only.

The inflexion of the 2nd person present tense singular ‘est’ which was also

common to the 2nd person past tense singular of weak verbs continued to be used

with the pronoun thou until the 17th century when it began to be ousted by the plural

form with the pronoun you. The latter circumstance in the end led to the

disappearance of number distinctions in the 2nd person. The plural form of the

Midland dialect ‘en’ emerged victorious out of the competition with other dialectal

forms.

In NE ‘en’ aws reduced to ‘e’ and ultimately lost. After the loss of ‘e’ in the

forms of the infinitive and in the 1st person singular and in all persons plural of the

present tense these forms lost the inflexion morphemes altogether.

What remains in the Modern English verb, except for the modal verbs and the

verb’be’ is the opposition: writes- 3d person singular; write- all other persons.

Lecture 6 Verbal Categories and their development in the English language.

1. The problem of Category of Aspect.

2. The Category of Tense.

3. The Category of Mood.

4. The Origin of the Passive Form.

5. The Origin of the Perfect Form.

In OE the verb besides two grammatical categories, i.e. number and person,

had the specifically verbal categories of mood and tense. Other verb categories

characteristic of the verb of many languages there existed 3 aspects: the

Continuous, the momentary and without reference to any completion. The

momentary aspect presents the action as heading toward completion. The

perfective aspect presents the action as completed and having brought about a new

stage of things. These original aspects of the Old Germanic Languages developed

into tenses. The continuous aspect developed into the present tense; the momentary

aspect – into the past tense; the perfect action was two folded. In the system of

strong verbs it formed the past tense and in that of the preterit present verbs – the

present tense.

By the historic period of English its old aspect forms had become extinct.

Therefore the question of whether OE texts reveal any special grammatical means

to express aspect distinctions is of prime importance. In OE there existed pairs of

verbs in which one member was distinguished from the other only by one formal

characteristic the use or non-use of it with the prefixes – gē, ā and even some

others.

e.g. e – writan; ā – risan.

The function of the prefix was very close to that of the perfective aspect in

the Slavonic Lan-ges. While the perfective form had a meaning that corresponded

to the imperfective aspect.

Nevertheless these facts cannot prove the existence of the Category of

Aspect in the OE verbs. Some verbs have no ‘ e – a’ forms at all.

e.g. the verb ‘cuman’ is never used with the prefix ‘ e’, but in the sentence “

Þa cōm hē on mor ene” (then came he in morning) it shows a complete action.

Consequently these prefixes ‘ e – a’ – cannot be treated as forming up a

grammatical category of aspect.

The use of prefixes as a means of expressing aspect distinctions did not

become more systematic in passing from OE to ME either. On the contrary, prefix

‘ e’ in ME gradually fell into disuse and only the context could show whether the

action was completed or not. In other words the elements of morphological aspect

that were outlined in OE had disappeared. The Modern English aspect based on the

opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms e.g. writes – is writing –

begins to take roots in the ME period. The continuous form as a means of

expressing the continuous aspect goes back to the OE free phrase: feon/neso +

present Participle

e.g. Þæt scip sws culne we yrnende under se le (the ship was sailing) ‘wæ

yrnende’ had the function of a compound nominal predicate expressing the state of

subject happened to be in. Another OE phrase that might have been a source of the

continuous form was: beon/wesan + a verbal noun:

e.g. he is on huntinge (he was in the process of hunting) in which ‘is on

huntinge’ denotes the process. The preposition ‘on’ in this phrase was gradually

reduced to ‘a’: he is a huntinge’ and then disappeared: ‘he is hunginge’ obviously

under the influence of the verbal noun that the present participle in –ing emerges in

ME displacing the OE form in –ende. So the participle I conjunction with the verb

‘to be’ began to denote an action (process) going on continuously at a definite

period of time, turning into an analytical aspect form of the verb. The Present

Continuous form is a very rare occurrence in ME, the full development of this form

as well as of the perfect continuous passive took place in the New English period.

Now in Modern English to denote the 2 aspects of the verb we use the terms

‘continuous aspect’ and ‘common aspect’: is reading – reads; the basic difference

between these forms is a difference in the way the action is shown to proceed.

The Category of Tense

The category of tense is defined as a verbal category which reflects the

objective category of time and expresses on this background the relations between

the time of the action and the time of the utterance. In modern English there are 3

tenses (present, past, future). In OE there existed the tenses: the Present and the

Past. There was no special tense form for the future. Actions referring to the future

were expressed by the form of the present tense often in combinations with

adverbial modifiers as sometimes the idea of futurity became clear from the

context only according to the hypothesis pronounced by scholars. Germanic l-s as

originally had more tenses, but gradually lost them except for these two. The

argument given in support of this point of view is that the general tendency in the

development of the verb in Germ l-s was toward signification, and English was not

an exception. If, then, this view point is time, only one conclusion can be drawn:

the lost synthetic tense forms were gradually replaced by new analytical

formations. One of these formations arose in OE to denote future actions. The

starting point of this form was the free phrase: sculan/willan + Infinitive:

e.g. t scean beon e dryne and ple a (there will be game and drinking)

hi hine to am ade beran wylla (they will carry him to the funeral pite).

In these phrases ‘sceal beon’, ‘beran wylla’, which evidently represent

compound modal verbal predicates the original meaning of determination involved

in the verb willan and of obligation involved in the verb sculan is weakened to

such a degree that these phrases denote the idea of futurity. The development of the

future form belongs to the ME period when the verb willan and sculan gradually

loose their primary lexical meaning and become auxiliaries. Yet, in ME as well as

in New English the auxiliaries shall and will may under certain conditions have a

more or less strong connotation of modal meaning. I shall tell you, I shall do it.

The Category of Mood

In OE the moods fall into three divisions: the Indicative, the Imperative, the

Subjunctive. The Indicative is used to state an action as real. e.g. Seo sa lip manig

hund up in on pat land (p II).

The Imperative mood is used to denote commands and request addressing to

the second person both singular and plural. E.g. ‘far to pare heorde (go to the herd).

The Subjunctive mood shows that the action is considered by the speaker as being

possible, desirable, doubtful or conditional. It is widely sed in subordinate clauses.

The Subjunctive is also used in indirect speech, including indirect questions. E.g.

he sade pat pat land ware swythe lan (he said that the land was very long). In ME

as in OE the Subjunctive is very frequent in subordinate clauses. It is used to

express different shades of doubt, wish, supposition, etc. In subordinate clauses of

unreal condition the past subjunction is used to express an unreal condition

referring to the present: the Past Perfect subjunctive is used to express an unreal

condition referring to the past. In the principal clause the construction ‘wolde +

Infinitive’ is used to denote unreal actions referring to the present and the past

perfect Subjunctive or ‘wolde + Perfect Infinitive’ is used to express unreal actions

referring to the past.

e.g ‘She wolde wepe if that she saw a mous caught in a trappe, if it were

deed or bledde’ (She would weep if she saw a mouse caught in a trap, if it were

dead or bleeded).

In the New English period the analytical forms of the oblique moods

gradually gain ground while the synthetic forms of the old subjunctive fall into

disuse. After the XVIIth c. the conditional mood expressed by the analytical form

should/would + Inf displaces the synthetic forms of the subjunctive in the principal

clauses in complex sentences with subordinate clauses of condition.

The Origin of the Passive Forms

In OE there existed the free phrase: beon/weorpen + Past Participle of a

transitive verb. E.g. he was ofslagan (he was killed); he weorp ofslagen (he became

killed). The verbs ‘beon and weorpan’ are link verbs. The past participle with the

link verb form a compound nominal predicate. In the first phrase the subject

possesses a quality, the result of the action performed on it. In the second case the

subject acquires a certain characteristic expressed by the past participle. Later on

this semantic difference between the two phrases disappears and they both come to

have a passive meaning. In ME ‘weorpan’ came into disuse. The verb ‘beon’

gradually turns into a pure auxiliary and together with the past participle merge an

analytical form of the verb denoting an action performed upon the subject of the

sentence.

e.g … and bathed every veyne in Swich licour of which vertu engendred is

the flour.

But the condition of the verb ‘beon’ with Part II doesn’t always form the

passive voice. This combination may be either a simple verbal predicate a

compound nominal predicate. Only the context would show if this phrase could

express a state or an action. The full development of the Passive form belongs to

the New English period.

The origin of the Perfect Form

The Perfect form which in Modern English is claimed to express the

category of “temporal relation”. In OE the verb ‘habban’ sometimes has a direct

object followed by the Past Participle of a transitive verb. The Past participle,

having the function of a predicative adjective, agrees in gender, number and case

with the direct object.

e.g hie hafdon hiere cyning a worpenne (they had their king as deposed).

The actual meaning is ‘they had deposed their king’. Originally this formation

meant that the subject possessed a thing having a certain feature that resulted from

an accomplished action.

Very often the primary meaning of the verb ‘habban’ was weakened and the

phrase practically expressed an action completed before a given time. During the

OE period the verb ‘habban’ loses its lexical meaning and turns into an auxiliary.

The past participle in its turn loses its forms of agreement with the object and

syntactically becomes connected immediately with the verb ‘habban’ developing

into an analytical form. In ME perfect forms, which arose in OE, are widely used.

Both present and past perfect are of frequent occurrence, the future perfect is less

frequent. E.g. what that aprille… the droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote.

So, hadde I spoken with everichon.

As can be seen from the last quotation the auxiliary verb in ME could

preceed the subject. It could also be placed after the Past Participle.

e.g. Whan Lephirus eek… inspired hath in every holt and heith.

It was not until the 17th century that the final stabilization of the perfect form

came about. The development of the perfect passive and the perfect continuous

forms belong to a later period. The perfect form of intransitive verbs originally had

the verb ‘beon/wesan’ as its first component. The phrase expressed a state which

the subject acquired as a result of his own action. This is most frequent with verbs

expressing motion.

e.g. is his eafora mi beard her cumen (his son the brave one, is now come

here).

The Perfect form with the verb ‘to be’ occurred in ME and in Early New

English. But since it had the same meaning as the form with ‘habe’, the latter

gradually displaced the verb ‘to be’ and began to be used as an auxiliary with

intransitive verbs as well.

There are some remnants of the perfect with the verb ‘to be’ in Modern

English.

e.g. When I came, the man was gone. The phrase ‘was gone’ denotes state.

Lectures 7, 8.

Sources of the English Vocabulary

It is common knowledge that the vocabulary of any living language is highly

responsive to changes which are taking place in the life of the language

community. Socio-economic, political and cultural developments call forth new

notions which have to be named. New words constantly come into being to denote

these new notions. But some notions are no longer needed by the language

community and words denoting them become obsolete – they drop out of the

vocabulary. It often happens that actual things and notions continue to exist but

they undergo various changes which entail respective changes in the meanings of

the words denoting them. This type of causes is commonly referred to as extra-

linguistics. On the other hand, both quantitative and semantic changes may take

place due to purely linguistic causes.

The Replenishment of the Vocabulary in the ME Period.

The enlargement of the English vocabulary in the ME period caused by both

linguistic and extra-linguistic factors was a result of affixation, word-composition,

conversion and borrowing from abroad. The latter source of replenishing the ME

vocabulary was connected mainly with the Scandinavian and Norman Conquest of

England.

Affixation.

The OE system of affixation underwent some changes in the ME period. Some of

the OE prefixes and suffixes remained productive throughout the ME period. Some

were gradually falling into disuse. Besides, a number of derivational affixes

entered the English language alongside with words borrowed from French. Some

of these affixes began to be used in building new words, not only from French, but

also from English roots. Among the OE suffixes which preserved their ability to

coin new words in the ME period it is necessary to mention.

I. The noun-forming suffixes.

er < OE ere; leader, mother.

ing < OE ing, inּצ; hunting, beginning.

th < OE þu; trenth > truth.

ship < OE scipe; fellowship.

ness < sickness.

hood < OE hād; manhood.

dom > OE dōm, martyrdom.

Productive were the suffixes red < OE rseders

ster > OE ester ; lock < OE lac.

II. The adjective-forming suffixes.

- y < OE ig, iּצ; hearty, ashy.

- ly < OE lic; manly, poorly.

- ish < OE isc; heavenish.

- less < OE leas; guiltless.

- ful < OE full; dreadful, blissful.

- some < OE sum; gladsome.

III. The adverb-forming suffix – ly < OE lice; proudly.

IV. The verb-forming suffix – en; happen.

Along with suffixation, prefixation played an important part in replenishing

the ME vocabulary. The OE prefix “for” remained in the words: forcleave,

forhang. It was also used for making words from French roots: e.g. for-

pynchen. The prefix “mis” occurs in the words: mistrust. The prefix “un” was

used to form words with a negative meaning: e.g. unwise. The OE prefix “ge-”

gradually ceased to be productive and fell into disuse in ME already. The prefix

“be” was used to coin new words: e.g. betray, belong.

Word-composition.

A large number of new words were formed in ME by means of compounding.

1) Compound nouns: football < n-stem foot + n-stem ball; breakfast < verb +

noun.

2) Compound pronouns: everything (adjective + noun).

3) Compound adverb: everywhere (pronoun + adverb).

Conversion.

Conversion, which is defined as the formation of a new word from one already

existing through its adoption of a changed paradigm, was widely employed in

ME. Conversion pairs appeared on the analogy of so-called historic homonyms:

e.g. love (n) and love (v). These two resulted from the OE noun “lufu” and the

verb “lufian”. In the course of time these two different parts of speech lost

inflexions in their initial forms: “e” in the common case served for the noun and

in the infinitive for the verb and fell together, as to their pronunciation.

In the conversion pairs e.g. dust and to dust, the initial forms of both the

primary and the derived words coincide all along owing to the structural

identity of the root and the stem in each member of the pair.

Middle English Borrowing.

I. The Scandinavian Element.

Scandinavian borrowings made a substantial contribution to the English

vocabulary. The influence of Scandinavian on English was facilitated by the

high degree of their genetical kinship and the structural proximity that existed

between the two languages. Many English and Scandinavian words differed

only in their inflexional elements, the roots being identical: e.g. OE sunu - son.

So, it is difficult to say, whether this or that English word was native or

borrowed from Scandinavian. Sometimes the phonetic shape of the English

word was affected by its Scandinavian cognate. For example, the hard [g] in the

verb “to get” (OE gietan) is also of the Scandinavian origin < OSc “gefa”.

Sometimes there coexisted words of English and Scandinavian origin, slightly

varying in form. Though they have developed slightly different meanings, their

common origin (a common Germanic root) is beyond doubt. Such pairs of

words are termed etymological doublets: e.g. shirt < OE sceorte and shirt < OSc

skyrte (a long shirt).

The French Element.

The number of French borrowings that entered the English vocabulary as a

result of the Norman Conquest was very large. The influx of French words into

English didn’t begin immediately after the Norman Conquest, but only in the

second half of the 12th century. The period of the most extensive borrowing was

the end of the 14th century. Most of the new words borrowed into English were

associated with the social system of the conquerors (developed feudalism) and

also with such fields as government, religion, law, art, literature, etc. it is

customary to divide French borrowings into several semantic groups:

1) Government and administration: state, country, court, justice, noble.

2) Law and justice: prison, verdict, jury.

3) Religion and church: religion, saint.

4) Army and navy: enemy, battle, soldier.

5) Art and literature: beauty, image, paint.

6) Pleasures, feasts, meals, fashions: comfort, dinner, dress, soup.

7) Other borrowings: chair, place, air, river, large.

Some words came into English through French from other languages:

1) From Celtic: attack, luggage.

2) From Germanic languages: guard, war, bank, garden; also proper names:

Charles, Richard.

There are also a number of derivational morphemes:

1) Prefixes: dis-, en-, em- (dismiss, enlarge, embed).

2) Suffixes: -ment, -age, -able, -ess (government, marriage, admirable,

princess).

Also the suffixes: -ance, -ence, -ard, -al.

In conclusion it must be noted that the French borrowings in the course of time

went through the process of phonetic and lexico-grammatical assimilation in

accordance with the norms of the English language.

The Replenishment of the English Vocabulary in the New English Period.

The influx of new words into the English vocabulary continued throughout the

New English period on a large scale. It can be accounted for the new change

and development which had taken place in the English society: the growth of

capitalism, the development of culture, science and technology, the introduction

of the printing press, the expansion of trade and cultural contacts with

neighbouring countries.

The formation of new words on the basis of those already available in the

language continued along the same lines as in the Middle English period, i.e. by

means of affixation, composition, conversion and borrowings from abroad.

Affixation.

Productive in the New English period are:

1) Noun-forming suffixes: -er, -ist, -ess, -ism, -ness, -ing.

2) Adjective-forming suffixes: -ly, -y, -ed, -ful, -ish, -less, -able.

3) Verb-forming suffixes: -ize, -en, -fy.

4) Adverb-forming suffixes: -ly.

The most productive prefixes in the New English period are: re-, un-, dis-, sub-,

anti-, pre-, extra-.

Less productive are the prefixes: mis-, be-, out-.

Word-composition.

Word-composition gains ground throughout the New English period. New

nouns continue to be formed by the compounding of:

1) noun stem with noun stem (e.g. newspaper)

2) gerund stem with noun stem (e.g. writing-table)

3) adverb stem with noun stem (e.g. passer-by)

4) verb stem with noun stem (e.g. breakstone)

Compound adjectives are formed by joining together:

1) noun stem with adjective stem (e.g. life-long)

2) noun stem with Participle I stem (e.g. peace-loving)

3) adjective stem with Participle I stem (e.g. good-looking)

4) adverb stem with Participle II stem (e.g. well-read)

5) adjective stem with adjective stem (e.g. dark-blue)

Compound verbs are built by joining together:

1) noun stem with verb stem (e.g. kidnap)

2) adjective stem with verb stem (e.g. white-wash)

Semantic Changes in Words.

Semantic changes may be caused by both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors.

The most common of them are the associations of similarity of meaning

(metaphor) and associations of contiguity of meaning (metonymy).

If the denotational side of the meaning is changed, the result of such a semantic

change will be the extension or the reduction of the meaning.

If the connotational component of the meaning is changed, the result is either

degradation or amelioration of the meaning.

It is necessary to mention the developing process of the formation of

phraseological units as a means of replenishing the English vocabulary. Already

in the ME period a number of phrases underwent the process of lexicalization

and transformed into word equivalents.

English Borrowings in the Epoch of Renaissance.

The revival of classical learning in the Epoch of Renaissance, numerous

translations from Latin and Greek resulted in a new influx of borrowings from

the classical languages. At the same time the discovery and the exploration of

the New World and other territories, the development and the expansion of

economic, cultural and scientific ties with Italy and Spain caused the borrowing

of words from Italian, Spanish and French.

Some of the Latin words borrowed in the Epoch of Renaissance had earlier

entered the English language through French. Such pairs, differing in form,

meaning and usage, formed doublets of Latin-French origin.

Most of the Greek borrowings of this period are scientific and political terms in

fact international in character (e.g. atmosphere, epoch). Italian borrowings are

mainly represented in music and architecture (e.g. violin, balcony). There was

also a group of words connected with social life (e.g. motto, bandit). Spanish

borrowings include such words as don, senora, Negro. French borrowings are

represented by a group including military terms (e.g. pilot, colony) and words

connected with art and culture (e.g. scene, vase).

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