History of English part 2

1. History of English part 2

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

3. mob “girl” not adult female human blond (un)married playful lovely long-haired

4. strong-willed pig-headed mob mob negative positive connotation = subjective/cultural association

5. Semantic change = the change of meaning: • metaphorical/metonymical use > secondary meaning > primary meaning? mob mob girl bird not adult female human blond playful ? (un)married playful lovely lovely ? long-haired

6. Semantic components are added/dropped/ turned prominent/trivial hoover appliance electrical made by Hoover by vacuum suction cleaner

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

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

9. bootleg, highjack, kidnap freelance, (wear) heart on one’s sleeve, round table, Pyrrhic victory (“one more such victory and we are lost”) peeping Tom red tape on/off the wagon rain cats and dogs kick the bucket, spitting image

10. POLYSEMY – WHICH MEANING IS THE RIGHT ONE? PRAGMATIC INFERENCE RELYANCE ON PRAGMATIC INFERENCE – PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES

11. THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH PHONEMIC SYSTEM SOUND CHANGE phonetic innovation easing the transition between segments maintaining (increasing) contrastiveness phonetic variation free: economic, begin, poor… positional: sport - put, works - plays, bank - band… phonetic change → phonemic split, phonemic merger phonemic split: sing – sin , zip – sip, very – ferry phonemic merger: beet – beat, male – mail, tower - tyre

12. Types of sound (phonetic) changes: • dependent, independent • dependent changes: • assimilation = one or more articulatory feature(s) linger(s) or is anticipated • impossible, irregular, illegal…. < in + possible/regular/legal

13. b) dissimilation = one or more articulatory feature(s) become(s) different • Late Latin an(i)ma > French ȃme (assimilation) : Spanish alma

14. c) intrusion prothesis: OE ān > ME ǭn > wǭn > wọ̄n NE wūn, wun > [wʌn] one epenthesis: OE ganra > NE gander law and order, vanilla ice cream… anapthesis: ice cream > aisukuremu

15. d) weakening and loss = articulation with lower energy input • lenition of consonants (sonorisation) • In ME, voiceless fricatives became voiced in final position: • of : off, with, is, was, has, Greenwich, churches… • Also: intervocalic alveolar flapping in AE, approximation of l in Cockney: Paul, milk… • centralization of vowels in unaccented syllables • In ME, unaccented vowels were levelled to [ə] → syncretism of cases

16. elision (apheresis, syncope, apocope) • ‘im, knight, gnaw, write; • vegetable; • sing, comb, hand in hand

17. Independent phonetic changes Grimm’s Law (the First or Proto-Germanic Consonant Shift) IE voiceless plosives → Germ voiceless fricatives pet : five, prijatelj : friend, tri : three, tanek : thin … IE voiced non-aspirated plosives → Germ. voiceless plosives blato : pool, slab : sleep, dva : two, drevo : tree… IE voiced aspirated plosives → Germ. voiced fricatives → voiced plosives brat : brother, biti : be, duri : door ….

18. OE PHONEMIC SYSTEM short monophthongs: i, y, u, e, o, æ, a long monophthongs; ī, ȳ, ū, ē, ō, ǣ, ā short diphthongs: eo, ea, ie long diphthongs: ēo, ēa, īe consonants: p. t, k b, d, ʒ f, þ, s, h n, m, l, r w, x

19. 9th century: lengthening of short vowels before certain clusters: OE [short vowel] > [long] / _ [sonorant + homorganic voiced C]{#, V} OE [short vowel] > [long] / _ {nd, ld, rd, mb, ƞg} {#, V} OE cild > cīld > ME chīld > NE [ʧaɪld] child OE cildru > cildru > ME childre, childer, childeren > NE [ʧɪldrən] children

20. Positional variation of OE consonants: fricatives voiced in completetly voiced environment /f/ = [f], [v] /þ/ = [θ, ð] /s/ = [s, z] OE wulf, pl. wulfas OE wulfas > ME wulves > [wʊlvz] wolves

21. OE y > ME i <i, y> (most dialects) > ME e <e> Southeastern dialects > ME y <u> West Midland bury [berɪ] – southeastern pronunciation, Midland spelling FROM OE TO ME short vowels: i y u i u e o o e æ ɒ a a /

22. long vowels ȳ ū ī ū ī ẹ̄ ọ̄ ē ō ę̄ ǭ ǣ ā ā diphthongs: OE eo > ME e OE ea > ME a OE ie > ME i, e OE ēo > ME ẹ̄ OE ēa > ME ę̄ OE īe > ME ī

23. Middle English vocalic system – more stable, more symmetrical The change of the length of vowels: a) Long vowels > short before two consonants or long consonants: OE cēpan, pret. cēpte ME ḳepen kepte NE [ki:p] [kept] Also: meet – met, bleed – bled, read – read (OE mētte, blēdde, rǣdde) Long vowels became short also in unaccented position: OE ān > ME ǭn > NE [wʌn] one OE ̊ān > ME an, a > NE [ən, ə] a, an

24. Long vowels became short in long words: Cf.: south : southern, wild : wilderness, holy, holiday… b) Short vowels became long in open penultimate syllables: OE sceadu, sceadwe ME shade > shāde > NE [ʃeɪd] shade ME shadwe > shadow > NE [ʃædəʊ] shadow Also: cap (Latin cappa) : cape (< Late Latin capa) Adding the <e> letter at the end of the word became the graphic inciator of the length of the vowel in the preceding syllable

25. VOWELS IN UNACCENTED SYLLABLES LEVELLED TO [ə], which was subsequently lost in final position and grammatical endings grammatical endings lost their contrastiveness > the colapse of case system? OE ME cyng cyngas king kinges cynges cynga kinges *kinge cynge cyngum kinge *kingem cyng cyngas king kinges

26. ME CONSONANTS: LENITION (VOICING) OF FRICATIVES after unaccented vowels [f, θ, s] > [v, ð, z] / oV _ churches[z], spinach [ʤ], with [ð] , off [‘ɒf] : of [əv]

27. In ME the spelling (based on French orthography) still reflects the pronunciation phoneme written as pronounced i <i, y> [i] bit ī<i> + word-final <e> [i:] bit, time e<e> [e] set ẹ̄<ee> [e:] feet ę̄ <ea> [ɛ:] stream a <a> [a] cat ā <a> + word-final <e> [a:] name o <o> [o]pot ọ̄ <oo> [o:]fool ǭ <oa> [ɔ:]boat u <u> [u] cup ū <ou> [u:]mouth

28. ME long vowels ī ū ɪi ʊu about 1450 ou about 1600 ei about 1700 ai au ME ī > ɪi > ei > [aɪ] rīsan > [raɪz] rise ME ū > ʊu > ou > [aʊ] hūs > [haʊs] house

29. ẹ̄ ọ̄ ǭ ę̄ ME ẹ̄ > [i:] fẹ̄t > [fi:t] feet ME ọ̄ > [u:] fọ̄l > [fu:l] fool ME ē̜ > ẹ̄ > NE [i:] strę̄m > [stri:m] stream ME ǭ > ọ̄ > NE ou > [əʊ] bǭt > [bəʊt] boat

30. ā ME ā > ǣ > ẹ̄ > NE eɪ] nāme > [neɪm]

31. The Great Vowel Shift (1500 – 1700) • 1500 1600 1700 • ī ɪi ei [aɪ] rīsan > [raɪz] rise • ū ʊu ou [aʊ] hūs > [haʊs] house • ẹ̄ ī [i:] fẹ̄t > [fi:t] feet • ọ̄ ū [u:] fọ̄l > [fu:l] fool • ē̜ ẹ̄ [i:] strę̄m > [stri:m] stream • ǭ ọ̄ [ou] bǭt > [bəʊt] boat • ā ǣ ẹ̄ [eɪ] nāme > [neɪm]

32. The complexity and interdependence of linguistic change grammaticalisation of phonetic variation

33. GRAMMATICAL CHANGES • grammar – a system of morpho-syntactic tools which the speakers of a language use to convey mandatory information (grammatical categories) • two aspects of grammatical change: • the number (list) grammatical categories changes: • the emergence of feminine gender in Indo-European languages, • the loss of dual in most Indo-European languages, • the general loss of grammatical categories in pidgin languages, the emergence of grammatical categories in creole languages • - the encodement of grammatical categories changes • grammaticalization – full content words become function words and function words can subsequently turn into bound morphemes

34. grammatical categories associated with the noun: OLD ENGLISH MODERN ENGLISH number: singular, plural, (dual) singular, plural case: nominative, genitive, dative, common case, accusative possessive case, (objective case) gender: grammatical natural

35. grammatical categories associated with the verb: OLD ENGLISH MODERN ENGLISH person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd 1st, 2nd, 3rd tense: present, preterite present, present perfect, past, past perfect, future, future perfect mood: indicative, imperative, subjunctive indicative, imperative, (subjunctive) aspect: - progressive, non-progressive voice: active, passive active, passive

36. OLD ENGLISH – INFLECTIONAL LANGUAGE: Grammatical categories inflections namena, wulfas number case (gender)

37. OLD ENGLISH – INFLECTIONAL LANGUAGE: Grammatical categories inflections mannes nama, wulfum gegiefen … þæt hīe dyden number case (gender) person number tense mood • MODERN ENGLISH – MORE ANALYTICAL • man’s name, the name of a man • given to wolves • … that they should do …

38. OLD ENGLISH – concordial language Grammatical categories encoded redundantly agreement, concord, redundancy = adjustment of forms within phrases and/or between the subject and the predicator Geongum mannum gedafenaþ þæt hīe leornien sumne wīsdōm. MODERN ENGLISH – agreement kept only in the 3rd person sg of the present indicative It behoves young people that they acquire some knowledge.

39. GENDER In OE gender grammatical, discernible mostly through adjectives/determiners and pronominal reference se gōda mann (hē) sēo gōde sunne (hēo) þæt gōde wīf (hit) The grammatical gender was lost in Middle English. pronominal reference natural gender the good man (he) the good sun (it) the good wife (she)

40. Gender encodement in NE: man woman girl boy bull cow ox prince princess tiger tigress tom cat tabby cat billy goat nanny goat cock sparrow hen sparrow he wolf she wolf

41. NUMBER OLD ENGLISH nouns: • sg pl • stān stānas • nama naman • mannmen • hūs hūs • sunu suna • gesceaft gesceafta

42. sg pl sg pl sg pl • N. stān stānas nama naman mannmenn • G. stānes stāna naman namena mannes manna • stāne stānum naman namum mennmannum • A. stān stānas naman naman mann menn • N. hūs hūs gesceaft gesceafta • G. hūses hūsa gesceafte gesceafta • D. hūsehūsumgesceafte gesceaftum • A. hūs hūs gesceafte gesceafta

43. DECLENSIONS = patterns/assortment of case/number endings 5 major, several minor: vocalic or strong, consonantal or weak, root declensions

44. MIDDLE ENGLISH • two “declensions” expanded: the a-declension and • the weak declension (in the south) • OE stānas > ME stǭnes • OE naman > ME nāmen • OE hūs > ME hūs, hūses, hūsen • OE bēc > ME beech, bookes, booken • Eventually the {es} morpheme prevailed. All other endings are • relics of the old declensions and considered irregular: • the –en plurals: oxen, children, bretren, kine • the mutalion plurals: feet, mice, lice, men, geese… • the zero plurals: sheep, deer, fish… • the voicing of final fricatives: wolf-wolves

45. NUMBER CONCORD (AGREEMENT) within the NP: OE modifiers and determiners displayed number agreement with the headword of the nominal phrase ān gōd mann, fīf gōd-e menn mīn bōc, mīn-e bēc The most common plural ending of adjectival words was –e in OE, which weakened to [ə] and disappeared in ME. The number agreement survived only in demonstratives: this – these, that - those

46. Number agreement between the subject and the verb: OE wē/ʒē/ hī wrītaþ > NE we/you/they write (present indicative) OE writon > NE wrote (preterite indicative)

47. THE ENCODEMENT OF NUMBER IN PERSONAL PRONOUNS 1st person: singular: ic > NE I plural: wē > NE we 3rd person singular masc. OE hē > NE he singular fem. OE hēo > > NE she singular neut. OE hit > NE it plural: OE hīe > NE they 2nd person: singular: þū > NE (thou) you plural: ʒē > NE (ye) you

48. CASE definition: formal encodement of semantic roles SEMANTIC ROLES determined by the VALENCY of verbs impersonal verbs – 0 argument (It rains) intransitive - 1 argument (He runs) monotransitive verbs – 2 arguments (He loves her)) ditransitive verbs – 3 arguments (He gave her a flower)

49. semantic roles grammatical (syntactic) function agent, doer subject instrument subject recepient indirect object benefactor patient direct object ….

50. Panini identified six semantic roles and six cases in SANSKRIT: agent patient means recipient source locus ASSIGNING SEMANTIC ROLES: word order, prepositions, morphemes = CASE ENDINGS