Lecture 1.

The Outline of the History of the English Language

This outline History of the English Language covers the main events in the
historical development of the English language: the history of its phonetic structure
and spelling, the evolution of its grammatical system, the growth of its vocabulary
and also the changing historical conditions of English speaking communities relevant
to a language history.
A language can be considered from different angles. In studying Modern English
(ME) we regard the language as fixed in time and describe each linguistic level –
phonetics, grammar or lexis- synchronically taking no account of the origin of
present-day features or their tendencies to change. The synchronic approach can be
contrasted to the diachronic. Diachronically every linguistic fact is interpreted as a
stage or step in the theory: we commonly resort to history to explain current
phenomena on Modern English.
Through learning the history of the English language the student achieved a
variety of aims, both theoretical and practical.
The history of the language is of considerable interest to all students of English,
since the English language of today reflects many centuries of development.
Therefore, one of the aims of this course is to provide the student with knowledge of
linguistic history sufficient to account for the principal features of present-day
English.
Another important aim of this course is of a more theoretical nature. While
tracing the evolution of the English language through time, the student will be
confronted with a number of theoretical questions such as the relationship between
static and dynamics in language, the interdependence of different processes in
language history.
One more aim of this course is to provide the student of English with a wider
philological outlook. The history of the English Language shows the place of English
in the linguistic world: it reveals its ties and contacts with other related and unrelated
tongues.
Task 1. Answer the following questions:
1. What does the outline of the History of the English Language cover?
2. How can the synchronic study of a language be contrasted to diachronic
study?
3. Is the diachronic study of a language aimed at more practical or theoretical
goals?
Lecture 2
1. Subjects and Aims of the History of the English Language

Language is a social phenomenon. It originates and develops in the process of

social interaction between the members of a community and is, thus, “genetically and
functionally connected with man’s practical social activity”. Language activity itself,
the use of language in its various social functions, represents a particular kind of
social activity. In order to fulfil its basic functions as an instrument of thought and
communication and to satisfy the communicative needs of a more or less
differentiated speech community, language must possess the properties of variability
and systematicity, or, in other words, exhibit ‘orderly differentiation’ or ‘orderly
heterogeneity’. Differentiated needs of communication require differentiated sets of
means of expression provided by a differentiated language system. The linguistic
system of communication underling language activity in a complex community has,
therefore, also been described as “an orderly heterogeneous system in which choice
between linguistic alternatives carries out social and stylistic functions”, to which
might be added the function of regional differentiation.
There is not only (geographically and/or socially determined) “dialectal
variation” and “stylistic” (including “functional”) variation” in the language of a non-
homogeneous speech community at every stage of its existence. Language also is a
very variable social phenomenon in the sense that it varies through time. To keep
functioning as a efficient instrument of mutual communication among the members of
a continually changing society, the language must constitute an “orderly
heterogeneous system” which is non-static, or dynamic and “open” in character.
Historical variation or change is a necessary characteristic of any living language
and may, “at least to a considerable extent”, be said to be “due to an incessant
adaptation of the means of expression to the ever-changing. Ever-increasing
communicative needs obtaining in the given language community”. Qualitative as
well as quantitative changes in the needs of communication for their part – sometimes
also called “expressive and communicative needs” – must obviously be considered as
in some way or other resulting from changes in society, in the social life of the
language community in question. Language history can, therefore, not be separated
from social history. It is undoubtedly true that further detailed studies are needed
before a full picture of the relation between social and linguistic changes in the
evolution of individual languages such as English can be given. But this is no way
invalidates the thesis of the existence of close and complex relations between the
historical development of language and the socio-historical development of the
language community.
Socio-historical conditions or changes affecting requirements of linguistic
communication to be met by the language system no doubt include (changes in) the
socio-economic groupings, social stratification or social class structure of the
community and the relationships between the classes as determined by (changes of)
the character of the social system, the coming into existence of new social classes or
groups and the passing out of existence of others in the course of the rise of special
socioeconomic conditions, and the rise to power of new classes as the outcome of
social revolutions of transformations. They also include changes in the importance of
geographical factors (in comparison to socio-economic factors) resulting from
(changes in) the degree of political and economic unity of the country, such as the
development of “centralized nation states”, for example or (changes in) the size and
complexity of the speech community and its territorial expansion. This is clear for
example in the tremendous increase of the size of the English Language community
from about one and a half million speakers in the late eleventh century to more than
three hundred million people speaking English is the first language in the United
Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and some
other parts of the former British Empire, and the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Task 1. Answer the following questions:

1. What phenomena is a language by its nature?
2. Which socio-historical conditions or changes are affecting requirements of
linguistic communication?
3. How have political, cultural and social-historical affects have effected the
language change throughout centuries?