HISTÒRIA DE LA LLENGUA ANGLESA

Course Introduction
Assessment
 Midterm test (30%)
 Final test (50%)
o Multiple questions + analysis + discussion questions.
 Homework and participation (20%)
Bibliography

 Campbell, L. 2021 Historical Linguistics: An Introduction. 4 th ed. Edinburgh University

Press.
 Crowley, T. & Bowern. C. 2010. An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 4 th Edition.
Oxford: OUP
 Hock, H.H. & Joseph, B. 2019. Language History, Language Change, and Language
Relationship. 3 rd ed. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
 Millar, R., McColl & Trask, R.L. 2015. Trask’s Historical Linguistics. 3rd ed. Routledge.
 Verdaguer, I. & Castaño. E. 2021. History of the English Language. Text Docent.
Barcelona: EUB

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 EXAM THEORY
1.Introduction
Historical Linguistics or Diacronic languages
 What is historical linguistics?
o Language change over time. How and why languages change.
o Diachronic vs. synchronic linguistics.
o Historical linguistics is not prescriptivist:
 It is not about:
 Telling what is correct or incorrect in a language.
 Preserving pure or correct forms.
 Preventing language change.
 Two main issues dominated in the early course of historical linguistics.
o Synchronic irregularity.
 One of the reasons why we study history of a language is to understand its
present state.
o Language relationships.
Irregular nouns in Modern English
 If cats why not mans, but men. Because they follow different inflections.
 Nouns in modern English.
o Regular: cat/cats.
o Irregular: sheep/sheep, ox/oxen, goose/geese.
 Those irregularities can be easily explained if we take into account that
they are the remnants of earlier regular patterns.
Regular nouns
o Old English: Cat / Catt-as. (masc.)
 This ending ‘as’ belonged to a particular inflection.
o Sheep ˃ scep / scep (pl.)
 Used for neuter nouns.
o Ox ˃ ox / ox-an (nominative stem)
o Goose / geese (man/men, tooth/teeth…) root consonant stem.
Regular or irregular verbs in modern English
 Play/plays (r.), sing/sang (ir.), keep/kept (ir.).
 In old English verbs were either strong or weak.
o OE strong verbs (sing/sang):
 Strong verbs formed their past tense by changing the root vowel. The
sound change is called Ablaut.

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 
Ablaut: systematic alternation of the root vowel in order to indicate
the meaning of grammatical function of a word. In verbs to mark
tense. Word from indoeuropean.
o OE weak verbs (play/played):
 Formed their past tende by adding a dental suffix (-de, -te…). The choice
of alternant was phonologically conditioned.
 Innovation of Germanic languages.
 In Modern English those endings have evolved into -ed, -d.
o Keep/kept
 Cepan/cepte
 The vowel alternation is additional to the affixation of the past
tense marker (t).
 This change in the vowel is not motivated by Ablaut.
 Synchronic irregularity.
 In Middle English, long vowels underwent a shortening when
preceding a sequence of two consonants.
o Cépte/kepte
 In the late Me period, unstressed vowels were lost.
 In modern English, great vowel shift /e:/ ˃ /i:/.
Irregularities in spelling and pronunciation
 The history of English can also explain the spelling and pronunciation of ModE, which
may seem chaotic or at least unruly.
 Homophony:
o Meet / meat.
 Modern English: /i:/ and /i:/
 Middle /e:/ /E:/
 How do you pronounce these words: heroic, sulphuric, basic, but catholic and politic.
o The last words were borrowed from Latin words.

Semantic irregularities.
 Meaning of the preposition with is ‘company’.
o OE meant against. In Me with was company because of scandinivian borrowing.
Historical linguistics can also show semantic irregularities related to semantic
change.

2. Language Relationships
Synchronic studies
 The explanation of synchronic studies is one of the reasons why we study the history of a
language.
 Another reason is to explain:

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 o Why related languages have similar forms.
o How the differences between them have arisen.
Cross-language similarities
 English: ten, to, that, water.
 German: zehn, zu, das, Wasser
o Words are very similar, but they have inconsistencies.
o English and German forms are very similar and they differ in a systematic way.
 Reasons for their similarities:
 They are both from Germanic languages.
 Reasons for their differences:
 They have undergone different developments.
Relationship between English and German
 Phonological (/nəu/ /nain/), morphological (younger/junger), and lexical level
(house/haus)
 English and German forms are very similar:
o There is a historical link. Both languages have the same origin.
 English and German forms differ in a systematic way:
o Due to the split-up of the earlier language into two languages which evolved
differently.
 The earlier language was reconstructed. Divergent modern forms were traced back to the
same form in the protocol language.
o English and Romance languages, such as Catalan and Spanish, are also related.
This is because German and Latin have a common ancestor, called Proto Indo-
European, from which they descended.

o There are no written records of Proto-Indo-European. But we can find evidence of

this common origin in the systematic sound correspondences.
 English (father), Spanish (padre) and Catalan (pare). English voiceless
fricatives corresponds to Catalan and Spanish voiceless plosives.

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  English (thunder), Spanish (trueno) and Catalan (tró)
 Correspondence ModE (or Germanic) to OE or Spanish, PIE
(voiceless fricatives to voiceless plosives): /f/ to /p/, /th/ to /t/, /t/ to
/d/, /c/ to /g/, /h/ to /k/.
 We have to look for systematic correspondences between languages rather than similar-
looking words, which can be misleading.
o Pares, padres ˃ parents. Papel, paper ˃ paper
 Parents is not a Germanic word, so we can’t see any correspondence. It
comes from French and French comes from Latin.
 Father ˃ paternal (Latin), three ˃ trio (Latin).
 Scholars began the systemic comparison of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and other European
language. (pitár ˃ Sanskrit / pater ˃ Latin / pater ˃ Greek / faeder ˃ OE)
 If we compare these words, we will see that many of them are very similar:
o Because of borrowing, chance similarity and common origin.
o Common origin: the lexicon is unreliable, and linguists focused their attention on
phonological and morphological analysis.
 German: Kleiner, kleinest
 English: smaller, smallest.
o Systematic sound correspondences between words with the same or similar
meaning are the first clue that the languages are related. Pes / foot.
 However, in French we also have similar words: bouton, botton. Although
these words do not seem to show that they come from the same origin.
 Languages are genetically related in families. Connected languages that descended from
the same source. When there are no written documents of the common ancestor, so it is
possible to reconstruct it (at least some aspects) using the comparative method.
o We make some kind of estimation about what the proto-language might have been
like. When we carry out linguistic reconstruction, we use the comparative method,
a methodology which is followed to deduce what the original forms were like.
o Cognates are compared to work out the original form which they derive.
 Cognates: words in different languages which are very similar form and
meaning because they are related.
How can we recognize cognates?
 Core vocabulary:
o Everyday objects and concepts, body parts, family relationships, plants, animals,
colors, numbers…
o They resist borrowings.
 In order to reconstruct a language we have to follow a number of steps:
o (1) Identify cognates (sort out the forms which are cognates from those which are
not)
 Thria (Germanic language) / trei / üc / trayas.
 Old Saxon / Romanic / Turkish (non Indoeuropean) / Sanskrit.

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 o (2) Set up sound correspondences (list sound correspondences, trying to find the
sounds that descend from the same sound)
 Niht / noch / noctis /naktam: all nasal (initial consonant ‘n’)
o (3) Establish the proto-phonemes. In reconstructing the original sounds, some
principles have to be taken into account:
 (1) Changes must be plausible: plosive consonant ˃ fricative consonant
but fricative consonant˃ plosive consonant is very rare, or a vowel
becoming a plosive.
 (2) Any reconstruction should involve as few changes as possible between
the proto-language and the daughter language.
 (3) The reconstructed form should be the sound which has the widest
distribution in the daughter language.
 (4) Reconstructions should fill gaps in phonological system rather than
create unbalanced systems. Balanced: iu / a, unbalanced: I / eo / a. P t k / b
/r/ or /d/ / l
 Regular relationship between OE /a:/ and OHG /ei/: stan ˃ stein.
There must be a sound that comes from this relationship, /ai/
(hypothetical form).
 Example /ai/ ˃ OE /a:/ or OHG /ei/
 We can check on the validity of the comparative method, by trying to reconstruct a Latin
word from Romanian, French, Catalan and Italian and see if the reconstructed from
comes from Latin.
 Romanian (nas), French (nez), Catalan (nas), Italian (naso).
 Nasal /n/ at the beginning in all cases.
 Latin: /n/ + /a/ + /s/ + /o/ but in Latin is nasus. The written word is
not exactly the same as the reconstructed form. The final
consonant has been lost in all languages. This shows limitations on
linguistic reconstruction.
 Unconditioned (isolative) sound change: a sound undergoes a change wherever it
occurs. /i:/ ˃ /ai/
 Conditioned (or combinatory) sound change: a change that only takes place in certain
phonetic environments: k ˃ tj / V(+front) _ (velar becomes a palatal in environment of
front vowels). V ˃ / _(final position)

3. The process of language change

Saussure and early structuralists
 Dichotomy between synchronic and diachronic studies. The description of the structure
of a language at a given point in time was kept independent from language change.
o Historical information was considered not to be important in a synchronic
analysis of the language.

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  A synchronic study described the structure of a language at a given time, not taking into
account that changes are always taking place. Additionally, Saussure considered that
changes affected not the system as a whole, but only individual elements.
o OE: /y:/ ˃ ME /i:/ ˃ ModE /ai/
 This position was challenged at the first international congress of Challenge.
o Trubetzkoy and Jakobson, among others, claimed that the diachronic viewpoint
has to take into account the interdependence of all the elements of a linguistic
system. Any change will affect the whole system.
o Phonological changes can have consequences on the lexicon
 OE: fyr ˃ ME: fire
 OE: thyncan ‘to seem’ ˃ ME thinken
 Between thinken (‘to seem’) and thinken (‘to think’) there was
ambiguity so thyncan was lost and was replaced by the verb ‘to
seem’, that came from Scandinavian.
o Phonological changes can also have consequences on a morphological and
syntactic level. Middle English reduction of unstressed vowels to /ə/
 Loss of OE inflectional patterns (distinction between different cases was
lost). As a consequence of it, the word order became more important.
 Syntactic change: Loss of case system, alternative ways of expressing
syntactic functions were needed ˃ more strict word order. So a sound
change may affect the whole linguistic system. That’s a reason to reject
the division between synchronic and diachronic linguistics.
o A strict dichotomy cannot be imposed either because at any given moment there
will be elements at different stages of development.
Middle English: -eth/-es.
 Archaic forms and advanced ones coexist in the usage of older and younger speakers.
o Over the ME period, the midland dialect in the 3 pers sg used both the Northern
ending (-es) and the inherited OE ending (-eth) In a complete description of a
language, there is always a core or fixed structure and variation.
o Synchronic variation is the mechanism that enables change. Labow claimed that
variation in pronunciation can be interpreted as an ongoing sound change.
 New Guinea pidgin:
o Pidgin: a language which develops as contact language, when groups of people
who speak different language come into contact. It usually has a limited
vocabulary and a very reduced grammatical structure.
 Liklik manggi ˃ small boy / ol liklik manggi ˃ small boys.
o A change begins to spread into language and a plural suffix derived from English
-es is used along with the plural marker ol
 Ol liklik manggi/liklik manggis ˃ small boys.
o Plural suffix may spread to more nouns. Original situation (with plural ol) may
continue or diglossic (-es) situation may arise.

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  Lexical variation in traditional dialects.
o Child vs. bairn, compared with Norwegian barn.
 Heavy influence of Old Norse on this are of England.
 Especially in the lower North with 200 years of bilingualism.
Some conclusions
 The work of sociolinguistics on linguistic variation has shown that synchronic states are
not uniform, the speech habits of older and younger speakers differ in ways which point
to language change.
 In a complete description of a language there is always a core or fixed structure ans
variations.
 Synchronic variation is the mechanism that enables change.
The process of language change
 Linguists thought that language change cannot be observed. When two stages of the same
language were compared, differences could be detected and described, but the change
actually happening could not be observed.
Structuralists
 “The process of linguistic change has never been directly observed.” Bloomsfield
 “No one has yet observed sound change; we have only been able to detect its
consequences” Hockett
However…
 Linguists have now realized that language change can be observed. As Labov says,
variation which had often been ignored, may indicate ongoing changes in language.
o The Neogrammarians said that a sound change affects all the words in which this
sound occurs simultaneously.
 Ex: loss of voice in the final stops as in Catalan or German. Ex: OE/y:/ ˃
ME /i/ (wyf ˃ wife). 3:/ae/ ˃ /a:/ - fricative br E: pas, fast, disasterbut gas,
mass not affected.
 Linguists have shown that changed do not occur simultaneously in all words. A change
spreads gradually through the lexicon.
o A change originates in a few words and spreads gradually rather than affecting all
the relevant words at the same time. For example, if a language undergoes
devoicing of final stops, at the beginning only some words will undergo this
change, which will gradually spread to the other words later on.
 Labov noticed that in Martha’s Vineyard, a resort in Massachusetts., /ai/ and /au were
becoming /əi/ and / əu/. Centralization of those diphthongs in the speech of certain
speakers of Martha’s Vineyard.

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 o The new pronunciation was found among the permanent inhabitants (in contrast
to summer visitors). People of the age from 30 to 60 centralized more the
diphthongs.
Lexical diffusion
 Sound change begins in a small number of words and later spreads to other words. At
first the new sounds fluctuate with the existing ones, then the new ones take over.
 When charted on a diagram, the progress of change shows an S-curve
o The time scale goes along the bottom
o The number of words scale goes up.
 First the change affects a few words and the new and old pronunciation coexist. But at
some point the change spreads fast to many words. At the end, the change slows down
and there may be some words left unaffected.
 The theory of lexical diffusion stands in contrast to the Neogrammarian hypothesis that a
given sound change applies simultaneously to all words in which it is found.
The causes of language change
 While we know that language changes is inevitable, we are less certain of its causes.
Early theories
 Geographical and climatic determinism:
o Geographical determinism:
 Voiceless plossives ˃ voiceless fricatives: consonant change began in
mountains because expiration is more intense in high altitudes.
o Climatic determinism:
 It ahs been argued to be the cause of rounding of /a/ to /o/ in the northern
languages of Europe. Rounding was because of the unwillingness to open
the mouth in the chilly and foggy air of the North.
 The exact causes are difficult to know, it may be due to a combination of factors. Internal
and external.
 Foreign influence:
o When people speaking different languages come into contact 3 options are
possible:
 Adstratum influence: borrowing between languages which are near each
other, and which are spoken by similar socio-political group and power.
 Substratum influence: when a community of speakers learn the language
imposed by conquest, this new language is modified by the linguistic
patterns carried over from the native language. The language of the
conquered group influences that of the dominant group. When people
learn the new language, their influence is mostly noticed on sound pattern
and on syntax.

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  In Spain Latin was spoken with an Iberian accent and was
modified in a different way from the Latin spoken in Gaul
 Superstratum: the conquering, invading or migrating linguistic community
learn the language of the native population and influence the language of
the conquered group.
 Influence of French on English after the Norman conquest. This
influence is mostly noticed in vocabulary.
o When borrowing takes place, the language of the dominant group or of the culture
with greater prestige is the loaner.
 Social causes: the generalization of the originally plural pronoun you as a singular
pronoun has been connected to changes in social attitude. In ME you began to be used as
a singular pronoun, imitating French courtly usage.
o Fashion: might impose certain linguistic habits and make certain linguistic forms
becomes obsolete. It is now fashionable to borrow words from English.
o Functional need: the vocabulary has to adapt to our changing world. Words which
refer to obsolete objects may be lost, while new words may be introduced to refer
to new concepts or objects. App, dot-com.
o Simplification (internal): many sound changes can be considered to simplify the
pronunciation of words. Words may become shorter and we need less physical
effort to produce them.
 But is a relative concept, because it may produce complexities in other
part of the system. Syncope (dropping of a vowel in the middle of a word)
could be considered as simplification, but it also results in consonant
clusters.
o Structural pressure: if a system becomes uneven or it has some gap, a change will
probably takes place to fill the gap.
Progress or decay?
 Old opinions: Language change was considered to be the defeat of correct speech.the
unintelligible speech which they uttered at that time. Tongues have a natural tendency to
degeneration (attitude predominant in the 18th century). Many scholar thought that
language was perfect in its beginning but it is constantly in a process of decay, a 19th
century scholar claimed that in the written history he could observe a natural process of
decay. That puristic attitude is still widespread. Comments from the press show that
many people still consider language change as a corruption. Purissts believe in some sort
of absolute standard of correctness, which can be found in grammars and dictionaries.
 However, what is important is the usage of speakers. If a new word is accepted and
added by a number of speakers, that word can be considered a new addition to the lexicon
of the language.
 Is language evolving to a more state?

Sound change

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Some characteristics of sound change
 Regularity:
o The Neogrammarians claimed that sound change is absolutely regular, and a
series of laws of sound change were formulated. That was the case of Grimm’s
law. Nowadays we believe it is an overstatement, but still consider sound change
to be highly regular.
 Ease of pronunciation (not always):
o Changes in the direction of greater case of articulation:
 Voicing of intervocalic consonants. ‘Latin vota ˃ Spanish boda’
 The dropping of consonants in clusters: English cupboard /kʌbəd/
 Simplification:
o A relative concept, since in one part of the system may produce greater
complexity in another. E.g. The loss of a vowel can result in a consonant cluster.
Sound change
 Isolative change: a phoneme changes in all its occurrences. The Great Vowel Shift.
o Early decades of 15th century.
o It affected long vowels.
o Low and mid vowels were raised.
o High vowels became diphtongs.
 Conditioned sound change: takes place in a specific phonetic environment (assimilation,
umlaut, palatalization…)
The Great Vowel Shift.
 The changes began early in the 15th century in southern England, but the complete sets of
changes extended over 15th, 16th, 17th century.
 Despite the significant changes in pronunciation, the old spelling was maintained.
William Caxton and his followers in printing based their spelling norm on the usage of
the pronunciation of their times. Consequently, the graphic representation of the new
values remained the same as in ME
 Exercise:
o Taking into account the spelling and modern pronunciation of the following
words, can you deduce sound changes?
 Life ˃ ai from y, i became ai
 House ˃ ou from long u
 See ˃ closed e became I
 Sea ˃ i from open e
 Hoot ˃ closed o became u
 Home ˃ ou from o
 Take ˃ a became ei
 ME /i:/ (i, y spelled) ˃ ModE /ai/ (i, y spelled)

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 o /bi:tə/ ˃ /bait/. More examples: ride, life, five, time, by, mice.
 ME /u:/ (ou, ow) ˃ ModE /au/ (ou, ow)
o hu:s ˃ haus. More examples: mouse, now, town, pound.
 ME /e:/ (e, ee) ˃ /i:/ (ee, ie)
o /se:/ ˃ /si:/. More examples: teeth, feed, creep, green, deep, street, thief.
 ME /ε:/ (e, ee) ˃ ModE /i:/ or /ei/ (ee, ea)
o /mε:tə/ ˃ /mi:t/. More examples: mean, beat, heal, leaf, needle.
 ME /o:/ (o, oo) ˃ /u:/ (oo)
o /bo:t/ ˃ /bu:t/. More examples: moon, noon, root, broom.
o Exemption: /u:/ > /ʊ/ > /Λ/ as in flood, blood
 ME / ‫ ּכ‬/ (o, oo, oa) ˃ ModE /ou/ > /əu/ (o, oa)
o /b ‫ ּכ‬:t/ ˃ /bout/ ˃ /bəut/. More examples: home, stone, bone…
 ME /a:/ (a, aa) ˃ /ei/ (a)
o /na:mə/ ˃ /neim/. More examples: bake, tale, lane.
Assimilation
 Assimilation:
o Many sound changes can be viewed as being due to the influence on one sound on
another.
o A sound becomes more similar to an adjacent sound. There is an increase in the
number of the phonetic features.
o It is motivated by case of articulation.
 The direction of assimilation:
o Regressive: one sound affects the preceding one, as the speaker anticipates the
next sound. So it comes to resemble the sound that follows it, becoming identical
or very similar. (drinka ˃ drikka)
o Progressive: when a sound influences the following sound that becomes like the
one that precedes it. (wulno ˃ wullo ˃ wull)
 The extent of assimilation:
o Total: a sound becomes identical to an adjacent one and shares all articulatory
features: voice, manner and place of articulation. (wifman ˃ wimman)
o Partial: two sounds become similar but not identical. Assimilation in point of
articulation of a nasal to that of a following stop is a very frequent change. (Latin
in + primere ˃ imprimere)
 Distant assimilation:
o Sound to which another sound assimilates is usually the immediately adjacent
one, but it may also be the sound in the neighbouring syllable. In the case of
distant assimilation the two sounds are not adjacent. (penkwe ˃ kinkwe)
Distant assimilation / Vowel harmony
 Vowel harmony

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 o Turkish: structural feature (vowel harmony, only front vowels in the next word)
sevildiremenek
o OE daeg/dagas ˃ the second ‘a’ makes the first ae become an ‘a’

Umlaut/mutation
 It is the most important change affecting vowels in Old English. It affected all Germanic
languages except for Gothic. It’s a conditioned sound change.
o A vowel undergoes a process of fronting or raising due to the influence of a high
front vowel or semi vowel in the following syllable (/I, i:, j/)
 Gme fuljan ˃ OE fyllan
o In this process the speaker anticipates /i, j/ in the following syllable by fronting or
raising the vowel that comes to resemble in articulation the /i or j/
 Examples: food ˃ feed (v) / foot ˃ feet (pl) / strong ˃ strength
 The legacy of umlaut in ModE
o Irregular plurals: OE fouz (Nom., acc. Pl) ˃ fet
 Verbs formed from nouns: OE: fod + jan ˃ fodjan
o Comparatives: old ˃ elder.
o Verbs formed from adjectives: full ˃ fill
o Verbs formed from nouns: food ˃ feed
 Vulgar Latin mulina ˃ OE myln ˃ ModE mil
 Exercise
o Supply the missing vowel.
 Haerjan ˃ herian “to raid”
 Dali ˃ dael “to share”
 Dominan ˃ deman “to deem”
 Cudian ˃ cydan “to inform”
 Fotiz ˃ fet
Palatalization
 The shift of a non palatal consonant to a palatal due to the proximity of a front vowel.
Palatalization is a process in which a front vowel causes a consonant to become more
palatal.
o OE cinn ‘chin’ ˃ OE catt ‘cat’
o OE cild ‘child’ ˃ OE cuman ‘come’
 In the environment of front vowel: k ˃ tj (cild) / g ˃ j
o Lat: caseus ˃ OE: cese ˃ ModE: cheese
o Lat: castrum ˃ OE: kaester ˃ caester ˃ ceaster “Chester”
 /sk/ palatalized to /j/ in all environments
o OE scip ‘ship’ / scoff ‘shovel’ or sky, skirt, skull.
 The sk words come from Scandinavian where there was no process of
palatalization.

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Voicing
 A voiceless consonant becomes voiced between vowels or voiced sounds.
o Lat vita ˃ Spanish vida
o Wolf ˃ wolves.

Dissimilation
 By dissimilation a sound becomes dissimilar to an adjacent sound. One sound is modified
to become less like another. The sound change is motivated by the need for perceptual
clarity. It is much less common than assimilation and it often occurs with liquids /l,r/ and
nasals.
 OE feoff ˃ ModE theft
 Cf:
o Labial, dental, palatal but alveolar, velar. Maybe because before there’s an ‘l’ so
the l would be repetitive so it’s dissimilated, instead of velal it’s velar. Latin
ending -al dissimilated to -ar when attached to a root ending in l.
Weakening or lenition
 It is a process of weakening of muscular tension in articulation. It refers to the change of
a sound considered “stronger” into one considered “weaker” (or fortis ˃ lenis).
o Stops are considered stronger than fricatives.
o Front and back vowels are considered stronger than central vowels.

Rhotacism
 It involves a sound shift in which /s/ becomes /r/ through the intermediate step */z/
o Kusum ˃ kuzum ˃ OE curon ‘they chose’. Latin genesis ˃ generis. Was/were.
More / most. Plus /plural.
Vocalization
 It is the shift of a sound which is not a vowel to a vowel. Altera ˃ antera ˃ atra.
Exercise
 OE: hring ˃ ModE ring: aphaeresis
 OE: strangara ˃ strangra: syncope
 OE. Mona ˃ moon: apocope
 Anglaland ˃ england: assimilation
 Spata ˃ espada: voicing
 Fourtiam ˃ fundriam ˃ thunder: dissimilation
 Frist ˃ first: metathesis.
Loss of a sound
 Aphaeresis (loss of an initial sound)

14
 o Loss of [k,g] before [n] in: knit, knight, gnaw…
o OE hn, hl, hr ˃ n, l, r as result of the consonant changes from OE to ME: hnutu ˃
nut.
 Syncope (loss of a middle sound): OE + strangara ˃ strangra.
 Apocope (loss of sound in final position)
o OE: móna ˃ moon.
o ME loos of ts in unstressed syllables:
 OE: lic ˃ ME ly
 OE: ic ˃ ME I
 Constant cluster reduction
o OE: betst ˃ ModE: best.
o Reduction in ModE: comb, sing.
 Haplology (loss of a syllable that is similar to the following).
o Difficult pronunciation: she sells se shells by the sea shore.
o OE: Anglaland ˃ ModE: England.

Insertion of sounds
 Prothesis (initial position)
o The addition of a sound is usually promoted by the difficulty of coordinating
articulatory movements.
 Lat. Spiritus ˃ Espiritu.
 Epenthesis (medial)
o It is quite common for a stop to be inserted in the environment of a nasal. The
stop is generally articulated in the same place as the nasal.
 Funrian ˃ fundrian ˃ thunder
 Vowel breaking
o Breaking in OE is the diphtongization of vowels /a, e, i/ to ea, eo, io/ when
followed by /h/, by /r/ or /l, plus another consonant. Herte ˃ hearte “heart”
Metathesis
 Reversal or reordering of the sounds.
o OE: frist ˃ ME first.
o OE: axian (x=ks) ˃ ModE ask.

5. Grammatical change
Morphological change
Morphological typology
 Languages can be classified typologically, on the basis of the characteristics they share.

15
  According to their morphological type: isolating or analytic languages, agglutinating or
agglutinative languages, and inflecting or inflectional languages. However, as we will
see, there is no clear-cut distinction.
o Isolating or analytic languages:
 Many free morphemes. Grammatical functions are shown by word order
and the use of function words. Júzi (orange) wo (I) chi le (eat past)
o Agglutinating or agglutinative:
 A word may contain many morphemes, but the boundaries between
morphemes are clear. Ev (house), evler (houses), evlerim (my houses).
o Inflectional or inflecting:
 The form of a word changes to indicate a change in meaning or
grammatical function. Marius (nominative masculine singular) amat
Sofiam (accusative feminine singular).
Old English
 The information carried by the OE is inflectional endings (case, number, gender) and
Present Day English (PDE) -s which only indicates plural.
 In PDE:
o Pronouns are obligatory to indicate person because verbal inflections have
disappeared.
o Auxiliaries have largely replaced verbal inflections.
o Nevertheless it has irregular verbs with vowel alternation (the remnants of OE
strong verbs) and it also has some mutated plurals.
 English has developed from a highly inflected language (inflecting or synthetic language)
to one which shows more isolating (analytic) characteristics but still with characteristics
of its inflectional origin.
 Languages tend to develop in cycles:
o From isolating to agglutinating:
 Phonological reduction: free forms may be reduced to prefixes or suffixes.
o From agglutinating to inflecting:
 Morphological fusion: two clearly divisible morphemes may merge.
o Form inflecting to isolating:
 Morphological reduction: inflectional morphemes may be reduced and
lost.
Examples
 In Vulgar Latin analytic constructions replaced synthetic constructions.
o Lat amabo ˃ Vulgar Lat. Amare habeo.
 In Spanish a new synthetic construction has replaced the analytic one. Sp.
amar-ayo ˃ amaré.
 OE drifan ˃ Mod E (present tense)
o Ie drife ˃ we drifad

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 o Du drifst ˃ ge drifad
o He drifad ˃ hie drifad
 OE tending towards an isolating language (pronouns needed in pl.)
 There is a drift in language change. Languages pass from one type to another.
Modifications are cyclic.
Analogical change
Analogical change
 The extension od a linguistic pattern to forms which originally belonged to another
pattern.
 Irregular becomes regular
o Some examples: helpan, healp, holpen ˃ ModE: help, helped, helped.
o Extension of the suffix -ed as a mark of past tense. Nowadays, it is the only
productive inflection.
 An important effect of analogy is the removal of irregularities or anomalous forms.
However, it is important to keep in mind that analogy may be ad hoc and sporadic and
does not always work in a systematic way.
Sturtevant’s Paradox
 Sound change is highly regular and causes irregularity while analogy is irregular and
causes regularity.
o Sound change is quite regular but it may create irregularities in the morphology.
 OE ccheosan [z] (infinitive) / ccheas [s] (past singular)
 In infinitive is ‘z’ because it’s between consonant where in past is
‘s’ there’s no consonant at the end.
 Curon [r] and coren [r] in past plural and past participle.
 Irregular because of sound changes.
o Intervocalic “z” changed to r by rhotacism.
o K was palatalized before front vowers
 Analogy is inherently irregular but attempts to make morphology more regular. It levels
out the alternation let by sound change, Analogy levelled the consonant differences:
choose/chose/chosen. Regular changes: rhotacism and palatalization created irregularity
but analogy made the paradigm uniform again.
o Plural endings: Nom/Acc.: OE stan ˃ OE stanas, ModE stones.
o Old English endings: -as, -an, ø, -a, -e and -u which in OE indicated case, number
and gender, have been replaced by the plural marker –(e)s in ModE inherited from
the Nom/acc plural of the OE a-stem nouns.
 What irregular plural forms still remain in ModE?
o Foot/feet, ox/oxen, child/children, sheep/sheep.
o Knife/knives, wife/wives, hoof/hoves

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  In this case, the singular root ends in a voiceless fricative and the plural in
a voiced fricative. While many of these plural forms have resisted
analogy, some of the nouns have acquired analogical plurals: hoofs vs.
hooves. Certain words such as reef only have a regular plural form ˃ reefs.
Syntactic change
Syntactic change
 It is difficult to separate morphological and syntactic change because change in one
component is often accompanied by change in the other component.
 Languages can be classified by the order of the elements in the sentences, by word order.
o Verb in initial position:
 VSO (less frequent): Gwelsan nhw ddraigh saw they a dragon (Welsh)
 SVO: They saw a dragon (English)
o Verb final languages:
 SOV: Gakusei-desu student am (Japanese).
 The differences between
o OV and VO
 Represent the relationship Dependent – Head /Head – Dependent
 The order of the basic constituents of a sentence tends to be reflected in
the ordering of the syntactic elements.
o SVO ˃ prep + noun (in house) / noun + adj (man old)
o SOV ˃ Noun + prep (house in) / adj + noun (old man)
 Does ModE have all the characteristics of SVO
o ModE: John’s book (OV characteristic): the modifier comes before the noun. but,
the size of the building (VO characteristic): the modifier comes after the noun.
o Mod E is a verb initial language but OE is a predominantly verb final language.
 OE: Those were the first ships of Danish men that of the English people land had sought
(verb in final position)
 ModE: Those were the first ships of Danish men that had sought the land of the English
people. (verb in initial position)
English change from V final to V initial
 From SOV to SVO (factors)
o Heavy NP shift: complex NPs and PPs were moved towards the end, after the
verb. ‘I have several old books’ / ‘I have several books crumbling with age’
(complex NP moved to the end)
o Verb second (V2): verb-fronting rule, which moves the verb to the beginning of
the clause. The fronted verb typically follows an adverb such as pa, ne, here
 German: tomorrow fly I to London (if we have tomorrow first there’s S-V
change, if we have tomorrow at the end it would be I fly to London
tomorrow)

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  English: (Tomorrow) I’m flying to London (tomorrow).
 OE: Then said she to the bridegroom.
 V2 in ModE
o The fronted verb typically follows negative and restrictive verbs. ‘Never had I
seen such a mess.’
Grammaticalization
Grammaticalization
 Grammaticalization is a process by which a word with full lexical meaning turns into a
function word. OE lic ‘body’ ˃ ModE. -ly
 It is typically associated with
o Semantic bleaching: the loss of semantic content:
 Mann ‘man’: Sie sind Mann und Frau. (German)
 Man ‘one (noun ˃ pronoun): Man muss lemen, still zu sein (German).
o Phonetic reduction: the grammaticalized element may also be phonetically
reduced.
 Lic ˃ -ly / let us go ˃ let’s go / going to ˃ gonna.
 Contrast: Bill is going to go to college and Bill’s gonna go to college vs.
Bill is going to college and Bill’s *gonna college.
 Pa hwile pe (the time that) ˃ while.
o Loss of syntactic freedom: a word is not syntactically free anymore and may
become an affix
 Latin humile mente (with a humble mind) ˃ Sp. humildemente (humbly)
 Noun ˃ suffix
o Source of a highly productive derivational suffixes:
 OE lic ‘body’ ˃ ModE -ly: immediately, happily.
 OE had ‘state’ ˃ ModE -hood: parenthood, motherhood.
 OE dom ‘realm’ ˃ ModE -dom: kingdom, Christendom.
 The conversion of full verbs into auxiliary verbs is also an example of
grammaticalization.
o “will” began as full lexical verb. OE willan ‘to want’ ˃ ModE will.
 Its meaning has faded and is now used to refer to the future.
 Notice phonetic reduction: He’ll come.
o Can ˂ OE cunnan ‘to know’ / may ˂ OE magan ‘to be able to’ ‘to have the power
to’
o Latin rem ‘thing’ ˃ French rien ‘nothing’.
 It exemplifies a common pattern of grammaticalization: noun ˃ indefinite
pronoun.
o OE an ‘one’ ˃ ModE an indefinite article.
 Words are often grammaticalized to replace inflections which are lost or
weakened: to as a maker of the infinitive form.
 OE singan ‘to sing’: -an ˃ -en ˃ ø. Preposition to ˃ replaced the inflection.
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  The infinitive of the verb in OE was marked by an inflectional ending -
(i)an as in sing-an. This ending was gradually lost and replaced with the
preposition to to mark the infinitive. In this situation to no longer
functions as a preposition but as a grammatical marker signalling the non-
finite form to follow.
French pas
 French pas: ‘step’
o In OF negation was formed by placing the negative particle ne before the verb. A
verb of motion negated by ne could optionally be reinforced by pas (or goute,
point): Il ne va pas ‘He doesn’t go a step’
o Pas was reanalyzed as a negative particle. Pas was extended analogically to new
verbs having nothing to do with motion. Il ne sait pas ‘He doesn’t know’.
o In spoken French came to replace ne. Il sait pas ‘He doesn’t know’.
 Reanalysis
o A process by which an expression comes to be interpreted as having a different
structure or meaning from formerly.
 The data (considered as a plural) presented here show that his analysis is
wrong / The data (considered singular) presented here shows that his
analysis is wrong.
 Data, which was originally plural, was reanalysed as a singular because it
does not have a final ‘s’. Then, ‘data’ can be singular or plural. Also
agenda (agendum), media (medium).
o Reanalysis of singular words as plurals: cherry (OF cerise).

6. Semantic change
Semantic change
Semantic change
 Basic words, such as those denoting family relationships, do not usually change their
meaning. However, there are many words in the English vocabulary which have altered
their meaning.
 Many words are polysemous and can be used with different meanings with different
contexts. The absence of fixed and rigid boundaries between senses allows words to
change their meaning fairly easily.
 Reading authors of the past one immediately notices that there are words which cannot be
understood in their current meaning.
o The word abroad, for example, used to have a different meaning: My good lord!
God gives your lordship good time of the day. I am glad to see your lordship
abroad. ˃ abroad means outside, outdoors. In ModE abroad means in a foreign
country. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts ˃ widely.
 Very often it’s the context of a word that shows that it had a different meaning:

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 o In the King James translation of the Bible you can read referring to plants: “to you
they shall be for meat” we infer that the word “meat” used to mean.
 We infer that the word “meat” used to mean ‘food’.
 The following paragraph is logically incoherent if we understand all the words in their
current meaning. However, if we take the words in italics in a sense they had in earlier
times, the paragraph has no inconsistencies.
o He was a happy and sad girl (serious young person) who lived in a town
(enclosed land) forty miles from the closest neighbour. His unmarried sister, a
wife (woman) who was a vegetarian, was so fond of meat (food) that she was
starved (die) from overeating
Changes due to associations that words have in speech
 Ne…personne (nadie) (persona L-) ˃ now personne is a negative particle.
 Ne…rien (L. rem) ˃ now rien is associated with a negative meaning.
 Referents change but the name is retained: pen ˂ penna L. (feather), object has change
but the name has been kept.
 Foreign influence: Fr. Parlement “speaking” ˃ “judicial court” ˃ “legislative court”
(parliament).
 Ignorare L. ˃ Ignorar (not knowing) / ignore (not knowing).
 When a word acquires a new meaning there is usually a connection between the old
meaning (s) and the new one, which is either linguistic or grounded in human cognition
and culture.
Types of semantic change
 Widening – broadening – generalization.
o Meaning may be generalized or specialized. Words widen the range of application
when they come to be used in contexts in which they were previously not used.
o The widening in scope of a word’s meaning allows it to denote a greater variety
of referents.
o Widening increases the number of contexts in which a word can be used, but
reduces its semantic elements.
 OE taegl ‘hairy caudal appendage’ ˃ tail ‘caudal appendage’
 OE bere ‘barley’ + aren ‘house’ ˃ barn “building in which corn is stored”.
 Vulgar L. arripare “to come to a shore” ˃ ModE arrive.
 Fr. Descarter “throw out a card” ˃ ModE discard.
 Narrowing – Restriction.
o The opposite of widening. When there is narrowing, the number of semantic
features increases and hence the number of referents of the word decreases. By
adding new components to the meaning of a word the scope of application is
reduced.
 OE deor ‘animal’ ˃ ModE deer.
 OE hund ‘hund’ ˃ ModE hound

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  OE steorfan ‘die’ ˃ ModE starve
 OE mete ‘food’ ˃ ModE meat
 ME licur ‘liquid’ ˃ ModE liquor.
 Weakening
o The use of words that are stronger than required by the circumstances results in
their weakening.
 Awfully “causing dread and awe” now is hyperbole that has become
weakened to “very”.
 French ne… pas ‘not at all’ ˃ The emphatic negation turns into a plain
negation.
 Elevation – amelioration
o A word may also undergo a change in its associations, especially of value.
Amelioration is the acquisition of a more favorable meaning. The sense of a word
acquires positive connotations.
 OE cniht ‘boy’ ‘servant’ ˃ ModE knight.
 L. nescius ‘ignorant’ ˃ ModE nice.
 Dejeneration – pejoration
o Pejoration is the acquisition of a less favorable meaning. There is a lowering in
the value associated with the referent. The sense of a word takes on a more
negative evaluation in the minds of the speakers.
 OE sely ‘blessed’ ˃ ModE silly.
 Notorious ‘well known’˃ ‘unfavorably known’
 Taboo and euphemism
o Superstition and the difficulty that we find to talk about certain topics such as
birth, death, parts of the body, sex, disease or unpleasant jobs play a part in
language change. Words referring to something considered unpleasant are
avoided and replaced by euphemisms.
o This will involve a change in the meaning of the euphemism. Several terms have
deteriorated in meaning as a result of their use as euphemisms, when they are
directly associated with the concept they are supposed to hide.
o Euphemisms are in continual need of renewal and toilet is a clear example of this
situation. If the euphemism displaces the original word completely, then it may
itself be considered too strong or direct and thus needs to be replaced.
 Toilet ˂ fr. toile (a piece of cloth in which to wrap clothes). First used as a
euphemism its meaning has now deteriorated and has been replaced by
other euphemisms. Replaced by: bathroom, loo, restroom…
Metaphoric and metonymic transfer
 Speakers establish links between different concepts and phenomena and they denote one
in terms of another. The connections that speakers establish between phenomena allow
polysemy and semantic change. Metaphoric and metonymic connections are crucial in
semantic change.

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 Conceptual Metaphor theory:
o Cognitive linguistics: metaphorical language is pervasive in everyday
conventional language. Our conceptualization system is fundamentally
metaphorical (Lakoff and Johnson 1980).
o Metaphor is a basic mechanism people have for understanding one experience in
terms of another. Most abstract concepts are understood in terms of more concrete
concepts.
o Most abstract terminology is the result of metaphoric transfer:
 Grasp ‘take hold of something’ ˃ understand
 A physical object an be opaque or transparent, as well as an argument can
be clear, opaque…
o Connections are not arbitrary but based on our experience. People’s experience
forms the basis of metaphor. Two domains are correlated in human experience so
that people use their experience in one domain to talk about the other.
o More is up: quantity is conceptualized in terms of verticality: My income rose last
year, the number of error he made is low.
 How is sadness conceptualized? He is feeling down these days, her death
chilled his soul, a heavy sadness fell upon him, he is gloomy. Sadness is
down, cold, a burden, dark.
o Most abstract terminology is the result of metaphoric transfer: spirit ˂ Latin
spiritus ‘breath’.
o A considerable part of the English vocabulary referring to intellectual activity was
borrowed from Latin during renaissance. Latin was the lingua franca of learning
in the renaissance.
 Consider, cognitate, contemplate, or ruminate were new additions to the
English lexicon in the 16th and 17th cs. These verbs derive from Latin
terms which originally referred to physical perceptions or activities.
o Contemplate: introduced into English in the early 16th c., it derives from the past
participle of contemplo ‘to look at’.
 Related to the noun templum, an open space for the observation of the
augurs and the interpretation of omens. The day wherein God did rest and
contemplate his own works.
 When one looks at something attentively and thoughtfully or the object of
contemplation is not something physical, but abstract, then contemplate
cones to be used in the sense ‘view mentally’ or ‘consider’. She [the
souls] is able to contemplate herselfe.
 The prototypical meaning of contemplate is now “to have in view as a
possibility”.
o Consider: it was borrowed from French considerer in the 14th c. and it came from
Latin consider (a term of astrology or augury).
 Its early meaning ‘look at closely examine carefully’ (now archaic).

23
  ‘look at closely, examine carefully was extended and ‘to contemplate
mentally’ to mental perception and activity.
o Speculate also derives from a verb of physical perception.
 Latin specular ‘to watch’, ‘spy out’, ‘observe’, related to specula, a
watchtower.
 Many verbs have given rise to verbs of the intellect. Not an arbitrary fact
since in human conceptual organization and understanding of the word
sight and knowledge are intimately related.
o Cogitate derives from the past participle cogito, ‘to turn over’, ‘agitate’.
 It came to mean “to turn over in the mind”. Ideas have been
conceptualized as entities in motion which revolve in the mind.
o The earliest meaning of reflect (14thc.) ultimately from Latin is ‘to bend’, ‘turn
back’. The sense is extended to mean “to think of” or “meditate on”.
o To ruminate from Lat. Rumino “to ruminate”, “to chew the cud” and “to turn over
in the mind” we can also see the metaphorical transfer of ideas in motion, being
turned over.
 Ruminate illustrates a new conceptualization: that of ideas as food. That
metaphor is also pervasive in our everyday language: appetite for learning,
insatiable curiosity.
 Metonymic transfer:
o It may happen when the two meanings are near each other in space or time or
related as whole and part. In contrast to metaphor, mapping takes place within the
same domain.
 L coxa “hip” ˃ Fr. cuisse “thigh”.
 OE ceace “jaw” ˃ ModE check.
False friends
False friends
 Pairs of words in different languages, similar in form and different in meaning. ModE
assist – Sp. asistir.
o False friends have the same origin but they have undergone a different semantic
development.
o Assist ˂ French assister ˂ Latin assistere. To be present (obsolete) or to help, aid.
o Mod E topic – Spanish tópico: ‘subject of a discorse’, ‘expresion trivial, lugar
comun’
 Due to language change, terms which are not false friends at a particular moment may
become false friends in a later period or false friends at a particular moment may stop
being false friends.
o Spanish ignorar used in the sense of English ignore (take no notice of something
or someone). Spanish has adopted the English meaning and we can say that they
are not false friends any more.

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Folk etymology
Folk etymology
 Can change the form or meaning of a word by wrongly connecting it with another word
which is phonetically similar but is more familiar.
o Sparrow-grass ˂ asparagus

Word association
 Folk etymology is based on word association. Words change because they are associated
with other words, which are phonetically similar but better known.
 The word affected may be brought into connection with another word which has a similar
form, but a very different meaning.
o Cockroach ˂ sp. cucaracha. Mushroom ˂ fr. Mouschero. Bag of nails ˂ The
Bacchanals.
Acquisition of motivation
 Folk etymology may change opaque words into transparent or moticational words which
are felt as appropriate to what they refer to by the speaker.
o Sweetheart comes from (˂) sweetard. Simoon ˂ ar. Semum (wind), somehow
related ‘moon’ and wind, the form has changed because is associated with the
moon. Belfry (campanario) ˂ fr. Berfroi (watch tower). Changed because the first
part is associated with bells. Woodchuck ˂ ind. Wejack, this animal is in the
wood.

7. Historical Word Formation

Introduction
 The study of words can be fascinating. Words show how the speakers of a language
perceive and organize the world. The vocabulary of a language is never stable.
 The words which are used and especially those which are acquired in a particular period,
reflect the social conditions, the culture, the political events…Vocabulary is the mirror of
society.
Word formation
 When a word is needed, different strategies.
o Borrowing
o Changing the meaning of a word.
o Applying word formation strategy.
 English has a very rich vocabulary partly due to:
o The fact that it has accepted many loan words from other language.
o The present technological revolution and the quick changes.
 The freedom and creativity contrasts with the puristic attitudes of the eighteenth century.

25
 o “It wou’d be as criminal then to coin words, as money”
 Many new words derive from old terms and have been formed by:
o Combining existing items into new units. (compounding)
o Combining them with affixes. (affixation)
o Changing their word class.
o Abbreviating them.
 Main types of word-formation procedures: derivation/affixation, compounding,
conversion, clipping, blending, acronymy.
 However, rather than a strict separation between categories, we find a continuum.
o The prototypical approach to categorization, in which categories form a
continuum, with central and marginal examples, is very useful in linguistic
description. There are items which clearly belong to one category, but there are
also borderline cases which are difficult to place or items which share the
characteristics of two categories.
o Categories do not consist of items having exactly the same features, but are
characterized by a predominant core (the prototype) and peripheral items which
match the prototype different degrees.
Word formation strategies
Derivation or affixation.
 One of the most common word-formation strategies since OE. Affixes (bound
morphemes): prefixes (before base), suffixes (after base).
 Some native affixes have developed out of native full words (grammaticalization).
 Affixes of foreign origin are usually introduces as loan words containing the affix. When
the foreign words became familiar and were analyzed as derived terms, the foreign affix
began to be productive in English and used to coin new terms.
o Baptise (fr.) ˃ marginalize, popularize.
 OE made use of prefixes especially in the formation of verbs.
o Ofer ‘over’ ˃ ofercuman, oferdrincan, oferfaran.
 OE affixes
o Some have disappeared (of), but others have survived (ofer). Many have their
origin in free forms:
 OE fore (before) ˃ fore-
 OE lic (body) ˃ -ly
 OE on (on) ˃ a-
 Some affixes of foreign origin
o Latin: circum-, ex, extra-, in-…
o French: counter-, mal-, sur-…
o Greek: a-, anti-, arch-, crypto-…
 Prefixes which have the same form but different meaning.

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 o A-: ablaze or asymmetric, aseptic. They have a different origin. Ablaze comes
drom OE on (on fire) but asymmetric comes from Greek -a (not symmetric).
 Prefixes which have same meaning but different forms.
o A- (Greek), in- (Latin), un- (OE)
 Negative prefixes in- (Latin)/ un- (OE)
o Relevant / irrelevant, possible / impossible (assimilation, because it comes from
latin, and it adapted the Latin rules of word formation).
o Pleasant / unpleasant (no process of assimilation).
o Unjust / injustice, unequal /inequality ˃ un- with adjectives but in- with nouns.
OE -un is highly productive and is highly used in adjectives.
 Suffixation:
o Denominal suffixes: -hood (OE had), -ful (OE full) boyhood, useful.
o Deadjectival: -ness (OE ness) happiness.
o Deverbal -er (OE ere) worker.
o Compare:
 Yellow / yellowish: stress neutral suffixes.
 Employ / employee: stress reducing suffixes.
 Symbol / symbolic: stress attracting suffixes.
 Derivational affixes may also be involved in morphophonemic alternations.
o Divine ˃ divinity, crime ˃ criminal: Great Vowel Shift.
o Serene ˃ serenity, clean ˃ cleanliness: Great Vowel Shift.
o Sane ˃ sanity, humane ˃ humanity: Great Vowel Shift.
 Great vowel shift in the simple words because GVS only affected long
vowels, not short vowels, due to de trisyllabic shortening rule (the vowel
in the antepenultimate syllable became short, f. ex, divi:nə (I, long vowel),
then in divinity became short.)
 Suffix -th:
o Warm ˃ warmth: no change.
o Heal ˃ health: GVS not in the ‘th’ word because there’s a consonant cluster and
the vowel becomes short, so not GVS.
o Strong ˃ strength: umlaut, the suffix was (ithu) so o became e.
Pseudo-suffixation
 Using the second part of a word as a suffix to form new words. F. ex. Hamburger ˃
hamburger steak. Divided ham+burger. Burger has been used to create other words:
cheeseburger, fishburger and Burger King.
o Marathon ˃ -(a)thon (mar+athon): telethon, workathon, bikeathon.
o Alcoholic ˃ -(a)holic (alco+ holic): workaholic, sexaholic and shopaholic.
 Between suffixation and compounding and blending.
Compounding

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  Compounding 2 or more bases to form a new lexical unit. Most productive process in
English. It was very common in OE. It declined in ME as a consequence of the Norman
Conquest. It flourished again in eModE and it is still one of the major WF strategies.
 Compounds can be
o Endocentric (bedroom, body-scanner, acid rain):
 The first element is modified by the second, the second is the head. We
can know if is endocentric if we divide the words and have a meaning.
o Exocentric (lazy bones, unicorn)
 The head is outside the compound, there’s no head-modifier relationship,
and we don’t know the meaning by dividing the elements.
o Transparent, motivated self-explaining:
 Bookseller: the meaning can be extracted from the words.
o Lexicalized: Fernbar: upscale bar, was usually decorated with ferns.
 The meaning cannot be derived from the two elements.
o OE compounds: sae ‘sea’: Saeburg ˃ sea-town, saecliff ˃ sea-cliff. These words
are endocentric and transparent
 Kennings: OE metaphorical compounds (banhus (bone+house) ‘body’): exocentric and
lexicalized.
o What is the meaning of the following compounds?
 Mynstermann: mynster ‘monastery’ + mann: monk.
 Lagu-swimmend: lagu ‘sea’ + swimmend: fish.
 Hronrad: hron ‘whale’ + rad ‘road’: sea.
 Daegred: daeg ‘day’ + red ‘red’: sunset or dawn.
 Lehtfaet: leoht ‘light’ + faet ‘vessel’: lamp.
 Some OE compounds have been replaced by loans:
o Caesterwara (caester “town” + wara “guardian) replazed by citizen (cisti + OF
citeain)
 Compounds may undergo sound changes and are no longer considered compounds.
o Half-weard ‘guardian of the bread’˃ hlaford ˃ lord.
o Hlafdige ‘bread-kneader’ ˃ lady.
o OE daeges eage ‘dais eye’ ˃ daisy
 Neoclassical compounds (compounding + affixation).
o Have at least one element of Latin or Greek origin which cannot occur as a free
item (characteristic of affixes). They carry a higher density of lexical information
than affixes. And can combine with each other.
 Tele ˂ gr. Tele: telephone, teleshopping, teleconferencing, telebanking…
Conversion
 Verb becomes a noun (to show ˃ show)
 Voicing of final consonants. Noun to verb (advice, to advise).
 Shift of stress: Verb to noun: to contrast ˃ contrast.

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 o Stress in English is usually on the first syllable because in Germanic words, the
change into English provoked moving the stress into the first syllable. Words
(verb) are from latin origigin so the had the stress on the last syllable, when they
became nouns they moved the stress to the English rule of moving the stress on
the first syllable, and to differentiate.
Back formation
 The formation of a new word by deleting a supposed affix in a longer word.
o AF burgler ˃ E burglar ‘housebreaker’ ˃ to burgle. OE gredig ˃ greedy ˃ greed.
Clipping
 Gentleman ˃ gent.
 Cousin ˃ cos
 L. mobile vulgus ˃ mob
 Ómnibus ˃ bus
 Perruque ˃ periwig ˃ wig
 Glamour ˃ glam
 More informal but keep the same meaning as the full form.
Blending
 The combination of parts of words or words and parts forming a semantic unit.
 Blending is not a new phenomenon, but in the past centuries it was limited to coinings of
creative writers. Now it’s highly productive.
o Lewis Carroll used many blends or Pormanteu words in his Jebberwocky poems.
 Today we have many blending terms: flexitarian, compfusion (confusion over
computers).
 Prototypical blends:
o Monergy: money + energy.
o Advertisement + editorial: advertorial.
o The part of the base from which is kept generally unpredictable and the
shortening may not respect the morphological and etymological division of
words.
Acronyms
 Words formed from the initial letters or from syllables from other words. Although tis
type of contraction existed in the Middle Ages (e.g.), it has been highly productive sinse
WWI.
 Sometimes a distinction is made between:
o Alphabetisms: pronounced as sequences of letters.
 Prototypical: CD, PC. Less prototypical: B2B (business to business).
o Acronyms: pronounces as words.

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  Prototypical acronyms:
o Laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)
o Radar (radio detecting and raging)
o Ticks (two income couple kids in school).
o Opals (older people with active lifestyles).
 The fuzzy boundaries between alphabetisms and acronyms are evident:
o In the alternative spellings of the same form (DINKY, dinky (dual income no
kids)).
o In the combination of the two kinds of pronunciation: alphabetisms + acronyms:
CD rom.
o An alphabetism in one language may be borrowed as an acronym into another
language: IRA (Irish Replublican Army)
 In English pronounced ‘aiarei’ in Spanish pronounced ‘ira’.
 When English acronyms or alphabetisms are borrowed into Spanish:
o Both the English form and pronunciation are kept: B2B, DJ.
o The English form is kept but the pronunciation is Spanish: CD, CPU.
o Acronyms and alphabetisms may change the order of the letters, following
Spanish word order: AIDS – sida.
o Both forms are used depending on the register and situation: DNA – ADN.

8. Historical background
Loan words
 English has always borrowed words from other languages:
o Latin, Scandinavian, Celtic (OE)
o Norman French, Latin (ME)
o Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish (Renaissance)
o Innumerable languages since then.
 Near-synonyms
o Ask (native), question (French) and interrogate (Latin).
o Sweat (English) vs. perspire (French): the borrowed words are usually used for
more formal occasions.
Periods in the History of English
 Old English: 5th – 11th c.
 Middle English: 12th c. – 15th c.
 Modern English: 15th c. –
 (early modern English: 15th c. – 17th c.)
Borrowing in the OE
 Exercise:

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 o What is the origin of the following words.
 Kent (Celtic), Dover (Celtic), Avon (Celtic), cheese (Latin), wine (Latin),
Lancaster (Latin), Winchester (Latin), temple (Latin), school (Latin),
angel (Latin), skill (Old Norse), kid (Old Norse), sky (Old Norse), sister
(Old Norse), window (Old Norse), they (Old Norse)
 Celtic place names:
o Kent ‘Canty’ (border). River or water (Avon, Exe)
 Latin influence on OE:
o 1) The first Latin words were introduced through an early contact between the
Romans and the Germanic tribes on the continent.
 Words connected with war and trade. Campus ˃ camp ‘battle’ / Pondo ˃
pund ‘pound’ / Vinum ˃ win ‘wine’ / caseus ˃ ciese ‘cheese’
o 2) The Romans in Britain. 55 and 54 BC First Roman Invasion. AD 43:
establishment of Roman…
 Governor Agricola (78-85)…
 Latin did not replace but influenced Celtic. Some words still survive today
(through Celtic transmission). Castra (Lancaster, Winchester…)
 Possibly some words which the AngloSaxons acquired on the continent
were reinforced by the presence…
o 3) The Germanic Conquest of Britain:
 449: Anglo-Saxon invasion. The Romans left Britain and left behind them
Romanized Celts who were attached by the Picts and Scots…
 They were followed by the Saxons who settled on Essex, Sussex and
Wessex and the Angles who settle down in Anglia.
o 4) Latin, Introduction of Christianity into Britain (597)
 Words connected with religion (altar, angel, temple) and education and
learning (school)
 The Viking Conquest
o 8thc. The swedes went to Russia. The Norwegians to Iceland and part of the
British Isles. The Danes to Normandy and England.
o 1) Early raids
o 2) Invasion
o 3) Assimilation
Place names
 -by (farm): Grimsby, Whitby, Derby, Rugby, Thoresby.
 -thorp (village): Althorpe.
 -toft (piece of land): Brimtoft, Eastoft.
 -son: Johnson, Jackson…
Old Norse

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  Skil ˃ skill, egg ˃ egg, kið ˃ kid, leggr ˃ leg, systir ˃ sister (OE sweostor), taka ˃ tacan
‘take (OE niman), vindauga ˃ window (OE eagpyrel), ský ˃ sky (OE uprodor). Ship,
shall, fish / sky, skin, skill / kid, get, give, egg.
 No / nay, from /from, craft / skill, starve / die.
 They, them, their.
The Norman Conquest
 1066, William the Conqueror, King Harold II, Hastings.
 The English nobility was destroyed by the Norman Conquest. The court was Norman.
The Norman Conquest brough about the end of West Saxon as a literary standard the rise
of Anglo-Norman.
In 1204 King John lost Normandy
 The nobles who had properties in England and in France had to give up either their
Estates in England or in France. Increasing feeling of rivalry between the two countries.
 Hundred years’ War:
o French became the language of an enemy country. In the 13 th and 14th c. English
gradually replaced French in literature in the universities and in the parliament. In
the 13th c., when the nobles began to speak English they introduced many French
words.
 Words from French:
o Governmental and administrative Words:
 OF ˃ E: corone ˃ crown, empire ˃ empire, autorité ˃ authority, parlement
˃ parliament, roial ˃ royal, cort ˃ court, noble ˃ noble, prince ˃ prince,
duc ˃ duke, conte ˃ count, marchis ˃ marquis, madame ˃ madam.
o Law
 OF ˃ E: justice ˃ justice, crime ˃ crime, preve ˃ proof, punissement ˃
punishment.
o Army and Navy:
 OF ˃ E: armée ˃ army, pais ˃ peace, bataille ˃ battle.
o Ecclesiastical words:
 OF ˃ E: cardinal ˃ cardinal, deien ˃ dean, abbesse ˃ abbess, chapelain ˃
chaplain, miracle ˃ miracle.
o Fashion, meals and social life:
 OF ˃ E: dresser ˃ dress, bouton ˃ button, joel ˃ jewel, bleu ˃ blue,
diamant ˃ diamond.
o Art, learning and medicine:
 OF ˃ E: paleis ˃ palace, art ˃ art, poète ˃ poet, serurgien ˃ surgeon,
stomaque ˃ stomach.
 If a French word had the same meaning as a native word, one word was lost or both
words survived with a differentiation in meaning.

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 o OE leod ˃ people, OE dom ˃ judgement, OE here ˃ army, OE blaed ˃ flower, OE
lyft ˃ air.
o Ox – beef, sheep – mutton, pig – pork, calf – veal, house – mansion, ask –
question, wish – desire.
 Early loans: garden, hour, market, people.
 Anglo-Norman Central French
o Catch – chase, cattle – chattel, warden – guardian, warrant- guarantee.
o French ˃ English: gâter ˃ wase, guêpe ˃ wasp, quitter ˃ quit, qualité ˃ quality.
o OF chef ˃ E chief (early loan) and E chef (later loan)

Modern English
 Events that mark the end of Middle English and the beginning of Modern English.
o Chaucer’s death.
o The beginning of GVS
o The introduction of printing 1476, William Caxton.
o Renaissance
o Colonisation and trade.
 Exercise:
o Can you identify the origin of the following words?
 Frequency (Latin), aristocracy (Greek), data (Latin), erudition (Latin),
boulevard (French), alcohol (Arabic), ghetto (Italian), cockroach
(Spanish), caravan (Persian), apricot (Arabic, introduced in English
through Spanish or Portuguese), shampoo (Indian), influenza (Italian),
investigate (Latin, as all vs with -ate).
The Renaissance
 Since the 16c. English has adopted words from many different lanuages: tea (China)…
o Later on science enlarged vocabulary from Greek elements:
 Latin: investigate, folio, area, data.
 Original form (appendix and climax) or adapted (consultare ˃ consult).
More adaptations: L. conspicuous ˃ conspicuous / externus ˃ external /
celeritas ˃ celerity. French loans: amateur, ballet, café…
o Loan translations or calques (from French): Ça vas an dire ˃ Long without saying.
o Greek: agnostic, anthropoid, nymph.
o French: amateur, ballet, boulevard, bureau.
o Music from Italian: diva, concerto, soprano, influenza…
o Words referring to geology or food from German: cobalt, sauerkraut...
o Words from Spanish: alligator (˂ el lagarto), cockroach, maize, guitar.

The proportion of native and foreign words in the English vocabulary

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  SOED: Celtic (0,54%) ˂ Other Romanic (4, 80%) ˂ Greek (5,32 %) ˂ Germanic (22%) ˂
Latin (28,29%) ˂ French (28,37%)

9. Brief survey of the evolution of English language

Spelling
 <þ>, <ð> are lost and both represent voiceless and voiced fricatives.
o Voiceless: <þ> þis (initial position), <ð> baeð (final position)
o Voiced (between vowels): <þ> oþer, <ð> baðian
 ˂f˃
o [f] (initial position): feld ‘field’, fif ‘five’
o [v] (between vowels): ofer ‘over’, wolf ˃ wolves
 ˂s˃
o [s] (final position or between vowels): hus ‘house’
o [z]: nosu ‘nose’
 ˂c˃
o Palatalized (front vowels): ciele ‘chill’, pic ‘pitch’
o [k]: camp, corn.
 ˂g˃
o Fronted to [j]: gear ‘year’, weg ‘way’
o [g]: gud ‘war’, galan ‘sing, ges ˂ gosi.
 OE to ME
o u ˃ ou: house
o ‘c’ ˃ ‘ch: cild˃ child
o ‘cw’ ˃ ‘qu’: cwen ˃ queen
o ‘sc’ ˃ ‘sh’: sceal ˃ shell
o ‘f’ ˃ ‘v’: wulfas ˃ wolves
o ‘g’ ˃ ‘y’: gear ˃ year
o ‘Þ’ ˃ ‘th’: Þin ˃ thin
o ‘ð’ ˃ ‘th’: ðat ˃ that.

Morphology
 Gangad ‘go’, gelaet ‘leads’, farad ‘go’…
o Loss of final endings (gangad, farad).
o ‘t’ ˃ ‘s’ as 3rd person.
 Evolution of one declention.
o Nouns: case (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative), gender (masculine,
feminine and neuter), number (singular and plural). Gender and case have been
lost.
o OE Nouns a-stem declension (masc)
 Nominative: stan (s.) stanas (pl.)

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  Accusative: stan (s.) stanas (pl.)
 Genitive: stanes (s.) stana (pl,)
 Dative: stane (s.) stanum (pl.)
o ME Nouns a-stem declension (masc.)
 Nominative: ston (s) stones (pl.) from ‘a’ to schwa.
 Accusative: ston (s.) stones (pl.)
 Genitive: stones (s.) stones (pl.)
 Dative: ston(e) (s.) stones (pl.)
OE demonstratives
 Se (masc.), paet (neuter), seo (feminine).
o Masculine demonstratives
 Nominative: se (sg.) þa (pl.)
 Accusative: þone (sg.) þa (pl.)
 Genitive: þaes (sg.) þara (pl.)
 Dative: þaem (sg.) þaem (pl.)
 Instrumental þy
Adjectives
 OE:
o Strong: geong mann
o Weak (preceded by demonstrative): Se geonga mann.
 Strong declension (masc.)
o Nominative: god (sg.) gode (pl.)
o Accusative: godne (sg.) gode (pl.)
o Genitive: godes (sg.) godra (pl.)
o Dative: godum (sg.) godum (pl.)
o Instrumental gode
 Weak declension (masc. sg.)
o Nominative: se goda cyning.
o Accusative: Þone godan cyning.
o Genitive: Þaes godan cyninges.
o Dative: Þaem godan cyninge.
o Instrumental: Þy godan cyninge.
 Weak declension (masc. pl.)
o Nominative: Þa godan cyningas.
o Accusative: Þa godan cyningas.
o Genitive: Þara godra cyninga.
o Dative: Þaem godum cyningum.
 ME adjectives:
o Strong: god (sg.) gode (pl.)

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 o Weak: gode (sg.) gode (pl.)

Syntax
 OE þe to forspillednesse gelæt (that to perdition leads).
 ME that ledith to perdicioun (that leads to perdition).
 eModE that leadeth to destruction.
 PDE: that leads to perdition.
OE verb system
 System:
o Mood: indicative, imperative and subjunctive.
o Two tenses: past and present.
o Number and person: indicated by verbal endings.

Verbs
 OE
o Strong verbs (past tense by ablaut: vowel alternation in the root: hindan – hunde)
now regular verbs, because of analogical extension.
o Weak verbs (past tense by addition of a morpheme containing d or t: lufian –
lufode) now can be irregular verbs, because of sound changes (GVS,
shortening…).
 Pa (1) nam (3) (niman ˂ take) he (2) pa fif (4) hlafas (5) and bletsode (bletsian ˂ bless)
hie
o Then he took five loafs (of bread) and blessed them.

Conjugation of strong verb

 Indicative
o Present:
 Binde
 Blindest, bintst
 Bindeð
 Bindað
 Bindað
 Bindað
o Past:
 Band
 Bunde
 Band
 Bundon
 Bundon
 Bundon

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 o *Plurals are the same, there has been analogical extension and the plural form has
been extended to the other persons.
 In present the 3rd person singular was ð, when now is -s, the eth (ð) comes
from the Northern invasion until the 17th century where -s had been kept
when ð was forgotten.
 In past, the second person singular was different, this was the form that
was kept, also the plural so in ModE was bound (sg and pl.)
 Subjunctive
o Present
 Binde
 Binde
 Binde
 Binden
 Binden
 Binden
o Past
 Bunde
 Bunde
 Bunde
 Bunden
 Bunden
 Bunden
o *the singular is all the same and the plural is all the same in both tenses. Between
present and past the difference is the vowel.
 Imperative: bind / bindað
 Infinitive: bindan / inflected inf.: to bindenne
 Present / Past participle: bindende / gebunden
Pronouns
 Pronouns became increasingly important with the loss of personal inflection on the verb.
They had never been obligatory sentence elements in OE, but they became compulsory in
Middle English.
 With the loss of the inflections for the subjunctive mood, modal verbs developed.
 Word order became more rigid.

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