1.

Periodization in the history of English language

Traditional periodization divides English history into 3 periods: Old English, middle English
and new English.

 OE begins with the Germanic settlement of Britain in 5th century or with the
beginning of writing in 7th century and ends with the Norman conquest in 1066.
(date of battle of Hastings) this is the period of full endings, because it was synthetic,
inflectional. It was pre-written period, dialects of Jutes, Frisians and etc. In this time
tribal dialects gradually developed into regional dialects.
 ME begins with Norman conquest and ends on the introduction of printing in 1475,
1500 Period of levelled endings, term by Henry Sweet. Late or Classical Middle
English is the Fourth period which is the Age of Chaucer. Fifth period is called early
new English - William Caxton published first Eng. Book in 1350-1476. Overall It was
a documented period so to say, there are genre-diverse manuscripts, such as law
genre, poetic genre and etc. Written old English.
 The seventh period is NE period lasts to the present day. It started from 1500. NE is a
period of lost endings. Current Eng. Is analytical. This is the age of Shakespeare 1476-
1660.

 The sixth period 1660-1800 – period of Correctness and Normalization. The norms of
literary language were fixed as rules. Numerous dictionaries and grammar-books were
published and spread through education and writing.
During this period the English language extended its area far beyond the borders of
the British Isles, first of all to North America.

2. OE Word Stress

In the languages of proto Indo European and early proto Germanic we have 2 types of stress
– force stress and musical pitch. The emphasis may fall on any syllable of the word—a root-
morpheme, an affix, or an ending—and could be moved both in form-building and word-
building.

In PG, both of these aspects of the word accent were altered. The sole form of stress utilized
was force or expiratory stress (also known as dynamic and breath stress).
Late PG – stress became fixed on the very first syllable. It consisted of root + stem suffix + gr.
Ending. For ex. Dag-a-s.

Since the stress was fixed on the root, the weakening and loss of sounds rainly affected the
suffixes and grammatical endings. Many endings merged with the suffixes, were weakened
and dropped (the words may be pronounced precisely as they are written; Old Germanic
languages used phonetic writing.)

3. Palatal and Velar Mutation

The OE tendency to positional vowel change is most apparent in the process termed
"mutation". Mutation is the change of one vowel to another through the influence of a vowel
in the succeeding syllable. This kind of change occurred in PG when (e) was raised to (i) and
(u) could alternate with (o) under the influence of succeeding sounds. In Early OE,
mutations affected numerous vowels and brought about profound changes in the system and
use of vowels.

The most important series of vowel mutations is known as "i-Umlaut” or "palatal mutation".
Palatal mutation is the fronting and raising of vowels through the influence of “I” or “j”. The
vowel was fronted and made narrower so as to approach the articulation of (i).

Palatal umlaut is reffered to i/j umlaut. Palatal umlaut is assimilative process, dependent. It
can be also partial and regressive.

Palatal umlaut results are: mouse – mice, goose – geese, foot – feet, and etc.

Velar mutation

Another kind of change referred to umlaut in Early OE is the so-called "velar-mutation"

found in some of the OE dialects. It was caused by the influence of back vowels in the
succeeding syllables, which transformed the accented root-vowels into diphthongs. For ex:
swestar, OE sweostor (NE sister). Franc – francise – French. C moved to K, because we didn’t
have letter k in OE.

4.Rhotacism
Rhotacism is a shift of the sound [z] to [r]. This process was formulated under Verner’s Law,
when he added the sound [s] in his system (Voiceless plosives + [s] turn into voiced fricatives
or plosives if they are between vowels and the preceding vowel is unstressed). P,T,K+S.
VERNER’S LAW.

The PG [z] underwent a phonetic modification through the stage of [s] into [r]. It became
sonorant and merged with older IE [r]. The shift of [z] to [r] is known as rhoticism (from
Greek rho).

Rhotacism is qualitative change.

In East Germanic we have s/z changes . For ex: fisk – a- z in gothic fisk-s. old norse fisk-r and
new English fish. Also ex: haus-j-an = hea-r. Also we:z proto Germanic turned into wir (we
are). Z turned into R. This is rhotacism.

In Northern west Germanic we have s/r changes.

5. Gemination

Another process, which occurred in all WG languages, is called Gemination or Doubling.

Many consonants were lengthened after a short vowel, before [j]იუ, so, we can say that
short consonants got long: fuljan – fyllan (fill), setjan – settan (set).

Short vowels + consonant + j = doubling.

This process occurred in North-Germanic languages as well: two velar consonants [k] and [g]
were affected).

As for WG, all the consonants expect for sonorant [r] were doubled after a short vowel and
before semi-vowel [j]: werjan – wear (no gemination).

During this process, or a bit later semi-vowel [j] was lost, so the long consonants ceased to be
phonetically conditioned. Long and short vowels began to appear in identical phonetic
positions, namely between vowels – and their distinction became phonetic.

6.Palatalization of velar consonants

Velar consonants split into 2 distinct sets of sounds which eventually led to the growth of
new phonemes. Velar consonants are: g,k,x,y(ღ)

The Velar Consonants were [k, g, x, y-ღ] were palatalized and softened before a front vowel,
and sometimes after a front vowel, unless followed by a back vowel.

Velar consonant examples are: kinder-cild (child), Skield – shield, maegden – maiden,
skirt-shirt.

The difference between velar and palatal consonants became phonemic when velar and
palatal consonants began to occur in similar phonetic conditions. Though the difference
between palatal and velar consonants were not shown in the spellings of the OE period, they
were differentiated from the very early age. In the course of time the phonetic difference
between them grew and palatal consonants developed into sibilants and affricates: [k’] – [tƒ]
and [g] – [dз].

7. OE dialects and written records

The feudal system was establishing itself, and languages were transitioning into a new phase
in which tribe dialectal separation was replaced by geographical division, transforming tribal
dialects into local or regional dialects.

The following four major OE dialects are well recognized: Kentish is a dialect spoken in what
is now Kent and Surrey, as well as on the Isle of Wight. It was derived from the Jutes' and
Frisians' languages.

Except in Wales and Cornwall, where Celtic tongues were retained, West Saxon, the major
dialect of the Saxon group, is spoken in the remainder of England south of the Thames and
the Bristol Channel. Other Saxon dialects in England have not been documented and are
unknown to current researchers.

Mercian is a dialect originating from southern Angles' speech and spoken mostly in the
kingdom of Mercia, that is, from the Thames to the Humber. Another Anglian dialect is
Northumbrian, which is spoken from the Humber to the Forth (hence the name North-
Humbrian).
 The political and cultural center shifted to Wessex in the ninth century. There was
significant advancement in culture and education, thus it's no surprise that the West Saxon
dialect has been preserved in more writings than all the other OE dialects combined. The
written form of the West Saxon dialect evolved into a bookish sort of language in the 11th
century, and it is likely that it functioned as the language of writing for all English-speaking
people.

The changes in the language condition distinguishes two historical periods, according to the
preceding description. Early OE English was made up of a collection of spoken tribal dialects
with no written or dominant form. The dialects had shifted from tribal to regional by the
time of the OE; they had both an oral and written form and were no longer equal; in the
realm of writing, the West Saxon dialect dominated its neighbors. (A foreign language, Latin,
was commonly utilized in writing alongside OE dialects.)

Runic inscriptions

The word rune originally meant 'secret' or 'mystery,' and hence came to be used to describe
inscriptions that were thought to be magical. The characters employed to write these
inscriptions were later given the name "rune."

The runes were utilized as letters, with each sign representing a different sound.

This alphabet is known as futhark after the first six letters. Runic inscriptions were carved in
hard material like as stone, bone, or wood.

Two main inscriptions are: "Ruth well Cross," "Franks Casket“.

It was called franks casket, because British archeologist submitted the Franks Casket to the
British Museum after it was unearthed in France in the early nineteenth century.

On Ruth well Cross - The dream of the rood is written.

On Franks Casket - portraits in the center and runic inscriptions.

Among the earliest insertions in Latin texts are pieces of OE poetry. Bede's HISTORIA
ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS ANGLORUM (written in Latin in the 8th c.) contains an English
fragment of five lines known as "Bede's Death Song" and a religious poem of nine lines,
"Cædmon's Hymn"
The names of the poets are unknown except Cædmon and Cynewulf, two early
Northumbrian authors.

Another group of poems are OE elegiac (lyrical) poems: WIDSITH ("The Traveller's Song"),
THE WANDERER, THE SEAFARER, and others. Most of those poems are ascribed to
Cynewulf.

OE poetry is mainly restricted to three subjects: Heroic, religious and lyrical. The greatest
poem of the time was BEOWULF, an epic of the 7th or 8th c. composed in the Mercian or
Northumbrian dialect, but has come down to us in a 10th c. West Saxon copy. BEOWULF is
built up of several songs arranged in three chapters (over 3,000 lines in all).

8. OE noun

The parts of speech to be distinguished in OE are as follows: the noun, the adjective, the
pronoun, the numeral (all referred to as nominal parts of speech). Also we have the verb, and
the adverb.

Structure words are: The preposition, The conjunction, The Interjection.

OE was synthetic language, inflectional. Inflections – sound interchanges (reduplication) and

suppletive formation (good-better-the best)

Grammatical categories are usually subdivided into nominal categories, and verbal
categories.

There were five nominal grammatical categories in OE: number, case, gender, degrees of
comparison, and the category of definiteness/indefiniteness.

The noun had 2 numbers and 3 genders. Gender (masculine, feminine, neutar)

The category of number consisted of two members, singular and plural. They were well
distinguished formally in all the declensions, there being very few homonymous forms.

Noun had 4 cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative. In most declensions two, or
even three, forms were homonymous. In proto-Germanic there were 6 cases.

1. Nominative – case of active agent, case of subject. Vocative function – for ex: Sunu min.
2. Genitive – subjective and objective. Subjective – possession, origin. For ex: grandless
daede(დედე). გამოხატავდა წარმოშობას და ა.შ.
objective – partitive meaning. For ex: hu:sa selest.
3. Dative - was used in prepositional or morgone phrases and in indirect object. For ex: on
morzenne 'in the morning
4. Accusative – was used in direct object.

Stem-suffixes could consist of vowels (vocalic stems, e. g. a-stems, i-stems), of

consonants (consonantal stems, e. g. n-stems), of sound sequences, e. g. -ja-stems, -nd-
stems. Some groups of nouns had no stem-forming suffix or had a "zero-suffix": they are
usually termed "root-sters" and are grouped together with consonantal stems, as their
roots ended in consonants, e. g. OE man, boc (NE man, book).

We have 4 types of stem suffixes: a, i, u, o.

a, i - ja, wa = i - stem nouns.
u, o – wo, jo = o- stem nouns.

A stems were – Masculine and Neutar.

I stems were – Masculine, Feminine and Neutar . 3 genders
O stems were –only feminine
U stems were – feminine and masculine

The length of the stem: fisc – Nom, fisces – Genet, Fisce – Dative, fisc – Accu.

Weak declension – N
Nama, naman, naman, naman.

Minor groups of nouns are – r, s, nd – children.

9. OE adjective

Gram. Categories: number, gender, case, degrees of comparison, indefinition/definition.

The category of case in adjectives differed from that of nouns: they had additional fifth
case – instr. It was used when adjective served as an attribute to a noun in the dat. Case
expressing an instrumental meaning.
OE adjectives declined in two ways: according to the weak and to the strong declension.
They arose due to the use of several stem-forming suffixes in PG: vocalic a-, o-, u- and
consonantal n-.
The difference between the strong and the weak declension of adjectives was not only
formal but also semantic. Adjective didn’t belong to a certain type of declension. Most
adjectives could be declined in both ways. The adjective had a strong form when used
predicatively and when used attributively without any determiners.

Degrees of Comparison
Most OE adjectives distinguished between three degrees of comparison: positive,
comparative and superlative. The regular means used to form the comparative and the
superlative from the positive were the suffixes -ra and-est/ost. Sometimes suffixation
was accompanied by an interchange of the rootvowel. E/g The adjective god had
suppletive forms. Suppletion was a very old way of building the degrees of comparison.
For ex: OE – god – bettera – best
Goth – bettera – betst
Selera – selest
Lytel – lease – laest.

10. Verb in OE

Grammatical categories of the finite verb were – person (3) and number (2) . Its
specifically verbal categories were mood and tense.
Tenses – present and past.
Present tense – contextually could აწმყო და წარსული. convey the meaning of:
futurity, progressive. The meanings of the tense forms were also very general. The
forms of the Pres. were used to indicate present and future actions.
Past tense – consisted of past, past perfect, continuous.
The category of Person was made up of three forms: the lst, the 2nd and the 3rd.
The category of Mood was constituted by the Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive.
11.OE non-finites
In OE there were two non-finite forms of the verb: the Infinitive and the Participle.
They were closer to the noun and adjectives, than to the finite verbs, their nominal
features were more obvious than their verbal features –especially at the morphological
level.
The verbal nature was revealed – in some of their functions and in their syntactic
“combinability” – just likes finites, they could take direct objects and be modified by
adverbs.
The infinitive – no verbal grammatical categories – by origin it is a verbal noun, so it
had a reduced case-system: Nom. And Dat. Cases. Like the Dat. Case of nouns, inflected
infinitive verbs with preposition to could indicate direction or purpose of an action.
The uninflected Infinitive was used in verb phrases with modal verbs of other verbs of
incomplete predication.

The Participle – verbal adjective, characterized not only by nominal, but by verbal
features as well.
Participle I (Present Participle) was opposed to the Part. II (Past Part.). There were
voice and tense distinctions between them.
Participle I was active and expressed present or simultaneous process and qualities,
while Part. II expressed states and qualities of past actions. Part. II contrasted to the
Part. I as passive to active, if the verb was transitive.
The forms of these two participles were strictly differentiated.
Part. I was formed from the Present tense stem – the Infinitive without the endings –
an, -ian, with the help of suffix –ende.
Participle II – stem of his own:
In strong verbs: marked by a certain grade of vowel interchange + the suffix –en.
In weak verbs: it ended in –d/t.
Participle II was commonly marked by prefix ʒe-, but it could appear without it as well
(esp. if the verb had other word-building prefixes).
Participles were employed predicatively and attributively just like adjectives and shared
their grammatical categories: declined as weak and strong, agreed with nouns in
number, gender and case.

12.Morphological classes of OE verb

 The OE verb falls into two great divisions: strong verbs and weak verbs. There are also
minor verbs, not belonging to either of the two.
The main difference between strong and weak verbs was the means of forming the
principal parts or the “stems” of the verb. Differences in conjugations were also noticed.
Strong verbs formed their stems by vowel gradation or ablaut and by adding certain
suffix, in some verbs, by consonant interchanges.
Strong verbs had four forms: Infinitive, Past Singular, Past Plural and Past Participle.
Weak verbs derived their Past tense stem and Participle II from the Present tense with
the help of dental suffix -d, or –t. They did not change root vowel, but, in some cases,
suffixation was accompanied by vowel interchange.

Infinitive Past Tense Participle II

Strong verb beran bær, bǣron (ge)boren
Weak verb locian locode (ge)locod

Strong verbs: about 300. Native fords, descending from PG, parallels in other OG
languages. They had high frequency of occurrence, basic items of the vocabulary,
widely used in word derivation and word compounding.
They are divided into seven classes: 1-6 classes use vowel gradation, which goes back to
the IE ablaut-series modified in different phonetic conditions (in accordance with PG
and early OE soung changes).

Strong verbs – 7 classes

Weak verbs – 3 classes
Minor groups of verbs – included a) preterite-present.
b) anomalous (included willan, doin)
c) supletive verbs – beon, gain.

Strong verbs were produced by an ablaut – vowel gradation.

In PIE were 2 types of ablaut – qualitative – e-o-zero.
Quantitative – e-e: o-o: (short and long e,o)
 In the first 5 classes of verbs are qualitative.
 Sixth class is quantitative.
 In Seventh class we have reduplication.
 Strong verbs

 First class is i class (has i)

Inf. Past singular, Past plural , Part. II
Gothic – reisan - rais - risum - risans
English – ri:san - ra:s - rison - risen

 Second class is u class (has u)

Gothic – kiusan – kaus - kusum - kusans
English – ceosan – ceas – curon – coren (curon – example of rhotacism)

 Third class nasal plosive / 2 nasals (ნაზალური-ხშული)

English – bindan – band – bundon – bunden
 Forth class – the root contain sonorant. combination of qualitative and quantitative
ablaut.
Gothic – stilan – stal – ste:lum – stulans
English – stelan – stael – stae:lon – stelen

 Fifth class – the root contains noise consonant.

English – etan – aet – ae:ton – eten
Gothic – itan – at – e:tum – itans

 Sixth class – o – o: o: - o
a – o: o: - a
English – faran – fo:r – fo:ren - faren

 Seventh class - incudes reduplicating verbs by repeating the root-morpheme.

Gothic – haitan – haihat – haihatum – haitans
English – haitan – he:t – he:ton – ha:ten

Weak verbs

We have 3 classes of weak verbs.

 Class 1 was – ja (ია) here we have germination.
 Styrian – styrede – styred
Ce:pan – cepte – ceped NE word keep.

 Class 2 – there could have been vowel o in the root. We have N marker.
Locian – locoed – locod – look
 Class 3 - ai
Habaan – haefde – haefd NE have or head

 Out of 12 verbs, only 6 remain – can, may, must, ought, might and then was added
will.

13.OE vocabulary

Modern estimates of the total vocabulary of OE range from about thirty thousand
words to almost one hundred thousand. The OE vocabulary was almost purely
Germanic; except for a small number of borrowings, it consisted of native words
inherited from PG or formed from native roots and affixes.

 OE vocabulary – 3 main types

1. Native lexical items
2. Borrowings (from Celtic, Latin, and Scandinavian)
3. Word formation

 Common core of OE vocabulary consists of 3 basic layers:

1. Common IE lexis
2. Common Germanic
3. Specifically OE lexis

 Common IE lexis consists of

1. Notional parts of words (verbs, nouns, adjective and etc.)
2. Structure words

This layer embraced the following thematic groups:

1. The living world: Gods, people, animals;
 2. Indo-European conceptions of wild animals and their names;
3. Indo-European plant names;
4. Indo-European terms for heavenly bodies;
5. Geographical environment and climate;
6. Kinship terms; mother, father, sister, brother, etc;
7. Economic activity, material culture, crafts, transportation;
8. Social organization, And so on.

1. Nouns – names of body part

2. Names of flora and fauna
3. Natural phenomena
4. Agriculture, gen culture
5. Verbs – basic activities and states
6. Numerals (1-10)

Borrowings – from Latin and Celtic

Celtic – place names, e.g. kingdoms (kent) cities (york, london)
Latin – influenced OE alphabet and literature, with introduction of
Christianity
New concepts which they learned from Romans: war, trade, agriculture,
building and home life, food, medium, military affairs.

WORD-FORMATION IN OLD ENGLISH

Word Structure

1. simple words – words with a simple stem, without derivationed affixes.

2. Derived words – consisting of one root-morpheme or one or more affixes.
3. Compound words – stems were made up of more than one root morpheme.
* ways of word formation are: derivation and word-composition.

14.ME dialects and written records

Middle English dialects had developed from OE dialects.

1. The Southern Group of dialects – included Kentish and the South-Wester dialects.

Kentish – dilect descendant of the OE dialect, but with extended area. South-Western –
descendant of the OE West and East Saxon. (In OE West Saxon was prominent, but in ME
East Saxon became more important and became the basis of the Mixed Dialect of London.
Among this group we may mention the Gloucester and the London dialects.

2. The group of Midland (Central) – corresponds to the OE Mercian.

It is divided into West and East Midland – subdivided into South-West and North-West,
South-East and North-East. Territory – river Thames in the South to the Welsh-speaking
area in the West and river Humber in the North.

3. The Northern group of dialects – OE Northumbrian.

In early ME it included several provincial accents: Yorkshire, Lancashire and other dialects,
from which Scottish had developed. In early ME, the state language and the main language
of the literature was French. The local dialects were somehow equal. However, in late ME
the situation changes: English becomes the main language of administration, writing and
education and the whole linguistic situation in the country changes. The most important
event in the changing linguistic situation was the rise of the London dialect as the standard
written form of the language.

Background: even in OE times, London was the biggest town in Britain. A few years before
the Norman Conquest, the capital was transferred to London (before it was Winchester).

The early ME records made in London (proclamation) show that it belonged to the South-
Western dialectal group. However, later records indicate that it was becoming more and
more mixed – Midland feature started to prevail. The most likely explanation for the change
of the dialect type and for the mixed character lies in the history on the London population:
During the “Black Death”, bubonic plague (1348) – London was practically depopulated
(one-third of population died in the epidemics in the whole Britain, the highest proportion
of death was in London. People from different regions started to migrate into London. Most
of the new arrivals came from the East Midlands: Norfolk, Suffolk, and other populous and
wealthy counties of Medieval England, although not bordering immediately on the capital.
As a result the speech of Londoners was brought much closer to the East Midland dialect.
The official and literary papers produced in London in the late 14th c. display obvious East
Midland features. The London dialect became more Anglian than Saxon in character.
Mixed dialect of London – Local + East Saxon (from Southern groups) + South-East (from
Midland).

Written records

For a long time after Norman Conquest, there were two written languages in England:
French and Latin. English was disregarded and considered as a language of illiterate people.
The earliest sample of ME prose are the new entries made in the Anglo-Saxon Chroniclers
(1112 – 1154 – known as Peterborough Chroniclers).

Ormulum – a poem composed by the monk Orm in the North-East midland dialect
(Lincolnshire), 13th c. – unrhymed metrical paraphrases of gospels. There are many
Scandinavianisms, while it lacks French borrowings.

ANCRENE RIWLE (The rule of Anchorites)- a prose in the South-Western dialect of the
13th c. and two later poems in the Northern dialect: CURSOR MUNDI-a version of the
gospels, and the PRICKLE OF CONSCIENCE, a translation attributed to Richard Rolle of
Hampole.

Episodes of the Crusades or Scandinavian invasions: HAVELOK THE DANE-Eats Midland

dialect, 13th c.

KING HORN-THE SAME DIALCET AND CENTURY

We should also mention London Proclamation (1258), written in the South-Western dialects
– it was written in 3 languages, including ME. EVIL TIMES OF EDWARD II-the unknown
author described the vices of the clergy.

John de Trevisa of Cornwall – in 1387 he completed the translation of seven books on world
history – Polychronicon – translated from Latin into the South-Western dialect of English.

John Wyclif – the forerunner of the English Reformation – he translated the bible in 1384 –
he also wrote pamphlete against the corruption of the Church.

The chief poets besides Chaucer –

John Gower – first in Latin (Vox Clamantis – condemns all ranks of society) and then in
English (Confessio Amantis – represents seven deadly sins).
Willian Langland – “The vision concerning Piers the Plowman” – combined dialect of West
Midland and London – it has survived in three versions – satire, attacking various social
classes and sympathising with the wretchedness of the poor.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 -1400) – the most outstanding figure of the time – always wrote in
English. Most famous – The Canterbury Tales (which is unfinished). He wrote in London
dialect.

THE BRUCE- is written by JOHN BARBOUR, is A NATIOANAL EPIC, which describes the
real history of Robert Bruce.

15. ME word stress

ME word stress was different from the OE one. In OE stress mainly fell on the first syllable
of the word and rarely on the second. The prefix and root of the word were stressed, suffixes
and endings were unaccented. The stress was fixed – it never moved in inflexion and seldom
in derivation. However, these features were altered in the succeeding periods. The word
accent acquired more positional freedom and began to play the greater role in word
derivation. These changes were associated with the phonetic assimilation of many loan-
words adopted in ME period. In ME poetry there are found numerous differently stressed
words. Even though poetry permits certain deviations, the greater freedom of the word-
stress was still apparent. New accentual patterns are found in numerous French loan-words
– at first, when they entered the English language, they attained their own accent (ultimate
or pen-ultimate syllable). Gradually, as the loan-word assimilated, the word stress was
moved closer to the beginning, assimilating with English (Germanic) system. This shift is
known as “recessive” tendency. In disyllabic words, the accent moved to the first syllable
and coincided with the native pattern:

Vertu [ ver’tju: ] – [ ‘və:tʃə ] – virtue.

This shift is shown by the pattern: s’s > ‘ss (s – syllable).

In words of three or more syllables – the shift of the stress was caused by both recessive and
“rhythmic” tendency, which required a regular alternation of stressed and unstressed
syllables.
Under the rhythmic tendency, secondary stress would arise, located at a distance of one
syllable from the original stress. This new type of stress was either preserved as secondary, or
became the only stress, or the principal stress of the word.

ME – reco’mmenden - ,reco’mmend” – NE.

In many polysyllabic words, these two tendencies, the recessive and the rhythmic
cooperated and brought about several changes. Some morphological factors also played the
role in the shifting of the stress:

In OE, prefixes must have been unstressed – so the stress was never shifted to the prefixes of
many borrowed or newly-coined verbs of ME and NE. The accentuation accords with the
OE rule. Corresponding nouns sometimes received the stress on the first syllable:

N – ‘present – pre’sent – V

This also shows that the role of word accentuation has grown: it began to perform a
phonological function, distinguishing a verb from a noun.

To sum it all up, we can say that as a result of specifically English (or Germanic) tendencies,
continuously applied to polysyllabic loan-words, altered the whole system of word-
accentuation. The position of word stress has relatively free and it has been shifted in word-
derivation – though never in building grammatical forms.

16.Great vowel shift

The Great Vowel Shift is a very important event in the history of English vowels. The name
The Great Vowel Shift is given to a series of changes of long vowels between the 14th and
the 18th c.

During this period, all the OE long vowels became narrower or were diphthongised.

So, we can say that by the early Modern English period, all the long vowels had shifted: they
started to acquire value that they currently have: Middle English long [e] in “sweete” had
acquired the value [i].

In phonological terms:
1. The Middle English high vowels [i:] and [u:] were diphthongized, and then the vowels
were centralized and lowered in two steps, first to [ǝi] and [ǝu], then to [aɪ] and [aʊ].

2. Each of the Middle English mid vowels was raised one step—higher mid [e:] and [o:] to [i]
and [u], respectively, and then lower mid [ɛ:] and [ɔ:] to [e] and [o], respectively.

3. The low vowel [a:] was fronted to [æ:] and then raised in two steps through [ɛ:] to [e].

The stages by which the shift occurred and the cause of it are unknown.

Long ī, as in Middle English rīden ‘to ride,’ became a diphthong [ǝi]. This pronunciation
survives in certain types of speech, particularly before voiceless consonants. It went on in
most types of English to become in the course of the seventeenth century [aɪ], though there
are variations in pronunciation.

It was similar with Middle English long ū, as in hous ‘house’: it became [ǝu]. This [ǝu],
became [aʊ] at about the same time as [ǝi] became [aɪ]. Middle English [o:], as in ro(o)te
‘root,’ became [u].

1.ME Long i [i:] developed into the diphthong ai.

ME time [ti:me] – NE time [taim]

ME finden [fi:nden] – NE find [faind].

2.ME Long e [e:] changed into long i: [i:].

ME kepen [ke:pen] – NE keep [ki:p]

ME street [stre:t] – NE street [stri:t]

3.ME long ɛ: which was more open, first coincided with the more closed long e: and then
developed in the long i: [i:].

ME east [ɛ:st] – [e:st] – NE east [i:st].

4.ME long a [a:] broke into the diphthong ei.

ME table [ta:ble] – NE table [teible]

ME maken [ma:ken] – NE make [meik]

5.ME long o [o:] changed into long u [u:]

ME moon [mo:n] – NE moon [mu:n]

ME goos [go:s] – NE goose [gu:s]

6. ME more open long o [ɔ:] broke into the diphthong ou.

ME stone [stɔ:ne] – NE stone [stoun]

ME open [ɔ:pen] – NE open [oupen]

7.Me long u [u:] underwent diphthongization and developed into au.

ME now [nu:] – NE now [nau]

ME mous [mu:s] – NE mouse [maus].

17.Evolution of ME and NE noun

In the course of ME and NE, the grammatical system of the language underwent many
changes. Since the OE even the grammatical type of the language has altered (synthetic,
inflected language – analytical one). The main direction of development for the nominal
parts of speech can be defined as morphological simplification. The OE nouns had
grammatical categories of number, case and gender. Number and case were formally
distinguished in a system of declension. However, homonymous forms in the OE noun
paradigm neutralised some of the grammatical oppositions. From the 10th – 12th c. re-
arrangement and simplification of the declension system is apparent. The number of variants
of grammatical forms in the 11th and 12th century was twice as high as in the preceding
centuries. Among the variant forms there were direct descendants of OE forms with
phonetically weakened endings (“historical forms”) and also numerous analogical forms
taken over from other parts of the same paradigms and from more influential morphological
classes.

The new variants of grammatical forms destroyed the differences between the declensions –
many formal oppositions were lost in this period.

The new variants of grammatical forms obliterated the distinction between the forms within
the paradigms and the differences between the declensions. So after passing through the
“variation stage” many formal oppositions were lost.

The decline of the OE declension system lasted over 300 years – it revealed dialectal
differences – chronology and the nature of change were different in different dialects.

The Southern dialects – the noun declensions system was simplified on the basis of stem and
gender distinctions.

In the early ME they employed markers: -es, -en, -e and the root-vowel interchange + the
zero inflection.

Masculine and Neuter nouns had 2 declensions – weak and strong (Masc. took the ending –es
in the Nom. Acc. pl. – Neut. Nouns had variant forms)

Feminine nouns belonged to the weak declension and were declined like weak Masc. and
Neut. Forms.

The root-stem declension – mutating the vowels in some forms. Many variant forms showed
that the vowel-interchange was becoming the marker of number, rather than case.

In the Midland and Northern dialects – the system of declension was much simpler – there
was only one major type of declension and only a few traces of other types: the majority of
nouns took the ending of OE Masc. a-stems –es.

A small group of nouns employed a root-vowel interchange to distinguish the forms of

number. Survivals of the other OE/ declensions were rare and should be treated as
exceptions. Thus several former Neut. a-stems descending from long-stemmed nouns could
build their plurals with or without the ending -es” sg. hors-pl. hors or horses; some nouns
retained weak forms with the ending -en alongside new forms in -es. In late ME the
southern traits were replaces by Central and Northern traits – in the Mixed Dialect of
London simplified pattern of noun declensions is prevailed. In the age of Chaucer the
declension of nouns was the same as in ME – 2 forms: the basic form with the zero ending
and the –es form.

Grammatical categories:

Even in the OE Gender was controversial. In early ME and in Chaucer’s time Gender is a
lexical category – just like in Mod. E. (he, she to denote human being). The gender of nouns
was deprived of its main support – the weakened and levelled endings of adjectives and
adjective pronouns ceased to indicate gender.

The grammatical category of Case was preserved, but underwent major changes in Early ME.
In Late ME the number of cases reduced from 4 to 2. In OE the forms of the Nom. And Acc.
cases were not distinguished in the plural and in some cases they coincided even in singular.
In ME three OE cases (Nom. Acc. Dat.) fell together and are known as Common case. Only
the Genitive case was preserved – the ending was –es in the singular, in the pl. it did not
have special marker - it was not distinguished from the Common case pl. or Gen. Sg. (Except
in the nouns which did not take – es in the pl. Several nouns with a weak plural form in –en
or with a vowel interchange, such as oxen or men, added the marker of the Gen. Case –es to
those forms: oxenes, mennes). In the 17th and 18th c. – the apostrophe came into use – this
device could be employed only in writing, in oral speech the forms remained homonymous.
Dat. Case was replaced by prepositional phrases, and the main function of the Acc. Case- to
present the direct object-was fulfilled in ME by the Comm. Case: the noun was placed next
to the verb. The functions of the Genitive Case were restricted: in ME it is used only
attributively, to modify a noun – even in this function, it has an alternative: of-phrase. (Of-
phrase with inanimate, while the Gen. is preffered with animate).

Number proved to be the most stable of all the nominal categories: it preserved the formal
distinction of two numbers through all the historical periods. In Late ME the ending –es was
the dominant, prevalent marker of nouns in the plural. The pl. ending –en lost its former
productivity and in Mod. E it is found only in several words: oxen, children, brethren. The
group of root-stems has survived only as exceptions: men, teeth etc. The differentiation of
Number in nouns has become more explicit and more precise.

18. Evolution of the Adjective in ME and NE

In OE the adjective could show the gender, number and case of the noun it modified; it had a
five-case paradigm and two types of declension, weak and strong. But later it lost all the
grammatical categories except for the degrees of comparison.

The first category to disappear was Gender in the 11th c.As for cases – the forms, which
arose in Early ME began to coincide and generally, the distinction between cases were
unsteady (Instr. Case fused with the Dat.) – by 13th century, all case distinctions were lost.

The strong and weak forms of adjectives were often confused in Early ME texts. The
difference between between the strong and weak form is shown in the sg. with the help of
the ending -e.

Number underwent some changes as well – plural form was marked with –e ending in the
strong declension. But this marker was regarded as insufficient and in the 13th and 14th c.
there appeared a new pl ending –s. In the age of Chaucer the paradigm of the adjective
consisted of four forms distinguished by a single vocalic ending –e. The difference between
sg. and pl. forms or strong and weak forms were shown only in monosyllabic adjectives
ending in a consonant. Adjectives ending in vowels and polysyllabic adjectives took no
endings: able, swete.

However, certain distinctions between weak and strong forms, and also between sg and pl
are found in the works of Chaucer and Gower. Weak forms are used attributively after the
possessive and demonstrative pronouns and after the definite articles. “my deere herte’ my
dear heart”. The loss of final ¬–e in the transition to NE made the adjective an entirely
uninflected part of speech.

Degrees of Comparison

The degrees of comparison is the only set of forms which the adjective has preserved through
all historical periods.

In OE the comparative and superlative degree were synthetic. In ME the suffixes were
weakened to –er, -est and the interchange of the root-vowel was less common than before.
Since most adjectives with the sound alternation had parallel forms without it, the forms
with an interchange and were not used anymore. ME long-lenger-lengest=long-longer-
longest.

The alternation of root-vowels in Early NE survived in the adjective old, elder, eldest, where
the difference in meaning from older, oldest, made the formal distinction essential. Other
example is farther, further. The most important innovation in the adjective system in the ME
period was the growth of analytical forms of the degrees of comparison. In ME, when the
phrases with more and most became more frequent, they were used with all kind of
adjective. (Chaucer – more swete; Gower – more hard). The two sets of forms, synthetic and
analytical, were used freely until the 17th and 18th c., when the modern standard was
established. Another interesting matter is the use of “double comparatives” and “double
superlatives” in Early NE texts. Eg. More fresher, worser, most unkindest… The wide range
of variation acceptable in Shakespeare’s day was condemned in the “Age of Correctness” and
the double forms were abolished. The adjective is the only nominal part of speech which
makes use of the new, analytical, way of form building.

19.Non-finites in ME and NE

The system of verbals in OE consisted of the Infinitive and two participles. Their nominal
features were more prominent than their verbal features, The Infinitive being a sort of verbal
noun, participles I and II, verbal adjectives.

The main trends of their evolution in ME and NE can be defined as gradual loss of most
nominal features and growth of verbal features – Case distinction was lost in the Infinitive,
forms of agreement were lost in Participles.

The Infinitive lost its inflected form (Dat. Case) in Early ME –

OE Writan and to writanne appear in ME – (to) writen and in Modern English – (to) write.

The preposition “to” lost its inflectional force and turned into the formal sign of the
infinitive. (In OE “To” was placed before the inflected infinitive – showing the direction and
purpose). In ME the Infinitive with “to” does not necessarily express purpose. In order to
reinforce the meaning of purpose another preposition, “for” was sometimes placed before the
to-infinitive.

The distinctions between two participles were preserved in ME and NE.

Participle I – active meaning, expressed a process or quality simultaneous with the events
described by the predicate of the sentence.

Participle II - Participle II had an active or passive meaning depending on the transitivity of

the verb, and expressed a preceding action or its results in the subsequent situation.
The form of Participle I in early ME displayed considerable dialectal differences:

The Southern and Midland forms were derived from the Present stem with the help of – ing
(e). Other dialects had –inde, ende, ande etc.

However, only –ing became the dominant form in the literary language. (Find-ing, look-ing)
Participle I coincided with the verbal noun, which was formed in OE with the help of the
suffixes –ung and –ing, but has preserved only one suffix -ing in ME.

Participle II –

In ME the weak verbs built Participle II with the help of vowel gradation and the suffix –ed,
-t.

The strong verbs – with the help vowel gradation and the suffix –en.

The Past participle and the Past tense of the weak verbs fell together by the end of ME,
when the unstressed [ə] in the ultimate or penultimate syllable was dropped : ME “lookede”
and “looked” merged into NE “looked”. The Past Participle of the strong verbs coincided
with the Past pl stem in ME in the classes which had the same gradation vowel in both these
stems, e.g. OE ridon and riden became ME riden.

In Early NE there was a strong tendency to eliminate the difference between the Past tense
and Participle II in all strong verbs – but it was cut short in the period of normalization, so
that over 50 modern non-standard verbs have preserved the distinction. The OE prefix ჳe- ,
which was a frequent marker of the Past participle was weakened to i- or y- in ME. It was
typical of Southern ME dialects and is fairly common in Chaucer’s poetry, but rare in prose.
Being verbal adjectives Participles I and II lost their gender, case and number distinctions
and also the weak and strong forms in the same way as the adjectives. They sometimes took –
e in Early ME and were totally uninflected in late ME. It is important to note that while the
verbals lost their nominal grammatical categories, they retained their nominal syntactic
features: the syntactic functions corresponding to those of the noun and adjectives. They also
retained their verbal syntactic features – the ability to take an object and an adverbial
modifier.

Gerund

The late ME witnessed the growth of a new verbal – Gerund.

Gerund can be traced in three sources: the OE verbal noun in -unʒ and inʒ (ung and ing), the
Present Participle and the Infinitive. The syntactic function of verbal nouns, Present
Participle and the Infinitive partially overlapped. In ME Present Participle and the verbal
noun became identical, both ending in – ing. This caused the confusion of some of their
features – verbal nouns started to take direct objects, just like participles and the infinitive.
Exactly this verbal feature + the frequent absence of article before the –ing form functioning
as a noun transformed the verbal noun into a Gerund.

The earliest instances of a verbal noun resembling a Gerund date from the 12th c. – Chaucer
uses –ing form in both ways: with prepositional object like a verbal noun and with a direct
object. In Early NE the –ing form in the function of a noun is used with an adverbial
modifier and with a direct object in case of transitive verbs. The nominal features of the
Gerund – retained from the verbal noun – syntactic functions and the ability to be modified
by a possessive pronoun or a noun in the Genitive case. In the course of time the sphere of
the usage of the Gerund grew: it replaces the Infinitive and the Present Participle in many
adverbial functions – advantage was that it could be used with various prepositions.

20.Verbal categories in ME and NE

Many markers of the grammatical forms of the verb were reduced, levelled and lost in ME
and Early NE. Number distinctions were not only preserved int ME but even became more
consistent and regular. In the 13th and 14th c. the ending -en turned into the main marker
of the pl forms of the verb: it was used in both tenses of the Indicative and Subjunctive
moods (the variants in -eth and es: in the Present indicative were used only in the Southern
and Northern dialects). In most classes of strong verbs (except Class 6 and 7) there was an
additional distinctive feature between the sg and pl forms. The Past tense of the Indicative
mood had different root vowels (fand, fandest, fand and founden). The eliding -en was
frequently missed out in the late 14th c. and was dropped in the 15th; the Past tense stems of
the strong verbs merged into one form. All number distinctions were thus lost with the
exception of the 2nd and 3rd p. The sg forms were marked by the endings -est and -eth/-es
and were formally opposed to the forms of the pl.

The differences in the forms of Person were maintained in ME, though they became more
variable. The OE endings of the 3rd p. sg — p, ep, -iap – merged into a single ending -(e) th.
By the end but of the century -(e)s was the dominant inflection of the 3rd p. sg in all forms
of speech. The ending -(e)st of the 2nd p. sg became obsolete together with the pronoun
thou.

In OE only a few forms of the Indicative and Subjunctive mood were homonymous: the 1st
p. sg of the Present Tense and the 1st and 3rd p. sg of the Past. In ME the homonymy of the
mood forms grew. The Indicative and Subjunctive moods could no longer be distinguished in
the pl, when -en became the dominant flection of the Indicative pl in the Present and Past.
The reduction and loss of this ending in Early NE took place in all the forms irrespective of
mood. In the past tense of strong verbs the difference between the moods in the sg could be
shown by means of a root-vowel interchange, for the Subjunctive mood was derived from
the third principal form of the verb - Past pl – while the sg forms of the Indicative mood
were derived from the second principal form --- Past sg. When, in the 15th c. the two Past
tense stems of the strong verbs merged, all the forms of the moods in the Past tense fell
together with the exception of the verb to be, which retained a distinct form of the
Subjunctive in the Past sg — were as opposed to was.

Strong verbs

The seven classes of OE verbs underwent many grammatical and phonological changes. In
ME endings, final syllables were weakened and lost in NE: OE endings –an, -on, -en reduced
to ME – en. Later, the final –n was lost in the infinitive and the past tense pl., but was
preserved in Participle II. Despite phonetic reduction, -n was sometimes retained to show an
essential grammatical distinction (NE stole-stolen, spoke – spoken, but bound - bound). Due
to phonetic changes vowel gradation in Early ME was considerably modified. Lengthening of
vowels before some consonant sequences split the verbs of Class 3 into two subgroups:

findan – had long root-vowels in all the forms.

drinken - the root-vowel remained short.

So, some verbs had the same vowel in infinitive, but different in Past forms and Participle II.
Strong verbs in ME period were influenced by analogy as well. Due to analogy, ME and NE
verbs lost practically all consonant interchanges. The most important change in the system of
strong verbs: In OE there were 4 stems, while in ME it was reduced to 3 – the distinction
between two past stems were removed.
One of the most important events in the history of the strong verbs was their transition into
weak. In ME and Early NE many strong verbs began to form their Past and Participle II with
the help of the dental suffix instead of vowel gradation. Therefore the number of strong
verbs decreased. In OE there were about 300 strong verbs. Out of 195 OE strong verbs,
preserved in the language, only 67 have retained strong forms with root-vowel interchanges.
128 verbs acquired weak forms. Nowadays, most of these verbs belong to “regular” verbs.

The weak verbs

The OE verbs of Class III either joined the other classes of weak verbs (ex: OE libban, ME
class I liven NE live) or became irregular, ex: OE habban, ME haven, NE have. In ME, two
classes of weak verbs are distinguished with some changes compared with OE. ME verbs of
Class I took the ending –de in the past without an intermediate vowel before the dental
suffix and - the ending –ed in the past participle. The verbs of Class II which ended by –ode,
-od in OE had weakened these ending to –ede, -ed in ME. The only difference between the
two classes of weak verbs in ME was the presence or absence of –e- before the dental suffix
in the past tense stem. In late ME the vowel “e” in unstressed medial and final syllables
became unstable and was lost. This change eliminated the difference between the two classes
and the distinctions between the 2nd and 3rd principal forms, thus reducing the number of
stems in the weak verbs from three to two. Late ME weak verbs are the source of modern
standard (regular) verbs. Practically all the borrowed verbs and all the newly-formed verbs
in ME and NE built their past tense and participle II on the model of weak verbs, ex: die, call,
assist, charm, decorate, execute. The reverse process – weak ones changing into strong ones –
was rare. But still some weak ones adopted strong forms – NE wear, hide, ring, etc.

Minor groups of verbs

The minor groups in ME and NE underwent many changes that affected their form and
semantics. Several preterite-present verbs died out. ME can was used in sg and in pl by the
side of cunnen but the latter died out by the end of the ME period. The Past tense Ind. And
Subj. appears in ME in two variants: couth (e) and coud (e). Couth became obsolete in NE,
but coud was preserved. In ME the verb can could indicate two meanings: it was used as a
modal (indicating physical and mental ability) or used in its original meaning “know”

ME may was used as the main form of the Present tense, alongside mowen/mowe, and as the
only form of the present in Early NE. It’s Infinitive and Participle went out of use and its
Past tense might was retained as the Past form. As compared with OE, may has lost its
meaning – indication of physical and mental ability which passed to the verb can.

ME shall has lost many of its old forms and retained only two forms shall and should. In ME
it was no longer used as a notional verb of full predication but was widely used as a modal
verb, to express necessity, obligation and order.

The form sholde lost its ties with shall and became a separate modal verb with its own
meanings. We may say that in Early NE should acquired the meaning of the present and has
turned into a new modal verb.

Must and ought underwent the same changes. Must has acquired the meaning of obligation
and is treated as a Present Tense form. Past tense forms of OE āgan acquired the meaning of
the present and developed into a new modal verb, ME ought (e).

In ME willan was commonly used as a modal verb expressing volition. In the course of time
it formed a system with shall, as both verbs, shall and will began to weaken their lexical
meanings and change into auxiliaries.

One more modern verb, dare, is a preterite-present by origin and it has lost most of the
peculiarities, characteristic of preterite-presents and of modern modal verbs: it usually takes
–s in the 3rd p. and has a standard Past form dared. The only traces of its origin are the
negative and interrogative forms, which can be built without the auxiliary do.

OE gān - Past form was built from a different root (eode) and had a weak ending. Part. II
ended in –n, similarly with strong verbs. In ME the verb acquired a new Past tense wente,
which came from an entirely different verb, OE wendan. Its OE Past form wente had
entered the paradigm of goon (NE go, went). The verb go remained a suppletive verb, though
its OE Past was replaced by a new form (instead of gan – wente from an entirely new verb).

ME ben (NE be) inherited its suppletive forms from the OE. This happened not only because
of suppletion, but dialectal variants also influenced this process – The Past tense was
homogeneous in all dialects, while the forms of the Pres. Tense were derived from different
roots and showed dialectal differences. ME am and are (n) came from the Midland dialects
and replaced the West Saxon ones. The distribution of suppletive forms in the paradigm of
“be” made it possible to preserve some of the grammatical distinctions which were
practically lost in other verbs, namely the distinction of number, person and mood.
Development of new grammatical forms and categories of the verb

The Future Tense

In ME and NE the verb paradigm expanded, due to the addition of new grammatical forms
and to the formation of new grammatical categories. In OE there was no form of the future
tense. The present tense could indicate both present and future actions. Alongside this, there
were other ways of expressing future actions: modal phrases and the infinitive on the
notional verb.

In ME the use of modal phrases, especially with the verb Shall became increasingly common.
Shall+Inf was now the principal means of expressing future actions. Shall could retain its
modal meaning of necessity, but often it expressed ‘pure’ futurity. In late ME texts shall was
used both as a modal verb and a future tense auxiliary, though discrimination between them
is not always possible. Future actions were also commonly expressed by ME willen + Inf. In
17th c. John Wallis for first time formulated the rule about regular interchange of shall and
will depending on person. Shall for 1st p., will for 2nd 3rd p. became a mark of British
Standard. With other persons shall was used in more official forms of discourse: in religious
writings, high poetry, documents.

New forms of subjunctive mood

In OE the forms of subj. mood were synthetic. In ME and early NE several analytical forms
of subj. mood appeared. In ME the formal distinctions between subj. and ind. Moods were
mainly neutralized. In OE modal phrases consisting of sculan, willan, magan and an Inf.
Were commonly used to indicate future actions. ME sholde and wolde could weaken or
even lose their lexical meanings and turn into auxiliaries. In the age of Shakespeare the forms
should/would had become formal markers of the new analytical forms of the subj. mood. The
use of should and would as mood was supported by the development of shall and will as the
auxiliaries of the Future tense. Consequently should became the dominant auxiliary for the
1st p, would for the 2nd and 3rd. As compared with OE, the meaning of the tenses in subj.
mood underwent some alterations. In ME and early NE the past tense acquired a new
function: to indicate a present or future action presented as imaginary or unreal. The present
tense expressed probable or problematic actions referred to the future. Similar semantic
differences developed in the system of the new analytical forms: should/would plus the
Indef. Inf. Indicated a simultaneous action of problematic character, while should/would
with the Perf. Inf. Presented a past or a preceding improbable event.

Interrogative and negative forms with do

In ME the verb don was commonly used together with an inf. To express a causative
meaning. In early NE the causative meaning passed to a similar verb phrase with make,
while the periphrasis with do began to be employed instead of simple, synthetic forms. In
17th c. the periphrasis with do was used in all types of sentences – negative, affirmative,
interrogative. It freely interchanged with the simple forms, without do. Towards the end of
17th c. do was found mainly in negative statements and questions, while simple forms were
preferred in affirmative statements. Thus, do-periphrasis turned into analytical negative and
interrogative forms of simple tenses: pres. And past.

Development of new grammatical categories

Passive forms. Category of voice

In OE the finite verb had no category of voice. The analytical passive forms developed from
OE verb phrases consisting of OE beon (NE be) and weorth?an (become) and part. II of
transitive verbs. OE beon was used as a link-verb + predicative in participle II to denote a
state resulting from a previous action, OE weorthan + participle II indicated transition into
the state expressed by the participle. In ME ben + past part. Developed into an analytical
form. Now it could express not only a state but also an action. The new pass. Forms had a
regular means of indicating the doer of the action or the instrument with the help of which
it was performed. Therefore, we can say that the verb had acquired a new grammatical
category of voice. The pass. Voice was common in impersonal sentences with it introducing
direct or indirect speech.

Perfect forms. Category of time-correlation

Like other analytical forms of the verb, the perfect forms have developed from OE verb
phrases. The main source of the perf. Form was the OE ‘possessive’ construction, consisting
of the verb habban (have), a direct objects and part. II of a transitive verb, which served as an
attribute to the object. The meaning of the construction was: a person (subject) possessed a
thing (object), which was characterized by a certain state resulting from a previous action.
Originally the verb habban was used only with participles of transitive verbs, then it came to
be used with verbs taking genitival, datival and prepositional objects and even with
intransitive verbs, which shows that it was developed into a kind of auxiliary. The other
source of perf. Forms was the OE phrase consisting of the link-verb beon + part. II of
intransitive verbs. Towards ME the two verb phrases turned into analytical forms and made
up a single set of forms termed ‘perfect’. The participles had lost their forms of agreement
with the noun, the participle usually stood close to the verb have and was followed by the
object which referred now to the analytical form as a whole. In the perfect for the auxiliary
have had lost the meaning of possession and was used with all kinds of verbs. Have was
becoming a universal auxiliary, whereas the use of be grew more restricted.

Continuous forms. Category of aspect

The development of aspect is linked up with the growth of the continuous forms. In OE
there was so category of aspect. Verb phrases consisting of beon + part I denoted a quality, or
a lasting state, characterizing a person or a thing. In 15th and 16th c be + part. I was often
confused with a synonymous phrase – be + on + verbal noun. It was not until the 18th c.
that the Cont. forms acquired a specific meaning of their own – that of incomplete concrete
process of limited duration. Only at that stage the cont. and non-cont. made a new
grammatical category –Aspect. By that time the formal pattern of the continuous as an
analytical form was firmly established. The cont. forms were used in all genres and dialects.

For many hundred years the cont. forms were not used in the pass. Voice. In late ME the
active voice of the cont. form was sometimes used with a passive meaning. The active form
of the cont. aspect was employed in the passive meaning until the 19th c. up until the
evidence of pass. Cont. form was found. It aroused the protest of many scholars. But in spite
of all these protests the pass. Voice of cont. aspect continued to be used and eventually was
recognized as correct.

21.Early new English period

The fifth period — Early New English — lasted from the introduction of printing to the age
of Shakespeare, that is from 1475 to c. 1660. The first printed book in English was published
by William Caxton in 1475. This period is a sort of transition between two outstanding
epochs of literary efflorescence: the age of Chaucer and the age of Shakespeare (also known
as the Literary Renaissance).

It was a time of great historical consequence: under the growing capitalist system the
country became economically and politically unified; the changes in the political and social
structure, the progress of culture, education, and literature favoured linguistic unity. The
growth of the English nation was accompanied by the formation of the national English
language.

Caxton's English of the printed books was a sort of bridge between the London literary
English of the ME period and the language of the Literary Renaissance. The London dialect
had risen to prominence as a compromise between the various types of speech prevailing in
the country and formed the basis of the growing national literary language.

The Early NE period was a time of sweeping changes at all levels, in the first place lexical
and phonetic. The growth of the vocabulary was a natural reflection of the progress of
culture in the new, bourgeois society, and of the wider horizons of man's activity. New
words from internal and external sources enriched the vocabulary. Extensive phonetic
changes were transforming the vowel system, which resulted, among other things, in the
growing gap between the written and the spoken forms of the word (that is, between
pronunciation and spelling). The loss of most inflectional endings in the 15th c. justifies the
definition "period of lost endings" given by H. Sweet to the NE period. The inventory of
grammatical forms and syntactical constructions was almost the same as in Mod E, but their
use was different. The abundance of grammatical units occurring without any apparent
restrictions, or regularities produces an impression of great "freedom of grammatical
construction". Perhaps the choice of forms was motivated in a given situation, but its reasons
are hard to discern today, and they appear to be used in free variation.

22.Period of normalization and correctness

The period between mid-17th – 18th c. is called “the Age of normalisation and correctness”.
This period was the reaction to the literary renaissance. Even though this period brought
about many positive changes and considerably enriched the language – it was marked by
linguistic freedom and usage of the language freely. This was followed by the age of
normalisation and correctness / period of fixing the language – this period was distinguished
by the simplicity of expression and correctness and stabilisation of the language. The norms
of literary language were fixed as rules. Numerous dictionaries and grammar-books were
published and spread through education and writing. Authors of this period considered the
language of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as rude and unpolished (though neo-
classicists have never reached their height) – John Dryden.

John Milton noted the corrupt pronunciation of the lower classes.

Correct usage and the protection of the language became the most important, debatable issue
and the subject of great concern – in 1664 a special committee was created for “improving
the English tongue”. Neo-classicists were influenced by the fixed grammar of Old Greek and
Latin, so all linguistic deviations were regarded as corruption.

The 18th century is remarkable for deliberate attempts to fix the language and interfere with
its evolution:

R. Steele and J. Addison – the founders of the first English journals that were issued at
regular intervals – they were recommending simplicity in all aspects of life (dress, behaviour,
discourse – language was the most popular subject).

Johnathan Swift – writer, he published his essays about language – protested against careless
and deliberate contractions and elisions in formal and informal speech – one should never
leave out the sounds, one’s speech (usage of fashionable phrases) should never turn into
cliché etc. – he was worried that at this speed, 100 years from now people would not
comprehend contemporary writings and every literate person should take care of this
problem and fix the correct usage of language.

During this period, numerous Grammar books were written:

Wallis – Grammatica Lingue Anglicane – he thought that grammarians were reducing the
English language too much to the Latin form and it was not necessary – useless information
about the moods, tenses, cases, genders etc. – all these were creating obscurity and confusion.

The grammarians of the 18th c. were influenced both by the classical languages and by the
principles of logic. They wished to present language as the strictly logical system – formulate
norms based on logical considerations and present them as fixed, obligatory and mandatory.
These type of grammars are known as “prescriptive” or “normative”.

One of the most influential grammar was “A Short Introduction to English Grammar” by
Robert Lowth – theologician and professor at Oxford. His introduction – the English
language is imperfect, it needs correctness and fixing, many great authors make horrible
improprieties and they need to be corrected. The main goal of the grammar is to teach us to
express ourselves with propriety – a way of doing that is laying down rules and to illustrate
them by examples. R. Lowth distinguished 9 parts of speech. He condemned double negation
and double comparison (more better), he objected to the confusion of who, whom, whose
and which – he believed in a logical, universal grammar and thought that English was
reducible to a system of logical rules.

L. Murray – his book was the most widely used manual for schools – no grammar books was
produced unless they repeated Murray.

The roles of dictionaries in this period were also significant:

Samuel Johnson – he thought that the English language should be purified and corrected: He
compiled a new dictionary based upon the usage of authorities: he included quotations of
several hundred authors of the 17th – 18th c. The entries of his dictionaries (two-volume)
contain definitions of meaning, illustrations of usage, etymologies, and stylistic comments –
his precise definitions were noticeable improvements upon those given by his predecessors.
His dictionary contained special section devoted to grammar: orthography, accidence
(inflections), he distinguished between two pronunciation (cursory/colloquial vs
regular/solemn) – he had a huge authority, nobody dared to deviate from his rules (even
today some authors blame him for fixing the spelling and thus making it conservative.

The grammar books and dictionaries of this period formulated the rules of usage (partly from
observation, but mainly from the popular doctrine of correctness – these rules were laid
down as norms to be taught. It standardised and normalised the language.

22.ME and NE vocabulary

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY FROM THE 12TH TO 19TH C.

Among the changes in the vocabulary we can distinguish losses of words or their meanings,
replacements and additions. Like many other lexical changes losses were connected with
events in external history: with the changing conditions of life and the obsolescence of many
medieval concepts and customs.

Some regulations and institutions of OE kingdoms were cancelled or forgotten in the ME

period. Some rituals of the heathen religion were abandoned after the introduction of
Christianity — and their names dropped out of use. In OE there were many groups of
synonyms whose differentiation became irrelevant in ME; therefore some of the synonymns
fell out of use. Most of these words were not simply lost; they were replaced by other words
of the same or similar meanings. Replacements could also occur in the sphere of content: the
word was retained but its meaning was changed or was replaced by a new meaning. Thus OE
dream meant joy' but acquired an entirely different meaning, formerly rendered by OE stefn.

The "one-to-one” replacements illustrated by the examples above did not increase the
number of words in the vocabulary. Most replacements however belonged to the "split"-
type: one item was replaced by two or more, or one meaning differentiated into several
meanings. These changes should be classified as additions to the vocabulary.

The sources of new words are usually divided into internal and external. Internal ways of
developing the vocabulary were productive in all historical periods. Word-formation and
semantic changes were equally prolific in the creation of new words and new meanings.

The role of external sources in the extension of the English vocabulary is very considerable.
One of the most dramatic changes in the English vocabulary is the change in its etymological
composition. While the OE vocabulary was almost entirely Germanic and on the whole was
highly resistant to borrowing, the language of later periods absorbed foreign words by the
hundred and even made use of foreign word components in word formation.

The influx of borrowings was directly dependent on the linguistic situation in the country,
on the extent of bilingualism in the community. The linguistic situation in ME was most
favourable for strong foreign influence — first Scandinavian then French.

Scandinavian Influence on the Vocabulary

The presence of the Scandinavians in the English population is indicated by a large number
of place-names in the northern and eastern areas. The semantic spheres of Scandinavian
borrowings mostly pertain to everyday life and do not differ from native words. Only the
earliest loan-words deal with military and legal matters and reflect the relations of the
people during the Danish raids and Danish rule.

Vocabulary changes due to Scandinavian influence proceeded in different ways: a

Scandinavian word could enter the language as an innovation, without replacing any other
lexical item; such was probably the case of law, fellow; it could take the place of the native
ward (e.g. they, take, call, which replaced OE hie, nimon, clipian); both the borrowed and
the native words could survive as synonyms with a slight difference in meaning. In the
course of semantic differentiation the meaning of one or both words became narrower and
more specialised and the spheres of reference of the synonyms were divided, e.g, NE starve
has narrowed its meaning to 'die of hunger.

Both in ME and nowadays it is difficult to distinguish Scandinavian loans from native words.
The only criteria that can be applied are some phonetic features of borrowed words: the
consonant cluster (sk] is a frequent mark of Scandinavian loanwords, e.g. sky, skill (see the
lists above); (sk) does not occur in native words, as OE (sk) had been palatalised and modified
to sh: cf. ME fish, ship.

Other criteria of the same type are the sounds (k] and [g] before front vowels, which in
native words normally became (tsh) and (dg). Cl. kid (from O Scand) and chin (native, from
OE cin).

French Influence on the Vocabulary in Middle English

The French language was brought to England by the Norman conquerors who spoke a
variety of French, known as "Anglo-Norman". In the 13th and 14th c. English was exposed to
a new wave of French influence; this time it came from Central, Parisian French, a variety of
a more cultivated, literary kind. At the initial stages of penetration French words were
restricted to some varieties of English: the speech of the aristocracy at the king's court; the
speech of the middle class, who came into contact both with the rulers and with the ruled;
the speech of educated people and the population of South-Eastern towns. The greater part
of French loan-words in English date from ME. Early ME texts contain very few French
words: only twenty French words are found in ORMULUM (C, 1200, North-East Midland).
More words are recorded in manuscripts coming from the southern regions: 150 words in
Layamon's BRUT and up to 500 words in ANCRENE RIWLE (South-West Midland). The
majority of French loan-words adopted in ME were first recorded in the texts of the 14th c.
Chaucer's vocabulary.

The French borrowings of the ME period are usually described according to the government
and administration, military, law, jurisdiction, church, religion, forms of address. Ex:
authority, armor, accuse, altar, sir etc.

French influence led to different kinds of changes in the vocabulary. Firstly, there were
many innovations, i.e. names of new objects and concepts, which enlarged the vocabulary by
adding new items. Secondly, there were numerous replacements of native words by French
equivalents, which resulted in a shift in the ratio of Germanic and Romance roots in the
language. Thirdly most frequently the co-existence of a borrowed and native synonym both
retained as they differed in style, dialect, shades of meaning or combinability. The influx of
French words — as well as the later borrowing of Latin words -- is one of the main historical
reasons for the abundance of synonyms in Mod E. The vocabulary was also enriched by the
adoption of French affixes.

Borrowings from Classical Languages, with Special Reference to the Age of the Renaissance

The Latin language continued to be used in England all through the OE and ME periods in
religious rituals, in legal documents, and in texts of a scientific and phylosophical character.
After the Norman Conquest the main spheres of the Latin language were the Church, the
law courts and academic activities. The extraordinary surge of interest in the classics in the
age of the Renaissance opened the gates to a new wave of borrowings from Latin and — to a
lesser extent -- from Greek. Many classical borrowings came into Early NE through French
due to continuous contacts with France, for the French language had adopted many loan-
words from classical languages at the time of the Renaissance.

Adoption of classical words may have been facilitated by the large number of French loan-
words in the English language of the 15th and 16th c.

One of the reasons for the influx of Latin words at the age of the Renaissance was that many
of the new ideas encountered in classical works were not susceptible to precise translation --
therefore scholars often preferred to retain the Latin terms.
Numerous Latin and Greek words were first used by Thomas More (early 16th c.), who
wrote in Latin and in English. Many classical borrowings first appeared in Shakespeare's
works: accommodation, apostrophe, dislocate, misanthrope, reliance, submerge.

In addition to true borrowings, classical languages have provided a supply of roots in the
creation of new words. Words like protestant, inertia, are based on classical roots but were
created in modern times. Thomas Elyot (16th c.) introduced the Greek word democracy, first
used the word education in the modern sense, and created the word encyclopedia from
Greek component parts. One of the effects of the classical borrowings on the English
language was the further increase of the number of synonyms.

Borrowings from Contemporary Languages in New English

The foreign influence on the English vocabulary in the age of the Renaissance and in the
succeeding centuries was not restricted to Latin and Greek. The influx of French words
continued and reached new peaks in the late 15th and in the late 17th c. French borrowings
of the later periods mainly pertain to diplomatic relations, social life, art and fashions. French
remained the international language of diplomacy for several hundred years. French
borrowings have not been completely assimilated and have retained a foreign appearance to
the present day; beau, café. In addition to the three main sources - Greek, Latin and French,
English speakers of the NE period borrowed freely from many other languages. It has been
estimated that even in the 17th c. the English vocabulary contained words derived from no
less than fifty foreign tongues. The main contributors to the vocabulary were Italian, Dutch,
Spanish, German, Portuguese and Russian. Next to French, Latin and Scandinavian, English
owes the greatest number of foreign words to Italian. A few early borrowings pertain to
commercial and military affairs while the vast majority of words are related to art, music and
literature. Borrowings from Spanish came as a result of contacts with Spain in the military,
commercial and political fields. This is apparent from the nature of Spanish borrowings in
English made in the 16th and 17th c; armada, barricade. Dutch made abundant contribution
to English, particularly in the 15th and 16th c., when commercial relations between England
and the Netherlands were at their peak. They specialized in wool weaving and brewing,
which is reflected in the Dutch loan-words. Extensive borrowing is found in nautical
terminology: bowline, cruise. Loan-words from German reflect the scientific and cultural
achievements of Germany at different dates of the New period. Mineralogical terms are
connected with the employment of German specialists in the English mining industry, e.g.:
cobalt, nickel, zinc. The most peculiar feature of German influence on the English
vocabulary in the 18th and 19th c, is the creation of translation-loans on German models
from native English components. home-sickness comes from Heimweh. The earliest Russian
loan-words entered the English language as far back as the 16th C., indicate articles of trade
and specific features of life in Russia, observed by the English:, samovar, vodka.