Chapter 7 Language Change

7.1 Introduction Everything will change. All languages change though time. Old English are hardly intelligible. Historical linguistics (description and explanation of language change)

7.2 Phonological Changes Old English 450-1150 Middle English 1150-1500 Modern English 1500-now

7.3 Morphological and Syntactic change Morphological change: Addition of affixes & Loss of affixes Syntactic change: Change of word order & sentence structure

Addition of affixes: (in what ways?) Borrowed affixes & fusion Loss of affixes: (sound changes) Old English Modern English stan/stanas stone/stones gear/gear year/years

英语在历史的发展中经历了很大的变化，除词汇外，英语语言的屈折变化也 有显著的不同，以下分英语的不同时期简述之。 首先，古英语有明显的词尾变化(屈折变化)。古英语中名词、形容词、代词、 冠词都有性（阳性、中性、阴牲）数(单数、复数）格（主格、宾格、与格、所有格、工具格）的变化。这些词性的划分具有一定的随意性,如steorra (star), wifinann （woman)是阳性名词，cild (child) ,wif (wife)是中性名词。形容词必须与被它修 饰的名词保持性、数、格的一致。这样，同一伞个形容词由于所修饰的名词性、数、 格不同,就会出现许多种不同形式。

此外,所有动词分为两类:弱式动词（相当于 现在的规则动词）和强式动词（相当于现在的不规则动词）。动词也有词尾变化来表示人称、数、时态和语气。（一些字母，在现代英语中不再使用。字体书写与现代的也不同。） 中古英语时期英语出现了很大变化。最显著特点是大量词尾变化渐渐消失。古英语中随意规定的那些语法性别逐渐演变为天然性别。到中古英语后期,形容词基本上失去了性、数、格的屈折形式,保留了(单音节和部分双音节形容词）比较级和最高级的变化;名词只保留了所有格及标志复数的词尾形 式’S, (e)s及en。到了14世纪,（e)s成为表示名词复数的标准词尾，只有feet, geese, teeth, men, oxen, children, women, mice 等少数名词以其特殊的复数形式沿袭至今。

此外,在这一时期，动词发生了两个显著变劫询的人 称变位基本消失，保留了现在英语中现在时单数第当人 称的词尾变化—个变化是几乎有 1/3的强式动词转化为弱 式动词,使得多数英语动词成为规则动词，剩下来的不规 则动词（包括派生动词）大约有350个。 语言学家把1500年至1700年这一期间的英语称作早期现代英语,1700年 以后的英语称作后期现代英语。早期现代英语时期,英谙的屈折形式继续消失。 如在中古英语时期，动词的祈使语气仍有词尾变化,到了莎士比亚时代,动词祈使语气中的屈折变化就被动词原形代替了。后期现代英语时期，许多学者开始 着手从事英语规范化的工作。有些语法学家认识到英语的语言形式正确与否不 应该取决于是否合乎拉丁语语法，而应取决于英国人的实际运用情况。因此,出现了一些较有价值的语法书。自世纪以来,英语的语法没有重大变化。

7.4 lexical and semantic change Addition of new words Loss of words Semantic changes

Addition of new words coinage(创新词) clipped words(缩略词) blending(紧缩法) acronyms(词首字母缩略词) back-formation(逆构词法) functional shift borrowing

Coinage A new word can be coined outright to fit some purpose, e.g. walkman Kodak Xerox Taikonaut Ford Honda mouse potato Cyber citizen

Clipped words The abbreviation of longer words or phrases, e.g. gym—gymnasium memo—memorandum disco—discotheque fridge—refrigerator

Blending A blend is a word formed by combining parts of other words, e.g. smog—smoke + fog motel—motor + hotel camcorder—camera + recorder

CBS---- Columbia Broad casting system 哥伦比亚广播公司 Acronyms Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words, e.g. CBS---- Columbia Broad casting system 哥伦比亚广播公司 ISBN----International Standard Book Number SARS--Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome MAS--Malaysia Airlines [mə'leiʒə] PLA--People's Liberation Army CPI--consumer price index 居民消费价格指数

Marlboro （万宝路） Marlboro 其实是一句英文的首字缩写 Man Always Remember Love, Becourse Of Romance Only. 男人只因浪漫而牢记爱情。

Back-formation New words may be coined from already existing words by “subtracting” an affix thought to be part of the old word. edit  editor hawk  hawker beg  beggar baby-sit  baby-sitter

Functional shift Words may shift from one part of speech to another without the addition of affixes, e.g. Noun verb: to knee, to bug, to tape, to brake… Verb noun: a hold, a flyby, a reject, a retreat… Adj. verb: to cool, to narrow, to dim, to slow… Adj. noun: a daily, a Christian, the rich, the impossible…

Borrowing When different cultures come into contact, words are often borrowed from one language to another. The following are some of the loan words in English Latin bonus education exit German beer waltz quartz Chinese tea kowtow sampan Russian sputnik commissar vodka Arabic zero algebra alcohol

Loss of words Words can be lost from a language as time goes by. The following words, taken from Romeo and Juliet, have faded out of the English language. Beseem  to be suitable Wot  to know Gyve  a fetter Wherefore  why

Changes in the meaning of words Widening of meaning Narrowing of meaning Meaning shift

Widening of meaning Holiday: [+specific] holy day [+general] any rest day Tail: [+specific] tail of a horse [+general] tail of any animal

Narrowing of meaning hound: any dog a special kind of dog girl: young person of either sex young people of female sex deer: any animal a particular kind of animal meat: food edible part of an animal corn: grain a particular grain

Meaning shift inn: a small, old hotel or pub well-known, nice hotel nice: ignorant (1000 years ago) good, fine lust: pleasure with negative and sexual overtones silly: happy naïve, foolish

7.5 Some recent trends Moving towards greater informality The influence of American English The influence of science and technology

7.6 Causes of the language change The rapid development of science and technology; Social and political needs; More and more women have taken up activities formerly reserved for men, more neutral job titles have been created; “ Economy of memory” results in grammar simplification; Regularization of exceptional plural forms provides another example for analogical change.

　穿梭外交（shuttle diplomacy） 　　穿梭外交源于亨利·基辛格在1973年十月战争之后狂热的外交方式。为了紧急寻求促使以色列军队从埃及和叙利亚领土撤军的方法，基辛格在7个月里往返于各方的首都之间，寻求达成有限的目标。对于一个大国政府中有如此资历的官员来讲，这是前所未有的。

“ Economy of memory” grammar simplification; “linguistic laziness” “least effort” internal borrowing analogic change

·black-blacken adj.+en=vt. Nominative case accusative case subject object Word order: S O V S V O ·black-blacken adj.+en=vt. Cause to be black