Early Modern English 1500-1800

Early Modern English1500-1800

Introduction of the Printing Press

First printing press in England 1476

Consequences of the printing press

1.Freezing of English spelling

2.Books in English are more available

3.Strengthening of the London dialect

Middle English Dialects

The increasing importance of the East Midland dialect

• Geographically central

• Largest and most densely populated area

• Spoken in Oxford and Cambridge

• Spoken in London

Borrowings

The printing press made books more easily available for the new middle classes.

Since the new middle classes did not speak Latin or French, they demanded books in English.

Many Latin and Greek books were translated into English.

The Latin and Greek translations introduced many Latin/Greek loan words into English.

Latin loan words: nouns

allusion occurrence

Frequency vacuum

denunciation disability

excursion expectation

emotion

Latin loan words: verbs

adapt alienate

assassinate benefit

emancipate eradicate

erupt excavate

exert harass

exist extinguish

Latin loan words: adjectives

appropriate agile

conspicuous dexterous

expensive external

habitual jocular

insane

Latin plural nouns

climax

appendix

exterior

delirium

Latin loan words: bare stems

consultare > to consult

exoticus > exotic

conspicuus > conspicuous

externus > external

brevitas > brevity

Romance doublets

Middle English Early Modern English

chamber camerachoir chorusprove probefrail fragilegender genusjealous zealousspice speciesstrait strictstrange extraneoustreasure thesaurus

Greek loan words

through Latin direct borrowings

anachronism anonymousatmosphere catastrophesystem criterionchaos lexiconcrisis polemicemphasis tantalizeenthusiasmpneumoniaschemeskeleton

French loan words

bizarre chocolatecomrade detailduel entranceessay exploremustache probabilityprogress surpassticket volunteeradmire computedensity hospitalityidentity ramify

Italian loan words

algebra design

balcony violin

volcano

Spanish / Portugese loan words

alligator apricot

barricade cocoa

embargo hammock

mango avocado

hurricane mosquito

potato tobacco

chili maize

tomato papaya

Word coinages

blatant chirrup

delve belt

glance endear

enshrine gloomy

wary

Clippings

van (<vanguard)

rear (<arrear)

fortnight (<fourteen-night)

Back formations

difficult (<difficulty)

unit (<unity)

Blends

dumbfound (< dumb + confound)

apathetic (< apathy + pathetic)

splutter (< splash + sputter)

Spelling reforms

In the 16th and 17th century, English

scholars tried to reform the spelling of

English.

[fIS] <ghoti>

[f] <gh> ‘rough’

[I] <o> ‘women’

[S] <ti> ‘lotion’

Pronunciation of English nonce words

lape

morantishly

permaction

phorin

Spelling in Old and Middle English

Throughout the Middle Ages, the English

spelling was not really standardized.

Many regional differences.

English dictionaries

1604 Robert Cawdrey

1721 Nathaniel Bailey

1755 Samuel Johnson

Oxford English Dictionary

Robert Lowth

A Short Introduction to English Grammar

1762

Double negation

Two negatives in English destroy one another, or equivalent to an affirmative. (Robert Lowth 1762)

He nevere yet no vileynye ne saydeIn all his lyf unto no maner wight.He was verry, parfit gentil knight.

(Chaucer: Canterbury Tales)

I didn’t know nothin’ bout gettin’ no checks to (=for) nothin’, no so (=social) security or nothin’.’

(African American English)

Dangling prepositions

The Preposition is often separated from the Relative which it governs and joined the verb at the end of the Sentence … as, ‘Horace is an author, whom I am much delighted with.’ … This is an Idiom which our language is strongly inclined to; it prevails in common conversations, and suits very well with the familiar style if writing; but the placing of the Preposition before the Relative is more graceful, as well as more perspicuous; and agrees much better with the solemn and elevated style.

(Robert Lowth 1762)

Plural of chicken

cicen-u or cicen-s?

Those who say ‘chicken’ in the singular and ‘chickens’ in the plural are completely wrong.

wegen des Wetterswegen dem Wetter

Grammatical innovations in English

1. This is strictly speaking not good English.

2. Hopefully, they will come.

3. The man who Peter met is my friend.

4. You and me, we should do this together.

5. Peter dreamed of a large cake.

Grammatical innovations in German

1. Wegen dem schlechten Wetter sind wir zu Hause geblieben.

2. Ich mach das nicht, weil dazu habe ich einfach keine Lust.

3. Wenn er doch bloß bald kommen würde.

4. Das ist mein Vater sein Auto.

5. Ich mach das nur wegen dir.

English or Latin?

But why not all in English, a tung of it self both depe in conceit, and frank in deliverie? I do not think that anie language, be it whatsoever, is better able to utter all arguments, either with more pith, or greater planesse, then our English tung is, if the English utterer be as skillful in the matter, which he is to utter, as the foren utterer is.

[Robert Mulcaster 1582]

English or Latin?

I do write in my naturall English toungue, bycause though I make the learned my judges, which understand Latin, yet I meane good to the unlearne, which understand English, and he that understands Latin very well, can understand English farre better, if he will confesse the trueth, though he thinks he have the habite and can Latin it exceedingly well.

[Robert Mulcaster 1582]

Latin loan words

Some seeke so far for outlandish English, that they forget altogether their mothers tongue. And I dare sweare this, if some of their mothers were aliue, thei were not able to tell what they say: … The vnlearned or foolish phantasticall, that smelles but of learning … wil so Latin their tongues, that the simple can not but wonder at their talke, and thinke surely they speake by some reuelation.

Latin loan words

I know them that thinke Rhetorique to stande whole vpon darke wordes, and hee that can catche an ynke horne terme by the taile, him they coumpt to be a fine Englishman, and a good Rhetorician.

[Thomas Wilson 17th century]

Latin loan words

And though for my part I use those words (i.e. Latin loans) as little as any, yet I know no reason why I should not use them, and I finde it a fault in my selfe that I do not use them: for it is in deed the ready way to inrich our tongue, and make it copious, and it is the way which all tongues have taken to enrich them selves…

[George Pettie]

Word coinages – ‘Caucerisms’

Latin English word coinage

lunatic mooned [Sir John Cheke]crucified crossed [Sir John Cheke]parable biword [Sir John Cheke]prophet foresayer [Sir John Cheke]muscles fleshstrings [Arthur Golding]triangle threlike [Robert Recorde]conclusion endsay [Robert Recorde]definition saywhat [Robert Recorde]irony dry mock [Robert Recorde]

Word coinages

blatant chirrup

delve belt

glance endear

wary gloomy

Clippings

van (<vanguard)

rear (<arrear)

fortnight (<fourteen-night)

Blends

dumbfound (<dumb + confound)

apathetic (< apathy + pathetic)

splutter (< splash + sputter)

Back formations

difficult (<difficulty)

unit (<unity)

Language Change: Progress or Decay

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The standard of speech and pronunciation in England has declined so much … that one is almost ashamed to let foreigners hear it.

[The Guardian]


Through sheer laziness and sloppiness of mind, we are in danger of losing our past subjunctive.

[Daily Telegraph]


We seem to be moving … towards a social and linguistic situation in which nobody says or writes anything more than an approximation to what he or she means.

[Kingsley Amis: The laments about language in general]


We go out of our ways to promulgate incessantly … the very ugliest sounds and worst possible grammars.

[Evening Standard]

Language change is decay

The history of all the Aryan languages [i.e. Indo-European languages] is nothing but a gradual process of decay.

[Max Müller 1868]

Language change is progress

In the evolution of languages the discarding of old flexions goes hand in hand with the development of simpler and more regular expedients that are rather less liable than the old ones to produce misunderstandings.

[Otto Jesperson 1922]

Language change is neither progress nor decay

Progress in the absolute sense is impossible, just as it is in morality or politics. It is simply that different states exist, succeeding each other, each dominated by certain general laws imposed by the equilibrium of the forces with which they are confronted. So it is with language.

[Joseph Vendryès 1923]

William Shakespeare 1564-1616

Shakespeare JC Act2-Scene1.au

William Shakespear

Julius Caesar 1599

Julius Caesar – Act 2

BRUTUS Lucius, who's that knocks?

Re-enter LUCIUS with LIGARIUS

LUCIUS He is a sick man that would speak with you.

BRUTUS Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of. Boy, stand aside. Caius Ligarius! how?

LIGARIUS Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue.


BRUTUS O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius,

To wear a kerchief! Would you were not sick!

LIGARIUS I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand Any exploit worthy the name of honour.

BRUTUS Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,

Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.


LIGARIUS By all the gods that Romans bow before, I here discard my sickness! Soul of Rome! Brave son, derived from honourable loins! Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjured up My mortified spirit. Now bid me run, And I will strive with things impossible; Yea, get the better of them. What's to do?


BRUTUS A piece of work that will make sick men whole.

LIGARIUS But are not some whole that we must make sick?

BRUTUS That must we also. What it is, my Caius, I shall unfold to thee, as we are going To whom it must be done.


LIGARIUS Set on your foot, And with a heart new-fired I follow you, To do I know not what: but it sufficeth That Brutus leads me on.

BRUTUS Follow me, then.

Exeunt

Morphosyntactic changes

Old English had extensive inflectional morphology and relatively flexible word order.

Middle English had very little inflectional morphology and a rather rigid word order.

Inversion in Present Day English

1. Negative inversion

Under no circumstances would I do that.

2. Locative inversion

Behind the barn stood an old oak tree.

The rise of the dummy auxiliary ‘do’

Negative sentences

1. I haven’t eaten yet.2.She isn’t coming.3. I cannot come.4.You must not do that.5.He does not speak to me.


Yes-no Questions

1.Have you eaten lunch?2. Is she coming?3.Can I come in?4.May I speak to her?5.Does she speak English?


WH Questions

1.What have you eaten?2.When is she coming?3.Where can I sleep?4.What must she do?5.What did she say?

The rise of analytical verb forms

• Future will leave

• Present Perfect have gone

• Progressive is sleeping

The rise of SVO

Though SVO had become the dominant

word order in Middle English, it was not

yet as rigid as in Modern English.

thou - you

SG PL

Old English þū yē

Middle English thou (familiar)ye (polite)

ye

Early Modern English

ye (you = OBJ) ye (you = OBJ)

Possessive marker

Peter’(i)s = Peter his

• John Browne his meadow

• Ann Harris her lot

Possessive clitic

1. The queen’s crown

2. The Queen of England’s crown

1. Peter’s car

2. Peter and Mary’s car

Relative pronoun

a. the book that fell from the table.

b. the book that I read

c. the book that I gave him

d. the book that I talked about

Subject relatives

a. Who’s that knocks?

b. I have a brother is condemn’d to die.

(Shakespeare)

c. There was a farmer had a dog.d. There was a ball of fire shot up through

theseats in front of me.

e. There’s something keeps upsetting him.f. There‘s a lot of people don‘t know him.

‘Which’ and ‘who’ relatives

• As a relative pronoun ‘which’ emerged in the

14th century

• ‘Whose’ and ‘whom’ emerged in EME;

later ‘who’ was formed by analogy.

Accessibility hierarchy

SUBJ > DO > OBL > GEN

Comparative forms of the adjectives

(1) happy – happier –happiest(2) difficult – more difficult –most difficult

(1) in the calmest and most stillest night. (2) against the envy of less happier lands.

(Shakespeare)


(1) Say you so?(2) I know not.

Causative ‘do’

(1) He did them build a castle.‘He caused them to build a

castle.’


I doubt it not. (Shakespeare)

I do not doubt you. (Shakespeare)

Why look you so upon me?

(Shakespeare)

Why do you look on me? (Shakespeare)


(1) *I do not can go.

(2) *She does not may leave.

(3) *Is Peter may go home?

Lexical diffusion

SUBJ VERB not SUBJ do not VERBVerb 1 Verb 1Verb 2 Verb 2Verb 3 Verb 3Verb 4 Verb 4… …

I know not I do not know

S-shaped development

time

The psychological mechanisms of language change

Hypothesis:

Grammatical change involves the change of grammatical rules.

3 + 4 = 7

Change of rules

1. NEG SUBJ VERB not

2. NEG SUBJ do not VERB

What motivated the development of the ‘do’ pattern?

In negative sentences, ‘do’ reinforced the

negative meaning of the sentence.

The development of ‘do’ in questions

What is she doing?

Where can I find this book?

When did Peter see Mary?

Why auxiliaries and modals were not involved in the change

1. If the sentence includes a modal or auxiliary, there is an <WH AUX S V O> pattern even without ‘do’.

2.Modals and auxiliaries are the most frequent verbs. Frequently used linguistic structures are so deeply entrenched in mental grammar that they do not change easily.

New consonant phonemes

Bilabial Labio-dental

Inter-dental

Alveolar

Alveola-palatal

Velar

Stop p b t d k gAffricate tS

dZFricative f v T D s z S Z hNasal m n ÎLateral lRetroflex rGlide w y

‘Silent consonant’

1. Compensentory lengthening

[sICt] > [sit] ‘sight’

2. half, palm, folk, talk


3. castle, hasten, wrestle, handsome

4. know, knife, knee, knight, gnaw


5. wrong, wrinkle, wrist

6. British American

[ka] [kar] ‘car’

[bi@] [bi@r] ‘beer’

Spelling pronunciations

1. anthem, throne, author, orthography

2. habit, hectic, history, horror, human

Re-spelling based on Latin source

French loans:

faut, assaut, facon, vaut

Respelled:

fault, assault, falcon, vault

Early Modern English1500-1800

Morphosyntactic changes

Old English had extensive inflectional morphology and relatively flexible word order.

Middle English had very little inflectional morphology and a rather rigid word order.


I doubt it not. (Shakespeare)

I do not doubt you. (Shakespeare)

Why look you so upon me?

(Shakespeare)

Why do you look on me? (Shakespeare)

The Great English Vowel Shift

Middle English 1450

1550 1650


A: Is Tat Ti tSildB: yE hIr nam@ Is anA: @ god and hOlI nam@B: son@ Se wIl be Tre yerIz Ov adZ@A: wIl Se spEke to meB: yE Se spEkT wUnd@r lud@

A: Iz D{t D@I tS@IldB: yE h@r n{m Iz {nA: @ gud and hOlI namB: sun Si wIl bi Tri yirz @v {dZA: wIl Si spEk tu miB: yE Si speks w@nd@r l@Ud

The Great English Vowel ShiftSound changes

[a] > [{][i] > [@I][o] > [u][e] > [i][E] > [e][u] > [@U]

Dialect differencesadvanced (B) conservative (A)

[n{m] [nam][speks] [spEk]


i u

@I @U e o

E

{ a


1550-1650

A: Iz D{t D@I tS@IldB: ye h@r n{m Iz {nA: @ gud {nd hOlI n{mB: sun Si wIl bi Tri yIrz @v {dZA: wIl Si spek tu miB: ye Si speks w@nd@r l@Ud


1650-1750

A: Iz D{t D@I tSaIldB: ye h@r nem Iz {nA: @ gud {nd holI nemB: sun Si wIl bi Tri yIrz @v edZA: wIl Si spik tu miB: ye Si spiks w@nd@rfUlI laUd


Sound changes

[@I] > [aI][{] > [e][O] > [o][{] > [e][@U] >

[aU]


i u

@I @U

e aI aU o

E O

{ a


The Great English Vowel Shift is a Chain Shift.

A chain shift consists of a series of interrelated

changes that are motivated by the pressure to

restore a symmatrical system of speech sounds.

Changes of short vowels

• In unstressed syllables [@] was lost.

• ME [a] became [{] in EME.

• [U] was converted to [ö] unless it was followed by [S] [l] [T] (e.g. run, mud, cut vs. full, pull, bush, butcher)

Early Modern English 1500-1800

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