History of English

Language Change Overview

• Old English: 400-1066 CE, characterized by the merging of dialects from various invading tribes, including the Picts, Scots, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians.
• Middle English: 1066-1500 CE, emerged from the fusion of Norman French and Old English dialects, with approximately 10,000 French words introduced into English.

The Development of Early Modern English

• Early Modern English: 1500-1800 CE, marked by the standardization of spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and the introduction of new words from Classical Latin and Greek, as well as European languages.
• Key developments:
  • Introduction of the printing press in 1476 CE, which standardized spelling and punctuation.
  • Publication of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language in 1755 CE, which recorded language usage at that time.
  • The Great Vowel Shift, a complex process that changed the pronunciation of vowels, particularly long vowels, between 1350-1700 CE.

Late Modern English

• Late Modern English: 1800 CE-present, characterized by the expansion of lexis in response to industrial and social developments, as well as colonialism.
• Key developments:
  • The Industrial Revolution led to the introduction of new words for industrial products, social changes, and colonialism.
  • Borrowing from other languages, such as Indian, Australian, and American languages.

Changes in Language

• 16th Century Changes:
  • Nouns became usable as verbs.
  • Auxiliary verbs replaced inverted verb and subject combinations.
  • Verb conjugations changed, with the replacement of '-th' with '-s'.
  • The distinction between 'you' and 'thou' ceased to be.
  • The introduction of new words and linguistic variations.

Language Formation

• Derivation: The process of forming new words by changing existing words.
• Borrowing: The derivation of words from other languages.
• Coinage: The creation of new words, such as 'Google'.
• Neologism: Words that seemingly come from nothing, often used in advertising.
• Eponym: Words named after their creator or a similar concept.
• Prefix: Addition to the root of a word, e.g. 'un-' to 'like'.
• Suffix: Addition to the stem of a word, e.g. 'slow' to 'slowly'.
• Conversion: The changing of a word's meaning or function without changing its form.
• Telescoping: The shortening of words or phrases to create new words.
• Acronyms: Creating singular words from the initials of multiple words.
• Compounding: The creation of new words by combining two complete words.
• Blending: The creation of new words by combining segments of words.
• Clipping: The shortening of longer words, often raising informality.
• Coalescence: The merging of sounds in pronunciation, often in informal speech.
• Backformation: The creation of new words by clipping longer words.
• Onomatopeia: The process of replicating sounds through words.
• Reduplication: The process of duplicating sounds, often raising liveliness and lowering formality.

Changes in Meaning

• Etymology: The study of the ways in which words change their meaning.
• Amelioration: The process of a word's meaning becoming more positive.
• Pejoration: The process of a word's meaning becoming more negative.
• Broadening: The process of a word's meaning losing its specificity and becoming more general.
• Narrowing: The process of a word's meaning increasing in specificity and losing its broad nature.

Views and Approaches

• Prescriptivist View: The view that language change involves a decline in the standards of English.
• Descriptivist Approach: The approach that language is made up of what people say and write, and that no one variety is superior.