Modern English (1700-Present) PDF

Modern English (1700- present) ELS 1-4 [M 7:30-10:30] ELS 1-3 [M 10:30-1:30] In this discussion External History & ModE Spelling & Introduction Sources Sounds ModE Morphology Mod Syntax ModE Lexicon Attitude...

Modern English (1700- present) ELS 1-4 [M 7:30-10:30] ELS 1-3 [M 10:30-1:30] In this discussion External History & ModE Spelling & Introduction Sources Sounds ModE Morphology Mod Syntax ModE Lexicon Attitudes towards Regional & linguistic Register Varieties differences  Introduction ❑After 1700, there seem to be fewer major language internal changes than in the previous periods, although the relative similarity of the language may be misleading. ❑In fact, Charles Jones has called the 18th and 19th centuries the Cinderella period of English historical linguistics (1989: 279). ❑There are many external developments as a result of colonialism: English branches out into American, Australian, African (e.g. Kenyan English), and Asian (e.g. South Asian English, Singapore English), with numerous varieties within each of these broad categories (e.g. South African Indian English and New York Puerto Rican English).  Introduction ❑The closer we get to Modern English, the better we can investigate the details of language use, such as differences due to the gender, age, region, and socio-economic status of the speakers, and there are many sociolinguistic studies devoted to these aspects.  External History & Sources ❑While the Renaissance was characterized by freedom, this period is characterized by a search for stability, correctness, and standardization. ❑The period between 1650 and 1800 also leads to what is later called the Age of Reason and to the Enlightenment. ❑As to texts, a multitude becomes available after 1700. ❑Modern English is much more varied than what remains of Old English: there are many varieties of spoken English, newspaper articles, advertisements, e- mail, facebook entries, formal writing genres, etc. ❑Online sources for this period are also available.  External History & Sources ❑The early part of this period, especially the Enlightenment, produces a number of encyclopedias, philosophical and scientific works, grammars, and dictionaries. ❑For instance, in the 17th century, 34 grammars were produced in Britain; in the 18th century, that number became 235.  External History & Sources ❑The 19th century is characterized by the Industrial Revolution which transforms a (mainly) agricultural society into an industrial one and can be said to start in limited ways after 1700. ❑It is characterized by an increased use of machines and factories as well as urbanization. ❑English Imperialism is at its height during the reign of Victoria (1819–1901).  External History & Sources ❑The 20th century is characterized by revolutions in art (e.g. Cubism, Surrealism, (Abstract) Expressionism, Minimalism, Outsider Art, and Performance Art), many wars, and many technological and medical advances as well as changes in political and social ideas (the anti- communism of the 1950s, the civil liberties movement of the 1960s, and the anti-Vietnam movement of the 1970s in the United States).  External History & Sources ❑The last part of the 20th and early parts of the 21st century are categorized as a Post-Industrial Society because the service industries are more important than the manufacturing ones. ❑These changes lead to the introduction of many new words.  External History & Sources ❑Newspapers and the internet are good sources of linguistic data. ❑Corpora are collections of texts from different genres and regions of the world. ❑Corpora, such as the 100-million word British National Corpus, or BNC (http://thetis.bl.ukhttp://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/), the 450-million word Corpus of Contemporary American English, or COCA (http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/), and the International Corpus of English, or ICE (www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/ice/sounds.htm)  ModE Spelling & Sounds ❑Around 1700 English becomes more recognizable for speakers of Modern English. ❑The spelling is relatively stable and changes such as the GVS are nearing completion in many varieties.  ModE Spelling & Sounds ❑There are still variant spellings even in formal writing, however: honor and honour, vnitie and unity, iournal and journal, and magic and magick. ❑Webster’s spelling books and dictionary published in the 1800s list forms that sometimes differ from the British ones. ❑Between Webster’s very traditional 1783 speller and the innovative 1828 dictionary, Webster changes his mind. ❑ By the 1850s, spelling is standardized on both sides of the Atlantic. ❑Currently, spelling is relatively standardized (except in e-mail and electronic messages).  ModE Spelling & Sounds ❑Correct pronunciation also becomes a major concern in the Modern English period. ❑To this day, regional differences in pronunciation are one of the main criteria for determining where a speaker of English comes from, and these regional variants are almost always stigmatized if uttered outside the ‘right’ context.  ModE Spelling & Sounds ❑In Britain, one regional variety that is not strongly stigmatized is the northern pronunciation of the final gh/ch [χ] in night and loch, where the Old English sound is retained.  ModE Spelling & Sounds ❑As mentioned earlier, [r] weakens in the late 16th century and is replaced by [ǝ], which in effect lengthens the vowel it follows. ❑This use becomes established, especially in London, but never in Scotland. ❑Interestingly, many American settlers speak varieties with an [r] – Scottish and Irish in Philadelphia and New York in the late 18th century – hence, [r] has a strong presence in the American colonies.  ModE Spelling & Sounds ❑Initially, the [r]-less variant is less prestigious and is criticized (on both sides of the ocean) but later it gains prestige in standard British and certain varieties of American English. ❑Labov’s (1966) work on [r] in three New York City department stores (Saks, Macy’s, and Klein) is cited frequently. ❑Employees were asked for items that were to be found on the fourth floor and the use of [r] was noted. ❑The employees at the high-end store (Saks) pronounced the [r] more often than those at the low-end store (Klein, which is no longer in existence).  ModE Spelling & Sounds ❑Linking [r] occurs when one word ends and the following one starts with a vowel; intrusive [r] occurs when words such as idea and banana are pronounced with a final [r] even in isolation. ❑This seems to have started in London speech (MacMahon 1998: 476), a variety later named Cockney, after social differences in speech became stigmatized in the 18th century.  ModE Spelling & Sounds ❑Vowels are notoriously unstable and remain so in this period: for instance, [a] changes to [æ] in ask and mask in American English. ❑The stress patterns of many words change over time: the first edition of the OED (1884–1928) lists abdomen, anchovy, quandary, secretive, and sonorous as having the main stress on the second syllable; present-day speakers typically put the stress on the first syllable  ModE Morphology ❑The trend towards a more analytic language, and the expected loss of case and agreement, continues in Modern English. ❑The case loss in personal pronouns continues in spoken, less formal, varieties. The prescriptive paradigm is given in Table 8.4.  ModE Morphology ❑However, due to a decreased sense of case, accusatives are used not only as objects but also as (part of) subjects, as in the 19th century example in (3). ❑Nominatives are also used as subjects as well as (part of) objects, as in (4). ❑In (5), where Jane Austen portrays a character of lower social standing, an accusative me is used after the complementizer as; most written varieties of Modern English would use the nominative I.  ModE Morphology ❑As we saw, the pronoun system, and especially the second person, has been quite unstable over time. ❑The singular/plural distinction is lost around 1400; in certain regional varieties of Modern English, y(ou) all, youse, you guys, and you lot can be used to compensate for the loss of the thou/you distinction after 1600, as in (8).  ModE Morphology ❑The (standard) Modern English reflexive pronouns are as listed in (9). ❑The choice of which third person pronoun to use can be problematic in Modern English. ❑The phenomenon of finding the right antecedent is called pronoun resolution. It can be difficult when the antecedent does not exactly match the following pronoun in specificity and number.  ModE Morphology ❑In Modern English, present tense verbs become more regular in many varieties. Trudgill (1974) and Hughes and Trudgill (1996) show the paradigms for different regions of England, as in Table 8.5.  ModE Morphology ❑The rule of verbal agreement in Modern English is well-known: take the head of the subject and have that head agree in number and person with the finite verb.  ModE Morphology ❑There is also a regularization of strong past tense forms and irregular verbs. ❑Verb sets such as chide, chid, chid(den) become chide, chided, chided, and abide, abode, abode become abide, abided, abided. ❑Irregular verb paradigms are also regularized: go, went, gone becomes go, went, went (e.g. I should’ve went there) or go, gone, gone. Very often the pattern is as in (14).  ModE Morphology ❑Sometimes, weak paradigms become strong: sneak, sneaked, sneaked becomes sneak, snuck, snuck, with the pattern of a strong verb.  ModE Morphology ❑The differences in form between adverbs and adjectives continue to be robust in certain environments. ❑Even though degree adverbs, as in (22), are losing the -ly (due to analogy with other degree adverbs such as so and very), adverbs modifying the sentence, such as unfortunately in (23), in general keep this ending.  ModE Syntax ❑This section will discuss some developments – such as the increase in the use of auxiliaries and words such as like. ❑These continue to move English towards becoming a more analytic language. ❑There are also developments related to the relative pronouns, but they are stopped by prescriptive rules.  ModE Syntax ❑The word order of Modern English is SVO, with auxiliary-fronting in questions. ❑Subjects are obligatory, except in the phenomenon of topic-drop, typical for e-mail and letters and demonstrated in (29). ❑In topic-drop typically a first-person pronoun is left out.  ModE Syntax ❑The number of auxiliaries, prepositions, and determiners has increased since the Early Modern English period. ❑Here, we will examine auxiliaries, with some possibilities listed in (30).  ModE Syntax ❑Modals have many meanings: permission, ability, possibility, and volition. ❑The uses and meanings of modals can change quite rapidly: many people have stopped using may for permission, as in the slightly formal (31a), and use can instead, as in (31b) ❑There are many varieties of English with double modals, as in (32) – African American English (as well as Gullah), Scottish English, and Ozark English.  ModE Syntax ❑Currently, only have is used as a perfect auxiliary; as mentioned in the previous chapter, however, be is still used as a present perfect auxiliary with motion verbs in the Early Modern English period, and this still occurs in the 19th century, as (33) shows. ❑The progressive use of be and -ing is introduced relatively late; sentences such as as I say now continue until 1800.  ModE Syntax ❑Progressives are also combined with other auxiliaries; for example, in (35) the progressive is combined with a passive. In earlier English, a progressive passive is expressed as in (36). ❑The regular passive is constructed with the auxiliary be, as in (37), but a newer form using get also arises, as in (38).  ModE Syntax ❑Analytic languages make use of grammatical words derived from lexical verbs or prepositions. ❑We saw that to comes to mark the indirect object and also that a clause is non-finite. ❑Another case of grammaticalization is the preposition like becoming a complementizer: it goes from introducing a noun to introducing a sentence.  ModE Syntax ❑Consistent with this is the use of like to introduce quotes, as in (40). This is called a quotative. There are other such quotatives: all in (41). ❑Like (and sort of, kind of, and all) is also used to soften requests or to hedge something. ❑These are then called discourse markers or mood markers, since they tell you a lot about the speaker’s attitudes.  ModE Syntax ❑Relatives also undergo change in Modern English and, as we will show, the preference of speakers for that over who/whom/which is expected in an analytic language. ❑In Modern English, restrictive relatives are formed by using that or a wh- pronoun, as in (42); the relatively infrequent, non-restrictive relatives are formed by using a wh-pronoun, as in (43).  ModE Syntax ❑The wh-pronoun shows case and is therefore more synthetic: who, whose, and whom are nominative, genitive, and accusative/dative, respectively. ❑In Modern English, there is a strong tendency to use that (and as), rather than wh-pronouns, or to have no marker at all. ❑This is so because the wh-pronoun shows case and the language learner does not have much evidence for assuming case distinctions are relevant in English.  ModE Syntax ❑To conclude, we will summarize the features of most varieties of Modern English in Table 8.8.  ModE Lexicon ❑In the 19th and 20th centuries, there are multiple changes in the social and political circumstances. ❑The British Enlightenment, however, does not introduce many new words specific to its ideas.  ModE Lexicon ❑Some new words from the first decade of the 18th century are: colonist, idealist, phonography, tarboosh, bamboozle, civilization, nymphotomy, paracentric, nucleus, metallurgy, categorize, purist, and materialize. ❑Many of these are based on Latin or French words. Words from the Romantic period – even though not particularly Romantic – include colonial (1796); Hindi, Hindoostani, purdah, pyjamas (all from 1800); and hysteria, phobia, tonsillitis, conventionalist (1801). ❑The Industrial Revolution contributes locomotive (1829), Industrialism (1831), and industrial school (1853), and Imperialism is responsible for Gurkha (1811), the British Raj (1859), khaki (1863), and tropical disease (1828).  ModE Lexicon ❑The 19th and 20th century innovations in science and technology cause an immense increase in vocabulary. ModE Lexicon ModE Lexicon  ModE Lexicon ❑Some of the sources for new words in this period are listed in Table 8.10. ModE Lexicon  ModE Lexicon ❑As in Middle English, the exact path of a loan in Modern English is not always clear: a word could come directly from Latin or via French. ❑For this reason, the term ‘International Scientific’ is sometimes used in dictionaries (Webster’s Third) to clarify the origin of words. ❑Compounding and new affixes as in Table 8.10 have always been popular. ❑Clippings, phrase words, and acronyms become popular in the 20th century, not only in English but in other languages.  ModE Lexicon ❑The OED allows us to search by year and Table 8.11 lists some new words for the years 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000. ModE Lexicon  ModE Lexicon ❑Not only are new words introduced in this period, but the meaning of some words changes. ❑The word fun has an interesting history of reversal. ❑It started out as slang for ‘cheat, trick’, according to a 1700 dictionary of cant. ❑By 1727, it had come to mean ‘amusement’.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑There are many competing tendencies, both egalitarian and elitist, regarding grammar, varieties of English, pronunciation, and spelling. ❑Dictionaries and pronunciation guides support both sides and are quite influential. ❑In English, dictionaries are a surrogate for the academies other countries have established.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑The attempts to establish an Academy started in the early 1600s, when other nations established academies (Italy in 1582, France in 1635, and Spain 1713), and culminated after 1700. ❑The reason for the Italian, French, and Spanish Academies had been the purification and standardization of the language, in particular through the publication of official dictionaries. ❑In England, John Dryden was in favor of an academy as early as 1664, Daniel Defoe called for one in 1697, and Jonathan Swift did so in 1712, when he published A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑There was opposition to an academy as well; the influential Samuel Johnson, for example, opposed an academy in the preface to his 1755 dictionary. ❑According to him, the role of academies was to stop language change, but language change could not be stopped in his view.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑There are strong views on the state of the English language on the other side of the Atlantic as well. ❑James Fennimore Cooper (1838) and Elias Molee (1890 Pure Saxon English) suggest regularizing the spelling and the grammar and replacing Latinate vocabulary. ❑Mencken’s The American Language, published for the first time in 1921, remains popular to this day. ❑In it, he argues that American is more down-to-earth English and that it resists some of the artificial rules British English has had since the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑Grammars become quite prescriptive in Modern English. ❑In Johnson’s 1755 dictionary, a history and a grammar of the English language precede the dictionary. ❑The grammar includes lists of irregular verbs and derivational suffixes and prefixes.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑A very influential grammarian of the period is Robert Lowth, who later became Bishop of London. ❑Lowth applied Latin Grammar to English in his Short Introduction to English Grammar of 1762 and introduced rules such as It is I rather than It is me, rules for the use of who/m and rules for the use of between and among. ❑Lowth also opposed using intransitives as transitives and the other way around as well as the use of double negatives and split infinitives.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑Lowth’s grammar was influential because it “served an important function for its readers who, in their desire to climb the social ladder at a time when the early effects of the Industrial Revolution were making themselves felt, needed guidance as to the norms of linguistic correctness – ‘polite’ usage that accompanied the status they aspired to” ❑Many of these rules are based on Latin grammar and do not make much sense for English.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑William Cobbett’s A Grammar of the English Language, first published in New York in 1818, was written to promote thinking and create an egalitarian society. ❑He felt that much deception goes on in politics and that clear argumentation and grammar make that harder. ❑Cobbett is very critical of some of the rules of Lowth, who influenced Webster (1758–1843), the American spelling and dictionary expert.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑Webster’s speller (1783) sold 100 million copies (Algeo 2001: 34). ❑As mentioned earlier, some of his initial choices were later modified: favour and honour lose their u. ❑Throughout Webster’s (1828) dictionary, music and logic are written without a final -k (which is transferred into British English as well); behavior, honor, and color are spelled with -or, not -our; center and theater with -er, not -re; and defense and offense with a final -se, not –ce.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑By the 18th century, what were called ‘hard word dictionaries’ are less necessary: hard words disappear, are absorbed, or become part of a specialized vocabulary. ❑The first modern dictionary with definitions is John Kersey’s 1702 A New English Dictionary: Or, a Compleat Collection of the Most Proper and Significant Words. It contains 28,000 words, but the definitions are not specific.Thus, this is a spelling dictionary. ❑In 1721, Nathan Bailey’s An Universal Etymological English Dictionary appears. It has 40,000 entries and the definitions are more explicit.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑Webster’s Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806) initially contained 37,500 words. ❑One of Webster’s aims was a nationalist one: to show that American English is different from British English as are the respective political systems. ❑Later in the Modern English period, the Oxford English Dictionary becomes the resource for work on the English language. In its current online form (www.oed.com), it covers over half a million words and includes 2.5 million quotations. Words and quotations are constantly being added.  Attitudes towards linguistic differences ❑Table 8.13 lists some of the available 18th and 19th century dictionaries.  Regional & Register Varieties ❑Many regional pronunciations become connected to social status and class. ❑In this section, we briefly discuss regions and social class. We also examine register varieties, including jargon. ❑The focus is on British English, with occasional examples from other varieties.  Regional & Register Varieties ❑Trudgill (1999: 65–7) divides the modern dialects in England into 16 kinds, but says that the major split is between the North and the South, roughly as indicated by the thickest line in Figure 8.5. ❑The dialects of the South are further divided into those of the Southwest, with an [r] in words such as arm, and those of the East without [r]. The two main groups in the North are Central and Northern.  Regional & Register Varieties ❑The distinctive features between the modern dialects typically involve sounds, but there are a few differences in morphology, syntax, and vocabulary. ❑Reflexive pronouns have different forms. Speakers create forms such as hisself on the basis of myself and ourself. ❑Demonstratives are also frequently different. There are forms such as them people or thilk people, the latter being typical for the southwest of England. ❑Possessive pronouns often change from my to me, as in me book, and our books becomes us books, especially in the North of England. ❑These changes all point to a regularization of the language in non-standard varieties.  Regional & Register Varieties ❑Dialect maps also exist for American English. ❑Some are based on the differences in vocabulary (pail/bucket, sack/bag), pronunciation (no difference in pin and pen)  Regional & Register Varieties ❑Certain regions keep archaic features such as double modals (in parts of Texas and Arkansas), for to infinitives (in the Ozark region), a-prefixes on the participle (as in he’s a- coming home in Appalachian and Southern American English).  Regional & Register Varieties ❑When it comes to varieties in register, the level of formality is relevant: there is less regional variation in formal writing. ❑Formal styles adhere more closely to prescriptive rules such as the one about relative clauses discussed earlier. ❑Slang is difficult to define; therefore, the term informal language might be preferable. ❑Both slang and jargon are specialized vocabularies, but slang is always informal and jargon may be formal. ❑Thus, slang and jargon can be seen as varieties different in register; however, they are also used by different social groups.  Regional & Register Varieties ❑Numerous student slang dictionaries have recently been published: at University of California, Los Angeles, University of North Carolina, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and Arizona State University. ❑However, due to community censorship, many of the dictionaries have had to be taken off the internet.  Regional & Register Varieties ❑There are new affixes, as in chocolate-heaven, lowrider-city, heartbreak- city, weirdsville, nowheresville, drugsville, clipping, as in perp for perpetrator, G-man for FBI-personnel (=government man), etc. ❑Some slang terms fade and then become popular again. ❑This happened with sweet, awesome, and cool; phoney is from the 1770s, but has survived.  Regional & Register Varieties ❑The continual use of colloquial language gives it more strength and creates solidarity with the audience, as this code switching between formal and colloquial speech – allegedly uttered by an Arizona politician – shows.