English Lexicology Course - Past Materials

AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY Course book for the 1st year English students enrolled in the long-distance programme Elena Buja 2010 Introduction This course in English lexicology is the second step in Contemporary English La...

AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY Course book for the 1st year English students enrolled in the long-distance programme Elena Buja 2010 Introduction This course in English lexicology is the second step in Contemporary English Language and is meant to present some of the most relevant aspects related to the vocabulary of the language. We start by introducing some basic terms concerning the structure of the lexicon and of the lexical items. Then, we approach the treasure of the English vocabulary both diachronically, pinpointing the languages from which English borrowed extensively during the three main periods of its evolution, and synchronically, presenting the lexicon not as a closed set of items, but as a network of productive processes (such as word-formation, metaphor and metonymy). Last but not least, we shall investigate the lexical strata in Contemporary English, focusing on Colloquial English. Aims of the course The course aims, first of all, at familiarizing students with the elements of the English lexicon, pointing out that the vocabulary of the English language is made up of both diachronic and synchronic layers. Going then deeper, it will help students find out what means of enriching one language’s lexicon there are. Further on, students will be offered an insight in the constituent elements of the English words, i.e. their form, as well as their meaning, drawing their attention upon the fact that the latter is subject to changes in various directions, and due to various factors. Additionally, students will be shown what kinds of relations can be established among words on the basis of their meanings. Finally, a brief incursion in the most appropriate lexical items for specific registers will be made. Competences By the end of the course, the student should · have an awareness of the internal structure of words and of the systematic relationships among words in English · have a basic understanding of the history of the English language, with particular reference to the major periods of vocabulary expansion that it has undergone and how those periods are reflected in the modern lexicon · understand some basic principles of language change that have affected the English language, including principles of sound change and meaning change 2 · know the basic stock of Classical roots and affixes that recurrently appear in English words; be able to interpret newly encountered words incorporating elements of that stock · be familiar with a wide range of words and their origins, meanings, and domains of use; be able to apply the knowledge gained so as to be able to say something about the origin and/or meaning of unfamiliar words · understand how the study of words can be used as an access point into knowledge and history of an entire culture, and be able to further pursue such knowledge via the study of words · have a good working knowledge of the incredibly rich lexical resources available in the English language, providing a basis for increased mastery of the spoken and written language Resources For this course you may need: - access to the internet as you will have to send your assignments by e-mail. You will also have to access online dictionaries in order to solve some of the tasks contained in the units; - a good English monolingual dictionary. - a whole bunch of MOTIVATION Structure of the course - The material is structured in 10 units, each of them being covered in about 21/2 hours. - The students will have to write 3 assignments, which will be handed in as follows: -assignment 1 after unit 5; -assignment 2 after unit 7; -assignment 3 after unit 10. - The assignments should be handed in in a printed form. To be on the safe side, students should also send them via e-mail. The teacher’s feedback on the students’ work will be provided by mail. Prerequisites 3  In order to fully grasp the material contained in this course, students should have some basic knowledge of linguistics. Disciplines the material in this course contributes to Knowledge of lexicology will prove useful in approaching other subjects such as semantics, morphology, stylistics, or pragmatics, as there is no clearcut border between these branches of linguistics. Average time for individual study Each unit could be covered by the students in about 2 or 4 hours, depending on the length of the material and on the evaluation test. Evaluation The final mark will consist of: – the mark in the end-of term examination: 55% - the mark obtained for the three assignments: 45%. (each assignment represents 15% of the final mark). 4 Contents Preliminary questionnaire...................................................................................................... 9 Unit 1 Lexicology: definition and object............................................................................... 10 1.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 10 1.2. Competences....................................................................................................... 10 1.3. Lexicology: definition......................................................................................... 10 1.4. The structure of the English lexicon.................................................................... 11 1.5. Early studies in lexicology.................................................................................. 17 1.6. Relation of lexicology to other branches of linguistics......................................... 18 1.7. Summary........................................................................................................... 19 1.8. Evaluation test.................................................................................................... 19 Unit 2 Lexical units: structure and classification................................................................. 20 2.1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 20 2.2 Competences........................................................................................................ 20 2.3. Definition and classification of lexical units........................................................ 20 2.4. Roots, stems, bases, and affixes........................................................................... 24 2.5. Words vs. phrases............................................................................................... 27 2.6. Summary............................................................................................................. 28 2.7. Evaluation........................................................................................................... 28 Unit 3 The diachronic approach to the English vocabulary: the Old English period............. 31 3.1. Introduction...................................................................................................... 31 3.2. Competences....................................................................................................... 31 3.3. Why English....................................................................................................... 32 3.4. The diachronic approach.................................................................................... 32 3.4.1. Old English..................................................................................................... 35 3.4.1.1. The Old English vocabulary.......................................................................... 36 3.4.1.2. Means of enriching the English vocabulary.................................................. 37 3.4.1.2.1. Word-building............................................................................................ 37 A. Affixation................................................................................................... 37 A. 1. Suffixation......................................................................................... 37 A. 2. Prefixation....................................................................................... 37 B. Composition............................................................................................... 38 3.4.1.2.2. Borrowings................................................................................................ 38 A. Celtic loan words.......................................................................................... 38 B. Latin loan words.......................................................................................... 39 C. Scandinavian loan words.............................................................................. 41 5  3.5. Summary............................................................................................................. 44 3.6. Evaluation...................................................................................................... 44 Unit 4 The diachronic approach to the English vocabulary: the Middle English period....... 46 4.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 46 4.2. Competences....................................................................................................... 46 4.3. Middle English: Introduction............................................................................. 46 4.4. French borrowings............................................................................................. 48 4.5. Latin borrowings............................................................................................... 52 4.6.Greek borrowings............................................................................................... 53 4.7. Flemish and Dutch borrowings.......................................................................... 55 4.8. Arabic borrowings.............................................................................................. 55 4.9. Summary............................................................................................................. 56 4.10. Evaluation........................................................................................................ 56 Unit 5 The diachronic approach to the English vocabulary: the Modern English period...... 57 5.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 57 5.2. Competences....................................................................................................... 57 5.3. The Modern English Period: Introduction.......................................................... 57 5.4. Latin and Greek borrowings............................................................................... 58 5.5. French borrowings............................................................................................ 61 5.6. Italian borrowings.............................................................................................. 62 5.7. Spanish and Portuguese loan-words.................................................................. 63 5.8. Dutch borrowings............................................................................................... 63 5.9. German borrowings............................................................................................ 64 5.10. Indian borrowings............................................................................................. 65 5.11. Borrowings from other languages.................................................................... 65 5.12. Summary........................................................................................................... 66 5.13. Evaluation....................................................................................................... 67 Homework I............................................................................................................... 68 Unit 6 The synchronic approach to the English vocabulary................................................. 69 6.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 69 6.2. Competences....................................................................................................... 69 6.3. Introduction to the unit....................................................................................... 69 6.4. Region................................................................................................................ 71 6.5. Education and social standing............................................................................ 73 6.6. Subject matter..................................................................................................... 73 6.7. Medium.............................................................................................................. 74 6.8. Attitude............................................................................................................... 76 6.9. ‘Interference’...................................................................................................... 77 6  6.10. Summary........................................................................................................... 77 6.11. Evaluation 78 Unit 7 Word-formation rules............................................................................................... 80 7.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 80 7.2. Competences....................................................................................................... 80 7.3. Affixation........................................................................................................... 81 7.3.1. Prefixes............................................................................................................ 81 7.3.1. 1. Class-changing prefixes............................................................................... 82 7.3.1.2. Class-preserving prefixes.............................................................................. 82 7.3.2. Suffixes............................................................................................................ 88 7.3.2.1. Noun-forming suffixes................................................................................... 88 7.3.2.2. Verb-forming suffixes.................................................................................... 89 7.3.2.3. Adjective-forming suffixes............................................................................. 90 7.3.2.4. Adverb-forming suffixes............................................................................... 92 7.4. Composition........................................................................................................ 93 7.5. Conversion (zero-derivation).............................................................................. 96 7.6. Clipping.............................................................................................................. 98 7.7. Blending........................................................................................................... 100 7.8. Abbreviation..................................................................................................... 102 7.9. Reduplication.................................................................................................... 104 7.10. Eponymous words........................................................................................... 105 7.11. Deliberate coinages........................................................................................ 106 7.12. Summary......................................................................................................... 107 7.13. Evaluation...................................................................................................... 107 Homework II........................................................................................................... 110 Unit 8 Meaning.................................................................................................................. 111 8.1. Introduction..................................................................................................... 111 8.2. Competences..................................................................................................... 111 8.3. The linguistic sign............................................................................................ 112 8.3.1. Models of the linguistic sign........................................................................... 112 8.4. The meaning of linguistic signs......................................................................... 114 8.5. Causes of changes of meaning.......................................................................... 114 8.6. Directions in which changes of meaning occur................................................ 118 8.6.1. Extension of meaning..................................................................................... 118 8.6.2. Narrowing of meaning................................................................................... 119 8.6.3. Degradation of meaning................................................................................ 120 8.6.6. Elevation of meaning..................................................................................... 122 8.7. Summary........................................................................................................... 123 7  8.8. Evaluation........................................................................................................ 123 Unit 9 Semantic relations.................................................................................................. 125 9.1. Introduction..................................................................................................... 125 9.2. Competences..................................................................................................... 125 9.3. Incompatibility................................................................................................. 127 9.4. Antonymy.......................................................................................................... 128 9.5. Hyponymy (meaning inclusion)......................................................................... 131 9.6. Synonymy.......................................................................................................... 132 9.7. Homonymy and Polysemy................................................................................ 136 9.8. Summary........................................................................................................... 138 9.9. Evaluation........................................................................................................ 138 Unit 10 Lexical strata in Contemporary English................................................................ 143 10.1. Introduction................................................................................................... 143 10.2. Competences................................................................................................... 143 10.3. Diachronic lexical strata................................................................................ 144 10.3.1. Archaisms.................................................................................................... 144 10.3.2. Neologisms................................................................................................. 146 10.4. Synchronic lexical strata................................................................................. 149 10.4.1. Technical words.......................................................................................... 150 10.4.2. Slang............................................................................................................ 151 10.4.2. 1.Sociolinguistic aspects of slang................................................................. 152 10.4.2.2. Cant.......................................................................................................... 154 10.4.2.3. Argot......................................................................................................... 154 10.4.2.4. Jargon....................................................................................................... 155 10.4.3. Vulgar terms................................................................................................ 156 10.4.4. Dialecticisms............................................................................................... 156 10.5. Summary......................................................................................................... 157 10.6. Evaluation...................................................................................................... 157 10.7. Homework........................................................................................................ 159 Bibliography....................................................................................................................... 161 8 Questionnaire This short questionnaire is meant to check what you know about lexicology. Choose the correct answer for the following statements: 1. Lexicology is a) a sub-branch of linguistics b) an independent science c) a sub-branch of morphology d) a ‘sister’ of semantics. 2. Lexicology deals with: a) the study of the meaning of words; b) the study of the form of words; c) the evolution of the meaning of words; d) the study of the meaning and form of words. 3. Lexicology is related to: a) semantics; b) phonology; c) morphology; d) pragmatics. 4. A lexical item is a) a word b) a set of words c) a phrase d) none of these. 5. The word ‘down-towner’ is: a) a compound b) an abbreviation; c) a derived compound d) an eponymous word. 6. The relationship that holds between enemy and foe is called: a) synonymy; b) antonymy; c) hyponymy; d) polysemy. 7. In the development of the English languages, words: a) have preserved their original meaning; b) have changed their original meaning; c) some have preserved their original meaning, whereas other have changed it. 8. The vocabulary of the English language contains: a) words from a large number of languages; b) mainly Celtic words; c) more Latin and Greek terms than Germanic terms; d) mainly French terms. 9 Unit 1. LEXICOLOGY: DEFINITION AND OBJECT Contents 1.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 10 1.2. Competences....................................................................................................... 10 1.3. Lexicology: definition......................................................................................... 10 1.4. The structure of the English lexicon.................................................................... 11 1.5. Early studies in lexicology.................................................................................. 17 1.6. Relation of lexicology to other branches of linguistics......................................... 18 1.7. Summary........................................................................................................... 19 1.8. Evaluation test.................................................................................................... 19 1.1. Introduction In this unit we shall introduce the basic terms related to lexicology and we shall place lexicology in the domain of linguistics and show its relations to other branches of linguistics. At the same time, some of the major methods of linguistic analysis will be presented. 1.2. Competences After having read this chapter, the students should be able to distinguish between the structure of the lexicon and the structure of lexical items, to identify types of lexical structures. Time envisaged for covering Unit 1: 2 hours. 1.3. Lexicology: a possible definition Surprisingly enough, the term lexicology is not to be found in most medium-sized dictionaries and in various handbooks (e.g. LYONS: 1977) and English grammars. Only lexicography, explained as ‘dictionary-making’ or ‘the writing and making of dictionaries’, is usually mentioned. Apparently this situation is now changing. Lexicology might be defined as 10 the study of the lexicon or lexis (specified as the vocabulary or total stock of words of a language). The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1987) has the following entry: lexicology... n [U] tech the study of the meaning and uses of words. What is most important, however, is that in lexicology the stock of words or lexical items is not simply regarded as a list of isolated elements. Lexicologists try to find out generalizations and regularities and especially consider relations between elements. Lexicology is therefore concerned with structures, not with a mere agglomeration of words. 1.4. The structure of the English lexicon In what sense can we say that the lexicon of English is structured, or has structure? What does the term lexicon mean in the technical sense in which it is used here? Why do we not simply speak of the vocabulary of English? What does one understand by lexical structure? Lexicon is defined in the LDCE 1978 as ‘a dictionary, esp. of an ancient language’ and in the CONCISE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (COD) -1976 as ‘dictionary, esp. of Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, or Arabic; (fig.) vocabulary of a person, of a language, of a branch of knowledge, etc.’ Obviously, the first definition is rather narrow and does not cover the way the term lexicon has been used so far. The second part of the definition in the COD comes close to it; the first part, containing the synonym dictionary, is not of much use. We need to point out that both terms, lexicon and dictionary have been used as technical terms in the literature, and there is no single “correct” use of lexicon or dictionary. In what follows, the term lexicon will be used in two senses that are not always sharply distinguished: a) for a metalinguistic level, or a sub-component in a linguistic model (basically compatible with a variety of theories of language); To illustrate this sense, we shall rely on the classical structuralist model in Ullmann’s Principles of Structural Semantics (1957:39), in which lexicology has a certain position. It is certainly true that lexicology must include both the study of individual words and their structure and the overall structure of the vocabulary as a whole. At the same time, it cannot be described from a purely formal point of view, without considering semantic aspects and relations. 11  Phonology Lexicology Diachronic Syntax Synchronic Morpho- Seman- logy tics Figure 1.1. Ullmann’s linguistic model. In this linguistic model, lexicology, as the discipline concerned with lexis (Gk. word) or the lexicon (Gk. inventory of words), is represented as a level between phonology and syntax. All three levels, phonology, lexicology, and syntax are subsystems of the entire language system. They may be described at a particular point in time, i.e. synchronically, or in their historical evolution, i.e. diachronically. Phonology, which is concerned with the sound system of the language, has a formal, but not semantic aspect. Lexicology has both a morphological and a semantic dimension, and both may be regarded from a diachronic or a synchronic point of view. The same holds for syntax, which is concerned with larger linguistic units. b) in the sense of vocabulary as seen from a systematic, synchronic point of view. This second sense of the term lexicon focuses on the systematic and synchronic description of the vocabulary of English. Here the focus is on the etymological heterogeneity of the English language, on the problem of mixing of languages with its causes and consequences, and on the specific forms of the English vocabulary and its stratification. According to Ernst Leisi (1985), contemporary English is a unique mixture of Germanic and Romance elements and this mixing has resulted in the international character of the vocabulary. Its great richness allows for finer differentiation in comparison with other languages. For example, the German word Tier corresponds to either animal or beast in English. Wagen can be rendered by a series of English translations, such as car, cart, carriage and chariot. Clearly, the structure of the vocabulary is different in both languages. This is also true for the negative consequences of the mixing of languages. 12  It is certainly true that all languages are mixtures to a greater or lesser extent. Present- day English is unique in this respect. A brief look at the various historical strata may perhaps be in order here. Through cultural contact with the Romans, partly already on the Continent, and also through the influence of Christianity, a very early stratum of Latin-Greek words entered the language. This origin is no longer felt by the normal speaker today in words such as dish, cheese, mint, pound, and devil. The same holds for some Scandinavian words from about the 10th century that today belong to the central core of the vocabulary. This means that their frequency is very high. The stratum contains such words as they, them, their, sky, skin, skull, ill, die, cast and take. A more radical change and profound influence on the English vocabulary occurred in the wake of the Norman Conquest of 1066. Until the 15th century a great number of French words was adopted that belonged especially to the areas of court, state, law, and church. The influx was strongest before 1400 but continued up to the 17 th century. More details related to the historical strata will be presented in chapter 3. Apart from the various historical strata, the English vocabulary also presents synchronic stratification. The following represents a traditional synchronic survey of the structure of the English vocabulary based on a diagram given in the introduction to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED, 1973:X). FOREIGN SC IE C NT AI H IF C IC AR written COMMON medium spoken DI L A CA LE NI CT E CH AL T G VU AN LG SL RA Figure 1.2. Synchronic survey of the structure of the English vocabulary. The representation starts out from the assumption that the vocabulary of English contains a large central area, which is common to all media, styles, and social classes. This concept of common English, symbolized by COMMON, is equivalent, with respect to the 13 lexicon, to the ‘common core’ which is present in all varieties of English. The editors of the SOED label this central area, which contains words like come, father, chair, good, bad, very, ‘common English’. Above and below we have the neighbouring areas of ‘literary’ and ‘colloquial’. Connected with these in a radial manner are further areas of the vocabulary, which are also related to each other in content, according to the opinion of the editors of the above- mentioned dictionary. The literary vocabulary contains scientific, foreign and archaic words, such as Weltanschauung and blasé. The transition from other literary words such as firmament, similitude, whence, whither to the outer areas is gradual and fluid. On the other side, the colloquial vocabulary contains dialectal and vulgar elements, as well as words from slang and technical language. We should add that the term slang is often used for special languages of specific groups, e.g. in army slang, public school slang, navy slang, RAF slang. There are, thus, no clear boundaries between slang in this sense and technical language. It is true that all categories used in this diagram have no sharp boundaries. Thus, colloquial, slang and vulgar cannot be precisely and unambiguously defined. In the diagram they are close neighbours and the areas of vocabulary denoted by them merge and interpenetrate. The radial lines connect the peripheral and the central areas of the vocabulary. The further we get to the periphery, the more we depart from the common vocabulary of common English. The synchronic lexical strata will be discussed in details in chapter 8. Although it is true that, historically speaking, the vocabulary of a language is an accumulation of words, this is not merely a list of items. It is certainly possible to make a number of important generalizations. The lexicon is not simply an inventory of unconnected, isolated elements, but it definitely has a structure. There are various types of relations and connections between the elements (paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations) and we may establish (at least partial) regularities and recognize clear, if partly incomplete, patterns. If we consider language as a system of signs, or, following Saussure, as a structure of independent elements, then we may distinguish at least two types of structure in the lexicon: external (to the word) and internal structure. Full words may substitute for each other, i.e. be in opposition, or they may combine with each other. Such paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations constitute the external structure. We may look at the internal structure of lexical items, which are either morphologically complex (such as compounds, or prefixal and suffixal derivatives), or simple. In the last case, although there is no superficial, morphological regularity visible, we may, nevertheless find and postulate underlying semantic structures. 14  Let us now linger for a while on an example of the general treatment of lexical structure, which is not restricted to the vocabulary of English. The model has been adopted from Coseriu (1970) (quoted in Lipka, 1990:11), who basically proposes the following: Lexical Structures a) paradigmatic b) syntagmatic (oppositional) (combinatorial) solidarities primary secondary [collocation] word-field word-formation “word class” (compounding & derivation) Figure 1.3 Coseriu’s model for describing and analysing lexical structure. Paradigmatic structures comprise words that can be substituted for each other in a specific slot in a sentence. They necessarily belong to the same syntactic class. Syntagmatic structures (which Coseriu labels ‘solidarities’) comprise the relationships between words, which are systematically and conventionally combined in a sentence. Primary paradigmatic structures cover word-fields. These are structures consisting of lexical items that share a common zone of meaning and are in direct opposition to each other (e.g. the field of furniture objects). Secondary paradigmatic structures comprise the traditional field of word formation. Let us now have a closer look at the fundamental distinction between paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships in the lexicon. The distinction basically derives from the linear nature of the linguistic substance. This linearity goes back to the fact that speech sounds follow each other in time. Successive linguistic elements that are combined are called syntagma or syntagm. Elements that are in opposition or contrast in the same position in a syntagm are said to be in a paradigmatic relationship. One can also say that they can be substituted for each other and form a paradigm. The different relationships and the resulting 15 two dimensions may be illustrated with the following example adopted from David Crystal (1985:163): Example 1 He can go tomorrow syntagmatic relationships she may come soon I will ask next you could sleep now paradigmatic relationships This example only shows syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations between words, i.e. between full linguistic signs. But these relations also obtain between smaller linguistic units such as morphemes and phonemes, as well as between higher units, such as clauses and sentences, as illustrated below: Example 2 pit /i/ On the phonological level, the English phonemes /i/, /e/, / / and pet /e/ /æ/ stand in paradigmatic relation, since they may be substituted for pot // each other. pat /æ/ On the lexical level the distinction can be illustrated as in example 3 below: Example 3 the old man The adjectives old, tall, nice as well as the nouns man and the tall man woman are in a paradigmatic relationship. The article, the the nice woman adjective and the noun, however, are syntagmatically related in all three cases. The next example shows that two (or more) sentences can be paradigmatically related (i.e. one can replace the other) in different styles. Example 4 a. They cast stones at the police. (formal) b. They chucked stones at the cops. (slang) 16  The relation between the italicized verbs and nouns marked by vertical arrows is paradigmatic; the relation between the verbs and the nouns in both sentences, however, is a syntagmatic one. Summary of the structure of the lexicon paradigmatic 1. structure of the lexicon relations (external) syntagmatic lexical structure (and relations) complex (morphological) 2. structure of lexical items items (internal) simple (semantic) 1.5. Early studies in lexicology The first important studies of English lexicology may be traced back to the middle of th the 19 century, when Richard Chenevix Trench (1807 –1866) delivered a series of lectures to students. These lectures appeared in two volumes entitled On the Study of Words (1850) and English Past and Present (1855). He was mainly interested in what is now termed ‘the semantic evolution of English words’. He started basically from the statement of an American poet, Ralph Emerson, who said that language is ‘fossil poetry’. R. Chenevix added something to this statement, namely that language may be and is fossil poetry, but it may be affirmed of it, with exactly the same truth that it is fossil ethics or fossil history; words quite often embody facts of history. 17 1.6. Relations of lexicology to other branches of linguistics Though linguistics has its own definite range of problems, there is a close relation between lexicology, grammar, phonetics and stylistics. a) Lexicology & phonetics: word-formation gives numerous examples of separable compounds generated by shifting the stress. Thus, `greenhouse (a building, chiefly of glass, with controlled temperature, used for cultivating plants), a compound with stress on the first element will differ in meaning from green `house (a house painted green), a free combination of words in which the second element bears primary stress. b) Lexicology & grammar: the points of contact between vocabulary and grammar are very numerous and varied. Grammar is not indifferent to the lexical meaning of words, and the lexical meaning of words is very often signalled by the grammatical context in which it occurs: ►the plural can serve to form special lexical meanings: damage = injury damages = compensation glass = hard, brittle, transparent substance glasses = spectacles; spirit = the general meaning of something spirits = alcoholic drinks; state of mind ►lexical meaning of the direct object may change the meaning of the verb: to strike the table vs. to strike a bargain to lay an egg vs. to lay the table to grow potatoes vs. to grow a beard ►the syntactic position of a word can change both its function and its lexical meaning: girl-school vs. schoolgirl shop-window vs. window-shop. c) Lexicology & stylistics: this relation reveals itself in the selection among linguistic units. The selection of lexical units adapted to style and purpose is a factor of great significance in the act of communication, and every language register has its own lexical means: Example The knight mounted his stallion. (in historical writings) The child climbed his gee-gee. (in children narrative) *The knight mounted his gee-gee (stylistically improper). 18  In brief, every word is a complex unit containing semantic, phonetic and grammatical elements. At the same time, every word presents a special availability as to the register/style in which it is being used. Let's remember... Lexicology is a sub-branch of linguistics that is related to most of the other sub- branches, such as phonetics, morphology, and stylistics, as all of them deal with words from various perspectives. 1.7. Summary This unit has defined lexicology and has shown its relationship to other branches of linguistics. We have also tackled the syntagmatic and paradigmatic structures words contribute to. Whereas in this unit we have presented words as being ‘whole entities’, in the following unit we shall investigate the internal structure of words, i.e. we shall break them down into their structural and semantic constituents. 1.8. Evaluation 1. Both lexicology and semantics deal with words and their meaning. What, in your opinion, is the difference between these two branches of linguistics? 2. How is lexicology related to phonology and syntax? Give examples. 3. What are paradigmatic structures and syntagmatic structures? Give examples for each type of structure. 4. Analyze the way in which the lexical environment affects the meaning of the lexical item 'high' in the following examples. Try to give some distributional formulae. a) The Tower of London is not very high. b) One day, a high official came to my place. c) The driver changed into a high gear. d) Prices are very high nowadays. e) Yesterday the wind was very high. f) He drove fast along the highway. 19 g) She seems to speak in a high tone. 20 Unit 2. LEXICAL UNITS: STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION Contents 2.1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 20 2.2 Competences........................................................................................................ 20 2.3. Definition and classification of lexical units........................................................ 20 2.4. Roots, stems, bases, and affixes........................................................................... 24 2.5. Words vs. phrases............................................................................................... 27 2.6. Summary............................................................................................................. 28 2.7. Evaluation........................................................................................................... 28 2.1. Introduction This unit aims at presenting some problems related to word identification and definition. We shall also show the differences between lexical and grammatical morphemes, and give a classification of both types of morphemes. Finally, we will make an attempt at classifying words. 2.2. Competences Having covered the material in this unit, the students will be able to identify the types of morphemes in complex words, to determine the order in which morphemes combine in order to form complex words, to make the distinction between roots and stems, and to distinguish between complex lexemes and phrases. Average time for covering this unit: 2 hours 2.3. Definition and classification of lexical units In the previous chapter we defined lexicology as the study of the meaning and uses of words. But what is a word? The definition of the word has been, for a long time, a major problem for linguistic theory because, no matter how the term word is defined, there are some items in some languages which speakers of those languages call ‘words’, but which are not covered by the 21 definition. Despite the difficulties in providing a definition of a ‘word’, there are good reasons for operating with such a notion. The first of these is that speakers of a language, even illiterate speakers, have a feeling for what is, or is not, a word. There are other reasons for assuming that the word has some kind of linguistic reality. As Mathews (1972, quoted in Bauer, 1991:8) points out, morphological conditioning, when it occurs, takes place within the words. So, for example, irregular plural forms in English are determined by the word in question, and only occur with that word: thus, the only words in English that make their plural by adding –en are ox (oxen) and child (children), but this –en does not affect markers of plurality anywhere else in a sentence in which it occurs. Another argument is that the ordering of elements within a word is frequently independent of, and even compulsorily different from, the ordering of strings of words: for example, in English the genitive can be marked by 's or by a separate word of; while 's is a part of a word and comes after the possessor (the plane’s wings), of, a separate word, comes before the possessor (the wings of the plane). The same point can be made with respect to the comparative of the adjectives in English: when the comparative is marked by a separate word more, this comes in front of the adjective being compared (more curious), but when it is marked by –er, this comes at the end of the adjective being compared (curiouser). All these factors argue for there being a unit, which might be termed a 'word'. Here are some definitions of the term ‘word’: -word: a unit of expression which has universal intuitive recognition by NATIVE SPEAKERS, in both spoken and written language (Crystal, 1991: 379); -word: a linguistic form that can meaningfully be spoken in isolation; -word: an element of human speech to which meaning is attached, which is apt to be used grammatically and which can be understood by a human collectivity constituted in a historical community. There are several difficulties in arriving at a consistent use of the term in relation to other categories of linguistic description, and in the comparison of languages of different structural types. These problems relate mainly to word identification and definition. They include, for example, decisions over word boundaries (e.g. is a unit such as washing machine two words, or is it one, to be written washing-machine?), as well as decisions over status (e.g. is the a word in the same sense as is chair?). Regular definitions of words as ‘units of meaning’, or ‘ideas’ are of no help, because of the vagueness of such notions as ‘idea’. As a result, several theoretical distinctions have been made. 22  Let’s remember A word is defined as an element of human speech to which meaning is attached, which is apt to be used grammatically and which can be understood by a human collectivity constituted in a historical community. Three main senses of ‘word’ are usually distinguished (though terminology varies). (1) Words are the physical definable units which one encounters in a stretch of writing (bounded by spaces) or speech (where identification is more difficult, but where there may be PHONOLOGICAL clues to identify boundaries, such as a PAUSE, or JUNCTURE features). ‘Word’ in this sense is often referred to as the orthographic word (for writing), or the phonological word (for speech). A neutral term often used to subsume both is word form. (2) There is a more abstract sense, referring to the common factor underlying the set of forms which are plainly VARIANTS of the same unit, such as walk, walks, walking, walked. The 'underlying' word unit is often referred to as a lexeme. Lexemes are the units of VOCABULARY, and as such would be listed in a dictionary. (3) This, then, leaves the need for a comparably abstract unit to be set up to show how words work in the GRAMMAR of a language, and ‘word’, without qualification, is usually reserved for this role (alternatively, one may spell out this implication, referring to MORPHEMIC/ MORPHOSYNTACTIC/ GRAMMATICAL word, though the latter has an alternative sense). A word, then, is a grammatical unit, of the same theoretical kind as MORPHEME and SENTENCE. In a hierarchical model of analysis, sentences (clauses, etc.) consist of words, and words consist of morphemes (minimally, one free morpheme). Let us illustrate the three senses of the term ‘word’ on the basis of an example: Example SHOOT (lexeme) shooting, shoots, shot (word forms of the lexeme SHOOT) {shoot}, {ing}, {s} {preterite} (morphemes – free & bound) The example above emphasizes further distinctions in the description of morphemes. Thus, morphemes can be divided into two great classes, namely into: - lexical morphemes (also called ‘semantic morphemes’): these are morphemes which, through affixation help in the formation of new words; they can be either class-changing or class-preserving morphemes, e.g. from count (verb) to counter (noun) or recount (verb); 23  - grammatical morphemes (also called ‘functional morphemes’) like -ing in working or –ed in wanted; they perform a grammatical function in that they help in the formation of new word-forms. In spite of the fact that there are difficulties with definition and overlap in some areas, the two large classes can be characterized on the basis of certain features or attributes in the following way: lexical morphemes grammatical morphemes denote (particular) extralinguistic denote: objects & states of affairs: events, - (general) grammatical functions: situations, relations. e.g. plural, tense. - syntactic relations: concord of gender, number. open class (set). closed class (inventory) precede grammatical morphemes follow lexical morphemes (in Germanic languages) (in Germanic languages) combination (with other lexical mor- combination (with other lexical phemes) often restricted morphemes) relatively unrestricted result of combination: new lexemes result of combination: word-forms. WORD-FORMATION INFLECTION It is customary to refer to the combination of lexical and grammatical morphemes with the term inflection. On the other hand the combination of lexical morphemes with each other is usually labelled word-formation. It is sometimes difficult to draw the distinction between lexical and grammatical morphemes, because there are borderline cases and the limits of an individual morpheme may be vague or fuzzy (e.g. –ic /-al / -er). Furthermore, it may be hard to assign a single specific meaning to a particular constant form (e.g. -er in worker and longer). But basically, the distinction is sound and useful and can be easily made in most cases. The two large groups of morphemes can be further sub-classified on the basis of other criteria. First and foremost, morphemes may occur either alone or independently (e.g. sun, beach, on), or in conjunction with others. This leads to the distinction between free and bound morphemes. Free morphemes are such items as sun, flower, man, day, etc. Bound morphemes, in their turn, are of 4 types: 24  - suffixes: -ment, -ish, -ly, etc.; - prefixes: anti-, un-, mis-, etc.; - bound bases: -sist (in consist, insist, resist, persist), -ceive (in conceive, receive, deceive, perceive,), -tain (in pertain, contain, retain), -duce (in adduce, produce, induce, reduce), -mit (in remit, demit, commit, transmit, submit, admit) and -sume (in resume, consume, presume, subsume. These examples suggest stems like –sist, -duce, -ceive, -tain which do not exist formally and are not easy to characterize semantically, unless one takes into account the Latin component of the English morphology. - blocked morphemes, such as Fri in Friday or cran in cranberry. Let’s remember A word can consist of: -a minimum free morpheme: dog, sun, go; -a free morpheme + a bound morpheme: sunny (sun+y), bookish (book+ish); -a union of free morphemes: sun+shine, book+worm; -a series of bound forms: re+tain, per+ceive. Words have meanings or lexical values. Generally speaking, we divide words from this point of view into: -content words (open-class items): they carry full lexical values; they are ‘open’ in the sense that they are indefinitely extendable. This class of words includes verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs. The class is open to the penetration of new verbs, adverbs, adjectives and adverbs into the language, which makes it difficult to keep pace with the ongoing process of lexical acquisition and formation. -function words (closed-class items): they have incomplete lexical values. They just point out relations. This is the case of prepositions, conjunctions, and articles. They are ‘closed’ in the sense that they hardly allow any new lexical production, i.e. they are non-creative. Identify the constituent morphemes of the following words: a) impoverish d) utilitarianism b) anticipative e) catchword c) anticlimatical f) impermeability 25 2.4. Roots, stems, bases and affixes On the basis of their constituent elements, lexical items can be classified into roots, stems, bases and affixes. The first three terms are used in the literature to designate that part of a word that remains when all affixes have been removed. A root is a form which is not further analysable, either in terms of derivational or inflectional morphology. It is that part of a word-form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed. A root is the basic part always present in a lexeme. In the form untouchables, for example, the root is touch, to which first the suffix –able, then the prefix un-, and finally the suffix –s have been added. un touch able s In a compound word like sunflower there are two roots, sun and flower. A stem is of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology. It may be – but need not be – complex, either in that it contains derivational affixes (as does govern + ment) or in that it contains more than one root (as does red + skin). Inflectional (but not derivational) affixes are added to it: it is that part of the word-form which remains when all inflectional affixes have been removed. In the form untouchables, the stem is untouchable, although in the form touched the stem is touch; in the form sunflowers, the stem is sunflower, even though the stem contains two roots. A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added. This means that any root or stem can be termed a base, but the set of bases is not exhausted by the union of the set of roots and the set of stems: a derivationally analysable form to which derivational affixes are added can only be referred to as a base. That is, touchable can act as a base for prefixation to give untouchable, but in this process touchable could not be referred to as a root because it is analysable in terms of derivational morphology, nor as a stem since it is not the adding of inflectional affixes which is in question. In the following figures this terminology is applied to the various stages in the build-up of the word-form untouchables, to show how it is used: unanalysable root (derivational) (or base) suffix touch able 26  Figure 2.1. derivational prefix analysable base un touchable Figure 2.2. stem inflectional (or base) suffix untouchable s Figure 2.3. root, stem or base inflectional suffix.touch. ed Figure 2.5. Make a similar analysis of the word (the) indomitables. Affixes are bound morphs that always appear with a base. Affixes can be divided into: -prefixes: bound forms attached before a base; they alter the meaning and sometimes they also alter the morphological status of the word; e.g. dislike, becalm (calm = adj.; becalm = verb); -suffixes: bound forms attached after the base, functioning as derivative or inflectional elements. They modify the meaning and often enough the morphological status of the newly formed word, as well: 27  e.g. freedom, peaceful, latinize. The criteria for defining and distinguishing morphemes can be summed up by the following diagram: Let’s remember morphemes 1. lexical (semantic) morphemes 2. grammatical (functional) (open class) morphemes (closed inventory) 1.1. free 1.2. bound (affixes) 2.1. free 2.2.bound (inflectional) (function words) -S (e.g. Plural) {TABLE} {THE} -ED (e.g. Past) {WRITE} {AND} -ING (Progressive) {GREEN} {TO} 1.2.1. 1.2.2. 1.2.3. 1.2.4. prefixes suffixes bound bases blocked morphemes INFLECTION {RE-} {-ISH} {-CEIVE} {FRI }day (morphology in narrow {DIS-} {-LY}.{-TAIN} {CRAN}berry sense) {UN-} {-MENT}{-DUCE} Word-formation (complex lexemes) Declension Conjugation 2.5. Words vs. phrases From the point of view of their structure words (lexical units) can be classified into: a) simple and complex words A word is termed as simple when it cannot be decomposed into other morphemes (e.g. cat, book, smoke); it is termed complex when it can be decomposed into other morphemes (free or/and bound) (e.g. sun+flower, smoke+er). Phrasal verbs (i.e. verbs + particle) also belong to this group. b) phrases The interpretation of the term phrase is often misleading. In lexicology, it stands for a word- combination discharging the functions specific of a certain lexical category. The following examples illustrate the difference between complex constructions and phrases. 28 Complex lexemes -complex verbs: to leave alone, to break loose; -complex adverbs: now and then, here and there, to and fro; -complex prepositions: because of, due to; -complex conjunctions: as though, as if. Phrases -prepositional phrases: in the middle of; -verbal phrases: to come to one’s senses, to do one’s best; -adverbial phrases: side by side, arm in arm: -conjunctional phrases: no matter how. As seen above, a phrase necessarily contains a noun or a noun equivalent (middle, senses, side, matter), a verb (do, come), a modifying adjective/adverb in its structure (one or more content words, i.e. words of full lexical value). Complete the following with the suitable words: An Adj P (adjectival phrase) consists of............ and a possible............... An.......................consists of an adverb and a.................... A PP (prepositional phrase) consists of a noun phrase and a.................... 2.6. Summary Summary This unit has taken us deeper into the study of words. We have seen that the term ‘word’ is pretty vague or unclear; and that in order to get a clearer picture we have to consider the elements that make up the so-called ‘words’. Thus, we may have a number of word forms that contain the same lexeme, but which differ in the number and type of morphemes attached to the simplest form. The unit has also shown that the English language has the capacity of building complex words and that each element in the hierarchy has a certain denomination (root, stem, base). This distinction is particularly important for a further chapter in this material, namely chapter 7 dedicated to word-formation rules, but it will also help students understand how the English words were built in the older times and the way they have changed their forms in time. 29 2.7. Evaluation 1. Divide the following words into the component morphemes. Use hyphens and the traditional spelling, according to the model: MODEL: enlighten en - light - en a) dishearten f) vertebrally b) burlesquely g) downtowner c) dishonestly h) telescopic d) undeceivable i) sanitize e) wholesaler j) volubility 2. Divide the words into their constituent morphemes, specifying the nature of each morpheme, according to the model. MODEL: impersonalism: im- = prefix, person = noun stem, -al = suffix, -ism = suffix a) foolishly i) glove maker b) multinational j) trans-European c) deepen k) vulgarism d) rosy l) non-didactic e) beautify m) preconceivable f) industrialization n) post-modernism g) ex-president o) overdone h) impressionism p) underestimated 3. Analyse the following words in terms of roots, stems, lexical suffixes, grammatical suffixes and prefixes. Indicate the order in which morphemes appear within words. MODEL: disagreements a) agree = root; -ment = lexical (derivational) suffix; -s = grammatical (inflectional) suffix; dis- = prefix; disagreement = stem; b) agree + -ment; dis- + agreement; disagreement + -s. uneatable, productiveness, transformational, indecipherability 4. Some derived words consist of an affix attached to a root which is itself a word, i.e. a free morpheme (e.g. (i)). In other cases the stem is a bound morpheme (e.g.(ii)). (i) Word + affix [[read]V er]N (ii) Root + affix [[electris]Aity]N (the root electric- never appears as a word on its own). For each of the nine relationships given below provide two affixes (prefixes or suffixes) which express that category relationship. Choose your affixes such that one attaches to free morpheme roots and the other to bound morpheme roots. For each affix give at least 2 words containing that affix with the given function. This means that you have to provide 18 affixes and 36 words. N→V V→N A→N N→A V→A A→V N→N V→V A→A (Hint: try looking through a book or newspaper and analysing all the words you suspect of being derivationally complex). 30 5. Take a dictionary of English and collect all the words beginning with im- / in-. Check whether im- / in- is a morpheme for each of your words. For instance, comparing input with output, you should conclude that in- is a morpheme, whereas it should seem considerably harder to find evidence that in- is a morpheme in inane. a) How many distinct (homonymous) im-/ in- are there? b) Why is input misspelled (as imput) so often? 6. Consider carefully the words in (a -c). To what extent do the words in a given list contain the same morpheme? a) analysis, anabasis, anachronism, analogy, anaconda, anabaptist, anarchy, anarak. b) nominal, nominate, gnomic, nomic, nomenclature, noun. c) pedal, peduncle, pediform, p(a)ederast, p(a)edagogue, peddle, pedant. 7. What do AdjP, AdvP and PP have in common? 31 Unit 3. The diachronic approach to the English vocabulary: the Old English period Contents 3.1. Introduction...................................................................................................... 31 3.2. Competences....................................................................................................... 31 3.3. Why English....................................................................................................... 32 3.4. The diachronic approach.................................................................................... 32 3.4.1. Old English..................................................................................................... 35 3.4.1.1. The Old English vocabulary.......................................................................... 36 3.4.1.2. Means of enriching the English vocabulary.................................................. 37 3.4.1.2.1. Word-building............................................................................................ 37 A. Affixation................................................................................................... 37 A. 1. Suffixation......................................................................................... 37 A. 2. Prefixation....................................................................................... 37 B. Composition............................................................................................... 38 3.4.1.2.2. Borrowings................................................................................................ 38 A. Celtic loan words.......................................................................................... 38 B. Latin loan words.......................................................................................... 39 C. Scandinavian loan words.............................................................................. 41 3.5. Summary............................................................................................................. 44 3.6. Evaluation........................................................................................................... 44 3.1. Introduction Unit 3 presents some major events in the history of Britain and the ways in which these influenced the development of the English language, especially in the field of vocabulary. We shall investigate the three main periods in the development of English, and the foreign words the English language borrowed from various languages it came in contact with during each period. Our focus in this unit will be the first period in the development of English, i.e. the Old English period. 3.2. Competences After having covered the material in this chapter, the students should be able to identify the words of foreign origin in the English language, to mention the period in which the respective words penetrated the English language, as well as to 32  read and interpret some texts within the socio-historical framework when they were written. Average time for covering this unit: 2 hours 3.3. Why English? What exactly entitles English to claim for a ‘lingua franca’ status? Since linguists have already identified richer (hence more expressive) and better grammatically structured languages, it is obvious that neither the linguistic, nor the aesthetic arguments would make a satisfactory plea. The most realistic explanation lies in the contemporary evolution of the political, economic and demographic phenomena throughout the world, which dictate the linguistic priorities, and ultimately establish the ‘hard currency’ in the field of human inter-relations. Considering the above-mentioned criteria, what explicitly emerges about English is that, be it a native, a second or a foreign language, it always appears as prominent or at least pre-eminent among other international languages, such as French, German or Spanish. The how's and the why’s of this social and linguistic reality fall beyond our scope; nevertheless, it is noteworthy that in the meandering course of history English shouldered its way through challenging influences of German and especially French, the irrefutable linguistic embodiment of the world’s spiritual life. A comprehensive account of the complex, century-old process of the making of a language could be properly carried out only by submitting the English language as a whole to the crossfire of two approaches, i.e. the diachronic and the synchronic ones. 3.4. The Diachronic Approach We now look at the way the English language has changed over the centuries, from the days when it first arrived in Britain to its current status as a world language. This will help us get a picture of the evolution of the language, its main characteristics, its relation to other languages, the ways it has enriched its vocabulary, and the social and historical pressures which affected the language. English has its source in the large Indo-European family of languages, and it is therefore related to most of the other languages of Europe and Western Asia from India to Iceland, and to this vast region we must add Australia and New Zealand on the east, North and South 33 America on the west, and parts of Africa on the south. These languages, nearly or distantly related, all derive and descend from that parent language – the hypothetical language now referred to as Indo-European or Aryan – which must have been spoken about five thousand years ago by a people or peoples living in a relatively limited geographical area. For a long time, this area was believed to have been in Asia, but in the 20 th century, linguistic, archeological and anthropological research has disfirmed this idea, tending to prove that the Indo-European home was in Europe, probably in its central or south-eastern part. The Indo-European family is composed of the following main branches of languages: Indian, Iranian, Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Hellenic, Albanian, Armenian, Hitt ite and Tokharian. Most of them have a number of subdivisions, generally referred to as groups of languages. The Germanic languages, in their turn, fall into three groups: East Germanic, North Germanic and West Germanic, the latter being further divided into High German and Low German. English together with Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, Modern Low German and Afrikaans belong to the Low German sub-branch of Germanic languages. The Indo-European Languages have two main common characteristics: a. an inflectional structure, i.e. a grammatical system based on changes in the forms of words by means of endings and vowel modifications, for indicating case, number, mood, tense, etc.; b. a common word-stock, i.e. words that resemble one another in form and meaning (e.g. Greek nuktos, Latin noctis, French nuit, Italian notte, Spanish noche, Romanian noapte, German Nacht, English night, etc.) This common word-stock includes the names of parts of the body, like arm, ear, eye, tooth, heart, foot, nail, natural phenomena, like wind, snow, thunder, dew, animals: cow, goat, goose, mouse, ox, plants, the numerals from one to ten, etc. Words denoting the closest family relationships, father, mother, brother, sister, son and daughter also go back to the parent language. Try to find the equivalent for the word ‘brother’ in a number of languages. What conclusion can you draw concerning the forms you have encountered? The changes in the evolution of any language cannot be other than gradual and continuous. The English language has been growing and changing for the past 1500 years. In its uninterrupted evolution, it has been passing from insignificant quantitative changes to obvious, fundamental qualitative changes. Each period merges by very slight gradations into 34 another. Within the steady development of English, three main periods are to be distinguished, each of them having certain broad characteristics. Naturally, the transition from the first to the second and from the second to the third was a very slow one, but certain conventional dividing lines had to be adopted, and certain approximated dates agreed upon. They are the following: -Old English (OE) – from about 450 (the first Germanic invasions) or, according to certain linguists, 700 (the approximate date of the first available texts) to about 1100. -Middle English (MidE) –from about 1100 to about 1500, and -Modern English (ModE) - from about the 1500 to the present time. It may be subdivided into: -Early Modern English (16th –17th century); -Late Modern English (17th – 18th century); -Modern English Period proper (from the 18th century onwards). Old English is generally referred to as the period of full endings or full inflections, Middle English as the period of levelled endings or levelled inflections, and Modern English as the period of lost endings or lost inflections. The evolution of the inflectional system in English entitles us to say that Old English was a synthetical language (i.e. one in which the relations between words are expressed by inflections), whereas Modern English is an analytical language (i.e. one in which such relations are expressed by form words and word order). From Indo-European to Modern English by way of Common Germanic, West Germanic, Old English and Middle English, the English language has shown a gradual process of simplification and of the breaking of inflections. The development has been in one direction all the time: from synthesis to analysis. There have been both gain and loss. Let’s remember - English belongs to the Indo-European languages; it stems from the Western Low branch of the Germanic branch of languages of Indo- European; - In its evolution, the English language has lost most of the inflections encountered in its beginnings; it turned from a synthetical into an analytical language. - The study of the English language is divided into 2 periods: Old English, Middle English and Modern English, each of these periods having its characteristics. 35 3.4.1. Old English (450 - 1100) Certain movements or events stand out in the history of English: the settlement in the island of Jutes, Saxons and Angles in the fifth and sixth centuries; the coming of St. Augustine in 597 and the subsequent conversion of England to Latin Christianity; the Scandinavian invasions in the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries; the Norman Conquest in the eleventh; the revival of learning in the sixteenth; and the migration of English speaking people to North America, Australia, and South Africa mainly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Of all these movements the first was clearly the most decisive. Our knowledge of it is derived from The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which was written in Latin by the Venerable Bede about 730, nearly three centuries after the first Jutes landed in the Isle of Thanet in 449. Bede drew a fairly clear picture of the settlement of Britain by these three related ‘nations’ or tribes: the Jutes, who came first and settled in Kent, Southern Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, the Saxons, who afterwards occupied the rest of England south of the Thames, and then the Angles or English, who founded homes in regions north of the Thames. These tribes came from the regions now known as the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. The invaders were first called “Saxons”, but Latin writers later began to refer to them as “Angles” (Angli), regardless of which tribe they belonged to. Until around AD 1000, the nation was called Angelcynn (i.e. nation of the Angles, Angle-race). After that date Englaland (land of the Angles) was used to denote collectively the Germanic peoples in Britain: Angles, Saxons and Jutes alike. The language was always referred to as Englisc (the sc spelling was used for the sound sh), and this has led to the modern name. During those early centuries, the name “Anglo-Saxon” did not exist. This label began to be used after the Renaissance, when it referred to all aspects of the period – people, culture, and language. It is still the usual way of talking about the cultural history, but since the nineteenth century, when the history of languages came to be studied in detail, “Old English” has been preferred for the name of the language. This name emphasizes the continuing development of the language from the Anglo-Saxon times through “Middle English” to the present day. So, do we call the language “Old English” or “Anglo-Saxon”? If we want to stress the continuity, the points of similarity between the modern and older periods of the language, we will use the first term. If we want to stress the contrast between Anglo-Saxon and present-day culture, and the linguistic differences, we will use the second. 36  Before the Anglo-Saxon invasions, the language of Britain was Celtic, spoken in many dialects by people who had themselves invaded the islands several centuries before. Many Celtic tribes had in turn been subjugated by the Romans, who invaded the island in 44 B.C., but it is not known just how much Latin – if any – was spoken in daily life in the province. When the Roman legions left, in the early fifth century, the only permanent linguistic sign of their presence proved to be the place names of some of their major settlements – such as the towns ending in –chester (derived from the Latin word for ‘camp’, castra). The linguistic effects of the Anglo-Saxon wars were just as clear-cut. Many Celtic communities were destroyed, assimilated, or gradually pushed back westwards and northwards, into the areas we now know as Cornwall, Wales, Cumbria, and perhaps also Scotland. Here the Celtic dialects were to develop in separate ways, resulting in such modern languages as Welsh and Gaelic. We do not know if many Celts stayed in the east and south, but if they did, they would soon have lost their identity within the dominant Anglo-Saxon society. One thing is clear: the Celtic language of Roman Britain had hardly any influence on the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. Only a handful of Celtic words came into English at the time, as we shall see later on in this chapter. Let’s remember The Old English period is marked by a number of historical events: the invasion of the Anglo-Saxon tribes (the Jutes, the Angles and the Saxons) in the 5th and 6th cent,. the conversion of the British people to Latin Christianity at the end of the 6th century, the invasion of the Scandinavian trives (the Normans and the Danes) between the 8th and the 10th cent., and the Norman (French) invasion at the end of the period. Each of these influenced the English vocabulary. 3.4.1.1. The Old English Vocabulary Referring to the Old English vocabulary as a whole, it should be pointed out that it included: a. words also existing in other Indo-European languages: mother, father, night; b. words found only in the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages: earth, land, sand, sea, to sleep (slaepan), to die (steorfan), etc.; c. specifically English words (not to be found in any other language): clipian (to call, to speak). They are very few in number. The sum of these linguistic assets stands for the OE ‘native words’ whereas all the foreign influences have been regarded as ‘loan-words’, irrespective of their degree of 37 assimilation into the OE vocabulary. Old English should be regarded as consisting of a basic Anglo-Saxon word-stock plus several foreign sources which contributed to the general mass of the vocabulary with fully or partially assimilated words. 3.4.1.2. Means of Enriching the Vocabulary in Old English The principal means of enriching the vocabulary in Old English were word building and borrowing. 3.4.1.2.1. WORD BUILDING The two main types of word building were affixation and composition. A. Affixation A.1. Suffixes: noun-forming suffixes: Example 1 -ere was generally used to form masculine nouns denoting professions, e.g. fiscere (‘fisher’), writere (‘writer’); -estre was used for feminine nouns denoting professions, e.g. spinnestre (‘woman who spins’); adjective-forming suffixes: Example 2 -i was used to form adjectives from nouns and from adjectives, e.g. misti from ‘mist’; -en served to form adjectives from nouns, with vowel-interchange, e.g. ylden (‘golden’) from old (‘gold’), wyllen (‘woolen’) from wulle (‘wool); -full was used to build adjectives from nouns, e.g. carfull (‘careful’), sorfull (‘sorrowful’), synnfull (‘sinful); -lic was used to form adjectives from nouns and adjectives, e.g. eorlic (‘earthly’), frēondlic (‘friendly’), luftic (‘lovely’); verb-forming suffixes: Example 3 -sian, e.g. clænsian (‘to clean, to cleanse, to purify’), bletsian (‘to bless’); -læcan, e.g. gerihtlæcan (‘to justify): -ettan, e.g. bliccettan (‘to sparkle’), cohhettan (‘to cough’). A.2. Prefixes: 38  Example 4  ā- means ‘out of, from’: We find it in verbs such as āberan (‘to bear’), ārisan (‘to arise’), āwacan (‘to awake’);  be-, meaning ‘by, near, about’, is linked to nouns and verbs, e.g. bedelfan (‘to dig’), bewerian (‘to protect from, to defend against’);  for- indicates destruction, e.g. fordōn (to kill, to destroy’), forsettan (‘to obstruct’). B. Composition Word-composition (the process by which new words are formed by combining two or more free morphemes) was extremely productive in Old English, where it gave birth to a large number of nouns, adjectives and verbs. compound nouns: folcstede (‘people’s place, battle field’), rihtlau (‘just law, equity’), heahcræft (‘high art, excellent, skill’), bli-heort (‘having a happy heart’), Monandæ (‘Monday’), Enlaland (‘England', i.e. the land of the Angles); compound verbs were usually derived from compound nouns and adjectives: efenÞrōwian. 3.4.1.2.2. BORROWINGS There were three main sources of loan words in Old English: Celtic, Latin and Scandinavian A. Celtic loan-words From the fact that the original language of Britain was Celtic, it might be expected that numerous Celtic elements would have become absorbed into Old English, but actually very few were. They survive chiefly in place names in what is now southern and eastern England (though these are much more common in Cornwall and Devon, and of course in Wales and Scotland). Thus the kingdom of Kent owes its name to the Celtic word Canti whose meaning is unknown. The first syllable of Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Worcester is Celtic. The Celtic word cumb (‘deep valley’) is to be traced in names like Duncombe, Holcombe, Morecombe. Torr (‘high rock, peak’) appears in names such as Torr, Torcross. Pen (meaning ‘top’ in Welsh) is preserved in place-names such as Pendle, Penrith, Penburg, Pendleton, Penhill, and Pentridge. 39  Besides place names, we find various Celtic words for “river” or “water” in the names of Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Dover, Ouse, Trent, Wye. Certain river-names are descriptive: Cald(er) – ‘violent’, Cam -‘crooked’, Dee –‘holy’, Dove –‘black’. Apart from place-names and river-names, the influence of Celtic upon Old English was an extremely slight one, probably because the Germanic conquerors had enough terms to denote the various notions existing at the time. The few words of Celtic origin to be found in Old English are bin(n) (‘basket, crib’), brocc (‘badger’), bratt (‘cloak’), crag and cross. B. Latin loan words Contact with Roman civilization lasted throughout many centuries, and it was always renewed. It had begun long before the English came to Britain. Several hundred Latin words found in the various Germanic languages at an early date prove the intercourse of the Germanic tribes with the Romans. B.1. The first period of Latin borrowings The words brought over by the Germanic tribes from the Continent covered a number of semantic fields. Thus we have: a. Terms connected with military life: camp (‘battle’), pil (‘pointed stick, javelin’), pytt ‘pit’ (from Lat ‘puteus’), stræt ‘ paved road, street’ (Lat. [via] strāta), weall ‘wall’ (Lat. vallum), etc. b.Terms connected with trade: cēap (‘bargain’), pund ‘pound’ (Lat. pondō ‘measure of weight’), mynet (‘coin’ from Lat. ‘moneta’), ynce ‘inch’ (Lat. uncia) etc. c. Terms connected with domestic life, clothing, food: cytel ‘kettle’ (Lat. catillus ‘little pot’) cycene ‘kitchen’ (Lat. coquīna), scamol (‘stool, bench’), pyle (‘pillow’), cēese ‘cheese’ (Lat. cāseus), cisten (‘chestnut-tree’), win (‘wine’), butere ‘butter’ (Lat.butyrum), pise (‘pea’), disc ‘dish’ (Lat. discus) etc. d. Terms connected with the building arts: cealc ‘chalk’ (Lat. calc), copor ‘copper’ (Lat. ‘cuprum’), tiele ‘tile’ (Lat. ‘tegula’). The first period of Latin borrowings also comprises a few words adopted by Celtic during the Roman occupation and transmitted to Old English by the Britons. Although the latter had taken over several hundreds of Latin words, only a few of these were passed on. Thus, the Latin word castra (‘camp’) acquired in the Old English the meaning of ‘town’ or ‘enclosed community’. It is also to be found in various Old English place-names ending in – 40 ceaster. In Modern English, in the North and East of England, it became –caster (as in Lancaster, Doncaster, Tadcaster), in the Midlands, under the Norman influence, –cester (as in Leicester, Gloucester, Worcester, Towcester) and in the West and South -chester (as in Chester, Chesterfield, Colchester, Dorchester, Manchester, Winchester). B.2. The second period of Latin borrowings The year 597 marks the coming of St. Augustine and his forty monks to the island and the subsequent conversion of England to Latin Christianity. The Christian missionaries not only introduced literacy. They also brought a huge Latin vocabulary, some of which were taken over into Old English. The missionary influence resulted in around 45o new words coming into the language, mainly to do with the church and its services, but including many domestic and biological words. The vast majority has survived in modern times. At the same time, many Old English words were given new meanings - heaven, hell, God, gospel (‘good news’), Easter, Holy Ghost - and there were several other usages most of which have not survived (such as Scyppend ‘shaper’ meaning ‘Creator’). Here are some Latin borrowings in the Old English period:  Ecclesiastical terms: abbot, alms, altar, angel, apostle (Lat. ‘apostolus’), bishop (from ‘episcopus’), candle (Lat. candela), canon, cedar, chalice, cleric, creed, deacon, dēmon (Lat. ‘daemon’), disciple, hymn, idol, litany, martyr, mass (from ‘Missa’), monk (from ‘monachus’), nun (from ‘nunna’), pope (from ‘papa’), priest (from ‘presbyter’), prophet, psalm, shrine, temple (from Lat templum). Miscellaneous words: balsam (Lat. balsamum), cell, cucumber, crystal, fever, fers ‘verse’ (Lat. versus) giant, laurel, lentil, lily, lobster, oyster, paper, place, plant, radish, rule, school, scorpion, tiger, verse. In Old English, a foreign word was not always readily accepted to express a new idea. Old words were often applied and sometimes adapted to new concepts. Thus, patriarch was rendered by hēāhfaeder (‘high father’). Sometimes, the people even used English words belonging to the pagan religion in order not to adopt the Latin word, e.g. Eastron (‘Easter’), for the Latin Pascha. Eastron had been a great spring festival celebrating Eastru, the goddess of dawn. The two periods of Latin borrowings mentioned introduced about 500 Latin words into Old English. About 100 were purely learned or remained more or less foreign words. Of the remaining 400 that may be really considered part of the English vocabulary, some came 41 into wider use later, when they were reintroduced. But most of them were widely accepted and assimilated. C. Scandinavian loan-words Another big linguistic invasion came as a result of the Danish (Viking) raids on Britain, which began in AD 787 and continued at intervals until the beginning of the eleventh century. The Vikings were cruel and relentless sea rovers who honoured three virtues above all: courage, loyalty, and generosity. These were the qualities that had been esteemed by the