English Words: History and Structure

221 Pages·2007·3.44 MB·English

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English Words: History and Structure is concerned primarily with the
learnedvocabularyof English,thewordsborrowedfromtheclassicallan-
guagesandFrench.Itinitiallysurveysthehistoricaleventsthatdefinethe
layers of vocabulary in Old English (c. 450–1066) Middle English
(1066–1476), Early Modern English (1476–1776), and Present-Day
English. It is both an introduction to some of the basic principles of lin-
guistic analysis and a helpful manual for vocabulary discernment and
enrichment.Exercisestoaccompanyeachchapterandfurtherreadingson
recentloansandthelegalandmedicalvocabularyof Englishareavailable
on-lineathttp://uk.cambridge.org/linguistics/resources/englishwords
• Introducesstudentstosomebasiclinguistictermsneededforthediscus-
sion of phonological and morphological changes accompanying word
formation.
• Designedtoleadstudentstoafinerappreciationof theirlanguageand
greaterabilitytorecognizerelationshipsbetweenwordsanddiscriminate
betweenmeanings.
• Aninformativeappendixdiscussesthehistoryandusefulnessof thebest
knownBritishandAmericandictionaries.
• On-line readings and exercises designed to deepen and strengthen the
knowledgeacquiredintheclassroom.
  is Professor Emeritus at the Department of
Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles. He is co-editor of
Linguistic Change and Generative Theory (with R. Macaulay, 1972), co-
authorof MajorSyntacticStructuresof English(withPaulSchachterand
Barbara Partee, 1973) and author of Foundations of Syntactic Theory
(1977).
  isProfessorof EnglishattheUniversityof California,
Los Angeles. She has published widely in the fields of English and
Germanic historical phonology and syntax, historical dialectology and
Englishhistoricalmetrics.Sheistheauthorof TheHistoryofFinalVowels
inEnglish(1991).
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English Words:
History and Structure
ROBERT STOCKWELL AND
DONKA MINKOVA
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  
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge  , United Kingdom
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521790123
© Robert Stockwell and Donka Minkova 2001
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2001
- 
isbn-13 978-0-511-06707-5 eBook (NetLibrary)
- 
isbn-10 0-511-06707-0 eBook (NetLibrary)
- 
isbn-13 978-0-521-79012-3 hardback
- 
isbn-10 0-521-79012-3 hardback
isbn--13 978-0-521-79362-9 paperback
- 
isbn-10 0-521-79362-9 paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
s for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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Wittgenstein:
“Thelimitsof mylanguagearethelimitsof myworld.”
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Contents
Anintroductiontothetextbook 1
ChapterOne:Wordorigins 3
1 Inheritance 4
2 Neologisms(Creationdenovo) 5
3 Blending 6
4 Acronyms 7
4.1 Initialisms 8
4.2 Reverseacronyms 9
5 Creationbyshortening 10
6 Derivation 11
6.1 Derivationbyaffixation 11
6.2 Derivationwithoutaffixation 12
7 Compounding 12
8 Eponyms 15
8.1 Basedonpersonalnames 15
8.2 Basedongeographicalnames 16
8.3 Basedonnamesfromliterature,folklore,andmythology 16
8.4 Basedoncommercialbrandnames 17
9 OtherSources 18
ChapterTwo:Thebackgroundof English 19
1 Thefamilyhistoryof English 19
1.1 Indo-European 23
1.2 TheGermanicbranch 26
1.3 English 28
2 Historicalinfluencesontheearlyvocabularyof English 30
2.1 TheindigenousvocabularyofOldEnglish 30
2.1.1 Earliestloanwards 31
2.1.2 TheScandinavianelement 33
2.2 Englishbecomesahybrid 34
2.2.1 FrenchloanwordsinMiddleEnglish 36
ChapterThree:Compositionof theEarlyModernand 39
ModernEnglishvocabulary
1 TheEarlyModernEnglishculturalscene 39
2 VocabularyenrichmentduringtheRenaissance 41
3 Transmission,etymology,sourceidentification 46
4 Summaryof earlyBritishhistoryandloanwordsinEnglish 54
vii
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viii Contents
ChapterFour:Smallerthanwords:morphemesandtypesof 56
morphemes
1 Thesmallestmeaningfulunits 56
1.1 Morphemesandsyllables 57
1.2 Thepropertiesofmorphemes 58
2 Typesof morphemes 61
2.1 Roots 61
2.2 Affixes 63
2.3 Functionsofaffixes 64
3 Compounds 66
4 Hyphens 68
5 Cognates 68
5.1 Sharedderivation 70
5.2 Sharedformandmeaning 71
6 Findingrootsinadictionary 71
ChapterFive:Allomorphy,phonetics,andaffixation 73
1 Morphologicalrules 73
1.1 Typesofallomorphy 73
1.1.1 Zeroallomorphy 73
1.1.2 Irregularallomorphy 75
1.1.3 Regularallomorphy 75
1.1.4 Derivation 75
1.2 Originsofallomorphy 76
1.2.1 Phoneticchange 76
1.2.1.1 Easeofpronunciation 77
1.2.1.2 AgeortimeofentryofthewordintoEnglish 77
1.2.1.3 Frequencyofuse 78
1.2.1.4 Origin 78
1.2.1.5 Transparency 79
1.2.1.6 Thefossilizationofallomorphy 79
2 Thesoundsof English 80
2.1 Phoneticnotationsystems 80
2.2 Phoneticsymbolsandsquarebrackets 80
2.3 Consonantalparameters 81
2.3.1 Placeofarticulation 82
2.3.2 Mannerofarticulation 82
2.3.3 Voicing 83
2.3.4 Englishconsonants:summary 84
2.4 Englishvowels 84
2.4.1 Vowelvariation 85
2.4.2 Vowelparameters 86
2.4.3 Reductionofvowels 88
3 Theaffixesof English 89
3.1 Prefixes 89
3.2 Suffixes 92
ChapterSix:Replacementrules 95
1 Assimilationandtypesof assimilation 95
2 Labialassimilation 96
2.1 Exceptionstolabialassimilation 98
3 Voicingassimilation 99
3.1 Soundversusspelling 100
3.2 Left-to-rightvoicingassimilation 100
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Contents ix
4 Totalassimilation 101
4.1 Totalassimilationofprefixes 101
4.2 Doubleconsonantspellings 103
5 Otherreplacementrules 104
5.1 T-Lenition 104
5.1.1 T-Lenitionandspelling 105
5.1.2 T-Lenition,palatalization,andaffrication 105
5.1.3 SummaryofpalatalizationandaffricationafterT-Lenition 106
5.2 D-Lenition 106
5.2.1 Summary:palatalizationandaffricationofdentalstops 107
5.3 v-Vocalization 108
6 Vowelreplacements 108
6.1 A-Lenition 109
6.2 E-Lenition 109
6.3 MultipleLenition 110
7 Backnessassimilation 110
ChapterSeven:Deletionrulesandotherkindsof allomorphy 112
1 Consonantdeletion 112
1.1 S-Degemination 113
1.1.1 Spellingexceptions 114
1.1.2 ExceptionstoS-Degemination 114
1.1.3 Otheraffixesin-s 115
1.2 X-drop 116
1.2.1 ExceptionstoX-drop 118
1.3 N-drop 118
1.3.1 Pronunciationandboundaries 119
1.3.2 N-dropinotherprefixes 120
2 Voweldeletions 121
2.1 V-dropinhiatus 121
2.1.1 Exceptions 122
2.2 Syllablesyncopation 123
2.1.1 Preservationof<-er>and<-or> 124
3 Expansionrules:vowelorconsonantepenthesis 125
3.1 U-Epenthesis 125
3.2 P-Epenthesis 126
ChapterEight:Fossilizedallomorphy:falsecognatesandother 128
etymologicalpitfalls
11 Fossilizedallomorphy 128
12 Gradation 129
2.1 GradationinGermanic 130
13 Rhotacism 130
3.1 RhotacisminLatin 130
3.2 RhotacisminGermanic 132
14 Metathesis(transposition) 132
15 Obscurecognates:completelyunpredictableallomorphy 133
16 Falsecognates 135
6.1 Boundarymisplacement 135
6.2 Homophonyinrootsandaffixes 136
6.2.1 Roothomophony 137
6.3 Affixhomophony 139
6.3.1 Phoneticrulesandhomophony 140
6.3.2 Homophonyofgrammaticalsuffixes 141