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ENG 590: History of the English Language — Spring 2005: MON & THU 10.30-12.00 Linguistics Section, Department of English Studies — University of Cyprus Kleanthes K. Grohmann (Room M 004, Phone x2106, [email protected]) March 3, 2005 CLASS 10: PROPERTIES OF MIDDLE ENGLISH GRAMMAR THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD (1066–1509) A quick characterization (Millward 1996) 1066–1204: English in the Decline - Norman Conquest, French speakers rule the country - French (rulers) and Norse (North) spoken by minorities - Celtic spoken in Wales, Cornwall, Scotland (rise of Scots English) - short period of bilingualism in British Isles 1204–1348: English in the Ascendant - loss of Normandy led to loss of interest in France and French - newcomers’ (Central) French clashed with (new) Anglo-French - increased communication in English among all regions - dialectal variation slowly made room for London standard 1348–1509: English Triumphant - Black Death killed around one third of the population (1348-1351) - loss of all Continental holdings in Hundred Years War (1337-1453) - English became the major, and then only language of England - French, Norse, Celtic drifted away / London standard plus dialects A quick guide to issues in ME grammar • phonology: - very few text records of texts from French rule (esp. 1100-1200) - but English changed rapidly, especially in dialectal variation - match between pronunciation and spelling became much worse • graphics: - during most of ME period and in most areas: 26 letters in alphabet - a b c d e f g ƺ h i/j k l m n o p q r s t þ u/v w x y z • morphology: - breakdown of the inflectional system = loss of inflection endings - essentially, English changed from (IE) synthetic to analytic type! • syntax: - word order became less free than in OE, but not as fixed as in NE - loss of case system entails increased use of (new) prepositions • lexicon: - thousands of French and Latin loanwords entered the language - despite loss of inflections, unparalleled lexicon size developed • semantics: - systematic treatment of historical semantics is inherently difficult • dialects: - ME is known as the English period of great dialectal variation - major: Northern, E Midlands, W Midlands, Southern, Kentish 1 PHONOLOGY The only system-wide change to the English consonantal system was the addition of phonemically voiced fricatives, yielding: /f/ vs. /v/, /þ/ vs. /ð/, and /s/ vs. /z/. (These and other changes should be picked up in at least one group presentation.) On the vowel side (and again, many aspects might be discussed in a presentation), let’s mention the development of a “parasitic” vowel, a.k.a. an epenthetic vowel. (1) OE ME NE ‘gloss’ þurh thorow ‘thorough’ setl setel ‘seat’ ǣfre ever ‘ever’ swefn sweven ‘dream’ We mentioned the loss of unstressed vowels already. Here’s some illustration: (2) OE Early ME Late ME NE ‘gloss’ heorte herte /hɛrtә/ /hɛrt/ ‘heart’ milde milde /mi:ldә/ /mi:ld/ ‘mild’ sōna sone /so:nә/ /so:n/ ‘immediately’ strengþu strengthe /strɛnkθә/ /strɛnkθ/ ‘strength’ MORPHOLOGY The sound changes at the end of words and, possibly, the contact between Old Norse and Old English caused the inflectional system to weaken (see presentations). Nominal system • suffix –es was what was left of the genitive, the source of modern possessive ’s • in the plural, the -es suffix became standard in the North (and until today) - in the South, -en prevailed: englen, devlen, eyen, housen, etc. - nowadays only children, oxen, and the archaic brethren survive • all inflection gradually disappeared from adjectives • the articles sē, sēo, þæt became definite article the (pl. tho) — under Norse influence • grammatical gender also disappeared Verbal system • in ME a future was developed with sceal (‘must’) and will (‘want’) • have slowly supplants be in present perfect, although be persists, e.g.: (3) Thy father’s beard is turned white with the newes. (Shakespeare, Henry IV, IV.1) • be becomes standard in passive, replacing werþe / worþe (OE: weorþan ‘become’) • present continuous also starts emerging - from such expressions as she was on reading > she was (a)reading • only –st (2nd person) and –th (3rd person) survive: like, likest, liketh; have, hast, hath 2 SYNTAX With the loss of inflections, word order becomes fixed in the SVO pattern (cf. NE). • the auxiliary do was only emerging during that period • main verbs themselves raise in order to form a question: (4) a. Master seeks not me. (Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, I.i) b. My teacher does not seek me. • the option to omit the subject when it is obvious is still available in ME (pro-drop): (5) A: How does Lieutenant Cassio? B: Lives, Sir. (Shakespeare, Othello, IV.i) B’: He lives, Sir. (appropriate Modern English reply) (NB: I’m cheating a bit here, since Shakespeare wrote, strictly speaking, in ENE…) The key to the separate handout/transparency with English phrases/expressions: 1. NP: as in OE and NE, single-word adjectivals usually precede their nouns 2. as in NE, articles always immediately precede noun or attributive adjective 3. as in OE (but less frequently), A+N was occasionally reversed (Latin, French) 4. as in NE, possessive nouns preceded the word they modified (NB: poss. is!) 5. an innovation of ME (still around in NE) was the of-possessive (cf. French de) 6. the group possessive just began in ME (possessive + noun + noun modifiers) 7. Neg: negative ne always precedes the verb (often contracting), NE not appears 8. as in OE, double negatives were often used (2nd ex. from Canterbury Tales) 9. PP: prepositions usually preceded their objects, but OE reverse can be found 10. stranded prepositions in relative clauses and passive constructions (OE, NE) 11. VP: perfective aspect became common in ME (rare in OE), initially even with be 12. the perfect infinitive first appeared in ME during 14c (Latin and French?) 13. progressive arose in ME (from where?): participle, gerund, perfect progressive 14. ME used only be for passives (OE had both wesen ‘be’ and weorþan ‘become’) 15. during ME, by became the normal preposition to express the agent in passives 16. OE used the present tense to express future, ME developed a future tense 17. ME began using modal auxiliaries for modals, subjunctives, and quasi-modals 18. do: the one auxiliary that underwent an almost explosive growth during ME 19. do: (i) pro-verb/ellipsis (18) — (ii) causative (19), along make, let, (in North) ger 20. (iii) periphrastic (20), which often looks (to an NE speaker) “emphatic” 21. (iv) the negative and interrogative (21) use of do was just beginning in ME 22. sentences: matrix clause, after adverbial, embedded clause, indirect question Next class we will look in detail at specific changes in word order from OE to ME, and the class after we will investigate some of the syntactic constructions that arose in ME — of which some are still around today, others have been subsequently lost. 3 SEMANTICS • semantic change = change in a word’s meaning over time - referent: object or concept a word names - denotation: a word’s referent - connotation: additional meaning features (e. g., hovel vs. cottage vs. cabin) Types of semantic change Specialization: • meaning narrows to include fewer referents Examples: corn, deer, starve, meat, liquor, hound Generalization: • meaning broadens to include more referents Examples: mill, barn, novice, office Amelioration: • meaning acquires positive connotation Examples: earl, knight, queen, nice, praise Pejoration: • meaning acquires negative connotation Examples: lewd, churl, hussy, wench, villain, silly Transfer: complete change of referent; shift of denotation Examples: pen, thing, tide, quick, spell, wan, grin Mechanisms: • metaphor: extension to an object/concept perceived to be similar to original referent Examples: foot (of mountain), mouth (of river), heart, grasp • metonymy: extension to object/concept associated with original referent Examples: pen, china, silverware, ear, (farm/ranch)hand, wheels Social change and language: thou vs. you Originally, thee/thou was the singular second person pronoun, while you functioned as the plural second person pronoun. The use of each was unmarked; that is, each was used in general communication and served a mere grammatical purposes and neither connoted any unusual intent, tone, or meaning. From the 16th century on: • you: used for both plural and singular — thee/thou: used only in specific situations • pronoun distinction expressing power (social rank) or solidarity (social closeness) • this “T-V distinction” is also made in other languages (Spanish, French, German) • English: thou / thee, thy, thine replaced by you, your, yours (to be continued…) 4 DIALECTS There was no standard form of the language in the ME period, unlike NE obviously, and unlike OE too; as we have seen, West Saxon was a kind of standard OE. Standard (British) NE comes from the East Midlands dialect, an important one as it includes London, Oxford, and Cambridge. There was also a standard based on the Northern dialect (Scotland, essentially) in the 15th & 16th centuries: Scots English. Given the lack of a standard in ME, the texts show a great deal of regional variation. The main regional divisions correspond roughly to those of OE: • West Saxon gives South Western (“Southern”) dialects • Kentish gives South Eastern (“Kentish”) dialects • Mercian gives the Midlands dialects (East & West) • Northumbrian gives Northern dialects And the OE dialects correspond to an extent to the different dialects of the Germanic settlers (e.g. Kentish derives from the language of the Jutes, and so on). To some extent, the OE and ME dialect divisions reflect the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Wessex, Sussex, Kent. So the dialects aren’t corruptions of or divergences from some pre-existing norm, but historically rooted forms — of which Standard English is just one which has special privileges, because its speakers did, from the 15th century onwards. Principle Features of the ME Dialects Phonology OE /a/ > ME /a, ai/ (North): ham ‘home’ > ME /o/ (Midlands, South): home OE /y/ > ME /i/ (North): brig(ge) ‘bridge’ > ME /e/ (Southeast): bregge > ME /u/ (Southwest, Midlands): brugge OE /æ/ > ME /a/ (North, Southwest, E Midlands): dag ‘day’ > ME /e/ (Southeast, W Midlands): deg OE /a/ > ME /o/ [before a nasal] (W Midlands): hond ‘hand’ Orthography Orthography gives, of course, further indications about ME phonology. • Southern & West Midlands have z and v for initial /s/ and /f/: zea, vox • Northern has g and k where Southern & Midlands have various spellings (indicating affrication): kirk (Northern) vs. church (Southern) • Northern & Scots have q(u)(h) for wh: quhat — Southern has w: wat 5 Morphology  present participle: -and(e) in Northern ME (e.g. singand(e) ‘singing’) -ing(e) in Southeastern & Midlands ME  past participle: y- prefix in Southern & West Midlands ME no prefix in Northern ME  they / them / their: a Scandinavian borrowing, spreads from North to South - Chaucer (a 14c Londoner) has they / hem / here  she / sho (3SG.FEM): also spread south (replacing hi / ho) — obscure origin  verb endings: - Northern ME has –s for 3SG and all plural persons - Southern ME has –th (also written with thorn þ) - Midlands ME has –th in 3SG and –en in plural  case and gender: disappears earlier in Northern ME Syntax Very little is known about ME syntactic variation, but the northern dialects are innovative: many NE features start there. However, in how much this fact is due to Scandinavian influence (from Norse in the Danelaw region) is still a debated question. VO patterns are found earlier in Northern ME, as is decliticization. 6