语言学基础教程.docx

语言学基础教程.docx

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语言学基础教程

Chapter8HistoricalLinguistics:

LanguageThroughTime

8.1Whatishistoricallinguistics?

ItisanindisputablefactthatallIanguageshavebeenconstantlychangingthroughtime.Essentially,modernlinguisticshascenteredaroundtwodimensionstodealwithIanguagechange:

thesynchronicdimensionandthediachronicdimension.ThesynchronicdimensionhasdominantlybeenappliedtodescribeandexplaindifferencesorvariationswithinoneIanguageindifferentplacesandamongdifferentgroupsatthesametime.Thesynchronicdimensionisusuallythetopicofsociolinguistics,whichwillbediscussedinChapter10.ThischapterwillfocusonthediachronicdimensionofIanguagechange.ThosewhostudyIanguagefromthislatterpointofviewareworkinginthefieldofhistoricallinguistics（Poole,2000:

123）.Toputitmorespecifically,historicallinguisticsisthestudyofthedevelopmentsinIanguagesinthecourseoftime,ofthewaysinwhichIanguageschangefromperiodtoperiod,andofthecausesandresultsofsuchchanges,bothoutsidetheIanguagesandwithinthem（Robins,2000:

5）.

8.2WhenIanguagechanges

AlthoughIanguagechangedoesnottakeplaceovernight,certainchangesarenoticeablebecausetheyusuallyconflatewithacertainhistoricalperiodormajorsocialchangescausedbywars,invasionsandotherupheavals.ThedevelopmentoftheEnglishIanguageisacaseinpoint.

Generallyspeaking,thehistoricaldevelopmentofEnglishisdividedintothreemajorperiods:

Old

English（OE）,MiddleEnglish（ME）,andModernEnglish（ModE）.

「500（thetimewhenGermanictribesinvadedBritain）

OldEnglish

1100（thetimeaftertheNormanConquestin1066）

MiddleEnglish

1500（thebeginningofRenaissanceandthefirstprintingpresssetupin1476inEngland）

ModernEnglish

thepresent

Inabouttheyear449AD,theGermanictribesofAngles,SaxonsandJutesfromnorthern

EuropeinvadedBritainandbecamethefoundersoftheEnglishnation.TheirIanguage,withthe

GermanicIanguageasthesource,iscalled,thenamederivedfromthefirsttribe,theAngles.It

hadavocabularyinheritedalmostentirelyfromGermanicorformedbycompoundingorderivationfromGermanicelements（Dension,1993:

9）.FromthisearlyvarietyofEnglisc,manyofthemostbasictermsintheEnglishIanguagecameintobeing:

mann（man”，cild（“hild”,

mete（food”,etan（eat”,drincan（drink”andfeohtan（fight”.FromthesixthtotheeighthcenturiesAD,theAnglo-SaxonswereconvertedtoChristianity,andanumberofterms,mainlytodowithreligion,philosophyandmedicine,wereborrowedintoEnglishfromLatin,theIanguage

ofreligion.Theoriginsofthemodernwordsangel,bishop,candle,church,martyr,priestandschoolalldatefromthatperiod.Fromtheeighthcenturytothetenthcentury,theVikingsfromnorthernEuropeinvadedEnglandandbroughtwordssuchasgive,law,leg,skin,sky,takeand

theyfromtheirIanguage,OldNorse（Yule,2000:

218）.

Intheyearof1066AD,theNormanFrenchconqueredthewholeofEngland,bringingFrenchspeakersintotherulingclassandthenpushingFrenchtothepositionastheprestigeIanguage"forthenexttwohundredyears.ThisIanguagewasusedbythenobility,thegovernment,thelawandcivilizedbehavior,providingthesourceofsuchmoderntermsasarmy,court,defenseprisonandtax（Yule,2000:

219）.YettheIanguageofthepeasantsremainedEnglish.

BytheendoftheMEperiod,whenEnglishhadonceagainbecomethefirstIanguageofallclasses,thebulkofOElexishadbecomeobsolete,andsometenthousandFrenchwordshadbeenincorporatedintoEnglish,maybe75%survivingintoModE（Baugh&Cable,2001:

174）.

DuringtheearlyModEperiod,whichcoincidedwiththeRenaissaneeperiod,EnglishborrowedenormouslexicalresourcesfromtheclassicallanguagesofLatinandGreek.And,lateronastheBritishEmpireexpanded,therangeoflexicalinfluencewidenedtoevermoreexoticsourceIanguages（Dension,1993:

13）.

ThetypesofborrowedwordsnotedaboveareexamplesofexternalchangesinEnglish,andtheinternalchangesoverlapwiththehistoricalperiodsdescribedabove.AccordingtoFennell（2005:

2）,theyear500ADmarksthebranchingoffofEnglishfromotherGermanicdialects;theyear1100ADmarkstheperiodinwhichEnglishlostthevastmajorityofitsinflections,signalingthechangefromaIanguagethatrelieduponmorphologicalmarkingofgrammaticalrolestoonethatreliedonwordordertomaintainbasicgrammaticalrelations;andtheyear1500ADmarkstheendofmajorFrenchinfluenceontheIanguageandthetimewhentheuseofEnglishwasestablishedinallcommunicativecontexts.Thus,thoseinternalchangeswillbeelaboratedbelow

atthephonological,lexical,semanticandgrammaticallevels.

8.3HowIanguagechanges

ThechangeoftheEnglishIanguagewiththepassageoftimeissodramaticthattodaypeoplehardlyreadOEorMEwithoutspecialstudy.Ingeneral,thedifferencesamongOE,MEandModEinvolvesound,lexiconandgrammar,asdiscussedbelow.

8.3.1Phonologicalchange

TheprinciplethatsoundchangeisnormallyregularisaveryfruitfulbasisforexaminingthephonologicalhistoryofaIanguage.Themajorityofsoundchangescanbeunderstoodintermsofthemovementsofthevocalorgansduringspeech,andsometimesmoreparticularlyintermsofatendencytoreducearticulatoryeffort（Trask,2000:

70,96）.

8.3.1.1Phonemicchange

8.3.1.1.1Vowelchange

OneofthemostobviousdifferencesbetweenModEandtheEnglishspokeninearlierperiods

isinthequalityofthevowelsounds（Yule,2000:

219）.SometimesaIanguageexperiencesawholesaleshiftinalargepartofitsphonologicalsystem.ThishappenedtothelongvowelsofEnglishinthefifteenthandsixteenthcenturiesAD,eachvowelbecomingcloser,thehighestbecomingdiphthongsasinthewordswifeandhouse（respectivelychangedfromwayf/wi:

f/andhaws/hu:

s/inOE）.WecallthisshifttheGreatVowelShift（Poole,2000:

127）,andthespecificchangesmaybediagrammedasfollows（Robins,2000:

342）.

InME,thevowelsinnearlyallunstressedsyllabicinflectionswerereducedto[?

],spelled

（Dension,1993:

12）.Thegeneralobscuringofunstressedsyllablesisamostsignificantsound

change（tobeelaboratedfurtherin8.3.3and8.3.4）,sinceitisoneofthefundamentalcausesofthelossofinflections（Fennell,2005:

99）.

8.3.1.1.2Consonantchange

Consonantsareproducedwithanobstructionoftheair-stream,andtendtobelessstableovertimethanvowelsinmostIanguages.Twofairlycommonprocessesareassimilationandlenition.

Assimilationistheprocessbywhichtwosoundsthatoccurclosetogetherinspeechbecomemorealike.Thissortofchangeiseasytounderstand:

movingthespeechorgansallovertheplacerequiresaneffort,andmakingnearbysoundsmoresimilarreducestheamountofmovementrequired,andhencetheamountofeffort（Trask,2000:

53）.Instancescanbefoundinwordssuchasirregular,impossibleandillegal,inwhichthenegativeprefixesim-andil-shouldbe“h-based”inaccordaneewithetymology

Undertheinflueneeofneighboringvowels,consonantsmayalsobeweakened.Thisweakeningorlenition,canchangeavoicelessconsonantintoavoicedoneandaplosiveintoafricative（Poole,2000:

126）.Instancesof[h]innativeEnglishwordsgenerallyderivefromthelenitionofanearlier*[k]:

suchwordsashead,heart,help,hillandheallbeganwith[k]inaremoteancestralformofEnglish,butthis[k]waslenitedfirstto[x]andthento[h],andthemodernlenitionof[h]tozeromerelycompletesaprocessoflenitionstretchingoverseveralthousandyears（Trask,2000:

59）.

8.3.1.2Whole-segmentchange

Certainphonologicalchangesaresomewhatunusualinthattheyinvolve,notjustchangesinthenatureofsegments,butachangeinthenumberororderingofsegments,andthesearereferredtoaswhole-segmentprocesses（Trask,2000:

66）.Thechangeknownasmetathesisinvolvesareversalinpositionoftwoadjoiningsounds.ThefollowingareexamplesfromtheOEperiod:

acsianaskbriddbirdbrinnanbeornan（burn）

fristfirsthroshorsewaepswasp

（Yule,2000:

220）.

8.3.2Lexicalchange

AsdefinedbyFreeborn（2000:

23）,lexicalchangereferstonewwordsbeingneededinthevocabularytorefertonewthingsorconcepts,withotherwordsdroppingoutwhentheynoIongerhaveanyuseinsociety.Lexicalchangemayalsoinvolvesemanticchange,thatis,changeinthemeaningofwords.Thus,lexicalchangemainlyconsistsofadditionofnewwords,lossofwordsandchangeinthemeaningofwords.

8.3.2.1Additionofnewwords

Theconditionsoflifeforindividualsinsociety,theirartifacts,customs,andformsoforganizationareconstantlychanging.Accordingly,manywordsinIanguagesandthesituationsinwhichtheyareemployedareequallyliabletochangeinthecourseoftime（Robins,2000:

343）.Floodsofnewwordsconstantlyneedtobeaddedtotheword-stocktoreflectthesedevelopments.Etymology,whichisthestudyofthehistoryofindividualwords,showsthatwhilethemajorityofwordsinaIanguagearenativewords,theremayalsobeloanwordsorborrowedwordsfromanotherIanguage.NativewordsarethosethatcanbetracedbacktotheearliestformoftheIanguageinquestion.InEnglish,nativewordsarewordsofAnglo-Saxonorigin,suchasfull,hand,wind,red.LoanwordsarethosethatareborrowedorimportedfromanotherIanguage,suchasmyth,career,formula,genius.Apartfrom