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?

Itisanindisputablefactthatalllanguageshavebeenconstantlychangingthroughtime.Essentially,modernlinguisticshascenteredaroundtwodimensionstodealwithlanguagechange:

thesynchronicdimensionandthediachronicdimension.Thesynchronicdimensionhasdominantlybeenappliedtodescribeandexplaindifferencesorvariationswithinonelanguageindifferentplacesandamongdifferentgroupsatthesametime.Thesynchronicdimensionisusuallythetopicofsociolinguistics,whichwillbediscussedinChapter10.Thischapterwillfocusonthediachronicdimensionoflanguagechange.Thosewhostudylanguagefromthislatterpointofviewareworkinginthefieldofhistoricallinguistics（Poole,2000:

123）.Toputitmorespecifically,historicallinguisticsisthestudyofthedevelopmentsinlanguagesinthecourseoftime,ofthewaysinwhichlanguageschangefromperiodtoperiod,andofthecausesandresultsofsuchchanges,bothoutsidethelanguagesandwithinthem（Robins,2000:

5）.

8.2Whenlanguagechanges

Althoughlanguagechangedoesnottakeplaceovernight,certainchangesarenoticeablebecausetheyusuallyconflatewithacertainhistoricalperiodormajorsocialchangescausedbywars,invasionsandotherupheavals.ThedevelopmentoftheEnglishlanguageisacaseinpoint.Generallyspeaking,thehistoricaldevelopmentofEnglishisdividedintothreemajorperiods:

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

500（thetimewhenGermanictribesinvadedBritain）

OldEnglish

1100（thetimeaftertheNormanConquestin1066）

MiddleEnglish

1500（thebeginningofRenaissanceandthefirstprintingpresssetupin1476inEngland）

ModernEnglish

thepresent

Inabouttheyear449AD,theGermanictribesofAngles,SaxonsandJutesfromnorthernEuropeinvadedBritainandbecamethefoundersoftheEnglishnation.Theirlanguage,withtheGermaniclanguageasthesource,iscalled,thenamederivedfromthefirsttribe,theAngles.IthadavocabularyinheritedalmostentirelyfromGermanicorformedbycompoundingorderivationfromGermanicelements（Dension,1993:

9）.FromthisearlyvarietyofEnglisc,manyofthemostbasictermsintheEnglishlanguagecameintobeing:

mann（“man”）,cild（“child”）,mete（“food”）,etan（“eat”）,drincan（“drink”）andfeohtan（“fight”）.FromthesixthtotheeighthcenturiesAD,theAnglo-SaxonswereconvertedtoChristianity,andanumberofterms,mainlytodowithreligion,philosophyandmedicine,wereborrowedintoEnglishfromLatin,thelanguageofreligion.Theoriginsofthemodernwordsangel,bishop,candle,church,martyr,priestandschoolalldatefromthatperiod.Fromtheeighthcenturytothetenthcentury,theVikingsfromnorthernEuropeinvadedEnglandandbroughtwordssuchasgive,law,leg,skin,sky,takeandtheyfromtheirlanguage,OldNorse（Yule,2000:

218）.

Intheyearof1066AD,theNormanFrenchconqueredthewholeofEngland,bringingFrenchspeakersintotherulingclassandthenpushingFrenchtothepositionasthe“prestigelanguage”forthenexttwohundredyears.Thislanguagewasusedbythenobility,thegovernment,thelawandcivilizedbehavior,providingthesourceofsuchmoderntermsasarmy,court,defense,prisonandtax（Yule,2000:

219）.YetthelanguageofthepeasantsremainedEnglish.

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

174）.

DuringtheearlyModEperiod,whichcoincidedwiththeRenaissanceperiod,EnglishborrowedenormouslexicalresourcesfromtheclassicallanguagesofLatinandGreek.And,lateronastheBritishEmpireexpanded,therangeoflexicalinfluencewidenedtoevermoreexoticsourcelanguages（Dension,1993:

13）.

ThetypesofborrowedwordsnotedaboveareexamplesofexternalchangesinEnglish,andtheinternalchangesoverlapwiththehistoricalperiodsdescribedabove.AccordingtoFennell（2005:

2）,theyear500ADmarksthebranchingoffofEnglishfromotherGermanicdialects;theyear1100ADmarkstheperiodinwhichEnglishlostthevastmajorityofitsinflections,signalingthechangefromalanguagethatrelieduponmorphologicalmarkingofgrammaticalrolestoonethatreliedonwordordertomaintainbasicgrammaticalrelations;andtheyear1500ADmarkstheendofmajorFrenchinfluenceonthelanguageandthetimewhentheuseofEnglishwasestablishedinallcommunicativecontexts.Thus,thoseinternalchangeswillbeelaboratedbelowatthephonological,lexical,semanticandgrammaticallevels.

8.3Howlanguagechanges

ThechangeoftheEnglishlanguagewiththepassageoftimeissodramaticthattodaypeoplehardlyreadOEorMEwithoutspecialstudy.Ingeneral,thedifferencesamongOE,MEandModEinvolvesound,lexiconandgrammar,asdiscussedbelow.

8.3.1Phonologicalchange

Theprinciplethatsoundchangeisnormallyregularisaveryfruitfulbasisforexaminingthephonologicalhistoryofalanguage.Themajorityofsoundchangescanbeunderstoodintermsofthemovementsofthevocalorgansduringspeech,andsometimesmoreparticularlyintermsofatendencytoreducearticulatoryeffort（Trask,2000:

70,96）.

8.3.1.1Phonemicchange

8.3.1.1.1Vowelchange

OneofthemostobviousdifferencesbetweenModEandtheEnglishspokeninearlierperiodsisinthequalityofthevowelsounds（Yule,2000:

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

f/andhaws/hu:

s/inOE）.WecallthisshifttheGreatVowelShift（Poole,2000:

127）,andthespecificchangesmaybediagrammedasfollows（Robins,2000:

342）.

InME,thevowelsinnearlyallunstressedsyllabicinflectionswerereducedto[ә],spelled（Dension,1993:

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

99）.

8.3.1.1.2Consonantchange

Consonantsareproducedwithanobstructionoftheair-stream,andtendtobelessstableovertimethanvowelsinmostlanguages.Twofairlycommonprocessesareassimilationandlenition.

Assimilationistheprocessbywhichtwosoundsthatoccurclosetogetherinspeechbecomemorealike.Thissortofchangeiseasytounderstand:

movingthespeechorgansallovertheplacerequiresaneffort,andmakingnearbysoundsmoresimilarreducestheamountofmovementrequired,andhencetheamountofeffort（Trask,2000:

53）.Instancescanbefoundinwordssuchasirregular,impossibleandillegal,inwhichthenegativeprefixesim-andil-shouldbe“in-based”inaccordancewithetymology.

Undertheinfluenceofneighboringvowels,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,withotherwordsdroppingoutwhentheynolongerhaveanyuseinsociety.Lexicalchangemayalsoinvolvesemanticchange,thatis,changeinthemeaningofwords.Thus,lexicalchangemainlyconsistsofadditionofnewwords,lossofwordsandchangeinthemeaningofwords.

8.3.2.1Additionofnewwords

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

343）.Floodsofnewwordsconstantlyneedtobeaddedtotheword-stocktoreflectthesedevelopments.Etymology,whichisthestudyofthehistoryofindividualwords,showsthatwhilethemajorityofwordsinalanguagearenativewords,theremayalsobeloanwordsorborrowedwordsfromanotherlanguage.Nativewordsarethosethatcanbetracedbacktotheearliestformofthelanguageinquestion.InEnglish,nativewordsarewordsofAnglo-Saxonorigin,suchasfull,hand,wind,red.Loanwordsarethosethatareborrowedorimportedfromanotherlanguage,suchasmyth,career,formula,genius.Apartfromborrowing,manynewwordsareaddedtoalanguagethroughword-formation.ThefollowingprocessesarequitepervasiveintheadditionofnewwordsintheevolutionofEnglish.

8.3.2.1.