词汇学第二章 The Development of the English Vocabulary ppt

• The language used by Shakespeare is early Modern English. Yes, even though it is 400 years old, it is modern! It is much easier to read than the Middle English used by writers such as Chaucer. And unless you are an expert, it is almost impossible to read Old English.
French ---- Those in power, including those who held political or
social power and those in powerful Church positions;
Latin
---- Those who want to make a living as a scribe and those in churches.
Characteristics of Middle English
Middle English retained much few inflections. Endings of nouns and adjectives making distinction of number, case and often of gender lost their distinctive forms. The same is true of the verb. If we say that Old English was a language of full endings, Middle English was one of leveled endings.
2.1 The Indo-European Language family
• The Indo-European language family is made up of most languages of Europe, the Near East, and India. • The classification of Indo-European language family : • According to various degrees of similarity and their geographical distribution, the surviving languages of Indo-European language family fall into 10 principal groups, which can be grouped into an Eastern set and Western set.
Contents
• The Indo-European language family • Three phases of the historical development • General characteristics of English • Foreign elements in the English vocabulary • Growth of contemporary English vocabulary • Modes of vocabulary development
Chapter 2
The Development of the English Vocabulary
Objectives
To find out the relationship between English vocabulary and other languages of the indo-European language family; To learn the origin and growth of the English vocabulary; To get a general knowledge of the three phases of the English vocabulary; To understand the general characteristics of modern English vocabulary , its main reasons and modes of growth.
In the early period of Modern English---The decidedly Latinate flavor of Modern English
From the 1500's through the 1700's, many writers experimented with words. Over 10,000 new words entered the English language. Many of these were taken from Latin and Greek by scholars who wanted to replace the forms earlier adopted from French. In fact, More than 25% of modern English words come almost directly from classical languages . These, added to the vocabulary already borrowed from French and those supplemented during earlier periods of borrowing from Latin, contributed to the decidedly Latinate flavor of Modern English.
Characteristics of Old English
① It has a small vocabulary of about 50,000 to 60,000 words. ② It has small number of borrowings came from Latin and Scandinavian. ③ It is a highly inflected language. (it has the words full of endings.)
In the mid-seventeenth century---Words from all major languages of the world Since the beginning of this century---New words are multiplied in all walks of life In modern English---English evolved from a synthetic language(综合语言) to an analytic language(分析语言).
Modern English (1500 up to the present)
•
Modern English began with the establishment of printing in England. Considering the changes in vocabulary, it is necessary to subdivide it into Early (1500-1700) and Late (1700-up to the present) Modern English.
The Western Set
1. Hellenic希腊语族 Greek 2. Celtic凯尔特语族 Scotish苏格兰语 Irish爱尔兰语 Welsh威尔士 Breton布列塔尼语 Pictish皮克特语
Norwegian挪威语
Icelandic冰岛语
Danish丹麦语 Swedish瑞典语
The main characteristics
① It has a comparatively large vocabulary; ② It has absorbed a tremendous number of foreign words mainly from French and Latin; ③ Word endings become leveled.
Characteristics of Modern English
① it has a huge and heterogeneous vocabulary; ② It has tremendous borrowings; ③ It has words with lost endings.
Middle English (1150-1500)
• The Norman Conquest and its influence on England – A new and larger continental culture was brought to England. – It forced on England “The national idea”. • The situation of the simultaneous existence of three languages: English ---- a despised language used by boors and serfs;
2.2 Three Phases of the Historical Development
For each phase of the development, the following points must be made clear: Time range Features of the English vocabulary Social and historical events that influenced English greatly