关于英语语言的变化

关于英语语言的变化About Language ChangeIs the English language changing?Yes, and so is every other human language. Language is always changing, evolving, and adapting to the needs of its users. This isn't a bad thing; if English hadn't changed since, say, 1950, we wouldn't have words to refer to modems, fax machines, or cable TV. As long as the needs of languageusers continue to change, so will the language. The change is so slow that from year to year we hardly notice it (except to grumble every so oftenabout the 'poor English' being used by the younger generation!). Butreading Shakespeare's writings from the sixteenth century can bedifficult. If you go back a couple more centuries, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are very tough sledding, and if you went back another 500 years totry to read Beowulf, it would be like reading a different language.Why does language change?Language changes for several reasons. First, it changes because the needs of its speakers change. New technologies, new products, and newexperiences require new words to refer to them clearly and efficiently.Consider the fax machine: Originally it was called a facsimile machine, because it allowed one person to send another a copy, or facsimile, ofa document. As the machines became more common, people began using the shorter form fax to refer to both the machine and the document; from there, it was just a short step to using the word fax as a verb (as in I'll fax this over to Sylvia).Another reason for change is that no two people have had exactly the same language experience. We all know a slightly different set of words and constructions, depending on our age, job, education level, region of the country, and so on. We p ick up new w ords and phrases from all the different people we talk with, and these combine to make something new and unlikeany other person's particular way of speaking. At the same t ime, various groups in society use language as a way of marking their group identity- showing who is and isn't a member of the group. Many o f the changes that occur in language begin with teens and young adults: As young peopleinteract with others their own a ge, their language grows to include words, phrases, and constructions that are different from those of the oldergeneration. Some have a short life span (heard groovy lately?), but others stick around to affect the language as a whole.We get new words from many different places. We borrow them from other languages (sushi, chutzpah), we create them by shortening longer words(gym from gymnasium) or by combining words (brunch from breakfast and lunch), and we make them out of proper names (Levis, fahrenheit). Sometimes we even create a new word by being wrong about the analysis ofan existing word. That's how the word pea was created: Four hundred years ago, the word pease was used to refer to either a single pea or a bunchof them. But over time, people assumed that pease was a plural form, for which pea must be the singular, and a new word - pea- was born. (The same thing would happen if people began to think of the word cheese as referringto more than one chee.)Word order also changes, though this process is much slower. Old English word order was much more 'free' than that of Modern English, and evencomparing the Early Modern English of the King James Bible with today'sEnglish shows differences in word order. For example, the King James B ible translates Matthew 6:28 as "Consider the lilies of the field, how theygrow; they toil not." In a more recent translation, the last phrase istranslated as "they do not toil". English no longer places not after the verb in a sentence.Finally, the sounds of a language change over time, too. About 500 years ago English began to undergo a major change in the way its vowels were pronounced. Before that, geese would have rhymed with today's pronunciation of face, while mice would have rhymed with today's peace. But then a 'Great Vowel Shift' began to occur, during which the ay sound (as in pay) changed to ee(as in fee) in all the words containing it, while the ee sound changed to i(as in pie). In all, seven different vowel sounds were affected. If you've ever wondered why most other European languages spell the sound ay with an e (as in fiancé) and the sound ee with an i (as in aria), it's because those languages didn't undergo the Great Vowel Shift. Only English did.Wasn't English more elegant in Shakespeare's day?People tend to think that older forms of language are more elegant, logical, or correct than modern Forms, but it's just not true. The Fact thatlanguage is always changing doesn't mean it's getting worse; it's justbecoming different.In Old English, a small winged creature with Feathers was known as a brid. Over time, the pronunciation changed to bird. Although it's not hard to imagine children in the 1400's being scolded For 'slurring' brid into bird, it's clear that bird won out. Nobody today would suggest that bird is an incorrect word or a sloppy pronunciation.The speech patterns of young people tend to grate on the ears of adultsbecause they're unfamiliar. Also, new words and phrases are used in spoken or informal language sooner than in Formal, written language, so it's true that the phrases you hear teenagers using may not yet be appropriate For business letters. But that doesn't mean they're worse - just newer. Foryears English teachers and newspaper editors argued that the wordhopefully shouldn't be used to mean 'I hope', as in Hopefully it won'train today, even though people frequently used it that way in informalspeech. (And, of course nobody complained about other 'sentence adverbs' such as frankly and actually.) Now the battle against hopefully is all but lost, and it appears at the beginnings of sentences even in formal documents.If you listen carefully, you can hear language change in progress. Forexample, anymore used to occur only in negative sentences: I don't eat pizza anymore. But now, in many areas of the country, it's being used inpositive sentences: I've been eating a lot of pizza anymore. In this use, anymore means s omething like 'lately'. If that sounds odd to you now, keep listening; you may be hearing it in your neighborhood before long.Why can't people just use correct English?By 'correct English', people usually mean Standard English. Mostlanguages have a standard Form; it's the Form of the language used in government, education, and other Formal contexts. But Standard Englishis just one dialect of English.What's important to realize is that there's no such thing as a 'sloppy'or 'lazy' dialect. Every dialect of every language has rules - not'schoolroom' rules like 'don't split your infinitives', but rather thesorts of rules that tell us that the cat slept is a sentence of English,but slept cat the isn't. These rules tell us what language is like rather than what it should be like.Different dialects have different rules. For example:(l) I didn't eat any dinner.(2) I didn't eat no dinner.Sentence (l) follows the rules of Standard English; sentence (2) follows a set of rules present in several other dialects. But neither is sloppier than the other; they just differ in the rule For making a negative sentence. In (l), dinner is marked as negative with any; in (2), it's marked as negative with no. The rules are different, but neither is more logicalor elegant than the other. In Fact, Old English regularly used 'doublenegatives', parallel to what we see in (2), and many modern languages,including Italian and Spanish, either allow or require more than onenegative word in a sentence. Sentences like (2) only sound 'bad' if youdidn't happen to grow up speaking a dialect that uses them.You may have been taught to avoid 'split infinitives', as in (3):(3) 1 was asked to thoroughly water the garden.This is said to be 'ungrammatical' because thoroughly splits' the infinitive to water. Why are split infinitives so bad? Here's why:Seventeenth-century grammarians believed Latin was the ideal language,so they thought English should be as much l ike Latin as possible. In Latin, an infinitive like to water is a single word; it's impossible to splitit up. So today, 300 years later, we're still being taught that sentences like (3) are wrong, all because someone in the 1600's thought Englishshould be more like Latin.Here's one last example. Over the past few decades, three new ways ofreporting speech have appeared:(4) So Karen goes, "Wow - I wish I'd been there!"(5) So Karen is like, "Wow - I wish I'd been there!"(6) So Karen is all, "Wow - I wish I'd been there!"In (4), goes means pretty much the same thing as said; it's used for reporting Karen's actual words. In (5), is like means the speaker is telling us more or less what Karen said. If Karen had used different words for the same basic idea, (5) would be appropriate, but (4) would not.Finally, is all in (6) is a fairly new construction. In most of the areas where it's used, it means something similar to is like, but with extra emotion. If Karen had simply been reporting the time, it would be okayto say She's like, "It's five o'clock", but odd to say She's all, "It'sfive o'clock" - unless there was something exciting about it being fiveo'clock.A lazy way of talking? Not at all; the younger generation has made a useful three-way distinction where we p reviously only had the word said. Language will never stop changing; it will continue to respond to the needs of the people who use it. So the next time you hear a new phrase that grates onyour ears, remember that, like everything else in nature, the Englishlanguage is a work in progress.附件四三四单元作业Unit 3I. Choose the best one to fill in the blank.1. National language is used within national boundaries. English in this century has a become a ___________ .A. national languageB. international languageC. regional languageD. global language2. Several reasons can explain the why English has become an international language or global language--- Britain Empire was once very large, it is the dominant language of USA and it is the language of _________ .A. literature and historyB. government and authorityC. law and militaryD. science and technology3. Languages a re bound with feelings of loyalty and patriotism to their speakers’ country. It is called ___________ .A. language barrierB. language attitudeC. language useD. language skills4. The English used by these Black slaves is what we termed as Black English, or ________ . (Ebonic)A. American slangB. argotC. pidginD. Ebonic5. The English language had a special role in making a large_______, from different parts of the world, into a single nation.( population)A. countryB. communityC. populationD. racial group6. Speakers of British English and American English understand each other without difficulty. A more formal way of saying this is to say that British English & American English are mutually _________ . (intelligible)A. intelligibleB. independentC. incompatibleD. invisible7. By the discovery of the New World is meant discovery and settlement in ___________.A. AustraliaB. IndiaC. North AmericaD. South Africa8. Since the decline of British imperial power, the English language has __________ .A. become less importantB. become more importantC. remained important, but in a different wayD. declined sharply in importance9.The total number of users of varieties of English is ___________ the total number of users of varieties of Chinese.A. still much smaller thanB. much larger thanC. the same asD. almost as much as10. The label ________ is often given to the end of 20th century since much more information is available than ever before and it can be stored and transferred in ways never possible before.A. Information AgeB. Computer maniaC. GloblizaionD. Internet PopularityII. Translate the following into ChineseBraj Kachru who is from Indian sub-continent, uses 3 circles to show his audience how English is used. There are 3 circles that overlap (p.147). They are the Inner Circle (which represents n ative speakers-users w ho use English as their mother tongue); the Outer Circle (which represents places where English is used for purposes of international business and sometimes for official business within the country. Most of these places were once part of the British Empire); and the Expanding Circle (where English is not an official language but the number of English users are still increasing who don’t think English belongs to Britain or North America. Instead, they think the language is one of theirs.)III. Read the following and then answer the questions.One thing we have to point out is that the number of English users has always been increasing. The world is changing, so is the number of English learners. Because of technical reasons, the change is more rapidtoday.We are living in so-called Information Age. Information spreads veryrapidly and is taken advantage of by more people and in more fields. Theinvention and the use of computer is a good case in point. And as aninternational language, the function of English has helped the spread andtransfer of information. The side use of English has strengthened itsposition worldwide in return. Though there are some other languageswhich can be called international languages, English is obviously moreimportant and should be termed as global language. It has gone beyondany boundaries.English learning, therefore, has a lot to do with the advancement ofscience and the application of technology as well. Students are learning itat school and working adults are learning it for various purposes. Atpresent, there is no sign of declining in the learning and using of English.The role English plays in the modern world is evident. But, people mightask if it has disadvantages t oo? Or can it be replaced by some otherlanguages?People have complaints about English. For instance, one needs a largevocabulary to read well; some sounds are hard to pronounce, and it’s not easy to handle the use of countable nouns and uncountable nouns, etc.To solve the problem, some people put forward a solution, namely, usingtongue to takea language that has nothing to do with anybody’s motherthe place of English as an international language. Hence, people don’thave to be bothered by the change of time, place and audience.It is not practical to use Latin or Greek for the purpose. So, in 19th toearly 20th century, people created a few languages to fulfill the task. Themost famous and successful man-made language is Esperanto. Yet, it hasnever been successful in competing with English even though there aresome people using the language all the time.Some people suggested that a natural language be simplified, for exampleEnglish. In fact, Noah Webster already did the job long before bysimplifying the English spelling in order that American children can learnit more easily. And in 1930, a person named Ogden already published hissimplified English version. During the 2nd World War, the basic Englishwords people made were only 850 and they could not meet people’swriting needs.As we all know, there are many languages in the world. In the eyes of thelinguists all languages are equal and there is no good one or bad (in otherwords: developed or primitive) one, just like we say all humans are equaland should be respected.Can we say that English is widely used because t it better fits in theinternational circumstances t han other languages? I t seems irrational toconclude so. The spread of it, as we covered before, was absolutelycaused by political, economic and cultural factors instead of linguistic reasons.The idea of equality or parity among languages is important, and it needs to be carefully understood. No languages that we know about are underdeveloped or primitive. Languages change with time, as the needsof their users change, but change does not mean evolutionary progress. Languages and dialects are valued differently and used differently for historical, political, economic and cultural reasons.1. Has the number of English users always been increasing or decreasing?2. The number of English learners change more rapidly, why?3. As an international language, has English helped the spread and transfer of information?4. What is the result of the side use of English?5. Give examples to show what do people complaint about English language.6. People have practiced two things to solve the problem. What are they?7. What do linguists regard languages in the way of equality?8. What are the factors leading to the spread of English language?9. Is it true that English is widely used because t it better fits in the international circumstances than other languages?10. Is it true that if a language community is primitive, then its language must be undeveloped?Unit 4I. Choose the best one to fill in the blank1.The idea of equality or ________ among languages is important and needs to be carefully understood.A. parityB. qualityC. unityD. antiquity2. No languages that we know about are undeveloped or ________.A. primitiveB. nativeC. authenticD. artificial3. Languages and dialects are valued_________ and used differently for historical, political, economic and cultural reasons.A. independentlyB. differentlyC. rarelyD. indifferently4. It is _____ to learn to read the English of a past time. The further backin the past the more difficult it is and the longer it takes.A. impossibleB. possibleC. easyD. linguists’ job5. A ________is the sort of English use which is associated with a part of society, that is with rich or poor, well or poorly educated.A. regional varietyB. historical varietyC. social varietyD. RP variety6. There are 2 distinct stages in the study of a language. The 1st stage is the study of sound system and grammar system of a language; while the 2nd is ____________.A. using English in a variety of waysB. through revision, going over the same groundwork againC. practicing English conversationD. focusing on grammar rules7. English differs with the user, and also with the different________ that speakers have for English.A. usesB. lexiconsC. grammarD. formality8. English is used in different circumstances with different degrees of___________.A. formalityB. stabilityC. realityD. equality9. The written account is for readers who __________the experience, so it has to be more complete than the spoken version.A. did shareB. did not shareC. heard ofD. lived through10. Style has to be consistent---not uneven. Competent writers and speakers avoid mixing some words suitable for serious contexts with those that are not.A. tryB. enjoyC. avoidD. likeII. list the differences between spoken & written English:Spoken WrittenSpoken:1. The work between 2 or more people who are both speakers & listeners.2. There is reminding, interrupting, hesitation, asking and answering questions in the process.3. Not keep to a single point and things known to the speakers may be left out.4. Slang or words known to people involved in the talk may be usedWritten:1. The work of one person for many readers.2. May be read a long time after it is written.3. No interruption between the writer & the readers.4. About what the writer thinks the readers need to know and say all about it.5. Arranged in best order for readers to comprehend.6. Is put clearly to avoid confusion or puzzlement on the readers side.7. Is changing as in other respects, and generally nearer speech than it was before。