- •1. The Old Germanic language, their classification and principle features.
- •2. The origin of the English language.
- •3. The chronological division of the history of English.
- •5. The position of English and its role in the world.
- •6. The oe vowel system. Major changes during the period.
- •7. Word order
- •8. The Great Vowel Shift.(gvs)
- •9. Major consonant changes in the history of English.
- •10. I-mutation and its traces in modern English
- •11. Changes in the vocabulary system in me
- •12. The oe noun system and its further changes
- •13,14 The oe adjective and its further development in me. Degrees of comparison.
- •15. The oe personal pronouns
- •16. Changes in the vocabulary system in ne period
- •17. The oe verb, its grammatical & morphological categories
- •18. Strong V. In oe & their further development
- •19. Weak V. In oe & their further development
- •20. Preterite-present V. In oe & their further development
- •21. The rise of the perfect forms
- •22. The rise of the passive forms
- •23. The oe vocabulary & its etymological characteristics
- •24. Main types of word-formation in oe
- •25. French loans.
- •26. Scandinavian loans.
- •27. Latin loans.
- •28. Main peculiarities of oe poetry.
- •29. Grimm’s Law.
- •30. Verner’s law.
- •32. Chaucer and his “Canterbury Tales”
- •33. The rise of articles
- •35 The root-stem declension in oe
- •36.The rise of do-forms
- •37. The rise of the future forms.
- •38. Gram. Agreement and government.
- •39. The non-finite forms of the verb in oe and their further development.
- •40. Forms of negotiation in oe.
10. I-mutation and its traces in modern English
Mutation – is a change in a vowel sound brought about by a sound in the following syllable. The mutation of a roof, back or open vowel to a front one by a following i or j is called i-mutation.
Eg: fuljan – fyllan (fill).
Practically all early OE monophthongs and diphthongs except the closest front vowels e and i were palatalized in these phonetic conditions. Due to the reduction of final syllables the conditions which caused palatal mutation had disappeared in most words by the age of writing; these sounds were weakened to e or were altogether lost.
The labialized front vowels y and y: arose through palatal mutation from u and u: and turned into new phonemes. The diphthongs ie, ie: were largely due to palatal mutation and became phonemic in the same way, though soon they were confused with y, y:
Palatal mutation led to the growth of new vowel interchanges and to the increased variability or the root-morphemes. Traces of palatal mutation are preserved in many modern words and forms: mouse – mice, foot – feet…
I-mutation affected all the Germanic lang. but gothic stressed vowels changed into back or more narrow vowels under the influence of i in the next syllables (regressive assimilation). The result was the rise of a new phoneme y: but she disappeared in early middle English.
Palatal mutation in OE had already been completed by the time of the earliest written records.
11. Changes in the vocabulary system in me
The ME period had a much richer representation than was in OE. Material in English began to appear in the 13th century and during the 14th century. There was a marked increase in the number of translated writings from Latin and French. The diversity in spelling was much greater than in OE. Middle English is practically characterized by intensive and extensive borrowings from other languages. The effect of the borrowings on the balance of the vocabulary was unprecedented. In early ME over 90% of the lexicon was of native English origin. Loan words by no means the only way in which the vocabulary of ME increased. The process of word formation such as compounding and affixations which were established in OE continued to be used and were extended in various ways.
Compound nouns were built according to a variety of patterns. The most productive type – two noun-stems. A group of compounds with the first component god have been recorded since early ME:godson, godfader, godmoder.
Compounds containing a verbal noun or the newly formed gerund or stem system of agent nouns were new modifications of this basic patter. They yielded words like ME working-day, dwelling house.
Instances of compound nouns with stems of agent nouns in –er are ME landholder, householder.
Other types of compound nouns were less productive. Adjective stems as the first components occur in ME stronghold. A new pattern of compound nouns arose in NE – consisting of a verb-stem and an adverb. The development of this type owes its origin to the use of stereotyped verb phrases with adverbs and prepositions, which became common in ME as “composite verbs”. Compound adjectives in ME and early NE continued to be formed in accordance with the same patterns as in OE. Noun- and adjective stems are combined in ME threedbare, heedstrong, NE world-wide, country-wide.
The most productive type of compound adjectives in ME and NE was “derivational compounds”. They appeared in Late OE and have been gaining productivity ever since. Derivational compounds consisted of an adjective stem, a noun-stem and the suffix –ed (from the OE -ede).
All through the ME and early NE periods compound words could be subjected to morphological simplification. Simplification of compound nouns and adjectives in OE transformed many compounds into derived words, producing new suffixes out of root-morphemes - -dōm, -scipe.
Internal sources of the replenishment of the vocabulary include also multiple semantic changes. They are commonly divided into widening and narrowing of meaning.
Many semantic changes in the vocabulary proceed together with stylistic changes.