Language Change新编语言学教程.ppt

Historical Linguistics As a branch of linguistics, historical linguistics is mainly concerned with both the description and explanation of language changes that occurred over time. Comparison of language in different time English is usually divided into Old English (449-1100), Middle English (1100-1500) and Modern English (1500-present). This division is somewhat arbitrary as it is marked simply by the dates of events in English history. Wolde guman findan ?one ?e him on sweofote sare geteode. (He wanted to find the man who harm him while he slept.) Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote The droughte of March hath pierce to the roote… (When April with its sweet showers The drought of March has pierced to the root…) Brief History of English 5th century Britons Celtic Roman Empire collapsed Angles, Saxons, Jutes Low West Germanic 787—late half of 9th century Scandinavian raiders (Danes) 1066-1204 Norman Conquest French 14th century Schools, lawsuits English 1500-1650 English Renaissance English (London English) 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language (Samuel Johnson) English 1762 A Short Introduction to English Grammar (Robert Lowth) English 19th century British colonies were set up English Nowadays The principal language in many countries English Language change Phonological change Morphological and syntactic change Lexical and semantic change Phonological changes Sound change Sound disappearance Addition of sounds Metathesis Epenthesis Great Vowel Shift Morphological and syntactic change Addition of affixes Loss of affixes Change of word order Change in negation rule Lexical and semantic change Addition of new words Loss of words Semantic changes 1)semantic broadening 2)semantic narrowing 3)semantic shift Addition of new words coinage(创新词) clipped words(缩略词) blending(紧缩法) acronyms(词首字母缩略词) back-formation(逆构词法) functional shift borrowing Coinage ----A new word can be coined outright to fit some purpose, e.g. walkman