Origins ofthe English Language

A Social and Linguistic History

Joseph M. Williams

THE FREE PRESS•^Dl A Division of Mtictttillan Publishing Co., fnc.

NEW VDRK:

^oilier MacmiHan Publishers

HJNDON

Copyright €> 1975 by The Free PressA Division of Macmillan Public ing Co., Inc,

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproducedor transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic ormechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by anyinformation storage and retrieval system, without permissionin writing from the Publisher.

The Free PressA Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Гпс.866 Third Avenue. New York, N.Y. 10022

Collier M<n:millan Canada. Lid

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Contents

Preface to the Teacher VII

Part I History and Language

Chapter 1 History and LanguageHISTORY, HISTORIES, AND HISTORIANS.TORY AND THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE. THEAIMS OF LANGUAGE HISTORY.

Chapter 2 The Nature of LanguageTHE BEGINNINGS. Man and Ape: The Biologi-cal Foundations, Design Features of Human Lan-guages. Evolution toward Language. DESCRIBINGLANGUAGE. W ritten Langu age. Spoken Language.GRAM MAR ANDGRAMMARS. Tradi t ional G ram-inais. Descriptive Grammars, Generative Grammars.GRAMMATICALLY. Usage vs. Structure. Ambi-guity and Related ness. LANGUAGE AND MEAN-TNG. SOML CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF LAN-GUAGE CHANGE.

11

Part II Words and Meanings

Words: Native and Borrowed 41OLD ENGLISH AND BFFORF, The Origin, ofWords. The Oldest Words in English. THE MOST

Hi

le CONTENTS

DISTANT ORIGINS: INDO-KUROPEAN. Indo-European > Western European. Indo-European >Western European > Germanic > West Germanic.Pre-Anglo-Sason Britain. ANGLO-SAXON BRIT-AIN: THE BEGINNINGS. THE RISE 01 ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND, The Christian Conversion and aNational Character. The Danish Invasions. The Riseof London.

CJiapter 4 From Middle English to Modern English 65THE NORMAN CONQUEST, THE LINGUISTICCONSEQUENCES. Economic-Demographic Esti-mate!;. Political Evenln. Written English, French,and Latin in Official Texts and Documents. WrittenEnglish, French, and Latin in Social Communicationand Literature. Spoken English, French, and Latinon Official Occasions. Spoken English, French, andLatin in Social, Educational, and Religious Contexts.Some Additional Data Relevant to the Use of English,NORMAN FRENCH VS. ENGLISH (1066-1450).THL REBIRTH OK CLASSICAL LEARNING.EXCESS AND REACTION.

Chapters The Establishment of Modern English 91CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARD ENGLISH.Two Authorities. BORROWINGS FROM OTHERLANGUAGES, AMERICAN ENGLISH. BlackEnglish. American English: A Summary. SOMECONSEQUENCES OF A COSMOPOLITAN VOCAB-ULARY. Word Families, Semantic Families.

Chapter 6 Creating New Words 119TWO GRAMMATICAL. PROCESSES. Compound-ing. Derivation. Grammatical Word Formation: ASummary. ROOT MODIFICATION. Clipping andShortening. В fends Acronyms. ROOT CREA-TIONS. Direct Sound Symbolism. Synestiietic SoundSymbolism. Phonesthemes, PSYCHOLOGICALAND SOCIAL MOTIVES IN WORD CREATION.OUR VOCABULARY AND ITS SOURCES: ASUMMARY.

Chapter 7 Semantic Change 153THEORIES OF MEANING. WORDS, MEANINGS,AND THOUGHTS. SEMANTIC STRUCTURE.THE RECOVERY OF MEANING. Dictionaries.Reconstruction, Citations TYPES OF SEMANTIC

CONTENTS О

CHANGE. Narrowing. Some Causes of Narrowing.Widening. Transfer. Shift. Drift. Minor Types ofSemantic Change,

Chapter 8 Semantic Chattge in In Social Context 195VALUE JUDGMENTS. EUPHEMISM. SomePsycho logical Causes о f Lu phe m is m, S LAN G, A ROOT,CANT, JARGON. SEMANTIC LAWS,

Part III

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Grammar and Sound

Between Semantics and GrammarGRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE.IMPLICATIONS.

HISTORICAL

Grammatical Change: The Noun PhraseWORD OK.DLR: THE MAJOR ELEMENTS. IN-FLECTION: OE, ME, AND ModE, THE NOUNPH RASE: IN FLECTION S AN D STRUCTU R Б. Case,ModE and OLi. Gender, ModE and OL. Number,ModE and OE. FROM OE TO ME TO ModE.Inflections.. Relative Clauses. The Genitive, CAUSESOF GRAMMATICAL CHANGE SOME MODERNSURVIVALS OF OE INFLECTIONS,

Grammatical Change: The Verb PhraseINFLECTIONS: ModE AND OE. The Past andPerfect. Person Endings. The Progressive -ing, aProblem. The Imperative and Subjunctive. THEGRAMMAR OF THE VERB PHRASE. AuxiliaryVerbs. Nonstandard English. TRANSFORMINGTHE VERB PHRASE. Negation. Questions. Restruc-turing the Verb Phrase. The Impersonal. SUMMARY.

Between Grammar and PhonologySOUNDS. STRESS.

Phonological ChangeTH F [ M PORTA NCE OF PRONUNCIATION. THEPHONEMIC PRINCIPLE. THE PHONOLOGY OFMODERN ENGLISH Consonants, Vowels. THEDEVELOPMENT OF WRITING. SOUND ANDSPELLING. RECONSTRUCTING THE PAST, THEPHONOLOGY OF OLD ENGLISH. Vowels, Con-sonants.

215

229

259

293

301

ei CONTENTS

Chapter 14 P!ioitola%fcifl Change; From Old English to Modern 333English

THE NA TU RE OF SO UN D CHANGE, OLD ENG-LISH TO MIDDLE ENGLISH. Vowels. Consonants.MIDDLE ENGLISH TO MODERN LNGLISH.Vowels. Consonants, SOME POSSIBLE CAUSES OFSOUND CHANGES. A NOTE ON AMERICANPRONUNCIATION. Black English. SPELLINGRLFORM.

ReferencesIndex of Modern Knglish WordsSubject Index

1693814П

Preface to the Teacher

Because this is primarily a pedagogical history, there are aspects of the evolu-tion of English which I have slighted, particularly the very powerful insightsinto phonological change provided by generative phonology. BuL to developthe background For that would have gone far beyond what is possible or neededin a survey of this kind. I have also LtdapLed a rather conservative version of atransformational gram sn а r to deal with syntactic change. A case grammar ofthe son proposed hy Charles Fillraore or the model of generative semanticsoffered by Jami;!i McCawley or George LakolT is more interesting than themodel used here. But again, the problem of striking a balance between whatcan be done with a class and with a seminar requires a good deal of com-promise.

The problems, [ would like to think, are the heart of this teAt- They canbe used in several ways:

1- A single student can teach himself the history of English if he merelyreads the text and turns in the problems to be ehecked by an instructor.The text is relatively independent of a teacher.

2- The instructor can assign some problems and entirely ignoreothers,

3* The instructor can have certain problems turned in as written exercisesand use the data in others for class discussions.

Oft

Vtii PREFACE TO THE TEACHER

4, He can divide the class into groups and have each group do selectedproblems.

5. He can assign different problems to different students and,'or groupsand have them present their solutions to the class for discussion.

The most frequent complaint will be from the student who docs notunderstand what "Comment" at the end of many problems requires. I amaware that students are often unable to break away from the need to believethat there arc fixed answers to fixed questions. The vagueness of "Comment"is intended precisely to force the student to pose his own questions, to over-come the intellectual rigidity that conies From high schools and junior highschools which teach that all the questions have been asked and that thestudent's only task is to remember the answer. He will be relieved of a gooddeal of his own anxiety if he is informed the first day of class that part of histask in the course is to find shape in vagueness.

Incorrect approaches (or no approach) to solutions to the problems areas useful material for class discussion as interesting solutions. A discussionof why a possible solution is not a good one will get to the heart of whateducation is about if it centers OOl merely on *hat the beLter solution is butwhy it might be belter and how one might have arrived at that solution.

The Czech formalist critics believe that one function of literature is to"make strange" that which we know too well. Approaching the history oflanguage in the right way can provide the same experience. Lnglish need notbe as it is now. It could have been otherwise. If some inflections had not dis-appeared, if more had disappeared, if the Normans hadn't successfullytricked the English at Scnlac, if we had never borrowed prefixes, if therewere no such phenomenon as mL-laphor, if the Great Vowel Shift had neveroccurred, if any of these conditions applied to English and its history, ourlanguage would be a very different thing. And if we can bring our students toappreciate these factors, then what is like the air they breathe will becomesomething to be aware of, to be curious about- By awakening their sensi-bilities, they can expand the frontiers of their imagination.

Some of the more speculative questions (e.g., What would we be like ifwe stored memories not in the brain but in those parts of the body that hadthe experience?) are designed to make language itself strange. These ques-tions, I would like to think, will permit LI moment or two of speculative play.

In any event, the point of this text is to get something going in the class-room beyond the instructor telling his class what is in the text and the studentsdutifully writing it down in their notebooks,

A criticism that will be made of this text is that it is not "tight," thatthere is a good deal of repetition. At least some of this redundancy is inten-tional. This is not л "programmed" test. But many concepts are introducedin one context with the view thai they will be useful later or because they areimportant enough to re-emphasize (behaviorists, read "reinforce"). I men-

PREFACE TO THE ТЕАСНЕЛ

tjo umlaut in a number of places because ii is a relatively complicatedphenomenon. I repeatedly cite sociolinguistic theory and data because T wantto emphasize certain concepts about language, social class, and "goodgrammar," Whether this repetition is finally oniy redundant dcadwood orstrategic reinforcement and clarification of important concepts will bedetermined only at the end of the course when the student ponders how wellhe knows what he knows.

Finally, there are a good many who have contributed to the creation ofthis tent. Foremost among this group arc those found in the bibliography.Without the work already done by linguists such as Otto Jespersen, Albert C.Baugh, Samuel Moore, Albert L, Marckwardt, Thomas Pyles, Fred Cassidy,Непгу'сесИ Wyld, Randolph Quirk, Fernand Mosse, and a hundred others,texts like this would never exist. More particularly, I would like to thank thestudents who made many valuable suggestions: Yoshi Morita, ElizabethTemple, Mitchell Marks, U, J. Jost, and many others. I am grateful toNancy Hall, and to Eileen Fitzgerald «f The Free Press Гог their invaluable as-sistance in catching many slips in the original manuscripts. Any that remain aremy own responsibility. Professor William Hunter of the University of NewHampshire has my gratitude for very helpful suggestions and fur his encourage-ment when this text was in its formative stages. My gratitude also goes toProfessor Donald Green for his help in reading the final proof.

Mansct, Maine

PART I

HISTORY ANDLANGUAGE

Chapter 1

HISTORY AND LANGUAGE

HISTORY, HISTORIES, AND HISTORIANS

When some people argue that histories should tell the truth, they usually meanby truth the straightforward, unadorned facts of what happened. They believethat historians who select, arrange, and shape their data to make a pointabout the past or who use the past to prove something about the present arenot heing objective, and, hence, not telling the "truth." History, they believe,is properly the objective facts the historians can recover from the pastarranged jusL as they occurred tt? relate what really happened.

Such histories have never existed and never will. The individual mind ofthe historian, shaped by his times, influenced by his theory of history, andcontrolled hy his unique personal character, must always stand between theleavings of the past and the work that represents his understanding of howthose leavings reveal what happened and why, Just choosing what to writeabout reveals the mind oi the historian evaluating and selecting from all Lheevents of the past only those most important to him.

The very material he works with will become one thing for a historianwho believes that history turns on the actions of great men and somethingelse for one committed to an economic interpretation of the past- Indeed, the

3

4 HISTORY AND

modem study of history is becoming less the narratives of individual menacting in individual situations and more the analyses of broad economic andsocial forces that can be discovered only by highly specialised researchers,armed with sophisticated statistical and sociological tools. The intellectualfocus of our age has shifted from man the individual Free agent to man's partin the overall social fabric.

This shift away from the concrete individual to more abstract socialforces has been encouraged by the growth of one academic specialty afteranother: statistics, demography, sociology, economics, psycho-history. Eachhas created more and more refined analytical techniques untif it is now nolonger so easy as it once was for a single person to be the broadly based,general researcher who might have understood an entire age. Thus, as (hespecialist has narrowed and refined his tools, so conversely have the availabletools narrowed and refined the specialist. The existence of sophisticatedanalytical techniques pushes every investigator—historian, physicist, sociol-ogist, literary critic to follow the methodological paths his discipline opensup to him. All researchers find not only what their age and interests urgethem to find,- but what their theories and techniques predispose them tofind.

Not surprisingly, the reasons men write histories in the first place are asdiverse as tiie theories that guide them and the methods they use. At itssimplest and most elemental level, historians create a past because theircommunity wants to know where it came from and how things got to be theway they are. The earliest myths, the stories of the most primitive peoplesabout their gods, are a kind tif history that explains how the uni verse and theearth came about—why the sun and the moon, why the animals, why man.The voyage of Mariner 10 beyond Jupiter and out of our solar system repre-sents our curiosity about the origins of the universe. The Bible was onceunquestioned history for most Christians. For many it still is. So once forsome were the legends of the Plains Indians, and the Greek myths andBeowulf and the story of Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Lewis and Clark, andthe Alamo, We no longer call all of these history because our age has differentcriteria for accepting some stories rather than others as satisfying ways toorganize and explain our past.

But the most common reason most of us would give for writing aboutthe past is that we think we can learn from it. San tay ana's belief that thosewho do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it may be extreme.But it is a traditional belief. Whether or not we can in fact avoid the mistakesof history, knowing something about the past does make us understand ourown condition differently than if we knew nothing about its origins. But ifhistory is to teach us about today, the historian must arrange and shape thepast to make it relevant to the present. Only then can he convince us that weshould know what has happened if we are to understand what is now happen-ing or anticipate what is about to happen.

HISTORY AND T.ANGUAOE 5

Because statements about the past so frequently touch on social values,a historian has to take a position, sometimes explicitly hut always implicitly,in regard to the values of his community, accepting and interpreting or reject-ing them according to both his own personai standards and those of his time.One has only to recognize how our own history is being rewritten to includethe contributions of A fro-Americans to realize how even scholarly values arechanging. Only a few years ago, the intellectual-social climate did not en-courage most historians to regard the Negro as a significant contributor toAmerican history. That historians everywhere are now investigating Blackhistory reflects a new political and social, as well as intellectual, reality.

When we read any history, then, we must understand the historian'ssense of what, is important about history. We must understand that the datahe selects and how lie arranges them depend on his reasons for writing historyin the first place, that "truth" depends finally on how his theories interpretwhat the interests and values of an age allow him to recogni7e as the truth. (112)

British historian H. H. Carr perhaps put it most simply:

. . . you cannot fully understand or appreciate the work of the historianunless you have first grasped the standpoint from which he himself ap-proached it; second, that (he standpoint is itself rooted in a social andhistorical background.

E. H. Carr, What Is History, Vintage Books.

HISTORY AND THE STLnV OF LANGUAGE

At first glance, most of these questions may appear irrelevant, to a subjectseemingly as value-free as a history of the English language A language is nota scries of spectacular events, ft was once fashionable to claim that Chaucer,Shakespeare, and Milton strongly influenced the growth and structure ofEnglish, but no longer, A language is not the product of great men acLing indramatic situations, but rather something created and shared and recreatedevery day by an entire people, for the most part something shaped withoutany forethought or conscious planning.

In fact, a history of a language is significantly different from a history of aseries of clearly discrete events. The "events" in a history of the Englishla ng uage a re d i fficu It eve n to defi ne. They a re the seq uence of cha ngi ng abstractpatterns behind the sum of countless concrete events—of hundreds ofthousands of people talking roughly alike on, say, January 1, 450 A.D., in aninfinitesimjjlly different way on January 2, and so on up to the present, whenhundreds of millions speak billions of words every minute. A historian ofEnglish describes not how an individual speaker used language at somemoment in the past, but how through time the shared abstract patterns oflanguage have gradually changed since the fifth century A.D., when those first

HISTORY AND LAS'GUAGR

Germanic tribal from Northern Europe invaded the island of Britain and, bythe mere political fact of that invasion, thereupon began speaking a languajjewe no longer call West Germanic or Frisian or Jutish or whatever, but OldEnglish (which we shall henceforth frequently abbreviate as OR).

Traditionally, historians of language have studied three kinds of patternsor structures in language: The sound patterns, or its phonology; the syntacticand inflectional patterns, or its ктащгпат: and the patterns of meaning, or itssemantics. We could study these aspects of Rnglish without ever referring to asingle person or historical event. We would then have an internal history of thelanguage, a history of changing structures and patterns with no reference tothe extern a J history of the language.

The external history of a language is partly defined by a list of eventswhich influenced masses of speakers to change those phonological, gram-matical, and semantic patterns which make up its internal history. So in thatsense, the internal history of a language determines what we choose to call itsexternal history. The major events in the external history of Rnglish are easyenough Lo list:

С 450; The Northern Germanic tribes invade and occupy Britain,c, 850: The Danes invade and occupy the north and east of England,

1066: The Norman French invade and conquer England.1204: The Normans in England are forced to choose England or

Normandy as their homeland,С 1348: The plague wipes out one-third of the English population.

1476: Printing is introduced into England.1607: A meriea i s со Ion i zed by Engli sh s pea kers.

с 1945: American political and cultural dominance makes AmericanEnglish a candidate for a world standard.

But, in addition to these major events, are less easily defined pressuresexerted by the changing social class structure that began to replace the rigidfeudal system of pre-1200 England, social pressures which ever since haveshaped and reshaped our speech.

Since all these events have caused our linguistic patterns to change, wewould want any history of the Lnglish language: (1) to describe Englishstructure at various critical stages of its development, and (2) to explain whyone form of the language was replaced by another through the social forcesset in motion by those large and small events.

THE AIMS OF LANGUAGE HISTORY

All of this seems to be straightforward, value-free history. But if we concludethat writing a history of a language is divorced from the kinds of problems a

HISTORY AND LANGUAGE 7

historian faces when he write* a social or economic history of, say, Ihc post-W'WI I period, we would be quite mistaken. The same kinds of problems abouttheories of history (and language) determining a historian's questions, abouthis intention determining his selection and arrangement of data, about thevalues and social uses of linguistic history—all should con From the historianof language no less severely than they do the historian ofpolilics and wars.

For example, almost all histories of English ignore the development offorms such as these:

He gone now, ain't lie? My frien' done He always be late.

Until recently, such sentences were thought by many grammarians {andmost teachers) to represent an ignorant, illiterate, lazy, uneducated, probablyunintelligent and certainly ungrammatical English. It is the English of thelower classes, stereotypical!у Southern, often Black, a dialect of Englishtraditionally beneath intellectual contempt.

But for many obvious social and intellectual reasons, linguists haverecently begun to etplon: much more seriously than before the patterns of"nonstandard" English in general and the English of certain Шаек Americansin particular Because these researchers have also found new investigative toolsin modern linguistic theory, they have decided that such sentences are not un-grammatical in the sense that they have no predictable regular pattern. Quitethe contrary. They have a complex, orderly structure that has just never beensought, discovered, and incorporated into grammar books meant for thosebeing taught the prestige dialect of our culture—except as examples of whatto avoid. No one really knew what the structure of nonstandard Knglish wasbecajsc few researchers ever bothered to study it.

But in the last decade, as our attitudes toward minority groups in thiscountry have changed, as more and more " nonstandard" speakers have con-fronted a "standard"-sneaking society that for decades has kept them out ofthe colleges and the centers of social and political power- as new linguistictheories have become available, the historian of the English language hasbegun to look for—and find—new "facts" about the history of nonstandardEnglish, facts that exist only as a consequence of a changing intellectualclimate and a new body of linguistic theory. This text will deal with thesequestions because its author, influenced by his time, finds them intellectuallychallenging and socially important.

Language varies through time, largely because it varies through socialspace. Lower class, lower-middle class, and upper-middle class speakersinteract in a variety of ways. One way that crucially affects the developmentof language is how the speech patterns among those groups differ and the wayeach group responds to the other's speech. We choose one pattern of speechrather than another not by some immutable rule of logic or history, but bynoting how those who wield social, political, and economic power habitually

If HISTORY AND LANGUAGE

speak. If we attempt to rationalize why we choose to speak in one way ratherthan another, we may use the history of English, logic, or dogmatic opinionto justify our usage. But how we speak—whether we say ain't Ior area'! /oram I not—finally depends not on rational, logical reasons but on the (usually)unconscious linguistic preferences of those who command our rcspcet andwho, by their prestige, silently influence the writing of textbooks and thecond uet of ed ucati on.

in some small way, then, perhaps an understanding of the historiealsources of both standard and n on standard dialects and the social base* bywhich we decide about standards might qualify some of the historically un-justified responses many of us have toward those who use "imgrammatical,illiterate, uneducated speech."

More significantly influencing the nature of this particular history, how-ever, are its larger pedagogical goals. Most histories of English seek only tosummarize the outstanding ways in which the language has changed and someof the causes for those changes, LO comment on the rise of dictionaries andchanging attitudes towards standards of usage, and to suggest the range oflanguage diversity across geographical space—all presented for the reader'sinformation. If the student succeeds in com mitt ing the facts to memory, he hassatisfied his responsibility toward the subject and the book.

The intention and design of this hisLory arc different. It will try not onlyto transmit information about the history of Lnglish but also to suggest insome modest and very incomplete way what historical linguists do when theystudy and describe the history of a language. It is not a history to be readpassively, it will ask the reader to engage himself with historical data pre-sented as problems, in most eases, a discussion follows each problem, so itwill be easy for the student to ignore the problems and read just the discussion.1 can only urge the student who wants to do more than memorize facts towrestle with the problems before he goes on to the discussions. The bibliog-raphy lists several excellent histories of English that, summarize and presentmany facts abouL the language in an interesting and scholarly way. For thereader interested only in facts, I recommend them. (7, 58, 95, 172, 182, 209,244) This history will ask the reader to create much of the history of the lan-guage himself. It will force him to become as much of a historical linguist ascan practically be managed in a book where all the relevant data has alreadybeen culled and the questions at least tacitly formulated.

In addition to acquiring some sense of an intellectual discipline that hasits roots in Plato's Cratylus and beyond, and of some of the particular fruitsof that discipline, the student will, I hope, also come to understand somethingabout language in general. I have already mentioned hnw important ourspeech patterns are in our social dealings with one another. We identifyourselves as members of a geographies! dialect, a soeial class, even a partic-ular age group by our specuh.

But our language is unique in the animal kingdom. We do not exaggerate

,

HISTORY AND LANGUAGE 9

when we say that nothing defines man better than the fact thaL he is only theanimal that uses language creatively. He is the only anima! that can create outof a finite number of linguistic units a potentially infinite number of sentencesthat can correspond to the potentially infinite number of situations lie facesin the world:

Lake Erie is polluted.

and, even more importantly, to the equally large number of conceptions thatdo not yet correspond to the real world:

If we continue to pollute the oceans, maybe they wJll die,

and, indeed, to those that can never correspond to reality:

The rectangular onloseny unfurled its insolent symmetry.

Finally, some of the problem* will ask the student to exercise his lin-guistic imagination to create new words, new meanings, new grammaticalpatterns, new metaphors, to explore new semantic spice which his mindmust create. One of the current commonplaces of education is that ourlanguage creates out world. It provides us with the categories of our ex-perience, and in но doing closes off from us other ways of structuring ourcogniLive world. So strongly stated, such a claim is wrong. But by flexing hisverbal imagination, by creating new linguistic patterns, the student maybecome more sensitive to some of the creative possibilities of language. Theseproblems have no right or wrong answers.

Finally, much of the data here has been over-simplified, an unavoidableconsequence of trying to present a unified view of what is in reality oftendiverse and contradictory data. Regional and personal variations, inconsistenthistorical developments, have now and then been ignored in an effort to makethe his Lory of the tnglish language coherent enough for one to grasp at leastthe broad outlines of 1500 years of change. And yet it is probably thatwrestling with inconsistency and variation that most characterizes the histori-cal study of <t language. A paradigm of verb endings or a dictionary entry ora neat vowel change is the misleading!}- tidy product of combing masses ofoflcn doubtfully reliable data for evidence, selecting only what is relevant tothe problem, resolving contradictions, and, for the sake of a strong generaliza-tion, setting aside as exceptions those data which do not fit the generalization.That activity can only be appreciated after one has dealt with the originaltexts themselves.

Chapter 2

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

4

THE BEGINNINGS

Л story often cited to illustrate an idea which some have held about the originof language is the one Herodotus relates about King Psammetichos of Egypt.To determine whether the Kgyplians or the Phrygians were the older race, heordered iwu children to be raised entirely isolated from speech. He believedone would, quite on his own, begin speaking one of the languages as theoriginal Ur-language of man. When one day one uttered the sound btkos,which meant bread in a dialect of Phrygian, he concluded that Phrygian wasthe older language. An early Scottish king who performed the same evperi-ment concluded that the first sounds the isolated children uttered were pureHebrew.

This idea that our language has descended from some older, probably"purer" and more fundamental source is reflected not only in the Romanbelief that Latin was corrupt Greek, but that the babel of languages afflictingthe human race results from the confusion visited upon the one original, purelanguage spoken by the builders of the tower of Babel.

The belief persists even today: At some earlier time, language reached a

12 HISTORY AND LANGUAGE

state of perfection; since then, it has been all decay and corruption. Some haveclaimed that English is particularly degenerate, for " it has no grammar" tospeak of in comparison with the rich inflectional systems of older languagessuch as Latin and Greek. English inflects nouns for only two cases: genitive—the boy's hai, and the general case, distinguished hy the lack of any endings—the boy. Latin lias six inflectional cases: nominative, accusative, dative, geni-tive, ablative, and vocative- Sanskrit, the oldest fully recorded knownlanguage related to English, had eight cases; nominative, accusative, dative,genitive, ablative, vocative, locative, and instrumental.

Obviously, then, English is in the final stages of a decay that began atleast 3000 years ago. In a few hundred years perhaps, even the inflectedgenitive in boy's will disappear, along with the third person singular s, thepast tense -ed, and the comparative -er and -ей endings, leaving us with therotten hult of a once richly grammatical language.

If we want an authority to decide a problem of grammar or usage ormeaning, then, we should (it is claimed), loot to the past, usually to Latin, lessoften Greek: One does not end sentences with prepositions in English becauseone does not do so in La Lin. Nor does one ask Who did you see? because asthe object of see, who should be whom, the accusative case. Case agreement,of course, is required in good Latin, (45, I S3)

Unfortunately, the real origins of language are as completely unknownas its evolution preceding the last four or five millennia. Assuming we canreject the idea that language was a gift of the gods, we have to ask how it waspossible for a hominid that presumably communicated not too much differ-ently from our present primate relatives to evolve into a creature who cando what you and I are now doing.

In the nineteenth century, speculation about the origin of language wasso widespread in the scholarly journals that in 1866 the Societcde Linguistiquede Paris finally had to ban the publication of any more articles on the subject.Then for about a century, the question was unfashionable. Л few eminentscholars speculated about the origin and evolution of language, but it was nota problem actively pursued. In the last few years, however, the subject hasonce again become a live issue, particularly among anthropologists.

The problem can be broken down into at least three parts:

1. What are the biological differences between the neurological andperipheral speech mechanisms of man and other primates ?

2. What are the important differences in the "design features" of thelanguage of шал and other creatures and how can they be related to thebiological differences?

3. How could the biological and design features have evolved fromthose possessed by a creature that was the ancestor of both ape andman?

THE NATURE OP LANGUAGE 13

Man and Ape: The Rit>lc»«k-ii 1 Foundations

The biological question is a very difficult one to answer because so littleis known about the neurology of speech in man, much less the neurology ofcommunication in apes, and because what is known sheds very little Sight onthe question or \i of debatable reliability. There arc some obvious differencesbetween man and ape.

Man has a higher brain. But this alone is insufficient to explain the capacityfor language. There are creatures known is nanoccphalic or birdheadeddwarfs, humans who arc normally proportioned but who never grow morethan two-and-a-half or three feet tall. Their brains average perhaps .4 kilo-grams compared to an average adult's I -35 kilograms. Some femaie chim-panzee brains weigh as much as .45 kilograms, larger than the brains of manynanocephalic dwarfs. Yet while the dwarf, though often retarded, usuallyspeaks as well as a five- or six-year-old, the chimpanzee never speaks. Nordoes the ability to speak lie entirely in brain-to-body ratio. A human, adultbrain-to-body ratio is about 1:50 or so. The adult chinip ratio is 1:100 or so,but the adjk rhesus ratio is i :40. There is more total surface area in thehuman cerebral cortex because of its extensive folding. But it seems fairlyclear that brain size alone is insufficient to explain language capacity. (130)

It has been claimed (and denied) that the neural anatomy of man's brain isfundamentally different from an ape's in at least three ways.

First, man's brain is latcraiized: That is, certain cognitive and motorskills have localized in either the left or right hemisphere. Нот most right-handed people, the Jeft hemisphere of the brain controls manual skills andlanguage (and vice versa for most left-handed people). Although apes oftenseem to prefer one hand over another, suggesting a potential for lateraliza-tion, it does not seem to be as profound a tendency as in man. The fact thatmanual skill (i.e., the skill associated with tool-making and tool-using) isusually localized in the same hemisphere as speech has led some anthropol-ogists to speculate that tool-making either necessarily preceded or developedconcurrently with language. Since the most recent finds in Africa suggest thatthe earliest tools date from perhaps two-and-a-half million years ago, it maybe that man has been taiking for about that long. But even if this is the case,it is very difficult U) understand why speech should depend on la legalization.Furthermore, there is abundant evidence to show that if the left hemisphereis severely damaged in very young children, the right hemisphere wili takeover the neurological speech functions. Thus it is not merely la Legalization thatis responsible for speech in man.

Second, it has been claimed (and denied) that there is an anta in thehuman brain, the angular gyrus (see Figure 2.1) that is not found in otherprimates. In man, no neural pathways directly connect the visual, auditory,

14 HISTORY AND LANGUAGE

Figure 2.1. The Human Cerebrum

and somesthetic (tactile feedback) areas. Rather, neural pathways fromeach of these areas are mingled in the angular gyms, creating a neural switch-board of great complexity, one which perhaps allows us to coordinate theability to utter (requiring fine motor control) a sound (requiring aural feed-back) that becomes the name of something seen (a visual experience). Apesallegedly do not have such an area, a claim somewhat supported by theobservation that they do not learn to obey spoken commands very readily,but do respond to visual cues.

Third, it has been alleged (and denied) that man's linguistic system ismore independent of his Liiubic system than that of the apes. (The limbicsystem is that inner patt of the brain and brain stem which is in evolutionaryterms, much older than the cerebral cortex and which controls basic motiva-tion, emotions, the more primitive mental functions.) What this is claimed toexplain is our ability to verbalize independently of our emotional needs. Apesappear to communicate only when their emotional needs are involved: se\,social contact, fear, hunger, and so on, perhaps because their communicationsystem is more directly linked to their limbic system. We need not be sexuallyaroused to make noises about it, nor need we make noises about it when weare. (123)

Finally, it is clear that our peripheral speech mechanism is substantiallydifferent from the ape's. Although the same gross anatomical features can befound in both man and ape: lungs, diaphragm, larynx, glottis, tongue, teeth,

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE 15

lips, and so on, in the ape, they are not integrated into a speech system. Evenin man, none of these features was originally intended specifically as part of acommunications system. Each feature lias its own biological function entirelyindependent of talking. But in the ape, those organs still serve almost ex-clusively their original functions: breathing, swallowing, dosing off the lungsto prevent the escape of air, chewing, and so forth. The laryngeal structureof apes simply does not allow them to articulate human sounds. In fact, it isfor this reason that a number of researchers are now attempting to teach,chimps language through some medium other than verbal: sign language,plastic chips, computer panel displays, for example, (68,168, f 86)

So along with the development of brain anatomy, we have to explain howa set of independently functioning organs came to be integrated into a physio-logical system connected with a cognitive system. Presumably, it did nothappen in one great leap across genetic space. Presumably, environmentalpressures selected those creatures who were best able to use even the begin-nings of.such a system toward an end that enhanced their chances for survival.

Design I'VLII иггч of Human Language's

Keeping these very tentative biological possibilities in mind, we mightnow ask what the crucial design features of human language are and whetherany of them depend on what is biologically unique in man. One set that hasbeen proposed is the following (87,88):

1. Vocal-auditory: Although other channels may be used (sign language orbraille, for instance), human languages are fundamentally spoken andheard.

2. Broadcast transmission: The signal is ordinarily transmitted in al! direc-tions simultaneously rather than through a narrow channel (the differencebetween a smoke signal and spelling letters in the palm).

3. Rapid fading: The signal does not remain in the channel. When a word isuttered, it disappears from our perception virtually instantly, unlike thelingering chemical traces of dogs or ants.

4. inkTchangeiiMiity: Ordinarily, all normal users of human languages canboth transmit and receive, unlike many insects whose direction of com-munication is sex-determined.

5. Complete feedback: Normal speakers are aware of their own message.6. Specialization: The energy needed to communicate is less than the

results intended by [he communication. One need not cut down a tree toCommunicate the idea.

7. Scjnanticity: The signal has meaning. It regularly correlates in some sensewith that which is within the perceptual or cognitive universes of thesender and the receiver.

16 HISTORY АГ'О LANGUAGE

8. Arbitrariness: The signal bears no iconic relationship to thai which iscommunicated. The angle of a bee dance relative ю the sun directlyrepresents the direction of the food source from the hive. The less in-tense the dance, the farther the food from the hive. The sentence, The

food is в mile north of here docs not represent distance or directioni conical!}1.

9. Discreteness: The message has parts. Each word in this sentence dis-cretely represents a bloc of information that combines into largerstructure*, and those structures into larger structures (phrases andclauses). The three distinct warning cries of a vervet monkey (one foroverhead danger, one for large-creature ground danger, one for snake-creature ground danger) holislically communicate each message. Theyhave no decomposable inner structure that could be represented bydiscrete bits of information;

overhead "I

ground П - J l <•«•*

10. Displacement: The message can be com mu nicated at a d i sta nee from Ih atwhich it refers to. Humans can speak of ancient Egyptians, who aredisplaced in both time and space. The ability of a non-human to " h o l d "the message associated with a stimulus is distinctly limited.

11. Openness: New messages can be constructed about any aspect ofexperience. Bee dances concern only food and the location of new hives.They do not (cannot) "talk about" the weather, what is happening backat the hive, and so on,

12. Tradition; The particular forms of particular human languages arepassed on culturally from generation to generation. Bee languages arepassed on through the genetic code.

13. Learn ability: The particular forms of particutar languages can belearned. Bees from one species cannot learn to communicate with the beesof another. (Certain birds, however, do acquire the "dialects" of otherbinds of the same species. When neighboring flocks have slightly differentterritorial songs, it is possible for them to "learn " Lhc others' dialect.)

14. Prevarication; Human speakers can consciously construct messages a boutthat which is counterfactual. Some primates may also have this ability,

15. ReHexivcuess: H umaiv^ can use language to talк about)anguage.16. Duality of patterning: Human communication is materially structured on

a phonetic level through the discreteness of a finite number of discerniblesound classes, on a. grammatical level independently of the phonetic levelthrough part-of-speech, subjecL-verb structures, and so on, and throughan associated semantic level that is partially independent of the gram-matical level.

THE NATURE OF LANOUAnfi 17

More recently, some linguists have claimed additional universal charac-teristics of human languages. (31) Among them arc the following:

17. Deep-surface structure: Sentences arc organized on two levels: Theirsurface level, Lhc observable order of parts of speech, and so on, and adeep level, the underlying grammatical relationships, (This is dealt withmore fully later.)

18. Grammatical categories: ЛИ human languages have grammatical cate-gories which can be gencraliy covered by the terms substantives (ornouns) and verbs. Substantive-verb relationships include actor-action,recipient-action, instrument-action, and a few others.

When we concentrate just on the ability of speakers to use language,however, we bring out what may be the most important differences betweenman and his relatives, making the problem of an evolutionary accounting yetmore complex.

19. Non-instrumental communication: The message may be freed from anyimmediate consequences. That is, non-human communications seemalways intended to bring about or maintain a state of affairs involvingterritorial claim, danger, mating, food, or social status. But a human canutter a sentence like / wonder who's kissing her now without wanting tobring about a new state of affairs. A further consequence of this is thathuman messages need have no audience to validate them. Animal signalsusually do.

20. Message isolation: The message may be communicated independently ofthe communicator. Even among the most advanced primates, messageforms ordinarily consist of not only $ound, but a complex of featuresincluding facial expression, posture, eye fixation, distance from receiver,and so on. Except for agonistic cries, primates in their natural stateusually require a multi-modal transmission of a message. Man cancommunicate by telegraph, which screens out virtually all paraiinguislicsignalling,

21. Cross-modal communication; The message may be detached from a signin one channel-type and attached to a sign in another; i.e., we can tap outmorse code, read signal flags in reply, and relay the message in braille.

22. Meaning isolation: The meaning of a message may he detached from anyovert articulation of Ihe message. Thai is, we can (though we need not)think in language without any obvious enervation of muscles controllingarticulation.

23. Meaningful violation: Human speakers nay consciously violate rulesgoverning the struct иге of a message, and their audiences can impose aninterpretation on them; c.c. cum m ings' anyone lived in a pretty hun?

IS HISTORY AND LANGUAGE

(wlik up so floating many bells down) docs not elicit a blank uncompreh end-ing stare. But if a mutant bee began doing his own dance, the other beeswould be unable to impose an appropriate meaning on it.

24. Sign change: The form of a word may be separated from its originalmeaning to take on a new meaning. The word grasp, for example, hastransferred from the manual to the cognitive sense. Similarly, the mean-ing of any word may change or the word may disappear entirely: Meatonce meant any food; score, an Old English word for a garment, hasdisappeared entirely.

Involution toward Language

Now the great problem with all of this is to synthesize what we know-about the biological foundations of language with which of these features wedecide must have been among the first steps toward language. We mightreasonably assume that the peripherat physical anatomy evolved as a con-sequence of selection for greater cognitive language ability. Ц seems difficultto understand how the diaphragm, larynx, tongue, etc, could integrate into aspeech system before the neural groundwork had developed in the brain.

The next question is whether the brain changed in one massive geneticmutation or whether different parts of the brain slowly integrated into alinguistic neural system in perhaps the same way the peripheral speech systemmust have slowly Integra Led into what it is now.

The crucial innovations toward a language that we would call rational aredisplacement and openness. The others—duality of patterning, semaniicity,broadcast tninemission, and >o on—either necessarily follow these two orobviously precede them. As a category, displacement includes the ability toverbalize or not in the presence of a stimulus that might ordinarily elicitverbal behavior: fear, hunger, sexua! attraction. The corollary is the ability toproduce the signals associated with those stimuli when they are not. present.But uttering a signal of some sort when no gratification is involved is suchstartlingly innovative behavior that it demands a preceding change in neuralorganization. If indeed we can use our verbal system independently of ourlimbic system (as apparently we can}, then we must postulate a mutation thathas had major consequences: A food cry thai could be produced when no foodwas in the immediate perceptual environment could eventually become asignal cry for an intention to find food, and then the " n a m e " of food. Thiskind of displacement ultimately allows us to hypothesize, to lie, to wish, topredict, to contradict, to contradict a contradiction, and so on, for all of theseare speech acts independent of any immediate physical referent. At the sametime, however, the other characteristic, openness, the ability to combine afinite repertoire of signals into novel sequences with novel meanings, also had

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE 19

to develop. Otherwise, we could not now wish Foi1, predict, or lie about thatwhich never was.

It is the combination of these two unique abilities: displacement, whichallows us to verbalize about that which is not immediately present either inour environment or in our internal emotional state, and openness, whichallows us to create completely new messages never before uttered, that is althe has is of rational language. For if either of these are lacking in a creature,we do not attribute to him thetapacity for rational conversation.

Almost certainly, the hominid thai was able to use and understand thegreatest number of signal cries was best able to hunt, male, and survive. Atsome moment, perhaps, one such creature must have uttered two signalcries in succession to create what was, in effect, a new message never beforeuttered. But now we face the additional problem of explaining how hisaudience was able to understand such a radical communicative innovation.For any advance in communication requires two concurrent abilities: Theability to transmit by means of the innovation, but also the ability to receiveand understand it.

Now, what is known about the ecology of our simian ancestors that mighthave created the selectional pressures leading to openness and displacement?Because their period of existence has repeatedly been pushed back farther andfarther into the mists of pre-history, explanations based on changing environ-mental conditions in any given era must be suspect. For a time, it was believedthat our distant ancestors descended from the trees when a climate changecaused their forests to disappear, leaving them grasslands as a new habitat, amore differentiated world than their forest. Because more open spaces mayhave required a greater capacity to deal with new visual experiences, visual sen-sitivity came to be much more highly valued. Perhaps (a favorite word, alongwith possibly and the phrase it may have been, when anthropologists come tothe crucial moment, in their argument), perhaps those hominids needed a greatmany more signal cries in the grasslands than they originally needed in thetrees. Finally overburdened with loo many discrete cries, even while largerbrains (i,e., larger cerebra! cortexes) were being selected for memory, acreature or creatures "hi t" on combining cries as the answer. As the braingrew, its organization changed, allowing the cries to be used in contexts wherethey were not intended as immediately relevant signals. Perbapsas the cerebralcortex grew, it also assumed a larger share of control over behavior, replacingthe limbic system to a greater and greater extent, allowing those creatures toutter a signal independently of limbic involvement.

One possible contevt in which such signal cries might have- been usedwithout iheir "referents" being present is play. If the young of »ur hominidancestor played as the young of all primates play, they "acted out" a gooddeal of adult behavior. Part of that behavior may (Note the equivocation) haveincluded play hunting, with appropriate signal cries. (No reader should beunaware of" the leap through evolutionary space in that sentence.) The

20 UI5TOE.Y AND LANGUAGE

brightest of the young were thus able to use language independently of itsprimary stimuli, perhaps those who played the longest into young adulthood.The fact that the young of humankind is so dependent for so long makes themtin usually "plastic" in their development, unusually susceptible to environ-mental experience as opposed to innately ingrained behavior.

The whole question has such a fascination that one understands why somany scholars want to propose their pet explanations. One should not waxtoo metaphysical over every pull ing biological phenomenon. But, along withlife, sentience, and self-consciousness, human language may have to be in-cluded among those features of creation which arc built on principles oforganization that transcend our ability to understand, much less explain.

In any event, how man progressed from even this primitive poLemialityfor syntax to the highly inflected languages of Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek, andLatin is similarly an object of pure speculation. But whatever their origin, toget back to the original point, there is no a priori reason to argue that thisevolution inevitably led to extensive inflections as the highest form of lin-guistic organization. It may well be that languages develop through cycles, atone time relying on inflections, then losing them as they come to rely more onword order and phrasal ways to express ideas, then developing new inflectionsout of words closely associated with other words, then losing inflections again.But.this theory covers such a vast period of linguistic evolution that there islittlesohd^evidence to confirm it as ^universal oT language history]

Probably the main reason many do believe that the complexity of agrammar depends on its inflections is that the first grammars, the grammars ofSanskrit, Greek, and Latin, were written for highly inflected languages,languages which we now esteem because in them we find much thaL is at thefoundaLion of Western and Middle liastern civilization. These languagesbecame so intellectually prestigious that for centuries, they determined howscholars thought about Lhe grammar of al! languages. Yet, as we shall see,English, which lacks an elaborate set of inflections, still has a grammar socomplex that we shall scarcely be able to give it more than a superficialexamination.

DESCRIBING LANGUAGE

The question of where to look for the primary data for a description oflinguistic structure, for the derived data of our history, is a crucial question.We have already mentioned the popular idea that only upper-middle classeducated speakers have a grammar worth studying. And because the mostpresLigious representation of that prestigious dialect is usually in its writtenliterature, many believe that writing is where the real grammar of a languagecan be found, that speech is merely corrupted writing. This encourages still

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE 21

more those who would look to the past for grammatical respectability, becauseall we have left from our distant linguistic past is writing. And ordinarily, allthat is preserved are the most important and hence most self-consciouslycomposed documents: laws, religious writings, and so on.

Written Language

The question of whether to begin with a description of written Latin orOld Fngh'sh or whether to construct first a description of contemporaryEnglish against which older forms of English can be contrasted might be putas follows: Г Г we want a theory of language that forces us to ask more ratherthan less demanding questions, would such a theory emerge if we based it onwhat we know about the language of texts in a dead language or on what weknow about our own, living language ?

What is. left from dead languages is like a drop of water from anoctan of speech. The only concrete evidence of how language was used inthe past is from what those speakers happened to write down and what theviscissitudes of time have spared. But even if a theory of langjagc werebased on written material from modern languages, it would still ignoresome of ihe most crucial facts that uniquely characterize the way humans uselanguage.

Writing is a comparatively recent invention, only about 5000 years old.Modern man has been around for at [east 200,000 years, perhaps severaltimes that long, and certainly talking the whole time. In fact, when we con-sider that a minority of just the some four to five thousand languages spokentoday have ever had their own written form, we realize that writing is arelatively rare mode of communication, that long before writing existed,thousands of languages must have developed, flourished, and died un-recorded.

More importantly, writings that have survived from the distant pastof English (more than 1000 years ago, let us say) do not give us a clear record ofthe language used in ordinary, everyday communication by the great mass ofpeople. Reading and writing were--and in many cases still are- arcane skillsknown only to a relative handful of educated men. Yet, while writing in-evitably has greater prestige than speech, we know that writing changesbecause speech changes more often than speech changes in response to writing.We also know that languages change because of the ways prestigious andпоп-prestrgious forms of speech influence tine another. Many features of whatwe would now call "grammatical" writing certainly had their source in whatonce would have been called "ungrammatical" speech.

Thus it" we relied only on evidence from the past to construct a generaltheory of language, we might seriously underesiimale the diversity of dialectsspoken within a single language. We might possess documents reflecting

22 HFSTORY AND LANGUAGE

different geographical dialects. But wt would not have records reflecting thespeech of the ordinary speaker, or, for that matter, even the casual speech ofthe person who did the writing.

Spoken Language

Another aspect of languge that writing preserves at best imperfectly isthe way a language sounds. Much has been made of" the fact that humansvocalize their language. In fact, one common definition of language amongthe school of linguists called descriptivists it that it is a set of arbitrarilystructured uttered sounds. Modern linguistics in the first half of this centurystrongly emphasized this aspect of language for two reasons.

First, they inherited a rich tradition from nineteentlvcentury philologistswho had achieved great success in establishing through parallel sound patternsthe fact that the Germanic languages (English, German, Dutch, and theScandinavian languages), the Romance languages (Latin, French, Spanish,Italian, Portuguese, Rumanian), Greek, the Slavic languages (Russian, Polish,Czech, and so on), Persian, the ancient language, Sanskrit, and snme modernlanguages spoken in Northern India were all descended from a hypotheticalcommon ancestor, Indo-European. The detailed analysis of sound changesshowed, for example, that English brother\ German bruder* Latin/rarer, Greekpkrater, and Sanskrit bhraatr were cognates, or words desccndixi from anearlier word that can only he theoretically reL-onstructed as *bhrater (the *indicates that the word has never been found in any recorded text, that it is areconstruction), (t was one of the great intellectual achievements in the historyof language SLudy. (163, 183)

Second, and more importantly, in the second quarter of this century, anew breed of linguists emerged from an anthropological discipline builtaround the questions anthropologists faced when they first walked into avillage that spoke a language completely unlike any of the Indo-Europeanlanguages. Before they could begin their research, they had to decode whatthey heard. Because the first aspect of the language accessible to them was itssound, descriptive linguists from the twenties to the present have labored todevise ways to discover and describe sound patterns. They were also in-fluenced by an auiLudc among other social scientists that valued most highlythat data which was objectively measurable. (235)

As we shall sec, because linguists have devised many ways to recoverfrom writing the general outlines of past phonological systems, we are notcompletely cut oft" from the sound patterns of a dead language. But the im-perfect relationship between spelling and sound in English should make itclear how difficult it is to use writing to discover pronunciation.

One aspect of sound that is almost completely lost, however, is the risingand falling of our voices in questions, statements, etc, the different ways we

THF- NATURE OF LANGUAfifc 23

accent one syllable rather than another as in PERveri and perYtRT, JohnALso found some money and John also FOUND some money. Again, there areways to approximate what these suprasegmenfals may have been [ike—partic-ularly through the meter of poetry— but these ways are imperfect at best. Andof course, it is just about impossible to determine what sorts of vocal signalsspeakers of an extinct language used to ex press surprise, anger, bewilderment,sadness, and so on. We cannot assume that all speakers of all languages usethe same signals to indicate these emotions, for jiaralinguistic features oflanguage vary froni culture to culture.

So in addition to excluding much of the variation of language acrosssocial, stylistic, and geographical boundaries, writing also partially cuts us offfrom the patterns of its sounds. Relying on the past to construct a theory oflanguage would severely limit the power of our theory.

PROBLEM 2.1: Man could conceivably have developed a communicationsystem based on any of his senses: sight, smell; feeling, taste, hearing. Assum-ing that evolution tends to work towards the most efficient biological systempossible within the genetic limitations of the organism, how would you justifysound over any of the other sensory systems that might have evolved to anextremely high level of complexity as a basis for communication? That is,assuming that our sense of smell might have evolved to a very high degree,what disadvantages would it still have in comparison to hearing ?

PROBLSM 2.2: Review the design features and capabilities of human languages.Then outline a science fiction plot in which humans confront a society thatlacks any two of the features. For example, what would happen in a societywhich communicated by producing balloons with sentences spelled out, as ina comic strip? And suppose those balloons did not have the characteristicof rapid fading but rather dissolved over a period of an hour or so. Wherewould choral societies have to practice? How would secrets be transmitted?What would Hamlet feel like? What would Beethoven's Ninth smell like?What would Homer taste like V

PROBLEM 2.3: What features of language can writing communicate whichspeech cannot4.

CKAMMAR AND GRAMMARS

More about a dead language can be found in its written form when we in-vestigate its grain mar, O r the ways words are made up out of smaller pieces

24 H1STORV AMp GE

and then put together into larger phrases and clauses, the way unhappiness hmade up of un-, -happi-, and -леи, the way a sentence like Unhappsness can bean educational experience can be structured:

SENTENCE

SL'EJECTVNOON PHRASE PREDICATETVKRIS PHRASE

AUXILIARY VERB COMPLFCMENTVNOUN PHRASE

ARTICLE ADJECTIVE NOUNNOUN

un- -haf>pi -ЛЕИ can be an edwea- -Поп- -al

But now a multitude of questions arise when we ask what is involved informulating the grammar of a language we all speak, much less one wedon't.

Traditional Grammars

Traditionally, writing a grammar has meant first identifying parts ofspeech, usually by means of semantic definitions: А лоно, Wkcbny, is the nameof a person, place, or thing; an adjective modifies or restricts the idea, of boy:big boys; a verb shows action: big boys play. These parts of speech are thenplaced into paradigms, or lists that show the inflectional endings they occurbefore: boy-boys-boys-boys1; wolk-waiked-walked-walk'mg, for example.Even though English has a very limited paradigmatic inflectional system,traditional grammarians have emphasized these patterns and their meanings(past, future, present, perfect, progressive, and so on, for verbs; singular,plural, possessive for nouns) because grammars of highly prestigious lan-guages like Latin and Greek depend heavily on elaborate inflectional para-digms. Without considering whether a new conception of grammar might beappropriate for Lnglish, the least, enlightened of the traditionalists simplyforce Linglish into those molds.

Once the individual words are classified, traditional grammarians listand define, again semantically, the ways in which word classes relate to oneanother in phrases and clauses: Noun-Verb (boysplay) is a subject-verb con-struction m which the subject is typically the "actor." Verb-Noun (. . . playball) is often a verb-object construction in which the object is the "receiver"of the action. The largest unit of all, the sentence, к again semanticallydefined as a "complete thought." Sentences are then classified, again seman-tically, according to whether they ask questions, give commands, makestatements, or express an optativ* (Oh, that he wouidstopf)

Traditionalists emphasize semantic definitions so strongly for severalreasons, but largely because of a common definition of language on which

THE MATURE OF LANGUAGE 25

they base their analysis: Language is a means to communicate ideas, adefinition that makes meaning central to the description of a language.

When a traditionalist sets himself to writing the grammar of a deadlanguage, his first concern is to identify parts of speech in older texts accord-ing to the principles lie has inherited from many centuries of language study.Once he has identified those parts of speech, he seLs to arranging them inparadigmatic orders that will show what kinds of endings the parts of speechoccurred with. His next concern is to describe how those parts of speechfunction in sentences in terms that will help him explain what those sentencesmean.

An area of major concern to the traditional historical grammarian, forexample, would be the tense, mood and aspect system of the verb phrase, bothbecause in languages like Latin and Greek it was communicated through avery highly developed inflectional system, and because the system itselfcommunicated a very complex set of meanings. The traditional historicalgrammarian of the year 2500 would try to explain the grammatical meaning ofModern English verb phrases like He could have been found, lie will be working,He has been being questioned in terms of the state of the action, the time rela-tive to the present, past, or future, in terms of whether the action is real orunreal Another of his tasks would be to explain clausal relationships in termsof their meanings: Because lie left would be a causal relationship; (hough he(eft would be concessive; after he left would be temporal; if he left would beconditional, (35,97,134,174)

PROBE.EM 2.4: The traditional definition of a noun is a word that names aperson, place, or thing: boy, country, rock, aggression, ambition, mind,force,spirit, meaning, love, peace., honesty, coincidence, luck. The traditional defini-tion of a verb is ttiat it indicates action: run, jump, imiate, resemble, reflect,weigh, stand, haw. Comment on the usefulness of these definitions in asentence like Coincidence resembles luck or Honesty has many aspects.

PROBLEM 2.5: Л subject is frequently defined as either the "actor" of thesentence, or that which the sentence is "about." How would these definitionsapply LO the subjects (in bold face) of the following sentences? (I) My cardrives easily. (2) The key opened the door. (3) The table hasuikey on it. (4) Georgereceived a wound. (5) Bill resembles his father. (6) № lacks intelligence. (7) Some-body said the world is going to end tomorrow. (8) The wall crawled with roachesthe size of у our fist, like (he one on your collar.

2,6: Rather than defining language a& a. way to communicate ideas,^ we began with the following definition: Lanfiuage is a way of jjer form-ing actions with speech. (I) How would a grammar be organized if it were basedon such an assumption? How would units of speech be defined? (2) Are there

2Л HISTORY AND LAIVdUAOE

any other preliminary definitions of language that would lead to differentways of organizing and writing a grammar ?

Descriptive Grammars

The descriptivists, who as we noted came out of an earlier anthro-pological tradition, rejected the traditionalists and their use of meaning todescribe the grammatical structure of a Language, first because the temper ofthe twenties and thirties stressed scientific objectivity, analysis of data with-out presuppositions, and a materialist, empirical approach in psychologythat considered only objcctiuable, quantifiable, observable behavior aslegitimate data. For behaviorist psychologists and their linguist colleagues,the mind as an observable entity did not empirically exist. Hence theoriesbuilt around its supposed operations were invalid.

This intellectual atmosphere, was reinforced when linguists found thatmany of the exotic languages they were studying required ways to categorizeparts of speech and sentence functions that were quite different from thetraditional ways. In some languages, the distinction between nouns andverbs seemed scarcely to exist. Nouns were discovered to be inflected fortense; the traditional categories of prepositions, articles, and adverbs wereoften impossible to apply consistently. The notion of verbs inflected for pastor present was irrelevant for a language whose primary interest in verbinflection was not time but whether the speaker knew from his own experiencethat an event had occurred, whether it had been reported to him, whether itwas an accepted fact. The traditional categories of perfect and progressivewere insufficient for a language that inflected its verbs for the physical shapeof their objects.

The descriptivists, therefore, adopted the stance of the behavioristpsychologists and tricti to devise purely objective, entirely formal ways todiscover and describe the structure of any language including Lnglish. First,instead of prescribing what English sentences should be like on the basis oftheir preconceived notions about sentences in Indo-European languages,they collected vast amounts of linguistic data, examples of sentences fromletters, newspapers, telephone conversations, and so on. After identifyingindividual words and parts of words on the basis of how they were pro-nounced, they grouped the words into parts of speech primarily by whatkinds of inflections they occurred before or after, and by their typical positionin a sentence relative to other parts of speech.

In English, for example, anything that occurs before a possessive orplural marker is (in one grammar) called a Class I word, noun being rejectedbecause it is too closely associated with the traditionalists. Any word beforea third person -s marker, a past tense marker, and an -ing ending is a Class I Iword, verb being rejected for the same reason noun was. Descriptivists also

ТНК NATUItP. OF LANGUAGE 27

use position as a way to define parts of speech. Thus any word that occursbetween ihe and a form of be is also a noun or Class I word: The

Гf d . Anything that occurs after a Class Г word and ends the sentence is averb or Class II word: The man This system generates several newcategories of words, such as the category including jfj, no, uh-ftuh; the cate-gory including hello, goodbye, fit, so /с>Л£; the category including ivry, sotne-what,ratker,quite.

Once individual words arc put into these categories, descriptivists try tostate their order relative to one another and how they group into phrases andclauses: veryaa6 old form a unit called an adjective phrase because the adjectiveofd may occur after or without the very, but not vice versa: He was very old orHe и-таг old, but not He was very. Larger relationships like subject-verb areagain defined not semantically as "actor" and "action" but formally:Whatever ihc verb agrees with (or might agree with) in number is the subject:The boy leaves vs. The boys leave.

The largest structure, the sentence, is defined in various ways. Thosedescriptivists most strongly committed to the belief that sounds are thebedrock of language define a sentence as whatever occurs under a singleintonation contour, a rising and falling of the voice that occurs between pointsof potential silence. Less rigorously phonological descriptivists define asentence not :is a "complete thought" but as a complete structure composedof a subject and inflected verb plus all grammatical elements dependent onthose elements. (59,66,84,2Щ

Working this way seems perfectly suited to historical linguistics. Insteadof collecting data from contemporary speakers, the linguist collects texts froman older period. He pores through the texts, discovering the pieces of wordsand whole words and how they fit together. He then groups the words intolarger classes, into parts of speech, not on the basis of reconstructed meaningbut on the basis of their inflections and positions. Then he tabulates how thevarious classes of words co-occur with one another to form larger units. Hethen describes the order of the larger elements. The complete descriptivegrammar, historical or contemporary, consists of:

I. An inventory of sounds and sound classes and how they occur relativeto one another.

2* An inventory of words and pieces of words put into various categories.3. Л description of how the pieces combine with the words or with one

another,4. Л description of how categories of words combine into larger units and

how those larger units combine with one another to form yet largerunits.

2,7: (I) WhaL kinds of inflectional criteria would define a descriptivecategory we traditionally call adjective and adverb? {2) What problems result

28 HISTORY AMD LANGUAGE

from using only inflectional criteria with these words: beautiful, additional,representative, adjacent, tennis, ought, chaos, must, chief?

PROBLEM 2,8: (1) Set up a category based purely on observable descriptivecriteria that would unambiguously define the category of these words: may,will, can, shall. (2) Do the same for in, on, at, by, over, through, under, across,of, beside, between,behind, with.

PROBLEM 2.9: What is the subject ofThere are men at the doori

Generative Grammars

In the late fifties there occurred another revolution in linguistics. In-tellectual revolution* begin when paradigms of questions exhaust themselvesand someone recognizing that fact can formulate questions directed toward aquite different conception of и subject. This happened when MIT professorNoam Chomsky argued that the questions descriptivists had been askingdepended on some serious misapprehensions they held about (.he naLure oflanguage and the goals of language study. Chomsky argued that what we candiscover about language strictly from collecting data made up of objectivelyobservable units of speech will give us but a fraction of what we actuallyknow about the mental grammar we have all developed from before the Limewe began speaking. Chomsky proposed that representing this grammar thatwe carry about in our beads should be the goal of linguists. This grammar islocked away in the brain, inaccessible to direct observation. But by askingwhat we know about our ability to produce and understand sentences, we candiscover something of its properties and perhaps partially and very indirectlyrepresent that ability in the grammar we write down on paper. (31, 32)

Tn fact, this question—what indeed do we implicitly "know" aboutsentences?—is the problem. We may not "know" in the explicit sense thatwe can technically explain how sentences are put together. But we alt im-plicitly, tacitly "know" a grammar. Otherwise, we could not speak our ownlanguage.

GRAMMATICALLY

Usage vs. Structure

Obviously, the nature of the grammar we write down in order to repre-sent the grammar we carry about in our heads is going to depend on what wediscover we know about sentences. First, we know that some sentences are

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE 29

correctly structured and others are not. The terms grammatical and шьgrammatical are commonly used here. But they mean something quitedifferent from junior-high-school ideas about "good grammar." We shall usethese- terms as value-free labels to categorize sentences that do or do notcorrespond to the possibilities or" English sentences that are ordinarily usedby any group of English speakers. We do not mean the prescriptions taughtin junior high about not ending sentences with prepositions, not wing ain't,when to use shall instead of wilt, and s» on. These are problems of usage.Many teachers call them grammatical errors. And in a very special and re-stricted way. perhaps they could on occasion be called that. More accurately,though, they arc only grammatical patterns or word choices varying slightlyfrom the patterns that some educated speakers use, often only m their self-conscious moments and usually only when they are writing. Indeed, mosteducated speakers, quite unselfconsciously, split their infinitives, end sen-tences with prepositions, use will for all persons and numbers.

Unfortunately, except when past rhetoricians specifically commented onusage, it is almost impossible to discover much about the distant history ofprestigious and non-preitigious speech patterns, A few comments about theappropriateness of the London dialect as a linguistic standard and the use ofcenain dialects for comic purposes in Chaucer and elsewhere have come downto us from Middle English. But not until the sixteenth century do we findany specific observations about contemporary attitudes toward usage, andeven then, the comments are often contradictory. It is a problem we will(shall ?) deal with again. (] 31)

PROBLEM 2.10: Here are some sentences that deviate from standard English,some because they belong to a non-standard dialect, others because theyviolate a basic core of English structure. If you can identify those that wouldbe used by non-standard speakers, how would your ability to do so serve asevidence thaL such sentences are in fact regularly structured with their owngrammar? (I) He ain't can't have no money. (2) He ain't got no money. (3) Hebe have may gone. (4) He gone now. (5) She can may go. (6) She may can go.0) Him and me done finished now. (8) They done may be finished with he and she.(9) Can't nobody tell him nothing. (iG) hnt somebody tell'him anything ?

A more significant kind of ungrammatically is that which violates thecentral core of grammatical structures shared by all speakers of a language.These next sentences, for example, would not be uttered by a native speaker°f English. Or, jf they were, he would cither correct himself, or, on reflection,

i7je Lhat they were somehowLl odd " :

1 • Street went down man the.2* The man walked the do wn street.

39 HISTORY AMD LANGUAGE

3. The man wan! not down the street.4. Went the man do wn the street ?

All of them ate wrong for speakers of Modem English. But while the patternof (1) and (2) would have been wrong at any time, (3) and (4) would have beencorrect for Shakes pea re.

The second part of that conclusion is not difficult to arrive at since wefind lines in Shakespeare's plays like

5. Know'st tkou Fluellen ?Непгу V. III.l.6. Stands Scotland where it did ? Macbeth. IV. j j i,7. 1know not bywhatpower/am made bold. MSN" D. Г ri,8L Nay, goe not from me.. . Ъ Henry VI. I.I.

But the first part or the cone [J si on has to be entirely inferential because wecannot ask any speaker of ModE what a speaker of OE or ME (MiddleEnglish)1 would think about such sentences as (1) and (2), We can onlyconclude that such sentences would probably have heen ungrammaticalbecause we can find no sentences similar to them.

The problem becomes much more difficult, however, when we wonderwhether л sentence iike He should hate, been working would have been gram-matical for, say, Chaucer, It is perfectly grammatical for a ModE speaker, butnowhere in ME do we find a combination Uksshetdd + have + been + V-ing.Does that mean it was ungrammatical and therefore never used ? Or does itmean iL just never happened to be written down?

This is not a serious problem for the descriptivist or traditionalist whoconcerns himself primarily with describing the language found only in extanttexts. Ft is a serious problem for a historical linguist if he looks upon evidencefrom the past as only a very small part of what a speaker might have writtenor said, and his intention is to create a grammar thai will account for morethan just extant data. He must constantly ask himself whether structures thatare possible for him in ModE but not attested to in OE or ME are missingfrom the texts accidentally or because they were not part of the grammar.11 What might have been " is a crucial problem for such a linguist, (231)

Ambiguity and Relatedoess

Another ability that a modern transformationalist is concerned with isdemonstrated in a sentence like The chicken is ready to eat and in the pair ofsentences John is easy to please and To please John is easy. The first sentenceis grammatically ambiguous. It can mean either that the thicken is about toeat or be eaten. The fact that any native speaker of English can recognize such

1 The dates assigned to O£ and ME яге arbitrary; most linguists put the end of OE atabout AD. 1100, the end of ML al about л,п, 1500,

THE MATURE OF LANGUAUE 31

an ambiguity illustrates that we are able to recognize how the observablesurface order of elements that make up the grammatical structure of what wehear or read can communicate very different underlying relationships amonglinguistic elements.

This implies that a sentence has two levels of grammatical structure.There h the observable order of words and their observable connections, orthe surface structure of a sentence. And there is a deeper structure that relateselements on a more abstract level In The chicken is ready to eat, nothing inthe form of the sentence reveals that chicken can be either the subject orobject of eat. But al some level of structure deeper than the simple orderof elements in that sentence, we know that that is the case. Otherwise, wecould not detect the ambiguity.

M 2.11: All these sentences have two different meanings that dependon different grammatical deep structures. How are they ambiguous ?

1. The та» was too old to help.2<. Flying planes can be dangerous.3. They called him a butler.A* He didis11 marry her because lie loved her,5. In conclusion, he said many foolish things.6. George was cooking in the kitchen.

We come to the same conclusion about grammatical surface structuresand grammatical deep structures it' we ask how it is we know that the sen-tences, John is easy t ft please and To please John is easy are synonymous. Theyhave very different surface structures, very different word orders, yet at adeeper level, they mean precisely the same thing; they have precisely the sameset of abstract relations among their elements. In other words, related nessis the other side of the coin from ambiguity: Ambiguous sentences have onesurface structure and at least two different deep structures. Related sentenceshave two surface structures and one deep structure. (94,132)

And here again, if we take as one of the goals of our grammar a descrip-tion of this fact, we raise some very difficult problems for the historian oflanguage. Because these relationships can become very abstract and verydifficult to describe even for a speaker of a modern language, they are evenmore difficult to describe for languages which no one any longer speaks.

The point of this brief summary of the kinds of concerns linguists havewhen they ask questions about the grammar of a language is that as newtheories of language come to dominate the thinking of those writing grammars

p| contemporary languages, historians of languages are forced to ask newKinds of questions about the data they are examining, indeed, to " see" data* a t linguists of other persuasions do not. As their understanding of what a

l v 'ng language is like changes, so do their goals in describing a language noJongerspoken.

32 HISTORY AND T.iNfi LI AC i H

lUit perhaps the most crucial point is that modem linguists no longerlook primarily to the past to he!p them understand the grammar ol" a lan-guage, but into their own intuitions as native speakers of a human language.In other words, we will understand our linguistic history only when weunderstand our linguistic present.

LANGUAGE AND MKANING

In addition to the sounds and structures of the past, of course, we are con-cerned with words, their meanings, and the meanings of the sentences theyoccur in. But we have only to think how inadequate any dictionary definitionis for words like lore, peace, or democracy to realize that most of what we callmeaning cannot be written down. And when those words are combined intosentences like Peace with honor is justice in a democracy, we recognize that evenif we could define individual words, those words in grammatical sir uclures addup to a total meaning thai is not the mere sum of the individual meanings.

Traditional grammarians have always been concerned with meaning, hutmeaning of a rather narrow kind; verb tenses, clausal relationships, kinds ofnouns (common and proper, abstract and concrete), and so on. Descriptivegrammarians set aside the problem of meaning in order to concentrate onobservable forms and how they occur with one another. They talk in termsof grammatical meaning that can be abstracted from lexical meaning, of thegrammatical meaning o£'T«esbriSig, ami tbcsShhy tores / Bid gyre and f>imt>k>in the wahe. . . . More recently, however, transformational linguists haveturned baek tn lexical mea uing because they have set as their task a descriptionof how semantic content is " ma pped "on to syntactic and phonological forms.

Unfortunately, no area of language study is more obscure, more difficultto formulate in terms that would let us study it- The meaning of "meaning"has been debated at least since the pn>Socralic philosphers of ancientGreece. It is a question that has so preoccupied modern thought that somephilosophers have claimed that philosophical problems arc really linguisticproblems and that the proper task of philosophy is to untangle linguisticсо п fu si о n s i n t h e way we pose ou г q ucstions r

Because different disciplines have approached the problem of meaningdifferently, it is no surprise that there are as many different ways to describemeaning as there ane disciplines. Neurologists define meaning as the selectiveactivation of neural networks at varying amplitudes and frequencies inresponse to linguistic and nonlinguistit stimuli, resulting in chemical changesin the molecular structure of large molecules. Psychologists have definedmeaning variously as mental images, as conditioned substitutions for wordreferents, as dispositions to behave, as the network of associations a word is

THE NATURE ОГ LANGUAGE 33

part of. Philosophers have defined meaning in a multitude of ways: as how aword or sentence is used, in what is necessary to confirm its truth, in theexistence of wo rd~refcrents, in the "essence" of a referent. . . . (191,207)

When a question about the meaning of a partkubr word arises, though,we usually think first of the dictionary, where along with a good deal ofadditional information about spelling, pronunciation, etymology, and so on,we can find its ''meaning. " Л typical entry minus all irrclevancies might looklike this:

Chair: A scat for one person; now usually the four-kggedscat with a rest for the back.

Typically, the definition puts the word to he defined into a larger or suptr-ordinale class, in this case seat. Seal names the larger class of concepts towhich the concepts covered by chair belong, along with the concepts coveredby stool, bench, hassock, settee, perch, and so on. Once the superordinatecategory, seat, is named, those features which distinguish the word chairfrom those other words otganize the definition into finer and finer sub-ordinate classes:

Seat

(to distinguish from perch)

(to distinguish from ioie seat)

(to distinguish from hassock)

for back (to distinguish from stool)

We may choose different kinds of subset differentia to distinguishmembers of the superordinate set, choosing criteria by what the object isused for, as we would have to with hammer; how it is made, for net; what itis made of, for glacier; what it does, for heart, and so on. But if the word isriot defined merely by listing synonyms or pointing to a picture, the pattern°f definition is invariably the same: The word to be defined is placed in asuperordinate set and then distinguished hy subordinate differentia.

A problem of theory in regard to dictionary definitions is that everydefinition depends on words the reader already knows and the words thatha to be in the language. This, of course, finally leads to theoretical

34 HISTORY AMD

circularity since the words used in a definition must themselves be defined byother words, which in turn must be defined, and so on.

PROBLEM 2.12; Pick any fairly general word in the dictionary that would beused in the definition of a more specific word, a word like shape, substance,man, good, and look up a key word in its definition. Then look up the keywords in its definition. At how many removes do the definitions becomecircular, referring back to an earlier word ?

Recently, linguists have approached the problem of meaning from adifferent direction. When we examine the meaning of groups of words thatbelong to the same semantic space or lexical field, we often find they occur insymmetrical sets. Kinship terms, for example, always occur in sets whosemembers are distinguished by only a few component of meaning. The Onlysi: man Lie distinction between the members of the pairs husband-wife, uutit-uncle, sister-brother, son-daughter, father-mother is whether the referent ismale or female; father-brother-sort, mother-sisier-daughJer, auttt-cousin-niece, unde-cousin-nepnew differ only in whether the referent is in the ascend-ing, descending, or the same generation. Ssbling-cauxin, nephew-son, parent-Uftdejauni differ in whether the referent is a direct lineal relation or onceremoved. In fact, we could define all these words more economically than adictionary would by specifying only which of the pairs of complementarysemantic features are in the meaning:

1. father: [ + male, +1 generation, + lineal)2. mother: [—male, + ] generation, + lineal]3. son: [+male, — 1 generation, + lineal]4. daughter: [-male, - I generation, + lineal]5. uncle: [ + male, +1 generation, —lineal]6. aunt: [—male, + 1 generation, —lineal]1, brother; [+male, 0 generation, -f lineal]8, sister:[ ~ male, 0 genera tion, + li iieal](J2,203)

PROBLEM 2.13: (I) What features compose the meanings of nephew, niece,cousin, parent, relative, father-in-law'1. (2) Are there clusters of semantic-features for which we have no words? What word means [± male, —1 genera-tion, -lineal]; for [-male,0generation, -lineal]?

Originally, these techniques were of interest only to anthropologistsinterested in describing tajionomic semantic systems such as kinship, disease,and plant names. More recently, generative semanticists have attempted toadapt such a system to describe words in general. The meanings of idea andrack, for example, contrast in one basic way: abstract vs. concrete, a contrastwe can represent as [+ concrete]; between grass and snail is the opposition

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE 35

[+animate]; between snai/and woman, [± human]; between woman and girl,[± adQIl]; between girl and bvy\ the familiar contrast of [±male]. (29, 101,102)

Because this approach to meaning is still in Us formative stage, manyproblems remain to be solved: the kinds of conceptual opposition*, the numberof features, whether some features might require a scale of numbers ratherthan just [I ,.'•--]. Most importantly, it is clear that the features must begrouped and structured. The definition of chair as a seat with a back for oneperson to sit on would have to include at least this information:

person

with legs J

four

In other words, we are dealing with meaning as if '*a meaning" were decom-posable into molecules, atoms, and perhaps even atomic particles, all of whichare organized into very complex structures.

When this theory of meaning is applied to problems of historical seman-tics, however, the same problems of describing grammatical structure in deadlanguages arise, but more severely. For this theory of meaning, like thetheory of generative grammar we described, relies on introspection, on askingoneself about meaning and contrasts of meaning. But this is no simple taskeven when we ask about our own language. It is very difficult to recover thiskind of meaning entirely from the contexts in which we find words in thoserelatively few tests a dead language has left us.

What this also demonstrates is the futility of looking Lo older forms of alanguage to tell us about our own. We know infinitely more about the mean-ings of words in the language we speak than we ever will about words in anydead language. So again, we cannot begm with the past in constructing atheory of meaning, much less a theory of language.

To summarize the point of this very superficial outline of some theoriesabout linguistic structure: When we ask questions about the nature of lan-guage or about its history, the theory we base our questions on will determine•what questions we ask. The assumptions we base our theory on whether welook to the past for a more perfect form of grammar and consequently haveto rely on writing as the source of our information, or whether we rely first onwhat we can discover about our own linguistic competence, as difficult as it

36 HISTORY AMD

may be to probe and represent in a written grammar—such assumptions willstrongly determine the kind of theory we construct.

SOME CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF LANGUAGE CHANGE-:

Now these theories will provide us with a way to describe what has changedin the internal structure of our language, Hut a grammar (including phonologyand semantics) is only one component in what we might term a theory oflanguage- Language is more than its grammar. It is an instrument by whichwe perform most of the social acts that constitute a society. It reflects, indeedmay on occasion determine, our social class. Some believe that it evendetermines how we structure our perceptions of reality. In short, language ispart of a larger set of interlocking cultural and social structures that we movein from the moment the doctor announces It*s a , with alE the socialvalues the terms boy and girl entail, to the obligatory final ritual (moststereotypically expressed in westerns and nautical movies, when someone isrequired to "say a few words" over a body). We can recognize how highly-valued language is in our culture when we celebrate the first word a childutters and make collections of the last words of great men. In such a contest,language will change when culture and social conditions change. And it isin these external changes that we may be able to find some of the causes ofinternal linguistic change.

We have already touched on one obvious source of linguistic change:external social forces. The invasion of England by the Danes and Normansprofoundly affected our language. So did printing. So did the social turmoilof the fourteenth century. So has our science and technology. Another im-portant social source of linguistic change are the differences among geo-graphical and social dialects. Inevitably, given several social/geographicaldialects, a prestige dialect will emerge to influence and be influenced by otherdialects. Tn order to explore this aspect of language, we must describe thesocial conditions in which language is used and the elements that may cause arigid social structure to become fluid, so that speakers from different classeswilt come into contact with one another.

But other sources of change may be found in the internal structure of thegrammar itself. This will be a very difficult question t" discuss because wehave to treat the structure of the grammar as if it were a real model of thespeaker's mind. Once a native speaker unconsciously formulates in his mindthe grammar of his language, that grammar may be very well organized andvery well integrated. But at certain points, it may also be unnecessarilycomplex or redundant. The simplest example of this kind of inefficient com-plexity in English is found in our verbs. The most economical rule that would

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE 37

account for the past tense of verbs would be something like this: Verb -E-verb-ed. Jn ModE, though, we have to list well over a hundred exceptions tothis rule: buy-boughs,sellsoM, siftgsmg, and so on. But in OE, there werehundreds of exceptions. We seem to be very slowly simplifying a point ofunnecessary complexity ill the grammar.

The reason speakers simplify their grammars is undoubtedly to be foundin some- kind of principle of least effort that all humans rely on when theyconstruct schema or models for their behavior and understanding But thisprinciple probably operates most powerfully among children as they learn alanguage. Children, for example, often go through four stages when theylearn irregular verbs. In the first stage, they often are able to use irregularverbs correctly: He saw. In the second and third stages, they combine theirregular past or the infinitive with the -ed ending: He sawed and He seed.Finally, they learn to use the verbs as they are used in the dialect they growup in. If it happens to be standard English, then they will eventually learn tosay Ш saw again. But between every generation there is probably a slightgrammatical discontinuity. The language is not passed on from parent tochild perfectly. The child will make some mistakes. If enough similar mistakesare made by enough children, then those mistakes may become part of thegrammar tor that generation of children, a grammar that wili be passed on tothe next generation.

These, then, are the kinds of problems we shall investigate. Because wehave to understand the social and cultural contexts in which changes occur,we shall begin by examining those contexts through the sources of ourvocabulary, an aspect of language particularly sensitive to cultural change-Then in Chapter Six we shall deal with how we create words out of the basicmaterial of our lexicon, and in Chapter Seven how the meanings associatedwith those forms evolve. In Chapters Nine through Fourteen, we shallexamine how the grammar and sound patterns of our language have changed.

PROBLEM 2,14: (1) What are some occasions in our culture, other than birthand death, where the use of language is essential, where if certain words arenot spoken, the moment loses its significance or becomes entirely invalid?(2) Why does the Gospel according to John begin as it does? (3) What wouldit feei like, do you suppose, to be an adult and literally have no name? Notto have forgotten it or to be unable to lind it, but literally to have been givenno name ever? (4) Are there any social situations or events where speech istacitly forbidden?

PROBLEM 2Л5: Between the bee and man there is a great linguistic gap. In aseries of minimal steps, evolve the language of bees until it approximates thecommunicative capacity of man. Bees communicate distance by dancingincreasingly less intensely as distance from the hive to the source of foodincreases. Direction is indicated by translating the axis of the sun-hive to a

38 HISTORY AND LAJ^GLWGE

vertical line inside- the hive and the» by dancing at an angle from verticalcorresponding to the angle formed between the sun-hive-food source, Tlieirmode of communication, of course, would have to develop out of the intensityof their buzzing and the movements of their dance.

PROBLEM 2,16: What would be the minimal unequivocal evidence that aprimate now being trained to communicate via sign language or plasticcounters had the ability to communicate on a ievel approximating humancommunication? (It is almost certain that the mode would not be verbal,since the Jaryngeal structure of primates is not well adapted to the productionof finely articulated sounds.)

PROBLEM 2,17: The boldface examples in tlie following sets are considered"ungraminatical." Construct a logical argument that would support theclaim that they are preferable to their grammatical counterparts,

1. Myself, yourself hisself, herself, ourselves, Iheirscl ves.2. I am 't, у аи aren' ?, it isn't, we aren't, (hey aren't.3. I wasn*r, you wasn't, it waSn t, we weren't,you weren't, they weren't.4. I jumped, you danced, she ruiuicd, we singed, you gfted, they worked.

PROBLEM 2 J 8 : Here are several words from the semantic field referring to theuse of language. They all seem to imply judgment, (1) What can you concludefrom these words about our attitudes toward how people use language?(2) Are attitudes toward the use of language the same in all parts of theEnglish-speaking world? Are there stereotyped ethnic or sex differences inlanguage use? (3) What use of language appears to be most highly valued,reticence or поп-reticence ?

1. talk, chatter, gab, prattle, gabble, babbie, jabber, clack, gossip, chat,

2. talkative, gabby, wordy, gossipy, soluble, loquacious, garrulous, prolix,diffuse, bigmouthed, fafmouthed, glib.

3. shrew, nag, gossip, fishwife, chatterbox, windbag, higmouth, fatmauth,magpie, scold, harpy, termagent.

4. taciturn, Income, reticent, concise, trenchant, brief, terse, pointed, pithy,succinct, crisp, sententious, epigrammatic, elliptical, crabbed, curt.

PART II

WORDS AND MEANINGS

Chapter 3

WORDS: NATIVE AND BORROWED

OLD ENGU5EI AND В КРОНЫ

Of ah the aspects of language that charge through time—pronunciation,spelling, usage, grammar, meaning, and vocabulary—meaning and vocabularyare the most sensitive to the external social and historical forces that deter-mine which words a culture preserves from its own heritage and which wordsit borrows from others. Particular meanings change themostidiosyncratically.We could never have predicted that the meaning once attached to dweltwould shift from " lead into error" to its current sense. There are some largegeneralizations we can make about how meanings change, but they arerelatively few.

The total lexicon of a language, however, is a very accurate linguisticbarometer to the broad social and historical changes in the history of aculture. Given the relevant cultural information, we could have predictedfairly accurately the general makeup of our ModE vocabulary and its sources.We know that some kinds of words arc so durable that they will for centuriesresist the most violent vicissitudes of time: hand, foot, mother, father, head,heart, sun, moon, sleep, eat, and so on. Other words predictably disappear:OE wergild, the money a murderer had to pay to the family of his victims;

41

42 WORDS AND

OE к и т , a hairy garment; ОС freox, a hurting spear. Cultural necessity hasforced other words into the language through borrowing, derivation, orcreation: machine» cab, crime, jazz, etiquette, chocolate\ albino, ghetto, syrup,candy, shawl, jungle, iycoon> taboo, tote, blender, television, retrorocket.

The Origin nf Words

How and where the first words originated has always puzzled linguistsand philosophers. When Socrates and Hermogcncs debated the question2000 years ago, they argued whether words related naturally to the thingsthey named. It is it notion that helps explain much of the magic and folkbelief found almost everywhere in the world. The Egyptians, for example,gave everyone two names, a public name and a secret one; they believed ifsomeone knew a person's real name, he would have power over the person.In other cultures, word-magic takes the form of taboos against uttering thename of a god, or the name of certain relatives, or even words that sound likethose words. (60)

The relationship between a word and its referent is for the most partarbitrary. The shape or sound of a word has no natural relationship to thething it names. There may be a narrow range of words that could illustratephonetic imitation: boom, clangs hiss, screech, and so on. And a few othersmay illustrate principles of conventionalized phonetic symbolism: Teeny issmaller than tiny, for example. But among the hundreds of thousands ofEnglish words, they are a very tiny (even teeny) minority. So if primitive mandid create words by imitating sounds around him, the words have changed sogreatly that almost all traces of the original association have disappeared.The sound of the word dog does not resemble one.

The other speculated sources are equally problematical: the grunts andgroans of work, cries of joy and sorrow, sounds made by the tongue imitatingthe shape of an object. Nor does it help to study the language of the mostprimitive peoples in the jungles of South America or the Philippines, Suchlanguages are as mature, as complex, as expressive for the needs of theirspeakers as any modem European, African, or Asian language.

Thus what we must begin with as we seek out the history of any specificlanguage are not speculations about fancied linguistic prehistory, but the"givens," the oldest words that we can trace back to the earnest texts.

Oldest Words in Knglish

In English, the oldest data are the words we can find in written texts andcarved monuments surviving from the Old English period (c. A.D. 450-e, 1100).

3.1: While it is not easy to explain why every item among the wordsleft to us from OE should have endured, been replaced or lost, we can make

WORDS Г NATIVE AND RORROWEn 43

some general preliminary observations if we examine this Ikt of words. Thosestarred have beer completely lest from the language. The others are directancestors of the Modern English word found in parentheses. Why have welost some and retained others?

* coward (consecrated bread used as a lest for truth), "dolgbot (compensa-tion for wounding), wtf (wife), jod (food), *pqft (bench for rowers),*scofa (a hairy garment), stars (stone), *peox (hunting spear), winter(winter), *eafor (tenant obligation to king to convey goods), god (good),*fiytme(& hiood-letting instrument), wster(water), *feohfang(the offenceof bribe-taking), brodor (brother). *eam (mother's brother), *nrsed(quick), *barda (beaked ship), com (corn), blod (blood), hand (hand),gntnd (ground), kind (land), *faSe (father's sister), win (wine), heorte(heart), keo/od (head), lufit (love), siepan (sleep), *steting (huntingrights), silian (sit), *zwitl(a narrow-necked basket),

> A Note on Pronunciation: The letters in OE had roughly the followingvalues. <5> and <в> were pronounced like <th> in thing when they occur at thebeginning or end of a syllable or next to a <p>, <t>, <c>, or <h>. Otherwisethey are pronounced like <th> in the, <f> and <s> were pronounced like <f>and <s> in fit and sit at the beginning or end of a syllable or next to a <p>, <t>,<c>, or <h>. Otherwise they were- pronounced like <v> and <z> respectively.<sc> were pronounced like <sh) in ship before Lhe Setters <i> and <e), like<sk) in skip elsewhere. At the end of a word or before a consonant (h> hadthe German quality of <ch> in Back. Before or after <i> or <e>, <g> was likea heavily aspirated <y> in yield; before or after back vowels <a>, <o), and<u>, it was pronounced like the voiced equivalent of German <ch). Otherwiseit was like ModE <g) in grass. <g> was always pronounced after <n>, as inModE fonger.

OF. vowels were either long or short, but since OE manuscripts did notindicate quantity by diacritical marks or spelling, we have not used lengthmarks here. The vowels have their continental values: <i> as in see or sit;<e> as in bate or bet; <ж> as in bar от a lengthened pronunciation of bad;<a> as in hot or a lengthened pronunciation of hod; <o> as in bought or boat;<4> as in рш от pool. In early OE, <y> was like a long or short German <u),but in later OH. iL represented the same values as <i>.

THE MOST DISTANT ORIGINS: INDO-FCUROPEAN

If we can infer a good deal about an older culture from the words it no longeruses, we can also discover a good deal from the words it passes on. From thew d in Problem 3.] and from others, we know that those which have been

44 WORDS AND MEANINGS

preserved cover some of the most basic objects, actions, and concepts ofdaily Jife, words like hand, food, wife, sun, hause, stone, go, sing, eat, see, sleep,good, wise, cold, sharp, in, on, off, ot>er. These concepts are so independent ofparticular cultures, so basic to human life that it is almost certain we wouldfind in ail languages tbaL words for these concepts have been passed on fromgeneration to generation for centuries, pronounced and spelled differently,perhaps, but basically the " same" word. (3,44,128)

PROBLEM 3.2: Words from several languages that refer to roughly the sameconcepts are shown in Table 3.1. What do you conclude from the fact that insome cases, among several languages, roughly the same mean ing is representedby words that are rather similar to one another, but in other cases are notVThat is, night is rather close to Sanskrit nakiam but very different fromJapanese ban.

FROBI-FM 3.3: Here are some words in various languages for aluminum:French: alamtttum, Spanish: atuminio* Italian: вНшптю, Dutch: aluminium,Danish: aluminium. Polish: aluminjum, Hungarian: aluminium, Turkish:аШттуот, Indonesian: aluminium, Russian: alyununi, Arabic: akminyoum,Japanese: aruminyuumu. Why are they alike ?

As Problem 3.3 demonstrates, words can resemble one another fromlanguage to language because they have been borrowed from some commonsource. Hut when we consider the likelihood of borrowing the word foraluminum and the likelihood of borrowing words so basic and common asmow, night, hundred, and so on, we can also tentatively reject borrowing asan explanation of widespread similarities among the most common words indifferent languages. The more plausible explanation assumes that in eachlanguage, the words must have been inherited from some common ancestorlanguage, and that through time, in different descendant languages, the formsof the words gradually changed.

Once we establish the principle that similar words with similar meanings(or meanings which at one time we might speculate were similar) may bedescended from some common but now lost ancestor form, it becomespossible to reconstruct in very rough outline some of those earlier ancestralwords. If, for example, we compare the word for mother in the languages wesuspect are related to a single ancestor, we can create a form from which therecorded ancient and modem words for mother can be consistently derived.Compare these words: English mother, Dutch tnoeder, Icelandic mofyr,Danish moder, Irish mdthir, Russian mate, Lithuanian mote, Latin mater,Persian madur, Sanskrit matt: From the features these share, we could postu-late as the parent form this hypothetical root: * mater. Lach letter in the rootis a symbol from which we can derive by means of a set of phonological rules

COGNATE AND NON-COGNATE WORDS

EnglishGermanDutchSwedishLatinFrenchSpanishItalianRumanianGreekPolishCzechRussianSanskritHungarianFinnishTurkishArabicSwahiliJapaneseChinese

nightnachtnachtnattnoctisnuiLnouhcnottenoaptenuktosnocnocnochnaktaejszakayogcoelay lausikubanwan

snowschneesneeuwsno

nlvisneigenievenevezapadaniphasniegsnihsnye'ksnehaiho

lumikargal idthclujiyukihsueh

sevensiebtnzevensju

septeinsepc

sielftscltcsapteheptasiedemsedmsycmsapfcahetseitsemanyedisabaasabashichichi

footfussvoetfot

pcdispiedpiepiedepiciorpod osstopano hanagapallabjalkaayakqadamniguuashichiao

fishuschvisiiskpiscispoissonpescadoренсеpestepsarirybarybaribatnatsyahhalkalabaliksamaksamakisakanayii

heartherzharthjartauordisCftUT

corazoncuoreinimakardiasercesidcesye'rtsehftl-szivsydankalbqalbmoyoshinhsin

hundredhunderthonderdhundracenlumcentdcntocentosutahekatonMostostosatamszazsatayuzmaahniiahyakupai

tenzehnticntiodecemdi?tdiezdieci2£ С Й

cfekadziesitjidesetdyiisitdasatizkymmenenonaiiharakumajuushih

toothzahntandtanddcntisdentdientedentedinteodontosTabzubzupdantfogliammaadisfinjinohache

46 WORDS AND MEANINOS

the sounds of cognate words found in dcsccndanL languages. It does notnecessarily represent the way the ancestor word was actually pronounced atany given moment in our linguistic prehistory, though it very likely isreasonably close to it.

Certainly, Indii-European, the name of the reconstructed hypotheticalcommon ancestor Language, was itself once a dialect or collection of dialectsof some even more distant progenitor. Some linguists have attempted—andfailed—to group them with the Hamito-Semitic languages (including Arabic,Hebrew, Aramaic, Coptic, Berber, and the North African Cushitic dialects)or the Finno-Ugric (Finnish and Hungarian). But no one has found enoughevidence to confidently relate the large and scattered group of modernIndo-European languages with any other language family.

PROBLEM 3.4; We have seen that from OE words and their meanings, we carideduce something about Anglo-Saxon culture, even if we had no firsthandknowledge of England, its location, or its climate. OE words for referentslike the ocean, winter, ships, deer, fish, oak trees, chalk, and so on would leadus to a Northern European location somewhere close to the sea. Numerouswords for concepts in law suggest an elaborate legal code based on duty <sndpayments. Words for mother's brother and father's brother suggest a kinshipsystem more complex than ours and one that seems to emphasise malekinship structures.

Here are some data (some of it misleading) about words common toIndo-European languages, plus some geographical, botanical, and sociologicaldata that wiil allow a rough guess about the general area of the originalJndo-European homeland. (1) Sanskrit, the oldest of the IE languages withextensive extant documents (с. 150Пв.с.) was spoken in Northern India.(2) Tobacco, referring to a plant now found around the eastern end of theMediterranean, is found in almost all modern IE languages. 0) Cognates forthe following wfinis or other words for their referents are found in a widevariety of IH languages: snow, freezing cold, winter, summer, spring: oak,beech, birch, willow; bear, wolf, otter, beaver, weasel, deer, rabbit, mouse, ox,horse, sheep, goat, pig, dog, snake, tortoise, ant, eagle, hawk, owl, herd,salmon, cow, udder; cheese, mead (a fermented drink containing honey);wheel, <ixleL door, timber, thatch, yoke, wagon, bronze, ore; seed, sow, sew,weave; father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, widow, woman'srelatives by marriage; the numbets one through ten and the number onehundred, ^4) Cognates for the following words or their referents are notfound in a wide variety of IE languages: monkey, elephant, camel, tiger;olive, palm tree, desert, rice, bamboo, grain, furrow, wheat, mow: gold, iron,steel: ocean, sea, ship: king, man's relations by marriage such as scm-iti-iaw,(5) The silver birch is found in thick forest north of 45° north latitude andwest of the Vistula River. The beech is indigenous cast of Poland and theUkraine and south of 60^ north latitude. (6) Bees are not indigenous to most

WORDS: NATIVE AND EJOKROWF.D 47

of Asia. (7) The salmon is found in northern European waters and a similarfish is found in the Caspian Sea.

(1) What can be reconstructed of the culture of those IE speakers?(2) How might we estimate the approximate age of IE from cognate words?

Exactly what happened five or six thousand years ago is, of course,impossible to reconstruct. But it is likely that for some reason, groups amongthe IE tribes began migrating first to the east and south, then in all directionsfrom their original homeland. Not long after, their language, probablyalready more a collection of dialects than a single uniform tongue, began tochange until the dialects became mutually unintelligible languages. With nowritten standard and wiLh virtually no significant contact over what for theirspeakers must have been immensely long distances, nothing interfered withthe natural tendency of every language to change. (7, &, 23,62,2 IS)

Iridu-Iluroiiean > West I uropcan

It has been thought that IE first split into Eastern and Western branchesbecause of the widespread correspondences of one particular sound changeeast and west of a line running roughly north and south at about 2011 eastlatitude.

East of this line, the original *k- sound in IE changed to a sibilant, a sor sh sound. The IE root for hundred, *kmldm, became sat am in Sanskrit,Simtas in Lithuanian, suto in Old Slavic. In the Western branch, it remained k,as in Latin ceirfum and Celtic can/, then changed to ft in the Germanic lan-guages : hundred, or to s or ch in Romance languages: cent, cie

3.5: Does this confirm or contradict your conclusions about thetE homeland? Why?

The Eastern branch then "split into two: (I) the Ralto-Slavic, whichincludes Lettish, Lithuanian, and Old Prussian among the Baltic; andBulgarian, Slovenian. Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Czech, and Russian among theSlavic; and (2) the In do-Iranian, which includes modem Persian, Hindi,Bengali, and Romany—the traditional language of the Gypsies (a wordadapted from Egyptian, from whence Ihe Europeans believed them to havecome).

The Western branches split into aL least four more branches: Hellenic,Italic, Celtic and Germanic Most scholars also include a dead languagediscovered in the early years of this century: Tuebarian, surprisingly found inCentral Asia, far to the east of the Western IE languages, which it resembles•n some important ways. It was probably spoken by a group that originally

4S WOKDS AMD MEANINGS

belonged to the Western branch but shortly after the Centum-Satem split(as it has bctn called), migrated eastward. One other language, Hitiite,evidence for which has been discovered in Turkey, is also included among theIE languages, though il is unclear exactly how it related to the two mainbranches.

PHOELEM 3.6: Here are a few cognates in the Western branch that do netappear in the Eastern.

Comment, corn, groin, furrow, bean, meal, maw, sea, salt, fish, elm, finch,starling, swallow.

Of the several Hellenic dialects, Attic Greek, spoken in Athens, becamethe standard, a natural consequence of its being the political and culturalcenter of the early Western world. From the Italic descended two dead lan-guages, Oscan and Umbrian, and Latin, from which descended French,Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Rumanian. Celtic split into the extinctGallic, Gaelic (the ancestor of Manx, Scots Gaelic, and Irish Gaelic),Britannic (the ancestor of the now dead Cornish and Pictish), the dyingBreton, and the mildly robust Welsh,

> West European > Germanic > West Germanic

The most important subgrouping for our purposes is Germanic. Itsearliest records go back to some fourth-century Scandinavian inscriptionsand a translation (by Bishop Ulfilas [с, 311-3&1]) of parts of the Bible intoGothic, a now extinct East Germanic language. The largest body of earlyliterature appears in OE after A D . 700, and in Old Icelandic after 1100.

Germanic is conventionally divided into three branches on the basis ofcertain phonological and grammatical changes that occurred before aboutA.D. MM): (]) East Germanic, which includes the dead Gothic; (2) NorthGermanic, which includes two groups: (a)Icelandic, Norwegian,and Faeroese(from the Faeroesean Islands); and (b) Danish and Swedish; and finally(3) West Germanic. This includes Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, Low German,modern standard German, Yiddish, Frisian, and English.

PROBLEM 3.7: Cognates of these words are found only in the Germaniclanguages.

Comment, broth,, brew, dough, knead, loaf, wheat, gold, silver, lead, tin,buy, ware, worth; borough, king, earl; book, lore, write, teech (healing):cliff* island, sea, sound (as in Puget Sound), strand (beach); whale, sea!(the animal); ship, steer, sail, north, east, south, west.

K: NATIVE AND BORROWED 49

PROBLEM 3.8: (I) What is dangerous about relying on negative evidence inattempts to reconstruct cultures or geographical origins from linguistic delta?That is, what does it prove when a number of languages known to havedescended from the same ancestor language are shown not to share cognatewords for fish! What does it indicate when we discover that cognate wordsfrom the root for hand are found only in Germanic languages? (2) Whatfurther problem in cultural reconstruction does the following exampleintroduce? In Great Britain, the word robin denotes a red-breasted member ofthe warbler family. When the colonists arrived in North America, they founda red-breasted member of the thrush family. They called it robin.

3.9: We can show how the Indo-European languages relate to oneanother by means of a tree, as shown in Figure 3.1. This figure is a model of

INDO-EUROPEAN

WESTERN

, - • гCELTIC GFft MANIC ITALIC HLLLENiC TOCHARIAN

I -ЛЧ O-I

НЛ1 ГО-SLAVIC INDO.UMNIAN

HITTITE

LAS I NORIH WEST

Figure 3.1. Relationship of indc^Huropean Languages

the historical relationships as well as the linguistic relationships. How doesit lead us to think about the way one language splits into two or morelanguages? What problem does the following diagram and explanationintroduce? (14, 171,204)

Celtic

Western

Germanic *

Eastern

Balto-Slavic

Italic 4 * Hellenic I ndо-Iranian

?•

Both the Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages have a similar inflectionalending for instrumental plurals. Other languages have endings related toa different sound.The Celtic and Italic groups have a similar passive voice inflection.The H elleni с а п d I n do- T га ilia n have simila r past tenses.The Hellenic- and Italic share a. characteristic of feminine nouns withmasculine suffixes.The Germanic and Italic use the perfect tense as a general past lense.

50 WORDS AND MEANINGS

From the common vocabulary, archenlogical remains, and the observa-tions of Roman historians, we can sketch the outlines of pre-h is lu He Germanicsociety. Because their common vocabulary included for the first time manywords referring to advanced agriculture, farming must have become moreimportant than it had been. More significantly, the ocean had also becomeimportant, ft would be the Viking long-ships that would carry the Germanicwarriors across the seas to raid, plunder, and conquer from Britain to Franceto the Mediterranean. Their social and economic organization must also havebegun to develop. King, earl, and borough indicate a government and anincipient feudal society; gold, silver, lead, tin, buy., ware, and worth indicate aneconomic life beyond trading in kind.

They were a diverse lot, though. They included the Franks, the Goths, theVandals, and the Lombards, all warlike enough to harass France, Spain,Rome, and Africa and give the Teutons their fierce reputation among theRoman historians. They also included the- Germans, who did not wander farfrom Central Germany, and the Northmen (hence- Norseman, which finallybecame ffvrHlOn), who both farmed and sailed. They shared a commonmythology of Odin and Thor and an epic poetry chat celebrated the values ofhonor, loyalty to chief and kinsman in return for their generosity with gifts,and bravery and gtory in battle. (103)

From certain La Lin words borrowed into Germanic before Lhe Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain in the fifth century, we know that they must have hadsome contact with Rome, (7,194)

PROBLEM 3.10: From these borrowed words, speculate about the kind ofcontact the Germanic tribes had with Rome. The first word in the list is theoriginal Latin word. The second is the OE adapted from Latin with a moderntranslation in parentheses if the word has been lost. The third is the des-cendant ModE word or its closest equivalent. Where the word has been lostin Mod L, the symbol 0 appears.

camputti-ettmp (field, battle)-^tribirtum-infei (tribute)-Pmango-mangim (to barter with)-monger (asmfishmonger)Шопёит-toH-iott •poudn-pund- -poundtttitiupassutn (a thousand steps)-m:I-mile

ralcem-ceatc-chatkcuprum—ccpor—copperpic- -рк-pitch {the substance)busyrum-buiere-butter

ulmim— win—wine

WORDS; NATIVE AND BORROWED SI

merttha-minle-mmt (the plant)pisum-pisa-peapiper-pipvr-pepperprumtm-plume-plumplan ta-pfanie-pfantbalteus-beh-beltsoccus-socc-sock

catillus-cite{-$ (ModE kmie is borrowed from Danish, which alsoborrowed il from Latin)

plpa-pipe-pipebsrtna-binf^-bincuppa-cuppe-cup

p&rma—pimne-pnncoquJtta-cycene-kitchenpiima-pwn-pirtgi!mfw-gOTWi(gem)-0 (ModE gem is borrowed from French)ltnea-fitie-Uneuatiuny-weali-walifebris-fefer-fever

P«-Anglo-Saxon Britain

Long before these northern Germanic tribes attacked the native Britons(orCelts), the Romans had long since raided, invaded, colonized, and desertedthe island. Julius Caesar (100 B.C.-44 B.C.) invaded Britain twice, failing thefirst time in 55 B.C.; but the nest year with a larger force, he conquered thebland. Though he had invaded Britain to shore up his northern flank, hewas also looking for slaves and tribute. Finding neither in sufficient quantityor quality to justify his effort, he turned from Britain to his problems inGaul, giving the island a brief period of freed о in from Roman domination.

Then in A.D. 43, Claudius (10 B.C.-A.D. 54) invaded ihe island, and afterputting down an uprising led by the Celtic Queen Boadicea, finally broughtBritain into the Empire. But because Rome was unwilling to expend the mena4d effort to conquer the Picts in the wilds of Scotland while being harassedfrom the rear by the still unruly Southern Celts, its sway ended at Hadrian'sWall along the northern bank of the Tyne in the Lowlands. Thus, Romancvviljzatiun was limited to what is now known as the Midlands and theSoutheast, where Romans buiit their walled towns and villas and connectingroads in an attempt to reproduce a sunny Mediterranean life on (what was to

52 WORL>S AND

become after a global climatic change) a wet and cloudy distant outpost. (13,34)

ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN: THE BEGINNINGS

It was to be shortlived. Before the end of the fourth century A.D., Scandinavianraiders from the north had already begin to harry the British coast. Simul-taneously, the Picts <ind Brigantes, Celtic tribes from northern Britain, wereburning and looting exposed Roman villas just when Rome had to withdrawmore and more troops to reinforce an uncertain empire on the continent.Finally, unable to assist any further a society now accustomed to relying onprofessional soldiers to defend it, the Roman legions withdrew at the begin-ning of the fifth century, leaving the colonists and Romanized natives to facethe continental Germanic tribes alone.

The Saxons who occupied the area between the Rhine River and what istoday Denmark, probably conquered the island in two stages. In the first,beginning around A.D. 449, they swept through Britain in a succession ofplundering and looting raids. Beaching their longboats far up the navigablerivers, they crossed the islands to the Western Sea and back on some of thesame roads the Romans had built to defend themselves with, an irony to berepeated six centuries later when the Normans would use some of the sameroads in their conquest of the Anglo-Saxons.

In the second stage, beginning a few years later and lasting until late inthe century, groups from what is now northern Germany, from the Rhine toJutland, arrived to colonize, farm, and trade.

These raiders and colonists spoke West Germanic. But because no hardtextual evidence remains from pre-Old English dialects, it is difficult todetermine whether they «.poke one dialect or several. The traditional accountof the invasion is in llisturia Ecclesiastic» Gentis Anglonini, written aboutA.D. 731, almost 300 years after the event, by the Venerable Bede (c, 673-735).

Then, about 449 years from our Load's incarnation. Emperor Martianusseized the kingdom and held it for seven years. He was the 46th Emperorafter the Emperor Augustus. Then the Angles and Savons were invited bythe aforementioned king [Vortigem], and came to Britain in three great ships.At the king's request, they took up dwelling in the east part of the island, sothat they should fight for their own territory. And they soon battled with(heir enemies (hat often before battled them from [he north and overranthem. And (be Saxons won ihe victory by fighiing. Then they sen: homea messenger and told them to tell of the fertility of this Land and of theBri(omn cowardice. And they then soon sent a great naval fleet, stronger withwarriors than before. It was an invincible host when rhey were united. Andihe Brikms he* Lowed on tliem a dwelling place on condition than they fight

WORDS: NATIVE AND UORROWQD S3

for peace and for the welfare of (heir native land and strive against theirenergies. And they gave them subslance and property for their struggle. Theycame from three peoples, the boldest of Germany, fro in the Saxons and theAngles and the Jutes. Concerning the Jutes, in the beginning they are in Kent,and the Isle of Wight; that is, the people who dwell in the Wight Island.From ilie Saxons, that is from (he land which people calf Old Saxony, comethe East Saxons, and the South Saxons and the West Saxons. And from ihcAnglia come the East Angles and the Middle Angles and (he Mercians andall the Northumbrian people. The land between the Jutes and the Saxons iscalled the Angulus; it is said that from the time when liiey departed untiltoday, it remains waste.

So, it was at first thought that the Jutes came from what we now callJutland; the Angles from the Western side of the Jutish peninsula and theeast bank of the F.I he; Lhe Saxons from Lhe F.I he to perhaps the mouth of theRhine. More recent archeological evidence locates the Angles farther south-east and the Jutes on the coast, near the Frisian Islands off the coast ofGermany and the Netherlands (see Figure 3,2).

Figure 3.2. Origins of Invaders and Raiders

54 WORDS AND MEANTNGS

Figure 3.3» Old English Dialect Areas

But then it is not entirely certain that the Jutes ever existed at all. Twoother Old English commentators never even used the word Jute. They calledall the invaders Saxons, or Angles and Frisians. Bede himself never used Juteagain nor does it occur in Kent plute-names. A rcheo logical evidence, in fact,suggests that Kent was settled by a variety of groups.

Indeed, the traditional idea that whole tribes moved en masse from theContinent to Britain may be wrong. It may be that small groups moved toBritain, fanning out from southeastern England to settle the west and north.The dialect areas that existed in Anglo-Saxon England (see Figure 3,3) maynot reflect patterns of settlement from the continent, but rather socialchanges that occurred before Bcdc wrote his history. Believing that distinctdialect areas must have resulted from distinct social groups, Bede may haveassumed that 30П years earlier, the same social and tribal groupings hadmoved intact from the Continent. (37)

PROBLEM 5.11: Here is a list of some of the Celtic words borrowed intoEnglish at various periods in the history of English, What do you concludeabout the overall influence of Celtic culture on the Anglo-Saxon or on latersociety4-' (57)

Pre-Anglo-Saxon: rfce (V i ugdom), ambikt (servant), dun (hill)Post-Anglo-Saxon: bruit (cloak), Ьапкис (piece of cake), gafeluc (small

WORDS: NiTIVh: AND BORROWED 55

spear), brocc (badger), carr (rock), luh (lake), ton (rocky peak), dry(magician), clucge (bell),aacor (anchorite), *tt№ (story),гЯе/(Шя hoard),cine (sheet of folded parchment).

From I a tcr periods

Irish: shamrock, leprechaun, galore, banshee, shillelagh, blarney, colleen,keen (wail). A few more than 40 borrowed into English.

Scottish: clan, bog, plaid, slogan, cairn, whiskey. A few more than 30borrowed into English.

Welsh:crag,penguinisuU. A few more than 10 borrowed into English.

THE RISK OF ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

Whatever the sources of the dialect differences in these areas, politicaldivisions developed to create the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, seven politicalspheres that often overlapped geographically: Northumbria, Mercia, EastAnglia, Essex, Sussex, Wessex, and Kent. (See Figure 3.4.) The major dialectareas distinguished Northumbrian and Kentish, roughly coinciding with their

f) Г

^ W A L E S '

4

Л&• ^

f Clifiiti

Yft.y>• \

О/ у * — _

\ j EAST )\ MERCSA /ANGIA/

) J^v, — — 1 "^

/ X WESSEX ,CORNWALL p-^Ni^S™'^

l L r \ К llTJT4"» Canterbury

•Vsussi /""

3.4. The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy

S6 "WORDS AND MEANINGS

political boundaries. But Mercian included both East Anglia and Essex,while West Saxon covered both Wessex and Sussex.

During the reign of Aethelberht (c, 552-616), Kent's political and culturalsuperiority eclipsed the rest of England. It* close commercial ties with theFrisian traders on the Continent are reflected in the large number of Englishcoins found among [he remains of Frisian settlements and the number ofFnmfcish coins found in Kent. In the seventh century, Kenfs cultural domin-ance extended northward to the Humber, perhaps reflecting its prestigiousposition as a link to the commercial and intellectual life on the Continent, alife which at the time was probably still superior to England's.

In the seventh and eighth centuries, cultural and political supremacypassed from Kent to Northumbria, then to Mercia, and finally to Wessex,where under Alfred (84^-899), there flourished a culture that surpassedanything on the European continent since the brightest days of Rome. Infact, were it not for the West Saxon rise to power and its accompanyingliterary flowering, we would have relatively few texts from before the Normaninvasion. Except for some laws and charters, a Jittle verse, and a few transla-tions of the Bible, the other O£ kingdoms have left us no great number ofdocuments.

The Christian Conversion and a National

The conversion of England to Christianity began during the reign ofAethelberhC In 597, St. Augustine (?-604) became the first in an army ofmissionaries that wouid Christianize Kent in just seven years. And aftercontesting with Celtic Christianity (the Celts having already been convertedby the Romans), they would win over Northumbria in 664. By 700 Englandcould be called a moderately Christian nation.

But Christianity did more to England than institute a new religion thatencouraged new values. It re-introduced Latin and created monastic environ-ments in which learning and scholarship flourished so richly that Europe wassoon sending its students to Canterbury, Jarrow, and York. From the eighthto the eleventh century, southern England was one of the most advancedintellectual communities in the western world.

During this period, England also began to develop a national character.From the eighth through the tenth centuries, Old English poetry flowered. Tlwas during this time that the great poems of mixed Christian and Nordicthemes were composed: Beowulf. The Wanderer, The Seafarer, the Caed-monian and Cynewultian poems. The efficient administration of a largeinstitution, the church, provided a model for the secular kings in ihcirattemptsto complement Rome's spiritual dominion of England with their worldly one.The organization of townships was roughly coterminous with parishes, eachruled spiritually by a priest who at first was often the chaplain to the local

WORDS! NATFVF. AVD BORROWED 57

thcgn (chieftain). The marriage оГ religious laws and secular enforcementcreated ;i governing institution of potentially great power and wealth. (2, 20ft,223)

ЗЛ2: Irt Problem 3.10 were listed some words borrowed fromLatin during the Germ an ic continental period, before the invasion of Britain.Hud we listed [hem all and divided them into semantic categories, the p r oportions would have been very roughly as follows:

Plants and animals: 3070

Food, vessels, household items: 207Q

Buildings, settlements: 12%Dress: 12%Military, legal: 9%Trade, commerce: 970

Religious, scholarly: Ъ%Miscellaneous: 5%

Altogether, about 170 words were borrowed during this pre-OE period.Below are listed a weighted sampling of OE words adopted from Latin duringthe nest two periods: 404^650, and 650 to the end of the OE period,

400-650prafost (provost), waster (town), cugfe (cowl), mentel (cloak), cist(chest), pxgel (pail), pott (pot), mwwc (monk), traht (text), cat! (cat),truht (trout), pert* (pear), gfcdene (gladiola), leahtrk (lettuce), xbs{ fir tree),senep (mustard), laser (.Larc, a kind of weed).

11 ii ii'

nulite (soldiers), cettiur {centurion), yndse (ounce), fenester (window),cluster (cloister), purs (purse), cxppe (cope), coc (cook), setae! (dish),rabbinn (to rage), scrofei (scrofula), credo (creed), discipu! (disciple),mmsse (church mass), papa (pope), xlmesse (alms), eretic (heretic),tnartir (шипут), organ (song), son (musical sound),sfol(school),pbiiosoph(philosopher), comet a (comet), bises (leap year day), ШНовесе (library),paitn (pahn), balsam (balsam), carte (dried fig), iilie (lilyX peoate (peony),ysope (hyssop), cancer (cancer), loppestre (locust), tiger (tiger), fenix(phoenix), camel (caniel).

can you conclude about the nature of Lalin-OE contacts ? (7, 194)

PROBLEM 3,13: Just as we can discover something about a culture from thewords it ] m lost, so can we tell something from the words it often uses. Here's a sampling of words that occurred very frequently in OE compounds,w ords made up out of two parts to express an idea no single word can,words in Old English like boccrseft (literally book-craft, or literature).

SS WORDS ANfJ MEAiSTINUS

folclagu (folk-law. or law of the people), widsst (wide-sea, or ocean). Whatmight you very tentatively speculate about a culture that used words like thesefairly often?

1. sumof (summer), winter (winter), Sid (time), corn (corn), lyft (air), raht(night), №j*(ui(wood), wyrm (dragon), bhd (blood).

2. gold (gold), isen (iron), burg (dwelling), ham (home), sele (hall), medu(mead), bring (ring), win (wine), tar (learning), lead (song, poem), word(word), botf (book), gieip (boast, fame, pride), ftwrf (treasure), ceap (price,sale).

3. wtf (woman), wer (man), ^eow (servant), fread (people, nation), brodor(brother), ceorl (peasant), cyning (king), hfaford (lord), pegn (retainer).

4. hell (hell), heofan (heaven), cirice (church), crist (Christ), deofoi(dwW).5. woh (error, iniquity), teona (injury), t&l (blame), syn (sin), sar (sorrow,

pain), « 0 (strife, spite), morSor (murder), man (evil deed), bealu (harm),cweahn (death), dead (death), Awfe (error, heresy).

6. eufie (ea iy), wynn (joy), gliw (pleasure, sport),7. zsc (spear), йе<а1н (battle), borrf (shield), camp (battle), here (amy),

Jn-'/r? (army, people), wspen (weapon), guS (war),8. sa: (sea), scip (ship), и?г/ег (water), ;jff (wave).9. /^/(praise), аде (victo ry ) t i™/<fcr (glory, honor).10. gas! (soul), &да (mind), mod (miod).11. (m)nht (right/wrong), 598 (tntti), eald(old), eard (native place).

i>KOBi.FM ЗЛ4: What might you guess about a culture that has a kinshipsystem with the following terms? Compare it with Modern English. (ReviewProblem 2.13,)

jseder (father), Mudor (mother), sunn (son), detoor (daughter), broSor(brother), sweostor (sister), fsdera (paternal uncle), earn (maternaluncle),/аЭе (paternal aunt), modrige (maternal aunt), tukterga (brother'sson), swigra (sister's son), fsikrencnosl (father's kin), jnodorcym(maternal descent), wmpnedtutrtd (male line), mfttund (female line).

The Danish Invasions

But as the West Saxons in particular were creating their cultural goldenage, their bin from Denmark, more comfortable in their dragon ships thanthe now-landed Saxons, began in the late eighth century to find easy targetsamong the rich monasteries along the eastern and southern English coast.Finding how defenseless Northumbria and Easi Anglia were, they escalatedtheir raids to a full scale invasion from K5O to 878. By Lhe time the Danes hadoverrun, occupied, and begun to colonize large portions of eastern England,only Wesbcx was able to resist them successfully.

WORDS: NATIVE AND BORROWED 59

Canterbury

Figure 3.5. The Uanelaw

In Я78, King Alfred finally defeated the Danes in the Battle of Ethandun.Jn the subsequent Treaty of Wedmore, the Danes agreed to remain east of aline running roughly from north of Chester to London, an area calledDanelaw (see Figure 3.5), in which the Danes were free to live as Danes underDanish law. (A second Danelaw, which, if anything, would prove to be evenmore significant to the future of England, was established in the PrankishKingdom on the continent directly across from England. It was called, afterthe Northmen or Normans, Normandy.)

Having united at least half of England, Alfred, as noted above, set aboutcreating almost single handedly a prose tradition by his various translationsfrom Latin into Old English, both by his own hand and at his direction byothers, by his initiation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and by the importa-tion of European scholars and books. He also founded the first public schools,creating a literate audience for the literature as well as an educated class ableto administer the growing bureaucracy of a growing state,

I ft fact, AI fred organized A n glo-Saxo n go vcrn m ent so we! I th at the Danesin their Drmelaw, who were less well organized than the English, were finallyunable to withstand the unified political and military attacks by Alfred's son,Edward ine Elder (c. 870-924), and his son, Atheistan (c. 895-940). Tn 957,Edward's grandion, Edgar (У44-975) became ruler over Northuinbria andMercia. And in 959, upon his brother Eadwig's death, he became king of

60 WORDS AND MEANINGS

Wessex as well, ruling an England that extended from the Tyne south andwest to the Welsh mountains, roughly the England we know today. Here are

two samples of OE literature with literal translations.The first excerpt is from The Venerable Bcde's story of Caedmon, a

cowherd at a Yorkshire monastery who in a dream was given the divine giftof creating religious songs. Below are the opening lines of that story. Thesecond is from the "Battle of Brimanburg," a poem included in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle from the year 937, It narrates a victory of the Anglo-Saxonsover the Scots and Danes. (The text has been normalized somewhat to makespelling more regular,)

In ocosse abbudissan mynstre wis sum brooor syndrigiice midIn this abbess's monastery was a (certain) brother especially with

godcundre gife gemsered ond geweorSad, lor pon be gewunadeheavenly gift famed and blessed, for he accustomed (was)gerisenlice leoo wyrcan, pa $e to rcfisestnisse ond to arfsestnisseappropriate songs (to) make, which to piety and to virtue

belumpen; swa Ssettc swa hwtet swa he of &odcgndum stafum }>urfapertained; so that whatever) be of heavenly letters through

boceras geleornodc, J?set he sfter medmiclum Гэке in scopgereordescholars learned that he after moderate time in poet's languagemid ha msestan swelnisse ond inbryrdnisse ge&iengde, ond inwith (he most sweetness and humility adorned, and inHngliscgereordc wei gewoi'ht Гоф brohtc. Ond for his Icu^sotigumEnglish-language well worked forth brought. And for his poemsongs

monigra mtmna mod oft to worulde forhogdnisse ond tomany (of) men's minds often to world contempt and to

ge^eodnissc |>ffis heofonlican lifes onbsrnde wiron.association (of) the heavenly life inspired were.

Her ^pelstan cyning, / eorla drihtenheovna beahgifa, / and his broSor eac,Eadmund «Seting, /ealdorlangnctirgeslogon ffit sa tce / sweorda ecgumyinbe Brunanburh; / bordwcall clufon,heowon hcaQolinde / hamora lafum,

eaforan Eadweardes; / swa himgeaeftele wss

Tram cneomagtim. / pxt hi ffit campe oftwi6 lafira gehwone / lnnd cal&odon,riord and ha mas. / Hellene! crungon.Seotta kodc / and scipflotan,f«gc feoLIon; / feld dennodesecga swate, / *i]s]san sunne upp

Here, Athelstan king.earis' lordwarriors' rlnggiver and his brother also,Edmund nobleman, Lifelong glorywon at battle (with) swords' edgesaround Brunanburg; shieldwalldove,hewed warlinden (with) hammers'

leavingssons Edward's; so (<o) him noble was

from antes!ors that they at battle oftenagainst foes any land protectedtreasure and home. Army died,Seotfisb people and sailors,doomed fell; field streamed(with) warriors' sweat since sun up

WORDS: NATIVE AND BORROWED 61

on morgenlid. / rtiffire lungol, on morningtime, famous star,glad ofef grundas. / G odes catidel gli ded over groun ds, G odhs candle

beorht, bright,eccs Drihtnes, / o3 sio stuck gestcafl etem&J Lord, until Ihe noble creationsah to setlc. / ржг Ijeg sccg monig sank to scat. There lay warrior manygarum Idijfruiidan, / guma NorSerna {by) sowars killed, men Northerners'ofcr scyId .scoten, / s w уIce Scyttisc eac оver shiei d shot, so Scot alsowerig wigesssd. weary (of) battle sa tco\

Here, King Allielstan, lord of earls, ring-giver of warriors, and also hisbrother, Edmund the nobleman, won lifelong glory in battle with theirswords around Hiunanburg. The sons of Edward1 clove shicldwaHs, hewedlinden-shields with the leavings of the hammer (swords). It was natural fromtheir nohle ancestry that they in battle often pro led ed any land, treasure, andhome against any foes. The army fell, Scottish people and sailors felldoomed. The iield streamed with the blood о Г warriors from the tiime tlie sunrose up in the morning, that famous star, the bright candle oi' God, theEternal Lord, glided over the land, until the noble creation set. There laymany a warrior, killed with spears, Norseman shot over their shields, Scotstoo, weary and sated with battle,

PROBLEM 3.15: You have already seen two foreign influences on English,Latin and Celtic, Here are some Danish words that were borrowed intoEnglish. (Some of them have been subsequently lost.) (I) What kind ofcontact did the Danes and Anglo-Saxons have?

Before A,D. 1000

barda (beaked ship), cnearr (small warship), 1ф (fleet), ha (oarlock),arrest (battle), ran (rapine), mctl (action at law), hold (freeholder),wapeniake (an administrative district), husting (assembij1)-

AfterlOOO

Nouns: band, booth, bull, dirt, down (feathers), egg, fellow, freckle, kneel,kid, fe£> link, reindeer, reef{of sail), scab, scales, scrap, sear, sister, skin,skirt, jfcy, snare, steak, swain, window; birch., boon, gait, gap, guess, loan,race, rift, score, skill, slaughter, stack, Shrift, tidings, trust, waul, gift.

Verbs: call, crawl, die, get, give, lift, raise, rid, scare, take, cast, clip, crave,droop, fiii, gape, kindle, nag, scowl, snub, sprint, thrust.

Adjectivesxflat, loose, low, odd, tight, weak, awkward, ill, meek, seemly,sly, rouen, tattered, muggy.

Pronouns and iither words: they, their, ihetn, both, same, though, till,

(2) In the Oxford Universal Dictionary, there are approximately 30 or sods beginning with sk-lsc- of Danish origin still in our active vocabulary.

in the English Dialect Dictionary, there are over a thousand simple words

62 WORDS AND MEANINGS

beginning with sc-Ltk-. What do you conclude about the durability of borrow-ings in non-standard dialects? What dialect area wouid you guess they arefrom? 0) Is the part of speech significant in the borrowings listed above?Why?(] I) (4) Review Lhe borrowings from Latin and Celtic. What difference-is there in the tone of words like iiraop, scare, nag, muggy, and/recite on theone hand and, on the other, words in Problems 3.10 and 3. ] 2?

When the Danes were Forcibly brought into a not very solidly unitedEngland, it did more than begin the political unification of the land. Whilesurpassed by few in their military zeal, the Danes were equally skilled incommercial affairs and in boning their legal points to a fine edge in theirThing, or meeting of ciders. Earlier, in Anglo-Saxon England, a violation ofthe law was often followed by a blood-feud. The strong sense of Danishlegality combined with the increasingly strong English local governmentmade crime less a private question of one individual compensating the kin ofan injured party with a hnc eailcd werglid than something to be dealt withby those who spoke in the name of the local thegn, the king, and God.

Real, immediate, practical political power, though, was still exercisedby the local thegn and priest. The thegn supplied land in return for hispeople's labor and its fruits, protected them, and dispensed justice. In thissystem lay the seeds which would grow into a social structure powerfulenough to shape the English social system for hundreds of years after theNorman invasion. The ploughman ploughed and the thegn governed andfought. And if this meant a more stable and productive society for everyone,it also rneaTit less freedom for Lhose who pushed their ploughs.

Because the power of the throne was not yet strong enough to reachdown to the individual thegn and churl, it could not enforce a single standardof justice. Long after the putative unification of the kingdom, the Danelawcontinued to exercise a considerable degree of independence in its ownaffairs. As a consequence, England was still divided in spirit when new Danishraids broke out, particularly during the reign of Ethel red the Rede less{c. 968-1016), a rather incompetent ruler. Since the union beLween the peopleswas not an easy one, the Danes did little to resist the raids against Wesscx,an area outside their Danelaw.

After Elbelred's death, Saxon and Danish England engaged in a briefcivil war before Cnute (c. 994-1035), a Dane, defeated Wessex in 1015. Heand Edmund Ironside (c, 980-101 d), Ethelred's son, briefly divided the islandbetween them, and when Edmund died in ]0!6, Cnute became the king of theentire kingdom. As it turned out, not only did Cnute rule wisely, but hisaccession to power opened southern England, particularly London, to Danishbusinessmen and traders, making London an even more powerful andcosmopolitan city than it already was. (223)

PROBLEM 3.16: Words borrowed from the Danes do not begin to occur

WORDS: NATIVE AND IWIKKUWED 63

frequently in English texts until the Middle English period. What might beone explanation for this 7

The Rise of London

Because London figures so centrally in the development of a standardEnglish, we have to account for its unique position in English history.Although some sort of settlement undoubtedly existed on the Thames beforethe Romans arrived, it was during Roman times that London began to developinto the iirst city of the country. The spot on which London iits was the only-piece of hard ground on the northern side of the Thames that afforded a solidbridgehead for roads coming from the Kentish towns and a suitable landingplace for ships coming up from the English Channel. Because half the roadsbuilt also converged on London Bridge, London was long destined to be thefuture со m in ere i ill center of England,

Under the Saxons of Mercia, London declined somewhat in prestigesince commerce with the continent was not as great as during the Romanoccupation or Kent's ascendancy. But though of little relative importance,London maintained a measure of independence from both Mercia and Kent,and when Alfred settled with the Danes in 87S, he managed to excludeLondon from the Danelaw, [hereby preserving its Saxon character. Becauseit was the main entry to the heartland of England, he fortified it and encouragedits growth in order to defend it from the Danes, Then when Cnute assumedthe throne in 1016, Danish merchants became some of the leading tradesmenand citizens.

Before the end of the eleventh century, London had become the mostimportant commercial city in England, populated by a variegated and sophisti-cated people, many from continental Europe. Always more powerful thanher official status would suggest, London finally regained the status it hadheld in Roman times. By 1066, her population stood at perhaps 14,000—several thousand more than the next largest city, Winchester, and perhaps6000 more than the estimated 8000 population of York.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, William the Conqueror wascrowned near London in Westminster. But when he built a residence, hemoved from inside the walls of the City closer to his new Cathedral atWestminster, two miles away. In this single action, he made the few milesencompassing Westminster and London the political, commercial, andcultural center of the land. At the same time, by living outside the walls ofLondon, he helped preserve its independent political, cultural, and economicspirit.

London's later political and cultural strength eventually resulted in itsdialect becoming the prestige dialect of the land. While Alfred and hisdescendants made tlieir court in the South, West Saxon was the dialect of

64 WOKL1S AND MEAN1NUS

English in which the major literature and law was written. When the NormanConquest ended Wessex's ascendancy and reduced the flow of literaturewritten in English to a trickle, the only prestige dialect among the upper classwas Norman French. When English hegan to re-assert itself three centurieslater, it would be the dialect of London, of the East Midlands, that wouldeventually become the national standard.

This raises a difficulty in studying the history of English because WestSaxon, the earlier prestige dialect, and Mercian, the OE dialect that wouldfather East Midland, were different in some important ways. When we studyOF., we study West Saxon, hecause that dialect was used in the great prepon-derance of OE texts. But standard MudE stems not, ultimately, from WestSaxon but from East Midland speech.

Chapter 4

FROM MIDDLE ENGLISH TOMODERN ENGLISH

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

After the migration of Ihe Anglo-Saxons in the fifth century from theContinent to Britain, the Norman Conquest was the single most significantevent in the external history of the English language. The Danes added manywords to the vocabulary and a very few grammatical changes, but becauseDanish was somewhat like OE to begin with, its impact со aid not havebeen as influential as Norman French. The Norman Conquest has led to alanguage that is qualitatively dirt ere nt from what it was before JOfifi.

The groundwork for Norman dominion began long before 1066. DuringCnute's rule, Edward the Confessor (c. 1002-66), son of tithe!red and Emma,daughter of a former Duke of Normandy, returned from a long exile inNormandy, strongly influenced by the Norman clergy and more interested inbeing л monk than a king. In facL, when he assumed the throne in 1042 heprobably spoke better French than English, Because of his background, heappointed Normans to high positions in the English ciergy and government,and by allowing Normans access to London, he introduced them into Lnglishcommercial life. Moreover, he made no attempt to unify the isiand, strengthen

65

66 WORDS AND

its defenses, or redress the growing imbalance of power exercised by a fewearls jcakms uf one another's power.

When Edward died in January of 1066, a seriously divided and weakenedEngland fated the additional problem* brought about by his fidelity to hismonkish vow of chastity. He left no direct heir. There were, however, twopossible oblique heirs. One was Edgar Atheling (c. 1050-c. 1125), consideredby most to be at 16, too young to assume the throne. The other was Harold IL0022-66), a more distant relation but one with the blood of King Olaf ofSweden. He was finally chosen by the Witan (the king's council) to be king.

Then only eight months later, lingland found herself onee again attackedby Scandinavians: by Harold Haardraada, King of Norway, and by William(1027-&7), Duke of Normandy, who believed he had the only legitimate claimto the throne. In 1051, Edward had promised him the crown and in 1064,William had made Harold II promise that he would help him, William, gainthe throne.

On September 25, 1066, at Stamford Bridge, Harold IT defeated a forceled by Harold Haardraada of Norway. But four days later William landedat Pevensey. On October 14 at Senlac, about nine miles from Hastings, theEnglish and Normans fought until nightfall. The Normans drew the Englishfrom their impregnable position with a pnetended flight and defeated them.An arrow through the eye felled Harold. Thus England became a part of theLatin-influenced rather than Scandinavian-influenced life of Europe. In a fewyears, through persuasion and massacre, William largely erased the oldpolitical distinctions between the Danelaw and the South. England was,though brutally oppressed, at last politically united under one sovereign king,

William simultaneously deprived the English earls of their power bybreaking up the last vestiges of the traditional mini-kingdoms of Mercia,Wessex, and the others, and replacing them with a system of shires andbaronies with his own local officials, all Norman. As might be expected,William also replaced the English nobility with Norman barons and the nativechurch establishment with his own Norman clergy. By 1076, not a singleEnglish earl remained. Only three of 21 abbots were English.

Under William, incipient feudalism became a harsh social reality. Thehalf-free Danish freemen in their Danelaw lost much of their freedom tochoose which lord to follow or in some cases, even to have no lord at all. Fornow both freemen and serfs had to serve some lord.

THE LINGUISTIC CONSEQUENCES

In retrospect, the linguistic consequences of this invasion and colonizationarc easy enojgh to recognize. Although certain grammatical and phono-logical changes may be attributed to the Norman Conquest, it is in vocabulary

FROM MIDDLE ENGLISH TO MODEftN FNtiUSII 67

and semantics that the changes have been the greatest. The enormous influxin Ml: of not only French but also LaLin words certainly would never haveoccurred without the Conquest But if the effects are easy to discern, theprecise social milieu in which they occurred, die specific reasons for theiroccurrence, are less easy to reconstruct.

pnoBLENf 4.1: This problem will require cooperative effort. (1) ScTect three orfour different kinds of twentieth-century prose texts: scholarly, popular,technical, comic books, etc. lie certain to get a contrast. In a 250-word sampleof each kind, tabulate the percentage of native to French/Latin to alt otherwords. Simplify the task by courting as native words all prepositions, articles,pronouns, auxiliaries (may, must, be, time, etc.) without looking each one up.Would the percentages change if just nouns, verbs (excluding/w), adjectivesand adverbs were counted? How would your conclusions differ? (21 Selectthree dictionaries: a very short, paperbound лпе; a larger standard desk-weone; and a larger reference dictionary such as Webster's Third or The К and urnHouse Dictionary of the English Language. Cojnputc the percentages of nativeEnglish words to French-Latin and all others under 50 randomly chosenwords for each of six or seven letters. What is wrong with this method 7 Whatvariables make the problem more complex than meets the eye? (3) What arethe significant differences among the kinds of texts in question 17 What arethe significant differences among the kinds of dictionaries? What are thesignificant differences between these two ways of counting percentages ofword sources? How do you account for these differences? What would havehappened if you had counted the words under V? The words under A?under К 7

PROBLEM 4,2: If we group the vocabulary into the first most frequent thousandwords, second most frequent thousand, third most frequent thousand, and soon, then compute the percentage of native versus borrowed words in each ofthese groups of a thousand, we find figures such as these:

Decile Kflfilisli French Latin Danish Other

12345

б78

10

83%342927272723262525

И7о464645474245414142

2%1114171719111817IS

2уо

21112

г221

1%7101081013131514

68 WHUDS AN» MliAMTNGS

(The "other" group includes mostly mixed or doubtful words, or words thatonly might be assigned to English, French, or Latin words. Only Dutchamong "others" exceed* I percent in any of the deciles). When ;ill the wordsin running text arc put into one group, the percentages are as follows:English: 78.1; French: 15.2; Latin: 3.1 J Danish: 2.4; other (Greek, Dutch,Italian, Spanish, German, tie): 1,3. Comment, These data were compiledfrom several thousand business letters. (18I) Comment.

Here, in considerable detail, are sets of demographic statistics, socialanecdotes, facts about official documents, and so on that may be relevant tounderstanding how French and English were used at various levels of Englishsociety. Some historians have claimed that French virtually ousted Englishat all levels, oral least that almost all Englishmen were bi-Iingual. Others haveclaimed thai only a thin layer of the nobility habitually used French and thatthe vast majority of English were effectively monolingual.

As a background, here are some sketchy over-generaiinations aboutNorman society: Ruling all were the king and his court. Below him were hisbarons, and below them were "enfeofled" knights who were granted theright to land by the king through his barons in return for service to them.Under the knights were a middle-management layer of officials: reeves,bailiffs, stewards, and so on who ran the estates and local affairs. Below themwere the great mass of Hnglishmen and some Norman peasants: the churls,the villeins, the laborers.

In the towns or boroughs, the great mass of citizens were skilled andunskilled laborers. Above them were the tradesmen and businessmen. Athird less statistically significant element of the population was the clergy.

Some axioms:

1. When social order is fluid, upwardly mobile lower classes are more likelyto behave in ways they believe upper middle classes behave than whenthe society is rigid.

2, Social order becomes more fluid during periods of social upheaval.X In areas of high population density, contact between social classes is

greater than when they are thinly distributed.4, Contemporary observers of a social scene are more likely to comment

on the unusual than the usual.

The initial numbers in the data below refer to century and decade. Followingeach set are Problems based on the data.

Eiconomic-demogrdphk LstimaUs

11.7 Jn 1066, the Lnglish population stands between 1.1 and 1.7 million.

FROM МШСН-Е ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH <#

the great majority south of a line running from Bristol to The Wash,the deep inlet of the North Sea between Norfolk and Lincoln. TheNorman invasion force is estimated at between 5000 and 12.000men. After the Conquest, when land is distributed to Nor типknights, there are about 5000 Norman knights enfeofled (grantedland) out of 10,000 smaller landlords. The other 5000 are presumablyEnglish.

11.9 On the basis of the Domesday survey in 1086, a kind of census andeconomic survey ordered by William for tax purposes, the Englishand Norman population is still estimated at between 1.1 and 1,7million by modern scholars. They are distributed roughly asfollows: Rural, at least 85 percent: vaguely or certainly urban, nomore than 15 percent, probably less. Among these is the clergy atabout .5 percent. The population of London is about 14,000. Theother large towns constituting a large part of the urban populationare Winchester, Lincoln, Norwich, Gloucester. York, and Canter-bury. The Fast Midlands, the area north of London, is the mostdensely settled part of England and the- least ravaged by the Invasionand its aftermath. The north is ihc least populated. The heaviestconcentration of Norman population is probably in the commercialtowns along the southern and eastern coast, though a ^real manysettle inland.

13,1 In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the East Midlands growsrich exporting corn and wool.

13.6 The richest cities in England are London, Lincoln, Winchester,Canterbury, Worcester. Oxford. York, Northampton, and Norwich.

J3.I0 Before the end of the thirteenth ceniury, the curlier immigrationfrom the south and southeast shires ends. Before 1300, 38 aldermenand IK sheriffs in London can be identified as coming from southerncounties. The Fasi Midlands contributes 10 aldermen and 7 sheriffs,

14,1 I n 1300, the Lond о п pop ul a ti on is st i 11 abou U 4,000,14.5 In 1348, just before the Black Death, the total population of Lngland

is between 3.1 and 3.7 million. Before the century is out, the BlackDeath will eventually kill 30 to 40 percent of the English popula-tion,

14.5 In 1349,47 monks who die of the Black Death in one monastery arereplaced by uneducated Englishmen. Large numbers of uneducatedmen whose wives have died of the plague turn to holy orders.

14.7 Tn the first half of the fourteenth century, emigration from theEast Midlands and the North into London increases. Between 1300and 1365, southern immigrants contribute 32 aldermen and 7sheriffs. The East Midlands contributes 33 aldermen and 10 sheriffs.Northern areas contribute 5 aldermen and 2 sheriffs before 1300.10 aldermen and 2 sheriffs between ] 300 and 1365.

7 0 WOUDS AND MEANINGS

14.S By 1375, after more plague, the English population stands at about2,250,000.

15.1 By 1400, the population of England falls to about 2.1 million. Theheaviest mortality lias been among the very young and the old,particularly in the crowded monasteries.

PROBLEM 4.3: If we bad only these data and n o ! in guistic evidence whatsoever,what predictions might we make about the prestige of Norman French, itsgeneral influence across the entire island; whaL area of the country wouldbecome soci ally most prestigi о us, incl ud in g i Ls dialect ?

Political Events

11.7 In ] G6G, Willi am invades and conquers Engian d.11.8 In 1075, 13 of 21 bishops signing the decrees of the Council of

London arc linglish. By 1087 only three are.11.9 In 1086, there are 190 barons, all Nurmans, No English earls survive

the suppression of the English nobility.11,9 In 1087, William I dies; William 11 becomes ting,111 In 1100, William II dies; Henry I becomes King.12.4 In J135, Stephen succeeds Henry I.12.6 In 1154, Henry 1) succeeds Stephen.12.9 I n 1189, Richard 1 s ucceeds Henry II.12.10 In 1193, London becomes the first town to have its own mayor,12.10 l a 1199, John succeeds Richard I.13.1 In 1204-05, Philip of France, whose court is in Paris, seizes the

Norman estates of several powerful Anglo-Norman barons plus allthe French lands of knights who live in England, Anglo-Normansmust now choose whether lo become Englishmen or Frenchmen.King John is left with possessions only in the south of France

13.2 Jn 1215, King John gives Londoners the right to elect their mayor.13.2 In 1215, King John assents to the Magna Carta.13.2 In 1216, Henry 111 succeed s John.13,4 In 1233, because of his close connections with the south of France,

Henry 111 dismisses the native officers of his courl and replaces themwith French from Poitou, Two thousand French knights and soldiersfrom southern France are placed in charge of castles and lands,oppressing natural English-Norm а г subjects and noblemen,

13.4 In 1236, when Henry III marries Eleanor of Provence, a new influxof southern French arrive in England to be given more power andlands.

13.5 Inc. 1246, a third influx of southern French occurs when Henry 11 Ismother dies. Having married a southern Frenchman on the death of

FROM MIDDLE ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH 71

John and borne him several sons, she leaves Henry with half brothersand their daughters to provide with lands.

13.6 The Barons Wars from 1258-65 sets native English against Frenchusurpers in England; the latter are finally driven from the island.

13.8 In ] 272, Edward ] succeeds Henry ITI.14.1 In 1307, lid ward II succeeds Edward I.14.3 In 1337, Edward 1ТГ succeeds Edward II.14.4 Jn 133 7, th e H und red Yea гкп War wi th Fra n cc hegi ns.14.5 In 1346, the English gain a great patriotic victory over French, at

Crecy.14.6 In 1356, English patriotism is aroused again with a victory at Poitiers.14.8 Tn 1377, Richard 11 succeeds Edward III.14.9 In 1381, many peasants refuse to remain tied to their feudal Lords

any longer when they can sell their labor at higher prices. ThePeasants' Revolt occurs.

14J0 I n 1399, H en ry IV su cceeds Richa rd 11.15.2 In 1413, Henry V succeeds Henry IV.15.2 I n 1415, E n gl ish gai n an other great pa triotic victory at Agincourt.15.3 In 1422, Henry VI succeeds Henry V.

PROfiLEM 4.4: (I) Which political events would probably have had an impacton the пне of French in England? (2) Are the- consequences of any of thepolitical events reinforced by demographic events, or vice versa ?

Written Kriftlish, French, and Latin in Official Texts and Legal Documents

(Note: All "firsts" should be understood to mean " earliest known,")

11.8 In 1070, William issues writs in English, some in Latin, none inNorman French.

11.9 After 1030, writs in English virtually disappear. William has lawswritten in Latin.

12 Throughout the twelfth century, Old English laws are ordinarilytranslated into Latin.

12,1 Until 1109, Lhe Annaies AnRlo-Saxonici Breves, compiled at Canter-bury, are written in English, thereafter in Latin.

12.5 An Anglo-Norman charter appears, the first known in the languageof the Normans.

12.6 First laws written originally in Norman French dated 1150 от a bitearlier.

12 rt Jn 1154, the Peterborough Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the only nativelanguage chronicle that had been maintained, lapses.

12.9 Only a few charters and other documents appear in English until thereign of Richard 1(1189). Latin is by far the more common language.

г 72 WOKLKS ANfJ MhAMNCJS

13.2 The earliest extant deed written In Norman French dates from1215,

13.4 Л Rtiyal Charter in 1233 says that English law terms have beentranslated into French so that "everyone will understand,'"

13.6 In 1258, the first Letters Patent, official documents, appear in French,Previously, they were in Latin.

13.6 In 1258, a group of barons and upper-class Englishmen win fromHenry III the Provisions of Oxford, guaranteeing certain rights to thebarons. It is set forth in French and English—the first such publicdocument in English in almost 200 years,

13,8 Before Edward I, most petitions and bills to Parliament are inLatin, after that time in French. First Parliamentary writ in Frenchin 1274-75; first petition to Parliament in French in 1278.

13.8 From 1275, laws are normally drawn up first in French,13.9 By the close of the century, French is used in most official docu-

ments. But petitions to Parliament in French are translated intoLatin so that" all may understand,"

13.10 In 1299, an order regarding the use of the forest is published inEnglish.

14.1 In the closing years of Edward I's reign, French first appears inPrivy Seal documents, official documents of less than major signif-icance.

14.1 Throughout fourteenth century, it is common for deeds, bills of sale,contracts, and so on, to be written in French.

14.5 Before the middle of fourteenth century, most petitions and bills toParliament are in French. The earliest petition (to the chancellor) inEnglish appears in 1344.

14.5 Tn 1345, the Pepperers Guild of London uses English in their guildrecords for the first time, the first guild to do so,

14.6 First wi 11$ hegi n to appear in French.14.8 Earliest deeds written in Middle English appear near the end of

Edward Ill's reign.14.8 In 1376, first private legal instrument written in Middle English

appears,14.9 In 1383, first will written in Middle English is filed.14,9 In Ш 6 , the London Mercers Guild sends Parliament, first petition

written in Middle English.14,9 In 1388, in answer to Parliament's request for information, the

English guilds respond mostly in Latin, but more responses are inEnglish than in French.

14.9 Between 1369 and 1384, French deeds registered on Close Rolls,official records for private transactions, average about 29 a year.

15.1 During reign of Henry IV, English begins to supplant French inroyal documents.

FROM MIDDLE ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH 73

15. J In 1404, Lnglish write to French government in Latin and ask themto reply in same.

15.2 The last official Letters Patent are written in French during reign ofHenry V.

15.2 Between 1403 and 1418, French deeds on Close Rolls average four ayear.

15.2 in 1413, Henry IV dies, leaving first will of a monarch written inEnglish.

15.3 In 1422, first Privy Seal document in English appears.15-3 Jn 1422, London Brewer's Cjuild, praising the English language,

begins to keep records in English,15.3 Until 1423. most petitions to Parliament are written in French; after

this date, they are frequently in English.15.4 Last wi IL i n French regis tercd in Cl ose Roll s appears in 1431.15.4 Between 1419 and 1434, French deeds registered in Close Rolls

average one a year: none after 1434.15.4 About 1430, several towns and guilds begin translating their

official documents from French into English.15-4 In 1437, French is discontinued for use in Great Seal documents,

documents of the greatest national importance.15.5 Between 1433 and J443, Parliamentary petitions in French decline

markedly, none occurring in French after 1444.15.6 One of the iast legal instruments in French is dated aroitnd 1450.15.6 By a bon 11450, m os t reco rds of tow ns a nd gu i ids are i n En gl ish.15,6 By the middle of the fifteenth century, Parliament needs a Secretary

in the French language.15.9 In 1485, English occurs with French in Statutes of Parliament.15.9 By 1489, French disappears entirely from Statutes of Parliament15.10 By the end of fifteenth century, French к used only in Jaw cases—

English in almost all other kinds of documents (except for Latinscholarship and ecclesiastical records).

18.4 In 1731, records of lawsuits are regularly written down in English.

РШМ.ЕМ 4.5: (1) Which of these events reflect political events? (2) Plot theshift from OE to Latin to French to English in official documents. (3) EvenIrom this very sketchy data, can you determine the crucial periods?

Written English, French, aw) I a (in in Social Commuii [cation and Literature

12 Early twelfth-century translators say they translate from Latin intoFrench ко that "thecommon man " will understand.

с 12,5 A Latin vocalulaiy is produced with words glossed only in French.12-13 Much literature is written in French for literate Englishmen in the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries, relatively little in English,

74 WORDS AND MEANINGS

12Л Beginning about 1175 and continuing through the middle of thethirteenth century, many passages in works written in French forF.nglishmen suggest they are written in French so that " a l l " canunderstand.

12.10 The Owl and the Nightingale, one of the best debate poems in ME,appears.

i 3.1 Lay am on's Brut is written, one of the first romances in ME.13.1 The Chancellor under Richard T is charged with having flattering

songs written about himself to be sung in the streets of London byminstrels and singers from France.

13 Phrase books for Leaching French to Englishmen for businesspurposes begin to appear.

13.1 Three young upper-class women art advised to do their reading ineither French or English.

13.2 The earliest extant letter in Anglo-French in Middle English perioddates from J215.

13.3 Л Latin vocabulary is produced glossed in both French andEnglish.

13.5 Beginniitga round 1245, m any s tateme nts a ppea r in N о rm an Frenchworks written in England decrying the decay of the Norman Frenchlanguage.

И.6 In 1250, a short treatise in Latin appears, explaining the Frenchverb.

13.7 After the middle of the thirteenth century, English literature beginsto revive. Havelok the Dane, one of the earliest romances about anEnglish subject, appears.

13.8 About the end of the thirteenth century, educated writers begin toapologize for their "false French," i.e., incorrect French. Mistakesin grammar and awkwardness in style begins to appear.

13.9 In the last quarter of the thirteenth century, most private letters toand from the nobiiity are in French, the rest in Latin.

13.10 AD admirer congratulates Giraldus Cambrensis on his writings, butregrets that Cambrensis did not write in French instead of Latin, forhe then would have been more widely read.

13.10 At the eitd of the thirteenth century, the opening lines of TheRomance of Richard the Lion-Hearted include: Lewede (unlearned)men cum (know) Ffrensch поп j Among an hondrydvnnefris (scarcely)яч-

14.1 About И00, these lines appear in a metrical homily: fart hi will ofmy pavert / Schau sum thing thai Ik hafin hert, / On Ingelis ions thataik may j Understand qual I wilsay. /. . . Bet al men can nohf, I-wist /Understand Latin and Frank is.

14 In the fourteenth century, the overwhelming majority of privateletters from nobility, religious houses, and so on are in French, theгеь1 in Latin.

FROM MIDDLE ENGLISH TO MODERN ENCrl.TSH 75

14-1 About 1303, in the preface to Handlyng Synnt, appear the lines:For fewde (unlearned) men у wutyrtokel On engtyssh tunge to makeftys hake.

14.1 About 1300, in the Cursor Mundi, appear the lines: pis ilk bok estranslate I Tnio Inglis JOftg to rede (counsel) / For the lore of Inglis fede(folk), / Ing/is lede of Ingland, / For she communal (to) understand.

14.3 About 1325, the opening lines of Art hour and Merlin include these:Man: noble kh haue ysei$e {seen) I Pat no Freynsdie coupe {can)seye.

143 About 1325, these lines occur in William of Nassyngton's SpeculumVitee:

14.5

14,7

In English tonge I sehal 30W telle,jif 3e wyth me so longe wil dwcllc.No Latyn wil I speke no waste,But English pal men vse mast,pat can eclie inan vnderstandc,Pat is bom in Ingclande;For put langage is most chewyй (shown)Os wel among lered (learned) 05 kwyd (unlearned).

And somiTie can (know) Frensche and no Lalyn,fat vseel han towrt (court) and dwcllcn herein.And sonime can of Latyn a party,pat can of Frensche but Jebly;And sommc vndcrstonde wcl Englysch,Pat can noj er (naithei1) Latyn nor Frankys,Ло^е [ered and к wed, olde and jonge,AUc vndcrstonden english tonge.

By the middle of the century, -virtually all correspondence is inFrench. In the last half of the century, writers make more and moregrammatical mistakes.Between 1360 arid 1400 appear the most important Middle Englishwork* of literature: TheFeerl, a dream vision; Sir (i a wain and tli-cGreen Knight, a romance; and The Vision #f William ConcerningPiers the Plowman, a combination of satire, social commentary,religious allegory, and homiletic. All of these were part of the allitera-tive survival in the. late fourteenth century that drew on. Old Englishverse forms. From about 1360, Geoffrey Chaucer (c, 1340-1400)begins creating the greatest English literature of the period and someof the best of all time, including The Canterbury Tales. About tinstime, the Alliterative Morte Arthurs appears, a romance about KingArthur, written in the native alliterating verse that goes back to theOE tradition.

76 WOBBS AMD MEANINGS

14.8 About 1370, the auth or of Piers Plowman wri tes:

Gramer, the groundc of al, bigyleth now children; / For ib none of thisnewccierkes, who so nymelh hede, / That can versifye faircneformaliehenditen; / Ne nou3t on amonge an hundrcth (hat an auctour can con-strue / Ne rede a Leltre in any Langage but in Latyn or in Englissh.

(B-test, XV, 365-369)

14.9 About 1375 to 1425 or so, English writers switch back and forthbetween Hnglish and French in their correspondence, a phenom-enon uncommon either before or after.

14.9 John Wyciiffe's (c. 1320-84) translation of the English Bible ispublished posthumously.

14.9 In 1385, Thomas Usk writes:

L*:t then clerkys endytcn in Latin for they have the propertee of science,and the knowings in that fecultee: and let Frenchmen in their Fnenchealso endyten their queynt terms, for it is kyndcly to (heii1 moutbes:and iet us she we our fantasy cs in such words as we lerneden о Г our damestonge,

14.10 The first known private letter in Fnglish dates from 1392-93; the

next from 1399-14.10 Until the end of Richard tYt reign (1399), manuals for letter writers

with model letters in French abound. They do not instruct in thebasic grammar of French but in socially correct writing.

15,1 In 1400, a writer to Henry fV apologizes for writing in Englishrather than French or Latin, but, he says, he understands Englishbetter,

15.1 About 1403, Richard Kingston, Dean of Windsor, writing to HenryIV:

Jeo prie a la Benoit Trinite que vous ottroie bone vie ovc (resentiersauntee a trcslonge durre, and sends 30we sonc to ows in helj? andprospcrilee; for, in god fey, I hope ю Al Mighty God that, 3ef ;e comejouve ownc persons, зе schullc have «he victoric of alie joureenemycs....

15.1 Many upper-class writers write some letters in English, others inFrench, seemingly indifferently.

15.1 I n the earl у fi fteent h ce ntu ry, Jo hn Ba rton i n Doiiet Francois adv isesthat adulLs should learn French so they can (1) get along in France>

(2) understand laws, (3) write polite letters to other upper-classEnglishmen.

J5.3 In 1424, the earliest letters in English from English nobility LOreligious houses begin to appear.

15,4 Joan, second wife to Henry IV (from 1403), seems to be the lastEnglish queen to jse French in her correspondence. (She was French.)

PROBLEM 4.6: (I) When did English begin to replace French in social usage in

FROV MFDDLE BNQUSR TO HODF.EN ENGTJ5H 7 7

comparison to French in official usage? (2) Why the dillcrence? (3) Can anyof the social patterns be said to be influenced by any of the political or demo^graphic events V

Spoken nJiRlish, French, and Latin on Official Occasions

J2.2 It is reported that in 1116, a defendant in court, testifies in English,12.JO It is reported in 1198 that in court a native English speaker gives

evidence through an interpreter, who t ran slates his testimony intoFrench .

14.1 In 1300, a regulation protecting ecclesiastical property is sent topriests, who are ordered to explain it in English to their parishioners.

14.1 In 1301, Edward JI has letters in Latin from the Pope translated intoFrench in order to be read to the army.

143 I г 1327, Edward Ill's presentation of certain privileges to Londonersis made in English.

14.4 In 1337, Edward Ill's claim to the throne of Fry nee is explained toParliament in English, though the lawyer doing so was proficientin Latin, French, and English.

14.6 In 1356, the oral proceedings of the sheriff's court in London arcordered to be conducted in English.

14.7 In 1362, oral proceedings in all the courts of England are ordered tobe eon dueled in English, in piace of French, which, it is claimed, islittle known in the realm,

14.7 In 1363, Parliament is opened in English for the first time.14.7 In 1363 and 1365, Parliament again is opened in English.14.8 It has been claimed that French is no longer used in House of

Commons debates in the last half of fourteenth century, though theevidence is unclear.

14.9 In 13 81, during the Wat Tjrler rebellion, Richard II addresses peoplein English.

14.9 In 1381, Parliament is opened with a sermon in English.14.9 I n 1389, on election day, legal ordinances for the town of Shrewsbury

are read to the. citizens in French.14.10 Proclamations to the citizens of London are made in French until

the end of the Fourteenth century.14,10 In 1394, a formal apology made in the House of Lords is recorded

in English, indicating it was spoken in English rather than French,as would have been customary.

14.10 In 1397, a confession by the Duke of Gloucester is conveyed toParliament in English.

14.1Q In 1399, the deposition of Richard II and the accession of Henry IVis conducted in both English and Latin. Henry claims the throne in afew sentences in English.

78 WOKL>5 AND MEANINGS

15,1 Henry IV ma к es a short speech i n Engl ish to h is first Par I i a ment-15.1 Though the record is unclear, debates in the House of Commons

in the early fifteenth century seem to be conducted mostly in English,some in French.

15.1 In 1404, ambassadors to Paris from Henry IV claim, for diplomaticreasons, that they cannot negotiate in French,

15.6 Judges are still conducting trials in French.15.9 IL has been claimed that French was probably discontinued in the

House of Lords after 1483.

PROBLEM 4.7: (I) How did the use of written Latin, French, and English inofficial contexts correspond with the use of spoken Latin, French, andEnglish? (2) How were political events relevant to the use of spoken English?

Spoken English, French, ant) Latin in Social, Educational, and Religions Contexts

11.7 In 1066, William's army is composed of men from every part ofFrance, and of some not from France.

11.8 Odericus Vitalis claims that William tried to learn English, but withno great success.

11.9 In 1085 at the age of 10, Odericus Vitalis, son of an upper-classNorman father and an English mother, is sent from England toNormandy, where, he says, he was like Joseph in Egypt: he heard alanguage which he did not know.

11.10-During this period there are many citations of abbots, priests, and12.2 so on, teach i ng and preaching i n English.12.4 At approximately this time, it is noted that two French canons,

ignorant of English, must tell a story to a group of English monksin Latin.

12.4- Henry 11 is perhaps the first English king since William to understand12.10 English, though he probably does nol speak it.12.6 John of Salisbury observes that it is fashionable to use French words

in English conversation.116 In the reign of Henry 1Г, it is reported that an English knight

retains a Norman to teach his son French,12.8 Late in this century, a poem complains that although 500 years ago

Bede taught and preached in English, it is now nolonger done.12.8 About 1175, William of Canterbury relates the following story: At a

moment of alleged danger, Hclcwisia de Morville warns herhusband in English, "Huge de M or vile, ware, ware, ware, Lithulfheth bis swerd adrage (sword drawn)!"

12.9 At about this time, Abbot Samson, a famous churchman, encourages

FROM MIDDLE ENULISH TO MODERN ENGLISH 79

his monks to preach in French rather than in Latin and better yetin English, as lie is able to do. It is also said that he gave his manorof Thorp to " a certain Englishman " became he was a good farmerand could speak no French.

12.10 In 1191, in regard to a legal dispute, it is written that one of foursupposed knights involved in a legal case cannot speak French.

12,10 About this time, a young servant is praised "even though" he iscountry-bred and ignorant of any language except English.

13.1 In a thirteenth-century romance, a young man is described whospends his time teaching French to ladies in attendance to a countess.

13.4 RobcrL Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, encourages preaching inEnglish and does so himself.

13.5 The rules for monks of St. Peter's Westminster forbid the use ofEnglish.

13.6 William of Westminster writes about this time that the commonEnglish people despise anyone unable to speak English.

П,6 A thirteenth-centjry saint's life mentions three French conventswhere English girls can improve their French.

13.8 In 1277, a bishop suggests that a letter he has written to a group ofnuns be explained to them several times a year in French or English,

13.9 Walter of Bibbes worth writes his Traite to teach French to childrenof upper-class families. It imrodutcs French through a descriptionof the everyday objects and actions of common life, the parts of thebody, and so on. 11 is reproduced severai times.

13.9 In a late-thirteenth-century e\emplum there is a story about a stewardwho is addressed by his lord in French but does not understand,

13.9 In 12Й4, Bishop Pecham complains that the Fellows at MertonCollege talk Lnglish at table.

13.10 By the end of the thirteenth cemury, there are few references toupper-class speakers knowing English.

13.10 Rules for the Black monks of York order that Latin or French bespoken and forbid Lnglish.

14,1 About 1300, Robert of Gloucester says that 'Normans could speakonly French when they arrived in England, continued to do so andtaught their children French. For unless a man knows French, hecontinues, he is considered of little account. BuL the lower classes,he adds, hold fast to English.

14.3 In the early 1320'i, the colleges Exeter and Oriel allow undergrad-uates to speak French conversationally if they cannot speak Latin.English is not expressly forbidden,

14.4 About 1327, Ranulph Higden in Poljcbronicon says that the Englishtongue has become corrupted because unlike other countries wherechildren do Lheir lessons in their own language, English children dotheir lessons in French and upper-class children learn French from

SO vVOHnS AND MEANINGS

the cradle. He goes on: ". . . and oplontiysch men wo] lyknc hamsylfto gentilmen, and fondej? wip gret bysynes for to speke Freynsch,for lo be more y-tolde of."

L 4,4 In 1332, Purliaiaieot decrees that" Lords, barons, knights and worthymen of great towns" should have their children instructed in Frenchso that they would be better able to fight in wars.

14.9 Sometime before 1380, Oxford University orders that grammarmasters make their students construe in both French and Englishlest French be forgo Lten,

14.9 In 1385, John Trevisa, commenting on Higden's observation aboutFrench and English in J327, says that after the Black Death, in-struction in schools switched to English and that French is not socommonly taught to children among the upper classes any more.Consequently children no longer know French.

14.10 Chaucer's Prioress in The Canterbury Tales is gently mocked forspeaking bad French: And Frenssk she spak fid fair с and feiisiy, /After the scale of Stratford site Bowe, j For Frertsh vfParys was tohir unknowe.

14.10 Though there is some evidence that Richard II is completelybilingual in English and French, Henry IV is generally consideredthe first monolingual English-speaking monarch.

14.10 In J396, a new kind of French handbook appears—sets of modelconversations designed for commercial travelers, businessmen, and

so forth.15.10 At the end of the fifteenth century, Caxton says "the rnooste

quantyteof the people vnerstonde not latyn ne frensshe here in thisnoble royameof cnglond."

PROBLEM 4,8: (1) Can any of the examples or anecdotes be considered toreflect political or social changes? (2) Is there a particular period when spokenEnglish becomes important? (3) What evidence is there for class distinctions?

Some Additional Data Relevant lo the Use of English

11.8 Matthew Paris claims that English-Norman marriages were cn-ctiuraged by William the Conqueror, and, in fact, many Normannoblemen marry English women.

12.1 In 1100, a Henry 1 document is addressed to all his faithful people,both French and English in Hertfordshire.

12.5 By the middle of the twelfth century, native Englishmen are givingFrench names to their children: Humphrey, Stephen, Roger, Robert,Richard, for example.

12.5 During the reign of Stephen particularly, knighthood becomes

TROM MIDDLE ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH 81

associated with nobility of birth, chivalry, ceremony, and romancethrough the many branch talcs written in Ibis period.

12.8 Around 1177, in FHalogus dt Scai carlo occurs the observation that,after a century of living together and marrying, it is hardly possibleto tell who is of English and who is of Norman descent.

12.9 About Ш З , William FitzStephen writes that among the cities ofthe world, London is the most renowned, boasting the finest inmanners, raiment, and dining.

13.1 Knighthood is beginning to become a burdensome service in thefrequent juries of Grand Assizes, tribunals set up to settle propertyownership questions and which can be manned only by knights,

14 Through the fourteenth century, knighthood becomes less im-portant as a social class as the increasing wealth of the East Mid-lands and London create a growing and more affluent commercialclass.

15.8 Because of a labor shortage after the Black Death, villenage beginsto disappear. Laborers sell their time for money, pay their landlordswith money instead of with their labor.

15.Ё In 1476, William Canton introduces printing presses to England,establishing himself in Westminster, just outside London.

15.10 After Carton's death in 14У1, his successor moves the printingbusiness into London.

PROBLEM 4.9: Which of these events illuminate or reflect any of the precedingdata of linguistic history 7 (7, 10,48, 61,127, 187, 196,216,223,229,241, 242)

PROBLEM 4.10: Here are several French borrowings from before and duringthe Middle English period. (1) What would you have concluded about thenature of English-French contact? (2) Do the kinds of words borrowed reflectanything found in the data presented above?

proud, sot, tower, castle, tomber (dancer), market, chancellor.

с 1066-1250abbot, canon, cardinal, clerk, countess, empress, duke, court, rent, cell,justice, miracle, baptist, datne, prince, chape!y image, lion, reason, pilgrim,saint, virgin, obedience, religion., sermon, prophet, patriarch, archangel,circumcision, sacrament, fruit, sepulchre, custom, admiral, baron, prelate,crown, astronomy, council, nunnery!, abbey, discipline, physician, parish-ioner, city, crucifix, purgatory, tournament, desert, unicorn, sponge,journey, rob, large, silence, dangerous, jealous, glutton, joy, tempi, witness,chapter, lesson, story, medicine, confessor, constable, heir, chair, galley,butler, canticle, peace, justice, uncle, aunt, cousin, basin, lamp, rose, catch,change, mercy, poor, rich, wait, prove, war, arrive, pay.

$2 WORDS AMD MEANINGS

c J 250-1350action, cost, deceit, dozen, ease, fault, force, grief, labor, number, opinion,pair, piece, season, sound, square, substance, task, use, bucket, calendar,face, gum, metal, mountain, ocean, people, actual, brief certain, clear,common, contrary, eager, easy, find, hones!, real, second, single, solid,strange, sudden, usual, allow, apply, approach, arrange, carry, close,continue, count, cover, defeat, destroy, excuse, force, form, increase,inform, join, move, please, proceed, push, remember, travel.

c. post-1350

adolescence, affability, appellation, cohort, combustion, distribution,harangue, immensity, ingenious, pacification, representation, sumptuous,aggravation, diversity, furtive, prolongation, ravishment, encounter,deraign, sojourn, solace, affray, languor, disparage, conjecture, disdain,explicit, proportion, register, respite. {1,158, 194)

PROBLEM 4.1 J: Here is another lists of word*, organized by cultural area.Comment,

a. government, state, royal, authority, parliament, assembly, fax, revenue.b. prince, duke, count, baron, squire, page, sir, madam, peasant, slave.c. religion, sermon, prayer, clergy, cardinal, chaplain, friar, crucifix,<L crime, defendant, judge, at tarneyjury, evidence, bail, verdict,fine.e. army, navy, peace, enemy,battle,combat, defense, soldier, captain.{, fashion,gown, robe, lace, but ton, boot, sat in, fur, ruby, pearl, blue.g. dinner, supper, taste, feast, venison, beef, veal, mutton, pork, toast, cream,

sugar, salad, lettuce, fruit, cherry, peach, herb, roast, boil, stew, fry, grate,mince, goblet, saucer, plate, plotter, table.

h. art, painting, sculpture, music, beauty, color, figure, post, prose, romance,story, tragedy, title, relume, paper, pen, study, logic, grammar.

i. palace, mansion, ceiling, chimney, tower, porch, curtain, lamp.j . recreation, leisure, dance, melody, chess, characters, conversation.k, medicine, physician, surgeon, apothecary, malady, pain, plague, stomach.1. place,part, use, city, large, Sine, state, sure, change, close, course, pay, please,

face, quit, coat, brown, air, country, flower, hour, manner, noise, number,people, river, able, large, nice, poor, real, safe, second, carry, move, pass,wait.

(]) Pick two or three of these categories {except 1) and add five random words.Are they French borrowings or native? (2) Try specifically to add five nativewords. (3) Try to replace any set of words above entirely with purely nativewords. (4) How is category ] significant?

PROBLEM 4.12: Albert C. Baugh (7) studied a representative sampling of Frenchwords in English to determine the chronology of their entry into Bog&h. He

FROM MIDDLE ENfiLlSH TO MODERK ENGLISH 8$

compiled the following figures: (1) Before 1100: 2 words, (2) twelfth century:9 words, (3) thirteenth century: 134- words, (4) 1301-1350: 106 words,(5) 1351-1400: 191? words, (6) fifteenth century: J64 words, (7) sixteenthcentury: 157 words, (8) seventeenth century: 98 words, (9) eighteenth century:59 words, [10) nineteenth century: 71 words, (I) How do you explain thisdistribution? Why was the peak of French imports appearing in print notreached until 300 years after the Invasion? (2) What problem in interpretingthese figures is raised by their being derived from written texts ?

NORMAN FRENCH VS. fcNGUSH (10*56-1450)

Most of this data speaks for itself, so only a brief resume is needed here. Twodates mark the major turning points in the influence of French on Englishafter 1066. The first is 1204. when King Philip of France seized the Normanestates of barons whose primary allegiance was to King John of England andforced them to choose between France and England. The second date is134®, -when the Black Death began to sweep across England, accelerating thesocial changes that had been underway for some years.

Before 1204, the dialect of Normandy was naturally enough the prestigedialect of those French in England who maintained close contact with theirfellow countrymen in Normandy, traveling back and forth, as they did, someliving in both countries. Norman French was very likely spoken: (I) by thevast majority of the French invaders and colonists (the Normans'), but not byall the French who settled in England; (2) relatively soon after 1100 by inost,if not all upper-class native Englishmen; (3) by those mtdd Le-dass commercialEnglishmen who had to deal with Normans; and (4) by most of Lhe middle-management personnel on the large estates who served French lords andsupervised English serfs.

Evidence for the use of French among the 90 percent or so lower-classEnglish peasants and laborers is hard to find and evaluate. We can probablydismiss the statements of those who claimed they were writing in Anglo-French, the dialect of Norman French spoken in England, so that both the"lewid" and the learned could understand their romances, "Lewid" or' 'common" certainly did not mean illiterate, which by far most Englishmenprobably were, but rather those unable to read Latin, the most prestigiouslanguage of learning. The vast majority of English speakers, the lower ctass,were undoubtedly monolingual.

After a few generations, it is also almost certain that most Normanswere bilingual. Those knights and barons on the larger estates and theroyalty in their castles were probably able to maintain a French environmentin which they required no English, lint the fact that many French knights and

S4 WORDS AND MEANINGS

nobility married English women who taught or had their children taughtEnglish suggests that at least some, perhaps most of the upper-class Frenchknew same English. And it is virtually tjertain that those below the level ofknights who settled on the land and those businessmen who settled in thecities would have teamed English rather quickly, surrounded as they were byan English-speaking population.

Of course, the major unsolved problem is exactly how many Normanssettled where. The highest estimate, 200,000 settlers, would mean that byabout 1250, one in every eight to twelve on the island was a Frenchman orFrench-descended, a proportion that would have been considerably higher inthe major cities. Since the total population in the major urban centersamounted to less than 75,000 or so, and since we might generously estimatethat less than half the Normans who settled in England settled on the land,it would mean that perhaps 100,000 urban Normans would have outnumberedthe- English in the major cities. And there is no evidence that Normans tookover (he cities to that extent. It is more likely that the French in Englandoriginally numbered closer to 20,000 than to 200,000. This would keep theNormans in the minority both on the land and in the cities, a situation thatwould more logically allow spoken Norman French gradually to disappearafter social and commercial ties to the Continent were interrupted in 1204.The example of French in modern Canada is illuminating here. A very highdensity of speakers is required to keep a language alive over several generations.

Ног а century after 1066, written English continued to be used foroccasional official purposes after spoken French had widely replaced Englishas the working language of everyday government and law. in the first centuryand a half after the Conquest, in fact, written Latin, aot French, replacedEnglish. Not until the thirteenth century did French begin to replace Latin asthe official language for charters, deeds, wills, and so on.

Probably the most important influence of spoken and written NormanFrench at this time was that it created a linguistic criterion for upper-middleclass membership. Without any question, bilingual Normans searching for aword associated with government, culture, entertainment, and so on woulduse French words in their English speech. And Englishmen striving to functionsuccessfully in an upper-middle class milieu would without any question notonly learn some French but imitate the Norman-laced English of bilingualFrench speakers. The comment by John of Salisbury that it was consideredstylish to use French words in English conversations could not be moreilluminating. Moreover, within half a century after the Conquest, the nativepopulation began giving their children first names like John and Hugh,indicating that the Saxons certainly did not universally despise their Normanupper-class. Thus during this period but particularly from the later twelfthcentury on, Norman French was strongly influencing the character of upper-middle class English speech.

After 1204 and following the second, smaller political invasion of

FEDM MIDDLE ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGUSH 85

French speakers during ihe reigns of Henry TIT and Edward T, attitudestowards spoken Norman Trench changed considerably. With the culturalcenter of France now in Paris, Parisian French, not Norman French, becamethe new prestige dialect. Since the French habitually spoken in England wojfdhave been the Norman dialect, itself different from what it was in 1066 andnow considered uncouth, pressure to learn "correct" (i.e., Parisian) Frenchwould rot be so strongly or so directly felt from immediate conversationalcontact with upper-middle class Anglo-Norman speakers. Consequently,more and more we find instruction in "good" French a social fact of life.

Furthermore, in the fourteenth century, the character of the upper-middle class was changing. Knighthood was not the romantic profession ithad been during the reign of King Stephen. In fact, it was becom ing somethingof a chore. Moreover, the increasing wealth of the Midlands was creating acommercial class that could command its own kind of respect. This growingwealth seeped down to the laboring class until in the later fourteenth centurythey rebelled against being tied to the land. They eould profit more by sellingtheir labor to the highest bidder and then paying their lords in money ratherthan in labor. Thus an important social institution that tended to fix thegeographical location of the lower class began to break down.

Intensifying this tendency in П48 was the first of a series of catastrophicplagues that swept across England, killing perhaps a third of the populationbefore- the century was out. It was most deadly to the very old. the veryyoung, and to those in the close confines of monasteries. Combined with thesocial forces already at work, the Black Death made an increasingly fluidsocial order even more so. Before this, French was still a prestige language,as Higden (S327) pointed out. But after the plague, the schools began to useEnglish instead of French as the language of instruction. And it was at leastordered that the law courts should conduct their business in English (1356,1362). The order was not obeyed, but the fact that it was given is significantenough. Thus during the period following 1204, spoken Norman French beganto fade as a major sociolinguistic influence. Parisian French replaced it, butthat was a dialect spoken by the most-hated Frenchmen in England, and onenot commonly spoken hy Anglicized Norman families, (Compare attitudestoward the German language during World Wars I and II.)

But if during the thirteenth century English was beginning to replacespoken French at almost all levels of society and in many official and un-official social institutions, written French not only continued to be used wellinto the fifteenth century, but became even more widespread as the mediumfor social correspondence. It was not until the late fourteenth century and thefirst quarter of the fifteenth that the final shift toward English as an officialand unofficial national written language occurred.

Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in English. Letter-writers began toswitch back and forth between French and Fnglish. Official documents and.lecords began to appear in English rather than French. Richard IJ and Henry

86 WOKDS AND MEANTNQS

IV were probably the first English monarchs completely fluent in English.Henry IV, in fad, was probably monolingual. By the middle of the fifteenthcentury, only the House of Lords and the law courts were still bound toFrench. The Lords would switch to English in a few decades, but the courtswould continue with some of their "law French" until the eighteenth century.(In fact, we can still hear one of the hist archaic remnants of law Frenchwhen the baililT announces the entry of the judge with Oytt, ayez, , . . theimperative plural afoir, to hear.)

It is also clear from the data that London English was destined to set thenational standard. The most prestigious, the richest, the most culturallyinfluential city in the land, London became a melting pot of dialects asEnglishmen from all over England migrated to the city. In the fourteenthcentury, however, one can detect a shift of immigration from the south toimmigration from the Midlands, a fact which made the southern dialectssomewhat less important at a lime when the national standard was being set.London English as a linguistic standard was irrevocably assured whenCaxton set up his printing shop in the London area in the last quarter of thefifteenth century.

КI HI НТП OF CLASSICAL LEARNINC

When William invaded England in 1066, be led a politicallypower, built on a strong feudal base, able to reinforce its power on land witha system of fortifications far superior to the Anglo-Saxons' wooden wallsthat surrounded their wooden forts. Perched atop earthworks rising many feetabove the land, Norman castles easily commanded the surrounding area. Theabilities of the Norman architects are amply testified to by the Romanesquecathedrals and castles that today still tower over the English and Frenchcountryside.

But if the Norman matched the Anglo-Saxon in law and politicalorganization and mastered him in architecture and skills of war, Normanswere relative barbarians in scholarship and literature. Under Norman rule,English learning declined, until by the thirteenth century, Paris had replacedEngland as the center of European intellectual life. The University of Pariswas world-famed; French literature was copied, translated, and admiredfrom Norway to Spain to Italy to Jerusalem. Parisian French was not onlythe language of international chivalry but was challenging Latin as thelanguage оГ international expression.

As Paris attracted more scholars, classical learning became more andmore widely studied. Latin, of course, exceeded even French in its universality.While by the end of the fifteenth century, it was apparently no great shamt

ГНОМ MIDDLE ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH 87

Гог an Englishman not to know French, a clerk who knew no Latin would notbe a clerk-scholar at all. Because French resembled Latin in many ways, itmade borrowing from Lalin into French exceptionally easy. Ft is terrain thatmany of the words English borrowed from French were originally borrowed byFrench from Latin. In fact, it is often difficult to decide whether a word wasborrowed directly from French or directly from Latin.

Paradoxically, it was probably the very resurgence of English describedabove in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that led English to adopt, withthe thousands of French words it borrowed, thousands of Latin words aswell. As English became more and more a language felt to equal French,indeed to be preferable to French in virtually every form of written expression,more and more translators set to translating Latin works into English, as hadalready been done in French. But as one anonymous writer complained inthe early fifteenth century, There ys many wordes in Lai\n that we have napropreEnglyskaccordynge thereto. Having no Anglo-Saxon synonym availableand having apparently lost the productive means to generate new compounds

for abstract words—the typically Anglo-Saxon way of meeting lexical needsLute Middle Fnglish translators had to Anglicize Latin words.

PROBLEM 4.13: Here are several late Middle English Latin borrowings. Whatdo you conclude about the nature of the contact between Latin and Englishin this period?

abject, adjacent, allegory, conspiracy, contempt, custody, distract,frustrate,genius, gesture, history, homicide, immune, incarnate, include, incredible,incubus, incumbent, index, individual, infancy, inferior, innate, innumerable,intellect, interrupt, juniper, lapidary, legal, limbo, lucrative, lunatic,magnify, niaiefdction, mechanical, minor, missal, moderate, necessary,nercous. notary, ornate, picture, polite, popular, prevent, prirate, project,promote, prosecute, prosody, pidpit,quiet, rational, reject,reprehend, rosary,script, scripture, scrutiny, secular, solar, solitary, spacious, stupor, sub-divide, subjugate, submit, subordinate, subscribe, substitute, summary,superabundance, supplicate, suppress, temperate, temporal, testify,tincture, tract, tributary, ulcer, zenith.

EXCI:SS AND REACTION

Because the rebirth of classical learning ultimately ted to a new intellectualtradition in Lngland as vigorous as it was anywhere in the early Renaissance,it is not surprising that the vogue for Latin diction linally reached excessiveproportions. Beginning in the late fifteenth century, it became stylish for some

8Я WORDS AND MEANINGS

to embellish a text with such borrowings as abusion, dispone, diurne, equi-poient, palestra!, lenebrough>fecunt8us, reclmatory. Of course, it is probablysolely from our modern viewpoint that such words now seem bizarre. Duringthe fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, words such as these and words likecamp&uUffus, delineation, dimension, figurative, function, idiom, indignity,penetrate, prolix, and scientific may very well have had the same rhetoricalimpact. It is only because we have for ore reason or another retained com-pendious and discarded equipoleiit that equipolcnt is unfamiliar and, from ourtwentieth century point of view, inflated.

As might be- expected, this wholesale borrowing from Latin and Frenchwas (and has been) opposed by those who believe that English, after strug-gling back towards linguistic respectability, was able to express whatever iL hadto express in native Lnglish words without the help of foreign intruders.Although a good deal of the opposition was on purely practical grounds—many of the imports were simply opaque " i rkhorn" terms which wereprobably unneeded- others objected to such borrowings on principle.

Sir John Chcke (1514-57) wrote, toward the end of his life: I am of thisopinion that our own tutig shold be written cleane and pure, unmix! and ж-mangeled with borrowing of other tunges. His attitude is shared by some moderncommentators. The author of the most complete, though now outdated,history of the Norman invasion and conquest wrote "This abiding corruptionof our language [ believe to have been the one result of the Norman Conquestwhich has been purely evil'1 (E. A. Freeman, History of the Norman ConquestV. 547, quoted by Baugh).

Cheke's position led him to insist that not only should an English termbe used wherever possible, but English should make much fuller use of aprocess of word creation that was lost to serious, scholarly writing when theNormans dominated English literature for so long. Cheke, for example,would write fareseyef for prophet, gainrising for resurrection* leechcraft formedicine, fieshstrings for muscle, iikejamme for parallelogram, and so on.Occasionally, he recommends a single word replacement: mooned for lunatic,hundreder for centttrim, toller for publican, crossed for crucified. But sincethere are far from enough one-for-one correspondences between Anglo-Saxon derived words and all the ordinary and learned words from Latin andFrench, Cheke was really demanding that com pound ing., an area of Englishgrammar that had lost much of its vitality in intellectual prose, become much*more productive and vital than it was.

PROBLEM 4.14: Here are several Latinate words we need (or think we need)in English to express Lhe concepts they cover: undiscerniiig, exulting, anxiety,intelligence, proud, patient, magnanimous, spiritless, despondency, precious,reliant, principle, accordant, resolute. They all refer to some aspect of emotionor mental state. But no one piece of these words lints1 them to a single cate-

tttOM MIDDLE EKC11SH TO MODFRN PNGT.TSH 89

gory of meaning, as does i-ogn- in cognition, recognize^ cagftojcenti, cognizantcognizance; or -ceive in receive,perceive, conceive, and deceive.

In OL, on (lie other hand, each of the words Anglo-Sa\on writers usedto express any one of these ideas began with mod- (which ultimately givesour modem word mood). Here is a list of OE words with their French/Latin-derived ModE translations. The first element, mod-, means somethingapproximating what is common to the concepts of mind, spirit, thought, soul.The rough meaning of the second part of the compound is in parentheses:modblind(-blind): undisccrning; modbysgung (-trouble): anxiety; тофН (-fill):proud: modteas (-less): spiritless; modcrxft (-art): intelligence; tnodbh$$iertde(-joyful): exultieg; modge8y!dig (patience): patient; modkasi (least):despondency, want of courage. Here are some literal translations for the secondpart of some other mod- words. The meaning of the second part of the com-pound is in parentheses. What do the compounds seem to mean? modrqf(-strength): _ -; modsleSol (-fixed, basic): ; mndteof (-valued):

; modswid (-strong): ; modSrea (-menace): ,

The capacity to compound has certainly not been lost in English, Wecoin new ones everyday: moortshot,splashdown, babysit, and so on. Bat by andlarge, we compound to create words for areas of meaning that are relativelyconcrete, everyday, common objects and experiences. What we have lost isthe OE habit of compounding to create words for more abstract, conceptualareas of experience.

PROBLEM 4.15: (I) Make up compound words out of OE stock for five Frenchwords in each of the categories 1066-! 250, 1250-1350, and post-1350 inProblem 4.10, For example: sermon; churcfispee<A\ mountain: highftifl;combustion: quick burn, (2) Make up OF, compounds for an entire group ofwords in Problem 4.10.

Given the weakening of compound word formation in relatively formalF,nglish prose, it is a waste of time to lament the fact that we arc unable towrite " p u r e " Anglo-Sason English. The common observation that Anglo-Saxon inheritances arc short, vigorous, muscular words that communicate anidea briefly and pithily is not too far from the mark. But a good many com-plicated, sophisticated, abstract ideas cannot be communicated in that kindof language, in some cases, it would be rhetorically ineffective to communicatea message in biunt, concrete terms. So all in all, our French-Latin inheritancehas complicated the language but not fatally.

PROBLEM 4.16: Write the paragraph beginning Ome fcnglisft became . . . , atthe beginning of Chapter Five, using only An^lo-Saxon words.

90 WORDS AMD

4.17; What arc the national sources for words in the followingsemantic fields: obscenities, numbers, body pans, apologies (i.e., Гт sorry,excuse me, pardon me, I apologize, / regret that, . . ) , kitchen utensils (pots,pans, stove, ovett, and so forth) and eating utensils {knife, fork, spoon, saucer,goblet, platter, and so on), astronomical bodies (suij, WOOJJ, star, planet,meteor, cornet, solar system, galaxy, universe, constellation), days of the weekand months of the year. Can you explain any pattern of national origin?

4.18: Is there a way (0 account for the pattern of sources for thefollowing words:

OE: calfcowboarswineJeerchickensheep

F : veal OE:beefbrawnpork, baconvenisonpoultrymutton

farmerwoodsmanfishermanshepherdhunterskinnermillerbakercookmaid

F: tailor; vintnerbutcher, poultererglazier, physicianmason, barbercarpenter, attorneypainter, spicerchandler, foresterhaberdasher, hosthosier, drapermercer, merchantbutler, servant, waiter

PROBLLM 4.19: There are several pairs of words in English, one of which weborrowed from Norman French, the other from Central or Parisian trench.(I) Which do you think was borrowed first? (2) Why were both borrowed?(The first word in each pair is Central French, the second Norman French.)chattel-cattle, chase-catch, channel-kernel, lance-latatch, gage-wage, guard-ward, guarantee-warranty.

Chapter 5

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERNENGLISH

Once English became generally accepted as the medium for official, literary,and scholarly purposes, and for most upper-class social purposes, only oneclement was lacking that would insure its triumph in the English Renaissance—a means to make Linglish texts available to an increasingly literate popula-tion. But boots were expensive. Because each one had to be copied manually,the twenty volumes owned by Chaucer's Clerk represented a very targe andexpensive library.

The missing factor was provided in 1476 when William Caxton (c. 1422-МУ I) introduced to England the art of printing. Within 200 years over20,000 titles in English atone were printed in F.ngland. In the Kith century, onetranslation after another appeared: Thucydides, Xenophon, Herodotus,Plutarch, Caesar, Livy, Sal lust, Tacitus, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Ovid,Horace, Terence, Theocritus, Homer, St. Augustine, LJoethius, Erasmus,Calvin, Luther. In addition to translations, a vigorous theological literatureresulted from the Protestant Reformation and the debates it sparked. Workson history, rhetoric, travel, and so on made the 16th century a rich if generallyunappreciated period in the history of English prose. Against those whoobjected that our language was too impoverished to express grand thoughts,English finally prevailed.

The continuing interest in Latin, Gieek, and of course French encouraged

91

92 ^ORUB АМГ) MPAKINCS

the constant borrowing of words from those languages. During the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries, we acquired, if we did not retain, such words asatmosphere, dexterity, expectation, appropriate, conspicuous, external, ex-pensive, insane, adapt, benefit, consolidate, exist, mediate, ancephaliie, de-runtinate, itiecebrous, exciccate, emacerate, eximious, matssuetude. aspectaWe.suppeditate. Originally Greek words, the following were also borrowed fromLatin: caustic, chaos, chronology, critic, dogma, emphasis, enthusiasm, scheme,and system, among many others.

In fact, it has been estimated that fully one quarter of the total Latinvocabulary was adopted by English speakers in some form, the majority beforethe end of the seventeenth century. From about 1450 through 1700, a majorityof the approximately 10,000 words borrowed into English were probablyLatin. Perhaps half of them have withstood the Lest of time to becomepermanent additions to the language. (7) The most important social con-sequence of this wholesale importation is that many of these later Latinborrowings (along with many of those borrowed earlier) have shifted from avocabulary appropriate only to a. fairly formal style to the kinds of wordseducated people use in their day-to-day conversation: explain, education,scientific,function, exist, system, disagree, and many more.

CHANGING ATTTTUDES TOWARD ENGLISH

By 1400, it wai clear that English would remain the language of upper-classlife and most bureaucratic affairs. Latin and French would continue to be usedin the law courts, and the debate would continue through the sixteenth centuryabout the adequacy of English to express refined and philosophical ideas. Butfrom the vantage point of the twentieth century, it is difficult to imagine anyother outcome than the emergence of English as a language of intellectualand literary merit.

But other attitudes were developing too. As early as the 12th century,Englishmen were commenting on each other's speech, William of Malmes-bury (1095-1143), a monk from the south of England, observed that thelanguage of the north, particularly in York, was so crude that Englishmen inthe south could not understand it. Chaucer used northern dialect for comedyin the <L Reeve's Tale." He, of course, wrote in the dialect of London. In thePreface to his translations of Eneydos, Caxton lamented the variation andchangeability of fifteenth-century English, referring to his native Kentishdialect as rough and rude. By the early sixteenth century, it was clear that thesocial, political, and intellectual influence of London would make its dialecta virtual Standard,

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MUDEKN ENGLISH 93

5.1: In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, we findquotes such as the following. What other attitudes toward linguistic- variationwere developing? (42)

1. From William Caxton's 1482 version of John of Trcvisa's ИВ7 transla-tion of Ranulph Higden's Latin description of the state of English in1327. This particular passage is a combination of Ca\ton7 Trevisa, andHigden's observations:

Therfor it к rhat men of inerdj that ben of myddle englond as it werepartners with the endes understands better the side langages northern &.sotnei'n than nor [hern &- southern understands cyther other. AHe the lan-gages of the nort hum ores & speciafly at york is so sharp slytying frotyngandurnshapc that wesothem men may unncth understande that langage I supposethe cause be thai they he nygh to the alyens that speke strauneely.

And also by cause that the kynges of englond abydc and dwcllc more inthe south countreye than in the north countrey.

TJie cause why (hey ahyde more in the south соuntrey than in the northcounlrey, is by саны; that ther is hetter come londe more pcple moo noblecytees, & moo prouffyiablc havenes in the south con trey than in the north.

2. From Sir Thomas Elyot's The Вике Named the Covcrnour (1531):

, , , at the lest way . . , speke none enghsshe but that which is cleanepolite, perfectly and articulately pronounced, omittinge no lcftrc or siHabie,as rolisshc women often times do of a wanlonnesse, whereby diucrs noblemen and gcntilmcnnes chyldren (as I do at this daye knowe) have attainedcorrupteand foule pronunciation.

3. From a letter by Henry Dowes, tutor of Thomas Cromwell's (1485-1540)son: He reports that a Mr. Southwell is "dailie h cringe hi me to rcadesumwhat in thenglishe tongue, and advertisenge hinie of the nature!Iand true kyndeof pronuntiactin thereof.*'

4. From John Hart's Method* (1570):"., . the flower of the English tongueis vsud in the Court in London."

5. From George Puttenhanvs The Arteof Fn^lish Poesy (1539):

[The language of the poet should be] naUirall, pure, and the most usuallof all his countrey: and for ihe same purpose rather (hat which is spokenin the kings Court, or in ihc good (ownes and Cities within the land, thenin the marches and frontiers, or in port (ownes,,, - neither shall he followthe speach of a crafies man or carter, or other of Ihe inferiour sort, thoughhe be inhabitant or bred in the best towne and Citic in this Kealmc, for suchpersons doe abuse good speaches by strange accents or ill shapen soundes,and false ortojtraphie. But he shall follow generally the bctler biought upsort, such as the Greckes call iharienies men civil I and graciously hehavouredand bred . . . ye shall thcrfore takt Ihe usuall speach of the Court, and thatof Ivondonand the shires lying about London within IK. mylcs, and not muchabove, ] say this but thai in every shyre of Hngland there be gentlemen

94 WORDS AND MEANINGS

and others that speake but specially write as good Soulherne as we ofMiddlesex or Surrey do, but not the common people of every shire, to whom(he gentlemen, and also their learned clarkcs do for the most part condescend.

6. From Alexander Gill's Logimoniia Anglic a (1619; translated by E. J.Dobson.42);

In speech the custom of the learned is the first law. Writing therefore isto be adjusted not to that sound which herdsmen, girls and porters use; butlo that which the learned, or cultivated scholars, use in speaking andrecitation.

7. From Charles Butler's English Grammar (1633): He takes his standardfrom the "Universities and the Citties,"

8. From Owen Price's Vocal Organ (1665): l l l have not been guided by ourvulgar pronunciation, but by that of London and our Universities, wherethe language is purely spoken."

9. From Elisha. Colts' Schoolmaster (1674): He bases his standards on thelanguage most in use-among the "generality" of scholars.

10. From an anonymous Right Spelling (1704): London speech is too "fine "and "smooth" ; the speech of the Universities is preferable.

Yet another attitude that began to develop was that toward change,Rhetoricans and others commenting on English from the beginning of theseventeenth century began to identify the verbal energy and inventiveness ofthe first half of their century with unmliness and a lack of decorum, ehange inlanguage with decay and corruption. As English came to be used increasinglyto translate the classics and as the primary language for scientific and philo-sophical writings, many Englishmen became uneasy over the fact that Lheyhad nothing like a grammar of Latin to settle questions of usage, no rules toguide those not entirely at ease in the language.

A handful of grammars, usually in Latin, appeared from the middle ofthe sixteenth century, written by those who wanted to provide English withthe rules it lacked in comparison to Latin. Spelling reformers also began toexamine the orthography of their sixteenth-century English, and at the begin-ning of the seventeenth century, the first dictionaries began to appear (Weshall deal with both the lexicographers and orthoepists more fully in subse-quent chapters.)

The first explicit, though short-lived attempt to stem what many per-ceived to be a degeneration of English came in 1664. Two years before, agroup of Englishmen of letters and science founded The Royal Society, aninstitution dedicated to the furthering of scientific interests. In December1664, it formed a subcommittee to improve the English language. But eventhough it had the successful examples of the Italian Academy (the Accadcmiadella Crusca), and the French Academy (TAc&dHBM Francaise), to follow,the committee met only a few times before disbanding.

But the strong belief that the English language had to be purified and

THt ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERN ENGLISH 95

"ascertained." or fived, would not lei the idea of an academy die. In 1697,Daniel Defoe (165У-1731) in his Essay upon Projects proposed a committeeof 36 to check the "exorbitance" of writers so that " n o author would havethe impudence to coin without their authority.'* In 1712, Jonathan Swift(1667-1745) sent to the Far! of Oxford, the Lord Treasurer of Lingland, hisA Proposal fur Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue. I nit, he proposed an academy that would not so much prevent (though hebelieved that goal was dciiiruble) as control change, admitting carefullyscreened new words to the language only after defective words had beenimproved or rejected from the language, shortened words like mob for mobileand extra for extraordinary; words with contracted inflections such asdrudg'd, distwh'd, rebuk'd, and Jledg'd, and " low" words such as sham,battler, buHyt shuffling, and palming. Neither proposal achieved its end.

But the rational, decorous temper of the eighteenth-century mind con-tinued to insist that the principles of order and decorum apply to language aswell as to the arts and philosophy. The English language still lacked a grammaralong the lines of neat Latin paradigms; low vulgar words still vied withinflated borrowed ones to corrupt the English vocabulary; speakers andwriters still had no standard to appeal to beyond their own uncertain tastes.

Two Authorities

Then in 1755, Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84), published his Dictionary oftht English Language, a two-volume work that followed over a down earlierdictionaries, but marked the beginning of serious lexicography in English.And seven years later, Robert Lowth (1710-87) published his Short Introduc-tion l« English Grammar, a text that went through at least 22 editions beforethe nineteenth century and set the tone for attitudes toward language thatwe still feel loday. Together, they exercised a very great influence on attitudestoward language.

As Johnson described it, he "laboured to refine our language to gram-matical purity, and to dear it from colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms,and irregular combinations." He was one of the first to comment explicitlyon the level of use of a word, labelling many words as "low," "cant,4 ' or"ludicrous." Despite the many scholarly defects of his work, it was justly-hailed as a landmark in lexicography. English at last had an index to accept-able and unacceptable words, and a prestigious precedent for making dic-tionaries the final social arbiter of linguistic usage. (92, 131,153,202,205)

A good many grammars had been written before Lowth published his in1762; some even recognized that the model of Latin grammar was inappro-priate to the "genius" of English, that usage by the best writers was a betterarbiter of disputed points than artificial rules, no matter how apparentlylogical they might be. But Lowth's litilc book struck a responsive chord in

96 WORUS AN [J MEANINGS

the temper of the [ale eighteenth century. It provided English with a grammaralong Latin lines and, it was hoped, enough advice to Ll teach us to expressourselves with propriety in that Language . . . Besides showing what is right,the matter may be further explained by pointing out what is wrong."

In effect, Lowth and those who emulated him set themselves up as адunincorporated Academy, deciding questions of usage not by observing howeducated Englishmen actually spoke and wrote, but by appealing to the pastor a kind of rationality that had (and still has) nothing to do with the realnature of language.

In the context of the entire structure of the- English language, however,the points over which grammarians quarreled constituted an infinitesimailysmall portion ofthat structure. They were questions about the choice betweenlie and lay, hanged and hung, f had rather or / would rather, between you and Ior between you and me, who and whom, It is I or It is me, taller than I or tallerthan me, different from or different than, the older or oldest of the two, his orhim doing that, I will or shall, backwards or back ward, he need not or he needsnot, averse from or averse to—the questions numbered fewer than a hundredor so, most of them involving the case of pronouns, verb forms, and thechoice of prepositions.

The prescriptive rules that were set down illustrate how minor featuresof language can be seized upon to make large social distinctions. Theytestify even more to the insecurities of upwardly mobile speakers. Given afinite set of rules about pronoun forms and so on, such speakers can avoidor foliow those rules and know that they are not committing social gaffes thatwould reveal their changing social status. The advice falls into the same classas that provided by etiquette books, interior decorators, and caterers: Whenin doubt, rely on institutionalised advice. And equally important, knowledgeof rules allows those who art insecure about themselves to judge those otherswho break the rules.

The most common assumption behind this advice was that languageshould be logical. Occasionally, Latin or the eariier meaning of a word wasappealed to, but mtirc often the advice was characterized by the logic of "twonegatives make an affirmative." Tn algebra, such might be the case, but as weshall see later, double, triple, even quadruple negatives were the rule inearlier forms of English, and rather than cancelling one another out, they onlyintensified the sense of negation. Similarly, no historical justification existsfor objecting to whose to refer to an inanimate object: Л car whose doorwouldn't shut. . . and preferring A car the door of which wouldn't shut. Yeteighteenth, nineteenth, and even some twentieth century prescriptive gram-marians would argue that whose should refer only to human referents: A numwhose house burned down., . . Their logic defeats their powers of observation.

The same reasoning has led many to condemn constructions like morecomplete or more unique, or double comparatives and sjperlatives such asmore wilder or most unkindest. The lo^ic of Latin case led to the choice of

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERN ENGLISH 97

older than I and it isJ. The desire lo regularize what appeared to be randomvariation led to the codification of' the л/iail -WE'//rule.

Some grammarians did indeed resist this kind of logic-chopping. JosephPriestly (1733—1804), the discoverer of oxygen, wruLe Rudiments of EnglishGrammar in 1761, In it, he forcibly argued that the only criterion to judge us-age by was the English of those who used the Language most skillfully. A fewgrammarians and rhetoricians supported this view, but one need only scan afew modern textbooks to realize what little influence they have had. The sameprescriptive rules about the same points (often with many of the sameexamples) are being set forth today and accepted as gospel just as they werein the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In opposition to this prescriptive tone are the modern descriptivelinguists (p. 26), who emerged in the early part of this century following amore object]vist, empiricist, behaviodst methodology. Because they made noassumptions about a language before they described it, they made no priorsocial judgements about the inherent goodness of any particular form thatmight occur. Because they had to confront languages whose structures boreno resemblance to languages they were familiar with, they rejected the ideathat any given language should follow "rational, logical" principles. Thusfor a descriptivist, if structures like Can"i nobody tell nobody nothing com-monly occur in a dialect, then those structures are grammatical for the speakersin that dialect. If Nobody can tell anybody anything commonly occurs in an-other dialect, it is grammatical for the speakers in that dialect. Neither structureis more grammatical in itself.

They would not disagree Lhal social judgments condemn one form andnot the other, at least, the social judgments of those who are most influentialin the larger community. But the condemnation, they would insist, mustfinally rely on conventionalized social judgments, not on any inherentgoodness or badness of the grammatical form.

Unfortunately, this view is misunderstood by those who are not com-pletely familiar wkh modern linguistic principles. It does not. mean that suchlinguists "have no standards," that with them, "anything goes." Themistake rests on a failure to distinguish detached, objective observations fromhortatory predictions of unfavorable social consequences. And that mistakeunquestionably stems from the belief that grammarians and dictionarymakers should be social arbiters in the tradition of Bishop Lowth and Dr.Johnson. But a good many social linguists look upon themseives as dis-passionate observers and recorders of how people in fact do speak and wriLcin various styles at various social levels and how they feel about how theyspeak and write. The linguists neither proscribe nor prescribe.

The debate Lhal raged over the appearance of Webster's Third NewInternational Dictionary (1961) illustrates this difference. Those who editedW r ^ s Second (1934) accepted the role of linguistic censor by labeling

as colloquiai or vulgar, and omitted some words and definitions

98 WORDS AND MEANINGS

altogether because they were not considered to be educated or decent usage.When the average person went to that dictionary, he found Eld vice about howto speak and write so that, in effect, he would not be scorned for linguisticuncouthness.

Those who edited the Third, on the other hand, looked upon themselvesmore as recorders, not prescribe rs. They included in any words not found inthe Second, and refrained from marking many others as colloquial or slang.For a great many people, this signalled a shirking of responsibility so heinousthat m;my newspapers, libraries, and publishing houses refused to purchasethe dictionary and, in riome cases, specifically stipulated that it might noteven be referred to. What the controversy attests to is a linguistic insecurityvery little different from that recognized by the eighteenth-century gram-marians and lexicographers. The difference is that those linguists and gram-marians best informed about the nature of language and society today insistthat every question about the usage of a particular form must be decided onthe basis of actual usage in particular situations and that every answer mustbe phrased as follows: "Speakers of a particular geographical dialect andsocioeconomic level statistically tend to select feature X rather than featureY in social context A.4' Whether any speaker shun Id select feature X incontest A is not a question to be posed by them, but rather by those whoknow—or believe they know—whiit the consequences of that choice will be.(201)

PROBLEM 5.2 r Many current grammar boots claim that the following con-structions are incorrect. On the basis of data you collect from writers andspeakers you would consider to be educated, literate, and at least middleclass, do you believe that these claims are reliable ?

1. A sentence should not begin with a coordinating conjunction such asand, but, yet, far, SO, Of, nor.

2. Their should not be used to refer to a singular referent, a$ in Everybodybrought their books,

3. Which should refer to a noun, never to a clause: He left, which was too badis wrong.

4t One should not split infinitives, as in He had intended to secretly enter themeeting which was planning to overthrow the government.

5.3: Dictionaries often use labels like slang, informal.non-standard, casual, indecent, vulgar, and so on to advise a reader about thesocial status of a word. From that label, it is assumed, he should know howto use the word in the appropriate tin: urns lances, or whether to avoid usingthe word entirely. Consult the introduction to the following dictionaries todetermine what labels they use and how they apply them, and apply thoselabels as consistently as you can to the list of words provided below. Then lookup each word in the various dictionaries to determine how well your judg-

THE ESTABUSHMENr OK MODEHN ENGLISH 99

merits agre* with theirs and, more importantly, how consistently thosedictionaries apply their their own standards.

Dictionaries:

Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Springfield, Mass,, 1961.Webster's Second New International Dictionary. Springfield, Mass., 1934.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston, 19 69,The Oxford EuaJish Dictionary. Oxford, 1933."] ho Random Housi1 Dictionary of the I\ relish I. angu ape. New York, 1966.Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language. Cleveland,1966.

Words:

sin'i, belch, blue (sad), claptrap, classy, crack (sarcastic remark), cute,egghead, enthuse, dope (narcotic), dumb (uninteWigant), fort, firebug, fop(failure)* fluke (good luck), hugger-mugger, infer (meaning imply), ine-gardless, jinx, kidQola), kith, knock (to criticize), loaf (not work), lamb(mild mannered person), huh (a drunk), nifty, pretty (as in pretty tired),piss, pipsqueak, root (cheer for), shif, stingy, stinker, to-do, tight (stingy),tight (drunk), wangle, wisecrack.

In labelling words in this way, dictionary makers assume that someoneuncertain about style and usage will know what the effect of a sentence suchas this is:

All those pretty dunib eggheads ain't enthused about that.

Would such a person who consulted the same dictionary be able to anticipatethe rhetorical affects of these sentiences ?

We perambulated up ihc street to a restaurant. After checking ourehapeaux,we perused the bill of fare and cogitated about our repast. My friend'svisage was puzzled, however, because the appellations of the viands were inChinese,

What does the fact that sttch words as perambulate, chapeau, visage, and so onare not labeled indicate about the assumptions or lack of assumptions on thepart of dictionary makers?

BO It ROWINGS FROM OTHER LANGUAGES

The rise of a small island nation from its foggy obscurity to the commercialarid military domination of a large part of the globe meant that, in many

100 WORDS AND MEANINGS

ways, the English speaker came to resemble the Roman in Britain in A.D, 45.In India, in the Near EaSL, in Lhe Pacific, and in the Americas, British business-men protected by British-Jed soldiers dominated trade and set social standards.In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, British wealth allowed Englandto develop its scientific establishment untJUt was, with France and Germany,the leader of the scientific and industrial world. During the ртте-coionial andcolonial periods, English came into contact, «viih a variety of other culturesand languages,

PROBLEM 5.4: Here is a sampling of words borrowed from languages we havenot yet discussed, grouped by language- and period. Considering both thenature of the words (including style and area of reference) and the periods inwhich they were borrowed, could you reconstruct the kind of contact we havehad with these other languages? The words in italics were borrowed throughKrcnch. What does that fact tell you about English relationships with theselanguages ?

Italian

Hth-15th centuries: florin, alarm, million, ducat, brigand, bark (a kind ofship), лоту {а kind offish).

16tfi—17th centuries; race., nuncio, artisan, doge, magnifies, mountebank,umbrella, gondoia, carnival, muslachio, attack, rocket, barrack, pistol,cavalier, rnuxkei, squadron, battalion, citadel, bankrupt, contraband, carat,frigate, porcelain, bandit, firm (company), motto, artichoke, cupola,cornice, pedestal, pi a z ra, stucco, portico, grotto, balcony, corridor,catacomb, dado, concert, tmdrigaL, viol da gamba,/u^Mt>, pastel, fresco,sonnet, stanza, canto, caprice, regatta, lagoon, balloon, mx\.s\\n,mercontile}

risk, opera, serenade, sonata, spinet, largo, piano, intaglio, profile, vista,cartoon, chiaroscuro, burlesque, ghetto.

lSth-l&th centuries: casino, vendetta, mafia, malaria, influenza, bronzet

lava, breccia, travertine, mezzanine, colonnade\ arcade, loggia, studio,baroque, figurine, soprano, trombone, viola, cantata, trio, concerto, aria,quartet, finaie. andante, adagio, crescendo, tempo, bravo, piccolo, primadonna, sestet., scherzo, contrapuntal, fiasco,fracas, imbroglio, tirade.

Spanish

Middle English: cordwain (a leather from Cordova), cork.

l<Sth-17th century: peso, cask, real (a coin), anchovy, sherry, spade (onplaying cards), galleon, grenade, armada, comrade, tornado, sombrero,cannibal, negro, nigger, mulatto, iguana, alligator, armadillo, sassafras,sarsaparilla, mosquito, banana, cargo, Creole, desperado, matador, tone(the fruit), embargo, parade, guitar, siesta, peon, llama, chinchilla,cockroach, vanilla, barracuda, avocado, barbecue, tortilla, plaza.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HODQHN ENGLISH 101

1ЯЙ1-1У1И century: albino, stevedore, quadrille, bolero, flotilla, jade (theminera!), cigar, alpaca, hacienda, porcho, silo, cigarette, guerilla, lasso,mustang, gaucho, rodeo, stampede, lariat, quirt, cinch, bronco, pom-p a n c bonanza, pueblo, patio. adobct scrape, vamoose, canyon, burro,dago, cafeteria, marijuana, vigilante, incommunicado, alfalfa.

L w German Lansuages (Dutch, Frisian, Flemish, Plattdeutsch, Afrikaans)

Middle English; poll (head), dote, dotard, luff, bounce, snatch, huckster,

tackle (as in fishing tackle), boy, booze, wainscot, hobble, splint, kit.

15th-16tfi century: firkin (a small cask), mart, hop (the plant), pickle,

spool, rack, sled, excise, buoy, hoist, hose (stockings), bulwark, boor,

]niter, snap, groove, luck, placard.

J7th-I8m century: brandy, stoker, smuggle, keelhaul, sloop, cruise,walrus J ib . yawl, knapsack, furlough, blunderbuss, easel, sketeh, stipple,decoy, slur, hanker, snort, snuff, hustle, skate, gin, schooner, pea-jacket,caboose, snow, jn angle, cookie.

19th century: snoop, spook, waffle, boss, dope, aardvark, wildebeest,veldt, commando, trek.

High German

ltith-17tli century: junker, lobby, carouse, plunder, saber, zinc, sauer-kraut, hamster.

18th-19th century: cobalt, shale, quartz, feldspar, gneiss, nickel, meer-schaum, pumpernickel, waltz, zig-zag, iceberg, poodle, spilz, dachshund,vermouth, lager, zither, leitmotiv, yodel, protein, paraffin, ohm, polter-geist, rucksack, semester, kindergarten, seminar, noodle, delicatessen,frankfurter, hamburger, pretzel, poker, bum, hex, loafer, livcrwurst, nix.

Slavic

KSth-17th century: kvass, rouble, czar, steppe, mammoth, knout, ukase,vodka, droshky, samovar, tundra, troika, polka.

20th century: pogrom, soviet, bolshevik, intelligentsia, robot, sputnik,babushka.

Middle Lnglish (almost all acquired through French or Italian): saffron,admiral, mattress, cotton, hazard, camphor, henna, alchemy, alembic,alkali, elixir, zenith, azimuth, almanac, syrup, cipher, sumac, antimony,alcoran, mosque, bedouin, lemon.

l<ifli-17tH century: rebec, algebra, arsenal, monsoon, assassin, jar,alcohol, apricot, sash, giraffe, hashish, coffee, sirocco, fakir, emir,sherbert, alcove, sofa, harem, minaret, gazelle, albatross, zero,ШЬ-ШЬ century: allah, houri, genie, ghout, candy, jehad, safari.

102 WORDS AND MEANINGS

Hebrew

Old English (through Latin and Greek): amen, hemp, hosanna, manna,rabbi, Sabbath, Satan, seraphim, cherubim.

Middle English (through French): jasper, cinnamon, sappiiire, babel,behemoth, leviathan, cabal, shibboleth, jubilee.

Modem Kngliib: hallelujah, shekel, Torah, kosher, kibbutz,

PersianOld English (through Latin): pard, tiger, paradise.

Middle English (through French); scarlet, roc, checkmate, chess, azure,salamander, taffeta, arsenic, mummy.

Modtrn English (usually through other languages);spinach, jasmin, lilac,seersucker, khaki, caravan, bazaar, shawl.

Turkic

Various times: horde, tulip, vampire, turban, fez, cofiee.

Indian Languages (Sanskrit, Hindi, Romany)

Old English (through Latin): panther, pepper, ginger.

Middle English; sandal

17th-18th century: nabob, guru, pundit, chintz, dungaree, mongoose,punch (the drink), cot, bungalow, tomtom, juggernaut, gunny, bandana,sari, jute, chit, jungle, shampoo, myna.

10th century: thug, puttee, cashmere, pajamas, gazelle, mugger, dumdum,dinghy, loot, polo, chutney,

Dravjdian (Tamil, Malay, Tdegu)

16th-18th century: calico, mango, copra, curry, coolie, pariah, atoll,

Tibtto-Chmese

Old English (through Latin): silk.

Modern English: tea, ketchup, kowtow.

Japanese

17<h-l9ih century: sake, hara-kiri, tycoon, geisha.

20th century\ zen, kamikaze, judo, karate.

Mhlay-PolynesJan/Australian Aborigine

Hith-17tb century: bamboo, gong, junk (the ship), gingham, cockatoo,rattan, amok (as in running amok), launch.

1Sth 19th ceniury: taboo, kangaroo, dingo, caddy, sarong, boomerang,gutta-percha. (74,95.142,167,194)

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERN ENGLISH 103

AMERICAN ENGLISH

In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, there occurred an event thatwould diminish and probably will eventually end the prestige of the particularEnglish dialect found in the environs of London: The American colonialistsdeclared and won their independence. The earliest colonialists from Englandsettled, of course, along coastal New England and the Tidewater. Generally,they probably came from the southern and midland dialect areas, from south.and from north and cast of London. Somewhat later, the middle Atlanticstates, Pennsylvania around Philadelphia, northern New Jersey and northernDelaware were settled by Englishmen from various regions, though most ofthe Quakers among them were probably from north midland dialect areas.Then in the middle of the eighteenth century came large numbers of Scotch-Irish from Ulster. They had been transplanted earlier by the Crown fromScotland and northern England to Ulster to keep Ireland safe for the monarchy,but fled when they could no longer tolerate British exploitation and frictionwith the indigenous Irish. Many passed through the earlier coastal settlementsto western New England and to the Piedmont of Virginia and the Carolina*to become a buffer against the Indians. Great numbers also settled in Pennsyl-vania,, along the Susquebunna River and then moved into West Virginia,Tennessee, and Kentucky. Another addition to this eighteenth-century im-migration were large numbers of German and Swiss from the RhinelandPalatinate. They kept very much to themselves, however, maintaining theirGerman language and culture in Pennsylvania to become the PennsylvaniaDutch (Deutsch), Other immigrants included French Huguenots, SpanishJews, Moravians from southeast Germany, and a scattering of other groupsthat have had very little linguistic influence on our speech.

After the settlement of the East, settlers from western New Englandpushed into upper New York State and then along the edge of the GreatLakes area into Michigan and Wisconsin. Settlers from the South Midlandspushed into Kentucky and then into southern Ohio, most of Indiana andsouthern Illinois. North Midland settlers later moved into central Ohio,Indiana, and Illinois. Settlement of most of the South and southwest largelyoriginated from the western Carolinas and eastern Tennessee.

Later migrations generally followed these patterns across the UnitedStates, except that during these migrations, Americans came into contact withthfee other cultures which have contributed words to our language: theIndians, the French in the Mississippi basin, and the Spanish in the OldSouthwest. (4,59,110,114, 117, 137, Ш , 145, 173, ISO, 197)

5.5: Here arc some borrowings from American Indian languages.Comment on the kind of contact Americans have had with Indian culture.

104 WORDS AND

Which borrowings from languages discuss4.~d in Problem 5.4 are theseIndian borrowings most like? There is another extremely large category ofIndian words many of us use every day. What is it?

South American (usually through Spanish or Portuguese): canoe, cassava,hammock, hurricane, iguana, potato, maize, petunia, jobacco, condor,chocolate, tomato, chili, avocado, cashew, cougar, ocelot, puma, quinine,coyote,cocoon,

North American: racoon, opossum, moccasin, moose, hominy, skunk.muskrat, woodchuck, hickory, tvfetn, caribou, succotash, chipmunk,squash, toboggan, caucus (?)» powwow, nxickinaw, podunk, kayak,chautauqita.

PKOGLEM 5.6: Rcexamine the Spanish and High German words borrowed inthe eighteenth-twentieth centuries. Speculate which words were borrowedthrough contact with Spanish and German speakers in this hemisphere andwhich were borrowed through contact with Spanish and German writing.

During this later settlement, of course, waves of immigrants continuedto sweep across the Atlantic. The first large "new" wave began in the earlyI SCO's when Irish who also could not tolerate British repression or subsist onthe meager fertility of a stony [and sailed for (he United SLates by the tens ofthousands to settle largely in the cities. Following them were the Germans whobypassed their Pennsylvania Dutch cousins to settle predominantly in theupper Mississippi River basin, in Wisconsin, in Chicago, in St. Louis, inCincinnati. Along with them came Scandinavians who embraced the land aseagerly as the Irish embraced city life. Settling the upper Mississippi valley,they formed ethnic enclaves as enduring as those of the Germans or Irish,The last great wave of migration began after the Civil War, this time bringingmillions from southeastern Europe to settle in the cities along the Easternseaboard and the midwest, providing the lowest social layer in a fluid butstratified society. Most of these groups have contributed a few words to thegeneral vocabulary of American English, but (outside their own dialectgroups) their overall linguistic influence has been negligible.

As might be expected, British attitudes toward American English in thelast three centuries have ranged from an occasional condescending admirationfor its lusty exuberance to a more prevalent contempt for its alleged slovenlycorruption of the language of Shakespeare and Milton. These negativeattitudes had several causes. First, those most likely to defend a linguisticconservatism were probably among those mnst likely to condemn politicalradicalism. And since Americans were the radicals of the Western world, anydifferences in their vocabulary or pronunciation would be condemned asroundly as their politics.

Moreover, as we have seen, most British commentators on linguistic

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERN ENULISH 105

propriety condemned any unsanctioned coining of new words or new mean-ings. Unsanctioncd change was synonymous with corruption. So predictably,the most common specific criticism of American English was that our an-cestors gave new meanings to old words and invented new words for old andnew meanings. It mattered little that a people making a new world wouldchange their language with the land, that the meanings of words ineviLablyhad to change as they were calted upon to express new ideas, that new wordshad to be coined to express meanings—emotional and cognitive—that acitified London standard eould not. And since this emerging American culturewas unpolished well into this century, it was inevitable thai new words andnew meanings used to describe it would be judged in the same term!;.

Indeed, if the English had not condemned American speech, it wouldhave been contrary to all we know about how a group feeling itself culturallysuperior makes sociolinguistic judgments.

Not only our words, but our pronunciation was condemned. And everthis is not surprising, considering some British attitudes towards their owndialects. Although many of Lhe distinctive characteristics of earlier Americandialects bad begun to level as the migration westward mingled speakers fromall dialect areas of England and America, American English west of easternNew England and the Tidewater area of the Carolina* was in some waysmore like northern English than London pronunciation. As early as thetwelfth century, northern British dialects were considered by many southernspeakers to be barbarously unintelligible at worst, too "broad"' at best.Therefore, once the upper-class educated British visitor penetrated the wildsjust west of Boston or Charleston, he would have heard a speech that wasprobably closer to the English of his North than the English of London. Andnot unexpectedly, he would condemn it.

The earliest American attitudes towards American English predictablysplit between those who deplored its deviation from educated English usagesand those who recognized that American English was gaining a character thatreflected the needs of its speakers. Noah Webster {1758-1 &43) wrote in J789:

As an independent nation, our honor requires us to have, a system of ourown, in language as well as government. Great Britain, whose children weare, and whose language we speat, should no longer be our standard; for thetaste of her writers is already corrupted, and her language on the decline. Butif it were not so, she is at too great a distance lo be our model, and to instructus in the principles of our own tongue.

from Dissertations on the English Language.

But linguistic confidence has not come easily to a people who were longovershadowed by a parent culture with a literary, philosophical, and scientificestablishment much superior to their own. If Noah Webster had the confidenceto revise English spelling into American spelling (a project we shall investigatelater), many of his fellow Americans still suffer from an insecurity that on the

106 WOBI3M AND MEANINGS

one hand encourages high faluttn' talk while on the other it triggers the commonman's reaction against it. The nineteenth century and most of the twentiethhave seen us search for a linguistic propriety in hoth grammar and vocabularyin ways that reveal our insecurities. One is the plethora of textbooks,correspondence courses, and newspaper columns devoted to teaching theaverage person how to speak "correctly." Another is a propensity (stretch-ing back into our past) to find new terms for socially embarrassing topics:drumsticks and piano limbs for chicken legs and piano legs, white meat forbreast meat, he-cow for bull, powder room for the place that has euphemismsfor it stretching back to the sixteenth century. And how many Americans stillcringe- just a bit when they have to speak with someone who has what heperceives to be that educated, upper-class, la-de-da British accent?

But on the frontier, language, was Less self-conscious. Despite the frequentdisapproval of London visitors, our forefathers coined, compounded, andconverted words to fit their needs. And when they wanted to play withlanguage, they went back to a tradition of "ink-horn" terms. What couldknock out a listener better than telling him about a bodacious and splendi-ferous lady he once knew who obfuscated and discornbobulated him with herLeetotaciously grandiferous charms?

As America filled up with English speakers from a variety of Britishdialect areas and European countries, and as Americans began moving west,many of the original dialect areas merged until today we have dialects thatcorrespond only slightly to what may have been the original dialects spokenby the first settlers. We can si ill recognize that a lobsterman from Bernard,Maine, speaks differently from a New Yorker, who speaks differently from aCharles to nian, who speaks differently from a Cievelander. And all speakdifferently from a Mississippi an. But compared with other languages, ourdialect differences are relatively slight. (And despite the persistent claim, noone in the hills of Kentucky or West Virginia speaks " pure Elizabethan.14)

PROBLEM 5.7: In J92K, under the direction of Hans Kurath, the systematic

study of American dialects was begun. Out of it has come a variety of publica-

tions:

Atwood, E, B. A Suney of Verb Forms In the Eastern United States- AnnArbor, 1953.

Кurath, Hans. Handbook of the Linguistic Geography of New England.Providence, 1939.

. A Word Geography of Hit Tastern United States, Ann Arbor, 1949., and R, ]. McDavid, Jr. The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic

Slates. Ann Arbor, 1961,

In coining years, we shall see the publication of more parts of the LinguisticAtlas of the United States and Canada, under the direction of ProfessorMcDavid, and the Dictionary of American Regional English, under the direc-tion of Frederic G. Cassidy.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERN ENGLISH 167

Here are a variety of terms used in various parts of the United States.Survey students frum a variety of areas to determine which terms they haveused от heard used. Then try to map the areas of usage

1- curds о г curd cheese, crvds or crudcheese, sour tnitk cheese, clabber cheese)Dutch cheese, pot cheese, smearcase, cottage cheese.

2. darning needle, snake feeder, snake doctor, mosquito hawk, dragon fly,3. pail, bucket.4. sick in the stomach, sick at the stomach.5. quarter of, quarter tit}, quarter to (as ill quarter to six).6. belly-bumper, beUy-sfarntner, beSy-flopper, beUy-buster.I, teeter-totter, see-saw, teeter-board.H. earthworm, angleworm, fishing worm, fish bait, redworm.9. frying pan, skillet, spider.10. snap beans, siring beans, green beans-II, baby carriage, baby buggy, baby coach, baby cab-

Black English

There remains a very large movement of peoples across the Atlantic tothis continent that must he included in any survey of linguistic influences onAmerican English. Perhaps more than any other n on-English group they haveinfluenced our patterns of life. And perhaps more than any other group, theyhave preserved certain of the earliest influences in their present speech.

The sordid history of the slave trade need not be rehearsed here in detail.Slavery has afflicted virtjaily every civtiination, though firearms and sailingships made it particularly easy for Europeans to practice it for very largeprofits. The first slaves merchandized in the Colonies were sold to theJamestown seLllcrs in 1619 by a passing Dutch privateer, who had probablystolen them from some Spanish or Portuguese trader, who had probablypurchased them from one of the siave ports along the West Coast of Africa,now the countries of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea,where prisons were built t» store slaves until they could be sold to Europeanmerchantmen, usually Portuguese. The word Negro was borrowed fromPortuguese or Spanish, nigger from neger, a Middle French word alsoborrowed from Spanish or Portuguese. Both words ultimately can be tracedback to Latin niger (black).

At about this time, there arose among the European traders and theirAfrican counterparts pidgin languages, mixtures of African and Europeanwords in a simplified grammatical structure but one still complex enough toprevent us from thinking of them as a childlike, primitive form of communica-tion of the " N o ticlcee, no washee" stereotype. It is very likely that at leastsome of the slaves learned one of the pidgins, for the diversity of languages

10$ TVOftl'JS AND MKANINGS

they spoke in captivity probably would have made communication difficultenough to require some lingua franca to enable overseers to give the simplestorders. (40,77)

When these slaves were herded into the loathsome holds of the slaveships, they became a highly perishable commodity, so the slavers were eagerto sell them before they succumbed со starvation and disease. The nearest portin the WcsLcrn Hemisphere at which a profit could be turned on their cargowas in the West Indies, where the slavers traded their passengers for sugar,rum, and other West Indian produce. The next closest North American portwas Charleston, South Carolina, It became the principal American point ofentry for both West Indian and African slaves. Since the economic problemsof carrying them once more up the coast were generally greater than findinga profitable way to work them in the area where they first arrived, it wasprobably geographical and economic eons [derations, not lower moralstandards, that eventually concentrated slavery in the South.

Thrown together as at first they were into very large groups, it is likelythat one of the original Atlantic pidgins became the basis for a pidgin used bythe first slaves in this country. The earliest literary representations of slavedialect rese-mble them:

Kay, massa, (says he), you must leave me, me sit here, great fish jump intode canoe, here he be, massa, fine fish, mass.

Kroni J. F, D. Smyth, A Tour of the UnitedStales of America,

Воссагигта make de Black Man workee, make de Horse workee, make deОм workee, make cbcry thing workec.

Quoted by Benjamin Franklin, "Information(o Those Who Would Remove to America."

(both quoted in (39))

The use of the object form rue as a subject, the lack of inflections, theundilTcrcntiated be, the enclitic -ее on verbs and other parts of speech (as inthe No tickee no washes cliche)—all are characteristics of the pidgins developedin the Atlantic area. As we shall see in subsequent chapters, some linguistshave argued that certain features of Modern Black English may be descendedfrom those earlier features. (39, \Ъ1)

One of two things happens to a pidgin: It either disappears, leaving afew traces behind, or, i f it becomes the working language for a large enoughgroup of speakers and develops a grammatical structure and vocabularycomplex enough for extended communication, it becomes a creolizcd lan-guage. While the first alternative was probably the rule in this country, thesecond occurred in the restricted area in the islands off the Carolinas. ACreole language called Gullah developed which preserved not only manygrammatical features of pidgin but many words from. African languages as

THE ESTABLISHMENT OP MODERN ENGLISH 109

well. Some words of undoubted African origin which standard English hasborrowed include goober, jazz, hoodoajioodoo, tat?, gutnbo, Ьащо, chigger,juke, and ok in. (224)

Now, a major controversy in modern dialectology is whether this viewis, in fact, correct. Can we trace the features of any dialect of Black English(excluding Ciullah) back to its pidgin origins, or are most modern features, ifnot all, actually characteristics of early Modern English learned from whiteEnglish overseers and retained in the Black community because of its socialisolation? We shall examine the evidence for both claims in subsequentchapters

American English: Л Summary

If the effect of America and the New World on Modern English has beensocially significant, grammatically it has been very slight. The question ofpronunciation we shall deal with later. The principal lexical consequencehas been a relative handful of words {excluding place names) borrowed fromthe Indians, a good many new meanings attached to old words, and an abun-dance of new compound words: space age, cocktail flow, coffee break, and so on.But in comparison with the over half a million words in the language and themulti-million meanings attached to those words, the lexical differences be-tween American and British English are minor, and while the number of newmeanings and compounds coined ал this side of the Atlantic is not in-considerable, they arc still a small minority in the total lexicon, and not asignificant part of the central core vocabulary.

Perhaps the most interesting difference between American and BritishEnglish is the modest degree to which American English is not more "ad-vanced " or "modern" than British English, but occasionally more conserva-tive, both in pronunciation and lexicon. АЦ these nest words and meanings,for example, were once common in British English. They were transportedto the United States, where their form and general meaning were preserved.But they either dropped out of British English or changed to a new meaning.Thus American English often has an older, more traditional meaning for aword than doe* British English: loan (as a verb), progress (as a verb), bug (asa general word for insect), druggist, wilt, sick (as a genera! word for ill),apartment, tariff (us the narrow meaning of tax on imports), baggage, raise(as in raises vegetables), quit (as in quit work),

5.S: After tracing as many words as we can back through OE totheir Germanic and Indo-European sources or through the various otherlanguages if they were borrowed, there remains a residue of words which theOxford English Dictionary lists as of "unknown*1 or "obscure" origins. Hereis a sampling. Comment.

110 WORDS AND

clasp, clog, cobbler, cub., dandle, dodge, dumps {as down in the dumps),gadget, hug,joh7 nod, kill, paddle, pang, pedlar, pelt (throw), pimpk, lad,pick [verb), pie, pink, plot, plump, prod, primp, prong, puke, pun, punk,pussy, puzzle, queer, quirk, quiz* ramble, rig, rip, roam, rote, rove, row(fight), ruffle, rust, scads, scatter, scoop, scorch, scoundrel, scowl, sedan,shabby, shack, sham, shoddy, shrug, skid, skull, slab, slung, slog, slouch,slum, slush, slut, smug, snatch, sneak, snide, snob, smug, sprain, spree,spry, squander, squid, struggle, stroll, suds, sulk, swizzle, tarry, taunt, tic,tickle, tiddly wink, tiff, tip, toad, toast, trash, trim (neat), trudge, twaddle,tweek, wad, wisp, yank.

SOME CONSEQUENCES OF A COSMOPOLITAN VOCABULARY

Word Families

One fascinating consequence of this large-scale borrowing from otherlanguages into English is that over the years, we have built up clusters ofetymologically related words that may differ considerably in their modernmeaning and form, but which all go back to the same root. All these words,for example, have as their uftimate root the Indo-European *pod-, or foot:foot, fetter, pedigree, pew, pilot, pedestal, peon, pawn, pedal, pedestrian,podium, expedient, expedite, expedition, impediment, impeach, repudiate,octopus, trapeze, trapezoid, tripod, sesquipedalian, podiatrist, cephalopodaAmong other Forms the IE root split into a Germanic *fot-, a Latin *ped-, anda Greek *pod-. From that point the words began to change in form and mean-ing, migrating from one language to another, picking up new senses fromeach culture. We can mughiy represent some of these relationships on achart like Figure 5-L

PROBLEM 5.9: Here are some other words based on the Indo-European stem*pod-. Trace their descent, fetlock, pawn (as in chess), octopus, antipodes,tripod, impeach, expedient, expedite, impediment, podiatrist, cephalapod. Dothe languages from which these words immediately come correspond toparticular centuries?

PROBLEM 5.10: Here are groups of words which in part or as a whole can betraced to a common root. Pick one group and, referring to Eric Partridge'sOrigins, plot the derivations of the words, using the model in Figure 5,1.

1 - amateur, enemy, amorous, amiable.2, camera, chum, chamber, comrade.

Indo-European "pod-I

Germanic *fot-

OE

Latin *ped-I

Greek *pod-

French Italian Spanish

A. OE foot

B. ОЕ fetter

С 1440 pedigree *— pie-de-grue

D. 1475 pew * puye <

E- 1530 pilot *— pilot ^ pilota <

F- 1563 pedestal 1 — piedestal <— piedeatallo

G. 1609 peon < peon

H, 1611 pedal * pedale ^ - pedale 4 -

L 1716 pedestrian *

J. [789 podium •<

Medieval/Late Latin

podia podion

pfrda

ped orient

pedale

pedestri

podium *•

Figure 5.1

A. Foot comes directly from (he Indo-European through Germanic.B. Fetter, to bind the feet, also derives through Germanic.С Pedigree has a curious hislory. In Lhe genealogical records of medieval France,

a symbol of three lines, allegedly resembling a crane's foot, was used to show"descended from." This was tailed a piv-ite-grtte, or foot of the crane.

D. Pew. Greek /ют has a genitive podos, which has a diminutive, podion, a baseor pedestal. The Laic Latin plural, podia, was apparently understood as asingular in Old French and became puie, a raised place. In Middle French thisbecame puye, a parapet or balcony. This became in Middle English ptwr tbenpevc, then pew, a preacher's raised stall.

E. Pifor Greek potts, whose oblique stem was pod- gives pedon, an oar blade,whose plural was peda, a rudder. From this came the Byzantine Greek*pido/es> giving Italian pedota, then pilot a. Medieval French borrowed it aspilot, then early Modern French, pilote, the source for English pilot,

F. Pedestal. From Italian piede di math, for foot of stall: support for a stall forstanding or sitting, becoming in early Modern French piidestal,

G. Peon. Latin pis, foot, ftives Late Lai in fc. A.P. 200-600) pedo, a foot soldier.The ohlique stem 'upeden, which in Spanish becameрчди-

H. Pedal. The Latin pedale became in Italian pedaie, a footstool. Early ModernFrench borrows it ач pedal?, and English borrows it as pedal, originally atreadle on a musical jnslruinent,

I- Pedestrian. The Latin pedester with its oblique stem pedestri- means of the feet,or lowly. English horrows indirectly from Latin and adds the -inn suffe. Usfirst meaning was I he 'L io^Ly, humble" sense, as in "pedestrian prose." Onlylater did it come to mean someone who could not afford to ride; i.e., someonewho must walk in the street.

J. Podium. Л «borrowing of the root for pew. The Greek diminutive podlongives Late Latin podium, which was borrowed directly into English. (161)

111

112 WORDS AMD MEANINGS

3. cream, Christ, chrism, grind, cretin.4. Diana, deity, diary, dismal, fturaal, jovial, Tuesday.5. father, repair,perpetrate,patriot,pope.6. genera!, genitals, genius, gen tteman, engineer.7. joinjun t a, jostle, yoga, yoke, zygoie,8. Ugh t, lucid, hma, luxury, leukemia.9. 6M», forlorn, analyze, pal$y, solve, irresolute.Ml, manual, manner,maneuver, manure, manuscript, commando, demand.11. measure, menstruate, dimension, moon, metric, parameter, month, Monday.12. nerve, needle, enervate, neurotic,13. a, ane, alone, none, any, atone, eleven, union, universet ounce, inch.14. ply, pliers, apply, explicate, display, employ, supplicate, simple.15. sport, portfolio, export, rapport, support.16. punt,pungent,punctual,point,pugilist,pygmy,pugnacious.17. rapt, rape, rapture, raven, ravine, harpy.18. sit, settle, sedation, size, dissident .obsess, president, reside.19. stand, static, stage, ecstacy, prostrate, system, systaltic, stanza, statue,

state,statistic, staid,siandard, varlet, vassal20. thing, thumb, thimble, tomb, tumescent, tuberculosis,protrude, truffle.

Semantic Families

There is another consequence of this wholesale borrowing. Englishperhaps more than any other language has clusters of words that, while verydifferent in form and not precisely synonymous, are very similar in meaning.In most cases, we have at leasL pairs of words, one native, the other usually aFrench or Latin import: hearty-cordiaL help-aid, need-desire, buy-purchase,die-expire, climb-ascend, eat-dine, need-require, work-labor, teach-instruct.

This has made it possible for English speakers more than the speakers ofany other language to select words with fine nuances of meaning and associa-tion . Larger clusters of words like help, aid, assist, succour, relieve, reinforce,support, and so on divide the general semantic field they cover into muchfiner divisions than do the vocabularies of other languages.

The very richness of our vocabulary, however, makes choosing the rightword more complicated than in other languages because it also makes wrongchoices possible. One often reads the advice that "all things being equal," awriter can avoid the problem by choosing the Anglo-Saxon word. But this isoften bad advice. These words, for example, help-aid-assist, do not mean thesame thing. Each covers a slightly different range of meaning.

This wide-scale borrowing has created a vocabulary that allows anEnglish speaker to modulate his tone, to control the formality or informalityof his language to fit the needs of his rhetorical situation, or by using cerf a in.words, create the rhetorical situations he wants. And conversely, it allows

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERN ENGLISH 113

him to make social mistakes. It is not difficult, for example, to choose whichof these is more appropriate to a formal situation:

1. The requirement that individuals present must proffer identification anrequest is hereby instituted.

2. From now on, everybody around here will have to show who they are ifsomebody asks (hem.

The need for such stylistic possibilities, of course, results from the range ofsocial situations we find ourselves in. The problem for most speakers is tomodulate their style to fit each situation with its unique social variables. Mostnative speakers know how to behave in the context of their own class in thesituations in which they normally find themselves. But when they move outof their class, up or down, they enter another social milieu whose speakersmay use different signals, or the same signals more often or less often thanin another class. In general, a lower-middle class speaker aspiring to a highersocial class and sensitive to the verbal cues in that higher class is fikety toovercompensate. He will use too many upper-middle class verbal cues whenhe finds himself in a fairly formal situation in which he is self-conscious abouthis language. Thus, though we have enriched the language with clusters ofwords that allow us to distinguish very exactly fine shades of meaning, tone,and style, we have created a complex instrument that, used badly, can haveunfortunate rhetorical consequences.

Besides their inappropriate social usage, French and Latin borrowingsare also used by bad writers of ModE to produce a fog of verbiage that ob-scures thought. Here is a passage, thick with Latin isms, from a professionaljournal:

Withdrawing positive reinforcement and eliminating the opportunity to obtainpositive reinforcement arc commonly employed in our society as punishmentsfor \tth&v\oi judged Xo be undesirable. Sentence to prison^ dismissal from work,Joss of driver's license, and withheld allowances are a few examples. It is onlyin the last decade, however, that the aversbe properties of the removal ofpositive reinforcement have begun to receive an experimental analysis of somedepth, (28 Romance words out of 70).

The writer could have said the same thing more clearly in fewer words:

We often punish those who behave badly by taking away things we give themto he-have well. We lock them up, me them, take away tbeirdd ver's ficenxe., andwitlihold their allowances. But only in the last (en years has anyone ex-perimented in. depth to find out whaf happens when we do this. (4 Romance-words out of 53),

The author was writing in what he perceived to be a very formal conteston an important subject—a rhetorical situation that required a very formal

114 WORDS AND MEANINGS

rhetorical style. Unfortunately, as happens so often, he sacrificed clarity andvigor for the formal jargon of his profession, a jargon strongly depend en L onFrench and Latin borrowings, and on the habit of turning verbs and adjec-tives into nouns: withdraw-wilhdrawing, reinforce-rewfarcement, elimsnate-elardnaiing, punish-punishment, behare-behavior, sentence-sentence, dismiss-dismissal, lose-loss, allow-altowance, remove—removal, analyze-anaiysis, deep-depth.

fROBLFM 5,11: Here are groups of rough synonyms. Can you distinguish morethan two levels of style among these? Make up several sentences that meanroughly the same thing, but consistently use words from different stylisticlevels. For example; They ripped off some chintzy threadsjThey purloined someinexpensive attire [They stole, some cheap cfotttes.

1. abduct, kidnap,snatch.2. account, statement, bill, tab.3. acknowledge, confess, admit,ownup, sing.4. addict, fiend, fan, head.5. deceive, betray, double cross.6. delay, procrastinate, dawdle, dillydally.7. purloin,pilfer, steal, swipe, rip off, cop, lift.8. distnisSifire, bounce, discharge, sack.9. dupe, trick, hoodwink ,fool.10. face, visage, countenance, mug,puss.11. reprove, rebuke, reprimand, chide, bawl out.12. chicken oiti,g:i-e up, capitulate, submit, surrender.13. theft, larceny, burglary, robbery, rip off.14. thin, skinny, sknder, dim, tenuous.15. guy, gentleman, person, man ,felto w, chap,16. rags, clothes, attire, threads.17. flicks Jilms, movies, cinema, motion pictures.IS. food, grub, mauds.19. intelligent, smart, bright, sharp.20. jock,athlete,sportsman,21. dumb, stupid, dopey, unintelligent.22. confused, puzzled, screwed up, troubled.

A final possibly unfortunate consequence of these foreign imports fromLatin and French is more speculative and certainly more controversial.

PROBLEM 5.12: Here are lists of Latin/French and native words. Read eachlist to another person, asking him to give the native synonym for the borrowedword in list (1) and then the borrowed synonym for the native word in list (2).Keep track of cxattly how many seconds It takes to complete each list.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MODtRN ENGLISH US

1. T^tin/French Words: repair, excavate, depart, velocity, rapid, decay,illumination, at tempi, terminate, converse, desist, injure, prevaricate,rotate, intense.

I. Native Words: chew, eat, sell, deadly, answer, lengthwise, watch, think, sad,believable., ask, tell, raise, old, walk.

Unless the person has an unusually ready vocabulary, it probably tooksignificantly longer to think of the corresponding words for the native listthan for the borrowed list. What consequences does this have for recognizing,and for using the vocabulary of formal English? What social consequencesare there for learning or not learning the vocabulary of relatively formalEnglish?

For the most part, serious writing—the writing of government, of muchbusiness and commerce, оГeducation, and so on—relies on French and Latinimports over native words for content words, words that convey ideas ratherthan grammatical meanings, as do the native function words such as in, thct

may, to, of, with, will, be, though, while, for, and so on (as the formal passagepreceding Problem 5.11 indicates). This means that if a native speaker wantsto take part in the intellectual, academic, or governmental life of our society,a life often characterized by formal language, he must learn a considerablylarger vocabulary ihan speakers of many other languages.

Consequently, the most serious criticism we can mate of the F.nglishvocabulary is that which the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen made: Englishis an "undemocratic" language. Those who want to use English for more thancasual communication have to learn a very long list of separate items. Con-trast this with the list of words in Problem 4.13. Each word that roughJycorresponds to a Latin or French word is made up of parts semanticallytransparent. This means that the OE speaker had to learn many fewer individ-ual words. He had to learn only a basic core of words and the grammaticalrules for compounding and understanding them, a tacit knowledge presum-ably shared by every native Anglo-Saxon speaker.

This does not suggest that we should have no formal linguistic cues forformal social situations. Levels of formality in social behavior, particularlyin regard LO language, are an aspect of human behavior so widespread asto be very possibly a linguistic universal among even moderately complexsocieties. All human languages seem to have verbal cues to indicate whensomething serious is being said in a serious contest. It just so happens thatamong a great many other cues, English has selected as a very important onea French and Latin vocabulary that has to be learned virtually word by word,

. PftOBj,EM 5.13: There is a kind of borrowing not yet mentioned. The words

116 WORDS AND MIZAN-|NG5

are called loan translations. Rather than borrowing the words themselves,we borrow the meaning of the word or phrase and then translate it intoEnglish, Here are some examples.

From French: it goes without saying, gilded youth, castles in Spain,>•> [arriage of convenience, 1гЫ balloon.From German: superman, academic freedom, beer garden, world view,wonder child.

In other cases, we borrow the words themselves and change them very little:lebensraum (room for living), Zeitgeist (spirit of the times), realpolitik (politicsof realism), blitzkrieg (lightning war), weltschmerz (pain of the world),/юг.-? d'oeuvre, laissez-faire, sat-oirfaiw, aide-de-camp, raison d'etre, tete-d-tete,pie-a-la-mode. Why do we on one occasion borrow a word without anglicizingit: Zeitgeist and raison d'etre; on another borrow a word and anglicize it:garage, menu, ration; and on yet another, borrow the meaning without thewords: academic freedom and marriage of convenience'?

At this point, it might be worth distinguishing between two large cate-gories of borrowed words. On the one hand, we borrow words to name ob-jects uniquely associated with the culture in which the objects are found;florin, peso, pickle, paraffin, samovar, mosque, kibbutz, chess, fez, mongoose,mange, ketchup, geisha, cockatoo, penguin, cougar, skank. In some cases, theobject becomes entirely absorbed into our culture: pickle, paraffin, chess,ketchup, cougar,skunk. In others, the object remains identified with that otherculture: florin, peso, samovar, mosque, kibbutz, fez, mongoose, mange, geisha.While it h true that these latter words are certainly part of the English vocabu-lary, they are used only to refer to objects still part of that foreign culture.

On the other hand, some borrowed words seem to tap concepts in ourculture that, until we borrowed the words, had no names, or at least no namesthat captured the distinctive quality of those concepts: blarney, slogan, creed,guess, snub, sly, inform, podtmk, ghetto, vigilante, luck, intelligentsia, zero,kosher, bazaar, horde, pundit, kowtow, tycoon. For one reason or another,these words widened their sphere of reference to include concepts andexperiences in our own culture. These words now cover "psychoeul-tural" aspects of the English-speaking world. It would be very difficult toimagine how their referents could disappear. Indeed, it is difficult to imaginehow we got along without such words before we borrowed them. We certainlyhad other words that probably included the semantic area of these words, butno OF word that exactly represented the precise semantic reference. Infact, it may be that the word, as it were, crystallized or precipitated a semanticfocus where previously there was only an amorphous sense of something inthe culture that was never spoken of in precisely the right way.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERN JiNOLISH 117

Such a concept is difficult to prove, but the fact remains that in manyinstances, we seize on borrowed words not for what they refer to in theirnative culture but what they allow us to refer to in our own.

PROBLEM 5.14: In the lists of borrowed words provided so far, pick out tenwords that seem to have no satisfactory synonym in. our native vocabulary,(Be aware of the fact that there may at one time have been such a word inOE orME, but that it is now lost.)

Chapter 6

CREATING NEW WORDS

So far, we have examined two sources of our current vocabulary: our nativeinheritance, those words we cannot identify as being borrowed, and borrowing,the most productive source of completely new forms. In other languages,German for example, borrowing is considerably less important as a source ofnew words. Like the Anglo-Saxons, Germans make up compound words fornew ideas out of their native stock. While we borrow oxygtn from the French,the Germans synthesize saue rsrt>ff{$om + stuff) out of two words they alreadyhave.

But i f English h;i5 borrowed hundreds of thousands of words, yet weactively make up as many more new words out of what is available to us inour working vocabulary and patterns of sounds. There are three large cate-gories of such word formation. In varying degrees and in different ways, allthree are rutc-fiovcrncd. That is, we do not make up new words capriciously,but according to rather specific constraints lhat we induce as we learnEnglish.

The first large process of word formation, which includes compoundingand derivation, is very strongly rule-governed. To create new words in thisway, a speaker has to know both individual words and pieces of words, calledaffixes, and the grammatical rules which tell him how to combine words orattach affixes tu words, and how to change the pronunciation of both the root

119

120 WORDS AND MEANINGS

(the base word Lo which the affixes attaches, as in decide-decteion) and theaffix (compare divert-diversion and insert-insertion).

The second process of word formation is also rule-governed, but therules are psychological rather than grammatical. There is in the human psychesomething we can call the principle of least effort, or a "simplicity" principle.It leads to new words for old meanings and some new meanings for old wordsby shortening a word or phrase: dorr» for dormitory, pro for professivnui, taxifor taxi-meter cabriolet^ jet Гот jet-propelled aircraft. Also included arc blendslike smog from smoke and fog; acronyms, words made from the first lettersof a ptuase or title; NATO, NOW, HOPE, and so on.

The third process may also be rule governed, bat the rules, also psycho-logical, are much more difficult to formulate. These are the rules which directus in creating new roots, completely new words that did not exist beforesomeone, consciously or unconsciously, made them up. Included are rootcreations, words simply concocted out of thin air like Kodak or nylon; andechoic and symbolic words, words which allegedly sound like the thing theyrefer to; pop, crackle, clang; teeny, grump, spit.

TWO GRAMMATICAL PROCESSES

Com pounding

As we have seen, one of the richest resources of OE, and a source thatmany have said lias greatly weakened since then, is compounding—puttingtogether two independent words to make one word. It is still a commonprocess: Green and home go together to make greenhouse, as opposed toa green house.

6.1: Using these ne*t examples, suggest some criteria for distinguish-ing compound words {comic.strip) from ordinary phrases (a comic strip). Whatcriterion can not be used? post efftee, grammar school, boyfriend, coal mine,gym teacher, rifle- range, horse-fly, pot-pie, water-cbek, policeman, airport,bloodhound, bedtime, horsewhip, bagpipe.

PftOBLGM 6.2: All the compounds in Problem 6.1 are of the form noun +• noun= iwun. Tliat is, a noun, horse, is added to another noun tfiy, to make a new-noun, horsefly. But if we use all combinations of parts of speech and differentverb forms: infinitive + noun = pickpocket; V-ing + noun = flying machine;and V-td I поил = ground meat, we could, theoretically, create well over150 combinations. In Table 6.J, the vertical column at the icft indicates the

CREATING NEW WORDS 121

possible first wurd in the combination. The horizontal row indicates the partof speech for the second word in the combination. The vertical column at thefar right indicates the part of speech that results from the conibination. Theentry for noun + noun = noun could be filled in with: spot + light = spot-light; the adjective -I- verrwn^ combination with: easy + going; and thepreposition + infinitive combination with: over + see. Use Table f>.l toinventory all the possible combinations and to answer these questions:

1. Which compounds are the most pnHluctivc today? That is, in whichcategories can we freely coin new compounds, not just find examples?

2. Which compound* are impossible in ModE? Which parts of speech aremost productively involved in compounding? The major ОЫ compoundtypes arc entered in their appropriate boxes with translations. Comment,

3. A count of the first 500 words under F in Hall's Concise Anglo-SaxonDictionary reveals about 40 percent compound words. Count the first5Ш words in any standard desk dictionary under two or three differentletters. What do you conclude ?

4. In a study of compounds in running lines of OH. poetry, С. Т. Саггcounted a compound about every two lines, (26) Assuming about sixwords to a line, that comes to about one compound every twelve words.How docs this compare with Mod В poetry'.' ModL prose ?

5. Even where the language seems Lo resist it, make up a new compoundword. That is, verb +- verb = verb does not seem natural in English, butwe can imagine it: to sneer-smile. When you have created new types,determine whether the meaning you would assign them сип be inferredby someone who hears them for the first time.

6. Does the problem of how to define a part of speech complicate thisexercise? Are there any questionable categories in Table 6.1 ?

We might conclude from this very brief inquiry that compounding isless productive than it was in OE. There neither arc as many individual com-pound words in the vocabulary nor do they seem to occur as frequently.Sometime between the Invasion and the end of Latin and Norman French asthe intellectual languages of England, English speakers stopped casuallycompounding words for abstract scholatly ideas and began borrowing wordsfor them.

That compounding is far from dead in certain styles and contexts,though, is apparent from our modern compounds and our readiness to createnew ones:

Anchorman Walter Cronkite has learned that mission control is announcinga holdup in the counftiowii for today's tftoonshof. The backup crew at the

is on standby. A follow-up story will continue after the station

TABLE*.! CREATING COMPOUND

noun

лШБСПУЕ

V . . .

VEK»

vrr»

INF

. N ,

-Eb

INF

- ^

-ED

W

- 1 Л

-Eb

INF

-IV&

-ED

и)чтз.Ы

pumerraw

boi-craft(huDlcrnft)

(pjud НиГЦ

(ttad-t|4rir)

iivretmaji

(in-gaing)*

doiB-pwr

(viEe-mlkdedt

fifcf-tlnf^n

(uvirdTi""e)+

WUROS

-Й1Й

ISEBd I-..I I',

hjcalT-Jitpendc qcir-rvijcleO

• ul-: :» .-i iv,

(uvcrLhrawri)

ЛцГ|| 1.1

„™,

vriu

NOUN

U V

" U S

*."

M:I -.

JiDJ

VfP»

*

NW-'N

CHEATING NT-W WORDS 123

In fad, the claim that compounding has weakened since OF. times maybe true for only certain genres of literature. If we look at OE poetry, com-pounds do indeed abound. But OE prose has many fewer (though StiD morethan ModE prose). If we examine ModE prose- from editorial pages, text-books, and not self-consciously casual magazine articles about moderatelyabstract subjects, we find even fewer compound words. But when we turn tothe sports page and other kinds of informal writing, we Lire likely to find more.

Indeed, since ME, the numher of apparent compound types has seem-ingly increased, if we merely consider the composition of examples fromvarious parts of speech. These types, for example, arc cither infrequently ornever found in O t poetry and prose:

N + V = V babysit Adj. + V = V roughgrindN + V-ing = Adj. man-eating Adj. + Prep. = V blackoutV + N = N pickpocket1 Adj. + Prep. = N blackoutV + Prep. = V throw up Adj. + V-ing = Adj. easygoingV + Prep. = N setback Adj. + N = V stronger m

Adj. + Adj. - N deaf mute Adj. + N = N redcoat1

1 The compound type pickpocket does not follow the OE pattern where the second nounnames ihe class of objects referred to. Thai is, л harstfty is a kind of fly, but a pickpocket\i not a kind of pocket, hut rather a kind of person. ]t did noi <.vxur in English until theI4ih century, probably under the influence «Г Frenth.2 The type redcoat is like pickpocket In thai a redcoat is DOt a kind of coaf when it refers toa person. Compare hunchback, pah/ace, redbreast. These are rare before the ] 6th century.(91, Ш , 136J

Moreover, something much like поил + noun compounding that resultsin a structure sharing characteristics of both a compound word and a phraseis occurring more frequently than at any time since OE, particularly inAmerican English. Many writers of moderately technical or bureaucraticprose now quite unselfconsciously pile up strings of nouns instead of puttingthem into fully articulated syntactic structure*. For example, a system thatalerts astronauts to emergencies involving the impact of meteorites travellingat high speed becomes a high speed meteorite impact emergency astronautalert system.

Й.З: (l) What would be the term for the board on which is postedthe schedule of maintenance for the room in which planners confer about thissystem? The hook on which the board hangs? The salesman who sells thehook'.' {2) Iь there any general principle by which these strings are constructed ?That is, given the fully syntactic construction: The salesman of the hook for theboard on which someone posts the schedule of maintenance for the room in whichconferences are held byplannersof'thesystem that alerts astronauts to emergenciesinvolving the impact of meteorites at speeds that are high, can we predict the

t24 WORDS AND MEANINQS

order of the noun-string? (3) How would we determine whether such a stringis a new word or a syntactic phrase? Does the stress pattern suggest anything?

PROBLEM 6,4: Compounds made out of noun 4- noun = noun constructionsare common in all the Germanic languages. Examine these noun + noun =noun compounds. What sort «f problem do they suggest that goes beyondmerely saying that noun + noun = noun? flower bed, wuierbed* steamboat,steartibatk, steamfnter, shrimpboat, sailboat, sailcloth, coalyard, coalsmoke,airgttn, shotgun, elephant gun, water pistol, horsepistol, horsefly, horseshoe,snowshoe, snowman, milkman, fireman, firehouse, fireplug, spprkplug.

Derivation

Another strongly ruie-governed way we form new words in English isby adding affixes to the beginning or ends of words. Consider this sentence:Theexfensaus destructness of the atomive bomb exemplicates the unpassiblewteetask of defencement against it. It makes sense, but obviously something iswrong, -otts makes adjectives out of verbs, but ex tens- takes -ive, not -ous:extensive, -ness is a noun ending, but it occurs with adjective roots: boldness,happiness. Tn short, the pieces of words, the affixes, are not properly distrib-uted.

We inust distinguish here between two kinds of endings; inflectional andderivational arrives. For our purposes a derivational affix is any пол-inde-pendent element added to a word that changes its part of speech or its basicsemantic meaning. For example, the plural s appended to boy does notchange the meaning of the stein, boy. The third person singular -s does notchange the meaning of walk. Nor does the possessive -s added to a noun, orthe past tense -ed, the progressive -ing, or the past participle -ed added toa verb.

But when we add -ize to final and get finalize, the adjective becomes averb, -тем added at the end of the verb replace makes it the noun replace-ment. The -cy added to the end of captain does not change captain to anotherpart of speech, but it docs change the meaning from the person to the abstrac-tion. The -ish added to m/does not change it Lo another part of speech, butthe meaning of reddish is different from the meaning of red. There are othertests.

6.5: Here are some words with derivational and inflectional affixes.Some are obviously incorrect. Use these data to suggest at least two moretest* to distinguish them.

1. wtion-tiationality-nationaUt ies;nat ion-naUons-naUonsality2. just-justify-justifitdi just—justed—ju&iedifу

CHEATING NEW WORDS 125

3, reverse-reversat-retersals; reversv-reverses-resersesal4, sick-sh'keu-sirkening; sick-sickiug-sickingen5, y/alt-waiter-waUeT 's: wait-wait 'a- wait'ser<j. (tmusetiQii-afnusence-amuseinent-, aniused-itmuses-amuswg

entra tion-en trance-en tenrten (; entered-enters-en taringuction-actance-ectmettt; acted-acts-acting

Where do elements Listed as inflections occur relative to derivational suffixes?How ma ny inflections can be added to a word 7 How many suffixes ? Do othercharacteristics distinguish inflections from suffixes?

Just as we have gained many new words through borrowing and com-pounding and lost many others through disuse or replacement, so have wechanged how we add pieces to a word. Like compounding, affixation was avigorous process in OE. But while a good many suffixes and prefixes havesurvived as fossils, not all of them are productive in MtidL in the sense thatthey can still be Freely combined with stems. For-, for example, was a verycommon prefix, occurring in hundreds of words. It intensified the meaning ofa verb, as in forlorn (i.e., very lorn, or lost); от it could negate the verb, as inforswear. But beyond forbid, forlorn, fnrhear, forswear, forget, forgo, andforsake, we have no really active words in English that use that prefix. Norcan we add/or- to any new words: forkurt, fartake^/orotund, forwork. Jt is arelic form, a linguistic fossil. The OE prefix ge- that attached to the beginningof almost any verb has disappeared entirely, leaving only meaninglesssyllables in a few words like handiwork (from handgeweorc)* aware (fromgewsr), enough (from genog), ajf'nrd (from gefortiian), and either (fromzgfer, a contraction of a-ge-hwxifer). Ge- had a variety of meanings, amongwhich was a perfective meaning with a sense of finished or done. If it werestill active, we would say gebroken, to mean entirely broken up; or ge-eaten,to mean eaten up; oigeburnt, to mean burnt up.

PROBLEM 6.6: What, if anything, has ModE substituted for^e-1?

But other affixes still thrive. Among the most vigorous of those inheritedfrom OE, for example, is the -ed \afour-tegged, stouthearted, and so on. It isnot the past tense -rJor perfect -ed. It comes from a Germanic suffix meaning"with." We can add it to -virtually any concrete object which belongs tosomething else; a steel-shafted club, a "Si-keyed typewriter, a slx-wheekd truck,a two-headed giant.

6.7: A list of most of the principal prefixes that have occurred inEnglish since the OE period is shown in Table 6.2. AfKer the prefix is thesource: F -= Modi:, F = French, T. = Latin, Gk = Greek. U there is nosource listed, then the aflix is native OE. Following the source for a borrowed

126 WORDS AMD MEANINGS

affix is the approximate century in which it first occurred productively inF.nglish. A second date indicate* that the affix flourished much more stronglythan at first. The examples are modern words if their prefixes are still foundin ModE. If the prefi* is completely lost, an OE example plus its moderntranslation in parentheses follows: ed- m edwnden (reversal), for example, iscompletely lost. If ait OE prefix still occurs in a word but is unrecognizable,then a ModE word with whatever is left of that prefix, follows in squarebrackets; and-, for example, is unrecognizable in answer.

As you examine Table 6.2t answer these questions:

J. What, if any, are the semantic differences between OE prefixes and theborrowed prefixes? {Peif[ectice\) in the explanatory note means that theaction is completed, as explained above.

2. What proportion of the descendants of OE prefixes are still used todayproductively ?

3. What is the general proportion of productive native English versusborrowed suffixes? That is, with occurs only in withstand, withhold,withdraw, withal/, within, and without. No other words begin with with.With- is entirely non-productive. De- meaning undo is extremely produc-tive: de-Americanise, depressurize, defuse, and so о si.

4. Are there any prefixes which have virtually become words themselves?5. Would it be possible to give up the productive native prefixes entirely?6. What native words can we substitute for each foreign import? For

example, inter- could be replaced by between, so that international mightbe represented by betweenland.

7. Would the answers to any of these questions be significantly different ifwe decided to call the following elements prepositions rather Lhan pre-fises? sfter, fore, ford, mid, ofer, on, Jo, frurh, under, up, ut, wiO, wider,

8. Write a paragraph of ModE attaching OE prefixes to the appropriateModE words. (97,136,175)

6.8: A list of some of the principa! suffixes that have been used sincethe early OE period is shown in Table 6,3. Some of the same information isprovided after the suflsxes as in Table 6.2 on preli\es, plus whatever gram-matical change results from the suffix. The native suffixes arc spelled as theywere in OE, (1) What is the difference between the functions of suffixes andprefixes? (2) What OE suffixes are still genuinely productive? For example,-fast occurs in rotorfait, steadfast, shamefaced (originally -fust, but now in-correctly reinterpreted as -faced). But it occurs in very few oLher words, -ed,from the Germanic *-odi. meaning "provided with" (not the -ed past tenseor the -ed past participle) is freely attached to almost any concrete noun;a round-windowed house, a well-penciled student, -ed is productive; -fas! is not.

CREATING NEW WORDS 127

TABLE 6.2 PRINCIPAL ENGLISH PREFIXES SlMCE OE PERIOD

Prefix (Source) (Meaning)

1. a- (perf./intensifier)2, a- (generalizes pronouns)

3. and- (against, toward)4. ante- (L)5. anti-{Gk.)6. d^-(Gk.butinOE)7. auto- (L.)S. х- (without)9. a?f- (perfective aspect)

10. ifter-11. seg- (generalizes pronouns,

adverbs)12. be- (around/over; intensifier;

N > V)11 bi- (L.)14. circunh (L.)15, ™-(L.)16. counter- (E.)

17. <fe-(F,)18. <fa-(F.)19. ed- (again/back)20. el- (from elsewhere)21. e«/™-(F.)

23. ex/ra-(Lr)24. for- (inteus./perf,, negiition)25. fore- (precedence/

pre-emincncii)26. ford- (motion towards)27, fuU (complete)28, gain- (against)29. Se- (pcrf,/collective)

30. hyper-(Gk.)31. гч-32. н(- (intensifier)33. inter- (F.)34. infra- (L.)35, щя/ (F.)36. 4w?a-(L.)

Ш. mid-

Date

16c.16 c.

19 c.

16c.15/17c.15 с14/16 с.15/20 с.14 c.

14 c,19 e.15c.

15/17C.

14 c,19 с15c.19c.19 c.

Example

afysan (drive away) [await]ahwxdet (either of two)[either]attdsaca (adversary) [answer]ante-chamberanti-aircraftarch-thiefautohypnosiszgikle (without payment)xfwyrdla (damage)afternoon, aftershockxgfiwn (everyone)

bedeck, befriend

bi-vafoecircumnavigateco-workercounterstatementdecontaminatedisallowedwenden (return)etland (foreign country)encircle, emboldenex-wifeextra-terrestrialforswearforeshadow

forthcomingfulfillgainsaygesceran (cut through)[enough]hyperactiveinsideinfrod (very wise)internationalintrapariymafadaptedmetatheorymicrobusmid-century

)28 "WORDS AND MEANINGS

TABLE 6.2 continued

39. mini- [L.)40. mis-41, mutti- (L.)42. neo-(Gk.)43. «on- (L.)44. qjf- (perfective)45. ofer-46, o?;- (begin/reverse action on)47. or-(without/Intens,)48. off-(close to)49. pan- (Gk.)50. para-{Gk.)51, /w/>-(Gk.)52, post- (L.)53. /JJ-О (F.)54, pro-55. /J™/O-(Glf.)56. pseudo- (Gk.)

58, retro- (Gk.)59. ram-(half)

60, semi-{h.)61. IBs- (extensive/lasting)62. sub- (L.)6 1 super-(L.)64. supra- (L.)65. fn- (motion towards)66. to- (perfective)67. trans- (L.)68- ^WWJ- (through/complete)69. ultra- (L.)70. unjinlimlil- (OE/F.)

71. under-

72. кя/-(Ь.)73, y/j-

74. i//-75, eice-(L.)76. wan- (negative prefix)77. wiS- (a way/against)78. wiiJer- (opposing/counter)

79. j'fli£>(f)- (around/about)

20 c.

17/19 с

14c.

17c.19 c.18 c.17/19 С14/19 с.19c,16 c.14/16 с13/15 с.14/19 с.

14 c.

14 c.15c.17/J 9 с

16/19 с.

19 c,

15/19 с.

15c.

mini-skirtmisbegottenmufti-coloredneo-classicalnon-paymentofgyfan (give up)overpaymentonbyrdan (incite), unbindorsawle (lifeless)odstandan (stand still)Pan-Americanpara-militarypolydialectalpostgraduatepredeterminepro-communistproto-Germanicpseudfi-hsteliectualredassifyretro-rocketsnmworht (half-built) [sand-blind, originally satnbHnd]Semi-circlesiftnihte (perpetual night)subsurfacesuper-heatedsupra-nationaltocyme (arrival) [toward]tobrecan (break up)trans-Atlanticthroughwayultra-sonifunequal, insincere, impersonal,illegitimateunderstandan (perceive),

unicellularupholdoutlayvice-chairmanwanhai{$\t±) [wanhope]withhold, withstandwiSersaca (adversary)

ymbgang (circuit)

CHEATING NEW WORDS 129

What is the percentage of retention4; What is the present percentage of nativevs. borrowed productive suffixes? (3) Arc there any suffixes which have virtu-ally become words themselves? (4) Would it be possible to give up the nativesuffixes entirely? (5) Play the role of Saxonizer again (an example of theproductive use of -ize and -er). What native words, if any, could be substitutedfor each borrowed suflix'.' (6) What semantic information is conveyed byvarious suffixes? (97,137,175)

TABLE': 6.3 PRINCIPAL SUFFIXES

I.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12,13.14.15.

16.17.18,19,20.

21.22.23.24.

25.26.

27.28.

29.

Suffix

-able-асу-ade-age•al

-al-art

-ancet-enee-ancyi-ency-ant]-ent-arian-ary-ate-athon-bxre (pro-ductive of)

Source

(F.)(F-)(Span.)(F.)(L)(F)(M(F.)

(L )(L.)(L.)(F-)(Gk.)

-bora (Eigetitive)-burger-cade-cracy-cund(has th(nature of)-cy-dom-e-ed (pro-vided with)•ее

•eer

-el

-eh-en

(Gm.)

(Mъ••

С--)

(F.)(F.)

Date

14 c.14 c.19c.13c.14/18 с14c.16c.14c.14c.14 c.16c.15c.13/16 с20 c.

20 c.

14c.

15 c.16 c.

Grammatical

VЛNNNVNVNVNNAVN

NNNNN

NNAN

VV

VVN

Change

> A> N> N> N, V >> A> N> A/N >> N> N, A >> N> N> A> V, IS >> M> A

> N> N> N> N> A

> N,A ?

> ADV> A

=• N

> N, N >

> N> N> A

• N

N

• N

V

- N- N

• N

Example

breakableconfederacyorangeade-baggage, passagesuicidaldisposalAfricanentrance, existencepresidency, hesitancyassistant, presidentparliamentarianfragmentaryactivate, orchestratetalkathonlitsibxre (agreeable)

mundbora (protector)shrimpbwgermotorcademobocracygodcund (divine)

captaincy, accuracysportsdom, wisdomhlude (loudly)legged

payeeauctioneer,conventioneerdyret (hole) [swivel]byrgeis (tomb)woolen

130 WORDS AMD MEA]S"IN<JS

TABLE 6.3—continued

30, -en31. -end (agent)32. -er33. -ery34. -ese35. -esque36. - m37. -estre38, -«/

39. -cue40. -/ sf41. -/<?fl/</42, -fest43, -/к/44, -furter45. -Ляй"46. - ш47. -ie, -y48. -й49. -iana50. -ic51. -ician52. -;/>•53. -tf54, -iht55. -isc56. -ism

57. -jsr58. -г7е59. -ids60. -(/>•

61. -we62. -ize63, -tec64. -leas65, -Izcan66. -fe67. -/<?f

68. -Дс

69. -like70. /teg71. -mania

(F.)(It.)(H,)(Gk.)

(F,)

(Ger)

(Ger.)

(L.)

(F.)(F-)(L.)(L.)

(Gk.)

(Gk.)(L.)(Gk.)(F,)

(F./L.)(F.)

(F.)(F.)

(Gk.)

13 c.15 c.17 c.14 с

16/19 e.

20 c.

20 c.

18c.17c.15/20 с15 c.

14/16 с

17c.13/19 с20 c.14/16 с

14 c.13/19 с

15 c.16 c,

15c,

20 c.

AVVNNNNNV

NNNNN

NNNVNNNN

NNNNAКNXN

VAVNЛVNANNJN

> V> N> N> N, V > N> A, N > N> Л> N> N> N

> N> A, A > A> A> N> A> N> N> A,N > N> N> NT A > N> N> A> N, A > N> V> A> A> A, A > A> N , V > N,> N> N> N, A > N> N> N, A > N

> A> V,N > V> N> A> V> V> N> A, N > A> A> N> N

darkendemend (judge)driverfishery, briberyJapaneseKipHngesquegoddessmobster.punsterbsrnett (burning)[thicket]usherettehea(}fast, sieadfa.itfourfoldsongj'est, gabfestsinfuljishfurternationhoodAustrianBobby, daddy, Katiemovie, quickieShake spear ianaalcoholicbeautician, musicianliquefyearthyporniht (thorny)girlish, reddishmilitarism t criticism,extremismbeharioristIsraelite, suburbaniteput-it-off-itisChristianity,sentimentalityassertivefinalize, crystalizefeajlac (robbery)friendlessnealsecan (approach)sparklepigletsicklyt kinglygodlikeprincelingauiomania

eetulnaed

CEEATIISfO NEW WORDS 131

TABLE 6,3—continued

(F.)72. -tttent73. -nessf-nis74. -of75. -oriwn

76. -ory77. -off

78. -он-*79. -SO. -s81.82. -sianS3R4. -.

86. -l87. -ungS8. -ure89. -v90. -wende91. -v

(L.)

(L,)

(F.)

(£p.)

(F.)

14 c. V > N amusementA > N wearinessV > A pattcol (thoughtful)

20 с V > N, N > N corsetorium,printutorium

16 с V > A obligatoryA > N , V > N length, growth

14 c. N > A poisonousN > N hatredA > A D V thereabouts, daysN > N friendshipN > V mxrxiun (proclaim)P > P flflWflfjrA > Л lonesome

19/20 с N > N laimdreteria20 с A > A, N > A oldtype, Chicago-type

V > N ruttttaigJ4c . V > N pressure

N > ADV homewardA > N Acr^fHt/e (healthy)

20 c. N > ADV, educaiionwise,A > ADV happy wise

A kind of word formation like that we have just discussed but which is

largely limited to the creation of scientific terms joins two elements, neither

one of which need be a complete word. These are called hound forms because

generally they must be attached to another word or to another btjund form

to make a whole word. For example, we can take almost any of the elements

in the first list below and attach it to almost any element in the second and get

a very impressive result:

1. electro-, duple- (doubling), hydro-, eikono- (image), hetero- (different),

cephalo- (head), atidro- (human), idSo- (individual), proto- (original),

synchro- (simultaneous), phyb- (racial stock), toxt- (poison), pyro- (fire),

vivi- (alive),

2, -dasia (fracture), -glyph (carving), -crania (of the head), -odym (pain),

-chronic (of time), -graphy (writing), -genesis (creation oQ. -'<™e ( t o n e ) >

•metric (measure), -neural (of the nerves), -ptex (fold), -tropic (turn

towards), -vora (to cat), -plasm (molded). (161)

Some of ttese prefixes could have been listed in the previous lists. In

proiagenesis, for example, the genesis is. now also a word, makingproto- a kindof prefix. The same is true with hydro- as in hydroelectric and so on. So in

132 WORDS AND MEANINGS

many cases, there is no real distinction between many of these and thoseJisted in Table G.2.

PROBLEM 6.9: Translate ten possible combinations into native English coin-pounds. Kor example, pyrogenesis can be translated mtofirebirtk Then testthem on someone to determine whether they can be understood in the senseof the original Greek or Latin word. Is there anything thatpyrogenests com-municates thatfirebirth does not?

There was a time when one of the serious questions among critics ofusage was whether it was proper, correct, decent, to combine stems from onelanguage with affixes from another. Scientist was once condemned as anunspeakable hybrid, composed of a Latin stem: sclent-, plus a Greek suffix,-ist. One is tempted to wax Freudian on the racial implications ofthe attitudereflected in the term "hybrid" and why some writers on linguistic proprietywere overcome with revulsion at merging elements from different languages.Appropriately enough, the word racial itself was a target: it combines aLatin suffix with an Italian stem. It is an attitude that recalls some aspects ofthe sixteenth-century Saxonists,

In answer to such critics, we can only cite words so completely natural-ized that objecting to them on principle would be simply foolish. Beautifulis a French stem with a native suffix, tidal a native stem with a Latin suffix.All these are of mixed parentage; peaceful, successful, resentful, fruitful,merciful, doubtful; gentleness, faithfulness, promptness; paternally, royally,modestly,fortunately, certainly, allegedly; breathable, understandable, unthink-able, unbreakable; merriment .shipment; winterize.

Like most questions of this kind, the strictures of those who wouldimprove by purging are ignored by those who, as they use the language toexpress their thoughts, shape it to meet their needs. Jf a "hybrid" resultsfrom someone's expressing himself as naturally as he can. then the fact thathe creates a hybrid is irrelevant. Some mixed creations, of course, do grateagainst the ear: unusualness, drinkability, responseful. But we might wonderwhether these grate because they are hybrids, or because they arc unfamiliar,or because they violate the rules of combination. Redetoxificationability is aLatin blueblood that follows all the rules, but it is grotesque. Whether suchwords bccfime part of the language really depends little on prescriptivists andless upon historians, but almost entirety on how many speakers decide theywant to use the word.

PROBLEM 6.10: (1) What requires a greater intimacy of linguistic penetrationof one language into another, attaching a native suffix to a borrowed word:graceful, spiritually, correctness, or attaching a borrowed suffix to a native-word: beatable, amazement, oddity ? (2) How would dating the patterns

CREATING NEW WORDS 133

mixed constructions support or weaken your guess? (3) Which are less re-stricted as to the specific words they can occur with, prefixes or suffix»7 Forexample, how freely can we combine re- meaning again (аз in reset) withverbs V How freely can we combine -men! with verbs (as in amazement)'! Howdoes this apply to the discrepancy between Lhe number of borrowed andnative prefixes we have in the language? affixes ?

PHOBLEM 6.L1: Review the compounding chart (Table 6.1), Must we reviseour description of compounding in order to take derivation into considera-tion? That is, what happens if we treat -ing (as in oil painting or easy-going)and the perfect -и/(or its equivalent, as in rough-ground or brokenhearted) asderivational endings? In what ways would we have to refine [he history ofcompounding?

Creating by Analogy1 BackformttiiimsWhen a noun like lamentation or obstruction or revolution was borrowed

into the language rather than the verb forms foment, remit, or obstruct, it wasvirtually certain that the language wouid eventually increase not by one wordbut by two. For if we borrow transmit and know by the rules of affixationthat we can create transmission, then a. native speaker who comes acrossexclamation knows, without having seen exclaim, that exclaim is, by the rulesof the language, a possible Fnglish word. Given amiable, he might not knowwhether the noun is amiability or, following his native instincts, amiableness.But given either of those forms, he knows that amiable is possibie.

Oncc a principle of proportion is established (x - a: x as у - a: y),speakers easily extend it even to words such as these, which, strictly speaking,do not qualify: pedlar, beggar, hawker, stoker, scavenger, swindler, editor,burglar, sculptor. For these words, the proportion was incorrect because noneof them had an active verbal root preceding the -erjar ending. Pedlar andhawker are of unknown origin; beggar is from the name of the mendicantorder, St. Beghard; burglar is perhaps from the OE root burg-brer tian, orhouse/room-breaking. Scavenger is from the French for toll collected in acity and is not a verbal root. Editor, stoker, and sculps or have historical verbalroots, but they were not active when English borrowed the nouns. These areusually called hackform;itiorts.

PROBLEM 6.\2: These words were also borrowed directly into English with,originally, no verbal derivation associated with them. What modem verbshave we derived from thent? reminiscence, resurrection, pre-emption, riri-sectian, electrocution, television, emotion, donation, enthusiasm, jelly, peevish,aggression. What about these words: motion, cognisance, contempt, ambition,incursbn, infraction, abeyance, imprecation, transition, insurrection, susceptible,insuperable, inquisition"! Should we have verbs for them ? What would they be ?

134 WORDS AND MEAMIISfOS

Related to the agentive back formations (beggar-beg) is a class of wordswe have already looked at, buL which historically is rather new. Compoundslike firefighter, babysitt&, housebreaker, bricklayer, and so on, compoundswith а поил + тегЪ-ег pattern ate very oid, dating hack at least to the ninthcentury. But rather more recent is the verb compound related to themwithout the -er ending. A few of these verbs date back to [he thirteenthcentury: backbite, for example, which, at least according to the OxfordEnglish Dictionary citation dates, followed backbiting (first citation 1175) byperhaps 125 years. But it has been only in the last few centuries that the formhas become genuinely productive. Many, if not all, of these new verb com-pounds seem to derive from baekformations of three types: (1) N + V-er:hootlkker-to boo! Иск, (2) N + V-ing: joyriding-to joy ride, (3) N + V-ed:henpecked-to henpeck.

M 6ЛЗ: Here are some examples. Which of the three types of verbcompound seems to be the most likely source for each? Check your ton-elusions against the dates ciLcd in the OED and its Supplement for a samplingof these, housebreak, shoplift, sightsee, housekeep, stagemanage, moonlight,typewrite, typeset, backpeddie, hog tie, drydesn, bootleg, sleepwalk, hitchhike,ghostwrite, pinchMt, proofread, sharecrop, babysit, chainsmoke, copyread,playact, handpick, doubtepurk, brainwash, breastfeed,forcefeed.

6.14; Create ten new compounds of the noun-object + тегЬ typedirectly: to hoitserepuir, tobirdfeed, to haircut, and so on. How natural do theyseem? Would this be an argument against someone who claimed that wordslike bookbind. hand-tew, housepaint arc not back format ions but rather directcompound creations? How would this influence on r description of compound-ing in Engl is h?

Tn some earlier problems, we have seen how rich English is in ways toconvert one part of speech to another by adding suffixes: decide-dedsiou,sing-singer, orchestra-orchestrate. But one very common way to convert onepart of speech to another is for a speaker just to use a form that representsOne part of speech in the position of another without changing the form ofthe word at all. in effect, he adds a zero-suffix: 0, For example, someone whoknew he could say The tights gleam in the night, used gleam ан a noun, as in asentence like lean see the gleam in the night. A similar process created verbs outof adjectives: / made the desk clean—/ cleaned the desk, and nouns out ofverbs: / looked out of the window I took a took out of (he window. All of thisspeakers can accomplish without adding a suffix.

While this has always been a practice in English, Shakespeare and otherElizabethans were particularly notable for ihcir free use of such conversions:

CtfiATlNG NEW WORDS 135

I warrant Him, Petruckio is Kated (Tarn inft of the Shrew, Г1Г i i.), He Devill-Porter

it no further (Macbeth, IT.jji.), "Pis . . . suck stuffe as Madmen / Tongue and

braine not (Cymbeline, V.iv.), He words me Cyrles, he words me (Antony and

Cleopatra, V.ii.).This is such a widespread phenomenon that most common content words

of English occur as more than one parL of speech: man, hand, foot, eye, doud,mouth, light. But this may be a misleading way of speaking. To be consistent,we may have to distinguish between a linguistic form1 and a word. Walk is alinguistic form. It can occur as the word we use as a verb: He walks, or it canoccur as the word we use as a noun: He took a walk. When we talk about theword walk as cither a noun or a verb, we fail to make a distinction that wehave to make in other contexts. Is the word horn (as in an orchestra) the"same" word as the word horn meaning bony material? We can resolve theconfusion by distinguishing between linguistic forms and words.

If English speakers have for centuries converted one part of speech toanother, they seem not to have felt the same about the suitability of allconversions. A good many conversions that existed earlier have disappearedin favor of another form—or of no corresponding form at all.

PROBLEM 6.15: Here are two sets of words. (I) is a list of verbs formed fromEnglish and French nouns, (2) is a list of nouns formed from English andFrench verbs. Most of these conversions occurred between the thirteenth andsixteenth centuries.

Is there any difference between the stability of nouns converted intoverbs and verbs converted into nouns? Is there any difference in the stabilityof English and French conversions? The proportions are roughly accurate,

1. Nouns Into verbs (English): /wrt, worship, child, gleam, rust, stream, master,hook, stone; word, den, blast, spark, snow, witness,fist, edge, length, head,spire, sleet, fellow, guest, chill, hammer, pin, wire, church, ring, moan,churn, filth, plough, shovel, weather, doom, knot, tail, arm, shuttle, roost,sponge, burden, riddle, .фаге, crank, gossip, chalk, soap, whore (50 words).Nouns into Terhs (French): sacrifice, curtain, fine, penalty, issue, print,treason, cement, tone, treasure, virtue, retail, exercise, plumb, dart, buckle,lure, beauty, license, robe, difference, plea, nurture, marshal, .flavor, rioet,solder, liberty, farm, acquittance, accrue, experiment, motion, brush, letter,trick, safeguard(37 words).

2. Verbs into nouns (English): chew, keep, grind, steal, weep, dread, have,miss, stink, suck, look, feel, choose, hide, secrete, put, shove, crack, mourn,understand, warn, wish, blink, chide, pull, wink, build, write, skulk, fan,hunt, shake, stir, walk, stare, lap, bruise, freeze, rise, shoot, wash, like,befall, creep^grope, run, talk, clip, shut, bite (50 words).

I The term lexeme has also been used.

t36 WORDS AMD MEANINGS

Verbs into nouns (French): summon, escape, avow, appease, crush, disguise,pray, fescue, aim, tax, agree, arrive, elect, enforce, increase, rehearse rush,support, depose, launch, piss, defence, enter, mock, praise, esteem, restrain,strain, acquit, approach, avoid, complain, discharge, furnish, presume,rejoice, remain, maintain,flourish, redeem (4G words), (J 25)

PROBLEM 6.16: Here are some early French/Latin borrowings. Why would aSpeaker of ME be unlikely (o convert these directly with no formal change inspelling or pronunciation into verbs: arrival, guidance, improvement, organiza-tion, reference, referenced If you had to speculate, wtmld you say that directconversions arc more likely among native or arming imported words? Why?

Words (or forms) have been changing their part of speech since OE, buta pattern of change which has suddenly flourished in recent times after itsfourteenth-cent игу origins is the conversion of the verb + particle combina-tions like hold up (to rob), set back (delay) to the noun class with the typical

compound word stress pattern: holdup, setback, layup, rundown, write in, andso on.

PROBLEM 6.17: Review the compounding chart (Table 6.1) again. How wouldwe have to refine our description of compounding to take into considerationboth derivation and conversion ?

Words from Names

A very special kind of conversion occasionally combined with deriva-tional suffixes involves only a relative handful of words in the language, butthey have some of the most interesting histories of any of our words. Theseare words made out of proper nouns, words from names for people andplaces. Strictly speaking, many of these are not conversions since a word likewatt, derived from the плпк James Wait, is still a noun when used to mean themeasure of electricity. But since many others do involve grammatical change,we will discuss them all here.

In some cases, we can instantly recognize the source: machiavellian,spartan, odyssey, quixotic, shyiock, jutias, pla tonic, sodomy, hamburger,frankfurter. In other cases, the original referent has disappeared from ourlives or the word lias changed so much from the original that all sense of itssource has disappeared: guy, gin, canter, pants, copper, money, slave, bedlam,place, weiner.

These groups of words usually have a relatively short half-life comparedto most derivations and «inversions. These nest words, for example, have allbeen used in earlier histories of the language to illustrate how we derivecommon from proper nouns: piimsotl, belcher, victoria, lewisite, hansom,pinchbeck, bant, lisle, daguerreotype, tram, andersvn, morrison, burke, brum-

CRUSTING NtW WORDS 13?

rnagem. Almost all of these Eire at best only dimly familiar as something outof the past or—more likely, perhaps—entirely unknown.

Words arc derived from proper names for about the same reasons theyare borrowed. Recall that we have distinguished between borrowing and usingwords like ketchup (the brine of pickled fiih, incidentally) and words liketaboo. The word ketchup is necessary if the stuff is on the table. The wordwould disappear if the product became unavailable, with no consequent lossin our ability to express our feelings and ideas. This is exactly what happenedto words like bant, tram, and lisle. For most of us, what they refer to no longerexist*. Having no need for the words, we have allowed them to fall out of use,just as wergild and scores disappeared.

Taboo on the other hand refers to a significant area of semantic space inour culture, a space that had no exact name, perhaps, until we borrowedtaboo. It refers not to an object, but to a way of behaving, a way of thinkingand feeling and responding that is deeply embedded in our most basicbehavior and attitudes. Thus it is difficult to imagine any circumstances inwhich a word like taboo would become useless and disappear from ourvocabulary.

Here are some of the words from proper names that refer to objects orelements that are so specific and so limited that they have not become"psycho-cultural" words: watt, ampere, farad, ohmt volt, curie, bvnsen,fahrenheit, derrick, silhouette, zeppelin, shrapnel, derringer, pistol, davenport,bowler (hat), derby, stetson, cardigan, mackintosh, pants, condom, bloomers,ietis, bikini, calko, cashmere, milliner у, damask, china, cologne, copper, sand-wich, tveiner, frankfurter, hamburger, cereal, gin, bourbon, sherry, sauferne,champaign,xerox.

PRORUGM 6.18: Can you generalize about the kind of referent most likely toacquire its name from a proper noun? Look up these words. What kinds ofproper nouns are involved ?

PRQULEM 6,19: These next words have become part of our "culture" vocab-ulary. They all originally referred to one specific place, individual, or groupof individuals, real, fictional, or mythological- As you read this list, determinewhen you can the nature of the original referent that made it a source for ihemore general concept. You will have to refer to a dictionary for many of thesewords.

Nouns: dunce, guy, maverick, lunatic, genius, hero, slave, assassin, thug,nemesis, quisling, mentor, solon, philistine, amazon, ttirk, chauvanism,masochism, sadism, enthusiasm, sodomy, onauism, cupidity, comslockery,fary, grace, bahel, blarney, bunk, panic, nightmare, sacrifice, odyssey,bedlam, harmony, music, mystery, magic, fate.fortune, mint, money.

t.i/t WORDS AMD MEANINGS

Verbs; mesmerize, tantalize, vandalize, bowdlerize, gerrymander, canter,meander,pander,shanghai, boycott, hector, lynch.

Adjectives: stentorian, spartan, Utopian, herculean, gargantuan, lethal,machiavellian, rabelasian, iiliiputian, quixotic, erotic, titanic; platotiic,tawdry, maudlin,jovial, (J60)

Gra лила Meal Wnrd I cuniiifion: A Summary

At this point it should be c b r that arbitrarily dividing grammaticalprocesses of word formation into mutually independent categories of com-pounding and derivation (including conversion and backformation) over-simplifies the problem. Both processes are at work in creating many wordslike easy going, ironing board, rough ground, nouns like output and setup, andverbs like hoidog (as in skiing), spotlight, and babysit. Grammatically-basedword formation must be understood more as two interlocking processes orsets of rules which together or individually may generate words.

The history of the process is then pbrai^d in terms of how the rules forcompounding and derivation have together changed through history. Al-though a detailed analysis of those changes would be out of place here(indeed, it scarcely exists even in outline form yet), we have suggested theoutstanding changes. The flow of the processes might be represented likethis:

Grammaticallygenerated vocabulary^

We begin with a semantic structure to be com тип ica ted. To representthat semantic structure, speakers can occasionally choose which path to takefirst. FireMrtti and pyrogenesis, for example, are not synonyms, but at onelevel of meaning, their semantic structure к very similar. The derivationalroute overlays the meaning "scientific" on pyrogenesis while the com-pounding route overlays the more general meaning of "poetic" or "expres-sive>L onfirebiri/i. In other cases, a speaker must follow one or the other path:Only doghouse, for example, will serve to represent the semantic structurebehind that term. No unselTconscious derivation lets us produce somethingon the order of canicik (though caniculture, caninal, and caninity, have beenused for dog-raisiitg, doggy, and doggisltness).

CEEATFXtj NEW WORDS 139

The fact that arrows point in both directions between compounding andderivation indicates that word formation often allows recursive functions.That is. we can compound: outhousei then derive: superouthause", then com-pound again: superouthouse salesman; then derive again: siiperouthouse-ssSesmanship-, then compound again: jitperouthouse salesmanship award; thenderive again: sitpetouthottsesalesmansliip nwarder, and so on. Or we can firstderive: seller; then compound: booksellers and so on.

Rule changes in the past 1000 years allow a few new compound forms:pickpocket, throw tip, deafntute, roitghgrind, redcoat. One permissible sequencehas been lost: Adjective •+ Noun - Adjective (glied-mocl-g] ad hearted). Amore general change is the loss of many native prefixes that communicatedsemantic information, particularly in regard to the state of an action indi-cated by a verb. That function has been taken over by a preposition like upor the auxiliary verb Ласе, Many borrowed prefixes have been introducedthat very regularly correspond with native prepositions: interperiod = betweentimes. Many borrowed suffixes came in with borrowed nouns, verbs, andadjectives, and for the most part, they continue to co-occur primarily withborrowed words. Л very significant change is the marked increase in ourtendency to convert one part of speech to another without any affixation: Aperson who chairs a meeting can suggest that a motion be tabled and floor hisopponenc. A unique kind of rule sequence was introduced with the simul-taneous соmpound-derivation formation of forms like backbiting typesetter,or hctndpicked followed by the backformation of the verbs backbite, typesec,and handpick. We have also introduced in a somewhat jocular sense units thatshare the characteristics of both root words and derivational suffixes: -burger,-flitter, -athoti, -mania\ -omtfrt, -ferta, -type.

KOOT MOniFICATION

The second large category of word-formation is illustrated when a speakerconsciously or unconsciously manipulates the phonetic shape of words al-ready in the language. Frequently, these new words will exist side-by-sidcwith Lheir sources, but with a slightly different denotative or connotativemeaning.

Clipping and S

The most frequent kind of change creates new words by clipping a partof a word, leaving only a piece of the old word. (The technical term for drop-ping an initial syllable is aphesis {defend > fend); for a syllable inside a word,

140 WORDS AND HEAN"ING£

syncope (segeder > either); fora final syllable, apocope {master > mas).) Butfrequently, it is a piece that goes on to become a new word in its own right.The earliest clips go back at least to the sixteenth century, probably muchearlier: coz from cousin, gen! from gentleman, nius from master, and chapfrom a word we have now lost except as a name: chapman (salesman).

PROBLEM 6,20: Here are the original forms for some clips. What words havewe derived from them? Keep in mind that the resulting meanings will befairly close: apply, brandy wine, defend, hackney, example, disport, periwig,cabriolet, omnibus, automobile, caravan, adrertisement, amend, doctor, attend,pantaloons, defence, veteran, laboratory, emy, mathematics, gymnasium,examination, mistress, dormitory, professor, estate, professional, fanatic,wizard, submarine, distillery, photograph, geneva, escheat, customer^ influenza,espy, benzedrine, acute, Chevrolet, etiquette,fadaise, despite, cocaine, co-educa-tion, affray, history, espiee, university (two clips from this one), alcoholic,quadrangle, accloy, graduate, estrange, penitentiary, rumbullion, abet, nuclear,turnpike, psychology. a(d)renture, sergeant, helicopter, convict, umpire, referee,communist, bookmaker, confidence man, women's liberation, detective^ homo-sexual. (I) Generalize about what part of a word LS retained and why.(2) In some cases, the clip and the source still nifer to the same thing: dormi-tory-dorm. Is it correct to say that the two words are identical in meaning?Is there any difference between them? Are dorm and dormitory one word ortwo?

Shortening, of course, also operates on compound words and longersyntactic constructions, but the outcome is in some ways quite different. Mobcomes from mobile vulgis,pub from public drinking house, zoo from zoologicalgarden, movies from moving pictures, narc from narcotics agent, (Coinci dentally,there is a much older wnrd, nark, for a police informant in general.) Moreoften, the shortening of the phrase leaves an entire word, often the adjectivemodifying the deleted noun: Through repeated association, for example,private comes to stand for prkate soldier. The single word replaces the mean-ing of the entire phrase. And when this occurs, of course, the adjectivebecomes a noun, an automatic conversion,

PROBLEM 6.21: What are some other clip-conversions of this kind?

Blends

Another source of word formation which combines clips and somethingnot entirely unlike compounding is called blend ing: smog, brunch, twirl, smaze,chortle, motel, sprig, gerrymander. Each of these is made up of the first partof one word and the second part of another: smoke + fog = smog, breakfast

CREATING NEW WOUDS 141

+ lunch = brunch, twist + whirl = twirl, smoke + haze ^ smaze, chuckle 4-snort = chortle {in this one, the second word has been inserted inside thefirst), motor + hotel = motel, spray + twig = sprig. This sort of word crea-tion is common in the prose genre that includes Time maga2inc and variousnationally syndicated gossip/society columnists: mfmiidpating, blobstetruian(for a reducing adviser), stupidenfs (for student demonstrators), representative(someone to "rap" with), blaxploitation (exploiting blacks). Blending hassupplied relatively few words. (165)

Acronyms

Another form of word creation resembles blending, but is considerably

more useful in a bureaucratized, politicized, advertised society where organiza-tions and movements have names too long to fit conveniently into a com-mercial or a headline. When talking about the Congress of Racial Equality,the National Broadcasting Company, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,the American Federation of Labor- -Congress of Industrial Organizations,we find it too difficult to give the full name every time we mention it. So weshorten them to their letters: Some are pronounced as letters: AFL-CJO,NBC, KKKt LSD. Others are pronounced as words: CORE, NATO, HOD,and so on.

Most acronyms refer to organizations, but a few refer to scientific ortechnological referents: radar = radio direction finding and range: laser =tight amplification by stimulated emission of radiation; lox = liquid oxygen.Very few of these have entered our '*cultural" vocabulary. Perhaps the onlyones to transcend the specific original referents arc from World War W.gestapo= Geheim Stoats Polices; nazi = Natiorialsoi.ialistiche Deutsche Arbeiter-partei; flack - Ftieger Abwehr Kanon (anti-aircraft); and perhaps snafu =situation normal, all fouled up, though this last one is now mildly archaic.

Historically, the principle of acronyms goes back at least to medievaltimes when words were invented as mnemonic devices, much as a studenttoday might memorize reygbis to remember the order of colors in the rainbow.A similar principle operated in the Middle Ages when Jewish names wereblended out of the initials of a title, a personal name, and a father's name:Rabbi Schclomo Jizchaki becomes Raschi. In the nineteenth century, chemicalsubstances were named by blending the initial syllables of their constituents:aldehyde, for example, from alcoholdehydrogenatum. (136)

PROBLEM 6.22: What conclusions about conversion do you draw from thesesentences? Can i hate your OK? J already o/e'd it. Then It goes OK now ? Yealtit's ready ок. OK, let's get going, ox! (OK. incidentally, docs not come from an1840 political slogan, The People is OH Korreet; or from a Choetaw word,

142

okeht meaning it is so; or from the name of a Sac Indian chief. Old Кеикик;от from the initials of an Irish freight agent, Obadiah Kelly, or from AuxCayes, a Haitian port; or from any numher of other sources. It seems to befrom Old Kinderlwok. Kinderhook was the name of Marl in Van Burcn's(1782-1862, eighth president of the United Stales) native village, a name whichwas made into an appelation for Van Buren, then into a political rallying cry,then into the name of a political organization: The O.K, Chib. When themembers of this organization got into a brawl with an opposition club, OK.became a kind of password,) (145)

6.23: NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Admsnisiratiott),pronounced as a word means nothing more than the meaning of the words itstands for. How do you suppose the genesis of these acronyms differed fromthat of NASA 1 HOPE, HELP JOIN, WA VES, NO W, PUSH1

ROOT CREATION

Direct Sound Symbolism

Our last category of word formation is in some ways the most basic kind,quite unlike anything we have discussed so far. Harlier, we said that onecharacteristic of human languages which distinguishes them from manyanimal languages is that the acoustic image of a word does not resemble themessage it conveys. That is, a bee encodes how distant a flower is from thehive by dancing along a scale of intensity that inversely matches the scale ofdistance from the hive. The more intense the cry of danger from an ape, themore intense the danger.

Except when we raise our voices afong a scale that matches a scale ofanger, surprise, fear, and so on, nothing in our language seems to have anyunequivocal iconic correlation lo conditions in the objective world. We do not,for example, have words like ЫооЬ, which, when uttered slowly ibioob, meansslow, and when uttered quickly: bioob^ means fast, or alternatively, high andlow, weak and strong, fat and thin, and so on. A fundamental characteristicof human speech is that it is arbitrarily symbolic. We do not call a stripedhorse zebra because it looks like the sound of zebra.

Now, after making that generalization, we must immediately qualify it,because there may he some limited areas of our vocabulary where sounds inwords may correspond with the sound of their referents in more than anaccidental way. The most directly onomalopoelic words in the language arcthose which attempt to represent ejaculations. Many have a fairly long

CREATINQ NEW WOKDS 143

history: ouch (first cited in 1654), hah (1000), hofio (1150), phon(ey) (1673),ugh (1765), hmnmtnm (1854), pAew (1604), ;Н,Л (160S)b Wrw/; (1686), гдА(1894). Soine not eked in the OED are unhunh, yippee, tsk Mfc. Ttehee goesat least as far back as Chaucer's Alisoun in "The Miller's Talc":

"Tehee!" quod she, and clapte- the wyndow to.And Absolon goeth forth a sory pas.

Fragment A, ] I; 3741-2

Tush and wish we can find in the fifteenth century. More recently, wow wasthe all-purpose ejaculation.

PROBLEM 6.24: The representation of naturalistic conversation at a verycolloquial level is relatively rare outside of a few early plays from the four-teenth and fifteenth centuries. What does this fact have to do with the datingof these ejacu lat ions ?

PROBLEM 6.25: What do you make of the way these interjections are now beingused: (I) You can't pooh-pooh ihat, (2) You wowed them, baby. {3) We hurrahedhim home. (4) I hate a rah-rah attitude. (5) I don'I like a lot afho-homg aroundhere. (6) I got anowie, mommy.

One step away from representing in words the sounds we make with ourvocal apparatus is representing in words non-human sounds.

PROBLEM 6,26: The Oxford English Dictionary lists these next words as"echoic" or "imitative." Comment, clatterJtiss,pop, siz;le, buzz, hum, bump,squeak, crash, snort, sab, howl, whistle, bieat, snicker, snore, mart, roar, boom,twitter, jabbert flash, fuss, throb, dump, jerk, job, knock, pat, splurge\ squelch,blab, blurt, jump, Mi,fitek,film$y,JUp, gag, gush, gulp.

PROBLEM 6.27: Write down new words for the following sounds: (1) chalkscreeching on a blackboard, (2) a suitcase bumping down a flight of stairs,(3) tinkling crystal, (4) someone sniffling, (5) a door slamming, (6) clothripping, (7) trees rustling in the wind, (Я) automobiles crashing, (9) an electricmotor humming, (10} the horn on a diesel locomotive, t i l ) someone type-writing. Are there any generalizations to be made? Y O J will have to combineyour results with your fellow students or yourself take a large sample to getenough data.

PtOBLEM 6.28; What are the differences in the sounds referred to by bong-bank, thrum-thrump, clang—clank, clurtk-thtmk, smack-thwack. Duiit, dindle,and (Л>/аге British dialect words which refer to sounds. Before you look themup in the OED, guess what they refer to.

/44 WORDS AMD MILA.NIMOS

Svncsthedc Sound SyitihttUsm

When we move from words referring to sounds to words referring toolher dimensions of physical phenomena, we are on even less certain grounds.The iconic dimension is still relevant, but now the relationship is synesthetic:Lhe use of one sense, sound, to represent another perceptual dimension—sire,movement, hue, emotion, for example. In "echoic" words, sounds arc usedto represent sounds: but many psycholinguists have tried to made a case forsounds representing size, movement, color, and even emotions.

All physical experience can be scaled: movement, dimension, sound,color, tactile consistency, temperature, and so on. Most have several simul-taneous dimensions: sounds are measured by pitch, volume, overtones;color by saturation, intensity, and hue; dimension hy height, breadth, anddepth; movement by velocity, acceleration, and direction. The problem is todc[ermine whether any of these scales can be consistently correlated with anyof the scales we can devise for the way we pronounce words referring to thosephenomena.

PROBLEM 6.29: Figure 6.1 shows pictures of four animals. Ask several peopleLO make up names for them without using parts of recognizable words. Thatis, do not call (a) something like a mmaapkant. Collect the names andtubulate the length of each word aeeording to the size of the animal, and thekind of stressed vowel. That is, if (a) were called a btorgey, the stressed vowelwould be an *h aw ' or " о " sound. Use Table 6.4 to tabulate the sounds. Highmeans a sound made with the tongue bunched up high in the mouth. Frontmeans the tongue is pushed forward. Thus a high fronL sound is Щ or /i/ as inJit and/etf/. A low back sound is /a/, as in bawd от bought.

TABLE 6.4 VOWEL CHART

Front Central Back

HiGH /F/ feet la} pool

MID

LOW

№/e/

/*/

fitbaitbet

bat

M

/a/ hot

/W/0/

N

pull

boat

bought

These are diphthongs, sounds made of two parts: /ai/ as in hide, /au/ as in!>4hi. js'tj as in bay.

PROBLEM 6,30: Here are descriptions for several actions. Ask several nativespeakers to make up words for them. Can any generalizations be made in

(С) (OJ

Figure 6.1

146 WORDS ANn MEANINGS

regard to the kind of consonant sounds they choose? The kind of syllablestructure? (I) Rapid movements of the hands LO indicate nervousness,(2) slow and steady pulling a load uphill, (3) thousands of lights blinking onand off, (4) tickling someone on the back of the neck, (5) punching someone inthe stomach, (6) a line rain, (7) an avalanch of snow, (8) fog drifting throughthe streets, (9) the circular movement of a mosquito in Lhe air.

PROBLEM 6.3 f: Here are some pairs of words. One refers to a very smallanimal, the other to a very large one. Which is which? weeg-wog, gleep-glaop, dobe-dabe, fain-fawn, spmt-spint,fozzl0-fuzzletseug (pronounced likethe -oo- in tooky-scewg(as in ought). Use the same pairs to associate with verylight colored and very dark colored animals; very stupid and very smartanimals, very beautiful and very ugly ones, very slow and very smart ones.Generalize about the nature of the vowels associated with the various con-cepts. Why is the likelihood of the <l right" answer greater when one is givena word than when one is asked to create one?

скопим 6.32: Ask several F.ngiish speakers to associate meanings of theirown choosing with the words in Problem 6.31. Is it possible to generalizeabout the kinds of meanings they associate with various vowel sounds?

From these problems it is apparent that—conventionally in English, atany rate—we associate certain sounds with other phenomenal scales. Whenmaking up words, we are perhaps somewhat more likely to choose low backvowels to refer to large objects, slow movements, dark colors, low sounds, sademotions. Conventionally, we associate high front vowels with the opposite

concepts.

PROBLEM (5.33: Does the natural vocabulary of this semantic field support thisgeneralization? dumb, stupid, dope, dull, foolish, idiotic, moronic, dim, silly,obtuse* simple, imbecilic, Intelligent, keen, bright, quick, slow, sharp, genius,witty, smart, shrewd, astute, clever,

PROBLEM 6.34: Pick a. category entry in RoRc-t's Thesaurus that would lenditself to syncsthelic interpretation: size, speed, weight, and so on. Tabulatewhether the stressed vowel in the words that indicate large size or quietmovement or whatever tend to select vowels of a particular phonetic shape.What statistical problems present themselves in such a. problem ? (19,136)

None of this implies, of course, that all low back vowels mean dark, low,sad, slow things and high front vowels the opposite: big and small, dim andglowing, tearful and joyful testify to that. Tt only means that in English whenwe make up new words or are forced to associate nonsense syllables withcertain phenomena, we conventionally draw upon certain groups of sounds.

CREATING NEW WORDS 147

Phcnesthemes

Some linguists have gone one step further in phonetic symbolism.

PROBLEM 6.35: Here are some common words beginning with various con-sonant clusters. Is there any sub-group among them that is related in meaning?If so, how would you explain it?

CL-: gl'ace, glacier, glad, glade, gladiator* gladiolus, glamour, glance, gland,glare, glass, glaucoma, glaze, gleam, glean, glee, glen, glib, glide, glimmer,glimpse, glim, glissade, glisten, glitter, gloaming, gloat, globe, gloomglory, glo$s>glotti3tglove,glow, glue, glum, glut, glut ton, glycerine,

FL-: flail, flame, flap, flare, flash,flaunt,/fee,flee!', flick, flicker, fling, flit, float,flog, flop, flip,ffounce,fiourish,jiout.flow, fluent, flute, fluid. flume, flurry,flush, fluster, flutter, flux, fly, flat, flaccid, flatulent, flee, flint, floor, flour,flower, flunkey,

SP-: spat, spatter, spew, spirit, spit, spout, spray, spume, spurt, sputter, spurn,

SN-: snarl, sneer, sneeze» snicker, sniff, sniffle, snigger, sniffle, snoop, snore,snort', snout', snuffle, snuggle, snob, snub.

•UMP, -UNK,-UG, etc.: bump, thank, hump, ghffnp, dump, clump, clunk,sunk, funk, hunk, gunk, frump, glum, crumple, junk, lump, limk, mump,punk,plunk, plump, rump, sump, stunt, stump, trunk, tug, ugh, mug, hugj

dug, rug, tug, jug Jug, pug, rumble, tumble, humble, fumble.

Are any of these words echoic? Look up groups of these words in otherlanguages. What do you conclude? Look up various initial consonantclusters in other languages. What do you conclude?

Mueh of what we call phonetic symbolism in this area is still specific tothe conventions of English. Linguists have a word for combinations likefl-, gl-, sp- and so on Lhat seem to have a kind of diffuse meaning: phones-thetnes. About all that can be concluded from them is that if English speakerscoin new words, they will very likely follow the sound patterns that havebecome conventionalized for the referent. (16)

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL MOTIVES IN WORD CREATION

We borrow, create, transform, and derive words in these ways forreasons that arc semantic, social, and psychological. Some words are created

14Я WOKDS AND MEANINGS

and borrowed to fit new artifactual and culturally restricted phenomena:wombat, Uwisiti, WPA, mute!, smog. OLher words seem to cover an area ofpsychic space that, as it were, existed in our conscious or subconscious mindand thereby needed words to objectify it: taboo, gestapo, шиЫЫ, spartan.Words tike these did not originally refer to broad areas of our cultural orpsychological lives. Buc oitce these words were made available and precipi-tated or crystallized those amorphous psychological areas into the conscious-ness of language, the words both reHccLed part of English/American cultureand directed the attention of its speakers to the concepts they refer to, therebymaking those concepts more accessible.

The social consequences of borrowing, creating, compounding and soon, though, are equally important in the way we adapt Lo or create a socialsituation. If we postulate two poles: formal and intimate, we can roughlyassign different kinds of word sources to different situations:

More Intimate More Formal

TS ati ve in heritance Fre nch, Lati n, <ind (i reek borrow! ngsС lips and com pounds Full forms, few compoundsUnderived forms Heavily derived forms

Compare two admittedly extreme examples:

1. / think ft! cut''cross the quad back rn the dorm 'n kit the books far the psychfinal with my roomie.

2. My decision is to traverse lite quadrangle to return to the dormitory to studyfor my psychology firm! examination with She individual with whom I sharea room.

The general interaction between social class and style can be representedvery roughly as follows:

Higher Class

Formal^^^

Casual ^ ^

Intimate—•—

Lower CJass

"^"Formal

•^cSaT1

—Intimate

That is, the frequency of features characterizing a formal style will inthe (relatively) lower social dialeet class generally be shifted statistically downrelative to the styles in the (relatively) higher class dialect, except perhaps at

CREATING NEW WORDS 149

the most intimate level where half-finished sentences, murmured words, andtone or" voice convey information in much the same way in hoth classes.

But there occurs a frequent exception to this generalization. In somecases, the very formal style of someone in the most upwardly mobile groupwill display more forma! cues in Formal situations than does the uppermiddle class speaker in the same social situation. This gives us a relationshipsomething like this:

Upper-M iddle Clasi

Formal'Informal ~^ •—Casual" — •Intima Le

Lower-Middle Class

—Formal

Informal. .Casual

Intimate

This may explain why so many French (and later Latin) words shiftedinto more casual as well as formal English after social classes began to shift.The rule for the distribution of Romance words in various styles of upper-middle class social dialects might originally have looked something like this:

1. Intimate: Native words^,! д_я й-и + French wordsaet w

2. Informal: Native wordsM t o A_B + French words^,, „,_*_г

3. Casual: Native word5^ в л _ в ^ + French words^^ w x

4. Formal: Native words3St jJ + French wordsafr l i W-X-Y-Z

(This says nothing about the relative sizes of any of these sets. Л wouldcertainly be the largest, however.) As a speaker moved from an intimate to aformal style, he probably successively replaced native English words withborrowings: Casual X > D, informal: У > С, formal: Z > B, or moreaccurately perhaps, increased the frequency of one category and decreasedthe frequency of another.

But just as a child overgeneralizes and uses -ed too frequently—hugged.goedt singed—so perhaps the upwardly mobile Angio-Saxon speaker used toomany French words too often where they did not belong, in less than veryforniid contexts, by inappropriately using the largest subset of French words,W-Z, Lhat characterised a formal style of a particular social dialect. H mayhave been Lhis palLern of word choice that John of Salisbury had in mindaround the middle of the twelfth century when he observed that it wasFashionable for English speakers to use French words in English conversa-tion. In this way, French words worked their way into the informal andcasual speech of naLive linglishmen.

A complete study of word borrowing, derivation, and creation would

ISO WORDS AND MEANINGS

probe much more deeply into grammar and phonology. Stress patterns are alest for compound words. But how we assign stress finally depends on thegrammatical processes involved in compounding, a problem much morecomplex than we have described here. Derivation includes more than justadding an ending: rerise-recision differ in lhe vowel change from pairs likeresist-resistance.

But we have discovered some important facts about our words and iheirsources. The wide range of borrowing and processes of word creation givesus a flexibility and exactness of expression rivaled by few other languages.Our lexical resources allow us to modulate our style, to express fine nuancesof denotative and connotative meaning, in distinguish among social dialects,and even to control the rhythm of our sentences. Its possibilities range fromthe Anglo-Saxon monosyllabic simplicity of Lhe ki

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Wordwas God. The same was in the beginning wilh God, All things were made byhim; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him waslife; and the life WAS the light of men. And the light shine th in darkness; andthe darkness eomprehendeth it not.

John 1:1-5

to the rolling polysyllabic Latinate chords of Dr. Johnson i

That praises arc without reason lavished on lhe dead, and thai the honorsdue only in excellence are paid to antiquity, к a complaint likely to be alwayscontinued by those who, being able to add nothing to truth, hope foreminence froin the heresies of paradox; or those who, being forced by dis-appointment upon consolatory expedients, are willing to hope from pasleritywhat the present age refuses, and flatter themselves that the regard which isyet denied by envy will be at last bestowed by time.

Preface to Shakespeare

OUR VOCABULARY AND ITS SOURCES: A SUMMARY

In Table 6.1. we sketched the outlines of the processes involved in grammaticalword formation. Now that we have reviewed several other processes, we cansuggest a more comprehensive system. There ure three sources of roots, threekinds of root-modifications, and an interlocking process of two kinds ofgrammatical word formation. The entire system can be approximated likethis:

cut ATI NO Nnw womns IS I

MODIFICATION

Clipping ^ Х

t 1 WUlnullnn ) j

Acronym) y-^

/

RtJOTS

Intucntcd

J3ori\iwtfU

\

\ _ t!ENE RATION

Mil- VOtAHL"LAKYOF

ENGLISH

/

Deriretlon

1 1

Figure 6,2

PROBLEM 6.^6: Provide examples For the Following processes plus five moreof your own device. The rool-source is in brackets; the process follows,

1. [N a live)2. [Created]3. [Borrowed]A. [Native] cli pped5. [Borrowed] clip ped6. [[Native] +• [borrowed]] blended7. [[Native] +• [borrowed)] compounded8. [[[Native] derived] + [native]] compounded9. ([Й arrowed ] cli p ] derivedJ(l. [[[Borrowed] derived] + [borrowed]dip]compounded.

Chapter 7

SEMANTIC CHANGE

Unlike changes in pronunciation, syntax, or usage, the ways in which mean-ings change open up such interesting bypaths on social, political, and culturalhistory that one is tempted to wander aimlessly through historical semanticspace, turning from one etymological curiosity to the next. Surly, for example,conies from M К sir-/у, from Old French sire, which came from aeoir, fromthe slurred pronunciation of senior, the comparative of Latin senex, or agedone Л Sir tt.e,, a sire) apparently acted sir-ly. The re-spelling hides the fiictthat English Sirs—or those who styled themselves such—in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries apparently were not a generally likable lot.

Christ, cream, cretin and grind are all related. An Indo-Еишреап rootrelated to grind, *ghrei-, became in Greek khristna, or the anointing oil pro-duced by grinding. Christ comes from khristas, past participle of Greekkftrein (to anoint), since he was the one anointed with oil produced by grind-ing. Chrisma (oil) also gives Old French cresnte, which when borrowed in MEbecame vretne, or the most desirable liquid that separates out from milk, orcream, any whitish semi-solid substance that is rubbed on something. CreUnis a Swiss patois word ultima (el >' from Latin Cltrisriunurn, which meanthuman creature, apparently a euphemism for those who suffered from thecondition found so frequently in the Alps.

Воре comes from Dutch doopen, to dip, hence any sauce that is dipped.

153

154 WORDS AND MEANINGS

Ft then came to mean any viscous fluid. Then in the Inter nineteenth century,it came to mean any opium preparation, then a specific one used on racehorses, hence dope-sheei (information about horses), hence dope first asspurious information, then any information (i.e., the straight dope and to dopesomething out). The opium meaning then generalized to any narcotic, to pills,powders, or fluids, and also shifted to the person who is doped, a dopedperson, hence a dope. Airplane dope is a relic from the viscous fluid meaning.

And in one of the more curious results of meaning change, it has beenseriously proposed that whip, viper, and wife are all related.

One could go on and on listing histories like these. But it would be onlythat—a list of anecdotes. It would give us no insight into the general pro-cesses of language, into any principles of semantic change, into how and whysemantic changes occur, into the regular patterns of change and what we candiscover through semantic change about our language, possibly abotit oursociety, and perhaps even about our mental processes.

THEORIES OF MEANING

As we have emphasized, however, we cannot explain how meaning haschanged without an adequate theory of how words have meaning. Unfor-tunately, of all the areas of linguistics, meaning is the least well understood.Not only are linguists unclear about how a theory of meaning should explainwhat a word means; they are not even certain that when they ask what a wordmeans, they know what they want to know. The meaning of "meaning*' hasbeen debated at least since Plato, and the semanticists exploring that questionin the last decade have raised more questions that they have answered. Butas in physics, biology, and all the other lively sciences, progress in linguisticscan be measured by how much we discover we do not know.

Older theories of meaning have proved to be irrelevant to problems oflinguistic meaning. Not too many decades ago, psychologists and philos-ophers talked about meaning as the images that words stimulated in theirminds. Unfortunately, no one was able to describe these images in a way thatlet the listeners perceive how they might be similar to their own images. Andunder any circumstances, it is difficult to imagine what images, if any, springbefore us when we hear a sentence like Relational concepts presuppose percep-tual processes.

When behavioral psychologists came to dominate psychology in thetwenties and thirties (as to a great extent they still do), it became unfashion-able to introspect about what went on inside one's head. They began quanti-

SEMANTIC CHAWE 155

tatively describing what a word meant in terms of what they could objectivelyobserve about the way people behaved after hearing it. Preoccupied withstimuLus-response-reinforcement schedules and the like, they naturally re-formulated the problem of meaning in their own theoretical terms. A referent(object) stimulates us to respond in certain ways. One is to utter a word thathas, through conditioning, become associated with that ncfcrcnL. As the wordbecomes attached to the referent through conditioning, we transfer ourresponses from the referent to the word. Thus when we hear or read theword, we respond to it as we wouid to the referent. BUL obviously, whenanyone utters the words red-ko: paker, none of us claps his ears in pain. Sobehaviorisis had to quality this simpleminded stimulus-response-transferencetheory to say that we respond with a partial readiness to respond, selecting outonly certain aspects of the red - ho t-pufcer-experience to associate with theword and respond to. (156,157,191,199,207)

Unfortunately, even if this does accurately describe what happens whenwe bear a word, it does not tell us very much about the meaning of Relationalconcepts presuppose perceptual processing. It is rot at all clear what ourresponse- to the referents (whatever they are), of those words would be; lessclear how we are supposed to be "ready" to respond to the words referringto those referents; and less clear yet how we are supposed to be ready torespond to the words in the context of a sentence. How is it that we know thatwhen someone says something as simple as The door is open he might intendus to create in our minds the meaning I-iocked-the-door-when-I-left-so-someone-has-opened-i t-an d-we-must-be-ca refu 17

7.1: Among the ways psychologists have tried to measure meaningobjectively arc Lhese: (1) Word association. A speaker gives all the words aparticular word makes him think of. (2) Sorting. A speaker puts Logetherwords that seem to go logether. Then he subdivides them again and again.Or he groups the groups into higher onicr categories:

136 WORDS AND MEANINGS

(3) Semantic differential. A speaker Is asked to rank a word along scales thatlink several pairs of polar adjectives: warm _. ,_ .cold, herdsoft, fast stow, and so on. Given this admittedly incomplete de-scription of the three theories, what is wrong with each of them ? (3S, J 57,203)

At about the same time that the stimulus-response psychologists wereworking out their behavioral theories, linguists were trying to identify the small-est observable units of linguistic meaning. And impressed with the appar-ent successes of their fellow social scientists, the linguists adopted the sameobjectivist, empiricist stance in their analysis ^Language. Asfced the meaningof a word, a linguist would be likely to answer with an empirical definitionbased on what he could see and categorize, a definition that in more recentyears sounded something like The meaning of a word is the sum of Us linguis-tic environments. That is, Lhe meaning of a word is the sum of all the sentencesthe word might appear in. (84,156,20Й, 233)

PROBLEM 7,2; What is wrong with this definition ?

And at about the same time, philosophers were also wrestling with theproblem of meaning, equally unsuccessfully. The definitions ranged frommeaning being what is necessary to make a proposition true, to what thewords refer to, to how a word is used, to the method of proving the truth of anassertion, to the ^picture " a sentence makes. (19 J)

But the principal weakness in all these definitions is that none of themallows us to deal with the specific meaning of a word in the context of aspecific sentence and how ibaL specific meaning might become a new meaning.Nor do they give us a useful way to represent a meaning in formal terms.Claiming that the meaning of book is the sum of its linguistic environmentsor the way it is used or the words elicited by it in free association yields adefinition that no one can do anything with. Indeed, it yields no definition atall.

We have already suggested in Chapter Two the outlines of a theory ofmeaning we shall use to describe how meaning changes. We shall define themeaning of a word as the sum of the elemental components of meaning thatwe abstract from all the experiences we necessarily associate with the use of aword. On the one hand, it is easy enough to say now that the meaning of boyis the sum of [+object, +• count, + animate, + human, +male, -adult]

because these are the common characteristics of virtually all t h e / \ 's wehave experienced. But the same criticisms we level against word-association-ists or semantic differentials or word-sorters might appear to be valid here:What is the meaning of [H human] or [—adult]? Must we define the com-ponents of meaning in order to have a legitimate theory of meaning?

SEMANTIC: СНАМЗЕ 157

On the olher hand, we have ihe example of the rest of the scientific andphilosophical world. There are, in every constructed system of knowledge,undefined primitives. Euclid's Elements has as its first definition Л point is[ha! which has impart. But what is the definition of par! or of no or of has?Jn number theory, not every1 eoncept can be defined. What is the meaning of"more than"? What is the meaning of " o n e " ? Tn short, we may have to beready to accept the idea that some of the elements, perhaps a relatively fewcomponents of meaning, are simply to be accepced as undefined primitives inthe system, exactly as some mathematicians accept the idea of number as anundefined pri mi live-

But even if we do this, we are faced with an equally difficult question:Given these undefined semantic components, how do they relate to one an-other and how should those relationships be represented? Several ways havebeen proposed. One resembles the model of syntactic relationships. Л fairlysimple word like girl, for example, can be represented as a series of modifyingstructures providing more and more specific details. That is, the meaning ofthe word girl is a noun that is concrete, animate, human, not male, and notadult,

A more complex word like confess has a more complex structure. That is,one meaning of confess is roughly rcprescntable as the diagram on page159.

Human у states to human2 that t acknowledges that I is responsible for anaction which 2 presumably did not know that 1 performed and which 1believes 1 should not have previously revealed. This omits a good deal ofsecondary information such as the internal structure of state, acknowledge,responsiblefor^adion, and soon.

PROBLEM 7.3: In a very general way, without relying on the very formal treestructure in the examples, sketch the semantic structure for these words:admit, acknowledge, deny, brag, criticize, accuse, b fame, praise.

For our purposes here, however, we cannot possibly represent everyword we diseuss in such detail, even though describing the precise natureof a semantic change on trees such as these would reveal a good deal abouthistorical processes. The components will instead be merely listed after eaehword in a purely suggestive way, as only very informal outlines of what kindsof components are relevant to certain historical changes. Eventually, perhaps,semanticists and psycholinguists will discover ultimate particles of meaning,the true primitives in the system. At the moment, however, we are in theposition of yesterday's physicist. We know there are molecules (like man) madeup of atoms [+object, + animate, 4-human, +male, + adult] organized intostructures. We also know that perhaps these atoms are made up of smallerbut rather obscure particles organized in ways that are not at all clear. (29,101,102, 143,237)

SENTENCE

SUBJECT VERB PHRASE

NOUN VERB NOUN PHRASE

NOUN

4, SUBJECT VERB PHRASE

V** ADJECTIVE••:

Д, be

VP VP VP

I f IADJ ADJ ADJ

be [ -i- concrete] [+ani]nate] I+human] [-malcj [-adult)

A rough paraphrase: A noun is some noun that is concrete, animate, human, not male, not adult.

VP

ADJi

I

SENTENCE

SUEJJLClI

NOUN

VERB PHRASE

RB PREPOSITIONALPHRASE

SENTENCE

[human,] [itatei] P'

Ito

NOUN PHRASE SUBJECT VLRB PHRA5F

NOUNI

[humanj

NOL'N VI I У

[human,] [acknowledge] SUBJ

[should have acknowledgtJ] NP

for [acliun,]

A rough paraphrase: Human, slaKs li> humanj lhal he acknoTvlcd£cs thai he is hjsponiibk fur an action, which h id id not Ino*1 h| was respansLhlc for and whichh| docs not believe h] should have atVnowledjed.

160 WOHDS AND MEANINGS

WORDS, MEANINGS, AND THOUGHTS

It is easy to assume that we can abstract from our experience componentslike concreteness, a inmate ness, and so on, because that is what reality outthere is like. Words refer to areas of experience that have a natural discrete-ness and independence in objective rcaliLy. But if for a moment we canimagine our total perceptual and cognitive experiences as a finely meshedscreen of perceptions and responses and potential ideas, then we will see (batthe words of our language cover only a relatively few areas on that screen,and that it is possible to divide that screen into many kinds of areas andsubareas.

There are ways of structuring areas of our experience for which we haveno words, no single words, but for which other cultures do. We have brotherand sister to subcategorize siblings, but Hungarian has four: bat ye, for olderbrother; tics, for younger brother; ne'ne, older sister; and hug. younger sister.Malay, on the other hand, has one word that covers not only siblings butcousins as well: saudar a. We have г о single word to cover both aunt and uncleas we have a- single word, parents, to cover father and mother, and childrento cover both son and daughter. Nor do we have words to distinguish male andfemale cousins as we do to distinguish male and female siblings: brother andsister.

Some languages have basic color terms for only black and white; othersfor only black, white, and red; others for only black, white, red, and eitheryellow or green. Some languages have as many as eleven basic, поп meta-phorical color terms. In some languages, a single color term covers an areaof the spectrum we would refer to with three words: red-orange-yelfow. (9)

PROBLEM 7.4: Here are the great majority of OE words, including compounds,that refer to color. How does this semantic field differ from the color field ofModE? Keep in mind that the English translations cannot be consideredentirely reliable.

hwit (white), msfehwtt (pure white), snawhwii (snow white), sdr (white,bright), beorht (bright), teoht (bright), searohwit (brilliant whiteness),torlit (clearness, brightness), leoma (radiance, gleam, glare), scima(brightness), bkobrygd (scintillation), gt&d(shining), gizm (gleam), hpdor(clearness, brightness), hlutor (bright), blicon (to glitter, shine), seinan(to shine), bierhtan (to brighten), lyman (to shine), stimian (to shine),scimermn (to shimmer), tytan (to shine), spirting (sparkling).

geolu (yellow), scilj'ar (yellow, golden, glittering), goldbleoh (golden hued),crog (saffron hued), geofuread (reddish gold), read (red, gold), rvdu (red),

SEMANTIC CHANGE 161

heoljread fbatfred), bocread (verm i Hi on), wealhbaso (foreign red, ver-millior), Ыхкхшн (Sight blue), grene (green), ksewengrene(atuk&a),

part! (purple), pur pure (purple), basit (purple, scarlet, crimson), brunbasu(brownish-purple), bleoread (purple-), reodbasu (reddish purple), wyrto-read (purple, scarlet), weofocbnsu (whelkred-purple), weoiocread (whelk-rcd-scarlet, purple), hxwen (purple, blue, azure, green'), ftxwm&nged(mixed purple), wmdeti (purple, bluish), tea/or (purple, red, vermillion),cynewaSen (of royal pwpltf^xcdeuh (fisbdye-purple).

/те/и (yellow, tawny, grey, djsky, dark), dunn (brown, dingy), haw(dusky, grey ashen), healfhwil (halfwhite), grgrg (grey), hur (hoary, grey),dearcegrpg (dark grey), brun {dart, dusky, metallic, lustre), dungr&g(dark, dusky), shiwness (pallor), wtinn (dark, dusky, livid), brmwarm(dusky), sscfealu (ashyhued), aescrxg (a shy grey), cissedun (ass-colored),

dndergrey).

bine (bright, pallid, wan), blat (livid, pale, wan), mires (murky, dark),Ыж (black, dark), deorc (dark), dimm (dark), hodma (darkness), hserfn-sweart (raven-blact), peas tor (dark), dimhiw (of dark color), xlmyrca(entirely black),

brigd (play of color), bregdtm (change of color), cyiu (spotted), /ah(dappled, stained).

PROBLEM 7.5: How has ModE expanded its vocabulary of color words? Whathave been the sources of such color words as orange, pink, chestnut, olive,violet, lavender, starlet, vermiilion, carmine, maroon, magenta, puce, azure,indigo, auburn, hazel, fawn, russet, chtmelate, tan, emerald, chartreuse, rose,cherry, plum, salmon, citrine, lemon, navy, ochre, apricot? What area of ihespectrum had the richest vocabulary in OE4? What hue area of the ModEspectrum has the richest vocabulary? The poorest4.' Where will we find newcolor ten™ ? Predict one for each of the following areas: red, orange, yellow,green, blue.

SEMANTIC STRUCTURE

But if we cannot always be sure Lhat ail languages divide experience into thesame categories, yet the way they assign words to experience is similar enough

162 WORDS AND MEANINGS

from language to language to suggest that some semantic universal maycharacterise all human languages, perhaps even human cognition itself. Alllanguages, for example, distinguish nouns that categorize abstract fromconcrete evperience; animate from inanimate referents; human from non-human; male from female. Individual items might be classified differentlyfrom language to language, but all languages systematically classify ex-perience along these and other lines.

All languages also have ways to classify objects and experiences intohigher and lower categories. Animal names the class to which fish, birds, andother creatures belong. Bird, in turn, names the set to which belong thesubsets pigeon, wgte, ostrich, chicken, and duck. And in turn, duck, names theset referred to as cemvusbeick, mallard, and so on. Beyond this, we have toform subsets periphrastically, by making up complex phrases: the mallards Inmy pond, that mallard flying pest, and so on. For these subsets, our languageprovides us with no individual word or term because they are not importantenough in our culture to require a name.

Thus, when words communicate meanings, they name not individualexperiences, but classes of experiences. The more we assign experiences to thecategories our language gives us, the more we refine and abstract the charac-teristics of those categories. The linguistic meaning of a word is the set ofabstracted characteristics (which we shall call semantic features) necessaryto distinguish the category which the word names from all other categories.Thus one minimal rneaning of girl must include [+young] and [—male] todistinguish the class that girl names from the classes that woman and boyname.

Words for more general categories require fewer semantic features thanwords referring to more specific categories. The meaning of tree is composedof the features we might call [ + concrete, +Iive, -animate, + vegetative,+ trunked]. The category named by pine would add at least one more feature,perhaps something like [-leafed]. Plant, on the other hand, would have onefewer feature, lacking [ + trunked]. (All these features, be aware, are purelyad hoc inventions. A thorough investigation of the semantics of plant namesin English is a book-length study itself.)

Certain features also imply other more general features. Anything[+animate], for example, must also be f + live] and [+concrete]. Anything[-bmale] must be [-Hive]. But some features cut across categories. Although[±malc] may imply f+live], it dc-es not necessarily imply [+human]because [ + male] also distinguishes [—human] words like bull-cow and boar-sow.

PRORIJEM7.6: Analyze the prefixes in Problem 6.7 into semantic features.Hyper- and sub-, for example, must differ by at least something we canapproximate as [±abovc], pre- and post- by [±beforcj. How do the OH

SEMANTIC CHANfiE 163

prefixes differ in their semantic makeup from borrowed prefixes? Can featuresdescribe colors?

So far, our description of meaning has emphasized logical categories.But we respond LO objects and experiences not only rationally and logicallybut emotionally as well. Compare the emotional responses to the words_/?//Aand Jove, Unfortunately, it is very difficult to do mueh more lhan categorizethese responses along a scale of favorable-unfavorable. Nonetheless,[ +favorable] may be a legitimate characteristic of a linguistic experiencebecause we distinguish words by it. Compare do-gooder and philanthropist,intellectual and egg-head, promiscuity and swinging.

Related to this aspect of meaning is another we have already touched on.We have many pairs of words which differ by social level:

My instructor postponed the short unannounced examine! ion.My teacher put off ihe pop-quiz.

We classify the same experience in different categories named by words thatreflect how we relate to our context and to our audience. In this sense,meaning inheres not just in the relationship between the word and thereferent isolated from its context, buL in the total relationship betwee-n word,referent, social context, speaker, and his audience. The meaning of rip-off isdifferent from the meaning of steal precisely in the different ways the speakerrelates to his audience and his subject at the moment he is speaking.

Yet another kind of meaning that can only be defined by the grammar ofthe language is grammatical meaning. What for example, is the meaning ofdo in He does not need it', of to in He wants to fence; of o/in Some of the peopleleft; of be in He was being helped; of have in He has gone. These are gram-matical words, function words, that indicate grammatical rather than semanticinformation. Some words hover between grammatical and semantic informa-tion: a in a boy left is grammatical in that it indicates a noun that can becounted (Contrast a boy and *a chaos) and thai has not been mentioned in theprevious discourse. But it also indieaLes singleness, a concept which is bothsemantic and grammatical.

A truly global theory of meaning, however, would move into even moreamorphously defined areas of meaning. In addition to using words, we alsocommunicate through OUT tone of voice, the speed we speak, our gestures, ourposture, even how close we stand to the person we are speaking to, AH thesefeatures overlay the words we speak to communicate messages about ouremotions and attitudes. But while paralinguistics (tone of voice and so on)and kineiki (posture, gestures, and so on) are probably as systematic as themore formally denned areas of grammar and phonology, they are much lesswell described and certainly beyond our ability to re-create for speakers wholived before the phonograph and the movie camera.

164 WORDS AND MEANINGS

THE RECOVERY OF MEANING

Complicated as all this may seem, it is part of the semantic competence of anative speaker of English. But recovering even a fraction of this informationfrom the past h difficult, to say the least. Since we have no native speakers ofOld от Middle English available, we have to rely on indirect ways to recovermeaning. And from the outset, we have to acknowledge that we will recoveronly a narrow range of the global meaning of any given message. We willhave nothing to say about intonation, relatively little to say about the wayparticular words might have meant different things in different contexts. Wehave already touched on the social prestige of French and Latin words.Given the probable atliLude of Anglo-Saxons toward kinship and war, wecan make some reasonable guesses about Lhe affective meaning of a word likebroSor (brother) or faederencnosi (father's kin), guff (battle), or sweord (sword).For the most part, though, we shall restrict ourselves to the most traditionalareas of meaning of individual words and how their meanings have changed.

Dictionaries

The first and most obvious way to recover meaning would be to refer toold dictionaries. Unfortunately, the first dictionaries of English (excludingglosses on Latin and French words and bilingual dictionaries) did not appearuntil the beginning of the seventeenth eentury.

7,7: Listed below are the first fifteen words from the letters: do- insix early dieLionaries. What kinds of concerns do these dictionaries appear tohave had? For Minsheu, Phillips, and Bailey, the number of words from thefifteenth word to the entry for dog is also listed in order Lo suggest the degreeof completeness each lexicographer strived far. Comment. Compare thesame span in a modern dictionary.

John Bullokar. English Expositor (1614). Docility, double, docrbjlity,dock, docket, doctoral, doctrinal, document, dodrantal, dogmatical, dollar,dolorous, dolphin, doom, doomsday-book,

John Minsheu. Ductur ш Lingiias (1617). Do, doal, doater, (hating,dobekicki, doheter, doblet, doced, docibh, docilitie, docks\ docke, docked,dockes {plus 15 more- to dogge).

Henry Coekeram. Hit English nictmnarie (1623). Dodec.haedron, doable,docility, document, dogdaies, dogmatical!, dogmatist, dole, dolefuit, dolori-ficall, dolorous, damabie, domeaticke, domesticall, domineers.

SRMAKT7C CHANGE 165

Thomas Blount. Glossographia (165ft). Docket, docibSe, docibility,docilize, doctiloqueiit, document, dodecatciyiorie, dodechadron, Dadona,dodrantal, dog-days', Doge, dagdraw, dogmatical, dogmatist.

Edward Phillips. New World of Words (1658), Dobeler, dobtm, doced,docility, dock, docket, doer oral, document, dodded, dodder, dodecoedrie,dodecagon, dodecatemorie, dadkin, Dodona (plus three more to dogdoies).

Nathan Bailey, An Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1721).Dobuni, docible, docile, docility, dodlize, dock, dock, dry dock, wet dock,to dock, to dock, dock, docked, docket, docket (plus 27 more to dog).

PROBLEM 7,8: Befow are entries for explode from several early diction aries.What information can we recover from each entry? What appears to be theintentions of each dictionary? What information is provided ? What informa-tion is not provided ?

1. Bu lloker. F.x plode: to drive out wi th clap pi ng the hands,2. M in she w. (no e n try f or explode)3. Cockera m. E xplodc: to d ri ve out with el apping of ha nds.4. Blount, Explode [explodo] publikcly to disgrace, or drive out by hissing

or clapping of hands.5. Phillips, (no entry for explode, but under explosion) explosion, [Lat.] an

exploding, a sleigh ting, or hissing off from the Stage-s' Bailey. To EXPLODE [F.xplodere, L.] to decry or cry down; to mistake

absolutely.7. Samuel Johnson A Dictionary of The English Language (1755). To

EXPLODE, v.a. [explodo. LiiLin.] ^1) To drive out disgracefully withsome noise of contempt; to treat with open contempt; to treat not onlywith neglect, but open disdain or scorn. "Him old and young / Exploded,and has seiz'd with violent hands, / Had not a cloud descending snatchdhim thence / Unseen amid' the throng," Miiton. "Thus was th'applausethey meant / Tum'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame, / Cast on them-selves from their own mouths." Milton. "Old age explodes all butmorality." Roscom. "There is pretended, that a magnetical globe orterrclla, being placed upon its poles, would have a constant rotationbut this is commonly exploded, as being against ail experience." Wilkins."Shall that man pass for a proficient in Chrisi's school, who would havebeen exploded in the school of Zeno?" South. 14 Provided that no word,which a society shall give a sanction to, be antiquated and exploded, theymay receive whatever new ones they shall find occasion for." Swift.(2) To drive out with noise and violence." But late the kindled powder did

explode /The massy ball, and the brass tube unload." Blackmore.is в

8. William Kenrick. New Dictionary (1773). To EXPLO'DE -LX-PLODE-INote: Kenrick used the numbers to indicate pronunciation] v.a.

166 WORDS AND MEANINGS

[ex plod o, Latin,] To drive out disgracefully with some noise of contempt;to treat with open contempt to treat not only with neglect, but opendisdain or scorn,—To drive out with noise and violence,

9. John Ash. The Mew and Complete Dictionary of the English Language(1775). Explo'de [v.t. from the Lat ex out of, and plodo to clap the hands]To drive out with disgrace, to reject with contempt, to reject with noiseand violence.

10. Noah Webster. Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806).EX-PLODE', v.t. (1) To decry or reject with noise; to express dis-approbation of, with noise or marks of contempt. (2) To reject with anymarks of disapprobation or disdain; to treat with contempt, and drivefrom notice; to drive into disrepute; or, in general, to condemn; to reject;to cry down. (3) To drive out with violence and noise.

Look up explode in the unabridged Oxford Fnglish Dictionary, in Webster'sThird New International, and in any modern desk dictionary. Compare theseModE meanings with those of the early dictionaries.

PROBLEM 7.9: Samuel Johnson note* after each of these words that it is "low"or "ludicrous" or "cant." Comment. coax, budge, sensible (meaning reason-able), gambler, tfever,fifft, belabor, cheery, doings, dumfoutid, ignoramus, job,shabby, slim, Hark, visage, tiny, volunteer, width, hanker, fuss, scrape, squabble,Jiff, touchy, bang. What do modern dictionaries have 1<J say about these.words?

All dictionaries, however, particularly earlier ones, have severe limitations.By and large, they record the meanings assigned to a word by jpper-middteclass speakers. Dr. Johnson's dictionary and a few others are exceptions.Only recently have those two master obscenities of English, fuck and cunt,been included in any of the modern standard reference dictionaries. (Wemight note, however, that fuck and cum did appear in Baile-y.) Many diction-aries now regularly include dialectal, slang, and some indecent words. Butone has only to think of any piece- of current slang—spaced out, for example—to realize that in $ome ways, dictionaries are always out of date. And ifmodern dictionaries cannot include all the meanings of a word used by upperand lower classes, older dictionaries limited to "hard" words, as they werecalled, will help even less. It was not until Bailey attempted to create anetymological dictionary in 1721 that a lexicographer felt any reason to includeall the words of Lhe language.

So we cannot rely on older dictionaries for more than a fraction of whatwe want to know, both because the earliest dictionaries go back no furtherthan the beginning of the- seventeenth century and because they dn notinclude all Lhe information about the vocabulary1 that we would like. A

SEMANTIC CHANGE 16?

handful of brief glossaries and collections of thieves1 card were assembled fromthe end of the sixteenth century on, but ever they are far from adequate.Consequently, we must turn to more indirect means for reconstructingmeaning.

Reconstruction

A more important source of information about the distant history of aword is in the common core of meaning retained by cognate words fromdiflferent languages. All these words, for example, art cognate: From Latin:Magna, as in \fttgna Carta, magnate, magnitude, magnifier, magnificence;from French, maistre, which gives English masier7 mister, and by analogy,mistress; from Germanic, much. Given these forms and others and theirmeanings, we can triangulate back to a hypothetical IE root, *mag~, whichvery likely meant someLhing close to big у г large.

As a single example of how components of meaning can endure throughtime, here is a collection of cognate words from a variety of Indo-Europeanlanguages, all of which descend from the IE root, *kel-, a root that is at least500U years old.

Sanskrit: c'5ta,a house or shed -Greek: kafia, hut; kulon, eyelid; Calypso.Latin: calyx (f. Gk.) seed-vessel; calix, a cup; clam, secretly;

* secret; ciliurn, eyelid; stipercilium, eyebrow;Шотк, disdainful; eelare, to conceal; cells, EI store-

room; cellar шт, a larder; cellarius, a butler; occulere, tohide; occuitaUo, a concealment; cucullus, a cowl; color, color,

Romance; Old French; chalice, a cup; cale, a kind of cap.Italian: cellario, cellar; cuculia, cowj,French: amceler, conceal,Provence: cella, cell.

Germanic: Gothic: huljan* cover; helms, helmet.Old Norse: huistr, holster,Scottish ; hawk, dig out.Anglo-Saxon: Jtelan, cover; liealle, hall; helm, helmet; hoi,

hollow; lid, hell; hulu, hull; hold (as in hold of a ship).Celtic: Old Irish: i-ealt, cell.

Welsh: cdu, ш hide.

Among the words we have borrowed with the same root include calyx,Calypso, apocalypse, clandestine, cilia, supercilious., cellule, occult, chalice,cell, conceal, cellar, cowl, helmet, halberd, color, caul, and the Kit- (church) inKilpatrick, Kitkeimy, Kilchrist, and so on.

168 WOKDS AND MEANINGS

PROBLEM 7.10: *kel- was originally a verbal root. What meaning would youassign lo it, based on the cognate words?

A roughly analogous technique for recovering meaning within a con-temporary Language is LO examine the variant meanings of a single currenLword. The noun play, for example, now primarily means active diversion orrecreation, or a theatrical performance or its script. But there are othermeanings: the play of light on the waLer, the play (looseness) in a wheel, foulplay, sword play. Merely from this information, we cannot be certain that themost general meaning (movement or action) came from the more specific(recreational activity) or vice versa. But from fixed phrases like sword pfay,gun play, and the specific sense of play of light on the water, we might suspectthat the more general meaning, quick movement, is the older one. When wefind relatively fixed phrases like play of light or ploy in a wheel, they are oftenthe older meanings left behind, frozen in specific contexts, while the morecommon meaning is a more recent development.

PROBLEM 7.11: Here are pairs of phrases, one i I lustra Ling an older meaning,the oLher a more recent. Assuming that older meanings are often restrictedto a narrow range of set phrases or special senses and that newer meaningscan occur more freely, decide which phrase contains the older meaning andwhat that meaning was,

1. We assumed he was innocent. The Virgin Mary was assumed into heaven,2. Police try to catch croaks. The shepherd's crook was in the barn.3. . . . deliver us from evil, Defiiw this pack age.4. Get right with God for Doomsday is coining. You are {loomed, so give up,5. The outlines were veryfaint. Fainj heart ne~er won fair maid,6. There is a gliosJ in the house. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.7. It's an ///-wind that blows no good. T became ill from the food.8. W e m u st A ;^ the Sa bba t h. You can A:ee/t my m oney.9. I'm mad&t you. He belongs in the madhouse.10. You must leave on pain of death.) have a pain in my leg.11. You an a pest, Pesth ouses a re a wf u L places.12. My friend is a chief petty officer. Don't bother me about petty things.13. The flagship struck its pennant in surrender. The union struck the

company.14. Well trip the light fantastic. We took a trip to Mexico.

Citations

The most reliable way to discover the earlier meanings of a word,though, is to collect and study example after example of a word in its linguistic

SEMANTIC CHANGE 169

context. For example, consider the meaning of dear (the ancestor of ModEin these senLcnces:

c. 950: "Se carnal t>;et micladear" (The camel that large *й?яг)с. 1000: " Unicorn is, anhyrne deor'* (Unicorn, one-horned deor)с 1200: " Shep is. . . stille der" (Sheep h . .. quiet der)с 1200: " Lambiss soffte & stille decr" (Lamb is soft and quiet *uw)

And consider these compounds: deorfaid (fatd-toW), deomeu (nelt-net),(hege-ftsaaf)f deorcynn (cyan-kind) , deorgear (ge at-gate), deormod

, soul) and phrases like mere deor (mere-sea) and sx deor (&s-sea).It would be odd if all these references were limited to the Cerndae. And whenwe find citations such as these

Ratons and myse and sochs male dene . . . vas hys meleRats and mice and such small deer . . . was his meat

it is certain that deor originally meant something close to animal or beast,and that our modem meaning of deer results from a narrowing of deor'soriginal semantic range-

When we combine Lhese ways of working back into the semantic historyof deer with the way Latin words meaning animai were translated into OEand with the meaning of cognate words from other languages (Old Frisiandinar, Old High German tior. Modern German tier, and Gothic dins ali meananimal or beast), we can be fairly certain that the deor of OE and ME nameda more general category than our modern deer. (142)

PROBLEM 7Л2: What can you tell about the meaning of these words in boldface from their occurrence in the following citations. How have the meaningschanged V

1. Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is Lhe first fruits of Achaia, andthat they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints (1Corinthians, 16.15),

2. And well beseems all the knights of noble name / That covet in th'im-mortal bonk of fame ,' To be eternized (Edmund Spenser, The FaerieQueen*).

3. Better be with the dead / Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent topence / Than on the torture of the mind to lie / In restless ecstacy(Macbeth J Hi i).

4. But with an angry wafture of your hand / Gave sign for me to leave you:So I did; / . . . Hoping it was but an effect of humour, / Which sometimebath his hour with every man (Julius Caesar, H.i).

176 WORDS AND

5. He shall reward evil unLo mine enemies (Psalms 54.5).fi, . . . Irish ladies of Strict virtue and many northern lasses of the same

predicament (Henry Fielding, Tom Junes).1. They love to retaliate kindnesses, and hate any should think they are of a

churlish nature (Thomas Tryon, The Way to I Itallh j .*. . . . with the most beautiful stench [of Paradise]. . .the holy stench. . . ,

, . , delightful stench . . . (translated from "The Dream of the Rood,"an OE poem).

TYPES OF SKMAiNTIC CHANGE

Schemes for describing binds of semantic change are as numerous as thosewho have investigated the problem. The categories number from three up intothe dozens. Part of the problem depends on how we initially approach thequestion. Should the principal categories arise out of the reasons for meaningchange, out of Lhe mechanism of the change, or from the semantic conse-quences of the change? "["he theory of meaning we have adopted here—ofmeaning being represented as a structured configuration of semantic com-ponents—leads us to describe change of meaning in those terms. Our cate-gories will depend on how those structured configurations change when a newmeaning is associated with a linguistic form- On these grounds, we can set upfour basic categories of semantic change.

The first is narrowing: A word originally naming a larger categorychanges to name only a subcategory of the original category: deer (animal) >deer (family Cervidae).

The second is widening, the reverse of narrowing: go (walk) > go (anyintended or directed movement or operation).

The third is traditionally called metaphor: The Form of a word naming acategory with a particular characteristic is transferred to name a seeminglyvery different category, but one which shares that specific characteristic;grasp (enclose in Lhc hand) > grasp (understand).

The fourth kind of semantic change we shall call shift: A form naming acategory related by contiguity to a complex of items shifts to a discrete identi-fiable element in the complex: bureau (coarse woolen cloth over a desk) >bureau (the desk itself) > bureau (the organization that uses such desks).

Narrowing

Г Г we list the major semantic features that roughly define each of thefollowing words and invent some others to account in a. shorthand way for

SEMANTIC CHANGE 171

those aspects of meaning which are rather complex, we can represent whathappens when a word like ekvr narrows from meaning any animal to meaningjust the family CerWdae. (We shall assume that all the more general featuresfollowing the entry are implied in the semantic descriptions.)

Avar (deer) liquor mete (meat) stol (stool)

[+concrete] [+concrete] [ 4- concrete] [-concrete] [ + concrete][4- animate] [-animate] [-animate] [4- state] [-animate]i-hum.au] [-solid] [+solid] [4-animate] [4-solid]

[4-fluid] [4-consumable] [-favorable] [+ fabricated][4-for sitting

on , . r ]

That is. deor was any non-human animate entity; liquor was any liquid;mete was any solid consumable; disease was any unfavorable state; stol wasany fabricated object for one person to sit on.

For a variety of social and cultural reasons which we shall not touch on,speakers of English added to each of these bundles of components at leastone more feature or complex of features as they jscd the word to refer to aspecific member, to a specific kind of the original larger set, thereby narrowingthe range of reference:

deer

[][•••]

liquor

[ • - - ]

[-.-I

meat

[ • • • ]

disease stool

[4-mammal] [ 4-consumable] [+flesh] [+systemic] [-arms, back[+Cervidae] (later) [—accident] + visible legs]

[4- alcoholic][4-spiritous]

(Be reminded again that these are inexact and unstructured features.)

PROBLEM 7.13: Here arc some words with older meanings in parentheses. Ina very general w a y s suggest the kinds of features you would add to give thewords their modern sense: fowl (any bird), shroud (an article of clothing),thank (from the general word for think), i-кл (a flaw), corn (any grain), hound(any dog), artillery (any large implement of war) -

In these examples, the narrowing has virtually eliminated the original,more general meaning. But other words radiate meanings: A new meaningdoes not completely replace the older one. Instead, several lines of meaningcan develop from a single form. The problem again is whether a new sensemeans a new word, homonymous with the word that spawned the newmeaning. Execute\ for example, is a form (or a word, depending on whether

172 Wf.lHns At-ID MEANINGS

we decide each different meaning requires us to speak of a separate word)that retains the original general meaning of performing any determinedaction, even though another nieaning also developed, a more narrow onereferring to the performance of one particular kind of action: to execute adeath sentence, and hence by shift, to execute a man.

PROBLEM 7.14: A question about a word like execute is whether we are dealingwith one word with different meanings or with homonynious words, eachwith a different meaning. Given the two methods of dictionary-making wehave explored so far—the traditional theory illustrated in all the standarddictionaries where several etymologically related definitions are listed after asingle entry, and a theory that lists the semantic components represented by aword, how would we decide whether we are dealing with one word with manymeanings, or with many words, each with one meaning, all of the same form?What difference does it make ?

PROBLEM 7.15: Here is a longer list of words whieh have narrowed. Can yougeneralize at all abouL the kinds of words that might predictably narrow?About the way in which they might narrow? (In some cases, an earlier andtater meaning is provided, separated by > . The ModE meaning is notprovided for those words, only an earlier meaning.)

1. admonish (advise)2. affection (the act of being affected > any affection of the mind)3. arrest (stop)4. argue (make clear)5. accost (come alongside in a boat > to approach anyone)6. addict (someone who devotes himself to anything)7. accident (an event)8. carp (talk)9. cunning (knowledge, skill)10. condemn (pass sentence)11. censure (judge)12. denizen (a citizen of a country or city)13. damn (pass sentence)14. deserts (whatever one deserves, good or bad)15. doom (judge)16. effigy (any likeness)17. ecstasy (beside oneself with any strong emotion: fear, joy, pain)18. erotic (relating to love)19. esteem (put a value on, good or bad)20. fame (report, rumor)

SEMANTIC СНА1ЧОЕ 173

21. Jjfrb(d\rt)22. fortune (chance)23. ^ftW (the enemy)24. grumble (murmer, make low sounds)ZS. g/pojJ (spirit)26. immoral (nox customary)27. lust (desi re i n general)

28. /ее/- (look obi iq uely out of the side of theeye)2*. manure (v., hold land > to cultivate land)

30. то/es/ (trouble or annoy)31. oi^y (secret observances)

32. oAw (anything perceptible to the sense of smell)33. pill (any medicinal ball)34. /Jre<#came4f fan У situation)35. proposition (a statement set forth for discussion)36. peculiar (belonging to or characteristic of an individual)37. praise (from (appraise : set a value on, good or bad)38. reek (smoke from burning matter > produce any vapor)39. retaliate (repay for anything)40. scheme (horoscope > diagram > plan)41. success (any outcome)42. stink (any odor)43. starve (die)44. seduce (persuade someone to desert his duty)45. smug (trim, neat)46. syndicate(agroupofcivilauthorities > anygruupofbusinessmenpursu-

ing a common cornmercial activity)47. smirk (smile)48. suggestive (that which suggests something)49. sanctimonious (holy, sacred)

Does any of these words retain its earlier meaning?

PROBLEM 7.16; I llustrate how any ten ModE words might narrow.

Some Causes of Narrowing

Wliy words narrow, though, cannot be discovered from purely linguisticdata. But we might gain a possible insight into one reason some do From theway pill has recently narrowed from its original general category of smalfmedicinal ball to the more specific meaning of birth control pill. Two forces,one social, Lhc и the г psychological, have brought about the change. First,since birth control has become important in our society and therefore fre-quently discussed, a category of objects like pills that control birth (actually,

174 WORDS AND MEANINGS

they should be called conception control pills, but that, perhaps, is a bit tooexplicit) requires a name, not a phrase. Second, since the principle of leasteffort always operates to create the shortest convenient term for a usefulmeaning, the full compound phrase, birth control ptft, became shortened toThe Pill. Using a theory of semantic features, we can say that the semanticcomponents originally attached to the individual words shifted to the lastword, the word that originally named the superordinate set. Schematically,the change can be represented like this:

birth control pill > The Pill[ + A . . . ] [ + B . . J [ + C . . . J [+C, + B, +A]

It is as if the underlying syntactic structure of the phrase becomes the seman-tic structure of the word:

pill controls [someone gives-birth-to baby]

That is, the pill controls someone's ability to give birth to a child, a sensecompressed into birth controlpitl, and even further into ThePiit. The meaningseems to have a syntactic structure.

PROBLEM 7.17: In Chapter Six under Conversion, we discussed how adjectivescan convert to nouns by the same principle of economy. How would youformally describe how the meaning of such words change? What difficultiesarise? Demonstrate with these terms; criminal person, private soldier, chemicalsubstance, vegetable plant, general officer, mortal person.

In other cases, the narrowing of one word may have been influenced bythe fact that two words were available for roughly the same meaning A.When one of the words already has two meanings, A and B, it is often thecase that it will lose one of them, say A, if the other word available for A ismore prestigious. Deer and beast, for example, both meant animal in ME,but by this time, another meaning of deer was the animal we now associatewith that word. Since beast, a French borrowing, was undoubtedly moresocially prestigious, it probably helped force deer to lose the general meaningof animal. The same thing may have happened with spirit-ghost, odor-stench, table-board, chair-stool, desire-lust. The first word in each pair is aRomance word, probably more prestigious at a time when the native wordhad two meanings (or more). The Romance word monopolized one of themeanings while the native word narrowed to one of its more restrictedmeanings. In some instances, the French word may have helped speed thedisappearance of the native word altogether :j'ace-hleor, voice-stefnT peace-frW,people-leod. (188)

•SEMANTIC CHANGE 175

In other cases, however, a native or borrowed word was available toreplace the original semantic space of the narrowed word. Thus instead of aword being pushed toward a narrowed meaning, the empty semantic spaceleft by в word that had already begun to narrow created a kind of semanticvacuum that pulled another word into its space: dog replaced the narrowedhound; bird replaced the narrowed few!; smile replaced the narrowed smirk;the Danish die replaced the narrowed starve.

Widening

The opposite of narrowing, logically enough, is widening. And it isobvious how a theory of semantic features would represent the simplestexamples of this process. The least linguistically based kind of wideningoccurs when a culture adding radically new objeets or processes to theexperiences of its speakers uses an old name for a new object. Picture, forexample, once meant only a painted picture, then also a drawing, then aphotograph, a cinematic picture, an X-ray picture, a TV picture, and noweven a radio-telescope picture. Where the referent was once a fixed stableobject, picture now names a class of things that can break up and reassemblethemselves, dissolve, and in the case of laser holography, even be threedimensional,

Saii once meant to cross water propelled by windpowcr. Now we can"sail" under the ocean in nuclear powered submarines. Pen once meant afeather used as a writing instrument. It now covers bail point pens, fiber tippens, fountain pens, drawing pens, electrical styluses for drawing on cathoderay tubes. A barn was once a place to store barley (from bere-егп, or "barley-place"). The word now covers almost any large agricultural building.Holidays were once "holy-days": Christmas, Easter, and so on. Now holidaysinclude Labor Day, Veterans Day, and for school children, even the dayswhen the teachers go out on strike.

All of these meanings have ehanged because our culture has ehanged.For the most part, such changes are close to the "artifactual" meaningsattached to borrowed and created words that name items of commerce,naLural flora and fauna and so on. The meanings have widened because awider set of referents has gradually appeared to expand the semantic spacethe word must cover.

PROBLEM 7,IS; We can probably assume fairly safely that when wordswiden they lose semantic features. Bird, for example, once meant only youngor small fowl. The widening to mean any feathered creature, the modernsense, can be represented like this:

176 WORDS AND MRAN1MG5

bird l [+concrete, 4-live, 4-animate, —human, + avisr —adult].bird ;[ •+ concrete, -Mive, + animate, — hunian, +avis]L

Without trying to specify afl the features for the following words try to bemoderately specific about the components lhat have been lost. Can yougenerafize at all about widening? About some kinds of words that widen?

1. box (a small eon lai ncr made of boxwood)2. allude (mock)3. for;^ (bring a bow i nt о tensio n wi th a bow string)4. aunt (father's sister)5. rtrunifi(tho smell of spices)6. butcher (one w ho sia Lighters goats)7. №rf (you ng of the family avi$)8. carry (tra nspo rt by cart)9. chicken (n young hen or rooster)10. divest (remove one's clothes)11. dki (excrement)12. dephre (weep for)13. detest (condem n, cu rse)14. elope (run away from one's husband)15. frantic (madness)16. frenzy(wilddelirium)17. fact (a thing done)

19. gang (Ei set of tools laid out for use > a group of workmen/slaves)20. hun-eat (reap ripened grain)21. holiday (a holy day)12. jowtnsy (a day > a day's trip or day's work)23. flif7£Jc(theknowledgeandskilloftheMagi)

24. njejjfamealsetoutforagroupoCfour)25. mystery (divine re vea led к no wledge)26. rt!fW(memory > thought, purpose, intention)27. wflMjerftheinodeofhandlingsometbingbyhand)2N, picture (a painted likeness)29. /?/afj/(ayoungsliporcutting)30. oil (olive oil)31 • ordeal (trial by torture)32. start (move suddenly)33. scent (a n i ma I odor for t rack i ng)34. surly (sir-[y, that behavior which characterizes a "Sir")35. sitly (deserving of pity > frail > simple, ignorant > feebleminded)36. sail (cross water propelled by the wind)

SEMANTIC /77

37. stop (fiH or plug up ;rnovemeut of a person)

38. sanctuary (a holy place)39. slogan (the battle cry of Scottish clans)40. uncle (moLhcr's brother)

prevent passage by stopping up > prevent the

It is harder to find a pattern for widening than it is for narrowing. It isnot entirely certain, but meanings seem to widen somewhat less frequentlythan (hey narrow. As a culture becomes more diversified and more complexwithTrtore areas of knowledge and activity, those areas require a vocabulary.Because every language has a finite number of words and because speakers arcnot inclined to coin completely new forms for new concepts, the simplest wayto deal with new areas of knowledge is to use the current vocabulary. Borrow-ing, derivation, compounding, and so on operate here. But perhaps evenmore frequent is narrowing.

But on the other hand, it can also be difficult to talk about the mostordinary activities of daily life as they diversify. Once it becomes possible todrive {drive originally meaning to force an animal along), or ride {rideoriginally meaning to go on horseback), or walk (originally meaning totravel about in public), then talking about getting some place without specifyinghow becomes difficult. The word go, originally meaning to walk, generalizedso that ал Fnglish speaker can now say I am going to town this morning with-out having to specify how he sets there. Carry generalized from transportingspecifically in a conveyance of some sort to transporting by bearing up ingeneral: The wind carried the seed, and so on.

Like narrowing, widening also leaves behind! relic forms. For the wordsanctuary, we have bird sanctuaries, fish sanctuaries, poliLical sanctuary, thenotion of safety in general But a good many Christian denominations still callthe main meeting room in which the congregation gathers for general worshipthe sanctuary. One meaning of start is still what we do when we hear a loudsound. Mind still means memory in remind. Scent still means animal trace inon the seen!.

PROBLEM 7.19: What are the relic forms for these words: fact, gang, mess,mystery, stop!

PROBLRM 7,20: Take any ten words from the list that widened in Problem 7.18and ten from the list that narrowed in Problem 7.14. Narrow those that havewidened and widen those that have narrowed so that they mean somethingdifferent from what they originally meant. For sample, erotic narrowedfrom a general reference to !ove to mean sexual love. Conceivably, it couldwiden past love to mean any strongly sensual experience: erotic food, erotic

and so oa.

17$ WORDS Artp MEANINGS

Transfer

A third process of semantic change usually goes by the term metaphor.To keep our Urrms consistent, though, we shall use the term transfer to parallelthe other two spatial metaphors of narrowing and widening. Transfer is a kindof sideways leap of a word through semantic space. It occurs when twocategories of actions or objects resemble each other in at least one featureand one of them has a name while the other does not but needs one. Thename of one is then transferred to the other unnamed category of ск-pcrience.

This kind of transfer often results in a large gup between the meaningof the original word and the new meaning. There is. for example, no im-mediately obvious connection between what happens when the muscles ofthe hand contract the fingers around an object and what happens in the mindwhen if understands a concept. But not later than 1680, someone who saw aconnection transferred grasp from the category referring to clutching toname the category that includes the conceptual experience. The similarityis probably in the outcome of the actions (encouraged, perhaps, by theparallel history of Latin comprehend).

In many cases, of course, the connection is instantly apparent. Thevertical members that support the flat surface of a table Took somewhat likelegs, partially function like legs, so having no peculiar name of their own, theyare called legs. But in most cases, the connection is not immediately apparent.What, for example, were the original shared features behind the literal andmetaphorical meanings of strung out or groovy ? And in some cases, the originalsense has been entirely lost. The idea fizzled out contains a dead metaphorwhose source we can recover only from dictionaries that supply completeetymologies.

PROBLEM 7,21: Here is a passage of straightforward expository prose. Whatare the obvious metaphors? What are the borderline cases? When does aword cease being a metaphor ?

Once the Nazis were beaten, many of us were glad to forget those issues [theopen and covert approval of anti-Semitic activities in Germany from 19.411945], or leave them <o theologians, moral philosophers (sometimes maskedas novelists or playwrights), and, not least, social scientists. Of (he latter,some were traditional scholars; economists, political scientists, tliey had thetask of sifting through the rubble of this century's destroyed dreams andrealized nightmares—in the hope of finding answers to all sorts оГ persistingquestions. How deliberate was Hitler's rise, how much the product of right-wing intrigue, left-wing myopia and ideological rigidity, popular indifference,

SEMANTIC CHANGE 179

rising unemployment, a long tradition of fear and hate that goes back, say,to Martin Luther's later years.

From kobert Coles "Understanding WFiitcRacists," The New York Review of Books,

December 30, 1971. p. 12,

Bat if metaphor is so common, it is hard to describe, for the process isimmensely complex. No one has yet offered a theory of metaphor thatsatisfactorily explains how it happens, much less how it is possible to under-stand one. Most linguists deal with, it as a bastardized form of language,concentrating instead on what they believe to be the central problem, itsordinary, literal use. But any phenomenon that occurs as frequently asmetaphor, that is so important a source of linguistic change cannot betreated as anything except central to our ability to use language. Con-sequently, metaphor must test any theory of meaning designed to accountfor how humans use and respond to words.

We might initially approach metaphorical transfer something like this:

GRASP (GRASP:>

I-ultimate

ttomratt flexible appendages,aroun

4 action

— physical -

1..Г1 . I

We have a Category of Experiences 1 from which we abstract a charac-teristic set of defining Features; and associate with the utterance formGRASP,. The Feature*! become the meaning of GRASPi- Then around1680 perhaps, there was for someone a distinct though unnamed Category ofExperiences^ which were characterized by a set of Features^ But this Categoryof Experience^ and its Features, had' no Wordj to represent them. Under-stand, apprehend, comprehend, realise elicited, meanings that were all close,but did not quite include certain Feature^ that were crucial to Category ofExperiences*. But enough of those Features^, specifically those features weshall represent as [jS], were atso among Features! abstracted from Categoryof Experiences!. So some speaker who consciously or unconsciously recog-nized the shared features \fii-2] shifted GRA£P[ from Category of F\-periencesi to name the unnamed Category of Experiences; and represent theFeatures2.

But now the problem arises of how to represent the features in common,_i. Most of the Features, were, of course, left behind. G R A S P L is physical

ISO WORDS AND MEANINtrS

and not necessarily [-1-human!. ORASP2 is mental, limited to humans,entirely an intellectual experience. Indeed, the shared features, [fi]i-2, are soabstract and so amorphous that it is difficult even to state them prosaically.They must include something like a successful completion of an intention, theat least temporary "connection" between subject and object. But when wetry to become more specific than this, we fall into yet other metaphors;encirclement in the mind, seizing an idea, fir in control, and so on. Or wechase synonyms down a path that takes us away from tiie unique meaning ofGRASP2. Metaphor, in fact, often seems to highlight aspects of meaning thatno dictionary tan hope to capture.

Here is another example: to tsiipick. The original meaning was to picklire-eggs from the body or clothes, an operation which, we might assume,requires a close, searching examination for tiny objects that have to bepainstakingly plucked out with the fingernails, (Nitty-gritty may come fromthe sit me source. Nitty means filled with [ice eggs; gritty is probably a rhymingreduplication of grits, or coarsely ground grain. Thus grits filled with nitswould be the infested remnants of the grain, the last and least palatable part:

Now when we try to specify exactly what Features] we should include inthe literal sense of NITP1CK, thai also belong to the group of Features2,features that characterize the "cavil" sense of NITPICK3, we discover thatour original ideas about meaning may be inadequate. Let us assume thatthese two lists of features very roughly and very inadequately define the twowords:

[+action, +• physical, + animate, + human, + search toremove nits.]

N1TPICK2: [+action, —physical, + animate, + human, + cognitive,+ cavil over small details].

This, however, does not specify how they arc essentially alike. We lackthe notions of the extreme tininess of the objects searched for, of their un-importance or of performing this action over an unnecessarily long period oftime, of the unfavorable associations with both activities, of the judgmentwe make about the person who engages in such tasks.

Or consider this final example. The words muscle and mussel are bothinetaphorit; transfers from a word meaning " little mouse." These wordspresumably transferred because a muscle contracting under the skin and thecrustacean in the shell reminded someone of the referent of the Latin wordfor mouse. But precisely what common features would we have ю create toreveal the similarity between the fibrous tissue moving under the skin and therodent or the shellfish ?

To solve this problem, we must distinguish two kinds of meaning. The

5ЕМЛ1ЧТГС CHANGE 181

Features so far chosen to attach to words have been selected (1) to predicthow the word they associate with behave* in a sentence and (2) to distinguishone word from another. Thus resemble would have to be marked somethinglike [-voluntary] or J+stativeJ because the action referred to is a state be-yond voluntary control. We do not say *He was busy resembling his father,as opposed to He was busy imitating Ms father. On the other hand, mimic andape can occur where imitate occurs: He WOS busy imitatingjapinglmimicking hisfather. But they are not precisely synonymous. Thus we would have toformulate some other features that would distinguish imitate from ape frommimic.

But once we have postulated features to accomplish both of these goals,we have not necessarily exhausted a word's global meaning. One meaning ofa word like salt, for example, could be defined as crystallized sodium chloride,a definition that could be reduced to features to distinguish it from othersubstances- But in addition to this basic level of meaning, we know a gooddeal about salt that is not necessary to distinguish it From other referents orto know how to use the word salt in a sentence. We know that it is mined,that the sea is full of it, that it is necessary to life, that it burns if it gets intoa cut.. . .

If we decide that all this is also part of the cognitive network associatfidwith salt and that we want the word meaning to name that cognitive network,then we will have to distinguish at least two categories meaning. But whilesemantic features appropriately structured might conceivably describe themininrul meaning and distribution of the word salt, that is, its linguisticmeaning, such features cannot easily account for the second kind of meaning,the encyclopedic meaning of salt.

TH Structure of Metaphor

The answer is not to exclude encyclopedic meaning as a kind of meaning,because we have to recognize that metaphoric transfer depends usually, ifnot always, on our ability to incorporate the encyclopedic meaning of aword into its transferred linguistic meaning. At one time part of someone'sencycloiwdic knowledge about the category named nitpicking was that literalnitpicking was boring and unpleasant; about the category named grasp thatwhen we grasped something we often firmly controlled the object. But noneof this would have been relevant to the origina! core linguistic definition ofliteral nitpick or grasp. In fact, the crucial aspect of gn>sf}^flliclLi transferredto graspvansun» the feature indicating some kind of "firm control over," isonly occasionally associated with g r a s p ^ . ^ : Consider He grasped thetiger by the toil.

By resting our theory of meaning, metaphoric transfer forces us to modifyit. Apparenily, part of our linguistic ability lets us incorporate our virtuallyunformaliiahle encyclopedic knowledge into our more or less formalizablc

IH2 WORDS AND MEANINGS

linguistic knowledge. Schematically, the process seems to operate somethinglike this;

NITP1CK, •* (NITP1CK2)

Global Meaning

Encyclopedic meaning

Linguistic meaning

Global Meaning

The—as yet—unnamed experience on the right, which we can roughlyparaphrase as "cavilling over details," includes in its central core of linguisticmeaning the features that would represent the allegedly unnecessary and un-pleasant painstaking starch for small details. Part of this meaning, searchingfor something (features D and E, let us say) is also part of the linguisticmeaning of literal NITPICK^ Another part, the sense of unpleasant andpainstaking, is part of the encyclopedic meaning of NITP1CK1 (features Вand С let us say).

Whoever wanted to express the exact quality of distaste for the un-necessary cavilling over details in a single, expressive word decided thatNITPICK, had enough linguistic and encyclopedic features to qualify it asthe name for the category of experiences. So he transferred it.

A question which always arises in discussions of metaphor and linguisticchange is how metaphor of the bind we have discussed here differs from poeticmetaphor. Some have argued that poetic metaphor is more intense, moreemotive, more extreme. Thus a metaphor like the following is "poetic":There might you heare her kindle her soft yoke / In the close murmur of a sparklingnoyse. (Richard Crashaw, "Musick's Due!.") Rut synesthetic metaphors ofthis kind have characterized the development of English since the earliest

SEMANTIC CHANGE 183

of 01:. Bright sounds is a phrase whose metaphoric origins are stii!alive, but it could be used in either poetry or ordinary language.

Perhaps a more basic distinction lies in the perceived intcntiun of thespeaker who creates the metaphor and the context in which it occurs. If inorder to express a new concept one creates a metaphor like His deep voicewas atsa rather Barrow, the metaphor operates within the limited con Lex t ofthat senLencc. The speaker ordinarily does not intend that his audience willrespond to every possible nuance of meaning in terms of (be total contest. Ifit somehow taps an area of semantic space the listener and enough oihiirsfeel must be named, narrow might well permanently transfer from spatialreference to aural reference-

But a poet who wrote The narrow voices that escape the red-lipped jlipteix mouths thai. . . often intends thai, the metaphor be part of a largercognitive and emotive whole, that his audience understand that behind itis a rather different intention, that his audience be sensitive Lo implications,that they develop them in ways no audience can in ordinary discourse. Thusthe same apparent metaphor, a narrow voice, must be responded to in verydifferent ways, depending on whether the audience understands it to be in thecontext of a poem or in ordinary language.

A difference that has come to characterize much modern poetry is thedegree to which some poets rely almost exclusively on private encyclopedicknowledge as the source of the similarity between two cognitive spaces:

• I am soft siftIn an hourglass—at the wall

Fast, but mined with a motion, a drift,And it crowds and it combs to the fall;

I steady as a water in a well, Io a poise, to a pane.But roped with, always, all the way down from the tall

Keils or flanks of the voel, a veinOf the gospel proller. a pressure, a principle, Christ** gift.

From Gerard Man ley Hopkins, The Wreckof the Dcutschland

Whatever the shared semantic features of the metaphors are in these lines,they are not immediately obvious.

PRORLEM 7.22: Here is a list of words, most of them with multiple meanings,all of which have at least one metaphoric sense. High, for example, in a highsound is a metaphor transferred from the literal spatial sense of high. If themetaphoric meaning is not immediately apparent, a phrase illustrating theoriginal nonmetaphoric sense follows in parentheses, in other cases, an earlierliteral meaning is preceded by/. As you inspect the list, consider the followingproblems: (1) Pick at random four or five different kinds of words and try to

184 WORDS AND MEANJNOS

state in non-metaphorical language precisely what features the original senseand the metaphorical sense share. (2) Are there any generalizations abouthow certain classes of words are susceptible to metaphorical transfer? (3) Arcthere any metaphors that characterize certain kinds of activities, socialcontexts, personal relationships? Which of these metaphors are likely to bethe most durable? Which the most transient? Why? Which have lost allsense of their metaphoric-af origins? Why?

1.2.3.4.5,6.7.

S.9.10.11.12.

13.14.15.

1*.17.18.19.

20.21.

22,

23.24.

25.16.27.2S,

29.30.31.

32.

abstract (f, draw away from)advert (f. turn to)affirm (f. make firm)analysis (f. separate into parts)animal (You animal!)bright (a bright idea)bitter (sharp to the taste: He is abitter person)brow (the brow of a hill)bewitch (a bewitching aroma)&tf?[YouoLd bat!)breed (I have no bread to spend)blast (We had a blast at the

party)blow up (He blew up in anger)cold (She was cold to me)cool (Coal \t, man)conceive (f. to catch)conclude (f, to enclose)concrete (f. to grow together)conned (f. to tie together)cut (She cut me dead)crane (the derrick that resemblesthe bird)compose (f. to put together)comprehend (f. seize)cat (She's a cat)dig (I dig that idea)deep (deep thoughts)dark (I'm in the dark on that)define (f. place limits on)depend (f. hang from)dog-(You dog!)dirty (a dirty mind)dough (money)

33.34,35,36,37.38.39.40.

41.

42.

43.44.

45.46.47.

48,49.

50.51.

52.53.54.

55,

56.57.58.59.«0.

61.62.63,

64.65.

e's a drip)drag (This class is a drag)eye (the eye of a hurricane)exist (f. stand out)explain (f. make fiaL)enthrall (f, to make a slave of)foot (foot of a mountain)fuzzy ( Г т fuzzy headed)finger (a finger of land)fascinate (f, enchant by witch-craft)flat (a flat note)get( \ don't get it)grasp (I grasped the concept)guts (He has a lot of guts)groove (I'm in the groove)gas(]t wasagasser)grab (How does the idea grabyou?)high (He got high on dope)hang (He's always hung up)heavy (I had a heavy time)hot (a hot idea)heart, (the heart of the problem)head (head of the line)hands (hands of the clock)home (drive the point home)Jazz (f. sexual activity)jice(.[ don't dig this jive)intelligent (f. bring together)keen (f. intelligent)load (a load off my mind)long (a longtime)tond(a loud color)tip (tip of the glass)

SEMANTIC CHANGE 185

66. lamb (She's a lamb)67. тон'Л (m.o и t h of a ca ve)68. mouse (You're a mouse)69. milk (He milted the job dry)70. pagan (f. civilian, in distinction

to Christians, who called them-selves soldiers of Christ)

71. pig (You pig)72. quiet (a quiet color)73. i'ip-njjfX 11 was a big rip-off)74. rough fa rough voice)75- f*'fo {the ribs of a ship)76. report (f. to carry back)77. result (f. to spring back)78. shallow (shallow ideas)19. soft (a soft wind)80. sharp (a sharp dresser)

81. smooth (a smooth operator)82. salve (Г. to break up)83. spirit (f. breath)84. .mo to? (You s n a ke!)85. straight (He's a straight guy)86. square(H e's a square)87. split (Let's split)88. /jfra on (He Lurns me ou)Я9, fry> (Ft was a bad (drug) trip)90. thick (a voi ce th ick. wit h anger)91. tit in (a thi n sound)91. tongue (a tongue of land)93. translate if. carry across)94. warm (a warm color)95. wrestle (I wrestled with the prob-

lem)96. wild (л wild idea)

These exercises should also demonstrate that metaphors can functionwith varying degrees of liveliness. Л completely dead metaphor is a word thatis no longer a metaphor, one like result, from the Latin sallre, to leap. Resuftearlier meant to bounce hack. From the same root are salmon (the leapcr),somersault, assailant (someone who leaps on one), assault, resilient, exuft(from L. e.vsultare, to leap, ex- is an inLensifier), insult, and insolent. Thespecific notion of leaping is dead in many of these, but becomes immediatelyapparent once we know that .Wire lies behind them. Other metaphors becomeapparent if we think about them for a moment: sweet music, dopey people,grasp, perhaps even understand. These are the metaphors that are well onI heir way toward becoming dead metaphors. And finally, there are thosetransfers that instantly present themselves as metaphors, indeed, whoseJtietaphorie power depends on our recognizing them as such: rip off fox steal,cracked for crazy (which itself once meant cracked or broken, as in crazedpottery), nosey, and so on. Most of these, of course, are slang words, a kindof vocabulary we shall deal with later.

FRORLEM 7.23: Take any five nouns, verbs, or adjectives and describe howthey might metaphorically Lransfcr to a new meaning.

Shift

Л fourth way we associate existing forms with new meanings occurswhen some discrete clement within a larger structure of related or connected

1Я6 WORDS ANO MEANINGS

objects, events or operations part of either the linguistic or encyclopedicmeaning:

1. takes its name from the name of the larger structure;2. gives its name to the larger structure;3. shifts to or lakes its name from another element within the larger

structure.

We shall call this process semantic shift.Changes of this kind give us some of our most unusual histories of

semantic charge. We have already mentioned the etymology of pedigree. Theindividual element, the three marks that looked like the foot of a crane, gaveits name to the abstraction connected with the larger whole: the quality ofdescent. Hearse is another word of this kind. It first meant a triangularharrow or plow. Then it metaphorically transferred to a triangular frame thatheld church candles. Then it began to shift: to the framework that heldcandles over a colh'n while it was hcing carried into the church, to the frame-work that held tapestry curtain* or the pall over the tomb or coffin, thenloosely to the coffin or tomb itself, then to ihe conveyance that transportedthe coffin (and later, metaphorically, to the conveyance that transportedpianos in nineleenlh-ceniury London). This is a case where discrete elementswithin a larger whole required special names and the most readily availableone was attached to another element within the whole.

Toilet is a yet more complicated example. It began with Latin tele, aweaving or web. ll gave Old French teite then loite, a cloth, which narrowedto the doth in which clothes were wrapped. The meaning then shifted to thecloth used to protect clothes while a woman was setting her hair. The diminu-tive of toilet totfeite, then was attached to the little cloth cover for the dressingtabfe, then to the items on the table, then to the piece of furniture containingthem, then to the room in which the object stands and in which one dresseshimself, then to the action of grooming and dressing, making toilet bothconcrete (furniture) and abstract (dressing). Thus we should not be takenaback when we read that it was once fashionable for eighteenth-centurywomen to entertain their callers during their toilet.

Then apparently a social change occurred. Classes of speakers otherthan upper class used the word for the room in which they performed theirdressing and grooming. But at this social level, the room had to serve morefunctions than just a place to dress. With the spread of indoor plumbing, theroom came to include the bathtub, the washsland. and the convenienceearlier known as the close-stool (cited as early as )4lu), jokes (1530), the John(c, 1650), tht с inset of ease (! 662), waterdojet (1775—now often shortened inGreat Britain to ИЛС), lavatory (1845), commode (1851), and in less politecontexts, as the ran, head, etc. Since this most frequently used object requireda polite name, it is not surprising th:it earlier it attracted to itself ihe name for

SEMANTIC CHANGE 187

the piece of furniture in which it was kept and then once ii achieved tietechnological level of being built in as part of the room, ihe name for the momitself. Television seems to have seized on bathroom bowl as the latest term.

Thus toilet was almost certainly at first a euphemism for ihc plumbingfixture we now call that name. When toilet became too closely associated withthe object (as the other names did before it), it left no name for the roomcontaining it that many speakers could use without embarrassment So theroom was re-named after ihe least frequently used object—the bath. Most of usnow prefer to say we have a toilet in the bathroom (even 1Г it contains nobath) than a bath in the toilet, which would be "historically" correct butnow soc ia Hy i m possi bic.

Another example: The word bead, which now means the little round ballstrung on a string, derives from OE gebed or bed, meaning prayer. When abedesman says his pater noster or rosary, he keeps track of the prayer bycounting the small balls. Sentences such as How many beads have you SOirf,Have you finished your beads, and so on could all be construed as referringeither to the little round halls or to the prayers. Since the speakers apparentlysensed a need to name the particular little round balls used in their prayers,they shifted the word for prayer, spelled bede, at the lime, to the little roundballs. (The word then generalized to include all little round balls, then to alllittle round shiny objects: beads of weal, heads tf glass. Then it partiallynarrowed to the namt of the round ball at the end of a gunsighi; thence, totake a bead on someone. And that has widened again so that we can say ArnoldPaMer took a bead on the PGA title today.)

PROBLEM 7.24: How is the kind of shift described for bead different from widen-

ing? How is the shift of toilet different from narrowing? Narrow, widen, and

transfer toitei.

PROBLEM 7.25: Pick several words that name elements within a larger wholeand speculate how they might shift to name unnamed elements in that whole,

PROBLEM 7.26: Reconstruct the context and process by which the words шbold face derived their meaning in these phrases: a drinking glass, а six-Хгол,a nickle candy bar, rubbers and galoshes, bed liatn, о pencil lead, an expensiveiw Jockey silks, sheer nylons, a cmkfor a boirie, Woolite for your woolens, readthe paper.

PROBLEM 7.27: The following words are ambiguous. Explain the ambiguityand the process by which the ambiguity arose. How regular a process of wordcreation is this? What generalization can you make4.' report, illustration,building, discovery, finding, statement, description, explanation, account,announcement, invention, creation, production, representation, supplies,assembly.

l№ WORDS AND MEANINGS

PROBLEM 7.2S: Using the model we presented in the discussion of metaphorictransfer for the represemation of linguistic and encyclopedic rn ear ing, explainhow the formal mechanism by which shift takes place differs from melaphorictransfer. That is, the linguistic meaning of beds was once that required by themeaning we now associaLe wiLh prayer. The encyclopedic meaning includedeverything we know about prayers—where they were said, who said them,and what was used in association with them ; little round balls.

The usual terms for these shifts come from classical rhetoric: Metonymy,when the name for Lin attribute or adjunct shifts to name what it is adjunctto: king = crown; and synecdoche, when a part names a whole or a whole apart: worker = hand. Bat this distinction is irrelevant when we recognizethat a single cognitive operation is occurring here. We perceive complexesof parts of groups or events as wholes, not as unstructured collections of dis-crete parts. Gcstalt psychology concentrates on this aspect of mental activity.We perceive and conceive of aspects of experience in a Gestalt, a figurecomprised of parts in a specific relationship. When the GesLalt is significantin the culture, when it recurs in essentially the same form, we inevitably giveit a name: war, graduating marriage, trials and so on. Sometimes we create theGestalt for others by creating a name: Establishment is a word that pullstogether a diverse range of elements into a single cognitive structure that maynot have ''existed" in the minds of many speakers before the meaning wasexplained.

Sometimes, of course, the Gcstalt exists but does not yet have a name.Not too long before I885t for example, the Gestalt of Lwo persons, usuallyof the opposite sex and unmarried, meeting at a particular lime for a sharedentenaininenL, had no distinctive name, partly because the event as we nowknow it did not exist until relatively recently. Rendezvous, appointment, tryst,engagement, assignation, were not quite right. Since a time and date had to beset for the meeting, the element date in a phrase like We have a date Knittedfrom the time of the event to the event itself.

Drift

There is a Kind of semantic change that at first glance may appear toconstitute a fifth class: When a word naming one area of meaning drifts intoan adjacent and coordinate area of meaning. For example, naughty onecmeant wicked and depraved. Today, it means only mild mischief. Mischiefitself once meant wicked behavior. Today, it can apply to a merely naughtychild. At one time, shrewd meant depraved or wicked. (It comes from thenoun shrew or a wicked and malignant man, the meaning it had before itmeant a nagging woman. But before it meant wicked man, it referred to the

SEMANTIC CHANGE 189

small animal, which was believed to be a viciously evil creature.) Today,shrewd is somewhat complimentary.

If we lay any of these pairs of meanings on a scale, we can sec how it ispossible for a word to move from one point to the next by a scries of small stepsthrough overlapping semantic areas:

Ievil 2 4 keen-witted

We might postulate sets of components in overlapping steps that would resultin the scmanLie changing from one sense to the next:

1 2 3 4 5[evil] i — - и [evil} * к [evil] [cunning] [keen-witted]

/[unconscious] [conscious] [cunning] [practical] ^ *• [practical]

Each stage shares at least one putative feature with the ne\t, allowing theword to " slide " through semantic space.

But this kind of gradual change can probably be explained better bysuccessive widenings and narrowings. For example, the last citations of theevji sense of mischief dale from the nineteenth century. The earliest citation*of the merely vexatious meaning date from at least 17&4. We can say, then,that at least by I784t the sense of mischief widened to include vexatious actionsas well as evil actions, to a class of actions including both. Only the use ofmtsehiefmth, say, children ot the denii would specify the exact nature of theaction. Then in the nineteenth century, at least for many speakers, mischiefnarrowed to designate only the class of vexatious actions.

The same thing probably happened with shrewd (though the number ofmeanings multiplied greatly, as well). 11 meant malignantly wicked from thefourteenth through the seventeenth century (with a few citations into thenineteenth). The clever,'keen-witted meaning is cited first in the sixteenthcentury. We mighL wonder whether during that period of overlappingreference, shrewd did not have two meanings, but rather a single wider onethat could refer to both a slightly weakened sense of evil and keen-wittedness.Then in the seventeenth eenlury, shrewd apparently narrowed to exclude thewicked sense, leaving only the modern sense.

PROBLEM 7.29; Here are some words, followed by their earlier meanings.Suggest how drift might explain their current meanings.

1- mischief: evil plight > harm,2, moody: brave > proud > angry.3. pretty: craft/cunning > proper appearance.

190 wemns AND MEANINGS

4. grin: draw lips back in pai n or a nger,5. quick: living.6. gaudy: luxurious.7. Uftcouih: unknown.& sly: skillful.9. cunning; learned.10. coy: quiet,11. crafty: strong.12. surly; imperious.

PROBLEM 7.30: Show how five modern words might drift in the future.

Some Causes of DriftThe conditions for this kind of drift are found in the way we think and

speak. Very few of our named semantic areas comprise sharply definedcategories. Most blur at the edges. That is, while conceptually a triangle is atriangle is a triangle, real objects like streams tend to shade off into rivers atone extreme and into rivulets at another.

This kind of indeterminacy should disturb no one who is sophisticatedabout language, for there will always be cases where we cannot be certainwhether any particular object qualifies for membership in a particular set,The naturally blurred edges of categories and the infinite varieLy of experienceswe have every day allow such words to drift through semantic space.

Why words should drift in the specific direction they do, however, is notalways easy to predict or, even after the fact, to explain. There are, however,some generalizations. Words susceptible to value judgments generally drifttoward less specifically unfavorable meanings, probably because a speakertends to exaggerate and use a word that is too strong for the situation herefers to. Through constant overstated association with a situation less ex-treme than the word originally referred to, the once-strong word drifts to aless strong meaning. The drift of mischief from evil to almost lovableannoyance almost certainly began when actions that were almost but notquite malignantly evil were ealfed mischief. Once mischief became attachedto that lessened sense of badness, it was used once again in an exaggeratedway for something [ess serious yet, perhaps for oniy mindless vandalism.Once attached to that meaning, it again was used to refer perhaps to onlypotentially serious fun. And once attached to that, it was used again in anexaggerated way to refer, perhaps, to a baby pulling pots and pans out of acupboard. Almost the same change has occurred with naughty.

PROBLEM 7.31; There is in English a class of words called intensified thatillustrates this tendency to drift perhaps better than any other group of words.Intensifies all modify adjectives; in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuriesthey were frequently used without their -ly endings: horrid embarrassed, for

SEMANTIC CHANQ£ 191

example. Examine the following lisL of inlensifters and consider these ques-tions. (1) Why have [here been so many V (2} Which arc stiil active? (3) Whatsort of semantic meaning did they have originally? (4) What has become ofthe semantic content of these words today? How do the example phrasesprove Lhat in many casei; the words arc entirely lacking in any of their originalsemantic content? Following the example phrase is its earlier meaning.

TABLE 7Л INTENSIFIERS

Intensifkr

1, abominably2. amazingly3. astonishingly4, awfully5. confounded6. damned7. dreadfully8. enormously9. excessively10. extraordinarily11. extravagantly12. extremely13. fabulously14,, fantastically15. fulllfi. frightfully17, grandly18, greatly19. hideously20. horribly21. horridly22, hugely23, immensely24. immoderately25. incredibly26, intensely27. magnificently28, marvelously29. TnighL(il)y30, monstrously31. outrageously32. perfectly33. pretty

Example Phrase

abominably tiredamazingly dullastonishingly minorawfully unimpressiveconfounded happydamned pleaseddreadfully smallenormously goodexcessively happyextraordinarily normalextravagantly unambitiousextremely limitedfabulously cheapfantastically realfull weary-frightfully boringgrandly expensivegreatly exhaustedhideously expensivehorribly expensivehorridly embarrassedhugely amusedimmensely unimportantimmoderaLely hungryincredibly realintensely tiredmagnificently pleasedmarvelously stupidmighty weakmonstrously excitedoutrageously ordinaryperfectly stupidpretty ugly

Earlier Meaning

(excite disgust)(cause to lose wits)(stun with a blow)(cause dread or awe)(bring Lo perdition)(doomed)(excite dread or awe)(abnormally evil)(go beyond just limits)(beyond the ordinary)(wander beyond bounds)(uttermost)(fabled)(exist in imagination)(complete)(full of horror)(great)(great)(excite terror)(excite horror)(excite horror)(immense)(large beyond measure)(beyond limits)(not to be believed)(stretched)(greatness of achievement)(miraculous)(power)(deviating from natural)(exceeding limits)(complete in all senses)(firm, nice, proper)

192 WORDS AND MEANINGS

TABLE 7,1 continued

34. powerful powerful tired (force, influence)35. really really imaginative (objectiveexistence)36. right right foolish (what is good)37. simply simply confusing (without complication)38. sore(ly) sore(ly) afraid (cause pain)39. stupendously stupendously alert (struck senseless)40. tremendously tremendously calm (excite trembling)41. terribly terribly pleased (excite terror)42. terrifically terrifically happy (excite terror)43. vastly vastly insignificant (of great dimensions)44. very very false (true, real)45. violently violently opposed (producing injury)46. wonderfully wonderfully boring (causing astonishment)47. wondrously wondrously tedious (causing astonishment)

(And of course, there is the chief obscenity of English whose meaning has sofaded that it could modify chaste.)

Minor Types of Semanlif

There are some minor types of semantic change that are more curiositiesthan anything else. They have contributed a relative handful of new meaningsto the language. Here are three of them.

Folk Etymoiogy

Often, a sneaker who misunderstands or fails to recognize a strange orforeign word will change it to one he dues recognize, introducing elements ofmeaning front the known word into the meaning of the original word'. ThussambHnd (half-blind) became sandblmd. Shamefast, meaning fast in shame,became shamefaced: engn&g! (grig = tight, painful + n&gl = iron nail)became hangnail; berfrey (tower) became belfry; umbhpie (a pot pie made outof the umbles, i.e., the entrails of deer) becomes /tumble pie.

PROBLEM 7.32: Here are some. Original words that have changed to a new formwith a modified meaning resulting from the English associations of that newform. What are the new forms and how do they influence the meaning of thewords? cucaracha, crevice (a kind of crustacean that looks like a tiny lobster),fcmelk (little woman), couteias (little knife), коаЫа ikooi = cabbage + sla= salad), brydguma (bryd = bride + guma — man), oichek (Algonquian fora little forest animal), surloln (sur French for above), pentfs (from Old Frenchapentis, a small building dependent on another building, a lean-to), mus-quash (Aigonquian for a small water animal), chaise tongue (long chair),

CHANGE 193

techy (from Old French techs, spot or blemish, meanings which changed topeevish or vicious), wealhfmutu (wfalh = foreign + hnuiu - nut), Bursts (pastparticiple of surseoir, to pause or leave off). (Tl has been claimed that womanis compounded from a phrase that meant woe + man, a folk etymologywhich reveals more about the etymologize г than the language. It derivesfrom wif+ mann.)

Semantic ReplacementIn our linguistic history, there have been cases in which the reverse of

metaphor occurred. Instead of borrowing a foreign word for a. new semanticspace, late ОЕ speakers transferred certain Danish meanings to Lnglish wordswhich phonologically resembled the Danish words and shared some semanticspace with them. The native English word dream, meaning to make a joyfulnoise, for example, was probably close enough to the Scandinavian worddraumr, or sleep vision, to take on the Danish meaning, driving out theEnglish meaning. The same may have happened with the words bread(originally meaning fragment); and dwell (OE meaning: to hinder or leadastray).

MistakesAnother very minor source of new meanings attaching to old words is in

the way meaning shifts from one to the other of a pair of words that arefrequently confused. Thus What are you inferring? now frequently meansWhat are you implying? Uninterested takes on the meaning of disinterested.Affect becomes effect. Others include continuous jron/inual, comparelcontrast,

Some observers of the language expend great amounts of energy decrying suchmistakes. It is not clear that their concern is commensurate with the- semanticconfusion that may or may not result from the loss of a formal distinction.

Chapter 8

SEMANTIC CHANGE IN ITS SOCIALCONTEXT

When we discussed the nature of borrowed words at the end of Chapter Five,we mentioned two kinds of forces at work in determining whether such wordsare retained in the language. The first kind of words are artifactual words,words to cover the categories that include objects and activities borrowedvirtually intact from other cultures. Thus coconut, allegro, shah, and atallreflect little about our society beyond the fact that we are interested enoughin Lhc referents of those words to need names fur them. The same can be saidof certain kinds of word derivations: derrick, shrapnel,macadam, morel, radur.The second kind of words we called psycho-cultural, usually abstract wordsthat reveal areas of meaning that penetrate to the psychological texture of oursociety: taboo, luck,ghetto*morale, chai№inismtbo«fdlenze,gestapo, and so on.Such words become an index to what is latent in our cultural psyches.

We can distinguish some of these sane processes in semantic charge.Some meanings change because of artiFaclual reasons, because new objectscome into being. Ship, sail, pile (as in atomic), broadcast, program, satellite,jet— all cover a wider category of technical referents, or artifactual referents,than they did a hundred years ago. We can discover a good deal about ourtechnical progress i f we examine the way such words have changed, but notvery much, perhaps, about those unnamed semantic spaces that exist in ourcollective lives,

№

196 WORDS AND WLANJNGS

VALUb JUDGMENTS

Other kind? of changes do illuminate social and cultural aspects of our lives.The wholesale transfer of words in Western European languages that referto physical actions to name cognitive processes {comprehend, explain, con-clude, grasp, get, understand, and so on) suggests a good deal about theimportance of self-conscious cognition in our culture. When words narrow tospecify a particular kind of dog: bound] or animal: deer: or food: /neat;or dope: grass; and so on, it suggests something about what many speakersare preoccupied with. The transfer of sense words {sharp, sour, low, bright, forexample) to personality suggests something about our need for a rich vocab-ulary lo discuss how we feel about one another The extensive vocabulary,largely metaphorical in origin, that describes sensations of taste, hearing,touch, and so on indicates how important that kind of experience is to us, Arelatively significant increase in the metaphorical words for sounds in the lasttwo centuries reflects a heightened interest in music.

PROBLEM S i : Here are some words that cover semantic space in the field offemale reference. Following each word is one or more earlier meanings.Comment.

L shrew: a malicious, eviJ, cunning man2* termagant; a male Saracen idol3. harlot : a you n g, base fel low4. hoyden: a boorish male peasant5. scald: from Old Norse, a poet or lampooner6. baggage: a wo rt h less fe I lo w7. frump: a derisive snort > a jeer > 111 humor > a cross, dowdy man or

woman8. brothel: a worthless debased fellow > a prostitute > hence brothel

house > brothel9. bordello*, originally horde!, a villein of the lowest rank, hence horde!

twuse, hence current meaning10. bawd: a male or female procurerIL <:hit; а у oung boy о г g i ri12. witch; originally either male or female13. gossip : god s i b, or god-rehni ve > a familiar acquaintance14. jade: л worn-oui horse15. tart: short fо г sweetheart16. virago; "The Woman" (Biblical) > manlike heroic woman > bold,

impudent woman17. quean (obsolete): woman > whore18. iw лей: а у oung £i r L о г worn an

SEMANTIC CHANOE IN ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 197

19. hussy: shortened Form20. courtesan: a woman attached to a royal court. (This was the original

Italian meaning. The MudF. meaning has been the dominant one inEnglish,)

21. mistre$3'. feminine nf master22. madam: ma (my) + dam (dame)23. dame: from Latin domino, & woman of rank heading a household24. #J>/ : a ch i 1 d of ei 1 her sex25. boy: a fettered person > a servant (with vague contemptuous meaning)

> lower class male26. cuckold: allegedly from the cuckoo bird, в bird which lays its eggs, in

another's nest. (BLJL the word refers to the husband of the unfaithful wife,not the ma!e who is the cuckotder. Note that we have no current word inthe language for the betrayed female, though at one time we did havecuckquean to refer to the gulled wife,)

Here are some other insulting terms for women: brand, chippy, drab,floozy, slur tern, slut, strumpet, trollop, trull, trou doxy, hag, harridan, crone,biddy, harpy, vamp, /tag, whore, bitch, piece, lay, tail, truff, hen, aid maid,wallfinwer, unladylike, unfemimne. (I) What aspects of feminine reference dothese words focus on4.' (2) What are the masculine counterparts for thesewords? Are there as many insulting names for men as for women? (!) Whatkinds of semantic changes are at work here? (4) In what ways can lady bei as u I Ling (as opposed to woman) ?

PROBI.FM 8.2' These words have been used lo express social judgments,usually of men. Earlier meanings follow each one. Comment.

1. boor: peasant2. knore: a boy, servant3. churl: lowest rank of freeman4. ™r/f/; u n a ttend a nt or servant5. clown: a rural person6. rascal: rabble7. pariah: from the Tamil language in India, an outcast of the untouchable

class8. idiot: ignorant9. blackguard: scullery assistant10. lewd: of the iaity, not a member of a religious order > ignorant11. common: a harcd by al I12. vulgar: ordinary language > persons belonging to the ordinary class13. villain: a low born person14. «Wv:Sire-ly15. mean: held by two or more (the sense intended here is of a mean hovel)16. coar.ie: common

198 WORDS AND MEANINGS

17. henchman: hengest (horse) + man {agroom)What kinds of semantic changes probably created these meanings?

PROBLEM 8.3: What animal terms have been used to express value judgments'.'Ask someone who speaks another language to compare the derogatory andlaudatory animal terms in his language and in English. Do other cultureschoose animal terms for athletic teams 7

When the meaning of a word narrows toward an unfavorable meaning,it is called pejorative change. When the meaning narrows toward a morefavorable meaning, it is called elevation or amelioration. We have alreadyseen this happeit with words like merit, praise, fortune, fame, and so on, wordsthat originally implied only neutral judgment, Lhcn gradually narrowed in thedirection of [+favorable]. Л process similar to this has occurred with wordsthat refer to various occupations and social roles that have elevated throughhistory: knight originally named only a boy or youth; constable, the headgroom; queen* a woman; minister, a servant; marshal4, a stable servant;lady, a kneader of bread (?); steward, possibly overseer of the sty, i.e.,sty + ward; ambassador, a messenger: engineer, a plotter or schemer; baron,a feudal thane. Any of these could have changed in an unfavorable direction.(189,226)

EUPHEMISM

There is another kind of linguistic amelioration specifically directed towardfinding socially acceptable words for concepts that many people cannot easilyspeak of. It is called euphemism, from the Greek for " t o speak favorably."It recalls an earlier attitude toward language —that somehow between 4heword and the thing there exists a bond so strong that (he word is virtuallyequivalent to the thing. So instead of calling cancer cancer, we call ha growth,almost in. fear that calling it cancer will make it so. A liquid which a womansprays on her genitals in the belief that they will then not smell bad becomes afeminine hygiene spray. An invasion in Southeast Asia becomes an incursion;retreat is called mobile maneuvering, A person does not lie in his box wherepeople can come and look at him before the undertaker puts him in a hole ina graveyard. The departed rests in his casket in a slumber room where friendsmay visit with him before the grief therapist assists the dear one to his plot ina memorial garden.

Euphemism is such a pervasive human phenomenon, so deeply woven intovirtually every known culture, that one is tempted to claim that every humanhas been pre-programmed to find ways to talk around tabooed subjects. Oneof the oldest known euphemisms is the word we use lor bear. It once meant

SEMAM1IC CHANGE IN ITS SOCIAL CONTENT 199

"the brown one," and goes far back into Indo-European prehistory whenanimals were probably totems and their names forbidden. The biologicalfoundation is probably in the remaining connections between man's [imbicsystem and his speech system. (Review pages ]&-2GJ)

PROBLEM 8.4: Here are some words selected by speakers of English as substi-tutes for more offensive or imiudicicnlly prestigious words. What areas of ourculture are involved ? Try to discover the semantic and grammatical processesby which euphemisms are created. Ff the meaning is unclear, a definitionfollows.

1. little girl's room2. puss on (die)3. social disease4. expectorate5. glow (perspire)6, growth (cancer)7. memorial pork (cemetery)8. human waste (feces, urine)9- exceptional child (m oron)10. sleep with11. grief therapist (undertaker)12. centr al at у (si u m s)13. go fa the bathroom14. In dy of the evening (prostitute)15. sanitary engineer (garbage man)16. senior citizen17. have ivgo (need to excrete)IS* sexual relations19. rojrf (urinate)20. culturally deprived21. building engineer (j a ni tor)22. comfort station23. expire (die)24. capital punishment25. inter26. sen! (buttocks)21. washroom28. funeral home29. upchuck (vomiL)30. terminalcase31. blossatn (pimple)32. hfckey (pimple)33, с as unit у (к i 1 led i n actio n)34. garment (girdle)

35. dental plates (false teeth)36. bridge (false teeth)37. bra38, panties39, monthly difficulties (menstrua-

tion)40. male organ (penis)4), Hafisen's disease (leprosy)41. hairpiece (wig)43. dentures44. heart condition (heart d i sease)45. tipi-y (drunk)46. disabled (crip pled)47. special student (retarded student)48. job action (strike)49. love child (bastard)50. plump51, know (have sexual rel a ti tin s wi th)52. pre-owned(second hand)53. sanitary napkin54, slumber robe (shroud)55. fix (castrate)56. swinger (promiscuous)57. irregularity (constipation)5S. matterIpus)59. VD (gonorrhea/syphilis)60. В M (bo wei movemen l)61. final solution (extermination of

Jews)62. criminal assault63. fanny (buttocks)64. wee wee (urinate)65. put to sleep (kiil)66, underprivileged

WORDS AND MEANINGS

To create euphemisms like these, we can rely on any one of five processes.The first process i* widening. This blunts the impact of the semantic featuresbeing communicated in a single word by moving up one level of generalityto name the superordinate set, usually omitting the specific feature that wouldunequivocally identify the referent. The specific cancer becomes the moregeneral growth; the specific pus becomes the more general matter; the specificurinal ion becomes the more general voiding, the specific girdle becomes themore general undergarment.

In some cases, the general features are split between two words. Hittingsomeone on ihc head is a criminal assault, but by convention, we know thatthis very general Icrin refers to rape. Many diseases are social diseases if wecontract them through social contact. But syphilis and gonorrhea are partic-ular kinds, and by convention we know social disease means VD, itself aeuphemism for venereal disease, another euphemism, for the names of thediseases themselves. Expired breath, heat and sweat are all human wasteproducts. But human waste usually means only urine and feces, themselveseuphemisms for/;ш and shit. lit other cases, the twu or more words do specifythe exact subset, but splitting ihe semantic features between them still softensthe impact: hairpiece, inate organ, capitalpunishment, mental retardation.

Schematically the difference between one word and a more generalconstruction can be illustrated like this:

solidГ + concrete"

-animate[+solid

+ human +" +concrete]+ animate J-r human J

waste"+ concrete "+produced— wanted

= feccs" +concrete

+ solid+ human/

produced— wanted+ organic

Should there be doubt that spreading semantic components across severalwords rather than delivering them in a single word lessens the impact, oneneed only compare the relative emotional effects offeces, solid human waste,and that material of a nan-fluid, non-gaseous nature which is the byproduct ofmetabolic and digestive processes in higher order primates.

The second process owes much to our propensity for borrowing wordsfrom Greek and Lalin. There is a scientific or learned word for every bodilyand social function we can think of. Even bad breath has been renamedhalitosis. Expectorate, perspire, expire, abdomen, penis, defecate, urinate,eructate, crepitate, ragina --all carry strong clinical scientific, medical over-tones that render them, if not completely inoffensive to many, at least usablewhen speakers cannot avoid talking about their referents,

The third process is identical to semantic shift, A word naming a part ofthe larger complex in which the element named by the distasteful wordoperates shifts over to re-name that element. Thus we make love, от sleep with

SEMANTIC CHANUE IN ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 291

or go to bed with instead of copulate or fornicate (which has a curious history).Such terms name what comes, une might presume, before, simultaneouslywith, or after the act in question. Л grief therapist may attend to the emotionsof the bereaved, but his main job is to dispose of the corpse. Thus a name foran element within ihe larger process diverts attention from the central elementin the complex of dealing with dead people. The memorial park to which hedrives the body is '* ready" a grmeyerd, a place for graves. Bui the subse-quent action of *" memorial'" or remembering gives its name to the location.Going to the bathroom precedes the act referred 10 while a comfort station isidentified by the condition resulting from the act performed there.

The fourth process, metaphorical transfer, may not be as common as itonce was as a source for the must frequently used euphemisms. <J/O*V forsweat and blossom for pimple are clear examples, along with slumber robe andswinger. Belly button and break wind themselves once euphemisms, now needtheir own. Actually, a good many of our current vulgarisms and obscenitiesfor which we now need euphemisms, may themselves have originally beeneuphemistic metaphors. Cock is a metaphorical transfer from the spigot on abarrel: prick is self-evidently derived from the action. Cunt may ultimatelyderive from a word related to Latin runnus, related to cuntits* a wedge, thoughthe source of the -/ at the end of the word is a puzzle, A more likely source is aLow (no pun intended) German word, kont, the female pundcndurn. Pussyseems self-evident, but it may also be simply a shift following a transfer sincepussy, a sixteenth-century term of endearment for a girl or lady, may not haveacquired its vulgar sense until the seventeenth century. (Bunny and coney,another word for rabbit Eind pronounced cunny, went through the same seriesof changes.) The origin of twat is obscure, but it may be from iwachytfe, or apassage. Finally, fuck, that vulgarism of vulgarisms, is probably related toGerman fie ken, to strike or knock. It may have been borrowed from Scandi-navian. Norwegian has & Jukka and Swedish zfocka, meaning to copulate. Inany event, it definitely is not an acronym for For Unlawful Carnal Knowledgeallegedly written over those put in stocks for that act in Puritan New England.

With the permissiveness of the seventies, the rich vocabulary of expletivesand swear words available to speakers at least from Chaucer's time hasdwindled away until we are left with the tedious repetition of that one lastAnglo-Saxon obscenity that can still infuriate most of middle America. Somehave claimed that we need a new vocabulary, suggesting we try out words Jibe•xphugw<rn,f?oceulate, surd, fuscous, Ungulate,oruscutum, pismireJrutfcose, andnard. But like pronouns, articles, prepositions and other function words, wejust cannot grow new obscenities like hothouse tomatoes. They have to ripennaturally into the full richness of true scatalogical and sexual indecency, aprocess that requires centuries.

The last catch-all process, phonetic distortions, abbreviations, clips, andso on, is most amply represented by our words for Christ, God, and a fewobscenities: Shucks, shoot, cripes, gosh, golly, gad, darn, doggone* drat,

202 WORDS AND MEANINQS

crimanentHes, for crying out loud, son of a gun, gol dufned, gee whiz, for Pete'ssake, for the lor? af Mike, jimminy cricket, jrtrpcrs creepers, dang, dud-bfmne,dad-burn, sont hit!, land's sake. The seventeenth century had a richer set thanwe because the < hreal" name of God was banned from use in stage plays or Injest; so new ones were required: 'zounds (God's wounds), 'zbfood (God'sblood), 'sfoot (God's foot), 'sbodies (God's body), "sdcath (God's death),'shear!, bygog, by соске, bycrackey, and so nn.

Other kinds of phonetic distortions draw on the diminutive -yjie ending:parity, tummy, hicky, fanny, or on the reduplication of high vowels: pee-pee,wee-wee, poo-poo, doo-doo. And finally, there are the acronyms: VD, ТВ,HO, GD, SOB,BVD, BM, WC, SNAFU.

Some Psjcholoyiiiil Causes of l:uphcrni$m

The meaning of anything can be psychologically (not linguistically)defined as the sum of our responses to it, whether the " i t " is an object or anabstraction. Thus the m e t i n g of lion could be defined as our response lo one.We have already noted the problems with this kind of psychological explana-tion for a linguistic theory of meaning. But it may give us an insight into thisparticular problem of the constant turnover of euphemisms.

The simple 5 -> R theory was modified to claim thai the responses lo a•word wai a "disposition" to respond rather than the response itself, a claimthat was modified again: Rather than a disposition to respond, meaningbecame a mediated response. That is, afler a word has been associated withihe stimulus lon<t enough, Ihe word picks up aspects of the response elicitedby the stimulus object itself. This response, in turn, stimulates a speaker orhearer to respond further to the word in some explicit or implicit way.Schematically, it looks like ihis:

{ Primary Stimulus (object/experience) J* >•( Semantic Stimulus (word) }

I( Primary Response i

a b c d e f g h i

•Mediated Response (meaning)

Mediated Stimulus

Г Response to Meaning )

SEMANTIC CHANCE IN ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 203

For example, the action of vomiting elicits & primary response composedof elements u-i. The word ootnil becomes lirmly associated with the experiencevomit, becoming a new stimulus that elicits some of the elements of theresponse that vomiting itself elicits; let us say ch e, f, and g. This meaningbecomes, in turn, a stimulus which causes us to respond in certain strong waysnot only to vomiting itselfbut lolhe word vomit.

Ruphemisms arise when ihe nasty elements of a response attach sostrongly to a particular word that the word elicits too many of the sameresponses as the thing. Puke and vomit elicit distinctly unpleasant responses.So we substitute a word or phrase that has not yet gathered to itself thoseassociations: upchuck, sick to my Stomach, and so on, But eventually, throughcontinued association, too many of the unpleasant responses to the referentwill attach to these words and yet new euphemisms will have to be found.

8.5: What would be the nature of language if it were totally in-dependent of our limbic system ?

M 8.6: Assume that for same reason, eating and all its associatedobjects, actions, and ideas become a tabooed subject. Make up euphemisms,using all the processes discussed above to substitute for words like mouth,teeth Jerk,dinner, food, and that ultimate obscenity, eat.

SLANG, ARGOT, CANT, JARGON

Just as some words are used by certain social classes Eo label other classes,so other groups of words are used by certain speakers to identify—thoughtacitly themselves. We have already seen how English lets us modulate tonethrough two or three styles by choosing different words:

1. Professor Smith gives failing grades to all lackadaisical athletes,2. Smil h fl un к s e very la zy p Lay с г.3. Smit ty axes any j ock w ho goofs off.

From the point of view of someone in or out of college life, the differencebetween fail, /funk, and ax is more than just a difference in style. Flunk is morelikely to be used by students than by teachers; and ax (orfox, meaning " F " )has been, or was, used almost solely by some students among themselves.

Other terms have also been used to identify words associated with partic-ular groups. Along with slang, they simultaneously identify a vocabulary andimplicitly judge it. Cant (related to chant, and originally the whining pleas ofbeggars) is often used to refer particularly to the language of thieves, gypsies,

204 WORDS AND MEANINGS

and such. But it has also been used to refer to the specialized language of anyoccupation, particularly to the mechanical and mindless repetition of specialwords and phrases.

Argot {a French word of unknown etymology), usually refers to thesecret language of the underworld, though it too has also been used to referto any specialized occupational vocabulary—the argot of the racetrack, forexample. Jargon (once meaning the warbling of birds) is usually used bysomeone unfamiliar with a particular technical language to characterise hisannoyed and puzzled response to it. Thus one mar's technical vocabulary isanother's jargon. Feature, shift, transfer, artifactuat, narrowing, acronym^blend, dip, drift- -all these words belong to the vocabulary of semanticchange and word formation, the vocabulary of historical linguistics. But foranyone ignorant of the subject and unfamiliar with the terms, such wordswould make up its jargon. Thus cant, argot, and jargon are words that cate-gorize both by classing and by judging.

Slung (of obscure origin) has many of the same associations. It has oftenbeen used as a word to condemn " b a d " words that might pollute "good"English—even destroy the mind. For Oliver Wendell Holmes, the use of slangwas "at once a sign and a cause of mental atrophy." For George Kittredgeand James Gneenojgh, authors of a classic work or English words, (74) slang"has a taint of impropriety about it which makes it offensive . . . slang is ill-adapted to serve as a medium of intercourse and therefore is unsuitable foradoption into legitimate speech . . . ; the unchecked and habitual use of slang(even polite slang) is deleterious to the mind."

But for others, slang is a technical term like the terms grammatical andungrammatica!—a neutral term that categorizes a group of novel words andword meanings used in generally casual circumstances by a cohesive group,usually among its members, not necessarily to hide their meanings but tosignal their group membership. It is in this second sense that we shall useslang here.

Since. the same processes at work in "respectable" word formation andmeaning change are also at work in slang, slang is probably as old as languageand a source of meaning change. Some of the earliest recorded instances ofslang go back to Aristophanes (c. 44S-C. 388 B.C.}. In his play The Frogs, acharacter is said to be "cracked," Certain words in Homer (c. ninth centuryB.C> have been identified as possibly slang. Among the classical Romanwriters, slang can he found in Plautus, Horace, Juvenal, and Pctronius. It canbe traced through Vulgar Latin to the Middle Ages. In France, the earliestrecords of slang date from about the middle or" the fifteenth century. In thelate fifteenth century, a glossary of Rotwalsh, or German thieves slangappeared.

In England, the earliest vocabularies of thieves' slang appeared in thesixteenth century: Copland's The Hye Way с to the Spyttel House: JohnAwdeley's Fraternitye of Vagabondcs, and Thomas Harman's Caveat for

SEMANTIC CHANCE IN ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 295

Common Cursctoiirs. By the end of the sixteenth century, Robert Greene wasrecording thieves' argot in his Coney-Catching Pamphlets. And by the eight-eenth century, Dr. Johnмп was noting in his dictionary his judgment of aword's social propriety.

8.7; Coliect twenty or so words that you would consider to be yourcontemporary slang. Why do you identify some words as slang; It's о groove(if that is still fashionable) and others as not; it*s a bore. Using the model ofmeaning change and word formation provided in the foregoing pages, explainthe processes by which your slang came into being. Are there any slang wordsyou can nor explain using that model? What areas of meaning are mostfrequently referred to? What areas of meaning have few or no slang wordsassociated with them ? Why ?

PROBLEM 8.8: Here are some American "slang" words that are iistcd. in EricPartridge's Slang: Yesterday and Today (New York, 1970). Words that requireexplanation have a meaning in parentheses. What sorts ofqucstions does thislist raise?

1.2.3.4,

5.б.7.

8.9.

10.11.12.

13.14.15,16.17.18.19.

20.21.

22.

23.24.

25.2*.

artillery (beans)bangitp (exactly right)chuck (food)darb (a popular person)fade (a poorly dressed person)#(>o/(sweetheart)

' hipe (cheat)ivories (teeth)charge (injection of narcotics)kale (money)lilies (hands)mess (dull person)nines (the limit)peav.h (pretty girl)all in (tired)alt set (ready)6ee/(complain)big shotbaloney (nonsense)brainstormbroke (out of money)buddybutt inchowcrapcrasher

27.2Я,

29.30.31.32.33.34,

35.36.37.

38.

39.40.4 1 .

42.43.44,

45.

46.47.

48.49.

50.51.

divvy updoughdudeflirtfuzzdope (foolish person)straightbleachers (uncovered grand-stands)

bluffblurbboosterbosscamouflagecatch onclose up (as in movie making)fade out (as in movies)stilt (и$ in movies)fakeinsiderfrolicgadgethike (walk)hoodlumleak (tell a secret)phony

206 WORDS AND MEANINGS

52- prom 54. prowler53- proposition (matter to be con- 55. turndown

sidered)

PROBLiiM 8.9; What ultimately happens to slang words? Consider the fore-going list and Johnson's list of "low" words in Problem 7.9, Es there anyother list or lists of words provided so far that might conceivably be relevantto this problem of slang?

Given the short life of any given set of slang words and their appropriate-ness to tather narrowly defined social situations and social groups, it is notsurprising that slang should be condemned by mosL teachers. For they arealmost exclusively concerned with teaching a kind of standard languageappropriate to communicating with an unknown audience that may bereading a piece of ptose long after it was written. Despite the lively, vividquality of mnch slang, if it is too evanescent to be undersLood after a relativelyshort time, к fails to communicate clearly. And even if the reader under-stands the words, nothing bugs a dude like a cat who lays slang on you afterit is out of date.

Whether slang, like syphilis or heroin, atrophies the mind is, of course,another question. Slang not only satisfies a quite legitimate desire LO play withlanguage (why else puns, tongue-twisters, palindromes and so on?), it alsooften provides a word or phrase for a category ofmeaning that ''respectable"word*s fail In cover, ft is true that mug, lilies, dogs, schnazzala, peepers, gams,balls, yap, ivories—all current or dated slang words for parts of the body—express no new referential area. But they do invest the category of items with aparticular affective tone. If we lost these words, we would still have face,hands, feet, лаге, tyes, legs, testicles, mouth, teeth, and so on, But withoutslang terms for them, we would be unable to express the affective meaning weinvest in them.

But some words name a category of experience that no standard wordcovers: graft}fan, doodle, leak, turn off, dig, hip, frisk. In such cases, if the wordreally does meet a felt or even tin felt need that is not just a temporary partof the cultural vocabulary of a limited group, then the word stands a goodchance of being absorbed into the more permanent vocabulary of the lan-guage. In fact, when we consider the original mcLaphorical transfers of wordslike resuli, explain, comprehend, grasp, and so on, we might suspect that eventhey were not as formal and academic when they were first used as theirliteral use is for us now. They have become necessary words because thesemantic space they now occupy is important to a society preoccupied withthinking. And because thinking is important, the words have become respect-able.

Thus what may begin as slang may take one of four courses. First, andmost likely, it may disappear entirely: skidoo is kept alive only as a trite

SEMANTIC CHANGE ПМ ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 207

example of archaic slang: gvvf for sweetheart, grummy for low spirits, rakefor comb have almost certainly disappeared everywhere. Second, a slangword may move inLo a limbo between slang and very casual speech: booze,dude, mob, junk, chintzy, fire (dismiss from a job), dumb (stupid). Third,other words that once may have been slang-like may move more into thepermanent casual vocabulary of the language: cab, taxi, bus. Night, nag, fun,wail, boater, bigot, flimsy, flippant, sham, shuffle. Even the most fastidiousspeaker would be unlikely to boggle at using such words in casual moments.

And finally, there arc those words that have been completely absorbedinto the language, into an English appropriate to writing, of this sort. Oniythe most super-sensitive soul would object to words like these: A sensiblestudent does, not gamble on a future job by dressing in a shabby manner. Nor doeshe appear touchy when asked to volunteerfor extra work. The words in boldfacewere listed by Dr. Johnson as " low" or' 'ludicrous" or < l cant" words. Otherwords he condemned included bolster, abominable; desperately, finesse,fragmentary, slim. Others have condemned banter, fop, flippant, bigot, andflimsy. Yet today we would not be shocked to find all these words in quiteelevated prose. (52,75,159,162)

SEMANTIC LAWS

Historical semanticists have searched for laws, or rules of semantic change,much as historical linguists studying sound patterns and grammatical struc-tures have. In the nineteenth century, a group of Germanic philologists wereable to formulate iaws of phonological change in the Germanic languagesthat were of very great explanatory power, laws we shall explore in ChapterThirteen, Inspired by their success, semanticists set about looking for equallypowerful law* of semantic change.

Unfortunately, they have met with very limited success. There are a fewtendencies that we can discover in the previous data:

1, Words for abstractions will generally develop out of words for physicalexperience: comprehend, grasp, explain, and so on.

2, Words originally indicating neutral condition lend to polarize: doom,fame, predicament, luck, merit,

3, Words originally indicating strong emotional response tend to weakenas they are used to exaggerate: awful, terrific, tremendous.

4, Insulting words tend to come from names of animals or lower classes:rat, dog, villain, cad.

5, Metaphors will be drawn from those aspects of experience most relevantto us: eye of a needle,finger of land; or most intense in our experience:turn on, spaced out, freaked out, for example.

20Н WORDS AMD MEANINGS

But these only approximate statistical tendencies. They are not lawsfulfilling the usual requirements of a law: that it not only explain relevantpast events, but predict future events as well. The odds are thai a word for anabstract cognitive or emotional process will develop out of an earlier concretereference, but we cannot take any given word with concrete reference: rockor push and predict that it will evolve into a word referring to abstractexperience. And the reverse has happened with originally abstract words likedid], blunt, keen, and soft. All originally referred to nonphysical referents.

A change that has been given the name of " law" and often cited as oneof the best examples of a law is thai, suggested by Gustaf Stern: Adverbsmeaning rapidly before 1300 developed into adverbs meaning immediately.Adverbs meaning quickly after 1300 did not. This, of course, is peculiar tolinglish and limited to a particular point in time. At best, it is a restrictedgeneralization about the past, not a law than encompasses the future. (2(Ж)

We m и si, however, distinguish two kinds of predictions: (1) Tn some cases,we have to base a prediction on relevant external forces. A culture willinvariably assign meanings it must develop to the words it uses most fre-quently or can create most easily. Thus a generalization about, say, euphem-ism,, is enLirely cultjre-dependent in regard to the tabooed and non-tabooedareas in which euphemisms will be used, (2) On the other hand, there may beuniversalsof change which, because they are so regular and so general, reflectinternal influences either peculiar to the particular language or Lo humanlanguage and cognition in general. It has been claimed, for example, that allhuman languages obey a very general law for the development of colorterms, (9) The development has seven stages and each stage must be passedthrough in sequential order. The order can be represented like this;

" white'

_ black _

I

' green

yellow

' yellow "

green

II 111 IV

J ^ blue > brown >

V VI

purple

pink

orange

_grcy

VII

That is, all languages have nonmetaphorical words for black and white.Such words may exhaust the spectrum. If there are only three terms, the thirdone will be a word for something approximating red. Stages III and IV mayoccur in either order: green and yellow will be the next words to develop, butthey may develop in either order. Once those five words have developed, thenblue and brown will follow, themselves to be followed by the next four in noparticular order.

As the authors of this research have suggested, there arc eleven universal

ЗВМАНПС СЙАМОЕ 1И ГМ SOCIAL CONTEXT 209

potential color categories, and those colors develop in a fixed order. If theyare correct, this is surely an example of cognitive-linguistic interaction and avery powerful semantic " law" dependent not on any particular culturalorganisation but rather only a particular level of cultural complexity.

There may be another law of semantic change in English where mentalprocesses interact with a culLural milieu to create new meanings for old forms.Words fur sensory experience fall into five basic categories.

Tactile: mild, soft, smooth, even, hard, rough, harsh, course,dull, dry, keen, sharp, hot, cold, warm, cool, heavy,light, dry, bland, hard.

Gustatory /Olfactory: piquant, pungent, tart, bitter, cloying, ее fid, acid,sweet, sour, vapid, tangy.

Visual (dimension): high, low, thick, thin, deep, shallow, wide, broad,narrow, full, big, little, fluf, steep, small, level.

Visual (color): clear, light, bright, brilliant, fair, dark, dim, faint,pale.

Aural: quiet, loud, shrill, strident

We can expand these basic categories by transferring words from onecategory to another: hot music, laud colors, sharp tastes, sour smells, and so on.But not all metaphors are equally comfortable: loud heights, wide smells,bright edges, low tastes (i.e., parallel to low sounds on a sensory dimensionnot the sense of vulgar tastes). At lirst glance, we might assume that we ran-domly seiecE our metaphors, since many of these are perfectly clear eventhough we never or rarely use them. A loud height, is certainty higher than aquiet one.

But the historical development of these metaphors in English reveals apattern that approaches the regularity of a law that might be represented likethis:

COLOR

UCH > TASTE --> SMELL DIMENSION

\SOUND

210 WORDS AND MEANINGS

That is, in English (and possibly many other languages), words referringprimarily to tactile sensations will, if they transfer at all, transfer lo tasLe(sharp taiies), color (harsh rotors), and sound {soft sounds). Taste words willtransfer to smell {soursmell) or to sound (sweet sounds). There are no primary,non-metaphorical smell words in English (or in many other languages,interestingly enough). Dimension words may transfer to color {deep red) orto sound {high sound). Color and sound words trade metaphors (dark sounds,quiet colors).

There is a second regularity: Each successive transfer follows Lhe samesequence. That is, ones dull transferred from tactile to vision, it transferredon to sound, but not back to taste/smell or dimension. Each successivetransfer of a word is determined by the most "advanced " meaning of themetaphor.

And there is a third regularity: If a sense transfer violates either of thefirst two regularities, that sense development tends lo disappear, hyr examplesoft taste, a sense not usual in standard English, was active for a time aftersoft sounds had developed, a violation of the "most advanced sense'1 con-straint. That taste meaning subsequently disappeared. Shrill developed touchand taste senses, contrary to the main principle. Neither sense has maintaineditself in the language.

There are a very few exeepLions to this generalization: Mellow developedsenses out of the predicted order; faint developed a smell/taste sense afterearlier transferring from the meaning "feigned" or "simulated" to color.Sharp transferred lo angles, perhaps on the model of Latin acute. Flat andthin transferred to taste. But when all the transfers are taken into considera-tion, these exceptions constitute less than one percent of the total data.

This kind of research into the semantic development of an entire fieldof words as opposed to tracing the history of a single word is little exploredat the moment, largely because the data is so difficult to assemble. We require•what we do not yet have for any language: An historically organized Ruget'sThesaurus a resource that would list every word that has ever referred to anysense listed under the category of that sense along wiLh the earliest and latestcitations of that word wiLh that sense. Without such a resource, historicalscmanticists are forced to read dictionaries entry by entry, searching forsenses and words that at one time may have referred to a particular referentbut no longer do. How, for example, would we discover all the words thatat any time have ever referred to, say, taste? These have: aspre, coarse, cold,,poignant, rough, smart, soft, warm, acrid, austere, dulcet, eager, acute, high,small, loud, and shrill.

PROBLEM 8JO: Here are some sense words with their etymological sources.Docs this information confirm or contradict the generalization about sensetransfer? iweet (pleasing to any sense), bitter (from biting), ocid (from ac- =sharp), acrid (from ac- = sharp), tart (sharp pain), cloy (prick with a nail),

SEMANTIC CHANGE IN ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 211

piquant (piercing or stinging), pungent (to prick), stir it! (rasping or grating,earlier to scrape or abrade), quiet (calm, peaceful), dulcet (sweet to taste orsmell), blunt (unclear of sight), keen (intelligent), soft (producing agreeablesensaLions), coarse (ordinary), dull (unintelligent), harsh (rough and hard totouch, then to taste). How do these fit in: eager, poignant, austere, brisk1}

PROBLEM 8.11: Many of these words also apply to abstract situations and topersonality: о dark moment., a rough time, a warm personality;, a dry humor\and so on. Are there any general]zations to he made regarding the sequence ofdevelopment of these transfers? You will have to consult the OED for dates-

PART III

GRAMMAR AND SOUND

r1

Chapter 9

BETWEEN SEMANTICS ANDGRAMMAR

Between questions that are purely semantic—the origin of insulting names forwomen, for example—and purely grammatical questions, whether -tiort or-ness goes with happy—is a kind of language change that seems both semanticand grammatical. Starve, for example, originally meant simply to die. It laternarrowed to mean lo die from hunger, hul it changed in another way. In itsoriginal sense, it was always intransitive. That is, it was possible to say Hestarred, but according to the O t D not until the sixteenth century do we findstarve used in its transitive sense: Someone started him. Before that time,presumably, it would have been ungrammatical to utter that sentence, justas it is now ungrammatical for a ModE speaker to say, He laughed him,meaning he caused him to laugh. In order to understand this kind of change—and to understand even more complex problems of grammatical change—wehave to pause for a moment to explore some of the ways in which suchgrammatical-scmamic problems are dealt with in a modern grammar, and howtheir solutions bear on problems of historical linguistics.

GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE

Verbs are conventionally grouped into intransitive or transitive, depending on.whether they take an object:

215

216 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

1. The man disappeared,2. The man fixed the роп о.

But most verbs in English are neither strictly transitive nor intransitive:

За. The people ate.3b. The people atefooA.4a. The man wa tched.4b. The man watched the parade.5a. The birdsang.5b. The bird sang soni s.

Dictionaries usually list these transitive and intransitive senses separately,as different meanings for the same word. Yet the differences may not be inthe meaning of the word but in whether the word occurs before an object,before a noun phrase.

PRORI.FM 9,1: Suppose we were concerned only with surface grammaticalstructures, with what we can observe about the order of words in sentencesas they are actually spoken or written, with no concern for the meaning of asentence. Would that attitude toward these next sentences lead us to somemisleading conclusions about the notions transitive and intransitive?

6a. Tom pours wifte.6b. Tom pours.6c. Winepoun.7su George eooks eggs.7b. George cooks.7c Eggs cook,8a. Bill drives cars.9b. Bill drives.8c. The car drives easily.9л. Jack reads books,9b. Jack reads.9c. The book reads well.

If we were concerned only with surface patterns, we would conclude that the(a) examples were transitive verbs, verbs with objects: (b) and (c), intransitiveverbs grammatically identical with the intransitive verbs in (10)-<J3):

10. Heexisls.11. Tom grew.12. Jack wailed.13. The star twinkled.

BETWEEN SEMANTICS AND GRAMMAR 217

But the intransitive verbs in the (h) sentences are very different from thosein (c), and both differ from (IO)-(I3): Those in (b) are implicitly transitivebecause in each case, we could put something after the verb, making ittransitive without really changing the meaning: Tom smokes (something). Butwe cannot say * Eggs cook (some thing) or* He waited (something).*

And the (c) sentences differ from both (b) and (IO)-(J3): In each case,the subjects, wine, eggs, car, and bonk, are in some sense like the objects ofthe action. That is, they are being caused to do or undergo the action indicatedby the verb: Xcauses eggs to boil—Eggs hail. The subjects in (b) and (10)-(l 3),on Lhe other hand, are not being acted on. So what appear to be gram-matically similar sentences are really quite different in ways that we have toexplain in grammatical terms, not just semantic terms.

We thus have three kinds of transitive and intransitive verbs:

1. Pu re i ntran s i ti vc (no objee L possi bte): George exists.1. Intransitive with implied object: The man eats.3, Intransitive with subject as implied object: The eggs cook.A, Pu re tran si ti ve {a hjee t general I y nequi red): George fixes things,5. Transitive wit h о pt io na I object (see (2) a bove): 7йе тдл eatt 5<™ег№£-6, Trans it i ve re Lated to (3) a bo ve: Someone cooks the eggs.

One new and very influential school of linguists has tried to account forthese questions by assuming two levels of grammatical structure. One is theobvious sequence of overt elements we respond to in a sentence. The otherlevel of structure represents the deeper grammatical and semantic relationsthat lie behind the surface of a sentence, relations we can describe indepen-dently of the overt, perceptible word order. The overt level we will call surfacestructure; the deeper level we will call the deep structure of a sentence.

We can represent or l igenerate" one kind of simple deep structurebehind sentences with formula-like rules something like the fallowing:

1. S > NP YP S = sentience, NP = noun phrase, VP = verb phrase(fN¥)\ V = verb

2. VP ->• V IJ AP > I AP = adjective phrase, PP = prepositional phrase

3. NP -+ ART N ART = article, N = noun4. PP -^ p NP P = preposition

Rule (f) says that the abstract idea of a sentence is at the simplest level oforganization made up of a subject noun phrase and a predicate verb phrase:Tom (eft, The. boy saw the dog, A girl seemed happy, The man mis in the

house.

\ In ihe nest three chapters * will mean nol a reconstructed ruol

218 URAMMAR AND SOUND

Rule (2) says that the predicate verb phrase can be made up of just theverb: left, in Tarn left. Or it can be made up of the verb and any one of thethree elements in parentheses. Parentheses mean that whatever they embraceis optional. They may or inay noL be selected. The three elements are (inboldface) a noun phrase: The boy saw the dog: an adjective phrase: Maryseemed hungry; or a prepositional phrase: The man was in the house. Thebracts enclosing the elements in rule (2) mean that one and only one of theseelements may be selected if any arc selected. Rule (3) indicates that the nounphrase is made up of an article and a noun: tkeboy, a man. ait apple. Rule (4)indicates that a prepositional phrase is made up of a preposition and a nounphrase: in the house, by the road.

These choices and the resulting structure can be represented on "trees."If only V is chosen in rule (2), then the tree would look like (a). If the NPwere chosen in rule (2) along with the V, then the tree would resemble (b):

(a) (b)

PROBLEM 9.2: What would the trees look like if ЛР had been chosen for oneand PP for another ?

Of course, these are only grammatical skeletons. We need semanticunits, words, to fit under the itodes that specify parts of speech, under noun,article, verb, preposition, and adjective. These we can list in a dictionarythat accompanies the base rules. In addition £o the meaning of the words(indicated in the form of semantic components) we list restrictions whichdetermine whether the verb must or may occur before an object -.fixed thechair, before an adjective phrase: seemedШ; before a prepositional phrase:was in the house; or before none of these: He disappeared'. The dictionarycomponent (minus the semantic features) might look like this. The position,

specified by , indicates the position of the verb relevant to any otherpart of speech:

disappear: V; f fix: V; NPbecome: V; NP/AP be: V;.. _ NP/AP/PP

(The slashes without parentheses indicate an obligatory choice of one element.)

BETWEEN SEMANTICS AND GRAMMAR 219

That is, disappear occurs under a V but because it is purely intransitive,it may occur only without a complement. This restriction is symbolized by #.(This ignores modifiers of Lime and plate, and so on. which we shall omit fornow): lie disappeared f. Find, a transitive verb, must have an object KP afterit: He found money. Become, a copula verh, may have either an NP or an APafter it: He became kingltired. And be, another copula, may have after it anyof the three: He isakingjddjm the horns. (31,94, 132,143)

PRCMJL.FM У.З: Here are several words to add to the dictionary. Specify verysimple restrictions for the verbs. Generate four or five deep structures, pickingwords at random. Where musL the dictionary information be modified, addedto, expanded ? How might we do it ?

N: man, cars, piano, food, parade, songs, wine, people, bird, Tom,George, BUS, Jack, eggs, bpoksrstart he,

V: was, pours, drives, reads, exisrs, grew, н-aited, twinkledt became,cooks, exists* disappeared, fixed, ate, welched, sang,

AP: old, heavy, smart, straight, hard, square, good.P: in, on, at,by.

ART: the.

PROBLEM 9.4: Add a rule that would account for these patterns: old, very old;If red, somewhat tired; nick, quite sick; intelligent, rather intelligent.

Now the rules and the dictionary would let us generate the sentencesmentioned above, (I) to (13). But if we just list all the different verbs and theirpossibilities under different entries in the dictionary, we will not capture ageneralization about the differences and similarities among them, that Hereads and He reads (something) arc somehow related, that Someone cooks eggsand Eggs cook are related. So even if any intransitive sentences such as Hereads, Eggs cook, and They exist have the same surface structure, we also knowthat they differ from one another in very basic ways.

Transformational generative grammarians try to account for all this bypostulating transformations that change the deep structures generated by thekinds of rules described before Problem 9.2 into surface structures, into thefiramnialical strings we understand in an actual sentence.

The problem is to decide how surface and deep structure relate to oneanother. Consider Turn hunts, for example. It always implies Tom huntssomething. We can capture that insight by assuming that the structure of Tomhunts is transformationally reiated to the structure of Tom hunts something,through a transformation that deletes the indefinite object in the deep struc-ture. This produces a surface structure superficially like that of an intransitivesentence.

22(i ЯЙАММЛН ЛМ) SE

We can represent the transformation rule like this:

OBJECT DELETION: V NP (if NP is indefinite)

The iirst line refers to the relevant elements in a tree, the verb and [he object,and by implication, anything under those nodes. The second line representsthe change, the elements in the new tree treated by the transformation. Inthis case, the whole NP node has been deleted.

But if we applied this rule to all verbs that had an NP after them, wewould delete any indefinite object after the verb. This would generate sentenceslike *Totn fixed, *Bi!lfound, * George earned. So we have to indicate that someverbs cannot have objects delcLed. Since most verbs do allow their objectsto be deleted, It is simpler to stipulate the exceptions, those whieh тцу notu n de rgo о bject d e I et ion.

We can do this by adding to the dictionary a fourth item of information.We ill ready include (I) part of speech, (2) semantic delinition, (3) the syntacticenvironment in which the verb may occur. We add (4), the transformations averb may or may not allow. Thus for find, ™/, and exist, we would havedictionary entries roughly like this (semantic information is omitted):

eat: V; NP. exist: V, §. find: V: NP;-OBJECT DELETE.

That is, find may not have its object deleted, while eat may; *Ttm found,Tom ate, Tom found something, Tom ate something.

Thus a complete grammar would look something like this:

BASE RULES

DICTIONARY

DEEPSTRUCTURLS TRANSFORMATIONS

SURFACE STRUCTURES

PROBLEM 9.5: One kind of transformation is DELETION: They eat something-* Tiiey eat. There are other kinds of transformations. Here are some otherpairs of sentences that might be transformationally related. How? Which sen-tence Form is derived from which? Note: Do not assume that the first sentencestructure is the source of the second. (Strictly speaking, one sentence is nottransformed into another. The abstract structures behind sentences aretransformed. We will use sentences here as a shorthiind for that structure.)

1. He looked the number tip. fie iookedup the number.2, Iknow that he is there. } know lie is there.

B6TWEFN SEMANTICS AND GRAMMAR 221

3. Л is eas у to do thai. To do thai is easy. Far someone lo do thai is easy.4. The man in the house left. The man who was in the house left.5. He usually leaves. Usually, he leaves,6. Down the street camea truck. A truck camedown the street.7. Alt of the people werethen. ASthe people were then.8. John and Mary married. John ant! Mary ntarriedeach other.9. For someone to do that is bod.To do that is bad.10- Tom is older than Jack. Tom is older than Jack is.

HISTORICAL IMPLICATIONS

The historical importance of these patterns when we describe them by thiskind of grammar is this: Many individual verbs move from one class toanother, thereby allowing a previously prohibited transformation. For ex-ample, as purely transitive verbs have been born or borrowed into tnglish,they have generally lost restrictions against deleting objects. The change in thegrammar would mean that we simply remove the restrictions against objectdeletions. Verbs like paint, hunt, cook, read, eat, kill once obligatorilytransitive -may now have their objects tick Led.

But here we have to distinguish between the сопкещк-псе? of grammaticalchange and its causes. The consequence of the ehange is a new pattern forcertain verbs. The cause of the change lies in us. Strictly tninsitive verbsregularly shift to optionally transitive verbs probably because we operate ona combined principle of economy and generality. ТГа verb requires an object,we cannot speak of doing whatever the verb indicates unless we specify aparticular action or add an indefinite object. In ModE, for example, most ofus do not ordinarily say *He is fixing around the house, but we may say He ispainting around the house.

Given the principle that we alt unconsciously strive for grammaticaleconomy where it does not interfere with communication, we can understandwhy verbs referring to the most common and hence important actions areoptionally transitive. Were they not, we could not in the most economical wayspeak in general about eating, drinking, reading, writing, and so an. On theother hand, verbs which still do not allow their objects to be deleted areoften too general to communicate anything without an object: 9 He finds!detertvmes!prejcrx!mer:1ionslkeeps, and so on.

Since only exceptional verbs arc marked against OBJECT DELETION,we might also consider whether another aspect of the principle of least effort,the simplicity principle, operates here. If the few verbs which may not losetheir objects have to be specially marked in our internalized grammar, then a

222 GRAMMAR

child, as he learns verbs (or most adults as they use them, perhaps), may learnto use them without their accidental and often unpredictable restrictions, muchas irregular verbs like help-halp-kolpen lost their exceptional status andregularized to heip-helptd-helped

But simple object deletion does not explain patterns like those in sen-tences (€c)-(9c) tn a sentence lite The eggs cook, the apparent subject is anoun phrase that can be interpreted as the understood "receiver" of anaction or as a deep-lying subject that is caused by some unstated agent toundergo or perform the action of the verb. If this is so, then we have toassume a different deep structure behind George cooks on the one hand andeggs cook on the other. We can get at the differences, perhaps, through history,

PROBLEM 9.b\ Actually, four kinds of changes have created new transitive andintransitive verbs. The deletion of the object, as we have seen, is one. Comparethese next groups of sentences. At an earlier time, the verbs in (I) and (2)were strictly intransitive; those in (3) strictly transitive. What wottid youspeculate were the intransitive sentences historically related to those in (I)and (2); what would have been the transitive sentences related to those in (3)?Why did they change?

L He whispered the words. They sang the lyrics. He answered his critics. Heargued the case.

2. He grows corn. He starved millions. We work our subnets hard. She dinedseveral friends.

3. The situation developed. The material disintegrated. The news continued.The troubles resumed. The waters separated. The oil spread.

Those sentences in (1) were originally pure in transit] ves, but eventuallyattracted an object, probably because the acLion referred to always involvedsome concept besides the subject, on the analogy of say something. Modernpure intransitives such as sparkle, kneel, disappear, exist, and die, on theother hand, ordinarily involve only a single noun phrase element, which isthe subject.

Those sentences in groups (2) and (3) historically constitute mirrorimages of each other. The verbs !n (2): grow, starve, work, and dine, wereoriginally intransitives: Tomatoes grow, people starve, employees work, friendsdine. Conversely, those in (3) have been cited as transitive before they werecited as intransitive: Someone developed the situation / disintegrated thematerial I continued the news / spread!lie oil, and so on. We have to explain thechanges in two different but related ways.

There is a large class of verbs called causative. Their subjects cause theobjects to perform the action indicated by the verb. Compare the sentences in(a) with those in (b):

9

BETWEEN SEMANTICS AND GRAMMAR 223

a. He rolled the bait (that is, he caused the hall to roll) / moved the box } brokethe dish I fried the eggs / rocked the cradle, and so on.

b. He saw the ball I bought the box f found the dish I felt the eggs j painted thecradle, and sflor.

The subjects in (b) do not cause the objects to move or change, as they doin (a).

In a generative theory of language, each verb of the roll, cook, move,break kind would have associated with it a feature we might call [causative].Ordinarily, such a verb allows a transformation in which the underlying objectis shifted to the subject position in the surface structure and the original indefinitesubject is deleted:

someone/thing breaks the dish->• the dish breaks

More recently, this has been modified to change the direction of the trans-formation.

someone/thing (causes) [the dish (to) break]-> someone/thing breaks the dish

The verb written here as (cause) is in this theory an abstract entity in thejdeep stracLunc that is not a real "word," but rather an abstract "operator"or theoretical element. nuL unlike certain related elements in algebra andcalculus. There are a good many arguments in favor of this analysis, but forhistorical purposes, the simpler transformation will better account for thechange. For we would otherwise have to assume an underlying intransitivebreak before it actually was attested to in the history of the language.

Some transitive verbs like commence, circulate, increase, dissolve, con-tinue, resume, reconcile, and so on originally had a causative sense in that theycould occur in sentences like We continued the trial. But these causative transi-tive sentences did not at first allow an equivalent intransitive sentence: Thetrial continued. Before the eighteenth century, for example, it woufd have beenas ungrammalieal to write The situation improved as it is now ungrammaticalto write *The situation exacerbated. At the time, improve had to exclude thetransformation which would have shifted the object, just as exacerbate doesnow. But apparently, just as speakers simplified their grammar by regularizingthe OBJECT DELETION restriction, so they frequently regularized therestrictions in regard to CAUSATIVL OaJLCT SHIFTS by dropping therestrictions against it from verbs like continue and improve.

The shift from non-causative inlransilives like those in (2), flowers grow,to causative transitives, I grow flowers, requires a shghtiy dilic rent explanation,akin, perhaps, to back-formation. Intransitive verbs like grow, stanet work,

224 СЕЛМ.ЧДК AND SOiJNn

and dine, could occur in a pattern like The man starved or in literal causativeconstructions lite Someone caused the man to starve. But originally, they didnot allow an implicit causative construction like Someone starved the man.Presumably, however, speakers added [causative] to the verb rather than keepit in the sub-class of verbs which did not allow a transformation of the typesSomeone Causes the platform to turn -* Someone turns the platform -> Tteplatform turns. Thus when Flowers grow lent itself to a pattern like Someonecauses flowers to grow (or the approximate idea), it could easily lead to Some-one grows flowers on [he analogy of the verbs that do allow the transformation.The modern consequence of this is two identical pairs of sentences: Hegrowsjimproves sppks and Apples grow Improve. But each sentence is historicallythe mirror image of tlie other member of the pair,

So with two transformations: OBJECT DELETION and CAUSATIVEOBJECT SHIFT, we can account for a variety аГдавйгаротагу grammaticalpatterns. And in the terms of our theory, we can account for the historicalchanges in words that occur in these patterns: Speakers tend to simplify agrammar by removing unpredictable restrictions against transformations. Ina sense, this is the grammatical explanation for analogy.

PROBLEM 9,7: What do these sentences mean?

1. * Heexistedthe newelement.2. * The child cried the woman.3. *She waited the people,4. * I disappeared she cat.5. * They t winkled the Ugh t.

Find five or ten other ModE verbs of the same type.

PROBLEM 9.8: Some grammatical structures are semantically causative buttheir verbs do not allow the shift. For example, I caused the man lo leave doesnot allow / left the mart, as / caused the man to trip allows / tripped the man.Here are some other examples: / caused the man to losejsucceedlselljstudyjfightleatSspltjck'snldustlwisshlconfessjapplaudjexplaln. What might be one ex-planation of why these do not allow the transformation? Is this problemrelated to the immediately preceding one? What is the meaning of/failedmy

friend'!

PROBLEM 9,9: Does any of this explain sentences like these: This book readseasily: the car drives awkwardly; the class teaches welt; the turkey canescleanly; the wood saws hardl Check the dates for these senses relative to othersconnected with same words in the OED. Comment.

A stylistic consequence of these changes, perhaps even a secondary cause,is a greatly increased flexibility in how we can construct sentences in English

BETWEEN SEMANTICS AND GRAMMAR 225

to reflect rhetorical nuances. When verbs like those we have described occurin new patterns, in the language, they allow a writer to control rather carefullythe rhetorical structure of his paragraphs. One organizing principle of dis-course is the way a writer controls what words fill the subject position of asequence of sentences within a paragraph. How well a writer can control hisreader's attention by manipulating subjects partly determines the quality ofhis prose.

This discussion should also point »ut how different theories of grammarand meaning will lead us to different histories of the language. If we followa theory of traditional dictionary definitions of verb meaning or the theoryof those who primarily collect grammatical patterns, the kind of changes thatwe have described here would be represented in a dictionary something likethis:

Earlier period: teach; verb transitive: ] teach English.

verb intransitive: I teach.

Later peri od: teach: verb transitive: I teach English.

verb intransitivej: I teach.

verb imransitive2: The children teach ea.tily.

The dictionary simply adds a meaning to the word teach as its syntacticenvironment changes,

A transformational generative grammar would argue that in thesesentences the meaning of teach does not essentially change. Ail that changeare the possible surface relationships among the noun phrases that occur withthe verb in the deep slructunc. And these potential new relationships can berepresented by minor notational changes in the dictionary. Here are fourexamples «f notational changes. (We omit everything except the relevantinformation. Jn each pair, (a) is the earlier entry, (b) the later.)

explain: a. V;b. V;.

siucty, a. V:.b, V;.

improve: a. V;.b. V;.

. NP; -OBJECT DF.LF.TION.

. NP,

• # •

. NP.

. NP; - CAUSATIVE SHIFT,NP.

(OBJ. DEIFTE nowpossible)

(direct objecL nowassumed)

(CAUS. SHIFT nowpossible)

226 URAMMAH AND SOUND

grow: a. V;

b. V; NP. (CAUS. SHIFT nowpossible)

fin addition, we would add [causative] togrew.)Another kind of linguistic change which falls between semantics and

syntax is illustrated by the difference between these sentences:

a. It is made of stone. b. It is made of stones.He eats fruit. He eats fruits.They / « song. They lore songs.

In the (a) group, the noun b a пяп-counf noun, one referring to a concrete orabstract referent without discrete shape or number. In the (b) group, the samewords appear but are used as count nouns, nouns referring to a concrete orabstract referent that has a discrete shape and can be counted: one song, twosongs', one book,! wo books.

Depending on what kind of linguistic theory we adopt, throughout itshistory English has either (a) added [+count] meanings to many [-count]nouns (and vice versa), or (b) has shifted a word from the f+counL] categoryto the [-count] category (and vice versa). These nouns, for example, wereat one time purely count nouns: rock, stone, cake, pear!, brain, Hrer. In thecourse of time, they have also come to name the material of the objects theyoriginally referred to, thereby becoming [-count] as well as f+count]. Onthe other hand, these next words were originally [—count] nouns, but arenow both [ f count] and (—count] nouns: brick, rice, wine, fruit, meat,paint,pain, thought. All can now be used in the plural: bricks, rices, wines, and so on.While this is in one sense a semantic change, it is also a change with syntacticconsequences, for we add plural -s and use articles differently with c-ountand non-count nouns.

PROBLEM 9.10: Here are some noun phrases to put into the frame / seeHow do the plural s and the articles a and the occur with these nouns? Isthere a general rule you can formulate? (Assume that those phrases and wordsmarked * are ungrammatica] when they occur in the indicated syntacticframe.)

*girldust

*carchili

girls*dustscars

*chilis

a*a

a•a

girldustcarchili

*a girls*a dusts*a cars*a chilis

the girlthe dustthe carthe chili

the girls* the dusts

the cars*the chilis

PROBLEM 9.11: The object noun phrases in I see the girls and I see girts are,respectively, definite and indefinite. It is the lack of an overt article in / see

BETWEEN SEMANTICS AND GRAMMAR 227

girls that indicates the indefinite girls. We might account for this pattern witha rule such as the following: ART—> [ +definite]. We would then "spell"[—definite] as either ajan or as nothing, [~definite] as the. What conditionsdetermine how [ — definite] is spelled?

Now that we have explored some of the grey areas between dear-cutsemantic problems and clear-cut grammatical problems, we can see thatdescribing hisLorical change in this area must be done on a very abstractlevel. Tn the past, most historical linguists were satisfied to coltect the dataand categorize the ways in which the data could be organized. But this doesnot get to some of the deeper problems of linguistic change, problems thatdepend in good pan, again, on the particular way we choose to describe ourown living language. For once we discover the crucial categories and pro-cesses in our own grammars, elements such as causa tives and so on, we arecompelled at least to try to describe dead languages in the same terms, anattempt that very quickly reveals how difficult it is to reconstruct the linguisticabilities of speakers who have been dead for over a thousand years.

Chapter 10

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE:THE NOUN PHRASE

We have seen how transformations can rearrange the major sentence elementsin a deep structure to produce a variety of surface structures. Most of thesetransformations delete a subject or objecL, or both delete and rearrange:/ saw (some unspecified object) -* I saw. {Some unspecified agent) cooked themeat -> The meat cooked.

PROBLEM 10.1: How would a transformational grammar deal with the follow-ing sentences:

1. Him Hike.2. Down the street came a truck.3. Those questions no one can answer.4. A cross the way was a targe dog.5. Happy you may be but lucky you are not.6. 7YJ grandmother 'л house we go I7. Then came an import an t part.

How would a descriptive grammar deal with them (review page 26ff) ?

229

230 OKAMMAR AND SOUND

WOHD ORDER: THE MAJOR ELEMENTS

The deep structure of these sentences, of course, would be in a basic, specifiedorder, and transformations would then shift their elements into the desiredorder; fl) I like him • > Him Hike and so on. Transformations of this kind donot create new subjects and objects. They are stylistic transformations allowedby the limiLcd freedom of ModE from the more usual subject-verb-fcom-plement) order, fin complement, we include direct objects: I saw Tom;indirect objects: /gapeTom money; and elements after copuias like be, seem,become, appear, fee!, look: I am in the house, He became a king, You appearsick.) The freest elements are adverbial modifiers: I left yesterday -> Yesterdaylief!, /usually sleep -> Usually/sleep.

Statistically, however, the order of the main elements in ModE deviatesvery little from an S-V-(C) order. If the order did vary, if it did allow us anySequence, we would have to rely heavily on semantic and contextual elues tounderstand which noun phrases were subjects and which objects. If a sentencelike John saw the house could occur in any order: The house saw John, Saw (hehouse John, The house John saw, John the house saw, Saw John the house, ofcourse, we could be fairly certain who was seeing what. But if we substitutedbear for house, we would be less certain. And if we substituted George forbear, then depending on its context, the meaning might be very unclear.

PROBLEM 10.2: In any ten consecutive sentences from a newspaper story,reverse the subjects and objects to determine whether a reader would beseriously confused if he couFd not tell from position alone which noun phrasewas the subject and which the object in those sentences. Docs this suggestanything about the importance of word order ?

PROBLEM 10.3: Here are some OE and ME sentence types that represent only-strong tendencies, not invariable rules. What do you conclude about O tword order? About ME? What do you conclude about the range of variationsamong the main sentence elements and whether we can predict those variationsby any principles of grammatical context4.' (The translations given in (IH15)and (16)^(20) are word for word.)

Old English

1. Se ntan is god. (The ma n is good.)2. Ne rnihfehegehealdan heardne mece. (Not might he hold grim sword.)3. pasetidesecyningpamdisc. (Then sent the ki ng t he d ish.)4. pa he pone cynfng sohle, fie heoiode. (When he the king visited, be

boasted.)

.

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE NOUN PHRASE 251

5. He hi fedan sceoide. (He t hem f eed s ho u Id.)6. Ne drincs! fm win 1 (N о L dri п kcs 11 h ou w i ne 7)7. Nu ispeosgifu eow rtbraden, (Now is this gift (from) you taken.)S. Heo hine Ixrde, (S he h i m ad vised.)9. № hahba'6we cyning. (Not have we кing.)10. Hewear8w3t?tffo.{\\£\itcbrat;(b)vaaT man.)11. Godbeheadus p.ft we fist treowne hrepvdon. (God commanded us that we

that tree noL touch.)12. Hewiesyltfe.(Hewasold.)13. We eow can. (We you know.)14. Pa com ntxssepnvst (Then came priest.)15. Hlhmfdcm hirametegeboht. (They had bought their food.)

Middle English

16. Nubiseche khpe, (Now beseech I tfiee.)17, /hymfolwed.((hirafollowed,)IS. i ne can tie I tie ttiai fellen foe wander. (I not know nor I not may tell the

wonder,)19. pa pe King Stephne to Englalende com, {m macod he his gadering &t

Oxeneford. (When King SLcphen to England came, then made he hisgathering at Oxford.)

20. A leafdi wes mid hire fait bbet alabuten. (Л lady was with her foes besetall about.)

21. We redeth (read) i j>e holt godspelie (gospel) of to-dai pal ure (our) lordJhesu Cast yede (went) one time into arte (a) snipe (ship) and hiss deciplesiHid(y/itbi)himvit0pe see.

22. Noil рои hest (have) y-hyerdpe seanes (sins) pet eomep ofglolomye (glut-tony) and of lecherie. Andpervorepet zuyche (such) zennes arizep com-tHunliche ine tpverne, pet J.T weile (well) of zenne, Ьеггоге icit wylie alite (little) take (touch) ofpezennespes byep (be) y-do (done) inepe teasefне.

23. Whanlherdehem,lwes ryght glad.24. And whawe (when) he cons, and was nyj (near) pe hous, lie herds a

symphonic and oper noise ofmynysir/vye (minstrelsy).25. Alpe longnge (language) offre Norphumbres, and'speciatych at ^ork, ys so

scharp, slyttym (piercing) and frotynge (grinding) and uftschape (un-shapen), pat we Souperon men may put longage unaepe (with difficulty)undurstonde.

From these sentences, we can see that word order ш ОЕ was considerablyrnore varied than in ME or ModE. Some linguists have even claimed that OEword order was almost free, allowing virtually any order among the majorsentence elements a* the demands of rhetorical emphasis demanded. Butthe order was not "free" in the sense that it was not in most cases, outside of

SOUND

poetry, rule governed, that it could not be predicted. Most patter us were highlyregular:

1. The usual word order was that of ModE: S- V-(C),

He geseah pone mann. (He saw the man.)|>et Estland is swySe my eel. (Estonia is very large.)

2. In many kinds of dependent clauses, the typical (though not invariableby any means) order was CON JU NCTION-£-(Q-V:

J>eah he him lcof wwre, he weep. (Though lie (to) him dear were, he wept.)

3. When an adverbial element lite the negative ne or the adverb pa (then)occurred initially, a very frequent order of elements with a single verbwasADV-V-S-(C):

Ne mihte he gehealdan heardne mece. (Not might he hold grim sword.)|>a sende se суп ing pone disc. (Then sent the king tlie dish,)

4. When the object of a verb was a pronoun, the typical order was S-O-V:

He hi fedan sceolde. (He them feed should.)pa hurgware hit geftiemdon. (The citizens routed them,)

A transformational grammar would deal with these patterns through aseries of obligatory transformations, transformations which (in opposition tothose that would pnHiuce. a sequence like Him i like) were not stylistic, butgoverned by grammatical context. In tact, the failure to observe these trans-formations may very well have been in OF. prose a stylistic feature that wouldhave been noted by an ОE reader or listener. (150,174,221)

10.4: Rewrite this passage of ModE prose observing these trans-formations. (1) OBJECT PRONOUN SHIFT; (2) VERB-ADVERB SHIFf(for negatives and J?a) (For this one, you will have to rewrite ModE negativesinto OH ne negatives and then into }>a.) (3) SUBORDINATE CLAUSEVERB SHIFT.

When a linguist studies the history of a language, he does not study it inisolation from its social surroundings, fie does not ignore the society itdepends on. If he overlooks this social context, then he risks turning lan-guage into a bloodless formalism. Then the study of language becomes cutoff from its reason for being, When we forget the roots of language, we artno longer sensitive to the interaction between man and man through lan-guage. Then we fail to recogni7e (he single most important cause of linguisticchange. We may siudy il !or years, all the while overlooking the real sourcesof its evolution—the interaction of social class which brings into contactspeakers fi"om different social levels.

Although these same transformations can be found in Larly ME as wellas OE, they began to occur much less frequently after the thirteenth century.

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE; THE NOUN PHRASE 235

Between Lhe years 1000 and 1500, For example,, the Frequency of an accusativeobject before a verb decreased markedly:

Accusative object before verb:Accusative object after verb:

moo

48%

120(1

5347

T300

4060

1400

[4tsoo

2

In fact, by 1350 or so, the word order of main elements in written Englishwas virtually that of Mod E. (28,65)

INI LECTION: OE, ME, AND ModE

In order to understand why these larger patterns may have become moreregular when they did and as they did, we have to examine Lin aspect ofgrammar we have touched on before.

10.5: Problem 4.5 distinguishes derivational affixes from inflections.The endings we shall define as inflections for ModE are these:

1. The plural -s (or other sign of plurality: boys, feet, men, and so on)2. Th e ge ni ti ve -s (boy^s, boys', children's).3. The thi rd perso n singu la г -J (//<: walks; It stops).4. The past tense -ed of verbs (or other signal corresponding to it: We

walked; He ran; They flew: I hurt it).5. The past participle -ed of verbs (or other signal corresponding to it:

He has grown; She has mug-., Unite walked).& The progressive partieiple -ing (Me was singing. Distinguish this from the

suffix -ing that makes a noun out of a verb: Singing is fun).7. The comparative -er or superlative -est of adjectives (bigger-biggest).

To determine how important inflection be for ModE, take 250 consecutiveword from a newspaper or magazine and deiete every inflection from it- Allverb will be in it infinitive form; nil noun and pronoun in it singular andnominative {he, she, /, you, ti) form; all adjective in it base form. To whatdegree do the loss of inflection obscure communication? Assume you can getuse to reading sentence without inflection in it, what semantic informationbe lose when inflection be iose? Do any syntactic pattern become ambiguous?Which inflection be need much? Which be unnecessary? Now do the samething for all affix. Which be some crucial to English, inflect or suffix? Whattake the plate of inflect V Write you answer to this quest without any inflect.Then write it agдin but omit the aiilx.

234 fiRAMMAR ANJ> SOUND

THE NOUN PHRASE: INFLECTIONS AND STRUCTURE

Although OF, had an elaborate paradigm of inflectional endings for both nounphrases and verb phrases, it was Lhe inflectional system for the nouns andtheir associated adjectives and articles that is most relevant in explaining whyО Е word order may bave changed as it did. The remnants и Г this system can beseen in our pronoun paradigm with its three LO four forms for most of thepronouns:

/youhesheit

myjmineyourjyourskisjhisherjhersUs!—

meyouhim

herit

weyouthey

ourioursyourlyourstheirjttteirs

us

youtkei

The function of these different forms is LO specify how the noun phrasesthey occur in relate to the main verb, to the preposition, or to another noun.Given I saw hlmt Him I saw, I him saw, Saw I him, Saw him J, we could decidewho saw whom, regardless of word order, if we were certain Lhat we couldrely on the form of the pronouns to reveal how they related to their verb:him = object, / = subject.

But in OE. not only pronouns, but nouns, articles, and adjectives dis-played these distinctions. We could, for example, write se man geseah poneheagest (the man saw the horse), se man pone heagest geseah, pone hetigestgeseah se man, and so on, and always know which noun phrase, se man orpone hettgest, was subject and which objccL. Sn was a masculine singulararticle that always marked the nominative case, makingsetnun unambiguouslythe subject, pone always marked the masculine singular accusative, makingfionehengesJ an unambiguous object. Thus word order in OE was not alwayscrucial to identifying subjects and objects, even though it was rule-governed,because in add! Li tin to word order and semanLic sense, OE had this thirdsystem thai specified grammatical relationships: inflections. It was a systemthat would almost disappear by the end of ME.

Case, ModE and OE

Of the three distinctions this system displayed in OE—case, number, andgender—case is (and conLinues Lo be in ModF.) the most complicated. Onlyamong Lhe pronouns in ModE do we still cross-classify by three overt cases:nominative, accusative, genitive. But when we investigate in the context nf anenLire sentence how Modli pronouns work, we discover that, in fact, cage is a

GRAMMATICAL CHANOE) THE NOUN PHRASE 235

necessary implicit feature even for common nouns; even though a noun maynot be overtly marked for ease, our grammar must always mark it for potentialcase.

Whenever we repeat a noun phrase within a sentence (or between sen-tences), we ordinarily have to transform one of the noun phrases, normally(though not aiways) the second one, into a pronoun. If we begin with asemantically explicit deep structure that we can roughly paraphrase, as

Tom left when Tom saw Tom's girl walk by Топь

we recognize that in Fully grammatical English the surface structure must bemore like

Tom left when be saw Iris girl walk by him.

If we assume that we begin with the specific noun phrases and then transformthem into the pronouns, then even in ModE it is clear that, we have to beable to specify potential case relationships for every noun because it mightbecome a pronoun. Jf the noun is mentioned in the immediately preceding dis-course, for example, it is often turned into a pronoun, which must be markedfor nominative, accusative, or genitive case: he* him this,

H ow we specify these cases in a grammar of Mod E is in some ways quitedifferent from how it may have been specified in OE, a fact which indicatesa.major change in the grammar. At least from the written evidence, in OE,the nominative, accusative, genitive, anti one more case which we have lostencirely in ModE—the dative case—'were determined in these two ways:

by how the noun phrases they marked related grammatically to their govern-ing verbs or prepositions, andby how those noun phrases functioned adverbially in their sentence.

Noun phrases that were subjects or predicate mnmiials, regardless oftheir actual position in their sentence, were in the nominative case: ic hiteom (I it am), we hie simfon (we they are). Noun phrases Lhat were objectsof verbs and prepositions took different cases, depending on the particularverb or preposition. Some verbs required objects in the accusative case:He afshg pone mann (he slew the man): pone was the accusative masculinesingular definite article. Some required objects in the dative case: Hextwindefip*m manne (he escapes (from) the man): fmrtn was the dative masculinesingular article. And some verbs required objects in the genitive case: Heehte(tfwsw<mnes(he pursues the man). p<?s was the genitive masculine singulardeft nite article.

In addition, many noun phrases after prepositions implying motion tookthe accusative case; noun phrases after prepositions implying largely static

236 UKAMMAR AND SOUND

relationships generally took the dative ease; there were no prepositions thatexclusively required the genitive case in their noun objects, but some occasion-ally were followed hy geniLives.

This kind of case agreement requires oniy that in the dictionary, entriesfor prepositions rind verbs include the notation that the noun phrases follow-ing t.hcm muSL be in the required case. A transformation can then attach theappropriate case- to the article and noun. For example, in this sequenee, thefeature [dative) is transferred from the verb to the ART and N. The sum ofthe features is then ''spelled " appropriately by another set of graphemic ruleswhich we shall discuss briefly later:

N

he

N

[dative]

V

ART

P-[+definite)

ARTj

[-1-definite][dative]

NI

mann-[ +masculine]

N

[ +masculine][dative]

[-singular]

N*I

[—singular]

he(he

aetwindeSescapes the

1 "I:: "I: I : -1

men)

I N " refers tohl number," singular {+singular], or plural [—singular].

PROBLEM 10.6: Is there any equally simple way to specify which nouns shouldbe in the nominative case?

The second principle by whiuh ease was assigned Lo noun phrasesdepended on how those noun phrases functioned in their sentences. Nounphrases that functioned as adverbs indicating an extent of time or space, forexample, often took the accusative:

pa sxton hie fwme winter set Cantwarbyrig.Then spent they the winter at Canterbury.

Adverbs of instrumentality or time often took the dative (-am was a dativeplural ending).

Hwilum incs he god.(At) times he was good.

He u'.i'MviuulLim werig.He was (by means of) wounds weary.

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE NOUN PHRASE 237

Adverbial phrases of rncasure took the genitive (-я was a genitive pluralending).

Daga о nd nihta drincad we meodu.(Of) days a n <! nights drink we mead.

(Note the adverbial shift in these examples.)How a grammar would assign case for these patterns is more complicated

than the means described previously. We must, of course, expand our baserules to account for these adverbial phrases:

S ^ N P VP ( A D V a o J (ADVB l a M) (ADV m a M f t r ), . .

We might assign different case features directly to these adverbial units. Ithas also been suggested that in their deep structure, all adverbials are besttreated as prepositional phrases. The details uf the argument need not concernus here, beyond pointing out that interrogative adverbials like when, why,hew, and where can be paraphrased as: at whet time, for what reason, in whatmanner, at what place. Since they arc synonymous, some transformationalistshave argued that the more general, the more powerful explanation of suchadverbials would be to begin with the preposition and then delete it where itdoes not occur in the surface structure. (55, but see 94 for the opposite view.)

Such a proposal would greatly simplify how we assign case for OEadverbials, for we would then simply list the case feature fur the prepositionin the dictionary as described previously, shift that case feature to the nounphrase object of the preposition, and then delete the preposition. For example,in hwilum НЖУ he god ([At] times was he s n °d), hwitum with its -um ending isin the dative plural case. In the deep structure of this sentence, we mightpostulate a preposition that if realized in the surface structure would bespelled rl, a preposition that governs a dative object. After that dative featureis transferred to the noun phrase, the preposition would be deleted leavingonly hwiium:

Prep N №

set hwtf- [-singular][dative] [feminine]

-> «t hwil- [-singular][feminine][dative]

-> # hwil~ [ — singular][feminine][dative]

hwil-um

238 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

PROBLEM J0.7: Let us assume that comparative constructions like the follow-ing result from an ellipsis of a fuller deep structure:

He is taller than George is tall.-y He is taller than George (is).

If we do delete elements, must we be certain that in OE, the nouns followingf>c?rme (than) are in the correct case, the nominative case, before or after sucha transformation'.' How does this compare with casual educated spokenModL? With formal wriLlcn ModE? Here is an OE sentence to use as anexample:

He was better than I.

PROBLEM 10.8: From the few examples you have seen of the dative and fromthese next few word for word translations, how has ModE compensated forthe loss of the dative case? How would you explain the change transforma-tionally? descriptively1.' (The quotes run on separate half-lines.)

1. Eadmwids3e!mg, ealdoriangne tir / geslogon %t sxece sweorda еcgum,,,Edmund (the) nobleman, lifelong glory / won at battle [with] swords'

edges.2

. . . so [to] him noble was/ from ancestors. . .3, . . . feMdznnetkIsecgaswtfi, .,

- ., field screamed [witItJ warriors' sweat (i.e., blood)4, pstr kegseegtttenig { «aTnmforgrnnden .. .

There lay warrior many / [hyj spears killed . . .

(ecgum: dative plural; him: dative masculine singular; swale: dative singular;gar urn: dative plural.)

How would one decide whether, in principle, it were better for a language tohave inflections oi1 periphrastic constructions to express the kinds of syntacticrelationships suggested here?(177)

Gender, Modi: and OE

Another, though, much less important, difference between OE and ModEis that OE formally distinguished grammatical gender in both nouns andthird-person singular pronouns, while ModE signals natural or conventionalgender only among third person singular pronouns: kethim,tiig;she,her, hers;it, U, its. We distinguish these ModE pronouns, of course, by whether werefer to naturally masculine humans: boy, man, priest, waiter; naturally

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE! THE KOUN PHRASE 239

feminine humans: wvman, girl, waitress, priestess; or to nonhurrians ornaturally inanimate objects: rock, book, desk, idea, pig, dog, chicken. But wehave also conventionalized certain referents as feminine: She's an old tub,but a seaworthy one. Hurricane Alice blew herself out. .,

In OLi, on the other hand, grammatically masculine, feminine, andneuter nouns did not always correlate with natural gender. Among themasculine nouns were wtfmatm (woman), stan (stone), aS (oath), bat (boat),hfaf (loafJ, mete (food). Among the neuters were mxgden (girl), scip (ship),Itm (limb), ban (bone), bedd (bed), wedd (pledge), spere (spear). Among thefeminine were glof (glove), ecg (edge), hwit (space of time), ides (woman),iniiu (might), r;<rf(time), sceadu (shadow).

PROBLEM 10,9: In OE, reference back to a noun by a pronoun required genderagreement, much as in ModE: My girl fast her glove, not *Myi girl hat his jitsglove. Here are a few sentences written in ModE but with pronouns as theywere often used in OE. How must the rule of grammatical gender agreementbe qualified?(22), 222)

1. When I threw the stone, he (referring to stone) hit the window, Ttien [pickedit up add threw it again.

2. The maiden helped itself (referring to maiden reflex ively) to the food, butlater she put it back.

3. The glove was too small so I returned her (referring to ghee) to the store.They wotddn't take it hack, though,

4. The woman loved the man who kissed him (referring to woman) but shedidn't marry him.

Number, ModE and OE

In Problem 9 JO we began to deal with the problem of number throughthe semantic-grammatical change that shifts a word like grass from a categoryof nouns that does not occur in the plural to a category Lhat does. Thesyntactic consequences of Lhis uhiinge are that such nouns may occur notonly with the plural -5 marker, but after the indefinite article а/аи, as well:a grass, several grasses. The [-count] sense of grass does not take a plural andmay occur without any article at all: Grass grows everywhere. Contrast *Cardrives everywhere.

In order to account for these distributions in ModE and to understandhow OE noun phrases have changed in regard to number, we have to sketch—very briefly -how we might grammatically describe ModE number. We alreadyhave the single base rule for the N P : N P ->ARTN. Because every M P mustbe eiLher singular с г plural, we will add to this rule a symbol we have already

, 1 * лгеапкап un^rammaiica] construction.

240 URAMMiR AND SOU МП

used, number, N": NP > ART N №. We can then add another rule:№ - y [ ±singular]. This will allow us to specify whether the noun will besingular (E-h singular]' or plural ([-singular]). We need this not only toaccount for plurality in nouns: boy-boys, and so on, buL also to account forthe problems involved with the distribution of aicm and the.

The definite article may occur with any kind of noun, singular or plural,count or non-count: the boy, the boys, the food- The indclinile article я/ян mayoccur only with count nouns in the singular: a boy\ not *a boys or *я <:haa$.Indefinite count nouns in the plural may occur without any article: Bays willbe boys, as may indefinite non-count nouns: Foodmeans strength.

In order to make sure these features of count vs, поп-count, singular vs.plural, and definite vs. indefinite are indicated in all of these phrases, we haveto mark every noun phrase for [± count], [ i singular], and [± definite].Now, since noun phrases that have no articles are [-definite], that is,general, unspecified nouns, it makes sense to say that in the deep structure ofphrases like boys in Soys will be boys пай food in Food is good for you there isin fact a [-definite] ARTICLE, even though it is not pronounced in thesurface structure. One simple way to accounL for this is to make the ARTICLEan obligatory choice in the base rule: NP -^ ART N N"and then add a rubfor ART: A R T - * [ + definite]. We then have yet another kind of trans-formational rule, not one that shifts elements about or deletes them, but spellscertain groups of semantic features into words.

For example, consider these three trees:

(I) (2)

NP NP

ART N N" ART N №

[+definite] boy [-singular] [—definite] horse [ — singular][+count] [

(3)

ART

I[—definite] grass [-bsingular]

[-count]

First, we nave to transfer the features of [f count] and [ I singular] fromNOUN and NUMBER to the ARTICLE, since the ARTICLE must «Sect

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE : THE NOUN PHRASH 241

whether the noun is court лг non-count and singular or non-singular, andNUMBER to the NOUN, since its spelling will reflect number too. Here iswhat happens with (1),

ART1

[ +definite]

ARTi

[-?-definite][ +count][-singular]

Ni

1boy

[ + count]

Ni1

boy[ + count][—singular]

№i1

[—singular

Then a spelling rule spells the ARTICLE in the appropriate way. Tn this case,the ARTICLE is spelled the and the NOUN, because it is [-singular], isspelled bays.

10.10: Spell trees (2) and (3). What is to be done with proper nounslike Gevrge in George is here ?

The particular expression of definite and indefinite reference for nounphrases in OR differed in many respects from our own. Often, no overtarticle at alt was necessary where we would have to use eiLher a definite- theor an indefinite a I an:

L In devise ahbudissen mywstre нж? sum brodor syndrigtice mid godcundregife genwred.. .In this abbess's monastery was a certain brother especially with divinegift famed . . ,

2, От! far his leousongum monigra monna mod oft to woruideforhogdnisse. . . onbxrndewn'tan.And for his poemsongs many (of) men's minds often to world's

contempt, . . inspired were.3. SeCyneheardwms }>xs Sigebryhtes Ьгодог.

The Cyneheard was this Sigebryht's brother.

In (1), the si ngular gift is the first ment ion of the ©ft in Bed e' s story of thepoet Csedmon. We should translate it as, . . with a dlofaegift. Conversely in(2), we now require the world instead of just world. On the other hand, OEcould also use the definite article where we ordinarily would not- -beforenames as in (3).

242 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

TABLE 10.1 PARADIGMS FOR OE ARTICLES, NOUNS,AND TRONOLNS

Article

SingularShared

Noun ending Pronoun Inierrog. element

1.

2,

3.

4.

Masculine; (stone)Nom.: seAce.: poneDat.: piernGen.: psss

Neuter: (ship)Nom.: pst

Ace,; fatDat.: p&tnGen,: pses

Feminine; (tale)Nom.;jeoAce.: paDat.: pxreGen.: pxre

-an Group (mixedNom.; (sameAce.: articlesDat.: asGen.: above)

-0•Q

-e-es

•0

-0-L'

-es

-0-e-e

-e

{se staii)(pone stun)(jjxm stant?)(Jxts sianes)

(pset scip)(pset scip)(px/n scipe)(jyxs stipes)

(seo tab)(pa tale)(ржге Ше)(Jxzre tale)

he hwahine hwonehim hw&mhis hwiES

hit hwietMt hwxthim hwxmhis htvses

heo (nohi femininehire forms)hire

—•ne

-s

-t-t-m-s

—

•('>

-(r)emasculine, feminine, neuter nouns); (name, heart, ear)-я/-е/-е (se nanta, Seo heorte, px! eare)-anl-anj-e (pone патан, seo hear Ian, pxt eare)-an

-an{psm name», t bxre heortatupxm earan){pxs mirnan, рагге heortan, pss earan)

On the other hand, there was no OE indefinite article correspondirg toModF. e/ви at all. Otir modern a/on developed in ME out of the number an(one) as it phonologically and semanticidiy weakened. The closest thing to anindefinite article is sum, which is less definite thin the definite article but moredefinite than the abscnecof any article, which communicated the more specificsense of indefiniteness.

Overall, the paradigms for the OE articles, nouns, and pronouns, bothinterrogative and personal looked like Table 10.J, At the far left is the sharedelement that characterizes the particular gender, ease, and number. Groups(4) and (&) are examples of some of the more common irregular nouns inOE. (25,28,148, 174)

10.1]: Is there any opposition between cases that is maintained inevery gender or every Dumber? That is, masculine and neuter dative articlesand endings, pxm and -e, are identicaL erasing any gender distinction in thatcase. In the feminine, the dative and genitive articles and endings, part, and

TABLE ЮЛ (Continued)

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THL NOUN ^HKASK 243

Plurals

5.

6.

7.

Article

MasculineNom.:/иAce.: paDat.: $'£inGen.: £<м

NeuterNom,: (sameЛес.: asDat.: above)Gen.:

FeminineNom.: (sameAce.: asDat,: above)Gen.:

-an GroupNom.: (sameЛес,: asDm.: above)Gen.:

Noun ending

-as

-as

-ига

-fl

•Ф

-w/0-urn-a

-a-a-urn-a

-an-an

-uin

(pa stanas)[pa st&mtis)

(pmrn stanum}(pora siana)

(pascipu)(pascipu)(рхт sctpuffi)(parascipa)

(fxitala)(pa tala)(J)£tn tahtm)ifraratalo)

(pa namant earon,(pa naman, earan

Pronoun

hie

himhira

(sameasabove)

heortan), /icorlan)

Interrog.

(nopluralforms)

(pxm natnunj, eantm, keortum)-ena (para nammia, earenti, keoriena)

Sharedelement

——-m-(ar)a

——•m

-(ar)a

-a-a-m-(ar)a

——-m-a

-e are identical, neutralizing the case distinction in that gender. How crucialwere gender and case then 1

PROBLEM 10.12: ModC pronouns reneel gender only in third-person singular.Create a pronoun system wbicb wonld be maximally distinguished for genderand number in every person. What would be the eonsequences'.' Create agender system that would be minimally differentiated. What would be theconsequences'? Can these two systems be combined? H<?w many pronounswould each system have? (Do not count different case forms here, such as she,her.) Can you imagine a pronoun system based on features otber than case,number, gender, and person? What would a pronoun system look like thatwas based on relative social position? on age'.' on marital status V ModE lias,in fact, developed a gicnder-neutral singular third person pronoun, but atypical junior high grammar teacher would consider its use in that sense un-grammatical. What do they object to ?

244 SOUND

A second paradigm of articles was available alongside the one justsketched.

muse. IKHll. fem.

singular шип.ace.dat.gen.

ptspisnepissumpisses

pispispissumpisses

pi'OS

paspissepi.tae

plural norn.acc.dat.gen.

paspaspissumpissa

The dilTcnciicc between them is at times not always clear from the contextin which they occur. Perhaps they can be besf understood if we imagine our

own article system reduced from the three-way opposition of

ike—(this! these)—{that* those)

to a two-way opposition, with ihatjthose absorbing the function of the.

Adjectives as well as articles had to be iniiicLcd to agree with gender, case,and number of Lhc noun. The agreement system, however, was further com-plicated by the fact thai OE distinguished weak and strong adjectives, muchas Modern German does. The principle was this: The distinguishing form forcase, gender, and number usually had to mark the first clement in the nounphrase and the noun. If the first element was an article (se man), then thearticle, «?, had to indicate by its form its gender, case, and number. If thearticle was absent and the first element was an adjective, god man (good man),then the adjective has to carry an inflection (or a distinctive lack thereof)almost identical wilh the ending of an article. In such casts, the adjective wasstrung because it signalled gender, case, and number: tmmum /ahum (firmpeople): neuter, dative, plural When lhc adjective followed the article:/wmtinman foleum, then the article made the distinctions and the adjective wasweak, taking a different and much less differentiated set of endings.

FROM OE TO ME TO MudE

Inflections

Long before the end of the ME period, by the thirteenth century, theseinflections had considerably Leveled. Among the nouns, grammatical gender

GRAMMATICAL CRANGE: THE NOUN FHRASE 245

distinctions had entirely disappeared, along with all noun case markings,except the genitive. Below is a schema of the M E article, noun endings,personal pronoun and interrogative pronoun «hat corresponds to Ihc OEnominal system outlined in Table 10.1. With the exception of the femininepronouns and the third person plural pronouns, we will use the Northerndialect forms (sec Figure 10.1), which eventually spread throughout England.Even by very early M L , the weak-strong distinction among adjectives appliedonly to single syllable adjectives that ended in a consonant, like god (good),not to adjectives likc_/>e (generous), open (open), or grew (green).

Before the end of the twelfth century, however, as the strong-weak.distinction began to disappear, scribes were adding final -e's to adjectivesalmost indiscriminately. Some traces of case-gender distinctions can befound in Southern and Midland texts as late as the twelfth century, but dis-appear soon after that, (98, 150, 154) The following paradigm does notsuggest the variety of forms found even within a single dialect. Over time, thesecond personal plural pronoun, for example, varied over ew, он, jew, ^ou, and

Between OE and ME, the first and second person pronouns changed lessdrastically than the rest of the system. The earliest ОЕ texts had a distinctive

\NORTHERN

V

i — ' SOUTHI WESTERW

Л

BAST IMitlLAND J

/ EASrrtiKN

Figure J0,1. Middle EngMsh Dialctt Areas

246 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

TABLR 10.2 PARADIGMS FOR MR ARTICLES, NOUNS,AMU PRONOUNS

SingularArticle Weak Adj. Strong Adj.

Masc. Nom. the -eigode) 0 {god)Ace.Dat.

Ate.

Neut. Nom.Ace.Dat.Gen.

Fein. Nom.Aci.Dat.Gen.

(Note: heo is the Southern and Western form, sche the Midland form, andsrhct the Northern form. The third person plural pronouns below arc in thesame order: roughly Southern, Midland, Northern. There was no distinctiveinterrogative plural.)

Nuitn0 (man)0 (man)

U){man(e))

•es

(manes)

Pronounhehinehim

his

№(A)flhimhisheolschejschohir

hir

bif(e)

inter.who

whomwhom

whm

whatwhatwhomwhoswhowhomwhomwhos

Nom.Ace.Gen,

the -e(gvde) -e(g(ttle) -es [stones)

her{e)jherelpetr{e)

accusative singular form, but by late OE, the dative and accusative wereidentical. The forms listed below separated by slashes; meefme, are earlierand later forms in the OF and ME periods. The mia-mi, thin-thy distinctionsin ME were contextual!}1 determined forms, a question we shall return to.

Ot-Nom.Асе.Out.Gen.

Nom.Ace.Dat.Gen.

Singular

ME

ichll

Plural

meojntememin

pupeejpe

mememin-mi

ihouifteetheetkin~thy

OE

weusicjususure

MEweus, onus, аиur(e)

ge yeeowicjeow eujyoueow eujyoueower

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE NOUN PHRASE 247

In addition to these forms, OE and very early ME had dual forms, witand gir, which meant h*we two" and "yc two." They were inflected much likethe other forms: wit-uncirSunc-uttc-^uncer, git-iitcitlinc-uic-incer.

PROBLEM 10.13: What are the major distinctions lost in the pronouns betweenME and early Modi:? Here arc the early ModF (post 1500 or so) pronouns.(It should be noted that in many British dialect areas, ihou,thee,thy,thine, andye Bit still used,)

Plural

Iyou

heit

she

meyouhimit

her

my

yourhis

itsjither

mineyours !your{e)nhisjhis(e}n—

hen-Shir (e)n

we

youthey

usyouthem

ouryourtheir

ourjour(e)nyours jyour{e)ntheirsjtheir(e)n

Our{e)n, yovr(e)n, his{e)n, ker(e)n, and their(e)n are from the Midland andSouthern dialects. The forms ours, yours, his, hers, and theirs arc of Northand North Midland origin.

PROBLEM 10.14: The source of the modern myjmitie distinction is illustratedin the following ME and Early ModE examples. Ex plain what happened. Butfirst review the OE genitive forms, my rfere here, mynherte, thisynne and thynojjfcnce, to slay mine enemies and ayde my friends, I cut mine arm, and with myMood Assume my soul Shakespeare has these: Give every та» thine eare butfew thy voyce, myowne life, mine uncle, my hand, thy foot, thy ambition. By theearly eighLeenth century, my, and но on, is normal everywhere before nouns;rrme, and so on, as a pronominal possessive,

PROBLEM 10.15: In rapid pronunciation, we say / know'm to mean eitherI know them or / know him. Yet when we rapidly pronounce I know theirhouse or I know they left, we do not drop the initial th sound. Might there bean historical explanation for this?

PROBLEM 10.16: Yours, hers, ours, and so on did not occur in OE. How wouldyou explain their origin? They began lo appear in Early ME, eventuallyreplacing the uninfiected anaphoric pronoun by the middle of ihe sixteenthcentury. One of the last examples of Lhe uninfiected anaphoric pronouns is asentence Like . , - elernail dampnacyon isyoure.

PROBLEM 10.17: His{e)n, our<e)n, your(e)n, her{e)n, their(e)n developed in theSouth and Midland of England. What might explain their introduction?What social distinctions do they make today in Lhis country? Where arc Lheyfound? Why?

24$ GRAMMAR AND SOUND

PROBLEM 10.18: Let us assume from the extant documents that OE based itscase system strictly on the kinds of grammatical relationships describedbefore and after Problem 10.6. That is, no matter where in a sentence apronoun happened to occur, it was ordinarily in the case required by thegoverning verh or preposition. Here are some examples of ModE to consider.Comment, ft'sme. He's better than me. Him and me left. Him I dot?t like, Whodid you want to see? With whan} did you wish to speak? You saw who? It is I.Whom did you see? Between you and I, he's afetoL

Between OE and ME, the system of articles before nouns also changedgreatly. First, an indefinite article ajan developed out of the number an (one),though its use was not as predictable as it has become in MndE. Second, theinvariable/>f developed very rapidly in the twelfth century as the replacementfor the entire article system of OE. Although some remnants of gender-casedistinctions can be found among articles in the South into the thirteenthcentury, pa had become the standard article in Lhe North by 1200, (209)

PROBU^ 10.19; Where did fa, ancestor of the, come from?

The outlines of our demonstrative system had also developed. Ft is fairlyevident that this descended from /i/r, neuter nominative; and that from pser,also neuter nominative, but from the other paradigm. From pes had comethese, white those probably descended from the plural pa, which by analogydeveloped the plural pas. it is not entirely clear why the article system shouldhave developed a near-far distinction. It may be that here-there, now-then,thusso provided some impetus.

Although the ttioujtheejihy pronouns are still used among some religiousgroups in this country and in many parts of England, they had generallydisappeared from educated usage at least by the beginning of the eighteenthcentury. But between their simple use as singular second person pronouns atthe beginning of the MF period and their loss 600 years later, the particularuse afiheeithott was part of a socio-iinguistic event that is still felt in most ofthe languages of Europe. During the fourth century A.D., the second personplural in Latin, rax, developed a second meaning. It began to be used whenaddressing social superiors as a mark of respect. It may have had its originwhen the Roman Empire was governed by two emperors, <jne in Rome, theother in Constantinople. Those addressing Lhe Emperor as an institution wererequired to use the plural. Perhaps those in court personally addressing oneof them also felt obliged to use the plural form. In any event, the practicespread across Europe and in the thirteenth century, to England, where inimitation of the upper-class French iujvous, the English began Seeing andyouing one another.

This usage soon included another dimension of social distinction. As theyou became the mark of respect from inferior to superior or between socially

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE NOUN PHRASE 249

superior equals, the thvu form came to mark intimacy between Family mem-bers and lovers, then developed as a mark of solidarity between speakers whoshared a set of values. It also developed one more dimension of usage—contempt. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, when Sir Toby Belch is urging onSir Andrew Aguecheck to write a challenging letter to the disguised Viola, hesays:

Go, write it in a martial hand; be curst and bricfc; it is no matter how wittie,so it bet eloquent and full of invention: :aunt him with the license of In къ: ifthou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be aniisse-.

IH.ii.

PROBLEM 10.20: Discuss the use of youfthou in one of the following: (I) Afairly long scene from Shakespeare (some suggestions: Hamlet, Ffl.iv; AsYou Like It, IV-i; Antony and Cleopatra, V.ii; The Merchant of Venice, IV.i;The Two Gentlemen of Verona, V.iii, (2) The links (including Prologues)between several of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. (3) Sir Gawain and the GreenKnight (particularly the encounters between Gawain. and the l*ady). Do notuse modernized texts for the last two. (20, 21, 24, 51, 105, 155, 232)

PROBLEM 10.2i: We arc no longer able to manipulate the social tone of ourconversations through pronouns. What devices are available today to expresssocial distance, solidarity, contempt, or close emotional relationship4,' Do notinclude tone of voice, posture, expression, and so on. Consider modes ofaddress (what do you call your instructor 7 what does he call you ?), vocabulary,pronunciation, syntax. Write about thirLy lines of dialogue which begin in avery intimate tone of solidarity, switch to contempt about line JO, then to asuperior-inferior relationship at about line 20.

Relative Clauses

The rule for the noun phrase: N P ^ ART N №, is still too simple toaccount for longer, more complex noun phrases. Nor have we adequatelydealt with the genitive. For example, these relative clauses would also haveto be included in any description of the noun phrase: ike ww» who was dead,the girl whom I saw, the man whose friend left, the book which 1 read, the dogthai was by the door, the tree which is blowing in the wind, and so on.

In those cases where a full relative clause is present, the relative clausehas Lhc same basic structure as a sentence. The relative pronoun stands foran element in its clause semantically identical to the noun it follows. In thenoun phrase, the boy who left, who left has a subject who and a verb left Who"stands for" or, more accurately, replaces the boy in the clause. If this is so,then the deep structure of a noun phrase with a relative clause would look

250 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

something like this: [the boy [the boy te/fJsW A transformation movesthe repeated article and noun in the clause, the boy, to the beginning of itsclause. Id the case of the boy [(lie boy left.], they are already there. But theymust be moved in the boy [I ssw the boy), -¥ the boy [the boy i saw]. Therepeated noun phrase is then transformed into a relative pronoun: the boy[the boy /лети-1] -»• the boy [whom fsaw]. In the case of a genitive, the genitiveand its following noun are moved:

the boy [I bought tbc boy's book]-> the boy [the hoy's book T bought]—5- the boy [whose book 1 bought]

So we must revise the NP rule once more and add some transformations.Since a relative clause is only a transformed sentence embedded in a nounphrase, we can simply add an S to the NP: NF*->ART N Mu (S). Thetransformations (I) shift the repeated NP forward to the head of its clauseand (2) change it to a relative pronoun.

JO.22: Here are some additional data regarding ModE relativeclauses. Comment.

I • The man who left was в friend.I. The man whom i saw was a friend,3. The man that Isa w was и friend.4. The man that left was a friend.5. *The man wh ich left was a friend.6. The watt to wham I spoke was a friend,7. The man wiio(/n)f spoke to was a friend,8. The fttttn that [spake to was a friend.9. *The man to that! spoke was a friend.H>. The man I spoke to was a friend.I 1 . The ma» Isaw was a friend.12. *J talked to the man walked down the street. (I.e., the man who walked. . .)13, *The book who I read was dull

10.23: J-fL-ге are several examples of relative clause patterns fromOE, MF, and Early ModE written in ModE, except for the relative pronoun.Sketch a very rough history of the changes in relative clauses and suggest thekinds of transformational changes that have occurred in the last 1000 years.If a form of a relative clause is asterisked, assume that it would have been un-grammatical in the period; that is, an example of it has never been found. Forexample, *Ic knows the man who iefte would not have been possible in 1300.(In the OE examples, jbe is an indeclinable particle.)

CHANGE: THE NOUN PHRASE 251

Ofc

L The man se was there left. The man pone I know stayed.2. The ship pxt was there sank. The spear pxt you bad broke.3. The щ\оие seo was (here was lost. The talu pa you heard is old.4. The maiden to psem f spoke left.5. The king topsem I spoke left.6. The w i/e tepicrelspoke left.7. The man pel saw left. The ship pe was there sank .The glove fie the man looked

for was lout.8. The boat sepe sank was old. 1have the horse pmte fie you want. The landpset

pe is fertile is eastward, i saw the child pmm pe you entertained. I saw thewoman fie left. The glove soe pe ripped is mine.

9. *The man pxm I spoke to left. *The ship pxm I looked at sank. *Thewoman pxre I spoke to left.

10. *The man to fie 1 spoke left. *The ship at pe I looked sank. *The woman to pe/spoke left.

11. The man I saw left. I saw the man walked down the street. I hate the swordк Hied the warrior.

ME(prt>1450)

12. The man pel saw was here (frequent),13. The man to which I spoke was here (less frequent).14 The wan whom I saw 1ф (less frequent).15, The maul saw left.16, 1 talked io the man walked down the street.17, The man fixt I saw left.IS. *The man to pxt I spoke left.19. The тип whose book I read left.20. The man who was here left (very in fneque tit),21. The man whom that you saw left.22. The man whose that book I read left.25. The man the which was here left.24, The man the which man was here left.25, The man which that was here left.26, I spoke to a man, which man was my friend.

ME-Eariy ModE (1450 -1550)

(13), (14), {20) become more frequent but disappear by 1500; (21), (22),(23), (24), (25), (26) become less frequent.

Early ModE

(13) beeomes less common; (21), (22), (23), (24), (25) disappear; (2rt), Theman which 1 saw left begins to disappear. (36,221)

252 GRAMMAR AMD SOUND

The Genitive

Constructions like Tom's hat, my friend's defeat, the teacher's performance,Bill's weakness are closely related to the relative clause construction. But wehave to distinguish four kinds of genitives, only one of which we can correctlycall possessive: George's haf. We might generate such a phrase in a series oftransformations roughly like the following:

the hat [George ^possesses) the hat]-> the hat [the hat George (possesses)]-* that hat [which George possesses)]-* the hat [of George]-> George's hat

That is, in the deep structure of the noun phrase, George's hat, is anembedded sentence which defines the semantic relationship between Georgeand hat, a relationship that eventually will be realized as the genitive; orpossessive: George's hah (Whether the actual verb in the deep structuresentence is a specific word like have or possess or own, or whether the verbshould be represented rather as an abstract bundle of semantic features thatabstractly represents a deep structure meaning (if possession has been debatedat length and generally resolved in favor of the more abstract interpretation.)

10,24: Comment on constructions like these: George's performance,ihe man's escape, my disappearance, your release, his defeat, their encirclementby the enemy, our capture, her sickness, Tom's weakness, his intelligence, theirstrength. (Their equivalents were found in OE.)

PROBLLM 10.25: Here are some genitives from before 1600 or so. Comment.

1. for the wyveslove of Bathe (i.e., for the Wife of Bath's love),2. The Dukes wyfe ofTintagail (i.e., the D uke of Ti ntagail'a wi fe),3. The Archbishop's Grace of York (i.e., the Archbishop of York's grace).

This pattern was the rule before the 16th century. After, group genitiveslike the Duke of York's land became common, replacing the earlierpattern. (46)

pRUBi.EM 10.26: In Early Mod£, patterns such as the man his heart was bro-ken begin to appear. By the seventeenth century, the apostrophe possessive:the man's heart was broken is felt to represent a contraction. Comment.

One very important difference between OE and ModE genitive construc-tions is that OE did not, ordinarily, allow the of- paraphrase: George'sperformance = the performance of George, his hat = a hat of his, the enemy's

GRAMMATICAL CHANCE; THE NOUN PHRASE 253

weakness — Jiie weakness of the enemy. Moreover, the genitive could eitherprecede or follow the modified word: £ш ejmtoges moan (the king's man) asopposed to sumne dselpass htafes (some part (of) the bread),

Then, between the years 900 and 1250 or so, a major change occurred inthe form of the genitive, a change related to that which fixed the S-V-(C)word order and increased the structural load carried by prepositional phrases.In 900, the genitive occurred before the noun about half the time: hisfeondastege (his enemies' defeat), and after about half the time: <em~ge pinga ([by]any [of] means). By 1000, the inflected genitive occurred after its noun onlyabout 31 percent of the time: by 11Q0, about 23 percent; by 1200 about13 percent, and by 1250, less than 1 percent. By 1300, the inflected genitivewas permanently fixed before the noun it modified.

But as the genitive became fixed before the noun, the periphrasticgenitive, the genitive expressed by of, began to increase in frequency. In Ш),the (^/-construction occurred in less than one half of one percent of thegenitive constructions. By 1200, it still occurred in only about 6 percent of theconstructions. But then by about 1250, it jumped to about 32 percent of allgenitive constructions, and then to almost 85 percent in 1300. In other words,as the position of the inflected genitive became fixed before the noun, itsrelative frequency decreased in favor of the prepositional phrase after thenoun. (65) The change can be best seen on a graph (Figure 10.2).

PROBLEM 10.27: If Baugh's figures on the proportion of French words bor-rowed at various periods in ME are reliable (Problem 4rJ2), would they tendte confirm or contradict the claim that the of + NP phrase resulted fromthe influence of the French de + NP?

The periphrastic genitive may have spread so rapidly because preposi-tional phrases were in general becoming more important. It may also be that

100

DO

M:

70

60

JO

40

v>20

10

0

Pre-noun inflected ^ — -

1 — - ^ ^

•~~ —

isi

•

~ ~

= " =

~ — — - - .

, • "

\ /

\ /

Л. • - \

\

J00

Kfl

Ml

SOD I MO LOSO ПНЮ [200 L25O

[00

L300

10.2, Construction of the Genitive

254 ^ЙАЧУЛК AN» SOUND

the French genitive construction with d? became a strong model: Femme dechambre. Whatever its ultimate cause, ihe change further illustrates the twobasic structural principles of our language after the Norman Conquest:

|, Word order w;ts becoming increasingly fixed.2. I nflcctions were decreasing in Favor of periphrasis.

There is some evidence that even the inflected genitive is disappearingin some nonstandard. dialects today. Both in Great Britain and in the UnitedStates, one can hear genitive phrases such as my wife father, she boy hdtt andso on. Whether this inflection began disappear ing centuries ago and is merelyreflected in the current speech of nonslandard speakers, or whether (his is arelatively recent innovation that heralds the loss of the last overt case distinc-tion among common nouns remains to be seen.

CAUSES OF GRAMMATICAL CHANGI-".

Now that we have described some of the overl patterns of OF, ME, andModF, noun phrases and have a very general idea of how the grammar ofthese patterns has changed, we can turn our attention to why these patternsmay have changed in these ways. Like so many other changes in the lan-guage, (he replacement of a highly inflected, variable word order in OL by aslightly inflected, relatively fixed word order system in Mi: undoubtedly had.both internal and external causes.

PRoni.F.vr I0.2K: This general change, the loss of inflections and the fixing ofS-V-(C) word order, occurred between roughly 1000 and 1400, though thetendency toward this change can be delected as early as 900 in some dialects.The crucial period seems to be between about 11П0 and ООП. Looking backat the external history of language during these 4Ш years, and more partic-ularly at the 200 years between П0О and П00, speculate what causes mighthave contributed to Mich a change. Whitt information would you particularlylike to have7 What do the following data suggest? In ninth century OF. prose,subject and object are inflectionally distinguished less than half the time.When they are not, 94 percent of the distances are in Subject-Object order.When they arc inficctionally distinguished, S-O order occurs 93 percent ofthe time. (Robert L Saitz. Functional Word Order in Old Lnylish Subject-Ohjccr Patterns, LJnpub. diss., Madison, Wise., 1955. Quoted in Cassidy andRingler)

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE NOUN PHRASE 255

In conjunction with these external forces, perhaps in a necessary con-junction for the change (o occur, was a major Lnlernttl force. We have saidlittle about how OE or ME was pronounced. But here we must point out onephonological characteristic of OL and ME that may have strongly influencedthe loss of inflections, a cause thai probably worked in conjunction with anincreasingly predictable S-V-(C) order, even in OE,

Generally speaking, words of Germanic origin and Romance wordsthat were completely assimilated into ME stressed the root or initial syllable,unless the first syllable was a prefix like ge- or Ы-, Thus we have words likeOPe/i, After, ANtmal, CAStte, Final, ACcident, ALchemy, STAXdard, Un~assimilated Romance words, mostly borrowed since Early ME, usuallystress the last syllable: tnuCHWE.poLICE, SaTRINE.proTECT, comMEND,and so on.

In rapid heavily-accented speech, unstressed final syllables tend to losetheir distinctive vowel quality as they are reduced to a kind of indistinguishablemid-central vowel called schwa, a sound symbolized /в/. It is the sound of thefirst syllable of allow or aboie or the vowel of the second syllable of zebra orbolted. \\\ OE, however, the vowel in the end ings had to be clearly distinguishedin speech. Otherwise, speakers could confuse endings like -es and -as; -tin, -ent

and -on; -ы, -e, and -a.

As early as the tenth century, speakers began to reshape the lightlystressed dative plural ending -um to -unt perhaps by analogy with the other -nendings. Whatever the cause, by Late OE -un had begun to occur as the newending for many -um forms.

PROBLEM 10.29: How would this affect the oppositions among the cases andgenders? Would any distinctions be lost as long as the vowel in -un were stillclearly pronounced ? (See Table 10. I,)

PROBLEM 10,30: By the eleventh century OE scribes were often writing wordsearlier spelled like those among the first of each of the following pairs in a newway, like those among the second of each pair. What does this suggest?fiscas-fisces, bitori-biten, trumatt-trumen, gwttan-gumett, eagutn-eagem, dxda-

HRORI.FM 10.31: If-um endings had become -un, and if endings that had oncehad clearly pronounced vowels spelled <a>, <e>, <o>, and <u>, becameendings spelled <e> and probably pronounced /э/, how would the oppositionsamong the cases, genders, and numbers be affected4-' Refer to the list ofendings in Table 10.1 and systematically change all -ttnt to -un, then all vowelsin the endings to <e>,

PROBLEM 1U.32: By Lhe end of the eleventh century, the final -n in inflectionalendings began to disappear loo, leaving only a general ,'э/ sound, spelled <e),

256 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

in place of /en/, spelled <-en>. How would the loss of/n/ affect the distinctionsamong case, gender, and number? Refer again to the endings listed in Table10.1. Change all -ett endings to just -e.

PROBLEM 10ЗЪ: Strictly on the basis of these changes, what should the in-flectional system for nouns have looted like by ME? Here is the actual nounparadigm that resulted:

SingularPlural

\om,/Acc.

Stanstones

Dative (Infrt

slon(e)stones

•qiR'nf) Geniti

stonesstones

Where are the unexpected inconsistencies? What has to be explained in a wayother than by predictable phonological changes?

PROBT.FM 10.34: Eventually, in Late ME, even the final unstressed /э/ largelydisappeared {though scribes added final <-f) indiscriminately, evidence thatthe system was breaking down). How did the loss of /э/ affect the inflectionalsystem? What would you say was the crucial point in this progressive loss ofinflections?

PROBLEM 10.35: From the meter of poetry, we can tell that words likejumped, kittges, stopped, dogges, and egges were often, two-syllable words.Examine some poetry between 13OO-J80O to determine when they consistentlybecame single syllable words. (146, 147,144,150}

SOME MODERN SURVIVALS OF OE INFLECTIONS

Despite the fact that most of the gender, case, and number system in OE wasleveled in ME, we can find some survivals of the system in the irregularitiesand anomalies of ModE inflections.

PROBLEM 10.36: There is one group of nouns in English whose plurals fre-quently have no -л endings: I saw twenty sheep, eight swine, four deer? twomoose, six buffalo, five caribou, seven fish, twelve haddock, six perch, foursalmon, two trout, three bass, nine tuna, four mackerel, and so on A n ME, therewere a few others: two horse, four neei (cattle), six folk. Swine, sheep, deer,folk, neet, and horse all descend from a class of neuter nouns whose pluralending was -u. Fish was a masculine with a regular plural, fiscas. Buffalo is aLatin word dating from 1588; caribou is French Canadian, 1774; moose is a

GRAMMATICAL CHANCE! THE KOUN PHRASE 257

Narragansett Indian word adopted in the United States after colonial times.The fish-words come from a variety of sources, many borrowed into MEfrom Old French. Comment.

PROBLEM 10.37: In other phrases of measure, ModE nouns also lack a plural,though in this case, the nouns come from any OE gender: a tat foot pale, afive dollar bill, a four year old child, a five yard gain* a twenty minute wait, andso on. In parts of this country and in England one can also hear phrases likeIt's two foot long* He walked fire mile, andsoon. In OE phrases that count orenumerate a noun, the noun was typically plural genitive: seofan rniia (seven(of) miles), tweofeta (two (of) feet). What happened?

10.38: In ME, the plural -en ending was common in the Southerndialects. But the -s plural ending common in the North and Midlands Anallypushed -en out of the language, leaving only three relics in ModE: child-children (actually double plural, the original plural being cildru), ox-oxen, andthe archaic brother-brethren. "Why might we have expected the Northern andMidland forms with ~s to replace the Southern -n forms in Late ME, ratherthan vice versa?

Another small category of irregular plurals in English are those whichindicate plurality by a vowel change: foot-feet, tooth-teeth, goose-geese,mouse-mice, louse-lice, man-men. The group was iarger in OE, Their origingoes back to the Germanic period, before any written records. The Germanic

• form of geese was something like *g{n>siz. The Prc-OE form was probablyclose to *gosi. In "very early OE the plural -r ending caused the back vowel/o/ as in goat to mutate or umlaut:, to become first a rounded front vowel likeGerman o, which then unrounded to become a front vowel {ej as in gate.When the -/ ending was lost, only ges (pronounced like gase) remained tocontrast with gos (pronounced to rhyme with dose).

PROBLEM 10.39: These nouns were in OE also umlaut plurals. Had analogynot put them into the regular noun class, how might we pronounce theirp!ura!s today: oak, goat:,foe, cow, shroud, book?

PROBLLM 10.40: How do we explain these irregular plurals: banditti, stadia,foci, cherubim, formulae, gladioli, phenomena, data, opera, agenda, stamina,stimuli, curricula'!

Adjectives and AdverbsWe have already touched on the case and gender endings of adjectives.

Anothcr kind of ending is the comparative and superlative. OE comparisonswere much like some of those of today: keardm (harder) for masculine nomina-

258 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

tive and accusative, heardre for feminine and neuter nominative and accusa-tive, heardoit (hardest) for all genders. The common element -r and -st isretained today. But there were also significant differences.

PROBLEM 10.41: The rule generating comparatives and superlatives in OEwould generate forms like modcearigra (more troubled in heart), feohgifrost(most greedy for wealth), andgitfullkost (most intelligibly), mmhygdlgra (moreimprudent), bMra (more joyful), blindosl (blindest), tndryhtenost (mostnoble), hatheorteat (most hot tempered). In educated ME, we find comparisonslike more wylde (wilder), moreswete (sweeter), mosiegrecyus (most gracious),moostprofitable (most profitable), otder, kngar (longer), most mylde (mildest),mare pore (poorer), mylder, moste old, the most fairest damyseues, the moregretter king. In Late ME and Early ModE t we find more ruefullyr, pooriste,horryblestt merueyllest, thinner, famousest, gladdest, diligent'este, mehncholiest,ancknter, more nere, most tkyk, mootf abiecte (abject), most rifch, moreplesani, more auntieut (ancient), moos! adieuturous^ more fressher, morediligenter, most worshipfuliest, most sharpest wit ted, more worser, more neerer,most cruellest, most fittest. From about the eighteenth century, we findcomparison much as it is today. Comment.

Adverbs in OE and early ME were formed by adding -e to an adjective:beorht {bx\^t\X)-beohrte (brightly). Our -!y ending comes from an adjectiveending -Нее which weakened to -ly and was then reinterpreted as the mark ofan adverb. The adjectives friendly, homely, earthty, heavenly, and so on stilluse that original ending,

PROBLEM 10.42: Sentences like these are considered "ungraminatical" bymany grammar teachers. He walked slow. She sang real sweet. He talks tooloud. He got up pretty quick. Sentences very similar to these are not consideredungrarnmalical: Иг walks fast. I work hard. They ran far. Comment, using ahistorical mode of explanation.

One expression in ModE He works nights, I work days, We live theresummers, sounds like a modern plural noun serving an adverbial function-Some historians of the language would argue that such expressions are"really" singular genitives. OE had a construction that added the genitiveinflection to the noun to give a construction with the sense of He works (of)night. From the point of view of a linguistically naive ModE speaker, though,a sentence like lam there weekends can only be interpreted as having a pluralnoun in an adverbial function. At some point in the past, the genitive wassimply reinterpreted as a plural. From the same source comes the final -J ofonce from ones (ones), twice, thrice, homewards, southwards, sideways, always,sometimes, backwards.

Chapter 11

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE VERBPHRASE

INFLECTIONS: MndE AND OE

Like the noun phrase in ModE, the verb phrase lias also lost most of anearlier, more extensive set of inflections. And like the noun phrase, the verbphrase has also developed an elaborate system of periphrastic or phrasalconstructions that communicate fine shades of tense, aspect, and voice:He will have been helped, He has been being careful, and но on. We will examinethe history of these patterns as we did the history of the noun phrase: First wewill organize the data to see how the forms of OE, ME, and ModF. verbsdiffer. Then to understand how the grammars that generated these structureshave changed, we will construct some very simple rules for them. Finally,we wij| speculate about what caused these changes.

The ModE verbal inflections are limited: (I) to the third person singularpresent tense -s: He goes', (2) to a. general past tense inflection, often calledthe preterit, that we spell -ed for the regular form, in a variety of other waysfor irregular verbs: sleep-slept, tkink-thought, felt-fell, go-went. Two otherinflecLions indicate aspect, or the state of the action: ongoing, over, about tobegin, and so on. (3) The progressive -wig form marks the verb after theprogressive be and signals the ongoing but usually temporary nature of an

259

260 OHA4MAR *MD SOUMTi

action: Contrast Й is mining here with // rains here. And (4) the perfectparticiple which, like the past, marks verbs in a variety of v/sy&: fatten, seen,gone, stopped. 11 mar к s t he verb after the au x i Li а гу /щи? that sign aJs t be bou ndedperiod of an action r He saw the picture vs. He has seen the picture, and theverb after the passive be: He was seen.

The Past and Perfect

The ModE past tense and perfect forms arc difficult to describe brieflybecause of reasons that go back into (n do-European prehistory. A patternthat distinguishes Indo-European languages from other language families isablaut, or a vowel change in verbs that signals different tense and aspects:wg-sang-swig^fril-fetfyalbn^fty-jiew-jlown. Through the last ten centuries,about half of the over 300 originally strong verbs have disappeared. Over 80originally strong O£ irregular ablaut verbs have become weak, so that theynow follow the regular -td form of the past tense and perfect participle end-ings. But almost 70 strong verbs remain strong, and a handful of originallyweak verbs, by a kind of reverse analogy, have joined them.

Excepting be and do, strong verbs in English have at the most threeforms: infinitive: sing, walk, hurl; past or preterit: sang, walked, hurt; andperfect participle: sung, walked, hurt. Some OE verbs, on the other hand,had four, (1) The infinitive form served as the root, for the present form:beodtm-ic beode (I command). (2) A second form served as the form for thepast singular first and third person: kfhe bead (I/he commanded). (3) A thirdform served for past plurals and past second person singular; puiwejgei/ikbudon (you/we/you/they commanded). (4) A fourLh form served for the perfectparticiple: re ftsebbe (ge)boden. (I have commanded). Ge~ was a typical prefixin the perfect form.

PROBLEM 11.1: Traditionally, the OE strong verbs are organized into sevenclasses, depending on the kind of ablaut in the vowel. For ModE strongverbs, however, such categories are largely useless for three reasons: becausesound changes in the last ten centuries have obscured the original basis forclassifying them, because a fairly large number of weak verbs have becomeirregular through other sound changes, and because inconsistent analogy hasmade speakers choose ипpredictably from among the four OE forms toselect the three forms we now use. Originally strong were the OE ancestorsof all the ModE verbs listed below. First is an example of the class that is stillstrong: for Class I, rise-rose-risen. Then follows a list of other* that are stillirregular verbs: write, ride, and so on. Following that in parentheses areModE verbs that were once strong in that class but are now weak: Гп Class Iarc abide, glide, and so on; in II arc reeked, shoved, chewed, and so on. On the

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE L THE VERB PHRASE 261

basis of the model and the other verbs, how would you guess a sampling ofthose weak verbs would be pronounced today if they were still strong?

Class I: rise-rose-risen: write, ride, bestride, bite, shine, drive, slide,Strike, smite {abide, glide, spew, writhe).

Class II: freeze-froze-frozem creep, fly, cleave, shoot, hse.fiee, choose{reek, shove, chew, rue, brew, lie [prevaricate], seethe).

Class III: drink-drank-drunk: shrink, begin, sink, sing, run, swing, ring,Slink, spring, swim, bind, wind, spin, find, cling, grind, sting,swell, win, fight, burst (climb, burn, help, delve, melt, carve,starve, mourn, spurn, bark, yell, yield, swallow).

Class IV: steaf-stole-stofen: break, beer, tear, come, shear.Class V; weape-wove-woven: tread, eat, give, see, sit, lie, speak {knead,

weigh, fret, wreak, scrape, reap).Class VI: shake-shook-shaken; draw, forsake, stand, slay, swear, wake

(fare, bake, wade, shave, wash, heave, step, gnaw, laugh, flay,engrave).

Class VII: fall-fell-fallen; hang, hold, know, mow, sow, grow, hew, blow,weep, read, beat {wax [grow], flow, dread, row, blend, crow,leap, span).

PROBLEM 11.2: Here is an artificial example of "illiterate, uneducated speech."Comment, / writ hint that the flowers ris because he holp me last year when wedim the hill in plant them. When we sot on the top, we seed all the stones, so we

,flang them in the pond. The big ones we digged a hole for and hove them in. (Notealhhc irregular forms like ris, holp, clim, and sot and so on have occurred invarious dialects of British and American English.) (4, T74)

The kinds of judgments that prescriptive grammarians make about verbforms like these very often take on a tone of divine authority. The fact is,"correct" and "incorrect1" verb forms are more a matter of historical chancethan grammatical inevitability. Many originally strong verbs have becomeweak. Those speakers who say He dim the stairs happen to be using the histori-cally attested to form. Some weak verbs, on the other hand, have becomestrong: He dug the hole andfiangit hi. It just so happens that dug has become anacceptable new past form. At one time, digged was the ''correct" preterit.Flang, on the other hand, is not, even though iL exactly models the preteritof sang, swam, rang, and others. And in many dialects, of course, some of theverbs which are strong in standard English have been regularized to becomeweak. Just as knead, weigh, wreak, and reap have been regularized, so havego to goed, draw to dravted, swing to swinged, see to seed, and so on. It justso happens that those who used new weak preterits like weighed and wreakedwere apparently more socially prestigious than those who regularize and useseed, goed, anddrawed. (170)

262 QRAMMAH AND SOUND

PROBLEM 11.3: Are there any irregular verbs which are in the process ofbecoming regular today? How do you know?

The model for regularizing strong verbs, of course, is the paradigm of"weak verbs, which included by far the greatest number of verbs in OE. Withsome except ions, weak verbs did not change their stressed vowels to signalpreterits, but ra the r added a feature that d isti ngu is ties t he Genna trie languages:the dental preterit, the source of our -ed past tense ("dental" because the/d/-/t/ sounds are made by placing the tip of the tongue against the back ofthe upper teeth): in iufie (I love) vs. ic lufadt (I loved). In some cases the OEverbs added just -de: ic deme (judge) ic denude (Г judged); in others, -tde or-ode: ic trymede (I strengthened), re endode (I ended).

PROBLEM 11.4: In OE, preterit endings with vowels—ode and -ede—werealways pronounced as full syllables: la/ode was a three syllable word, forexample. Today, it is a one syllable word: laved. At some time before ModE,the final -e was lost and the penultimate (second to last) vowel was syncopated,at dropped. Suggest a way to determine when the final -e was lost and whenthe vowel before the /d/ was lost,

PROBLEM 11.5: Fs it possible to predict the exact pronunciation of the regulardental preterit endings in ModE? Consider these words: pushed, snapped,danced, bombed, culled, buzzed, hissed, ended, lurched., judged, fitted, rubbed,ripped, longed, routed, star Jed. How would you explain the inconsistency be-tween spelling and pronunciation?

(Among the irregular verbs now in ModE arc these: lead-led, speed-sped,deal-dealt, set-set, meet-met. But these were originally weak in OE, with novowel alternation. The ModE variations resulted from a sound change thatwe shall look at more closely when we discuss phonology.)

Person Endings

In addition to these vowel changes and the dental preterit to indicatetense and perfect forms, OE, ME, and Harly ModE had other endings thatalso indicated the person and the number of the subject. Some of these canstill be found in ihe eonscrvative usage of the King James Bible (1611): Явиsaith the Lord. . . , Kno\v$1 thou not this . . . , If thcu hadst. . ., When thouwast young.... By this time, however, it had generally disappeared fromstandard written English and probably in educated spoken English. In somerural areas of England, however, it has been reported as late as this century.

If we compare the regular weak endings from OE through ModE, wecan see better how they have changed. In the ML list in the table, the first

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THt VERB PHRASE 263

form represents the Northern endings; the second the Midland; the third,the Southern.

lirst SecondSingularOEME

ic cysse pit cys(se)sticfi к iss(e)!kisse!k:sse pu kisses)к tsses(t)j

Third

hecy.isep

EModE I kiss you kisskissestkissephe kisses

Plural <sitim.1 for all ijursoiisj

OE we cyssafrME wekissesjkisse{n)!kissei>EModE we kissModE we kiss

PreteritOEMEEModEModE

PluralOEMEEModEMoilL

ic cystekit kistjkistejkisteI kissedI kissed

we cyst Oftwe kislikiste(n)lkiste(n')we kissedwe kissed

pucystestpu kistikistestlk is testyoujthoukissestyou kissed

he cystehe kistjkisteikistehe kissedhe kissed

IJ.6: Compare the endings in the table above. What endingscompletely disappeared? What endings in ML are not predictable from OE?What endings in ModE are not predictable from ME? How might they beexplained?

FROBLEM 11.7: Go through the iame sequence of phonetic changes describedfor noun endings: (1) Unstressed vowels level to /»/. (2) /an/ endings become/a/. (3) Final /э/ endings disappear. What contrasts are lost first? What arethe exceptions to this sequence uf changes?

PROBLEM 11.8: A number of explanations have been given for the adoptionof the third person -s. Here arc five. Comment.

1. The third person -s allowed poets more rhymes than -(e)fh endings.1. A regular sound change changed hnal /S/ as in wreath to /я/: kisseft >

kisses.3. /O/ is a difhcult sound to pronounce in conjunction with other con-

sonants and was simplified to /s/.

164 GRAMMAS AND SOUND

4. The -$ ending [s an analogical extension of the third person is.5. It was borrowed from Danish.

Two minor categories of verbs that do not conform to these patterns arethe preterit-present verbs and a very few anomalies. The preterit-presentresulted from verbs that had an original past tense vowel in the present formand Lhen added the dental preterit: agan (own-ought), синпап (can-could),magan (may-mi ght), * mot an (an archaic №»fe-must; the * means here thatno actual citation has been found for the word), scuiun (shall-should). Wiltwith its iifLernaLe wouldcome from a regular verb witlaa.

The most anomalous verb in English, be, has in its paradigm the de-scendants of different words: beon, в и н , and *esa». It also varied markedlyfrom dialect to dialect in its occurrence with various numbers and persons.In the ME examples, the slashes separate Northern, Midland, and Southernforms respectively.

OE ME ModE

iceom,beo am, be/am/am, em aml?u eart, bist ert, es, bes/art, best/art, best arehe is, Ы es, bes/is, beoj?, bu^/is, beof>, bej? iswe simian, be-o ar(e)r es, bes/arn, Ъеор, ben/beof, hep arc

was, wes/was/was waswas, wes/wore, were, wast/ weore were

he wses was, wes/was/was waswe waeron wer, war{e), wes/woren, were(n)/ weore, wsere were

In OE, there may have been some slight semantic differences betweenbear: verbs on the one hand, and eom, zsrt, is, and sindon on the other. Thebe verbs frequently expressed the tense of repeated events or invariable facts,which in ModE might he rendered They be always ready or The door always beopen al ten o'clock. The e&mjeartfis verbs indicated a condition whosepermanence was not emphasized: He is here, lam happy.

Among the о [her anomalous verbs were the ancestors of have, live, say,do, and go, whose pasi tense, wenJ, is derived from the pasi of wendan, theancestor of the verb wend, as in " t o wend one's way home."

PROBLEM 11.9: Why would one suspect have, sayt do, and go of being anoma-lous verbs in OE strictly from modern evidence?

PROBLEM 11.10: What useful comparisons can be made between the changesin noun phrase and verb phrase inflections? Why do speakers uot confusethe ModL -s endings for plura!, genitive, and third person singular? Whatmight be an internally motivated reason why the Northern tendency to add

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE VERB PHRASE 263

-s endings to all present tense verbs did not lake hold when other Northerninflectional innovations did? (5, 150)

The Progressive -ing, и Problem

The form of the ModE -ing ending in (he progressive now happens to beidentical with the -iag ending we use to create gerunds: He was singing (pro-gressive) vs. His singing was awful (gerund). This nominalizing or noun-making -ing goes back to the OE suffix -ивц{е). The original O£ progressiveending was -ende: He wxs ssngende. By MR, it had become -and(e) in theNorth, -anti, -ends, or -ing(e) in the Midlands, and -inde or -mg(e) in theSouth. How -ende cither became or was replaced by -ing is not at ali clear.

It has, in fact, been debated whether there really was a progressive inOEon the model of ModE be + У-тц. Patterns like bean +• V-ende occurredvery infrequently in texts originally written in O t , and only a little morefrequently in translations which attempted to reEider Latin periphrastic verbforms. Even in ME, the progressive was uncommon. Only in the eighteenthcentury do we find it occurring with the passive. // wax being built (replacingthe older It was building or h was a-building). And not until the nineteenthcentury do we find it occurring with hace or be: He is having a party—He isbeing careful, (ЛИ these new passive usages, incidentally, usages which areentirely correct in the twentieth century, were roundly condemned by thegrammarians of the nineteenth century.)

Some have suggested thai during ME, certain grammatical patterns ofthe gerund form with -ing and the progressive form with -ende were so similarthat they merged: Thei hud ben afyghtUtg -Thel had been fyghtende. The a isa reduced form of an or at which would have as its object the gerund: Theihad ben onfyghilttg. The usage is still common today in rural areas: He'sgone a-hunfm\ From the same source comes aboard (on hoard), mvay (onway), aside (on side), and so on. The gerund form may have come to be re-interpreted as a progressive when the u weakened and disappeared. Therelatively frequent occurrence of this gerund pattern and the relativelyinfrequent incidence of the participle -ittgl-etiik gives some supporting evidenceto this position. On the other hand, enough cases at-ende progressives datedbefore the V-irtg constructions have been found to suggest that the relation-ship may be a direct one, perhaps resulting as much from phonological con-fusion as from grammatical substitution. (22, У7, 151, 221, 230)

PROBLEM 11.11: The -big has not yet spread to normal use with all verbs orto all instances of be. Try to formulate some general restrictions that wouldaccount for these next sentences:

1. * He was weighing I SO lbs.—He was weighing the chicken.2. * He was resembling his father.—He was imitating his fiat her.

266 GRAMMAR AND SOU МП

3. *JIe is having a car.—He Is having a parly.Л. *He is being fat.— He is being careful.5, *He is being old,—He is being helpful6, */ am liking is very much.—lam studying it very hard.7, •/ <m resettling that.—I am rejecting (hat.

PROBLEM 11.12: Listen closely to the pronunciation of words in ordinaryconversations spelled singing, jumping, dancing, and so on. You can oftenhear something we call "dropping the -g" He was singin\ dancirC 'naround. Is this difference predictable or any grounds'/ (56)

The Imperative and SMEIjmu-ihi-

Finally, we might note that identifiable imperative and subjunctive verbforms have entirely disappeared. In formal ModE, we may use the same formas the past (were, in the case of be) to indicate counter-factual or conditionals t a t e m e n t s : If he came, we wauld.. . , Were ! he, I would.... But we a lso

say if he eomes, we will... ,1/1 was him, I vould.... We n o l o n g e r h a v e a n y

distinctive imperative form, but now use the infinitive form instead: Slopthai f Be good.'

PROBLEM 11.13: If we reduce noun phrases and verb phrases to componentiaielements such as these below, how would a transformational grammar insurethat the form of a verb in OF, MR, and early ModF. would be "spelled" inthe correct form? (Review Problem 10.10.) Assume present lensc. What isrelevant to verb agreement?

(1)

dem-t judge)

dem-(judge)

PROBLEM 11.14: Sketch a new system of verb agreement in which genderwould be relevant to verb inflections. What other kinds of possible semantic

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE VERB PHKASt 267

and grammatical distinctions among verb ending can you imagine? Forexample, could the age of the subject or objctt be reflected ? Hi* social status ?Could we inflect for lies? For irony? For probability? For judgment (i.e.,fortunately or unfortunately)? For emphasis? For the shape of the object?For the value of the object ?

THE GRAMMAR OK THE VERB PHRASE

Now that we have outlined the forma! changes in the inflections from OE toModE, we can examine how they function in the context of their verb phrase,and how a grammar that generated OE forms would differ from a grammarthat generated ModE forms.

Auxiliary Verbs

To explain how tense, -ing, and the perfect endings were distributed inOF, and ME and how the ModE patterns emerged, we must look at the partof the verb phrase that includes the auxiliary verbs: the modafs: ran, could,may, might, shall, should, will, wetuld, muss, ought; the perfect km^e: have gone;the progressive be: in going; and the passive be: was found, and the combina-tioni of these. In ModE, this structure allows several combinations:

L1.3.4,5.6.7.8.9.10.П.12.13.14.15.

HeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeThe carThe carThe carThe carThe carThe carThe car

may

maymay

may

will

will

should

has

have

hashave

has

havehashave

is

bebeenbeen

is

beenbeen

wasbebeenbeingbeenbeingbeinii

fixed the ear.fix the car.fixedfixingfixedfixingfixingfixingfixedfixed

fixedfixedfixedfixedfixed

the car.the ear.

the car.the car.the car.the car.

by him.by him.by him.by him.by him.by him.bv him.

The modal, the have, the progressive be and the passive be combine withthe main verb into fifteen different sequences, all of which have been given a

26S GRAMMAR AND SOUND

many complicated names by traditional grammarians: past perfectprogressive, future perfect progressive, and so on. BuL just listing and namingthem says little about their underlying structure, about the grammar of thesephrases. If we note a few patterns, however, we can make some signiiicantgeneralizations:

1, These elements may otcur in any combination with one another, butalways in the same order: modal (may, will, shall, can, must)—have I had—

2. The tense (present/past: will-would, have-had, is-was, and so on) isalways indicated in the first verb of the phrase.

J. The form of any individual verb—infinitive (go), progressive (going).,perfect (gone), or inflected for tense (goes, went)—always depends on theverb (or lack thereof) immediately preceding it. Tin at is,a. The verb following a modal is always in the infinitive or uninflected

form (see 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15).b. The verb following have к always marked [perfect] (see 3, 5, 7, 8, 11,

13, 14, 15).c. The verb following the progressive be is always marked with an -ing

form (see 4, 6, 7,8, 12, 14, 15).i. The verb following the passive be is always marked (perfect] (see 9-

15). If no auxiliary verb is present, then the main verb is inflected fortense, as in (1).

We can now sketch some additional grammatical rules to explain theseModE. patterns. We shall renumber the rules omitting all rules irrelevant tothe question.

1. S-^NP VP2. VP->.AUX MV3. AUX -* TENSE (MODAL) (HAVE) (ЪЕггвятЛп) BEptt==1vr)4. TFNSE^[±present]

/(№)5. MV-vV API

The parentheses around MODAL, HAVE, B E ^ ^ , , , , and B E ^ , * ,in rule (3) mean that any or none of them can be chosen in any combination,but that they must occur in their relative order.

Next to be accounted for is the fact thai, the first verb in the phrasealways carries tense. If no auxiliary verb is present, tense goes after the mainverb: He goes. If tense were listed after each of these verbs as an option to

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE! THE VERB PHRASE 269

bctiin with, including the main verb, we would need я very complex ru.lt toexclude Lcnsc from nil except Lhc correct verb. But the problem can be solvedby writing a rule placing TENSE in one position and then using a transforma-tion to transfer THNSE to the verb immediately following it. The rule wouldhave this effect on these two examples:

1-

2,

TENSE

[—present]

TENSE

[—present]

V

run

MODAL

will

-*• V

[-present]

lan

V > MODAL

go [—present]

would

V

go

Exactly the same kind of transformation will also create the correctform of the verbs after MODAL, HAVE, BE p f ( w r 4 i 3 i i v e j and BE№ a s,T 4. Exceptfor MODAL, each of these auxiliary verbs must also have associated with itan inflectional feature that shifts to the following verb: [perfect] from HAVEto whatever follows HAVE; [ing] from BEp j 4 1 s l.M 4 l 9 t to whatever follows it;and [perfect] from BEp t t = a J v i to whatever follows it. In fact, we can write acomposite rule to include aJl these elements:

[affix] verb -»• verb

[affix]

(Affix = any TENSE, [perfect], or [ing]; verb = any MODAL, HAVE,BE, or any main verb.) The rule simply states that whatever element is in-dicated by [affix] should be re-attached \o mark the verbal element immediatelyfollowing. Therefore, we must expand the base rule for auxiliaries once again.

BASE RULE: AUX-*TENSE (MODAL)(IIAVE [perfect])(BEp r a E. [-mgJXBEpiM. [perfect])

TRANSFORMATION: [affix] V v

ffi[affix]where [affix] = TENSE, [perfect], or [ing].

v = MODAL, HAVE, BE or any main verb V,

PROBLEM 11.15: Generate four or five verb phrases, applying the transforma-tion and spelling rules as appropriate.

279 OR АММАН AND SOUND

PROBLEM 11.16: Very briefly suggest bow a traditionalist or a deseriptivist

would describe these patterns.

One furtber question must be accounted for before we can explore thehistory of some of these patterns. As Rule 3 is formulated, it allows the passiveBE to occur before intransitive verbs, generating ungrammatical sequenceslike *He was disappeared. (1) The passive BE must occur only with transitiveverbs, and (2) the passive, since к is related to roughly synonymous activesentences: Tom saw Bill—Bid wan seen by Tom, must somehow be related tothe same deep structure the active is based on.

Some transformationalists have dealt with the problem like this: TheВ Е д а я . „ can be included in the AUX rule: A U X ^ T N S (MODAL)(HAVE) {BliBI4iertlMl,e) (BE p a i f l l v s). But B E w s 1 V B is limited to occurringbefore transitive verbs: BE^,,,™: . V NP (where V is not be, become,a group of other verbs like weigh, resemble, behave, and some others.) IfBEP 9 J l i V E is selected from the choices in the AUX, it automatical!}1 signals theneed for a passive transformation:

NP t X ВЕ№ Н 1 И 1 [perfeCL] V N P ; by Д- + N P 2 X B E , e i l « (perfect] V by NP,

Tom TENSE BE P M f t m [perfect] sec Bill-+ВШ TENSE ВЕдавд,„ [perfect 1 see by Tom

The other transformation then shifts the [perfect] inflection feature associatedwith B E t a 3 a m from it to the following verb, giving

Bill was see-n by Tom

PROBLEM 11.17: Here arc some OE and ME sentences that represent the pos-sible auxiliary verb combinations during those periods. Forms that do notoccur in these lists should be considered ungrammaLical. For example, a formcorresponding to he was being laught would have been impossible in OE fatleast such a structure has never been found). How do these combinationsdiffer from period to period ? Try to sketch some rules that might generateeach set in their period. Note that in OG, the verb following a modal has an-an infinitive ending. Inflections are in boldface,

OE

1. He sceal dead sweltan. (He shall death suffer,)2. He hafafi hit onfunden. (Me has it found.)3. God bid eardigertde on heofonum. (God is dwelling in heavens,}4. к sceal bidentte been, (I shall waiting be.)5. He sceal nesan Ismahei haten, (He shall be Ishmael called.)

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE ! THE VERB PHF ASt 27i

b. Se boda h gefaren. (The messenger is departed.)7. lie vma gefongen. (He was captured.)

ME

8. He hath promyst it.9. / кап not ben well an we. (1 can not be well at ease.)

10. Il will not be worshipt-11. We han been waitynge al this fourlermyght.12. Ich mihte habbe bet i-don. (I might have better done.)

13. i she! be chciuuged.J4. He hath been у-founds-IS. There was com another knyghl.

The most obvious difference between OE and ME on the one hand andModE on the other is the relatively limited number of possible auxiliary verb

combinations in OE and ME. OE allows only six possibie combinations;

ME, at least Early ME, allowed eight:

(Old English Inflections, -infinitive AN, progressive -ENDE, perfect -EN, in

1.2.3.4.5.

6.

MODALMODALMODAL BEB l l B.-AN

BEe

fhaf-1

be-

verb-ANverb-ENDLverb-FNverb-ENDEvcrb-EN

verb-EN

(as in (1) above)(as in (4) above)(as in (5) above)(as in (3) above)(as in (7) above)

(as in (6) and (2)above)

These combinations can be derived from this rule and the same kind of

affix-verb transformation rule described above.

TENSE(MODAL -[ [perfect]/j

JHAVE [perfect]

What this rule stipulates is the limited combination of modals with passiveand progressive BE's, and the fact that the perfect corresponding to ModEhave occurs without any other auxiliary. This rule must be developed further,however, because the HAVE, an abstract symbol, is manifested in two ways,depending on the kind of verb it occurs with. With transitive and intransitive

7.8.9.

MODAL HAVEHAVEHAVE

272 GRAMMAR AND

verbs of motion, HAVE is spelled isaf-, the ancestor of ModE have. Butbefore other intransitive verbs, the HAVE is spelled be-, wes-, or weard-,(The full infinitive form, beon, is the ancestor of our be; the full form wesatiis the ancestor of wasjwere. Weorftan has disappeared entirely.)

ME has all of these OE verb forms, but also allows three more:

verb-EN [as in (12) above)E^ . -EN verb-ING (as in (II) above)

B E ^ -LN verb-EN (as in (14) above)

These new ME possibilities can be represented with this rub;

AUX^ TENSE (MODAL) (HAVE [perfect]) ({op0""' ["**£' .})

PROBLEM 11,18: What inflectional changes are involved here?

Tf we compare the rules, we can see that the perfect HAVE has beentaken out of the disjunctive choice with the other auxiliaries and put into alinear order after the MODAL and before the ВЕ11Г1И and B E ^ , A furtherchange in this HAVE, however, is that it is now manifested as a form of bebefore intransiLive verbs of motion, as have elsewhere.

This rule, however, is too powerful for Early ME. Tt generates sentenceswith three auxiliary verbs like He moyhoie been fowtd and He may hare beensinging, neither of which appears to have been possible for that period. Inother words, the Early ME rule would have to have a further constraint tothe effect that only two out of the three auxiliary elements may be chosen inany one phrase. But that is a very "messy" kind of rule. It does not have theneatness of the OE or later ME rule. Indeed, it may be the very "messiness"that led to the grammatical change that finally allowed a sequence of threeconsecutive auxiliary verbs. If speakers tend to formulate the simplest set ofrules, a constraint on the number of verbs in a sequence would seem to be akind of e>Lcrescense that would disappear.

Another characteristic of ME distinct from OE is not represented in thisrule. It was the emergence of do as a kind of all-purpose function word. InOL, do functioned as a main verb on the model of He did the work, and as ananaphoric or substitute verb as in He works and I do too. Probably out of themain verb do arose a causative-do pattern. Thi soul-cmtl"ich wile doringe (Thysoul-knell 1 will do ring; i.e., I will cause someone to ring your soul knell,),Hedede meyk a newe if one (he did make a new throne; i.e., he caused some-one to make a new throne), Perhaps out of this causative-ifo, that oftenindicated the completion of action, arose what we now find in modern non-standard spoken English, particularly in the American South and in parts ofNewfoundland: J've done finished, or more usually, / done finished.

GBA,MMAT:CAL CHANGK: THE VERB PHHASE 273

Yet another do-form developed later in ME, perhaps out of the causative,as its semantic sense weakened. This was the semantical^ empty do Lhat inlater Mli and Early ModE poetry seems only Lo flesh out a rhythm of inprose, was a seemingly meaningless unstressed syllable: They did find theanswer . . . , We did feme when. . . , Out of this do, probably, developed theinterrogative and negative do's: . .. why do ye wepe, they did not weep.

The empty do reached the height of its use in the sixteenth century whenalmost any sentence, verse or prose, might con La in one. The last examples ofthe causative do date from the early seventeenth century. The interrogative-dawas developing as early as Chaucer, but the negative-t/w was a later develop-ment.

In order to include the aspectual do as in He has done left and the emptydo as in He did leave, we have to expand the rules for ME auxiliaries:

TFNSE (MODAL)

(HAVE [perfect] (DO [perfect])) f - № " * - [ Р е г Г ^ ] \ \\ LB EW. Hug] J /

DO

This will allow He may have done been gone from do 4- EN. and from theoLhcr do, He does go and He may do go, forms which have been cited. Thecausative do described earlier is not an auxiliary do, but more like the verbstell, want, promise, and so on, Lhat take complements of the form / told himto leave, / want him to leave, /promise to leave, I Ms a main-verb do: I did[someone] make the house, parallel in meaning to / had him promoted, butlacking the noun object.

Between ME and ModE, five important changes occurred. First, thecausative-fin disappeared entirely. Second, the aspectual have + done +V-EN (he has done gone) form, a form frequently found in northern Britishdialect areas, became stigmatized as nonstandard. It was probably brought tothis continent by Ulstcrmen, many of whom became slave overseers andprobably passed the form on to Blacks. Third, the unstressed empty do insentences like He did leave disappeared (or merged with emphatic do: He didletjve.). Fourth, as we shall see in more detail, this empty do may have becomethe source for questions with dat hrst appearing in ME: Did he go?, thenlater LO negatives: He did not go. The earlier forms. Went he? and He wentnot, occurred side-by-sidc with the newer forms, often reflecting social dis-tinctions, but eventually died out except in the most formal public prose: Asknot what your country can do for you . . . , Beuts there a heart in this great landwhich. . , ?

Finally, the last disjunctive choice in the auxiliary rule, the choice be-tween BE M 3 S l 7 e and BhprDerBablV41 changed to a linear choice of either or both:

274 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

Be is watching, He Is watched, He is being watched. Before this time, beforelater ModE, the progressive sense of the passive was communicated in asentence like The food was bringing in or The house wasa-buitding. As we haveseen, the origin of this construction was probably the gerund: The house wason building. As (he on weakened to a-: The house was a-buiiding, and then dis-appeared: The home was building, a form identical to the progressive appeared,perhaps even replaced the -etide form. But in the eighteenth century, gram-marians began to object to this construction, partly because it was bomony-mous with the non-passive progressive: The kemsejwirat was building, andpartly because they felt it not to be in accord with the "genius" of thelanguage.

One of the earliest citations of the modem finite passive progressive isfrom 1795: , . , like a fellow whose uppermost grinder h being torn out by theroots.. . . Centuries before this time, though, what appear to be participialmodifiers with progressive passives had occurred: , . . he should mind in fearof fire, being burnt i'th hand for steeling ofsheepe. The potential confusion ofthe two forms, the earlier progressive passive {The house was building.) andthe progressive active (The wind was building.) plus the earlier occurrence ofthis passive participial phrase led to the progressive passive as we now knowit.

Another pattern that flourished in northern British dialect areas (andstill does) and which was probably brought to America by Ulster Scots aresentences with multiple modals: lie muy can go, /might couldleave. She willcan stay. Now, however, like the He has done gone, also of Northern Britishorigin, the multiple modal к stigmatized as uonstandaid English. (22, 32, 47,49, 15J, 195,220,230)

Nonstariilard English

The fact that there are these similarities between Early ModE auxiliarystructures and structures that characterize what has come to be known asBlack English strongly suggests that the one has been a strong influence onthe other. Had we the space to explore some of the finer details of earlyModE, we would discover other similarities.

There are some significant differences, however. One dialect of BlackEnglish seems to lack a form of the inflected be in sentences such as these;

L He in the house.2. She my friend.3. You a bad man,4. They playing do wnstairs.5. You covered with dirt.

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE VERB PHRASE 275

At the same time, this dialect also seems to use the uninilcetcd form of be" i n c o r r e c t l y " in sentences like these:

6. They be there tomorrow.7. / he ready if I cotdd,8. Whenever they be there, they be happy.9. She be take» care ofTO. They always be joking.

And some sentences appear Lo be like passives, but are not:

11. He been left, (i.e., he has left.)12. She been worked, (i.e., she has worked.)13. They been et. (i.e., they have eaten.)

Some have argued that these differences in surface structures reflectdeep structures in Black English that are significantly different from the deepstructures of standard English, and that therefore, despite the superficialsimilarities between the two, Black and standard English are really twodifferent languages, with all that that implies for education and socialunderstanding. Indeed, the source of these differences has occasionally beenattributed to the grammatical structures African slaves brought with them inthe earliest days of slavery.

Actually, a rather simple deletion rule seems to explain many of thesepatterns. Whenever Standard English speakers contract an auxiliary verb orthe main verb be, the dialect of nomtaodaid English illustrated by thesesentences will predictably delete the verb:

Full form:

Contracted form:

Deleted form:

I am here.V

I'm hers.V

I here.

I have gone.V

Fvegone.V

Igotte.

I will be ready.V

ГНbe ready.V

I be ready.

These deletions are not invariable, any more than contractions are invariablein standard spoken English. BuL statistically, the contracted verbs do tendto be dropped, just as statistically, other speakers tend to contract them. Thestatistical trend can be charted across social classes and styles. As a speakerbecomes more casual, he will, depending on his linguistic background, con-tract or delete more and more frequently.

In fact, the very ability of a speaker to adapt his speech to social situa-tions requires us to conceive of a grammar as an intersection between rules ofthe kind we have been describing and their statistically predictable applica-tion. Some grammatical rules have 100 percent predictability: The relative

276 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

pronoun will always occur as the first noun phrase in a full relative clause:the man whom I saw vs. * the man I saw whom. Other rules depend on variablesrelated to social class, social situation, and speaker-audience relationship:the man wkatn I saw vs. the man who i saw vs, the man that I saw vs. the manI saw.

But some other nonstandard sentence types resist this kind of explana-tion. One is I be here everyday, so /saw what happened. This does not. seem tobe an ellipsized version of Г И be here everyday so.... In fact, this invariant beappears to be a characteristic of certain nonstandard North Лmerican dialects,especially, but not exclusively, Black dialects. It appears that this invariant becommunicates a continuous habitual sense of time. Where standard Englishcommunicates duration through time with the usual inflected form of a verbor with a verb and adverb: He is always there, some dialects of English seemto signal the same notion of aspect with the form of be: Thus I be there meansI am regularly and predictably there.

Where this invariant be came from, however, is a bit of a puzzle. Therewas (and is) iit the southern British dialect of ModE a be in sentences suchas these: I think he be a traitor. Where be the men ? We be ready to leave. If itbe as you say, then let us end it. But these are simply the forms of the presenttense of be used in Southern British English instead of is or are, often withplural subjects or subjunctives. By the sixteenth ccnLury, this particular formof be was more often found in the speech of nonprestige speakers. But noneof these examples communicates the same habitual sense of time that thepresent nonstandard Fnglish be can communicate. It may be that the durativebe has its origins in the OL beon, the /w-verb that often indicated duration,that after being used in that durative sense with some frequency in О Li, iLsubmerged into a lower class or lower middle class social dialect, was broughtto this continent, and is now being observed for the first time.

Support for this view and against the view thaL this durative meaningwas brought with the slaves from their native African languages and investedin the be form is the fact that this invariant durative be has also turned up inEastern Canada as well as in the American South, from whence it wasapparently brought to the inner ciLies of the North, It is difficult to argueconvincingly that Newfoundland Canadian whites could have adopted it fromthe relatively few Blacks that settled there or that exactly the same meaningcould have independently evolved in exactly the same form in the twodiafects.

An anomaly among these verb forms, however, seems to occur in sen-tences such as He left, ain't he?T\\s full and < lcorrect" form would be He hasleft, hasn't he? The contraction and deletion yield the first part of the sen-tence: He has feft > he's left > he left. But the ain't he tag question seems tocontradict the generalization that such tags normally repeat the subject andauxiliary verb and add a negative if the main clause is affirmative and viceversa. In He left, ain't he? ain't appears to be a contraction of am no(. But

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE VERB PHRASE 277

that would imply the full form of he left, ain't he? was cither *)te is left, isn'the? or *he has left, isn't tie? both of which are impossible in English.

Historically, ain't is a contraction of am not: am not > amn't > aarft >ain't. If it is now ** ungrammatical" in some upper middle class dialects inour north centra! states, it was as late as the turn of the century freely usedby many upper middle class educated speakers in the southern part of Englandand is used today in the casual speech of a good many highly educatedsoutherners and westerners. To call it totally ungrammatical is to betray one'sgeographical biases. That it is now considered such is a sociological, historicalaccident.

But ain't has a second source. It also descends From a contraction ofhave not. Such forms as ain't in He's got the money, ain't he? evolved fromhain't to han't to hain't to ain't, making ain't a contraction of eitherhave + not, has + not, or am + net. The occurrence of sentences like Hedead, ain't he? illustrate the common tendency to generalize a form. Althoughain't historically is derived from the contraction of am not, it is used as thetag for sentences with other forms of be. This can be demonstrated by sen-tences suc-h as He ain't dead, is he?

Thus what at first glance may appear to be an anomaly—ain't occurringwhere we would expect haven't or em not—is, if not sociolinguistically presti-gious among some speakers, historically consistent and as logical, indeedmore logical perhaps than 1 am here, aren't П, where the aren't suggests aplural subject *are I?

% Another grammatical form that has been uniquely attributed to BlackEnglish dialects is the use of been in intransitive sentences of the form: Hebeen et (et = ate). This is not a passive form, but rather a form whose mean-ing is probably the completion of an action in the remote past, as opposed toa form like He done ate, which represents the completion of an action in theless remote past. While there appear to be no citations of such verb phrasesin any extant English texts from older periods, it too has beer found in thespeech of Newfoundlanders. (39, 40, 55, 54, 77, \ 19, 135, 197, 211, 212, 221,224)

Whatever the origin of the differences between standard and Black non-standard speech (though the weight of the arguments is on the side of Britishrather than African or pidgin influence), the reason for the difference todayis social isolation, F.xample after example of preserved archaic forms can befound among groups of speakers who have been isolated from a changingstandard, isolated because they have been cither geographically or sociallycut off from the influence of those who set the standard. Those who are geo-graphically isolated have little opportunity to hear the standard model.Those who are socially isolated often have no expectation of moving up andout of their social class and so do not seem to imitate the speech of those inthe more prestigious groups as strongly as do those who feel themselves to beupwardly mobile. (1,200)

27$ GRAMMAR AND SOUND

TRANSFORMING THE VtRB PHKASt

Changes in the auxiliary verb system since ОБ have been accompanied by&ome other changes in [he verb phrase. They involve the way auxiliary verbsoperate in questions and negatives, the way some verbs and prepositionalphrases have restructured themselves into two-word verbs and direct objects,and the way one pattern in OE and ME has disappeared entirely.

Negation

Closely tied to the patterns of the auxiliary phrase are negatives. Becausethis is such a complex subject, we shall deal with only the major patterns andthose in no great detail. ModE negatives may occur in these verb phrasepatterns:

1. 1 will not tease,2. / have not left,3. 1 did not leave.

4. I was not leaving/happyj in ?f)e fiouse.

The negative occurs after the first auxiliary verb {MODAL, have) or after anyform of be. If no auxiliary verb is present, then a do is needed as in (3).

Negatives can also occur in these palLcms:

5. No flower s bloomed (compare: Flowers did not bloom,)6. The man had no money (compare: The man did not have any money.)7. The man never arrived (compare: The man did not ever arrive.)8. He wen! nowhere (compare: He did not go anywhere.)9. J saw nothing (compare: L did noL sec anything.)

Because the negative patterns that negate a verb: The man did not haveany money are often synonymous with negatives that negate a noun phrase:The man had no money, negation seems to be a kind of meaning that rangesover a whole sentence, an element that can be manifested in different placeswhile the sentence it occurs in retains the same meaning. In other words,different surface patterns can represent the same deep structure, the sameunderlying semantic structure.

One way to deal with the problem is to generate the NEGfative) elementseparate from the rcsL of the sentence and then shift it to the appropriateplace in the sentence: S ->• (NEG) NP VF. Since the not may occur after an

UKAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE VERB PHRASE 279

auxiliary verb or be but before the main verb, we need a transformation ofthis sort:

NEG X TENSE (y) (where v = MODAL, BE, or HAVE )-^ X TENSL (v) NEG

The NLG is shifted after Tense, and if a modal, be, or have is present, thenafter it too:

NEG I TENSE be happy-± I TENSE be NEG happy

Once this transformation has occurred, the TENSE is then attached to theimmediately following verb.

But when no modal, have or be is present, then the NEG is movedbehind the TENSE, but it will not be after the main verb:

NEG he TENSE go-* he TENSE NEG go

In this case, the TENSE cannot move past the NEG, so we insert a do to"carry" the tense:

, he TENSE NEG gohe do-TENSE NEG go

or: he docs not go (assuming TENSE is [ +present])

Negatives that attach to noun phrases are more complicated to describebecause they are closely associated with indefinite pronouns:anyone-no one; sottiebod^anybody-nobody ; .wrtiew/iere-atand because of a some-any variation (in standard English): I have somemoney-i don't have any money-I have no money. Without getting into thecomplexities of the problem, we wjlj only note that the NEG, if it is notmoved after the TENSE in the ajxiliary phrase, may be attached to anunderlying indefinite ART in a noun phrase:

NEG I TENSE have ARTICLE money-* I TENSE have NEG money

or: I have no money

This is a grossly oversimplified, incomplete, and in many ways misleadingdescription, but it will serve our purposes here. The most important point to

280 (JKAMMAR AND SOUND

note is that in standard ModE, only one occurrence of NEG in a sentence isallowed (barring prefixes and sulfixes): */ don't hat» no money is in standardModi- ungrammatical.

PROBLEM 11.19: Here are some examples of negatives from ОЁ, ME, andEarly ModE, Translutions retaining Lhe negative pattern follow in paren-theses. What kinds of rules would account far the differences between thevarious stages of the language ? (There are other patterns in addition to these,)

Old English

I. Ne mihie he bidden. (Ne might he pray.)1. Ne fuafon g? naht besorgian. (Ne need ye not worry.)3. Ne demdon we. (Ne judge we.)4, Nxbbe ic rttcitlg sa'pu. (Ne-have J ne-any ships.)5, Na>s he snotor. (Ne-was he wise.)6. Ne ic ne herige ne ic ne ule. (Ne I nc praise ne I ne blame.)7, Ne hit nxfre ne gewwSe. {Ne ч nevtr ne happen,)8. Nis nsnis ЯИ» bitSe. (Nc-is ne-any so happy)

Early Middle English

9. Ic ne seye not. (I ne say not.)10. He ne held it nogkt, (He ne held it not)11. fie ttoSde slepe ttl noon house. (He ne-wonld sleep in no house.)12. There па? па mutt nowhere so i-ertuous.13. .\'e tnketh nothing So hold of no men ne of no womman.14. He ne speketh new.15. No топ nute don hym no good. (No man ne-will do him no good,)

Later Middle English

16. / stye not lhe wordes,17. He held it aoght.18. We save them navtt.19. We sawe nawt the knygfttes.20. A man has not all his wylL21. He wolde not came inn.22. Thei may nawi singe.23. / am not coUl and nakyd.24. // Is not ionges gon. (It is not long ago.)

We can see two very significant differences among OE, ME, and ModE.First, multiple negation was once common in English. The change requiringthat only one NEG appc;ir in a sentence is a relatively recent rule in thedialect of Early ModE that has become the sLandard, In fact, il is one of the

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE VTRB PHRASt 281

few instances where prescriplive grammarians may have encouraged atendency already at work. Standard Early ModE had already begun to favorsingle negation before the preseripiion against multiple negatives appearedin usage books of the eighteenth century. When prescriptive gram mars JikeLowth's extremely influential Short Introduction to English Grammar statedthat , - - two Negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent so anqfiirmative, the tendency was simply defined us the logieally prescriptivenorm For standard speakers. His advice has been repeated so often aitd sostrorgly that few English speakers who have endured our educational systemcan fail to recognize that No one didn't haie no money is not a favored con-struction among educated speakers, despite the weight of respectable Englishhistory behind it and the testimony of numerous other languages in whichmultiple negation is not factored out like an algebraic formula, languages inwhich the more negatives there are in a sentence, the more negative il is.

The specific change we would need in a rule to generate multiple negationin OE and ME is one That would "copy" NEG in several specific places ratherthan one that allows only one placement of NEG. The second major changeinvolves the loss of one option in the placement of negatives after verbs. Aslate as the end of the last century, the i/fl-negative and the negative withoutdo were not unknown; [ did not leave-I left not Presently, though, the do- lessnegative has largely disappeared from standard informal educated English,(53, 94,97, 132,221)

^PROBLEM 11.20: What are we to do with the following sentences?

la. / haven't any money.lb. / dont hope any money,2a, You needn't stay.2b. You don't need to stay.3a. He dont never be there.3b, fie ain't there now,4a. Can't nobody tell him what to do?4b. *Cant George teit him what Го do?5a. A in't no way he gonna find out.5b. * Ain't that way he gonna find out.6a, Didn't nobody tell me that?6b. * Oidni that man tell me that?

Why are 4b-6b wrong? What does the fact that you know they are wrong tellyou about the grammatically of nonstandard dialects?

Questions

Like negatives, questions in Mod L also relate in some important ways tothe grammar of auxiliary verbs. English has two kinds of questions: Those

2S2 GRAMMAR «ND SOUND

we a n s w e r wi th a yes от no, a n d t h o s e w e a n s w e r wi th i o f o m a t i o n : ( I ) Canhe come (hen? When can he come ? (2) Has he done it? How has he done it?{}} Was he going there ? Where wax he going ? (4) Did he see that ? What did hesee? The pattern* are similar. In yes-no questions the first element is alwaysa modal, hate, ov be, or if none of these is present, then a form of do isrequired as in (4). In information questions, the first clement is the interroga-tive pronoun. Then if the pronoun asks for information about any element inthe sentence except the subject, the next element must be a modal (J), have(2), be (3), or do (4). But if the interrogative questions the subject, then themain verb may follow: Who left? What happened?

One way to explain question patterns within the framework of a trans-formational grammar assumes that all sentences, not just questions, begin withwhat is tailed a performative utterance having the force of I slate, 1 ask, Iorder, and so on. Among the reasons for assuming this is the problem in-volved in a sentence like Frank!}', I hare no time or Frankly,did you brush yourteeth ?The adverb describes the attitude of the speaker: ! say frankly от J askfrank h\ . . . We have to assume in such sentences an implied subject-verbwhich is deleted. There is a good deal more evidence, but it need not concernus here.

We can represent the statement, question, and imperative performativeswith a shorthand ST, Q, and IMP in the first rule:

[IMPJ(NEG) NP VP

The deep structure of a question would then look something like this:

Q he TENSE will sec something

A transformation then (1) changes the element questioned into an interroga-tive pronoun and (2) shifts it to the beginning of its clause:

0 he TENSE will see something- ^ Q he TENSF, will see what-+Qwhathe TENSE will see

If the series of transformations stop here and the Q is realized as / ask, thenwe would have the sentence: / ask what he will see.

But if we go on to delete the performative, the Q, the lask, then we areleft with a sequence of elements, what he TENSE will see, needing one moretransformation. In this case, the TENSE and the first auxiliary verb or be is

GRAMMATICAL, CHANCE: THE VERB PHRASE 283

moved from its position after the subject to a position directly after the inter-rogalive pronoun:

Q what he TENSE will see-*• what he TENSE will see•+ wbaiTENSEwlBbE see?

or: what will he see? (assuming TENSE is[+present!)

PROBLEM 11.21: Perform the question transformation on these strings below.1

Assume that the indefinite pronoun, whatever it is, is to be transformed intothe corresponding interrogative word—who, when, why, how, where, what.

1. Q I [—present] be somewhere2. Q he [+present] may ask someone3. Q she f-l- present] have -en buy something4. Q they [—present] be -ing work sometime5. Q you [—present] shall say that for some reason

But if the first verb after the TENSE is not an auxiliary or form of be,but rather the main verb, then only the TENSE can be moved:

what he TENSE midwhat TENSE he find

*This leaves TENSE without anything to "carry" it, and we insert the doagain, just as we did with negatives.

what TENSE he findwhat do TENSE he find

or; what did he find [assuming TENSE is [-present])

11.22: The lack of a do after the interrogative in a sentence like Whosaw the boy? seems to be an anomaly in the pattern. Go through exactly thesame transformations described above: (1) Indefinite pronoun becomes aWH-word, (2) WH-word shifts to beginning of clause, after Q. (3) Q isdeleted. (4) TENSE and, if one is present, the first auxiliary verb shifts to aposition directly after the WH-word. (5) Attach TENSE Lo the followingverb. (6) Jf some element intervenes between the TENSE and a verb, inserta do. Perform those operations on this string:

Q someone [-present] see the boy

1 A string is a sequence of symbols generated by base rules.

234 fiRAlWMAR AHD SOUND

PROBLEM 11-23: If we assume thai questions of the WH-word form followthe pattern described above, what would be the parallel derivation for yes-noquestions? Did you beat*? and Did you leave or not ? are semantical^ if notstylistically identical. Presumably, they are related to a common deep struc-ture. How does this fact bear on the problem of generating,^-™ questions?

PRonLFM 11.24: Here are some questions based on OE, ME, and Early MudEsentence patterns. How do they differ from Modt question patterns? Howwould the rules suggested for ModE have to be revised?

OE

1. Fart }>u se сynirtg ? (Arc у о u t he к i ng 7)2. Hwxt sxgst fat ? (What say you ?)3. Hwilee fixes xcfehst }m ? (What fishes catch you 7)4. Hxfst pu siagt gefangen? (Have you any caught'.')5. is pes ofpinum zeferuni ? (Is this (one) of your friends 7)6. Ne canst pit huntian butoti mid netfum ? (Ne can you hunt except with

nets.')7. Ни gefehsi pu fixes? (How catch younshes?)S. iiivst pu hafoc ? (Have you hawk'.'}9. Hwmt canst pu sdepptin ? (What tan you create 1)10. mile ge beon beswmgen on ieomunge ? (Will you be beaten in learning 7)

ME

11. Hwat is pe light ? (What is the light ?)12. Gafve the maun anythyng? (Gave you the man anything?)13. / W ^ n o r . ^ H e a r d y o u n o l ? )14. To worn stiufd he speke ? (To whom should he speak?)15. Is that svtke? (Is that truth?)16. Shat I telten wnrc ? (Shall 1 tell more?)17. Has he a long srtewte ? (Has he a long snout ?)1*. IWojAii/*uwWi<?r(?>'(Whosha]|hLinLhere?)19. Is youre chytda knave? (Is your child a knave (boy)?)

20. How mow pey /wn shryie par synne? (How may they then shrive that

sin?)

Karly ModE

21. Ride you far today ?22. Is this your friend?23. Wilt you be there?1A. When left he?25. What think you now?

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE VERB PHRASE 285

Who goes there ?Do you hear, porter ?Shall we go draw our numbers ?How many hast thou killed today?Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth ?What sayst thou to her ?What seem I thai I am not?Who did strike out the light?

PROBLEM 11.25: Compart the rule changes for negatives and questions.

Why the rules changed in the way they did is difficult to determine. Inthe cast of negatives, it may have been that speakers felt negatives shouldalways occur before the element that carried the main semantic content, beingnegated, the difference between He came *- not and He did not -*• come. Wefind negatives always preposed in noun phrases: no man, not a single person,for example, rather Elian *man no or *a single not person. We must also placenegative adverbs of frequency before rather than after the verb: He hardlyslept - *He slept hardly. He had Scarcely te/l when . . . - * He had left scarcelywhen, . . . On [he other hand, we can place non-negative frequency adverbseither before or after the verb: He often slept - He slept often. He usually left. -He left, usually.

In regard to questions, it may have been felt that the principal semantic^erb should always occur directly after the subject, as it normally did whenthe first verb was an auxiliary:

Larlv MIKJF: Will you SO? Hare you gune ? Are you going ? Went you?Mod t : Will you go ? Have you gone ? A re you going ? Did you go ?

PRODLLM 11.26: What might explain why speakers wanted the semantic verbto follow the subject?

PROBLEM 11,27: What are we to do with the following sentences (ReviewProblem 11.20J?

la. Haiv you any money ?Ih, Dn you have any money ?2a. Need I stay?2b. Do I need to stay ?За. Во he always be there ?3b. Is he there now ?

Whatever the internal and external causes that triggered the change, bythe end of the eighteenth century, the negative and question had settled into

286 ПЕЛМНАН AND SOUND

relatively stable patterns. The negative now regularly occurs before theelement being negated: So money, not enough, did not leace. The main verbin questions remains after its subject; Did he curae ? Both patterns were createdsimply by redefining what went into the v in the transformational rule.

Кesfrill-tunny the Verb Phras*

So far, we have examined several grammatical constructions thatonce quite different in OE or ME and have completely changed in ModE,But in some other cases, the change is one that is constantly affecting areasof the grammar. Many individual nouns, for example, are still being con-verted into verbs: The satellite is in orWt. -> The satellite is orbiting. And manyverbs are still converting from one class to another: The satellite orbits, ~^-They orbit the satellite. -> The satellite orbits around the moon, -> The satelliteorbits the moon, -s- The moon was orbited by the satellise-

These arc changes involving the distribution of individual words. Othersyntactic changes involve new transformations. These we have seen in newnegative and interrogative patterns. More basic changes involve the deeperstructures of a language, such as those we have seen in the rules for the aux-iliaries. There we saw a simplification of rules stretching over 1СЮ0 years.

A somewhat more abstract change involves the restructuring of a groupof elements so that their sequence is not changed but their constituentstructure is. For example, a sequence of elements like X Y Z could be re-structured cither X (Y Z) or (X Y) Z:

(2) л (3)

Each of these three structures is represented by the order X Y Z, but theyhave different structures underlying them.

One example of a structural change like that from (2) to (3) is illustratedby sentences like lie talked over the problem. While in OE there were verb +particle constructions, many of those in ModE have evolved from verb +preposition constructions. Until about the fourteenth century, while there wasstill some degree of flexibility in where the preposition could occur relativeto the noun-object, it. was possible to place the preposition (or particle) eitherbefore or after the noun. The earlier tradition of separable prefixes with verb*much as in Modern German, also contributed to this variable placement. Asa consequence, some prepositions have become scmantically more and moreclosely associated with the preceding verb until they become a semantic

GRAMMATICAL CHANGE: THE VERB PHRASE 287

unit. In conjunction with the variable preposition placement, we developed apattern in English allowing either 1 held up the man or 1 held ihe man up. Thusholdup is semantically a unit but still grammatically composed of two parts.The fact that we also require Me was holding up the man rather than * He washold иррШ tfie ™an к further evidence of the semantic-grammatical ambiv-alence. The grammatical restructuring that went on—and is still going onwith many other such pairs—can be represented like this:

Earlier: Later:

V PKEP KP

I I ^^look over the Ыю к к

PART NP

look over the books

(We rename the PREPOSITION a PARTICLE because as part of the verb,it is no longer a preposition.)

This sort of construction differs from VERB + PREPOSITIONALPHRASE in some important ways, but much the same kind of restructuringis going tin with modern verb 4- prepositional phrase sequences like Helooked m the man. VERB + PARTICLE constructions allow passives:

Somebody held up the man -*• The man was held up by somebody. But VERB +PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE of the following sort does not: He lives inCleveland-* 'Cfeceland is lived in by him. He arrived at noon, -э- *Noon wasarrived at by him. He sings off key. -*• *Key is sung-offbyhim. But prepositionalphrases after verbs of this next kind do a I low passives: He looked al the matt, ^yThe matt was looked at by him. He asked for my friend. -> My friend was askedfor by him.

The beginnings of this passive with the preposition go back at least toCaxton and Malory in the laLc fifteenth century: / wyile that my moder besen! for thai he is thus eotnplayend on. But it is a pattern that hasbecome much more common in modern times. The change undoubtedly wasencouraged by the semantic restructuring of VERB +• PARTICLE passives,so that now, virtually any VERB + PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE that eom-municatcs an action directed toward the object of the preposition seems toallow a passive, suggesting that the combination is becoming a semanticunit. Compare He held on Io the box and He stood beside the door. We can sayThe box was held onto but *The door was stood beside seems much less likely.Those VERB + PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE constructions that do notallow passives are ordinarily verbs followed by adverbial prepositionalphrases of time, place, and manner—prepositional phrases in which the nounis not semantically "acted o n " by the verb. Compare He arrived at Cleveland

2SS fiRAMMER AND SOUND

and *Cluwland wot arrived at as opposed to He arrived at a conclusion andA conclusion was arrired at.

One way to account for this grammatical difference is to assign sonicadverbial prepositional phrases—tbose not closely tied to the main verb—toa position in the tree by means of the base rule* we have been discussing thatwould represent the less close connection:

NP VP PP

Nf

he

t

arrived

/

P

at

\NP

noon

T(i distinguish this from He arrh-ed at conclusions, we have to associateat with the verb, but we must at the same time insure that at is still classed asa preposition. For like prepositions, it can be brought forward in questionsand relative clauses:

What time did he arrive at ?The time which he arrived at

What conclusions did b e . , -The conclusions which h e . . .

Л f what time did he arrive 7The time at which he arrived

At what conclusions did he ,,The conclusions at which he .

But the ai in arrive at conclusiOfiS is still not as free as a particle:

*He arrived conclusions at.

One possible solution is to write a new base rule that would generate adeep structure of roughly this form (compare above):

NP

GRAMMATICAL CHANGEJ THE VERB PHRAJE 289

We would be asserting that at two» is not part of a verb phrase but that atconclusions is part of the verb phrase, And it is that closeness to the verb thatallows the passive transformalion.

Along with The great increase in verb + panicle constructions, this is achange that is quite in keeping with the kind of general changes we have seenin English over and over again through the last thousand years: Englishis continually becoming a more periphrastic language. The auxiliary verbcombinations have multiplied; prepositions have laken over the funelion ofthe dative case and the genitive case; articles have become obligatory forsingular count nouns. Comparison with more has become more frequentthan comparison with -er. And now, we see two-part verbs developing outof verb + prepositional phrases,

FROBLEM 11.28: We ordinarily make agent nouns out of verbs by adding-er: rob > robber, fly > flyer, and so on. What are the agentive forms forthese: someone who pick л up: Me is a . Someone who fixes up: He isa Someone who sets up: lie is a Comment on theclaim ibul fix up is grammatically two words, that the past tense form; fixedupt RQlfix uppedy shows that they have to be considered grammatically шьsynthesized.

The Impersonal

A construction that has entirely disappeared in Mod£ is the impersonalsentence, a pattern that with certain verbs apparently lacked a subject:

ИШ nones pinges ne iyste. (Him no things ne desired.)Me sceamab". (Me shames,}Him fryrstede. (Him thirsted.)

It is clear from the case of the pronouns (bine—accusative, me- -dative oraccusative, Aim—dative) that none of them can be the subject of the sentence.Two things happened to bring about the disappearance of this pattern. First,m Late OL, hit (it) began to occur more frequently in the subject position,particularly when the verb took а ьеШеш-с complement:

Hit sceartiad me pat he me syh&, (It shames me that he sees me.)Hit licode him pat ic eode. (h pleased him that I left.)

It is from that pattern thai we have ModE sentences such as ft seems thatIt appears that.,., it pleases me that The second cause of its disappearance

290 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

was in the loss of case distinctions between nominative and accusative/dativeamong common nouns. So long as the case of the common noun was apparent,it was always clear that the first noun phrase in such sentences was not thesubject:

psrrn gumttm hungrede. CThe men [dative! hungered.)

But when these inflections were lost and the noun was in the singular (im-personal verbs always occurred in the singular), there was no overt indicationthat the first noun phrase was not the subject:

ре татт hungered.

On the basis of the overwhelming frequency of the subject-verb order, thefirst noun phrase was natural!y reinterpreted as the subject. (The patternendured into the sixteenth century in the limited structure meseems, metfar&S,

me had rather,)

SUMMARY

The major grammatical changes in Modem English are these:

1. The Nominal system:

a. Inflections are greatly reduced.b. Prepositions largely assume the function of the dative and genitive

cases.c. At the develop as articles, l his j that - thesejthose as demonstratives,d. The rules for relative clauses are simplified. ~*ft

2. The Verbal system: rt#>P^ j j

a. The auxiliary system greatly expands. M^ ™ f ^ r\ftb. Al! person endings except third person singular disappear.c. Many ablaut verbs become regular,d. Many regular verbs (as we shall see) become irregular,e. Do develops in negative and interrogative patterns,f. Many new verb + preposition and verb + particle patterns appear.

3. The Adjectival system:

a. Comparison evolves from strictly inflected to mixed periphrastic-infieetion.

b, Strong-weak distinctions disappear along with inflections.

GRAMMATICAL CIIANXJEI THE VERB PHRA3E 291

4. The Sentence:

a. Words order settles into S-V-(C),b. Negation precedes the negated.c. The impersonal pattern disappears.

Chapter 12

BETWEEN GRAMMAR ANDPHONOLOGY

SOUNDS

We have seen how semantics and grammar interpenetrate in the continuallychanging patterns of transitive and intransitive verbs, of new distributions forverbs iike grow, spread\ whisper, and tench. We have also seen how soundpatterns and semantics merge in phonetic symbolism, creating words liketeenyt boom, iinkle, and splash. And we have briefly seen how phonology andgrammar have impinged on one another with some very important conse-quences to the history of the Language: When in Late OE, inflectional ending*on nouns began to level because they were so lightly stressed, the elaboratecase and gsneter distinctions of OE began to disappear too. And as case-distinctions disappeared, English speakers came to reiy more and more on analready increasingly regular word order to understand how sentence elementsrelated to one another. And this loss of inflectional complexity and greaterreliance on word order very likely encouraged other periphrastic expressionsto develop throughout the language, further weakening the need for inflec-tional distinctions.

Phonology and grammar have interpenetrated in other, less obviousways. When in the fifteenth century, syllabic inflectional endings on nounsand verbs were well on their way lo dropping their vowels in most contexts:

293

29f GRAMMAR AMD SOUNU

caries > fans, wmysshed > vanished, the remaining consonants variedaccording to the kinds of sounds they occurred after. They assimilated,became like those sounds. With a few exceptions, voiceless word-final soundsdetermined voiceless inflectional endings: bank, banks, banked. Voiced word-final sounds determined voiced endings: bag, bags, bagged. Thus a minorphonological change resulted in a more complicated way to express gram-matical distinctions.

Other sound changes have resulted in more obvious grammaticLil andsemantic differences. At one time, English verbs were, with some exceptions,dearly split between those with the regular dental preterit ending: name,named, named, and those irregular verbs with ablaut, or vowel changes: stag,sons, wng- B l l t in t a t e ME a number of once regular verbs joined theirregular group. Because of certain conditions which we shall explore inChapter Fourteen, a sound change modified the vowel quantity in the pasttense of many verbs from long to short. Then a second sound change alteredthe quality of Lhe vowel in the present tense, raising it to a higher vowel(review page 144), This created two different vowels in present and past tenseverb forms. Thus from once regular verbs we now have the following ir-regular verbs, verbs whose irregularities are quite different in origin from theIndo-European ablaut verbs: feel-felt, slide-siid, bleed-Ыеб, speed-sped,meet-met, feed-fed\ menn-meanJ, hose-left, hide-hid. Had the first soundchange- not occurred, we would pronounce the vowel in the past tense of theseverbs as we do the ModE present: feeied. glided, bleeded, meeied, hided, andso on. (25, 28, 174)

A yet more extreme kind of sound change has created what we nowperceive to be completely different, though grammatically related words. InWest Germanic, before the earliest written records, even before the Anglo-Saxons left the Continent, there was a derivational suffix that changed nounsand adjectives into verbs: *-jm. It gave the new verb a sense of bringing aboutwhat the noun or adjective indicated. Thus to the Germanic stem *blod-(bloodj, the suffix *-ja» produced *bludjan, meaning to bring about or causeto produce blood. The *-j- in the ending represents a sound not (oo differentfrom the first sound in yet. It caused the rounded back vowel in the firstsyllable, the loj in *btdd-, to umlaut, to be pronounced more toward the frontof the mouth in anticipation of the front /y/ sound. The /6/ assimilated to the/y/ sound, giving a rounded front vowel we can write as /3s/. Not too longafter this, the *-j- disappeared. Then in OL, the rounded front vowel un-rounded to /c/. The whole sequence went like this:

stem sU'in + affix fronting Jos&of *-j- unrounding*ЬШ- > *b!ddjan > *b!&djatt > bl&daii > Nidan

We thus have ModE blood from btod and bleed from bledan, both from theroot *blod.

BETWEEN GRAMMAR AND niOKODOOY 295

PROBLEM 12.1: The same kind of change gives us ModE pairs like food-feed,knot-knit, doom-deem, drop-drip, stunt-stint, foul-(de)fi}e, brood-breed,tooth- teethe. full-fill. Sound changes have created other pairs. Match up thepairs, which have been separated into groups (1) and (2):

1, slack, pass, beacon, holy, day, brass, grass, glass, prize, batch, breach,match, stick, stink, watch, web, Seam, do, blithe, fleet, rise, cafii.

2, deed, make, wake, pace, praise, brazen, float, dawn, slake, bliss, graze,fore, weave, beckon, bake, rear, hallow, cool, stitch, glaze, stench, break. (97)

What kinds of meaning changes have also occurred?

The pronunciation of words can also change from semi-grammaticalcauses when grammatical word boundaries are misunderstood. Thus inEnglish, we have new!, nickname, and the now archaic mmcle becausespeakers mistakenly attached the -n from a»: an ewt, an ekename, an unck,to the beginning of the following word. The opposite occurred with earliernapron, nadder, nauger, and ггшщаге. The ModE orange, borrowed fromFrench, differs from its earlier source, Spanish mrattja, because Old Frenchspeakets made the same mistake in the noun phrase un itaranja,

PROBLEM 12.2: The same mistake has changed the form of a number of foreignborrowings. Two words, often an article and a noun, merged. Here are someborrowings. What are the ModE words?

Spanish: el tagarto (the lizard), la reata (the rope).French: la crosse (the bishop's crook), dis mal (days unlucky), alas (oh,

weary!).Dutch: de kooi (the cage—for catching birds), de affodil (from Latin

asphodelus).German: garausl (all out!—i.e., my beer stein is empty).

Arabic: al ikslr (the powder), aljabr (a shortening of a longer phrasemeaning the reduction—to another form), al klmiya" (theextracting and mixing of juices}, a! kuhl (the powder), al qilt(the ashes of the salt wort), al matiakh (the weather), amir a!barh (commander of the seas—the barh was dropped when theword was borrowed by the French), el Hah (the god). In талуof these, the second word was borrowed by the Arabic fromGreet. All except the last were borrowed into English throughFrench, Latin, or Italian,

STRESS

Unfortunately, a history of the most crucial area where syntax and phonologyinteract cannot be written with any certainty. When we utter a sentence in

296 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

ModE, the pitch of our voices rises and falls in intonation patterns. When wemake a statement for example, our voices rise and then almost immediatelyfall to a pitch below that from which the rise began:

э mo-_ He went lo the | ~ ~ \

PROBLEM 12.3: Plot the intonation

1.

2.Э.4,5.6.7.8.9.10.

He went home.Me went there.He went to it.Did he leave ?Did he leave it ?Did he leave it there ?What did he leave?What did he leave there?What did he lease therefor ?Did he leave or stay ?

1 =

\ vies.

contour for these

low pitch

middle pilch

high pitch

sentences:

Use ordinary intonation. Can you predict grammatically when the pitchbegins to rise and fall?

As our voices rise and fall in these contours, we stress some parts ofwords more than other parts, some words in a sentence more than otherwords. Ordinarily, the pitch begins to rise on the word we stress the most in aphrase, and the word we stress most tends to be the last content word in agrammatical phrase or clause.

MA- SAWHe saw the [ ~[ H e ,

t them.

yesterday.1 know who he \ \.

\to

PROBLEM 12.4: What words bear phrase stress in the problem above?

In utterances longer than just a few words, we tend to retard the rhythmof our speech at major syntactic junctures, usually rising one pitch level,from 2 to 3, and then Rilling not to I but buck to the original 2, still stressingthe last content word of a phrase:

-

BETWEEN GRAMMAR AND PHONOLOGY 297

! NO J QU1

Yesterday after Г ~\-on when everything was I \ et. ' i У* 2 2 й ' 2 j 4 - 1

з О- i LU-several of us from the Г ^Ч nice w ent out to

• 2 2

12.5: Plot the pitch and stress patterns in these sentences. Numbers(6) and {7} have pitch patterns we have not described above.

1. Unfortunately, everyone who was there on time decided to stay for lunch.2. My friend George, the guy that lives next door, wanted to meet you.3. If you decide you want it now, tell me about it.4. He was therefore unable to decide what to do.5. Therefore, we were unabk to decide what to do with all the money.6. George, Bill, Mary, and Nancy were all there.7. ! gave him a hook, a pent a piece of paper, and a piece of cardboard.

In all these cases, stress, pitch, and juncture clearly depend on part ofspeech and syntactic structure. Unfortunately, we can say relatively littleabout whether such rules may have been significantly different in OE or ME

the te*mal evidence is insufficient (59, 70, Й6, 219)

12.6: We do know that many words we borrowed from the Frenchwere stressed on the last syllable: par DON, paLAIS (palace), hoNOURavenTURE (adventure), graMAIRE (grammar). Here are some verses fromChaucer. Cummcnt on tbc stress patterns of the words in boldface, citingyour evidence.

J. And songen, everych in hys wyscThe mosle golenipne servtscBy noote , , ,(And sung, each in his wayThe moit solemn serviceBy note,..)

From The Book ofihe Duchess, 11. 301-3.

2. And Cleopatrc, with al ihy passyuunHyde yt your trouthe of love and your renoun;

From TntLefiend of Good Women, II- 259-60.

3. This Somonour bar to hym a stif burduun,Was ncverc trompe of half so greet a soun.(This Summoner bore lo him a stiff burdoun (burden, or bass accompani-

ment to singing)Was never trumpet of ha if so great a sound.)

From The Canterbury Titles, The General Prolujji1*, IL 673-74.

298 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

4. Bui trewely to Iclkn atle laste,Hft was in chirchi: a noble ecclesiaste.

From The Canterbury Tales, The General Prologue, 1!. 707-8.

We know from metrical evidence that compound words in OE and MEwere also stressed on the first syllable. And from metrical evidence, we canbe certain that the second root word of a two-word com pound was lessstrongly stressed than the main syllable, but based on spelling evidence, alsomore strongly stressed than any of its non-root syllables. Thus there were

/ u \ u

certainly three distinct levels of word-stress in compounds like tungerefa

(district officer), beaditrof (bold in battle), and manslaga (murderer). Beyondthis, we can say relatively little, particularly about the complex patterns ofintonation, or about sentence and phrase stress.

In MndE, three distinctions in stress seem to be fairly clear There isprimary sines!;—the loudest stress we hear in monosyllables uttered alone or

i t t ' t t

in the first part of a compound word: dog, топ, house, tree, flophouse, steam-

bout, highway. The second degree of stress is most clearly heard in the second

half of compound words: doghouse, steamboat, highway, hambone, footsore.

It is also heard in some non-compound words: Plato, transcribe, remit, elbow,

antique, Ff the vowel quality is clear, the stress is usually one of the first twodegrees. A light degree of stress is more common in polysyllabic words, the

one associated with the obscured {sj vowel: allow, except, awful, occur. All

three stresses can be hard in housekeeper, accidental, takeover, sleighriding,

transcribing, inducement, remitted, ecumenical.

PROBLEM 12.7: Transcribe these words including stress: antagonisms,pacifica-tion, extrasensory, disestablished, car carriers, protuberances, poly dialectal,revisionism; entymohgy, raikaading, encyclopedias, floorcoierings, transporta-tion, ielephonically.

PROBLEM 12.8: What can you tell about sentence stress from the fact thatne kabban (ne have) was often written nabben; ne com (ne am) as neom;ne wylie (ne will) as nyUe; ne war (ne knew) as not? What can you tell aboutstress from the fact that on in gerundive phrases like on hunting was oftenwritten as a-huntingt and then dropped enMrely? What can you tell aboutstress from rhe fact that the Oli ich (I) became / pronounced like the short i inis, that art thou was often written arrow, hasj thou as hustow, wilt thou азwiltou, that he and kit (he and it) were occasionally written just a, that kitbecame it; from the fact that in ML the perfect auxiliary hoot was writtenoccasionally as a? What do you conclude from these sentences from Early

BETWEEN CBAHJUAR AND PHO14OLOGY 299

ModE: Tlfkast found me out, У'иге a scondrel, I/'is gone, Let's see't, He lookedfrom one t'other, lie!e discover*t, Нее"Id telPm so'!

Phonology has also influenced grammar indirectly when two patternsarc so phonologically similar that they could easily be confused and thereforecither began to differ or to fall together. The former may have happened whenEnglish adopted the Danish third person plural pronouns: they, them, andtheir to replace the OE hijbte, kin, and hira. Had the initial tk- sound notreplaced the OE initial ft-, the third person masculine singular, the thirdperson feminine singular, and (he third person plural would have become toosimilar to one another to be easily distinguished:

Third person masculine singular:

Third person feminine singular:

Third person plural:

iimiiiiiutiu'

he

heo

hi(ej

hine

hi{e)

hi(e)

genitive

bishi(e)re

hira j

dative

him

hire

him

The same underlying need to maximally distinguish easily confused forms mayhave contributed Ю the development of she to replace lien. Had it not, theModt masculine and feminine nominative pronouns would have been toosimilar to distinguish easily. Of course, this in no way tells us where scheecame from originally. It seems to have originated in the Northeast MidlandsщАл twelfth century. (209)

The opposite occurred when the similarity between the OE and MEprogressive ending -endej-ande and the gerund -uttge ending, caused the twoto merge, ultimately leading, perhaps, to я much wider use of the progressive.In this case, the structural load carried by the two was not great enough ordistinct enough to prevent Lhem from falling together.

Those sound changes which most profoundly affect the phonologicalstructure of a language, though, usually occur independently of the grammarof that language. When a sound changes—or more accurately—when oncertain occasions certain speakers begin to use one sound in a word ratherthan another sound—that sound will ordinarily change in all words, regard-less of whether they are nouns, verbs, adjectives, or prepositions. And unlessthere are predictable conditions or unpredictable analogies, the sound willchange in all grammatical contexts. Therefore, the discussion in the nextchapter on the ways English sound patterns have changed will largely ignoregrammatical and semantic questions.

Chapter 13

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE

TFTE IMPORTANCE OV PRONUNCIATION

Linguists and fifth graders alike have labored over a problem that originatedsometime during the Middle llngliah period. It was then that sound changesin the language began to lay the groundwork for our present orthographicconfusions, so that today the way we spell words no longer accuratelyrepresents how we pronounce them. In most other European languages,spelling is more regular. Those who grow up speaking Spanish, German, orItalian, can Jearn to read and write those languages with fewer of the problemsfacing an English-speaking child. Those linguists who try lo discover howHnglish was pronounced as little as two centuries ago wrestle with many of(he same problems: The "fit" between English orthography and pronuncia-tion is at best imperfect and occasionally chaotic. The ways in which ourspeech has changed ean shed some light on these problems.

But the way we pronounce words is important to more than just under-standing how we spell. Perhaps more than any other characteristic, our accentassigns us to a geographical area, to a social class in that area. It tells a listenerwhether we are being formal or informal, casual or intimate. We judge andare judged in turn by how we pronounce our words. Indeed, pronunciation

301

302 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

has been a social criterion at least since the first quarter of the twelfth century,no doubt earlier. ГГ we can understand something about how these judgmentshave come about, about, the history of our attitudes toward our pronuncia-tion, more importantly about how our pronunciation has changed, we shallperhaps better understand our own responses LO those who speak differentlyfrom us.

Because spelling is a major source of evidence of sound changes, we have-to understand not only how it has changed in the last 1500 years, but also theprinciples and history of writing and how they relate to phonology. Fit ishow well the letters in an alphabet match the significant sounds of a language.An alphabet can have too many symbols1 for the number of sounds: <qu>,<k>, <ch>, <ck>, and " h a r d " <c>, for example, can all represent a /k/ sound;clique, kid, chorus, sick, cap. Or an alphabet can have too few symbols torepresent sounds: English, for example, has no unambiguous single symbolfor the /z/ sound at the end of rouge or the middle of leisure; or for the soundsrepresented by (th> in ihhi or the <sh) in ship. And perhaps worst of all,symbols can represent sounds inconsistently: Compare <ough> in cough,though, tough, hiccough, through, and ought.

THE PHONEMIC PRINCIPLE

PROBLEM 13.]: Here arc some words which illustrate the significant sounds in acommon dialect of American English, the one spoken around the GreatLakes, and extending more west than east: dot, pub, crag, this,quit, keg, sad,

fawn, wool, thing, hire, chose, shame, rouge, joy, year, wow, zip, ax. (1) Whatletters could we drop from the alphabet? (2) What sounds have no individualletter to represent them? (3) What are some of the obvious inconsistenciesbetween letters and sounds?

PROBLEM 13.2: Listen carefully to the sound <t> in these words: eighth, ten,Bertram, button, butter. Say eighth, but when you get to the /t/ sound, holdyour tongue in that position and say train. По the same and say team. Arcthe three sounds the "same"? Are the ,'t/ sounds in button and butter thesame? How do they differ from the /t/ sounds in (rain and team? How maityperceptibly different sounds are represented by <t> which we still call /t/

1 We shall us* Ihrce natations in this chapter, Angles, < >, will endow leriers of thealphabet. Slashes, ,' /.will enclose cafcaorics of sounds. Square brackets, [ ], will enclosespecific sounds wLihin a category, a concept which will be fully explained in the next fewparagraphs.

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE 303

sounds? IT we require a different symboT for every different sound, why dowe not require s different symbol for these different /t/ sounds?

If we listen closely to the sounds we make, we quickly realize that thenumber of different sounds we can hear exceeds the Idlers in the alphabet.Indeed, with a little training, we can distinguish literally hundreds of differentsounds. But in ordinary listening, we consciously discriminate considerablyfewer. Even though physiologically, we produce them in different ways, the/t/ sounds in Bertram, eighth, and tea are psychologically the "same." Yeteven though we unconsciously articulate these /t/ sounds more differentlythan we do the initial sounds in sip and ship, we consciously discriminatethem mueb less readily than the initial /s/ and /S/ in sip and ship.

Actually, all sounds differ. For at a sub-molecular level, no two eventsor objeets are precisely alike. As the differences become more gross, we can,if we sharpen our cars, distinguish phonetic characteristics that an untrainedobserver would not detect. But for the purposes to which the sounds are put,they might still be considered functionally equivalent. It is at this level thatthe /i/ sounds are functional "sames," or more accurately, are responded toas functionally equivalent members of the same class of /t/ sounds. We re-spond to the critical class characteristics rather than to the individual differen-ces within the class.

PROBLEM 13.3: At a somewhat different level of analysis, all /t/ sounds are notentirely functionally equivalent. How do we recognize a foreign accent*? Doessuch a speaker substitute different sounds for native sounds4.' If he does, howdo we understand him?

At some level, however, differences do become important enough tomake us distinguish sounds as belonging to different significant classes. Theordinary speaker has thresholds of sensitivity for different sounds that requirehim to distinguish differences according to the rules of the language, rulesthat he has subconsciously learned. An English speaker must learn to groupthe very different /t/ sounds into one class, to discriminate them from a similarclass of /d/ sounds. He must learn to distinguish the class of/s/ sounds (as insip, swing, and bus) from the slightly different class of jij sounds (as in strip,bush, and mission).

The minute differences among the members of these sound classes,however, are not random. We can predict that for a /t/ in Bertram, we willretract the tongue slightly to adjust to the fij sounds that surround the /t/sound. In eighth, we push the tongue forward to make a /t/ sound, becausethe following segment which we spell <th> and pronounce /A,1' is made withthe tongue between or against the teeth. Each class of significant sounds, allthe sounds which taken together as a group we perceive as "sames," arecalled phonemes. The individual members of a phoneme, of the class of

ЗЬ4 CrRAMMAR AND

sounds, are called allophonre. Phonemes are written between slant lines,allophones within square brackets. Some of the allophoues of the phoneme/d/r for example, are these;

[d] A retracted sound that occurs before or after /r/, as [n droop.

[dl A fronted sound that occurs before or after sounds spelled <th), asin width,

[d] A segment made with rounded lips that occurs before or after asound made with rounded lips, its in dwindle or rude.

[d] An unrounded alveolar segment (made at the ridge behind the upperteeth) that, occurs in environments not specified above, as in dig or

rid.

PROULEM 13,4: What are some aliophones of /k/, /h/, and /n/7 Test thesecategories of sounds in different phonetic environments.

Phonologists have tried to formalize how they discover phonemes andtheir allophones in any language: (1) They collect thousands of words,recording Lhem in detailed phonetic script. (2) They determine whether anygiven segment can be predicted on the basis of its environment. (3) Thosesegments which are roughly alike and (a) can be predicted on the basis oftheir environments, (b) do not ordinariiy occur where the others occur aregrouped into the categories called phonemes. In F.ngikh, for example, thefront, middle, and back allophones of /t/ are roughly alike, can be predictedon the basis of their environment, and do not ordinarily occur where anyother occurs. On the other hand, the segments [si and [s] are roughly alike.But their occurrence cannot be predicted because each may occur where theother occurs: sip-ship. They therefore belong to two different phonemes. (14,59,73, 8+, «6,219)

PROBLEM 13.5: Here is a sample problem in an imaginary language. Howmany phonemes are in this language? The letters represent sounds as inEnglish, /g/ as in gun, ftj as in pep, jot as the [o] in pope.

[pemp]-boy [font]-liill [tovemf]-cat [kevek]-door[ijebepj-inan [fenze]-sun [pombo}-duck [tontl-cloud[kont]-house [sezokj-dog [sezes]-river [pedek]-foot[kogomp]-tree [poge]-hand [kondej-apple [kemve]-nose

This language has two vowel phonemes: /o/ and /e/. We cannot predictwhere cither will occur. The language has six consonant phonemes. (1) Thereare two allophones belonging to a phoneme we shall symbolize as /N/: [n]and [m]. [n] occurs only before sounds made where [n] is made—on the

-

PHONOLOGICAL CHANOt 305

alveolar ridge behind the teeth, before [t], [d], [я], and [z]. The [m] allophoneoccurs only before sounds where it is made, at the lips: [p], fb], [П, and [v].They are roughly alike. Neither occurs where the other does. When one ofthem does occur, its environment is entirely predictable. Therefore we haveone phoneme, which we can symbolize as /N/.

The other sis segments can be predicted according to where they occurin a word- The voiceless sounds, sounds made when the vocal cords are notvibrating, [p], [t], [k], [f], and [s], occur only at the beginning and end ofwords. The corresponding sounds, [Ъ]. [d], [g\, [v], [/], occur only in themiddle of a word. Roughly alike are [b] and [p), [d] and [t], [g] and [к], [Г]and [v], [s] and [z]. Neither occurs where the other does. They constitute thepairs of allophones in phoneme classes which we can arbitrarily symbolize as/P/, /T/, /K/, /F/, and /S/. We can now write the first five words in the problemlike this! /PeNP/, PePeP/, /KoNT/, /KoKoNP/, /FoNT/.

PROBLEM 13.6: Write five more of the words in phonemic notation. Translatethese into allophonic notation: /PcKeNP/, /KoKoK/, /TcPoNT/,

PROBLEM 13,7: Suppose by a process similar to what happened in ME, finalvowels were lost in this language.

PROBLEM 13-8: Suppose that \p] after [m], and [tl after [n] were also lost.Suppose just one were lost.

PROBLLM 13.9: Suppose that before these final vowels and consonants werelost, these words were borrowed into this language: [vedcp], [zogop]> [vovof],[zoiokj.

The rationale behind organizing individual sound segments like these intoclasses of sound segments is three-fold. First., phonemes may have a psycho-logical existence. Asked if keep and c<W begin with the " same" sound,English speakers will answer yes. Asked if keep and cheap, or cool and (oolbegin with the same sound, they will answer no. Speakers of certain otherlanguages will answer differently if Lheir phonology organizes their phoneticsegments into different classes. Second, the overall patterning of sounds in alanguage can be better perceived if we study how phonemes rather thanindividual phonetic segments are organized in a language. As we shall see,English phonemes, the classes of sounds, arrange themselves into a highlysymmetrical relationship that would be obscured it' we simply cited all theallophones of English, 'third, it is more economical to represent soundsphonemically than with individual phonetic segments. English requires fewerthan 35 symbols to represent its pronunciation, if we choose to represent that

306 GRAMMAR AMD SOUND

pronunciation phonemically. If we choose to represent it with phoneticsegments, we would need as many symbols as there are sounds our ears candelect, and that number reaches into the hundreds. (81)

Modern linguistic science has probably expended more effort in the lasttwo centuries on phonology than it has On any other aspect of linguisticresearch. The nineteenth century was distinguished by those Scandinavianand German linguists who successfully systematized the regular phonologicalrelationships among a wide variety of related languages across Europe andparts of Asia, the group ofLangjagcs that has come to be known as the Indo-European family, fn Hi is century, linguists have developed elaborate tech-niques to describe the phonological structure of modern languages. In thelast decade, generative linguists have extended the bases of generative gram-mars to the description of deep and surface phonological structures, (33, l(Ki)

Although generative phonologists have described F.nglish sound patternswith considerable generality and have contributed greatly to the study ofhistorical English phonology, it woutd require too much space to developthe needed background in this test. Therefore, we wilt rely here on a moreconservative theory of phonology. (219)

THE PHONOLOGY OF MODERN ENGLISH

Tbe place to start in a traditional description of English phonology is thephysiology of the vocal apparatus. (See Figure 13.1.) Although each part ofthe anatomy that helps us talk functions primarily in some other capacity(the teeth to bite, the tongue to swallow, the diaphragm to breathe, and so on),we have evolved until those separately functioning organs now also integrateinto a complex speech mechanism. As we contract the intercostal musclesalong the ribs in short pulsations to push the air through the pharynx andpast the glottis, or vocal cords, we allow the cords to vibrate, producing ahumming sound» or not. This gives us two large categories of phonologicalsegments: voiced and voiceless sounds. The vibrations of the vocal cords canbe felt by placing the thumb and forefinger on either side of the adam's appleand alternately pronouncing ss-zz,ff-vo, shk-zhfik

13,10: What are the voiced segments in Problem 13.1? What arethe voice Less segments'/

Voicing is an important phonological environment, Tn many languages,including the artificiai one in Problem 13.5, segments at the beginning andend of a word arc voiceless, while segments between vowels arc voiced.

PHONOLOGICAL CHAI^Gfc 307

Figure 13.1, The Physiology of the Vocal Apparatus

Consonants

Once the column of vibrating air readies the oral cavity, its harmonicsarc modified by the tongue, teeth, tension of Lhe muscles in the mouth я ridthroat, and the volume of the cavity. If there is little от по constriction in theoral cavity, then vocalic or vowel sounds are produced. If there is constriction,then non-vocalic sounds.

Where and how much we constrict segments allows us to define non-vocalic sounds more exactly. The consonantal sounds can he defined bywhether we completely stop the air, then release it, giving a group of soundscalled voiced and voiceless stops: ;p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, ,'g/ (as in gun)\ отwhether the air is aliowed to cseape while the sound is produced, giving us aclass of c&niinuaiits. The continuants can be subdivided by a number offeatures. If we constrict the passage enough to produce audible friction, thenwe have a class of voiced and voiceless spirants: ;'f/, /v/, /B/ (as in thin), {6} (asin this), /s/, /z/, /s/ (as in she), ffl (as in leisure). A combination of a brieftop and a spirant is called an affricate: /j/ (as in judge) and /ё/ (as in church)*

30S GKAMVAR AMD BOUND

Tf we let the air escape through ihe nasal passage instead of through themouth, then the continuant sounds arc nasal segments: /m/t /n/, and thesound we usually spell <ng> as in sing or as <n> before <g> or <k>, as inthink and finger, a sound symbolized /g/. In the eon text of nasal consonants,vowels take on nasal coloring. In some English and American dialects, thevowels become so nasalized thaL the nasal consonant disappears: [шж] forman, for example. Nasals also tend to obscure the quality of a vowel, oftenchanging it. In some dialects, for example, /e/ before /n/ tends to become /i/,making pen and pin homonyms.

Because these next sounds are so full of acoustic resonances, they havebeen classified by some as having both vocalic and consonantal charac-teristics: /)/, a lateral made with the air escaping over the side of the tongue,and /r/, a retroflex sound made in a variety of ways, one by humping theback of the tongue up close to the roof of the mouth for medial or final /r/sounds, another by slightly curling back the tip of the tongue for initial /r/sounds.

Three segments, semi-vowels, arc very similar to vowels in their quality ofresonance: The /y/ in yes and boy is close to the vowel we spell <ee> in eel.The same is true with the initial /w/ in wow, which is close to the vowel wespell <oo> as in ooze. The third semi-vowel is ,/h/. Always voiceless, it takeson the articulatory shape of the following vowel: heal, head, hat;, hut, hot,hoot. You can demonstrate this by starting to pronounce the /h;' in heat butsaying hot instead,

/r/, /I/, /y/, and /w/ strongly influence the vowels around them becausethey are so much like vowels. For example, ME <a> historically symbolizedthe " a h " sound, /a/, as in father. By the sixteenth century, this sound changedto an /a;/ sound as in cat. But in the environments of/w/, /r/, and /1/, variouschanges occurred in various dialects: Before /r/, it moved back to /a/, as inbarn or start; after /w/, it also moved back to /a/: quad, wad; between /w/and /r/ or before /I/, it changed to a vowel even further back: war, quarrel,call, matt, Шк,

The point in the mouth where the speaker most constricts the articulationis the last criterion. Constriction at the lips gives bilabials; /p/-/b/-/w/-/m/.Constriction between upper teeth and lower lip gives laMo-dentals: /f/-/v/.Constriction with the tip of the tongue between or against the teeth givesinterdental;: /6/ as in thick and /Й/ as in ihis. Constriction with the tongue onthe alveolar ridge gives alveolar»: ftj, /d/, ,'s,', /z/, /n/, and /1/. Constriction byplacing various parts of the tip and blade of the tongue behind the alveolarridge just at the edge of the palate gives aheo-palatals; /]/, /£/, /z/, /s/, /y/ andft}. Constriction at the back of the tongue with the soft velum gives thevelars: /k/, /g/, /n/, /h/ is gluttaL

The consonants are arranged schematically in Table 13.1,

PROBLEM 13.11: Transcribe the following words phonemically. Use the vowel

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE 309

TABLE 1ЭЛ A SCHEMATIC REPRESENT AT] ON OF THECONSONANTS

Bilabial Labio-dcntfil Interdental Alveolar Alveo-paL Velar

Stopvclsvcd

Spirantvclsvcd

Affricatevclsvcd

NasalLateralRctroflexSemi-vowel

/P//b/

/f/M

H

M

/e//8/

ftt/d/

NЫ

M/1/

m

/J/

W/y/

NШ

Ш

Glottal

/h/

symbol /i/ for the letter <i>, the vowel symbol /e/ for the letter <e), and thevowel symbol /as/ for the letter <a>. tip, sin, fill, wet, vend, spend, stack, chest,gyp, thick, lapsed, chin, chink, gem, gym, swing, yelped, hung, ist Г hat, thanks,hanged\ flange, stripped, script, quit, squelched, glimpsed, hinge, limb, damn,baths, shrink, hatched.

Vowels

The vowels are classified differently from the consonants. The firstdistinction is between simple and complex vowels, or between monophthongsand diphthongs. The monophthongs, or simple vowels, have only one majorsegment, as in the vowels of pit,pet,pat,putt, pot, put, and ought. Diphthongshave two clearly perceptible segments in boy, house, and by; less clearlyperceptible in eat, aid. food, and mad.

We produce vowels by shaping the oral cavity with the tongue, so thecategories of simple vowels can be defined by where in the mouth we bunchthe tongue. Three vuwcls are front Towde: ft) as in bit, /«/ as in bet, and /a;/,called asch, as in bat. Two vowels are central: /s/, called schwa, as in but orallow, and /a/ as \n father. And three are back vowel»: /u/ as in put, foj as inthe Eastern New England pronunciation of boat, a sound not often heardany more, and {of, called open-», as in bought. These vowels can also be classi-fied by height: /i/ and /u/ are high; /e/, fa/, and /o/ are mid; /я/, /a/, and /з/are low.

310 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

Л characteristic of the back vowels is lip rounding. Unlike a languagelike German, rounding is not a significant feature of the English vowelsystem, whose main contrasts arc between back-front and high-low. No twovowels contrast only because one is rounded and ihe olhcr not. German, onthe other hand, has two rounded front vowels: /u/ and /o/. They roughlycorrespond to /i/ and /e/ in frontness and height, but are produced withrounded lips. They contrast with German /u/ and /o/ which are also round,but back.

Using a threc-by-three system, we can classify the simple vowels likethis:

Front Central Back

HighMidLow

l

ea

uо0

Other systems attempt to represent the shape of the oral cavity more graphi-cally and use something that more closely resembles a vowel triangle;

i ue э о

at э

a

That is, as physiologically /эе/ sounds are both more front and higher than /a/sounds, so the vowel triangle represents that fact.

PROBLEM 13,12: Transcribe these words using the system outlined above:pods, coughs, runs, puts, canned, checked, squashed, gnats, axed, odds, as,clucked, width, chinks, jawed, thwacked, strong, this, whizzed, cents, sieves,wronged, chalked, throngs, munch, scratched, crunched.

PROBLEM 13.13: Consonants can be conditioned by voweb as well as by otherconsonants. How do the allophoncs of /к/ differ in keep and cool'} Why dothey differ? Consonants can also condition vowels: How do the altophonesof/a/, /i/, /se/, isj, /u/, and /e/ differ in these words: hot-hod, bit-bill, but-bang,bought-bawd, put-pull, pep-pen. Why do they differ?

Diphthongs have two distinct parts, a nucleus and a glide. The mosLobvious diphthongs in English are in buy, bough, and boy. They begin with astressed nucleus then glide off into a more constricted vowel; /bay/ от /bai/,depending on how we choose to rcprcsenL the sound: /baw/ or /bau/; and/boy/ or /bsi/. How we choose between /an/ and /aw/, /ai/ and /ay/, /si/ and

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE 311

/эу/ depends on considerations which need not concern us here. For ourpurposes, we shall use /i/ and /u/ to represent the ModE offglides.

The less clearly perceptible diphthongs in Lnglish are the vowels in thesewords: (1) beer, /bit/; (2) bait: /bet/ n r /belt/; (3) frw/: /but/; (4) btfaf: /hot/or /bout/. The way we use symbols to describe these sounds can becomecomplex because some systems of descriptive phonology use symbols forlong vowels to represent what in ModE arc diphthongs. But strictly speaking,length alone is not a significant feature that distinguishes one category ofEnglish sounds from another. Everything else being equal» diphthongs aretemporally longer than monophthongs. But we do not use length as (hefeature which distinguishes diphthongal beef from monophthongs] bit. It israther an off-glide and a quality of tejiseiiess in a word like beet not found inthe more lax and monophthongal pronunciation of bit. [You can detect thistension by holding the muscle below your jaw directly under your tongue andalternately pronouncing beat-bit, pool-put, bate-bet. The muscles tense forthe first sound, but not for the second.)

In this study, however, we will use the unitary symbols to represent theselatter diphthongs: /I/ for the vowel in eel, /e/ for the vowel in ail, /0/ for thevowel in pool find /o/ for the vowel in pole, because in OE, ME, and EarlyModern English, these were still probably long monophthongs.

ё/еu/u

o/o

PROBLEM 13.14: Transcribe these words: chides, choice, squeezed, skighf,plowed, speeds, horse, cleared, pears, joked, voiced, through, pierced, though,psyched, veins. Are there such things as triphthongs?

Diphthongs arc by far the least stable category of sounds, Tn the historyof English, they have appeared find disappeared more frequently than anyother kind of segment. A great variety of diphLhongs other than the ones wehave been examining here can be heard from Eastern New Englanders, NewYorkers, Cincinnatians, and so on, a fact which testifies to the geographicalbiases of this text.

PROBLEM 13.15: Find someone raised outside the dialect area we have beenillustrating and describe some of his diphthongs.

One characteristic of English phonology requires special, if too briefmention here. The schwa symbol, /э/, has been used not only for the vowelsound in hut^ /b&t/, but also has been used with /r/, /1/, /m/ and /n/ to sym-bolize the syllabic quality of the final syllables in words like bother, barret,bottom, and button; and the stressed vowel quality in words like burr, sir, and

212 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

her: /boSar/, /beral/, /batem/, /baton/, /Ьэг/, /гаг/, /h^r/. Л more exactphonetic transcription has a special symbol for Ihe /эг,1' sound: [эг], and for thestressed /э/ it lias /A/. Thus £wf can be transcribed /Ьл1/, while allow is tran-scribed /sdau/. We shall use ;'э/ in /эг/ and instead of /ff/. Under light stress,the vowel quality of most syllables is also symbolized as /э/, though sometimesiL may tend toward [ij or [i] (a central high vowel), as in thy last syllable offined.

PROBLEM 13,16: Transcribe the following words: firebirds, bottomed,rotten,squirrels, earls, fathomed, woolens, squirters.

PROBLEM 13.17: Transcribe the sentences in Problem 12.5 into phonemicnotation, including stress patterns for individual words.

THE DEVELOPMENT OV WHITING

The spelling system that Western Enropeans use to represent all these soundshas descended through Latin and Greek from a Semitic system dating fromperhaps the seventeenth century в .с , a system which may have had itsconceptual origins in the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, dating back toс 3500 в,с. Its successive adaptations from language ю language to fitdifferent phonological patterns makes its history a complex one.

The most primitive way to represent an idea, the way that certainly musthave led to the invention of writing, is in pictographic representation. Virtuallyall cultures draw pictures for purposes ranging from telling a story to magic.Many have adapted their pictures to sending or leaving messages. Thesimplest picture represents in one frame an entire semantic complex. Trafficsigns use this system: a picture of a deer or a child represent warnings we caninstantly translate into ideas without using intervening words. More complexpictures represent more complex messages:

No single element in this message need specifically represent or be representedby any word, though a word can be attached to each clement. The- totalpicture simultaneously represents the message.

Because there are several writings systems whose exact origins areunclear, it is impossible to say how many times, onee or many, it was realizedthat part of a picture could represent not only an idea, or a physical referent,

PHOKOLOOiCAL CHANGE 31.1

but the word associated with that referent as welT. But at least one person in

the history of the human race recognized that a picture like

represented an idea that need not but might be verbally translated into words,into something like Л deer is running. A picture like this can then be abstractedinto components which,, by convention, might be attached to words associatedwith its idea or referent. We could, for example, abstract out of this picture asymbol for the word deer and a symbol for the word running and write it leftto right in English word order;

Graphically, the change from pictographs to ideographs looks like this:

Pre-writingIdeographic writing

Words __ , * ,•r Ideas Pictures ~* (symbols) -*• Words ->• Ideas

Pictures

Unfortunately, while this intellectual leap equals any in man's history, awriting system based on ideographs is so unwieldy that only a few membersof a culture ever havi; the time to learn it. Every distinct word needs a differentsymbol. The problems the Chinese are now having in achieving nationalliteracy are so acute that they are in the process of changing their largely ideo-graphic writing system to an alphabetic one. But they are able to step overan intermediate stage in the development of writing that our ancestors hadto pass through.

That next stage was the development of a syllabic writing system.Syllabic writing systeins arise when particular ideographs become associatedwith the sound of a particular word, and the symbol shifts from the idea theword represents to part of the word itself. The process is identical to the waywe create a rebus:

W J V • I see cartons of milk.

But this development can occur in two ways. The less efficient way,the way chosen by the Sumerians, was to have a distinctly diflcrent symbolfor every different syllable. It would be as if we had a completely differentsymbol for each of these syllables: /ap/, /sap/, /tap/, /step/, /spat/, /pats/.Although there are many fewer syllables in a language than there are words,auch a syllabary would still be exceedingly large.

Another way was devised by the Egyptians and then developed by the

314 (jRAMMAR AND SOUND

Semitic tribes. Because syllables in the Semitic languages are very simple—•often consisting of just CONSONANT + VOWEL, the Egyptians developeda syllabary (to complement their ideographic hieroglyphics) that representedonly the first consonant of the syllable. It would be as if the ideograph

<ЯЕД represented /bi/, /be/, /ba/, /bu/, /bo/ and. soon. Tfaevowel was

not specifically identified. This was a great advance over theSumcrian syllabarybecause it isolated one symbol for one sound plus a very limited number ofpossible second sounds. Since the number of consonants in a language is muchsmaller than the number of syllables, a syllabary of this sort is much moreefficient than one with a distinct symbol for every syllable.

PROBLEM 13.18: Develop both kinds of syllabaries for ten ModE syllables outof an ideographic system of your own device. Then conventionalize theideographs for easy writing. Why is a syllabary on the Semitic model so muchmore difficult for a language like English? Choose one of these writing mediafor your symbols: stone, wood, clay, paper. What difference would mediamate?

When around the tenth century B.C., the Greeks adopted this Semitic(or as they called ii, Phoenician) writing system, they improved on it in oneimportant way. They recognized how useful it would be to have sounds forboth consonants and vowels in their language, whose syllables were morecomplex than just the CONSONANT + VOWEL of the Semitic languages.They used the consonant symbols representing Semitic sounds that did notoccur in Greek to represent Greek vowels. The first symbol of the Semiticalphabet, 'alcph, represented a syllable beginning with a glottal stop con-sonant (like a catch in the throat), a sound useless to the Greeks. But theyadapted alcph to represent the vowel now known as alpha, our <A> torepresent ,'a/.

The instant this change was accomplished, the Semitic syllabary becameour modern alphabetic system, a system even more efficient than a syllabary.For now there is no ambiguity about how a syllable is to be pronounced andhence what it is supposed to mean. Thus beth, from which beta and our <b>derive, no longer stood for any possible syllable beginning with /b/, but bydefault for only the single segment /b/. Any vowel following /b/ would beovertly represented by its own symbol.

This system was then brought to Southeastern Europe and the Italianpeninsula and passed along to various J tali с cultures. The Romans modifiedseveral letters to meet the needs of Latin phonology and then passed it ononce mure to the civilizations they dominated and later to those Slavs nowin Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Rumania who followed the Roman Catholic

PHONOUJQICAL CHANGE SIS

Church. The Russians, Bulgarians, and Serbians adopted Lhc Greek-Cyrillicalphabet from Greek missionaries.

When the Germanic invaders succeeded the Roman legions in fifthcentury Britain, they brought with them an alphabet they had probablyborrowed from some northern I ta!ic culture in the second or Lhird century в,с,an alphabet similar enough to both the Roman and Greek alphabets toindicate its derivation, but distinctively different both in form and in lhcorder of the letters. The Germanic tribes called it mnic writing, or secretwriting. The letters, called runes, were believed to have magical properties.The alphabet was called the fuoarc after the first six letters: V Г] |> к f> VThe letters were very angular, presumably because they most often had to becut into stone or wood. A good many runic inscriptions and documentssurvive, the most famous perhaps being passages of a religious poem, "ТЪеDream cf the Rood [cross]" engraved on the Ruthwell Cross, a large stonemonument erected in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, around the end of the seventhcentury or beginning of ihe eighth.

When the Christian missionaries from the Continent converted Britainin the seventh century, they naturally enough brought with them their Latinscript, which quickly replaced the pagan-tainted fuSarc. But when somewhatlater the Irish missionaries replaced Roman missionaries, they brought withthem a modified Latin script called Insular script, which became the form ofwriting used in most OE documents.

The later Anglo-Saxons, however, did adopt two symbols From the runicJTuoarc: After earlier using the digraph (two letters representing one sound)<th> to represent Grtxk words with theta, [9]. they replaced it around A.D, 900with the rune O ) , thorn, which represented either [9] or [6]. They also bor-rowed теулп, <р>, which at first represented the sound now symbolized by<w)r They also adapted a Latin letter, <d>, with a line through it, <S>, andcalled it eth. It also came to represent the two interdental spirants, <S> and

щOther major differences in the inventory of OE letters from ModE

included the presence of the Latin ligature (two letters written as one) calledasch: <ae), representing /se/ as in cat. Also present was an Irish form, yogh:<3>, first used to represent a high front sound close to the /y/ in yes, latersome other sounds, all usually represented in modern O t texts with (g>-Rarc or entirely absent from the OE alphabet were the letters for <q>, <z),<x>, and <w>. <k> was infrequent. Originally, the English used <uu), "double-u " to represent the /w/ sound, but later replaced it with wynn. But thedouble-uconvention was adopted on the Continent, the letters turned into a ligature,and rein traduced into England by Norman scribes. <qu> was also introducedlater by Norman scribes to transliterate OE <cw>. <x) occurred in OF, butonly in foreign words.

The Norman scribes were also responsible for introducing (or re-introducing) various digraphs: <th> for fbj and /в/j <sh> for /£;'; <ch) for <c>

316 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

when pronounced ffli <ph) for the /f/ sounds ID Greek words and the <gh>for <h) in words like riht-rigkt, cniht-hngfa, and so on. They also reversedthe <hw) to <wh> in words like hwil-white.

By the end of the Mid die English period, under the influence of con-tinental scribal practice, the symbols <ae>, <B>, <p>, and <p> had disappearedand a new set of spelling conventions had replaced them, <z>, <q>, and (w)had aiso been introduced. Not until the 16th century, however, did <u> and<v> come to be distinguished from one another Earlier, for example, wordslike ever and until were spelled euer and vntli. <j> was originally an elongatedversion of <i) in numbers like xiij. A word like/ujf was spelled htst. Not untilthe seventeenth century did <j) consistently come to have its modern valueof/j/. (41,69, 225)

SOUND AND SPELLING

In order to understand how the relationship between spelling and pronuncia-tion has evoked and how to interpret older spellings, we have to distinguishbetween two ways that spelling can relate to sound: By symbols and bymarkers. The symbols directly represent a sound segment. Some symbols aresimple: (t>, <o>, and (p) in tap each represents a significant class of sounds:/tap/. Other symbols arc complex digraphs: (sh) represents /s/; <th> repre-sents either \Щ or /в/, for example. Among the vowels, <ec), <ca>, <ei>, (ie)>and so on, can all function as units to represent diphthongs.

Markers do not directly represent their own sounds, but rather indicatethe sounds that preceding or following symbols stand for. The "silent-e"in tide is a marker indicating the <i) is to be pronounced not /i/ but /ai/.Either <i> or <e> after a <c> are both symbols and markers: They symbolize-the /i/ or /e/ sound in city and eel! and mark the (c> as is!. <a), <o), or <u>after <c> would indicate both their own vowel quality and mark the <c> as/k/; cut7 cot, cat. The same letters after <g> generally mark whether it is to bepronounced /g/ or /j/: gasp, got and gum vs. gem and gin.

Double consonants perform the same double function ."They redundantlymark their own quality and mark the monophthong before them: biter vs.bitter. The double consonant convention reflected phonetic reality in EarlyMF, because in OF, double consonants were actually pronounced longer thansingle consonants. And in M E, short vowels inevitably occurred before doubledconsonants.

The silent-e convention arose in Late ME, Because many words with afinal <e> had long vowels preceding, there arose the practice of adding <e> toindicate any long vowel, even where the <e> did not etymological!y belong:ham > home, pin > pine. On the other hand, final <e> in some words of

PHONOLOGICAL CHANCE 317

Latin derivation do not mark a diphthong: doctrine, infinite, private, resolve,obdurate (though Milton dropped the <c> in all these).

Other letters which are neither symbols nor markers arc merely excres-cent. The (h) in debt, the <h> in hour, the <b> in iamb, the <p> in psychologyserve no phonetic purpose. Some Setters, though, only appear to serve nopurpose: The (n) in condemn, hymn, and damn seems to be useless, but itrepresents a phonetic segment that is realized in derived words: hymnal,condemnation, damnation. The same is true with the <g) in sign, for it is asymbol in signify. (228).

PROBLEM 13.19: Identify whether the letters in boldface arc symbols, markersor excrescent. You should consider how words derived from these words arepronounced:

ghost, ttfk, quit, build, leather, gauge, plaid, resign, fruit, maneuver, /wo,thyme, bake, gmrd, guest, scene, discern, paicb,judge, high, 1елт, bottle,choir, guise, accent, glimpse often, receipt, know, thumb, debt, gnostic,back, sieve, Jumped,

By the end of the ME period, roughly during the late fifteenth century,the inventory of letters and most conventions of English spelling had beenintroduced. Many of the conventions would be used erratically for some timeto come, since writers generally felt no obligation to spell consistently,Francis Bacon's Essays (1625), for example, has several instances of incon-sistently spelled words: betwene-between, frendship-friendship, wtsdom-wisedome. Not until the eighteenth century did printers finally begin to imposethe consistency we adhere to today.

Unfortunately, several events conspired to disturb what might eventuallyhave developed into a truly consistent spelling system. Close to the time whenprinting was introduced into England, the last quarter of the fifteenth century,English speakers in most dialect areas had begun to change the way they pro-nounced certain vowels. But over the next three centuries, printers, a notori-ously conservative group, were fixing the general rules of spelling accordingto earlier conventions. Moreover, many of the early printers had learnedtheir trade on the Continent and were not always entirely familiar withEnglish spelling. At just about the same time, the prestige of classical learningprevented scholars from thoroughly Anglicizing the Latin and Greek spellingsof those many words which they were importing into the language. So as aconsequence of Continental spelling conventions imposed on a Germaniclanguage filled with Latin and Greek words aL a time when pronunciationwas beginning to change drastically while printers, often foreign trained, werefixing their conventions on the basis of earlier pronunciations, English spellingachieved its present state, much to the grief of fifth graders and historicallinguists alike.

SJS GRAMMAR AND SOUND

RECONSTRUCTING THE PAST

We can now consider how we deduce from different binds of evidence theway English speech and writing have related to one another through the last1500 or so years. To understand these changes, we have to understand howlinguists reconstruct sound systems, what kinds of evidence and logic theyuse when they try to describe how an Anglo-Saxon would have pronounceda word fifteen centuries ago.

Start with some assumptions: When a sound changes, it changes insimilar environments in the same way unless special circumstances dictateOtherwise. That is, if an /a/ sound changes to an /я/ sound, then all /a/'sordinarily change to /o/'s in all similar environments. Inconsistencies can beexplained in a number of ways: Kirst, a word that still has, for example, an /a/instead of the expected /л/ might have been borrowed from a dialect in whichthe sound change did not occur. For example, certain words spelled with <a)in OF began to turn up in ME spelled with (o) or <oo>, indicating that an/a/-like sound was changing to something more like an /o/-like sound. ThusOE hat became ME hoof, which became ModE whole. But the word ftaJet asin hale and liter; \\ also descends from lial. The :/л> in halt contradicts thegeneralization that /a/-like sounds became /o,'-like sounds. The explanation isthat standard English, generally descended from East Midland dialects northof London, borrowed hate from the more Northern dialect areas where the<a> did not change to (o).

PHOBLLM 13.20: Since we know hate was borrowed, can we conclude that itwas borrowed before or after the change from <a> to <o>? What informationaboutdatingchangesdosuch faelsgive us? What date do we want concerninghaki

Second, a word that still has a segment that should have changed mightbe based by analogy on another form of the word in which the change didnot occur. The /c/ in chosen, for example, is based on the analogy of the presenttense pronunciation of choose. The original perfect participle in OR, gecoren,had a hard /k/ sound, quite in accord with the phonological rules, and wouldnot have changed to .'е7. We "should" now pronounu; the perfect participleof choose as something like /кигэп/ or /karsn,1': fit has cooren it.

Third, a sound ordinarily lost or changed might be reinlroduced into aword because of a spelling pronunciation. Boik was for many years rhymedwith watk^ both having lost their ffl before /k/ in accord with a general loss of/I/ between /s/ and /k/. But it is not uncommon to hear к now pronounced/bslk/. Or a sound might be inconsistently changed by false etymology: The

in author and throne was introduced by ME scribes because they thought

P H O N O I J O G I C A L CHANGE 319

they were Greek words and should have the <th> spelling. The Old Frenchwords were autmir and irane.

kinaily, some words just defy екр!а nation because we do not have enoughsolid evidence to decide on any answer. Most words spelled <ea> an; nowpronounced /i/: неок, read, meat, seat, etc. But four arc pronounced /£/:steak, break, great, and yea., and several are pronounced jef: head, bread,death, breath, e tc All were at one time pronounced /E/. We can inventexplanations; The four /e/ words were borrowed from a dialect in which /с/did not change to /1/. The ft} words resulted from a sound change that oftenshortened /e/ to /e/ before alveolar or dental sounds. But finally, these aread hoc statements made simply tft account for exceptions.

But unless we assume that sound changes are basicaily regular, we cannothope to generalize about phonological change. We would otherwise be leftwith only a mass of random changes. Both historical evidence and our aipira-tions to formulate scientific "laws" deny this as a possibility we can seriouslyconsider.

13.21: In some cases, it is possible to reconstruct hypothetical formsof earlier pronunciations even when evidence from writing is not available.Imagine a cataclysm has cut off communications around Ihc world for 500years, destroying all forms of writing that might have recorded pronuncia-tions both before and after. Here is some evidence about pronunciationcollected from languages for the year 2550. We arc fairly certain theselanguages are related and that each set of words all descend from some com-mon ancestor word we are trying to reconstruct. Argue for your interpretationof the data.

Amort- Can a- Austra- New Jamai- Bermu-

I.2,3.45.6.

British

/drjdapzdikgukgenbust

Irishdridapzdik

gukgenbost

can

tritabKLlg

kugkenpozd

ili.lM

tsrltabsatigkugkenposad

Man

trttapstekkokksrjpsst

Zealand cr

tritrjp

stek

kokkenpost

can

riapstek

kukkenpost

dan

titaslikukenpoij

In this kind of analysis, in external reconstruction, we try to discovercognate words from different languages by formulating regular phonologicalrelationships among the words. Once we discover these relationships, we canbe fairly certain that the words descended from some roughly common source.We can then reconstruct that hypothetical earlier form by piecing it togetherout of those sound features which correspond most frequently and mostwidely. No single entire word identical to an ancestral form need now exist-

520 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

The mosL widespread phonological form or feature (voicing, spirancy,nasality, for example) thai cannot be attributed to borrowing й a strongcandidate for being closest to the original form, tn (1) in Problem 13.21, forexample, the common segments in (1) could be reconstructed as /t/, jtl, /i/, or/MA (3,14, 91,12S, 188)

PROBLEM 13.22: Here are some cognate words from several modern and an-cient languages that we sball assume we already know are related. Recon-struct the phono) ogically earliest form for only the sounds in boldface. Whenyou have sorted out the relationships, phrase them in this way: Sound X >sound Y. Then using the kinds of categories of sounds listed in Table 1ЭЛ,group the sound changes into categories of sound changes. Keep in mindthat we are not assuming that any of the sounds in the words listed here camefrom any of the other listed words. Rather, all these sounds in boldface in allthe words descended from some earlier unrecorded sound in some unrecordedword, a sound and word that may be identical to any of the relevant soundsor words or quite different. But assume that that earlier sound is probablysimilar to the more geographically widespread one or the one found in a muchearlier langjage. The <bh>, <dh>, <gh> initial sounds in Sanskrit (the earliestrecords date from с 1500 в.с.) are voiced stops followed by a slight puff ofbreath. Unless otherwise stated, the non^Englisb word is Latin. The words arcspelled in ordinary orthography, not in phonemic or phonetic transcription.Give the boldfaced consonants their ordinary values, (th) spells cither /9/ or/5/, (Lith. = Lithuanian, Old Bulg. = Old Bulgarian, Sans. = Sanskrit,Gk, = Greek, Russ. = Russian, Pers. = Persian.)

fliorp-troba (Lith. house) sleep-slabu (Old Bulg slack)yoJsc-yugam (Sans.) tootb-dentisbear (carry)-bhr. (Sans,) mead-madhu-(£aris.)nephew-nepos hundred-centumdeep-dubus (Lith.) brother-bbratr-(Sans.)f ive-pente (Gk.) two-dva (Russ.)fee-pecu (cattle) father-pidar (Pers.)have-capere ten-decemfish piscis do-dha (Sans.)lip-labia acre-agerthunder-tonare hemp-cannabisк nee-gen u head-caputtbree-tres kin-genusfoot-pes heart-cridbe (Irish)flood-plotos (Gk.) cardhas (Sans, crowd) herdapple abhul (Old Irish) hump-kumpas (Old Slavonic)cold-golotu (Old Slavonic-ice) grind-ghfiihati (Sans.)

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE 321

PROBLEM 13.23 ; If the change had not occurred, how might we now pronouncethese next words? cakc,fb(, feed, fight, hawk, hunger, teach, throw, thing, town,true, heal, holy, finger, deed, deft, dare, gate, goose, ghost, comb, quick, dub,care, both, hope, hobby, pear, pine.

PROBLEM 13.24: There seem to be in English a good many exceptions to thesesound charges. We have not only tooth with /t/ derived from IE */d/,s butalso from the same root, dentist, dental, indent, and so on with the unchanged/d/. We have heart with /h/ derived from IE */k/, but also the related cog-nates courage and cardiac with unchanged /k/. Why?

The law which Problem J3.22 suggests was formulated by Jacob Grimmin 1822. But a number of nagging exceptions seemed to contradict his general-ization. Where the rule predicted the IE /p/, /L/, and /k/ should become thevoiceless spirants jfj, /в/, and /h/, they instead became Germanic voicedspirants, fb) (a hi labial spirant), /S/, and /y/ (a velar spirant), which in OEbecame fbj, /d/, and /g/. In addition, ;'s/ in some cases seemed to become /r/,a change apparently not related to GrirnnVs Law;

/t/ in IE * pater did not become /в/ but /d/ in OE fader (father),/p/ in IE *sept did not become jfj but /b/ in German sieben (seven),/k/ in IE *swkrus did not become /h/ but /g/ in Old High Germanjwigar (mother-in-law).

, /a/ in IE *wes- did not remain }sj but became /r/ in OE wsron (were).

In 1875, Karl Verner discovered that the reason for the discrepancy hadbeen obscured by another, subsequent change. In (E, two syllable wordscould be stressed on the first or a subsequent syllable: IE * pater > (father)vs. IE *bhraater (brother). This difference disappeared in the Germaniclanguages when the stress in all words shifted to the root syllable: ThusIE *pater > Gmc *fa$er (the /t/ > /Й/ change was an intermediate stagebefore /di). Verner discovered that if a relevant consonant were In a syllablefollowing an unstressed syllable, then Grimm's Law did not operate. It is forthis reason we have pairs today like seethe jsoAAeu, wasjweie, raise jreur, losej(for)lvtn. In each case, the second word of the pair was originally a poly-syllabic word stressed on what was earlier, a second syllable. The first wordin each pair had initial stress. The same IE sounds, */s/ and */t/ became twodifferent sounds, */s/ or */r/ and */S/ or */d/ because of that difference.

13.25: Assume again the year is 2550. You have just discovered inthe ruins of a city once located on the southern tip of Lag Nizhian a chest

2. Here, we return to the us* of * to symbolize a root.

322 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

Full of boots,, letters, diaries, newspapers, and so on dating from about thelast third of the twentieth century. Here are some excerpts from the materials.Assuming we can understand Lhem and many other documents we ha ve found,what kinds of tentative judgments can you make about pronunciation fromthem?

1, A letter from a seven-year-old to a friend:

Deer Jim, wel, it luks light them sientistshav dun it at last. Thei sed that theynew how to fiks up (he woler in the leyk so that it wood nat meyk poyzin gasseny mor. They are goin to pump it ful of orinj jus. I hope they are rite becaus1 shoor am tird of liwing undergrawnd like thiss. My father SEZ that itwasn't becauz of biz fakteries pcllutin the wander. Jt was a I the bippyz talc inbailis in it. The sientists say that evrythin will lie OK in just a fyu munths. Ihope so. Yer frend in Ellinoy, Turn.

1, A poem:

I think that 1 shall never see / A bug as lovely as a flea, / A flea who hopsaround all day ;' And never has to ride a sleigh /A bug whose passion burnsall night /And never bites you out of spite. / So every constellation's sun /should shine its brilliance on such one.

3, Some jokes:

я. When the three children of a rancher inherited his ranch, they called it" Focus " because that's where the sons raise meat.b. Why did the fly fly? Because the spider spied her.c. Knock knock. Who's there? William. William who? Will y meet me'round the corner in half an hour?d. What's black and white and red all over? A newspaper.

4. Advice from a spelling book:

Do not Confuse the spelling of these words: ajffiect—effect, principle-principal,accept-exce-pt, emigratit-inirtiiffKin t, coinplsincnt-compk'ment.

What other books, documents, and so on, would you like to have?

This kind of evidence is used for internal reconstruction. Linguists usespelling, particularly by those who are uneducated, or better yet, half-educated. There are two kinds of spelling errors, however. First, simplemisspellings. If someone writes dum for dumb, we know the <b) is notpronounced. Second, there are reverse spellings. If someone writes plumb forplum, we know that the final (b) is probably Dot being pronounced in dumb.Otherwise, he would not use the dumb spelling for a word like plum whichnever had a. /b/ at the end (at least in Modern English).

Linguists also use poetry, if it can be established that the poet was astrict rhymer and that he was not using conventional rhymes like rain-again',puns, quibbles, jokes, and other kinds of word-play that depend on pronuncia-tion; spelling manuals and for Lnglisb, at any rate, the vast amount of printedadvice from orthocpists of the sixteenth century on, those who write about

PHQNOLOGTCAL CHANGE 323

spelling and pronunciation. Ft is not always possible to specify exactly how aword was pronounced, but it is often possible to estimate whether two wordswere pronounced almost alike, which is almost as good- And if a goodrhymer never rhymed two words that were spelled alike, we also know whentwo were probably not pronounced alike.

PROBLEM 13.26: Here are some rhymes and puns from Shakespeare (c. 1600),Pope (c. 1700), and Wordsworth (c, 1800). Comment.

Shakespeare; tears {iioun)-hairs, case-ease, eate-hate, say-sea, shape-skeep.

Pope: weak-sake, eat-state, shade-dead, speak-take, sea-obey.Wordsworth; fiees-ptease, rei;ea!ed-stee!ed, heal-feel, peers-years,

dreams-seems.

PROBLEM 13.27: Here are a few dated spellings with OE and ModR relatedwords. Comment on the consonant!;. /?еАл/-1400 (ОЕ Ы-heatfe, ModF,behalf); bight-1500 (OE bit an, ModE bite); faid-1450 (OE fid, ModE/он/),dvombe-159% (OE dom, ModE doom), wore-1350 (ОС. werre ModE war).

Another, more complex way to reconstruct phonological history frominternal, contemporary evidence is to examine how current sounds aredistributed in the words of a language. For example, /v/ never occurs as

»the initiai sound in ModE words derived from native OE words (with theexceptions of vat, vixen, vent (as in coat rent), and perhaps pane). Unless asound change devoiced all initial /v/ sounds, we can assume thai all OEwords had only inkial ffj sounds,

PROBLEM 13.28 r Examine the linguistic sources of words beginning with /j/£nd /z/, or which have fit anywhere in them. Comment.

PROBLEM 13.29: What is unusual about the distribution of /rj/ in English?

It should be noted here that the data in the following Problems are rattiermisleading. They arc neat, clear, and consistent. But in perhaps no other areaof historical linguistics is it more difficult to interpret the data. Beginning withthe mere decipherment of the often dim and illegible handwriting она crumb-ling manuscript, the problems of interpret ing the relationship between spellingand pronunciation abound. What were the conventions for representingiounds? Were only phonemic distinctions observed? What do vowel digraphslike <io> or (ea) represent? Who was the original author of the manuscript?What was his dialect? What was his social class? How old was he? When didhe write the manuscript? Did he writt it in his native dialect area4.' Or was he

324 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

influenced by another dialect area? How educated was he? Tf he was badlyeducated, how can we know whether misspellings were the result of attemptsat phonetic writing or of i gnu ranee 7

Js the manuscript a copy? Who copied it? What was his dialect? Hiseducation? How old was he? Was the scribe a consistent speller? Were therehistorically two forms for a single word? In regard to poetry, did a particularpoet rhyme accurately? Did he choose variant forms of words for rhymingpurposes? Did those commenting on spelling and pronunciation really knowwhat they were tailing about? There is some evidence Lo suggest that manydid not.

In short, there is very little in the following Problems to suggest thepractical difficulties a historical linguist faces in the attempt to reconstructfrom the best texts pronunciation that has long since disappeared. (214)

THE PHONOLOGY OF QUA ENGLISH

We have available several different kinds of evidence to help us reconstructthe phonological patterns of a dead language, but we must have a key to the.system to begin with. If we discovered a completely unknown language-written in a completely unknown orthography, no amount of purely writtenevidence would suggest how to pronounce it. At one time, scholars had noidea how LO read Egyptian hieroglyphics. But the discovery of the RosettaStone in 1799 with its simultaneous translations of the same passage inGreek. Egyptian demotic script, and Egyptian hieroglyphics gave them thekey. Unfortunately, no such key iias been found for Lhe writings left by variousSouth and Central American cultures, making them largely indecipherable.

hortunately for those investigating the history of English, however, theLatin-based script used by Latin and Irish monks corresponded rather wellwith the spoken Latin on which it was baser], a language we do know how topronounce. Thus given the Latin letter <[> and our knowledge that in Latinit represented only cither short /i/ or long /I/, we can conclude that the OEword written Urn was certainly not pronounced like the Modli descendant ofthe form, not like the ModE lime /lairn/, as in bird-lime.

Vewels

The letters used for vowel sounds in Late OE (с. 900-1100} were these:<e>, <se>, <a>, <i>, <o>, (u>, <y>. Earlier manuscripts (c. 800) used <ce> aswell, buL this letter disappeared before Late OE, We can assume that the

PHONOLOGICAL CHANG Q 325

sounds these letters represented roughly corresponded to their Latin equiv-alents:

<a> = /a/ or /а/ <ж> = /ж/ or ,'£/ <e> = /e/ or ffl<i> = /i/ or /i/ <o> - jo/ or /a/ <n> = /u/ or /0/

(The letter <y> we shall deal with in a moment.)

PROBLEM 13.30: Unfortunately, Anglo-Saxon scribes did not use diacriticalmurks (lines over letters, strokes, dots, and so on) to distinguish long vowelsfrom short. Indeed, the lack of any such marks unambiguously indicatinglength means that we do not know from OE orthography alone whether long-short distinctions even existed in OE. Here, however, are some data that willsuggest whether long-short distinctions did exist. You can use both internaland external methods of reconstruction, (Assume Lhat doubled letters andtwo-letter sequences like <ei>, (an), <ui> are diphthongal or long in the non-English examples. LcngLh marks have- been supplied in some cases.

OE lim > ModE Hmk-limr (Гее.), lern (Dan,, Swed.)OE lira > ModE Itme-iijtn (Dut.), lim (Ice.), Him (Dan.), Seitn (Cer,)OE hem > ModE home-keim (Dut.), heirttr (Ice.), heim (Gerr)OF, ham > ModE ham-hamms (Ger,), horn (Ice.), hat» (Dut,)OE dif > ModE diff-klif{D\xx., Ice,), klippe (Swed.)OE wij > ModE wifu-wijf (Dut.), tj/(Ice.), weib (Ger,)

* OE ful > ModE/^/-™//(Dut.),/^{Ice.),/jw/(Dan.),/ iju/(Ger,)OE/«/ > ModEfuJt-wl (Dut.),./i(№ (Ice.), fuli(Swed.), tw//(Ger.)OE d&d > ModE deed-daad (Dut., Dan.), dS8 {.lee.), deih (Gothic)OE bed > ModE bed-bed (DuL), best (Ger.), beidi (Gothic)OE hot > ModE boot-boete (Dut), hot (Ice.), boio (Gothic)OE fop > ModE lop-lop (Dut., Dan,), toppr (Ice.), sopp (Swed.)OE dmi > ModE deai-deel (Dut., Dan.), daSs (Gothic), theil (Germ.)OE st > ModE ui-ai (Ice, Gothic), wi/(Dan.)

From the external evidence, from comparisons with otlier languages, wecan conclude that OE had long and short voweis. The evidence shows thatfor the most part, cognate words in Germanic languages have correspond-ing long-shorl distinctions: Danish iem Sum. Since it is unlikely that thisdifference developed independently in Modern Danish, German, Swedish,Dutch, Icelandic and in Gothic, but not in OE, we can assume that OE alsoinherited length from its Germanic ancestor.

On the basis of the internal evidence (though there are many exceptionsto this generalization which we shall explore below), words which had longvowels in OE correspond to ModE words with diphthongs: Of.lim > ModElime. Words with short vowels Ln OE have monophthongs in the descendant

326 41! ли мл к AND SOUND

ModE words: OE Um > ModE limb. Apparently then, ModE diphthongs arcthe regular modern reflex of OE length.

If we can trust these conclusions, then we assume these OE vowels:

I/i и/й£/e о/о

ffi/se

a/a

The precise quality of any of these sounds is impossible to reproduce ofcourse, but they must have been close to these: /i/ as in sit] ;'?/ as in a mon-ophtbongal pronunciation of seal; /e/ as in set, /8/ as in monophthongal sate;/a;/ as in cat; /aS/ as in cad; /a,1 as in hot, /a/ as in hod\ /u/ as inpu!lt /й/ as inmonophthongs I pcoi^ /a/ as in bought, jvj as in boat,

PROBLEM 13.31: Because for a time, the letter <y> was consistently used onlyin certain words where we now have <i), we might suspect that it representeda sound not yet discussed. Here is a body tif data. Using both interne! andexternal methods of recOBStructioa, what might that sound represented by<y) have been like?

OEhyd => ModEhide-huid{Dut.) OEfyr > ModE fire-vuur(DiiL)OEcyssan > ModE kiss-koss (Ice.) OE суп ing > ModE king-konung

(Swed.)OEsynn > ModEsin-siindc{Ger.) OEbryd > ModEbride-Ьгпбг

OE yfel > ModE eviMlbcl (Ctr.) OE fyllan > M odE fill-fulljan{Goth.)

OEfyst > ModE fist- vuist(Dut) OHdynnan > ModE din-don(Dan.)

The cognate languages have rounded vowels, front or back, where OEhad <y>. But in most ME texts, this <y> came to be consistently res pel led <i>,indicating that the sound it represented had by then merged with the highfront /i/ and /I/. Therefore, in OE <y> almost certainly represented a soundthat originally shared both rounded and front qualities. It was a rounded iiighfront vowel, an unilauted vowel that approximated an /i/ with rounded lips.The umiauting resulted from the change in pre-historical OE which we havealready described. The digraph <oe> in Early OE represented a rounded mid-front vowel corresponding to .'e/. It derived from Gmc *jal: *dainjan >tfamon > demon (deem). Since for both (y) and <,ce> long and short reflexesoccur in ModE, we can assume four more vowei sounds in Early OE:

]/i u/u u/flё/е 6/о о/о

a/a

PHONOLOGICAL CHANUE 327

By 900, !aj had coalesced with /e/. There is no evidence of a significant jsfphoneme, cither stressed or unstressed in OE.

FROBLLM 13.32: Suggest a way to determine when the rounded front vowelsbecame unrounded,

PROBLEM 13.33: From iht data in Problem 13.30, we can also see л greatmany other changes in the quality of vowels. One meaning of OE litn /Urn/is now pronounced /[aim/; the other is limb from short OE /lim/. OE hus/hfls/ is now pronounced /haus/ (except in Scots English where the /I/ > /ai/,/п/ > /au/ change never occurred. Scots thus hfis hus for house, ее for eve,and so on). Plot the changes between OE long vowels and ModE diphthongs.

The dialect ofOE we arc describing here, West Saxon, may also have hadeight diphthongs, four Jong and four short. They were written <ie>, <io),<ea>, and <eo>. By A.D, 900, <ie> had simplified to <i>, and <io> had mergedwith (eo>. There is considerable debate about the phonetic values of thesesegments, even whether there were short diphthongs. But on the basis ofsubsequent changes in these words, they were probably close to these values:<ea> = ДО; <ic> - /ia/; <eo> = /»/; <io> = /b/, (25,28, 89, 111, [48, 175,209)

Consonants

Describing the OE consonants is somewhat more difficult than describ-ing vowels because the consonants were less consistently represented. Theletters used to represent OE consonants were these: <f>, <b>, <p>, <t>, <d>,<c>, <3> (yogh), ф ) (thorn), <«> (eth), <s>, <m>, <n>, <r>, <l>, <P> (wynn),and <h>. <x>, (z), and <k> were rather rare. Modern <w>, it may be recalled,was represented as <uu> or <p>.

Because the relationship between the following OE letters and ModEletters has been extremely stable over the years and because the ModESetters still correspond to Latin phonetk values, we can assume that in OE,they represented sounds very close to the same sounds in ModE: <p), <b>,< )> <t>, <m>, <n>, <l>, and <w>. <r> was probably different only in quality,very likely being more like the trilled /r/ in Modern Scots.

PROBLEM 13.34: Transcribe these OE words. You will have to work back-wards from ModE to determine vowel length:

(bath), bttm (bite), си (cow), cwic (quick), fat (deal), dxd (deed),kus (house), deman (deem), dom (doom), rfwetttin (dwell), endian (end),fset (fat),/«*M (feed) Jij (five), fyth» №)> giadi$n$> ffM (goose), hal

32S GRAMMAR AND SOUND

(whole), hattg (holy), hdpan (he\p)tfrogga (frog). Sand (land), lim (limb),fttf (louse), melton (melt), Jafla (bull), га* (sea), Шоп (sit), m t e (sweet),telim (tell), &w? (broth), pus (thus), r # (tide), /y« (thine), we (we), wfe(wise), gkes (glass), writan (write), god (God), ramm (ram).

Some of tbe earliest changes in the inventory of English consonantsinvolved the sounds represented by <c> and <з> (represented by <g> in ModEtextsj recall, the symbol we sha.il use here).

PROBLEM 13.35: Here arc some data from OE and some related cognatelanguages. (1) On the basis of the cognates, what probably was the earliestpronunciation of the OE digraph <sc>? Of <c> ? (The sequence of letters <sh>and the sound /S/ did not occur in Early OE.) (2) Is there any way to predictwhich Oli words would come to have initial /s/, /к/, and /6/?

OE iceacui > ModE shackle OE serift > ModE shrift (skript,{skagle, Dan,) Ice.)

Otitffl/f > ModE shaft (skapl, OE scip > ModE ship (skib, Dan.)

Ice,)О E sceacan > Mc4E shake (skaka, OE se&h > M od E shy (skygg,

Swed,) Swed.)GEsceap > Mod shape {skapa, ОЕжея/ои > M.odB shave (shave,

Swed.) Dan.)OE cece > ModE cheek (kek, OE ceaf > M od E chaff (kaf,

Swed.) Dutch)OE corn > ModE corn (kaurn, OE crapp > ModE crop (kroppr,

Gothic) Ice,)OE an > ModE chin {kind, Dan.) OE cttf > ModE diff{klippat

Swed.)O£ en r > Mod E гаг (katze, Germ.) OE dele > ModE chHl (kola, Ice.)OE calf > ModE c.alf{kalf, Swed.) OE а и л > ModE chicken

(kjuk!itigt Ice.)

PROBLEM 13.36: If in OE, all sequences of [sk + front vowel] became [s +front vowel], how does it happen that we have /sk-/ sequences in ModE likeskip, skim, sky, skin, schedule, scale, zkidt ski!!, skit?

PROBLEM 13.37; Are any of these words apparent exceptions'^ Comment:keep, kettle, kelp, kitchen, kith, kin, kipper, kiss, kit, kink, chocolate, choke,coach, pooch, catch, pouch, touch, roach, brooch, hootch.

PROBLEM (3,38: Roughly the same thing happened with the /g/ phoneme,though this is even more complicated because <g> (that is, <з» represented

PHONOLOGICAL CHANCE 329

several different sounds. Here are several OE words with their modern de-

scendants. Comment

pegn-thane

sixgen-slain

twegen-twain

ge-ye

1.2.

3.

4,

5.

6.

7,

&.

9.

10. gast-ghosi

glsd-glad

dzg-day

falgsan-follvw

i

11. weg-way

12. boga-how

13. gear-year

14» geoc-yeke

15. geon—yon

16. grag-grey

17. a^a/HW/j

18. haiig-hoiy

19. fttglere-fowter

21). gat-goat

21. god-good

22. gruel-gnat

23. stigrap-stirrup

24. menig-many

25. gvld-gold

26. grand—ground

27. dragan-draw

28. ssgdesaid

29. gfowen-glow

3U. geotu-yelhw

The letter (g> represented at [east three sounds, but only two phonemes.

One phoneme consisted of the allophones [g], the voiced velar stop, and [yj,

the voiced velar spirant, two sounds which never occurred in the other's

environment: [yl occurred only inside a word before or after a back vowel:

lagu [!ayu] (law). Initially before back vowels or consonants, <g> represented

the other allophone, the [g] we hear today: gasl [gast] (ghost), god [god]

(good). The third sound represented by the letter (g) was a voiced palatal

spirant that was probably very close to a strongly aspirated [y],1 as it-might

be stressed in year. It normally occurred before or after front vowels: sligrctp

[stiyrap] (stirrup, literally <l ascent-rope").

I n one environment, initially before certain front vowels, [y] contrasted

with [gj, thereby making [y] a distinct phoneme, /y/. In those words which at

one time had a back vowel that mutated forward to become a front vowel,

the letter <g) still represented the sound [g]: ges [ges] (geese) from Germanic

*gansiz; gyit [gilt] (guilt) from Germanic *gtdtiz\ gyrdaa [girdan] (to gird)

from Germanic "gurdjan. After the vowels mutated, OE had pairs like gylt

Igilt] and gist [yist] (yeast). Since in these two wurds [g] and lyj contrast in

identical environments, they must be considered different phonemes, /g/ and

hi Finally, in combination with a preceding /я/, the <g> was pronouneed

[g]: singan Isirjgan] /singan/ (sing); bring [Jtring] /hring/ (ring).

PROBLEM 13.39: This does not account for these words. Comment, get, give,

gmkfi, guess, big, cog, dog, dig, Jig, hag, jig, tag, ieg, nag.

The phonemic symbol /n/ used above in /singan/ and /hring/ should not

be interpreted as [n]. Before the velar consonants /k/ or /g/, the allophonc of

/ri/ was undoubtedly [rjj. the velar nasal we now hear in sing [sinj. If the

allophone of /n/ before /g/ or /k/ was always predictably [rj]> then OE did

3 This is urJinarLly represented by Jj] i[) the International Phonetic Alphabet.

330 ОИАММЛИ AND SOUND

not have the three nasal phonemes we have: /m/, /n/, and /n/. It had onlytwo: /N/ and /m/, with the allophones of /N/ being [n] and [n].

The combination written <cg) was pronounced []]: ecg [ej) /cj/ (edge),the result of another palatal JHI Li on of [gj: Germanic *fl£/J > OE /ej/,thereby creating another phoneme, /J/.

The letter <h> represented in initial position the /h/ we use today'hecg [hej] /hej/ (hedge). But it also represented two sounds that we can heartoday only in Scots and other northern British dialects: a voiceless palatalspirant after front vowels, symbolized [*]: nihi [ni*t] /niht/ (night), and avoiceless velar spirant after back, vowels, symbolized \x\: fukt [fuxt] /fuht/(moist). They can be approximated by very strongly stressing the /h/ in hugeand hoot, respectively. Because [h], [j], and [x] do not occur in one another'senvironments, they constitute the three allophones of /h/.

PROBLEM 13,40: "We have already seen that initial /v/ and fzf sounds in Englishwords almost invariably indicate foreign borrowings, good evidence thatOE probably had no voiced /v/ and /z/ initially. We can conclude that it hadno Щ phoneme at all, since evidence for the sound does not occur untilEarly ModE. It also had no initial /j/ sound. Spirants that occurred finallyin Oli were also voiceless. But it is clear that many voiced spirants in native-words now do occur in final position. Here are some with their OF sources:love < lufii, bathe < bafiian, Нее < lifitm, dive < dyfany low < fasten.Comment,

The OE spirants thus appear to have had voiced and voiceless allophonesdepending on their environment. In other words, instead of the set of voicedand voiceless phonemes as in ModE:

ModE: /f/ /6/ /s/ №

M № M Щ

OE had only one sequence of spirants with two allophones each (with theелсерйоп of/s/, which did not have a corresponding /s/ and /h/).

OE: /F/ Щ Щ Щ M

The voiceless allophones of the spirants occurred initially and finally andcontiguous with voiceless consonants. Voiced allophones occurred whensurrounded by voiced sounds. Thus the /F/ and /S! phonemes in ofer (over)and leosan (/аде) would have been pronounced [aver] and [leazan]; in of:(often) and dusi (dusr) as [eft] and [dust].

Given this pattern of voiced and voiceless allophones, it h virtuallycertain that OF also had only one interdental spirant phoneme that we havearbitrarily represented as /в/. It had two allophones, [S] and [6), distributed

PHONOLOQJCAL CHANGE 331

Jike tlie allophoncs of fFf and /S/. No native ModE words have a singlevoiceless /0j medially, and the voiced /Й/ sound now at the end of ModEwords like bathe resulted from the loss of voiced inflections or analogy. Thosewords which now have initial voiced ,•'$/ are all roughly the same kind ofwords: the, this, ttuit, these, those, then, there, thus, though. They are all lightlystressed words whose original initial [G] in Lhe context of a whole sentenceprobably became voiced [$] in late ME. It is easier to keep the vocal cordsvibrating in an environment of voicing than it is to stop voicing and thenstart again. It is the source of the difference between /9/ and /0/ in withstandand withail. (25, 28, 148, 152, 17S, 209)

We can now contrast the overall system of consonants of OE with theoverall system of ModE consonants. There are really three stages of OEconsonant evolution:

1. The development of /£/.2. The split of /k/ into /k/ and /c/.3. The split of the spirants into voiced and voiceless pairs.

Between Late OE and ModE, three more significant changes were yet tooccur:

4. The velar and palatal spirants represented by <h> and <g> would be lost.5. Щ would be acquired as a phoneme.6. /N/ would split into /n/ and /n/.

PROBLEM 13.41: Using a chart like Table 13.1, sort early and late OE con-sonants phonemes into points of articulation and manners of articulation.

One last significant difference between OE and ModE consonants isthat OE had nut only long and short vowels but long and short consonants.Long consonants were signalled by double letters: cysssn, moSSe, and theyseem to Slave been always voiceless. They were probably pronounced as wepronounce the sequence of two identical consonants at the juncture of com-pound words. Compare these ModE pronunciations of phonetic doubledconsonants with the pronunciation of words which have doubled lettersonly to mark the vowel quality of the preceding syllable.

<pp> in koppian like the <pp> in ioppost. Compare <pp) in ModE apple.<bb> in ebba like the <bb> in ribback. Compare <bb> in ModE rubber.<tt> in enytum like the <tt) mfimtop. Compare <tt) in ModE butter,<dd> in ttixd&e like the <dd> in birddog. Compare <dd> in ModE ladder.<gg> infrogga like the <gg> in doggun. Compare <gg) in ModE digging.<ff> in offrian like the <ff > in Iffefoad. Compare <£f> in ModE offer,<S5> in ttxesse like the <ss> in busstop. Compare <ss> in ModE lesson.

332 ORAMMAR A fC SOUND

(nn) in dyttnan like the <»n)in penknife. Compare <nn> in ModEspinner.<mm> in sH'imtnan like the (mm) in homemaker. Compare <mm> in

ModE plummet,<S©> in invffie like the <thth> in wreaihikom. Compare <th) in ModE

ether.

For a variety of reason*, long consonants in Late OE or Early MEmerged with single consonants. This meant that a sequence of two voicelessallophones like [ffj in a word like affrictn [sffrian] became in Early MEasingle voiceless [f], [afrian]. But because [f 1 was now in a position that con-trasted with a single voiced [v], medially between voiced segments as in ofer[aver], it meant Lhat a new phonemic contrast resulted between [f] and [v]r

Jn fact, this probably occurred before we borrowed foreign words withinitial /v/ and /z/ sounds and before we lost final inflections at the ends ofwords that left voiced and voiceless spirants in contrast there. (113)

Chapter 14

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE: FROM OLDENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH

fHE MATURE OF SOUND CHANGE

We have now described the two extremes in the history of English soundpatterns: Modern English and Old English, The problem now is to recreatehow the one changed to the other, when the changes occurred, and that mostdifficult of all questions, why they occurred. When we talk about how soundschange, though, we have to recognize the different ways in which they canchange. In some cases, the changes are minor: Some words add or lose asound without affecting the system of oppositions in the language as a whole:heafod > head, spinl > spindle, dragon > draw, ihimitde > thimble.

In other cases, we change the ways we systematically combine sounds.In OE, for example, jka-j, /gn-/, /ha-/, /hi-/, and /hr-/ were acceptable se-quences of consonants: cniht (knight), cnyUm (knit), gn*t (gnat), gnagan(gnaw), hnutu (nut), hnitu (nit), ЫфтА (lord), Meapon (leap), hnm (rime),bring (ring). Since then, /k/, /g/, and /h/ have been dropped from those posi-tions, but not from the inventory of" sounds. A few new combinations ofphonemes have entered the language through a handful of borrowed words:/pw-/ in pueblo, /sv-/ in svelte, /sf-/ in sphere, /ski-/ in sclerotic. But the minutenumber of words with these combinations has not affected the system ot

333

334 UK АММАН AND SOUND

combinations in English. Л( the end of words, on the other hand, some newcombinations resulted when vowels between some consonants disappeared:glimpsed', once pronounced /gllmpwd/, became /glimpst/ when the vowel wassyncopated, or dropped in an unstressed syllable.

More basic changes create new sounds. When /S/ developed from /sk/,for example, the new spirant phoneme was a new sound that contrasted withother spirants. In other cases, sounds can change considerably withoutcreating any new systematic contrasts. This occurred with OE /k/ beforeumlauted front vowels unrounded. The [c] altophone of ,'k/ developed beforefront vowels but did not systematically contrast with the [k] allophone of/k/ until joj unrounded to /еД

And some sound classes can be lost from the inventory. This reduces thenumber of contrasts, as when the rounded long and short front vowelsunrounded to ftf and /i/. This reduced the number of contrasting vowels fromsixteen to twelve. But specific sounds can disappear without reducing thenumber of contrasting phonemes. This happened when some of the spirantallophoncs of /g/ disappeared, /g/ still contrasted with the other consonants,but in a more limited set of environments.

Perhaps the most basic kind of change is when the system of features onwhich contrasts are based changes. Rounding is no longer a way to contrastvowels. Мог do we any longer use length to distinguish consonants. On theother hand, we have lost length in vuwcis, but the system of contrasts remainsthe same because we have substituted diphthongization. (J4, 85, 91, 115, 128,188,209)

Before we begin tracing any of these changes from OE to ModE,however, a warning is in order, Because we phrase a change in the formX > Y and because we have claimed that sounds change regularly, we mighttoo easily assume that the history of sound changes is neatly linear, eachdiscretely set off from the next, accomplished, as it were, almost overnight inall similar words, in a language with a single dialect in a classless society thatspeaks in only one style for all social contexts. Such is never the case.

Sound changes are more like ripples m a pond, beginning in one place,spreading, merging with other ripples, interrupted here and there by ir-regularities in the bank. But in addition to geographical dialects, there are theripples that spread through social classes, with pronunciations popular amongone class spreading to another. And complicating this whole set of relationshipsis the fact that speakers from particular social classes within specific geo-graphical dialects vary their pronunciation according to the social contextthey happen to find themselves in. In formal contexts they will speak differ-ently than they do in casual contexts.

Thus it is misleading to say that souxid X changed to sound Y in 1400just because the first ncspelling of a particular vowel in a written text wasfound at that date. Sounds change first for someone in some words in somecontexts in some social class in some geographical dialect. The change may

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGt; FROM OLD UNGLISII TO MODERN ENGLISH 335

spread through social classes and styles until it becomes the form used in the"standard" formal style in that dialect, or it may remain in the shadows ofan isolated social or geographical dialect or style. Other dialects might re-main unaffected by the change or borrow it. It might or might not finallyaffect Lhe core of the languaEe.

We happen LO be describing one social -geographical dialect; AmericanEnglish spoken in relatively forma! contexts by educated upper-middle classspeakers around the Great Lakes, There are other geographical and socialdialects that we ctmld have examined. In some of these, certain of the changeswe will describe below never occurred.

So when we talk about sound changes, we have to specify four co-ordinates: location, social class, style, and period. Unfortunately, stylisticvariations are difficult, indeed for the most part impossible to reconstruct.Differences among social classes are only a bit less difficult to account for.And it h not always clear how to determine (he precise boundaries of geo-graphical subdialects. Specifying time, too, must be indefinite. We have tooperate within a span of years: From the date of Lhc first citation which wemight take as evidence that a sound has changed minus? number of years, tothe date when the change seems to have permeated the formal style of thedialect being investigated. For example, the first indication that the palatalspirant [x] in words like niht was lost after front vowels seems to have ap-peared in mid-fifteenth century reverse spellings such as wnght for write. Yetotherwise reliable seventeenth-century orthoepists, dictionary-makers andso on could write a century and a balf later tbat a word Jik.e light was stillpronounced by some conservative speakers with the spirant sound. Writingin 1632, Robert Sherwood commented that while he preferred the olderpronunciation with the spirant, there was a more modern one used amongLondoners, a pronunciation he seems to describe as /эу/. By 1650, the velarspirant seems to have disappeared entirely—in standard London English, Butit is still heard today in parts of Scotland and elsewhere. So if we were writinga history of Scots English, this discussion about [x] would be beside the point.Describing a sound change i$ no simple matter if we are to be honest to ourignorance. With this in mind, we can explore some early changes.

OLD ENGLISH TO MIDDLE ENGLISH

Vowels

PROBLEM 14.1: In Early ME, in the twelfth century, words spelled with <a>began to turn up in some non-Northern dialects spelled <o> or <oo>. Wenow pronounce these words with /o/ as in boat and whole. By the thirteenth

336 GRAMMAR ANI) SOI IN Г)

century, many more <a> words had changed to <o>, but not all. Here aresome data, What principle can you find to predict which vowels rounded andmoved back and which did not ?

O E b a t > ModE boa t-boot(Dut.)OEcat > ModE cat-katt (S wed.)

OE hamrn > ModE ham-ham(Out.)

OE swan > ModE swan-svanr(tee.)

OEhai > ModE whole-hails(Gothic)

OE salt > ModE salt-salt (SwetL)OEcalf> ModEcalf-kalv(Dan.)

OLban > ModE bone-been (Dan).OE ham > Modt home-heim

(Germ.)OE matin > ModE man-man

(Swed.)OElam > ModEJoam-feem

(Dut.)OEgat > ModE goat-geit (Dut.)

OE hlaf > ModE loaf-laib(Ger.)OE ar > ModE oar-ааге (Dan.)

Dating this change of /a/ to /o/ is not difficult because both spelling andborrowed words can help. Since the <o) spellings begin to appear in the twelfthcentury, the change preceded IJ00. Spelling always lags behind pronunciation.Moreover, certain French words with /a/ which were very likety borrowed inthe twelfth century did not change: blame,fame, dame, for example. Had /a/changed after these words were borrowed, the /a/ of French words and the /a/of OE words would have changed together, giving us along with boa(t goal,and home, The forms b!oam,foam, and (loam.

Lengthening and Shortening of VowelsIn Problem 13.30, we suggested that OE long vowels became ModE

diphthongs and that OF, short vowels remained short to become ModE mon-ophthong. This is too strung a generalization, It is clear from the comparativeevidence that many OE short vowels have become ModE diphthongs andthai many OH long vowels have become ModE short monophthongs.

For example, before certain consonyni dusters, some short vowels inLate OE changed: wilmb > womb, rtimban > climb, flatten > find, j eld >

field, cumb > comb, did > childt seek! > shield, cynd > kind. In ME, land,hand, word, earth also became long, hut later shortened. Before /-mb/, /-nd/,/•Id/, /-rd/, and /-rO/, OE short vowels lengthened. But it was a permanentlengthening only for /i/ and /o/ before /-mb/: climb and comb; for /i/ and jit}before /-nd/: find-bound; and for all vowels before /-Id/: child, shield, bound,old

On the other hand, long vowels shortened before consonant clustersother than the above, or before a stressed syllable: All the vowels markedlong in these words shortened: softe, kepte, тёпе (dream), ftfiene, wtfmanwisdom, ascian, bosnt, dust. So did unaccented long vowels in the second halfof compounds or in unstressed prefixes and suffixes: arlsan, wlsdum, cynedom(kingdom), wurdllckc.

PHONOLOGICAL CHANOt: WtOM OLD tNGLISH In VUinhRN tNULiSH 337

PROBLEM 14.2: Here arc some data regarding some other words. All of thesewere short in OL. Comment,

OE

glsdliceга maappelspereslcppanwicuskinnlosiangodmetesunnesaocsmoai

ModE

gladlyпашеapplespearstepweekskinlosegodmeatsunsacksmoke

OE

hUi-dre

wuducraftЪзеС

stelan

sittan

broS

cuppe

caru

wifoirosemedstaf

Modi:bladderwoodcraftbathstealsitbrothcupcareweavelr»semeadstaff

OE

swinganpusba&ianendebitelaopenduruglsesassaofertellanmcltanwilla

Modi

swingthusbatheend

beetleopendoorglassassovertellmeltwill

Since many of the OE short vowels in these words have Ьесотле ModEdiphthongs, those short vowels apparently lengihcncd. The environment inwhich short vowels lengthen is in a stressed open syllable optionally followedby only one more unstressed syllable. An open syllable is one which ends in ;ivowel: ri-tiat! (ride) as opposed to mel-lan. But as they lengthened, OE /i/,/e/, /u/, and ;'o/ also apparently dropped to the next lower sound:

OE ME

u

a

Had they not dropped, we would have expected the lengthened /i/ and /u/of wiku and duru to have become /i/ and /u/. And we know that long (if and/u/ eventually became /ai/ and /au/ sounds tid (/lid/) > tide (/taid.O, fats(,'hus/) > house (/haus/). But wikti becomes week, and duru gives deer(originnlLy /dur.'), the normal development of /ё/ and /o/,

PROBLEM 14.3: So far, we have seen three important vowel changes beforethe end of M F : < 1) Lengthening before /-Id/, /-nib/, and so on; (2) lengtheningin open syllables; (3) /a/ shifting back to a rounded vowel, /a/. Demonstrate

318 GRAMMAR AMD SOUND

the order in which these changes must have occurred. Use tin esc two words inyour explanations: OL cold ,'kald/ (cold) and naitta /nama/ (name).

The System of ContrastsWhen /a/ changed to A', it did not upset the system of ME vowel con-

trasts, however. It leu the language without a phonetic long [a], but the totalnumber of contrasts remained the same: In Late OEand Early M H, we still findthree long and three short low back vowels. But when short vowels lengthenedbefore /-Id/, j-mbj, and so on, and in open syllables, ME regained an /a/from the short /a/ in words like nanw, thereby creating one new contrast.There were then four long and three short low back vowels:

OE: u/п ,о/о

a /a

>

/a/

Earlyafter

>№

ME: u/п >o/o

a ^/a/

afterMF.

а/я

: u/uo/o

Unfortunately for the modern student, the /a/ and /5/ words were oftenspelled alike in M E texts, both with <o> or <oo>: goose (f. OE gas), goot (f. OEgat), saoth (f. OE s6H)-hoom (f. OL ham). To know how to pronounce thesewords, one must know (1) whether the word goes back to an /a/ or an /6/ inOE, or (2) how the word is spelled in ModF. If the word is now spelled with<o) or <oo) and pronounced /u/ as in foot, /Q/ as in food, or /л/ as in one,then the MF pronunciation was probably /5/. If the ModE spelling is <oa) or<o-e) and pronounced /6/ as in Ъппе or boat, then the word usually goes-back to a ME /5/, from OE /a/. There are some exceptions, but the rule is auseful one for most cases.

A similar problem faces the student in regard ю the front vowels. Justas there was (and is) no separate letter in our orthography to distinguish/o/ from /a/ or /o/r so by Late ME there was no letter to distinguish /ж/ from/a/ either. The short /as/ apparently began to disappear in Late OE, mergingwith /a/ in some dialects and with /e/ in others. Evidence that /JE/ was begin-ning to merge with /a/ is in the (a> spellings of certain <s) words in Late OEand Early ME when the ligature <sc) was still being used. Instead of usmg<5e> in al! words that originally had /ж/, some scribes began spelling thesewords with <a>, presumably to reflect the new pronunciation of /a/. Whenshort /it/ merged with a short /a/ and <se> as a symbol was dropped, wordswith ffl from OE were left with no distinctive letter to distinguish them fromOE words that originally had /e/ or /a/. In the dialects we arc concerned with,Norman scribes consistently chose <e> or <ee) to represent words with anoriginal /ж/, a fact which suggests that unlike short /se/, which had movedtoward /a/, long /ж/ may have moved closer to /e/.

As a consequence, words spelled <e) or <et> in ME were pronouncedin two ways: /e/ if they derived from original /e/ words or from lengthened /i/

PHONOLOGICAL CHANCE: FROM OLD ENGUSH TO MODERN ENGLISH 339

words: OE sped /sped/ > ME spede /sp5d/ > ModE speed ;OE bite! fbiisilf >ME / K ? ^ /&#?// > ModE beetle. Or if they came from original /£/ words orlengthened /e/ words, (hey had a vowel that was by this time probably higherthan /SB/ but still lower than /e/: OE J * [J^ л] > ModE sea; OE wcfeME fliefe [miE'tJ ModE meat

Graphically, the sound spelling relationship resembled this:

speed'Ispede (speed) ё о bSood]bhd (blood)

<e> or <ee> ^ <o> or <oo>

meet I mete (meat) яёА э gootlgot (goat)

rtaamjname (a) or <aa) <- a

The phonetic symbols usually used for the two higher front vowels arecalled opcn-e for the lower vowel that was originally {&} a ad close-e for thehigher vowel opcn-e: [&], close-e l$]. (To distinguish them more clearly in thistext, the more /se/-like sound, the open-c, will be represented with a large /£/to suggest the wider jaw opening for lower sounds. The close-e will be repre-sented with a small /5/ to suggest its smaller jaw opening-)

Given these changes, the monophthonga) long and short vowels of MElooked like this:

I/i u/uё/е о/б

Ёa/a

n.b. /o/ may have been closer to [a],

PROBLEbf 14,4: Transcribe these ME words: boc (book), mild (mild), bac(back), bedde (bed), dene (clean), dele (deal), do (do), dwell(imtyjede (feed),/eld (fteld), fiod (flood), fate (foot), gold (gold), gras (grass), gost (ghost),hasppe (hasp), hyde (hide), AM (his), hog (hog), купле (kin), klyjfe (cliff), tokke(loek), m^/c (milk), nuwie (name), plate (plate), гйе (rise), saaf (safe), j/epe(sleep), ЙП/:С (sink).

PROBLEM 14.5: What textual evidence would you look for to prove that twowords spoiled <oo> or <o), or two words spelled <e> or <ee> were not pro-nounced alike?

14.6: How might you determine whether /ж/ merged with /a/ beforeor after vowels lengthened in open syllables?

340 ОНАММАЯ AND SOUND

In snme ME dialects, West Midland and in the Southwest, the long andshort rounded front vowels from mutated back vowels, that is /S/, spelled<y) in OE, had not unrounded, as we can tell from some spellings: кипrather than kin from OE суп» (kin), fur rather than fir from OEfvr (lire), irtusrather than mis from OE mys (mire). As we might expect of a city that attractedEnglishmen from all dialect areas, Londoners vacillated in bow they speltedand presumably pronounced some original /u/ words. In The CanterburyTalcs we can find myrie, mitfye, merle from OE myrige, In some Cases wehave a <u> spelling but an /i/ pronunciation: build, busy, business.

Diphthongs

Between OB and МЫ, diphthongs underwent some important changes,so great that we cannot detail them all. Both OE diphthongs, long andshort jsl and /eb/ disappeared, merging with long and short /ae/ and {if. Buta multitude of new diphthongs entered the language, many as the result of asound change involving velar and palatal voiced and voiceless spirants,allophones of OE /g/ and /h/. As we saw in Problem 13.38, the spirants spelled<g> and <h> eventually disappeared. We can date this ioss by noticing newspellings in ME and OE words that had these segments: ME dai for dsg, MEowen (owe) for OE agan.

PROBLEM 14.7: Before or after stressed back vowels, the spirants were velar.Before or after stressed front vowels, they were palatal. Their loss resultedin this sequence of changes (represented phonemicaliy):

1. Palatal voiced: Oii dseg /dffiy/ > ME dai /daei/ > ModE day /dei/2. Palatal voiceless: OEnea» Insshi > ME neigh /neih/ > ModEnig/r/nai/3. Velar voiced: OE ЩП» /agan/ > ME owen /оиэп/ > ModE о we /ou/4. Velar voiceless: OE phh /ploty > MEjp/ow/pluh/ > ModE plow /plau/

The voiced spirants, (1) and (3) disappeared first, leaving offglides in theirplaces. Before the voiceless spirants, (2) and (4), ME vowels first developedan offglide, then much later the spirants disappeared. The offglide that de-veloped in (I) and (2) was /i/ and in (3) and (4), /u/. Why did these par-ticular ofiglides develop?

Jn addition to these diphthongs, Norman French words borrowed intoEnglish contributed a few more, though most of these quickly merged withsimilar native diphthongs. The outstanding exception is found in rhois, noise,jute, and Joyn. The /oi/ pronunciation apparently changed to /ai/ later, sincewe find rimes tike join-fine in the eighteenth century. Our /di/ pronunciationis probably a result of the school master's insistence on spelling pronunciation.(25, 28, 98, 148, 150, 164,209,213)

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE! FROM OLD ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH 341

Consonants

In describing some of The new dipti thongs in ME, we necessarily bad todescribe one of the major consonant changes—the loss of the voiced velarand palatal spirant albphones of/g/. Because Norman scribes consistencyres pel led OE words wilh the voiceless /h/ as <gh) or <h> while often droppingthe (g) that represented the spirant allophones of /g/, we can conclude thatthe spirant ailophosies of /h/ were still present in ME. a conclusion reinforcedby sixteenth century orthoepists who describe them.

So far as can be determined, / i / did not appear in ME, We find no MEspellings of <sh> or (zh) for <s> in a word like visinn. So words which we nowpronounce with /z/, as in pleasure, confusion, imasion, and so on were in MEprobably pronounced /z/: [vizian], [pleziur], and so ou. And merely fromspelling evidence, it is still impossible to determine whether the <-ing> inwords like thing &nd sing represented [aigg] or [sir]]. As early as the fourteenthcentury, there are spellings of <-in) for (-ing) in words taking the pastpartieiple ending: haukin for hanking (hawking), but this has nothing to dowith the problem of ,''-iij(g),' in non-participial endings,

PROBLEM 14.8: If ME /N/ had not yet split into /n/ and /rj/, and /z/ was notin Lhe language, what did the phonemic consonant system aL the end of MElook like? (Use the kind of chart illustrated in Table 13.1.)

PROBLEM 14.9: Here is a body of data that will suggest some of the commonkinds of changes iu the way individual consonants changed in particularwords to the end of the ME period. Comment.

OLleofman ;spinl ;pridda ;emtig ;hafoc ;hcaiod ;

ME* 1cm man• spindle» thirde> empti* hank- bed

ModE—

> spindle> third> empty> hawk> head

OE MEbeorht > briht > brightbyroen > burdin > burdenw if man > wimman > womanbridde > bird > birdgsers > grass > grassswa > so > so

pymcl > thimbcl > thimble two > to > two

14.10: As we have pointed out, long vowels shortened and shortvowels did not lengthen if they were followed by two consecutive consonants,or if they were followed by a stressed syllable. This has obscured the historicalsources of some common Modli words. Had the vowels not changed, wewould have had combinations like those below. To derive the ModE word(1) shorten the vowel and return it to its original Oli value and (2) unstress

342 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

the second syllabic, sheep + herd; moon + day; holy + day, bone + fire;cjear + -ling; goose + -ling; break + fast., olii{er) + man; roam + -Ые;wise + -ard, Chris! + nwis; house + bandit {bnnda meant \i freeholder, some-one who owned his own house and land); house + thing tin the Danelaw, theping was a council of elders. The descendant ModE word refers to politicalcampaigning.}; good + spell (spell means story): nose + thyri (ttiyrl meanshole); wind (as in wind up) + -I- + ass (ass means pole.); throat + -te {-te isan ending that shortens the preceding vowel.): wild + -er- + -ness; toad +poll (poll here means head; it is respeilcd рок in this word,); wife + man.(There is a secondary change in the first word. The initial /w/ causes the under-lying shortened vowel to become rounded to /u/, and the <f > disappears.)

MIDDLE! ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH

We usually pick 1500 as the end of ME and the beginning of Early ModEbecause we are past the major grammatical changes: In nouns, the inflectionshave leveled to a plural and genitive; in verbs, generally to a third personsingular -.T, a past, a perfect, und a progressive participle; and in adjectives,to a comparative and a superlative. Word order has settled into a S-V-(C)order, und prepositions have assumed their very large syntactic load. Theauxiliary verbs continued to expand, particularly in combinations with theprogressive. The verb endings -th and -esl were still active. And questionsand negatives allowing either do- or non-<fo forms were possible: Came he jHe came not. Did he come ? / He didn't come.

But except for those and a few other patterns, and except for vocabularyand style, the English of I5№ is very similar to twentieth-century English. Ifwe modernise spelling and translate a few obscure words, only the style givesus pause in this passage dating from 1529. The original words are in brackets,the translations in boldface.

The King, perceiving that she was thus gone, and considering well on thewords she had [here spoken, said to the audience thus in effect: "Since[forasmuch as] ihe queen is now gone, I will in her absence declare to [unto]you all that she has [hath] been to me a* true, as obedient, and as compliant[conformable] a wife as I could wish or desire; she has [hath] all the virtuousqualities ihat ought to be in a woman of her high position [dignity}, or anyother, yes Iy<:aJ [hough she were of baser stale. She is also a noble womanborn, as her noble conditions will well declare, and the special cause thatmoved me in this matter was a certain scr jple that nriektd my conscience."

From The Life of Hshti, ed. Ronald Bayne.Early English Text Society HS 97, 192J, p, 60.

PHONOLOQICAL CHANGE: PROM OLD I NGLISII TO MODKRN ENGLISH 343

Vowels

Bui in 1500, English phonology was close to the middle of a very majorchange in the quality of vowels, a change called The Great Vowel Shift InProblem 13.30, we saw that certain M E long vowels correspond with ModEdiphthongs;

ME ModF ModE

The earliest «spellings that indicate when long vowels began to changedate perhaps from the thirteenth century in some dialects, so the change may

begun as early as the 1200ns.

/i/,> /el/and/a/ > /au/

Around the middle of the fifteenth century, there began to appear re-spellings like <ei> and <ey> for earlier <i> representing /I/, along with re-spellings of <eu> and <au> for early <ou> representing ;u/. This suggests thatat least by then, /a/ and /I/ had begun to become diphthongs: hleytuifor btind,meyld for mi!d,feyr tor fire; faunde fotfoundt and south for south. The changeprobably began when an unstressed onglide was somehow introduced beforeihe vowel. But then the strc^ shifted from the nucleus to the glide until theglide became the nucleus. The change probably went something tike this;

13«0 1400 1*00 1700

III > /if/ > /si/ > /ai//u/ > /uu/ > /iu/ > /au/

In 1540, William Lily claimed that the English pronounced the Latin Щ"too broad," which suggests thai they were by then pronouncing it either/si/ or /ai/. Since later orthoepists contrast some non-London pronunciations

344 GRAMMAR AND

as being even broader than that in London, it Is likely that in 1600, a wordlike rids was pronounced /raid/ in those dialects, /raid/ in London,

/ё/ > /I/ and {Si > /0/

PROBLEM 14,11: Here are some spellings and dates, spidte for speehe (speech)(c. 1200), wypbtg For wepatg {weep} (c. 1300), spyde for spede {speed) (c. 1350),hy for he {he} (c. 1350), doun for done (done} (c. 1300), roude for rood {rood}(c. 1320), bloude for 6 Ы {blood} (c. Ш0), bone for boc (book) (c, 137O)r £ои<*for jfoorf (j?™^) (c, 1350). (Note: recall (hat <ou> was (he standard spellingfor /п/, <o> the standard spelling for /o/, <v> or <i> the standard spelling forIII,) What does this suggest about OE /5/ and

Such spellings as м/yping for wejwflg and bloude for Wcv/ indicate that asearly as the thirteenth or fourteenth century in some dialects, /e/ had alreadybegun to move toward—perhaps become—/I/, and /o/, to move towards—perhaps become—/u/.

14.12: What does this have to do with the problem of dating whenIII and /п/ began to diphthongize toward /ai/ and /au/7

J4.I3: Here are some words tha( had long /б/'s. Comment, moon,blood, good, spoon, flood', .S4wf, .mtwi. glove, shook, brood, must, cook, tooth,done, rook, stool, month, food, mother, look, goose, brother.

/5/ > /o/The lower long vowels also raised during late ME and Early ModE, but

describing their development is more complicated. Recall that ME /5/ hadtwo sources: (1) The /a/ > /5/ change between OR and ME, and (2) thelengthening of /o,' in open syllables:

1. Prom /a/ > J5j: stone, bone, boat, home, goat, rope. All these had anearlier /a/: stan, ban, bat, ham, gat, rap.

2. From lengthened /o/: smoke, hope,fioat, robe, yoke.

In London English, this /a/ eventually moved up to replace the older /&/,which, as we have just seen, had fairly early raised to /u/. But in ME, recallthat the original /6/ and ,'5/ were both spelled <oo> and <o). ЛИ the words in(1) and (2) just above had (o) or («o> spellings: btod and hoom. So spellingcannot help us determine exactly when /з,' raised to juj. By the sixteenth cen-tury, however, the lower joj had in many cases been consistently res pel led(oa) as in road (from OF. rod} to distinguish it from the /u/ that had movedup toward /u/. For the most part, this /u/ from earlier (oj was still spelled

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE: FROM OlT) ENGLISH TO MODbftN ENGLISH 345

<oo> or <o>, as mfaodjfode (Йтан/иЬ). From the descriptions of seventeenthcentury orthoepists, both pronunciations, /ft/ and faj for original ,'э/, seem tohave been current, with the final selection of /o/ in Standard Elnglish comingsometime in the seventeenth century.

/I/ > ;e/ and ffl > /i/The most complicated problems of the Great Vowel Shift involve the

raising of/a/ to /ё/, whose main source was lengthened /a/ in open syllables;and the raising of /Ё/ to /1/, whose main source was OF Щ and lengthenedME I&I- At first glance, the change seems perfectly straightforward:

1. /a/ > /ё/: /nama/ > /пйтэ/ > /nsem/ > /n£m/ > /пет/ (лвтг). Alsoincluded in this change were blame, same^jiame, dame, lame, make, rakey

take, tale, some of which were original OF lengthened /a/, others fromFrench /a/.

2. /£/ > / i / ; /sffi/ > /sE/ > /si/ (jra). Also included in this change werewords like speak, mepl? meat, deal, heat, leap, read, №в/, steel, weak.

The dates of the /a/ > /e/ shift are difficult to pinpoint. Spellings ofcredyH for OF cradvl (cradie) in the fourteenth century and mede{n) for madein the thirtcenLh century suggest an early movement in ноте dialects. But aslate as 1631, Alexander Giil condemned the pronunciation of ffl for wortkwith <a> as being faddishly uncouth. Name, according to him, should have

^ been pronounced something like /лЁт/, By the second half of the eighteenthcentury at the liiirst, however, the /Ё/ had raised to /e/ among educatedLondoners:/nbm/ > /neni/.

/Ё/ > litThe ME /E,r words have been left until last because their hisLory is very

confusing. As we- have seen, /£/ is between /e/ and /*/ phonetically, but prob-ably closer to /ё/ since ME words with this appro*imate_sound were spelled<ee> or <c). Around the sixteenth century, though, these /B/ words were fairlyconsistently respetled <ea\ as in sea, meat, clean, arid so on. This would haveorthographically distinguished them from the <ee> words, which had longsince been raised to /[/: see j^Ufiee /fiT/.

At about this time, however, we find lists of rhyming words and poeticrhymes that indicate London speakers were pronouncing these words with/Ё/ from O t /ж,1 (and from other sources) identical to words with original /a/and /e/. That is,' we find in Shakespeare, for example, rhymes and puns basedon pairs such as creafed-defeated, speak-break, great-defeat, nature-defeature,great-seat, jest-beast, sweat-heat, enlreats-frers, east-west, lease-excess,ennfess-decrease, appear-where, tsars-hairs, ear-hair, years-forbears, speaf-there, fear-bear, were-appear.

346 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

From data such as these, it appears that at least by the late sixteenthcentury, /a/ words had merged with /Ё/ words, probably in a pronunciationvery close ю (if. Bui then by the middle of the eighteenth century, this kind ofrhyming and punning ceased. Instead, rhymes and puns began to [ink originaljEj words: sea, meat, weak, beat, dear, with original /e/ words: see, meet, week.,beet, deer. Since this /8/ had long since risen to /I/, the rhymes indicate thatby 1750 those words spelled <ca> must also have risen past /ё/ to reach some-thing very close to / i / as well. Graphically the change in rhymes looked likethis:

seem Щ from M E /5/ (seem / l / from M E /e/ \ I800

1700 h /*Ю1И l&i from M E / £ / \ {seam / i / from ME ,'E/J rhymes\sams /t/ from M E /a/ / мвк /ё/ from ME /a/

This would not have been unusual were it aot for the fact that thoseother words also pronounced fSj—those original /a/ words and some others—did not change to ,'J/ along with the /£ / words. Thai is, when m w /sem/changed to /sim,'s the apparently honionymous sume jittni did not change.Nor did Name, dame,fame, came, lame, fame, late, fade, shade, cake, and so on.

Large scale sound changes occur independently of etymology. TheEnglishman who al one time seems to have pronounced seam and name asrhymes in fif certainly had no idea they derived from different etymologicalsources and almost certainly never thought about their spelling as he pro-nounced them. But when he began pronouncing a word like seam not as4cm.' but as /sTm,.1, he must have had some way to distinguish it from sameIhc apparently identical /sem/. Otherwise, he would have changed same to/sirn/ along with the originally homonymous seam.

One theory is that Londoners were influenced by a non-London dialectin which /Ё/ had changed to /I/ much earlier than 1700, perhaps long beforeLondoners were even pronouncing /Ё/ as /e/. Schematically, it would havelooked like this:

London:Dialect X :

1250

f&l ;!si ;

1350

• №1450

> /e/ ;

1550

• / i / —

1650 1750

..- >

JN

1850

Only steak, break, yea, and great {along with several /e/ sounds before /r/:bear, pear, tear, and so on) seem to survive from that earlier London dialect.

The problem, though, is to imagine how hundreds of thousands ofLondoners, entirely on the basis of haphazard contact with some nonkitaldialect, could change to /I/ only those words with /6/ that derived from OEjsbj or lengthened /c', and yet did not do what speakers almost inevitably do

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE: FROM Ol-D ENGLISH ТП MODERN ENGUSK 347

under such circumstances—overgeneratizc. No words wilh etymological /a/,which in 1700 were rhymed with etymological ,•'£/ words, were mistakenlyraised from /ё/ (о /1/. That is, we would expect that if reap and rape werehomonyms, both pronounced close to ,'rcp/, then some few words like rape,tope, and take, might have mistakenly, by оvergcncriilNation, been raised toЩ, giving us reap, leap, teak, and so on. But apparently, this did not happen.

We can perhaps елрЫп this if we rephrase the dialect theory in terms ofsocial classes and styles. As we have seen, in each social dialect, speakers varytheir pronunciation according to style. Pronunciation in formal styles differsfrom that in casual styles. When asked to read pairs of words, for example,upper-middle class New Yorkers will tend to pronounce a word like bod witha low front lie] much more often than with the sound that characterizes lower-middle class speakers, a higher, fronter sound closer to [E] or even [е], makingW a n d bad almost homonyms. But in more casual conversational styles, evenupper-middle class speakers tend to use the higher vowels toward [E] in wordslilt с bad more often.

This argues that no geographical dialect is a pure, monolithic dialectwith no predictable variations across classes or their styles of speaking. Wehave no reason to assume that the verbal behavior of upper-middle classLondoners in 1700 was any different. In their most casual moments, they mayvery likely have distinguished reap from rape words, pronouncing reap aseither jript or closer to /rip/, while pronouncing rape only /rep/. When theorthoepists, themselves educated but not always upper-middle class speakers,made their lists of homonyms, they were undoubtedly describing their most

л careful pronunciations, their most formal and prestigious forms: only /rep/for reap. Since they could list only one form of a word, they could not therebyreveal the statistical probability that they would occasionally, even in formalmoments perhaps, also use the non-prestigious form.

Thus in с 1700 London English, Londoners may have been able to raiseonly certain fif words to /I/ while leaving behind other ,'c/ words: White theypronounced two different sets of words alike in a formal style, they pro-nounced them differently in a more casual style As lower middle-classspeakers moved into the middle classes, bringing their pronunciation withthem, they tended to use their natural ,'i/ forms. Since up per-middle classspeakers may have had the same distinctions, though on a statistically smallerspread, they were able to distinguish the stigmatized form too. Thus when /£ /moved past /c/ to /1/ in the eighteenth «n lu ry , it was not so much a soundchange in process us a casual form statistically expanding in upper-middle classspeech, until it became the only acceptable pronunciation, even in the mostformal contexts. The change itself must have occurred in casual speech muchearlier, before OE /a/ and Isi rose to merge in Early ModE /S/.

Perhaps the moral of this development is first, that pronunciations change—inevitably, and second that a new pronunciation will often be stigmatized.It certainly happened wi ihihe/a/ > )ё/ change and with the Щ > /ai/ change

348 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

And third, regardless of the siigmalination, the new sound may eventuallybe accepted by upper-middle class educated speakers.

We should not take this as license to accept or encourage any pronuncia-tion lhal differs from the one considered "correct" by those who make theirliving Idling other people how to speak. There are inevitable social penaltiesto pay fur using stigmatized pronunciations in certain contexts. But the historyof stigmatized sounds shouid caul ion JS not lo become outraged at what someseem lo feel is moral turpitude in "vulgar"' pronunciations. The fact is that,not always, but often enough, the once "vulgar" pronunciation has becomethe standard, to be as staunchly defended as it was once condemned.

ShortAmong the short vowels since 1500, only the letters <t> and (e>have more

or less consistently represented their vowels. In fact, these two segments havebeen relatively stable since OE, Л few changes have occurred in individualwords: Among many speakers, /i/ dropped lo /c/; since is often pronouncedsence, /Я/as telt. Drydcn rhymed мим and prince, for example. But any wordspelled with an <i) or <e> in ME and Harty ModF that we know is short waspronounced /i/ or /e/, and if it did not lengthen, it is very likely pronouncedthat way today.

The most confused and various relationships exist among the shortlower vowels represented by <a> and <o). As we saw, the letter <#> dis-appeared in Rarly M F when short /ж/ merged with short /a/, giving only twolow or low Ьцск vowels: /a/ and /o/.

But a number of further changes upset this relationship. First, since wedo have words today with /a?/: cat, sag, hug/к and so on, sometime betweenME and the present, English acquired a. short /a?;' again. And in the dialectarea around the Great Lakes, at any rale, mosl words spelled with <o>,suggesting an earlier /э/ or /o/ pronunciation, are now pronounced /a/: hot/hal/, knock /&ak/, top /tap/. Sometime after ME, Ihen, /a/ or /o/ unroundedto/a/.

Dating the change from /a/ to /ж/ is extremely difficult because the spell-ing of /a/ and jsi is in both cases <a). Moreover, early orthoepists andphoneticians had a difficult time describing the difference between /ж/ and/a/. Not until the late seventeenth century do we find descriptions that clearlysuggest an /ж/ in words spelled <a>. It is at least likely lhat the /a/ > /ж/shift occurred considerably earlier, probably during the sixteenth century.

PROBLEM 14.14: Comment on your pronunciation of these words with <a)Assume that at one time, all words with <a> were pronounced /a/, wart,waddle, swamp, swan, wax, quack, was, Jivfljj, quart, warn, dwarf, swam, wharf,wasp, squalid, wander, watch, swagger, wad, hat, santiffat!t qualm, craft, harm,farm, mil, war,fairer, quad, alley, tatiey, cart, squat Jailer, pad, path, has, warp,talk, walk,palm.

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE! FROM OLD ENGLfSH TO MODERN RNGLHH 349

A nole of contemporary relevance here is that sometime in the seven-teenth century, perhaps earlier, one dialect of British English lengthened [ft]to [ж] and retracted it to [a], as in father. \l is ihe vowci lhat we hear inBritish Received Pronunciation in words like path, glass, calf, dance, command,and so or—in general (though not invariably) before voiceless spirants and/n/. We ca n often identify an American speaker trying to sound like an English-man when he self-consciously but incorrectly pronounces [a] in words whereihe [a] doesn'i belong, in words like t:ai, pack, cram, and so on. the typicalbehavior of a speaker emulating an unnatural paLlcrn of speech-

In Eastern New England, [a] in alt the right places is the natural pro-nunciation, because the earliest colonialists pruhably came from the dialectarea where this change hud already occurred. They brought it with them andestablished it in, among other places, Boston, where because of the socialprestige of that city, the broad-a became the mark of education and politeness.Boston's close contacts with British pronunciation helped maintain the vowel.014)

PROBLEM 14,15: A change roughly similar to /u/ > /ж/ is illustrated by thespelling and pronunciation of words like hot, hng* rock, moth, nod, song,momy toss, rob, scoffs sop, soft, and doll. Assume an earlier pronunciation ofthe letter <o> in all these words was approximately /э/. Comment.

FROBLLH i4. ld: Did /a/ > /as/ occur before or after /я/ > /a/7 What doesthe spelling of slap for stop by Queen Elizabeth I suggest?

4

Between M E and ModE, then, the Great Vowel Shift and some changesin the shon vowels resulted in a somewhat different set of vowel phonemes,different enough, perhaps, to say lhat Chaucer's pronunciation of Englishwords was closer to that of King Alfred's than Queen Elizabeth's. Yet on adeeper level, the changes are less radical than they might appear. Disregardingrhe multitude of M E diphihongs, the number of contrasts in the basic vowelsystem since M L has decreased hy only two. East Midland had six shortvowels; ModE as it is spoken in most (but not all) parls of this country, hasSeven.

ME: /i/Je/,

ModE: lil.ttf. ,'u/, and/a/.

East Midland M E had seven long vowels. Modi : has four diphthongs closelycorresponding to ihcm, six i f we count fm) and /au,.' from ME /i/ and /u/r

ME: /t/, ItlJEIJafJaf.fGU and /Q/.l \S I \ i i

ModE: /ai/, /i/, /e/, /о/, /п/, and /au/.

350 (iKAMMAEt ЛМО SOUND

Thus even though the pronunciation of particular words has changed, thesystem of contrasts has thanged much less. (43, 107, 108, 109 209 213 239244) ' ' ' '

Consonant.';

Between the end of ME and the present, several changes have occurredin the distribution of consonants, but most involve individual sounds inindividual words.

PROBLEM 14.17: Here are some data. Are there any generalizations to be made ?What information about the data would you like, in addition to the datesalready provided ?

1. laffe (laugh) 15(53 22.2. al f (half) 1389 23.3. behaf (behalf) 1442 24,4. wosted (worsted) 1450 25,5. wussfauppc (worship) 1480 26.6. morgage (mortgage) J448 27.7. offen (often) 1590 28.S. wich (which) 1494 19.% when t (went) 1550 30.10. larneskynnes (lambskines) 31.

1450 32.11. clyme (dimb) 158012. troff (trough) 155313. conschens (conscience) 146914. sawgeais (soldiers) 1550 33.15. owsold (household] 1451 34.16. sepukyr (sepulcher) 1450 35.17. Fakonbrigc (Falkonbridge) 1465 36.IS. passelI (parcel) 1480 37.19. marster (master) I4S0 38.20. Chrismas (Christmas) J 639 39.21. wyped (whipped) 1550 40.

whear(wear) 1577Lamhyth (Lambeth) 1418dafter (daughter) 1634thorf (through) 1465sesschyonys (sessions) 1450teges (tediojs) 1647drynkyn (drinking) J3S9pleshar (pleasure) 1642craftyr (hereafter) J460ihudd (should) 1531(A lack of /t/ sound noted inthese words (1701)): gristle,costly, bristle, ghastly, whistle,ghostly, glisten, fasten, lastly.blyn (blind) 1389husbon (husband) 1450colfcyld) 1550baptis (baptist) 1389нех (next) 1450prompe (prompt) 1545currup (corrupt) 1701stric (strict) 1701

The last significant changes in the consonant system involve the loss ofthe velar and palatal spirant a I [o phones of /h/, the split of /N/ into /n/ andШ* and the development of ffi. Some orthoepists in the 1600's were stillclaiming that the spirants in words like right, mgkt^fight, daughter, and so oncould still be heard as very light aspiration. But rhymes, puns, and quibblescontradict their statements in some dialects. In Shakespeare's Venus andAdonis (1593), for example, we find these rhymes: white-downright, nigh-eye.

PHONOLOGICAL CHANOE: FROM OLD ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH 351

n\ght-despite, light-delight (an incorrect reverse spelling for deltle}, spite-light.The voiceless spirant was very likely lost to Standard London English at leastby the end of the sixteenth century, in some dialects almost certainly duringthe fifteenth century.

The split of /N/ into /n/ and /rj/ through the loss of /g/ after the fo]albphone of /N/ ([sirjg] > [sin.)) probably occurred sometime in the seven-teenth century. At least it was not until then that the lack of a /g/ was specifi-cally noted.

The completely new phoneme /z/ was acquired in a few borrowed Frenchwords with /z/: rouge, genre, and so on. But in these words it has always beena foreign sound that almost inevitably was merged with /J/, as garage hasbecome /gsraj/ from /gani?/. \z] has developed as a thoroughly assimilatednative sound in borrowings like н ш , pleasure, osier, and so on in quiteanother way.

When we rapidly pronounce combinations of words like did you, hit you,press you, or raise you, the sequences !-d + -y/, f-t + y-/, /-s + y-/, andj-z + y-j coalesce to become new sounds:

j-t + y-j jej as in /hicu/ (hit you)/-d + y-/ HI as in /diju/ (did you)/-s -Ь y-/ /s/ as in jpreluj (press you)j-z + y-j !±l as in /rezu/ (raise you)

Jhe alveolar consonants /t/, /d/, /s/, and /z/ are pulled back by the following/y/ to become palatals- The spirants remain spirants bat the slops becomeaffricates.

Regardless of what those who prescribe "correct" pronunciation haveto say about these patterns, they occur in the informal speech of even themost educated, Tn fact, they have resulted in the (if, /J/, /£/, and /z/ phonemesin the middle of many words. Such words as picture, soldier, issue, and visionwere all originally pronounced /piktyur/, /soidyw/, /^уп/ and /vLzyan/. Theevidence for these pronunciations comes from contemporary French pro-nunciations of such words, from rhymes, and from metrical patterns. A wordlit condlciotm (condition) in ME was certainly a tour-syllabic word if lines

these from Chaucer's Canterbury TaJei arc to scan correctly with ten

syllables each: Me tkynketk it accordsamt to resem I To telk yaw all the

condicioun I Ofech of hem By the Lime of Shakespeare, poets often in-tended spellings of -tior or -cioun to represent one or two syllable* as themeter required. Spellings likepi€churetsojertitshuziaU9O on began to appear!n the fifteenth century, evidence that the phonetic change had probablyoccurred in the casual speech of some dialects considerably earlier. Spellings'^e t:ishiof] for vision, however, did not occur until the seventeenth century.«rhaps the change lagged su long after the others because the /z/ sound was

, Ш ОНАММЛК AND SOUND

so completely foreign to English. The phonemes /£7, jj/ , and /5/, on the otherhand, were native sounds that occurred in other contexts: ship, chip, edge.

A sound change that has had very extensive social consequences is theloss of /r/ in a variety of phonological contexts. The earliest evidence for theloss may date from the OE period, though it became a. much more commonchange from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. Indeed, the lossof /r/ both before consonants, as in /ban/ for /barn/, and finally, as in /ka/for /kar/ almost certainly occurred before this country was colonized, allow-ing those first colonists to bring an г-less pronunciation with them from theirSouthern and East Midland dialect areas.

By the end of the seventeenth century, then, the inventory of phonemesand possible- ways of combining them into sequences was settled in StandardEnglish. A few new combinations have entered the language through borrow-ings, but words like svelte, pueblo, sclerotic, and sphere are not part of anyoverall pattern of word formation. Among the consonants, we have sinceearly OE gained seven new phonemes, most by a redistribution of oldallophones in new environments; two, /s/ and /z/, because new soundsevolved out of old combinations. It is more difficult to compare the vowelsbecause the shift from length to diphthongization means that we are dealingwith two different systems. It is safe to say, however, that English has addeda short /э/ to the short OE vowels, and has lost three long vowels, /*/, /a/, and/5/. (43)

Here are three passages, one from OE, one from ME, and one from earlyModE transcribed phonetically. The first is from the Buttle of Brunnanburg(translated on p, 60). It dates from about A.D. 937. Some of the inflectionshave been regularized,

Hettcnd u-ungon hettend krurigsnSeotta Ieode / and scipflotan, sksM a ] ftjdc / and li pftota nfege feoI!onh,.' leid dennode fie\s fc&LlanI feld dennadesccga uwatc, / sLj?]?an sumie upp seja swatt / siSSan sunne upon irmrgentid, / msere tungol, an тэгуеп cid / тяге tuijgalglad ofer grundas, / Godes candel glad sver gmndas / gades kandcl

beorht, bearxteces Drihtnes, / oS sio a;Scle eces dristnes /ов

gesceaftsah to setle. SHK ta setle

The second consists of the first 12 lines of the General Prologue to Chaucer'sCanterbury Tales, written in the late fourteenth century:

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote[hwan flat april wi9 his Sures sCts

The droghte of March hath pcrccd to the roottбэ dfUKt of marc ha9 perssd tO Уэ ruts

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE: FROM OLD ENGLISH TO MODERN ENULLSII 353

And bathed every veyfle in swich licourand bao'sd cvri vxin in swit likur

Of which vcrlTi engendrcd is the flour;af hwii: vcrtiu enjendrad is Ээ (Юг

Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete hreethhwan zefirus ek wi0 his swets ЬгЁ9

Inspired hath in every holt and heethinspired haft in evri halt and hEO

The iendre croppes. and the yongc sonneЙ5 tendrs krappes and вэ yuijga sunna

Halh m the Ram his halv[e] cours yronne,hafl in вэ ram his halvs кппз irunna

And smale foweles ma ken melodye,and smab fOJes maksn mciadis

That slepen al the nyght with open yeSal slepsn al Оэ nixt wit* эрэп Ъ

So priketh hem nature in hir coi'agesse prik^O hem natiur in hir kurajss

Thanne longcn folk to goon on pilgrimage[s] , , ,flan iongen folk to gon &n pilgrimaps . . . ]

The third is Macbeth's well-known speech in V,vr:

* Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,[l-этагд a;nd tsinoro ^nd 1этэго

Creepes in this pclty pace from day lo daytrips in ois peti pEs frum dE ta dE

To the last syllable of recorded time.ts Sa Jaest silabsl sv rskardsd tsimАпЙ all our yesterdayes have lighted foolesffind al aur yestsrdC?, l&v I sited fulzThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brecfc candle!3a w£ гэ dusti deQ sut sut hiif ksndal

Life's Ьщ a walking shadow, a poorc playerIsifs but s walkirj ssedo a pur plEar

That struts and frets his houre upon the stageExt struts snd frcls his эиг эрэп 6э StEj

And then is heard no more: it is a talesnd йсп iz h£rd no mor it iz э tbi

Toid by an ideot, i'utt of sound and fury,told bai an \йЫ fui flv ssund aaid

Signifying nothing,signify in

354 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

SOMt POSSIBLE CAUSES OK SOL'ND

The question which most interests us, naturally, is why these sounds shouldhave changed at all. Л few decades ago linguists generally gave up searchingfor specific reasons in the external history of a language realms like dim a ticchanges, massive incidences of speech defects, diet, and the like, and instead,concentrated on describing how they changed.

In one sense, of course, an accurate description of how they changeditself explains why they changed. Some phonemes split into two because theirenvironments changed. This only pushes the question one step back to whythe environment changed. We must look into the speaker for the cause ofthose changes.

Most recent attempts to explain phonological change approach theproblem from one of two directions: physiologically or psychologically. Theleast specific kind of physiological explanation depends on the idea of"phonetic drift." When we pronounce a sound, we can think of ourselves asaiming at an ideal point of articulation. Statistically speaking, however, wehit that exact point only rarely. Rather, like someone aiming at a builseyc.we scatter hits around the mark. It is through sheer statistical chance thatthe center of the spread defines the phonetic ideal. But also through statisticalchance, the center of the spread can drift until, for example, an /a/ drifts to/se/, an /I/ or /п/ begins to drift toward diphthong, an /a/ drifts toward

/5/.Working against this change is the presumption that sounds bearing a

heavy functional load, sounds that are used frequently like /i/ or /e/, must notmerge, lest too many words become confusing homonyms. Apparently,however, the increase in homonyms when /ж/ merged with /a/ in ME did notconfuse speakers enough to prevent their merger. For many speakers insevcntcenlh-eentury London Rnglish, the sounds that developed out of /£/and /a/ coalesced in /ё/ (name-reap), while in other dialects they did not. anoutcome that casts some doubt on whether functional load satisfactorilyexplains any of these changes.

The opposite of one sound perhaps "pushing" another is one sound" pulling" another. If, for example, /I/ began to diphthongize as the first stepof the Great Vowel Shift, to shift away from (if, then /e,' had morearticulatory" r o o m " to vary in, and so drifted toward the "empty" spot inthearticulatorypattern left by ;i/. When IE; began to drift up and forward toward /f,', a speakerwas thereby allowed to spread bis /a:,1 "h i t s " higher and more forward with-out confusing ihe resulting sounds with one that had moved on. And as fsidrifted up toward /ЁД /i/ had articulatory room to vary in. (106)

Thus we can talk about one sound pulling another or pushing another ina way not too different from the way we talked about one lexica! item in a

PHONOLOGICAL CKANCt: FROM OLD liNOUSH TO MODfRM F.NGLISH 3SS

pattern pushing another or leaving a vacuum and thereby pulling another itemto replace it. Bui again, none of this «plains why any of these sounds beganpulling or pushing in the (irsl place.

One physiological way to explain some kinds of phonetic movement isto look hack at the way sounds influence surrounding sounds. Over andover, we have seen how one sound assimilates to another. As we pronouncewords, our tongue moves toward one point in the mouth, hut our nervoussystem has already prepared itself to (ire off another impulse for the nextsound. In some cases, the impulses pile up and jumble the articulation, aswhen we try to repeat a torgite twister like rubber baby buggy bumpers or shesells sea shells by the seashore. Umlaut ing is a case of anticipatory a ssi mi iat ion;so is [n] before /g/ pnd /k/. The velar and palatal voiced spirants indscg and dragan eventually assimilated completely to the vowels aroundthem, giving us day and draw. Thus one powerful force for change in thelanguage is to be found in the neurophysiology of articulating sequences ofsounds.

In other cases, the sequence of sounds may be too similar and theOpposite of assimilation occurs. Sounds dissimilatc. This is less frequent thanassimilation, but it happens fairly uflen: library becomes Ubary, athleticsbecomes atheletics.

In talking about communicative efficiency and impulses in the nervoussystem, we have already touched on the psychology of sound changes. Butmotor skills and perception arc not as complex a capacity as learning abilityand thut abstraction peculiar to man—linguistic competence. And once wemove into these areas, we are in very uncertain territory. We can X-ray thetongue and mouth, but we can't X-ray the mind.

One purely mentalistic way to explain sound changes requires us tounderstand the psychology of the child. When a child first learns a language,he usually overgeneralizes the rules. Instead of learning first once and for allthat some past tense verbs change their forms: go-went-gone, rtm-rau-run,and so on, he reaches a point where he generalizes that all past lenses take-id: goedt mimed, eated, and then often overgeneralizes further to wen ted,rawed, and aled.

It may be that some of the same overgeneralizations occur when theyIcam sound patterns. For example, all of us have implicitly learned that inEnglish only certain initial sequences of consonants are possible, othersimpossible: No spirant except /s/ may occur before stops; stops may occuronly before vocalic elements like ,,'r,', /I/, /y/, and /w/; these vocalic segmentsm a y occur only before vowels. OE and ME, on the other hand, allowedthese: /kn-/ as in cnihu fen-/ as in gnstt, /hi-/ as in Ыеарал, /hn-/ as in bnutu,/hr-/ as in hrlng. By eliminating such combinations, the general rules forcombining sounds become simpler. If rules arc acquired for sounds as theyarc for grammar, children may tend to simplify phonological rules as theybarn them. In other words, language can change slightly as it is imperfectly

356 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

passed on from generation to generation, as each generation simplifies therules of the language. (239)

Another psychological explanation of sound change also depends onexceptions to rules, but here we might examine [he question more graphically.Once a pattern begins to develop among the phonemic oppositions in alanguage, it is possible for "holes" to develop in the pattern. If we look atthe spirants of OE, for example, we have the one set:

that split into two:

wwwWhen the velar and palatal allophones of /h/ disappeared, /h/ more

properly became a semi-vowel. This left only ill without a voiced opposition.It may be that the pressure of this pattern to fill out the systematic oppositionsbetween voiced and voiceless segments allowed jij to enter the language moreeasily than it might have otherwise, thereby providing an opposition to fif,

A quite different kind of psychological pressure toward linguistic changehas just recently been investigated quite intensively—the pressure of socialidentity. Enough evidence has been gathered in recent years to suggest that asocial group can adopt a new pronunciation that will linguistically identifyitself in one of two ways: ( I) I f they want to isolate themselves from othergroups, (hey can develop their own pattern among themselves, or (2) i f theywant to join another group, they can identify a pattern in that group andemulate it. Neither explanation, however, is entirely without its problems asa way to explain large scale sounds changes. The first may apply only torelatively cohesive groups, such as Black young people in the inner city orfishermen on Martha's Vineyard who have come to identify themselves as thelast of the real live Yankees. Both have developed speech patterns significantlydifferent from those groups they have isolated themselves from.

The second explains why lower-middle class speakers overcorrect them-selves and in formal styles use features of speech characteristic of upper-middie class speakers more than those speakers do themselves. But it doesnot explain why so often in ihe past, a pronunciation stigmatized as lowerclass, faddish, uncouth, or dialectal, ultimately displaces the poh'le ore:/ae/ for /a/, /a/ for /a/, / i / for /с/, /ё/ for /Ё/, /ai/ for /ai,1 have all been criticizedas improper or unfashionable. Yet at least for educated speakers around theGreat Lakes eaeh has become the standard pronunciation.

It may be that as lower class speakers rise into the middle class, theycorrectly identify and successfully imitate certain middle-class pronunciations.But they also bring with them other phonological patterns that they failed to

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE: FROM OLD BNOUSH TO MOJHKN FNOUSH 357

recognize arc rot part of up per-middle class speech. Thus while they success-fully emulate up per-mid die class speech patterns in some respects, tlieyoverlook other characteristics of their pronuncimion not part of middle classspeech. Only when enough ex-lower middle class speakers become part of themiddle class to threaten an accepted pronuneialion do the onhtiepisis andhandbook writers concern themselves with LIT encroaching " vulgarism."Ordinarily, they do not bother to condemn characteristics of lower classspeakers that pose no threat to "ref ined" English. Few, i f any, of the ortho-epists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for example, condemned{{j for /Й/, mouffot нтян'Л. ол/ for vath, and so on, even though it was currentamong some speakers, for it never threatened to become part of standardmiddle class verbal behavior. (118, J21, 2Щ

In the same way, few handbooks of pronunciation ever comment on /b/for /v/ in debii for detftl, her у for very, and so on, because it is a characteristicof only a few lower class Black speakers. Such speakers pose no linguisticthreat to upper-middle class speech patterns, so hardly any pre-1560 speech-leaching or pronunciation manuals bothered to comment on i t

A NOTE ON AMKRFCAN PRONLl\<IATION

Had sounds not changed, of course, many of the differences between dialectareas and soda! classes in this country would not exist. For many years,scholars believed that American dialects began to differentiate after the maincolonial settlement of the east. They thought that in the eighteenth century,Eastern New Englanders and Tidewater Southerners began to cbange theway they pronounced words because they were so receptive to British Englishinfluences, while those further inland who were more isolated did not change.Thus when educated standard English in London lost its {if in words likebarn, car, and so on, the prestige of everything English made the Bostonianand Clwleslonian drop their {if too. When {of remained as the prestigiousform in stop, cod, and fat, the New Lnglandcr developed his dislinctive fof inthose words. When the standard British pronunciation of words like calfchanged from [a?] to [a], the Anglophilie New Engender and TidewaterSoutherner properly assumed iheir " broad-ah." It is the reverse of Bede'sconclusion in regard Co OE dialects (Chapter Three).

Encouraging this mimicry of British pronunciation, scholars also believed,was the schoolmaster, whose influence throughout New Lngland in particularwas very strong. His usually lower-middle class background in combinationwith the general belief that teaching was a way to middle class respectabilitymade him linguistically insecure enough to look to a more prestigious dialect

358 СЖАЧМЛН * N D S4JUMD

than his own as a model. And as a schoolmaster, he was able to drill his chargesin those broad-ah*s and rounded-o's.

More recently, however, some scholars have come to believe thatAmerican dialects differ because tiie dialects of the original settlers differed,because they came from different parts of Great Britain with their own charac-teristic speech patterns.

In order to decide between these two views, we have to know from wherein England the earliest American settlers came so that we can match dialectfeatures that characterized those areas with dialect features of the settlementareas here. We must then reconstruct how the settlers migrated West, takingtheir speech patterns with them.

Eastern New England and the Virginia TidewaLer were settled by EastMidlanders and Somheasterners, the- New Jersey and Delaware area by amixture of English, but many from the North and West. They later migratedeast into central and southern Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, andsouth into the Piedmont. Scotch-Jrish from Ulster settled western NewEngland, upper New York State, and along the Great Lakes.

This gives us three large dialect areas; Northern, Midland, and Southern,each with many subdialect areas. We arc most concerned with eastern NewEngland and the rest of the North and the Tidewater and Piedmont areas inthe South, areas which illustrate those dialect features that characterizevarious American dialect areas:

1. The loss of .'г/ before consonants and finally in words like car and barn.2. The so-called broad-ah in words like half, path, and dance.3. The short fa) of eastern New Englanders.4. The ,''hw,''-/w/ variation between whales-Wales.5. The various pronunciations of words like bad and cod.

Those features which characterize eastern New England and the Tide-water areas, (1)—(2), also characterize East Midland and SoutheasternBritish English dialect areas which correspond to the source of the earliestsettlers who coloni/cd New England and Virginia. The middle Atlanticstates, on the other hand, which do not share characteristics with EasternNew England and the Tidewater, were settled by several groups, the mostprestigious of whom, however, were probably the Quakers from northernEngland. If their social prestige influenced the speech of the area, I hen thoseSouthern and East Midland English who did not have an /r/ would byimitation acquire one to imitate the /r/ dialect of Northerners. NorthernBritish settlers in western New England and [he Great Lakes would havebrought with them post-vocalic /r/'s; /a/'s instead of /э/*5 in words like hnt\/a;/*s in /W/and dcmC€\ /hw/ instead o f /w / in white and whisper. These arethe features which characterize the English spoken around the Great Lakesand in the Piedmont (though Piedmont speakers arc beginning to change

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE! FROM OLD ENGLISH TO MODI-К N ENGLISH 359

because of the local social prestige of /r,'-less dialects). We could compareother features, such as the tempo of speech, oiher vowel sounds, and certaingrammatical forms that would suggest further connections between Britishdialect areas and the original dialect areas in this country.

In the Jast two centuries, American pronunciation has, of course, changed.New diphthongs have developed in the Southard North alike. But certain ofour modern American patterns of pronunciation can be traced back to thedialect areas of seventeenth and eighteenth century England, dialect areaswhich themselves grew out of those in the Middle English period which, inturn, correspond to the OR dialect areas of Mercia, East and West Saxony,Kent and Norihumbria, areas that the Venerable Bede {673-735) thoughtreflected the continental origins of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, whosedialects were allegedly scattered along the North Sea from the Rhine toDenmark—all of which is a continuity that testifies to the enduring nature oflanguage as well as its constant tendency for change, (114)

Black

One final note about the history of English in this country concernsBlack English. Jn dialect stories, racist jokes, old lime radio serials and movies,and so on. where dialect is supposed to be part of the humor or realism, weoften read or hear Blacks allegedly speaking like this: mouf for mouth,bruvver for hen!her, dey for they, tick, for thick, tlebbit for devil, nuffin fornothing, fa* for far, ca' for cell, tmi for matt, *cep for except, jis Тот just, sictifor such, s'pose for suppose, fuss for first, and so on.

Those individuals entirely ignorant of the history of language and howit changes have attributed these patterns to laziness, inherent stupidity, someeven to the anatomical structure of Black speech organs. Others who believethemselves more charitable explain these patterns by claiming that manyyoung Blacks never had the opportunity to learn "correct" pronunciationand that special programs of speech iherapy can eliminate the more obvious"faults," at least while these groups are speaking with speakers of standarddialects.

It is worth noting first that virtually every one of these pronunciationscharacterizes various southern American dialeets and that each pronuncia-tion can be found in various dialects of British English. Moreover, the kindsof assimilations and deletions that have produced these patterns have operatedin Ihe language sinct Old English.

This speech pattern illustrates two kinds of changes: substitution andloss. Initially, speakers of these dialects often substitute a voiced or voicelessslop for the corresponding spirant: they > e/ey, thing > ting, or jfj far №'•

Л60 (jHAMVfAR AND SOUND

Siting > frng. Medially, they substitute the corresponding labiodentalspirant: nothing > nuffin, brother > hruvver. Finally, /f/ replaces /0/:mouth > motif, oath > oaf. Medially, jbj stereotypical ly replaces ,'v/: devil ><kbbU.

Because wich one exception, each change has sporadically occurred inmany dialects of English, it is difficult to argue that any of these patterns arepeculiar to Black English. The /d/ in Bedlam, for example, derives from theЩ in Bethlehem (the name of an insane asylum in London). More currently,the stop-for-spi rant characterizes the lower-middle class pronunciation ofNew York and Chicago, black and white alike: Dese tings is more oftenheard from older Chicago city officials than these things. English authors havefrequently used these speech patterns to represent British class dialects:Charles Dickens wrote nujfin for natfang; William Thackeray wrote rw/j andmotif for oat hi and month; In one of his plays, G. B. Shaw wroLe wiv for with.The substitution of/и/ for /rj/ in progressive participle endings, goto? fishin\is attested to so often through the recent history of British and AmericanFnglish at all social levels that it is certain that at one time among someeducated groups, it was the preferred pronunciation. Only the assiduousefforts of school leathers have changed the formal pronunciation of sittgBt'back to singing, an accomplishment of debatable value.

The loss of the second of two consonants in words like test — tes7 cold —col are potentially more interesting because some have claimed that these aredistinctively Black characteristics. Yet even the most superficial examinationof seventeenth and eighteenth century spellings turns up literally hundredsof such spellings among educated writers. Other patterns reflect the speech ofthe Tidewater Engiish that has strongly influenced much Southern speech:The loss of pre-consonantal or final /r/: /ka/ for car, /ban/ for bam, and so on.But this is a British characteristic that was very likely brought here by theearliest settlers after the beginning of the loss of/r/.

The only phonological pattern that can be plausibly attributed to theinfluence of a Black linguistic heritage might be the substitution of thestereotype /b/ for /v/ in words like debhit (devil) and bery (very). This changeis not attested to in the phonological history of English in Great Britain, so itis not likely that it was brought here and passed on to slaves, [t is a changefound in Neo-Melanesian and Chinese pidgins, but these are Pacific, notAtlantic pidgins. On the other hand, pidgins and Creoles based on Portugueseand French used in the Atlantic area do have jvj sounds, Voodoo, for example,is a Haitian Creole word (probably inherited from Ewe, a West Africanlanguage, meaning demon or titulary god). So we cannot attribute the }vj >/b/ substitution to any of these Creoles.

But when we push back beyond Creole and pidgin iangjages to the WestAfrican languages, we find that /v/ is not a common phoneme. Thojgh it isfound in Ewe and Bini, it is not found in Yoruba, Наша, Efik, Twi, and for

PHONOLOGICAL CIIANUfcT FROM OLD ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH 361

the most part, I bo. If we assume that the English pidgins learned by slavesreflected the phonological structure of their own native languages, much as aGerman speaker substitutes /v/ for /w/ because he has no native /w/ andsubstitutes the closest sound, so the majority of slaves perhaps had to substi-tute the sound they had closest to /v/. Most of their language did have a/b/ or /b/-like sound.

The substitution of /t/ or /f/ for /6/, and the substitution of jdj for /S/are frequently attested to in the history of British English, as noted above.But it is likely that the same change occurred in English pidgins and earlyCreoles, since neither /S/ nor /S/ are found in West African languages. Thuseven though these changes can be found in British dialects, it is likely thatthey too can be attributed to the phonological structure of African languagesinterfering with the acquisition of English phonological patterns. (42, 54)

Of course, none of this supports the claim that speakers of dialects otherthan what we have been calling standard English should be left uninformedof the differences between their pronunciations and the standard in theirdialect area and of the social implications of using either pattern. Thosespeakers who as a rule drop final consonants in words like passed and jumpeddrop the past tense inflection; /рак/ and /jamp/ instead of /ptest/ and ftampt/.When this pronunciation is transferred to writing and a student writes Hejump down from the roof instead of He jumped down from the roof., the con-sequences can be serious, because our written standard usage emphasizesvery strongly not only correct spelling, but even пгшгс, correct verb forms.Unless a student can handle past tenses correctly (not to mention missing/l/'s as in He'll be ihere > Hebe there), he will be branded illiterate by educatedmiddle class speakers and writers,

" Illiterate'4 in this sense, of course, means only "unable to use the dialectpatterns of those who have the power to influence how others will spend theirlives.*' The problem of education in this and future decades is to decidewhether the social forces that stigmatize certain pronunciations are so strongthat it would be irresponsible not to force students to learn the standardpronunciation of their dialect area. (This assumes that in fact we can givethem a chance, whether they want one or not, to succeed later in a societythat they might, at that moment, want nothing to do with.) The alternative,for the sake of supporting social identity and self-respect, is that the educa-tional system should tacitly encourage the use of a speech pattern that latermight contribute to social and occupational failure.

Whatever reasons are used to support either decision, however, historicalreasons are utterly irrelevant, either to support a pattern of speech that has itshistorical roots in earlier forms, or to reject a pattern that has never had thesupport of history. The decision is ultimately a political one that will haveconsequences on society, but more particularly, on the minds of millions ofschool children.

362 GRAMMAR AND SOL.'SD

SPELLING REFORM

Considering the apparently confused relationships between sound and spellingit is not surprising that many have argued we should bring our spelling andpronunciation more closely together. English speaking children must spendlarge amounts of time learning to spell. Spelling has become a major socialindicator of literacy (and hence potential social value), probably because it isso difficult and requires so much formal education. If we can devise rationalalphabets for preliterale societies, we should be able to devise one for asociety that his become more dependent on reading and writing than anyother in mankind's history.

Those with the least sense of how language works have argued that weshould pronounce ;L word as we spell it. This usually takes (he form ofcoercing school children to "sound every vowel," of pronouncing a sentencelike He always rejects her attempts to find the answer like (1) rather than likethe more normal (2):

1, hi olwez rijekts har attempts tu faind 6i ffinsar /2, /hi Dlwiz rsjeks er atemps ta fain Йл a;nsor/

In other cases, it means pronouncing consonants that haven't been heard instandard spoken English for hundreds of years: The /t,' in Christmas or often,the fl) in balm, palm, and balk; the ;'d;' in graduate, the /z,1' in vision. Needlessto say, this ltind of advice is worthless both because it is based on ignoranceand because, fortunately, it usually has little or no effect on the way childrenspeak once the final bell rings.

With the exception of someone like Noah Webster, whose spelling bookhas sold millions of copies, no one person's advice about pronunciation makesmuch difference. The unfortunate consequences come when children grow upwith a sense of guilt or inferiority over their *hbad" English, usually over apronunciation that is in fact entirely correct. And worst of all, some of themremember well enough what such teachers had to say for them in turn tobecome linguistic martinets.

Much more common but with equally little positive effect have beenthose who have tried to make spelling better reflect the way we speak. Inrecent years, spelling reformers have excited about the same degree of seriousintellectual respect as vegetarians, Esperantists, and nudists. The beginningsof spelling reform go back to the Old English monks in their scriptoriasilently changing an (a) to an <e> to reflect a vowel change. But al! theserespcllings were unsystematic, idiosyncratic, and probably unconscious. Thefirst change based on new principles of spelling was that of the late twelfth-century monk, Orm. in his Ormulum, a versified version of the Gospels, he

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE: FROM OLX) ENGLISH TO MOU£KIV ENGLISH 363

consistently doubled a Following consonant to indicate a preceding shortvowel:

annd all t=uss (this) ennglisshe hoc (book)iss orrmulum 3ehatenn (called)

jet wile (will) ic shswenn (show) juw, forrwhi (why)l (gospel) is goddspcll nemmnedd (named).

Unfortunately, this reform did not influence general scribal practice. Ourhabit of doubling consonants after a short vowel in two-syllable words:bitter as opposed to biter > is much mores inconsistent than his.

The earliest Renaissance attempt at spelling reform was Sir John Cheke'stranslations of Matthew and Mark (c. 1550). It was в modest reform, m best,consisting only of doubling long vowels plus one or two other minor changes.The earliest serious treatise on spelling reform was that of Thomas Smith(1568), the first of several reformers who have taken the more radical steptoward reform: He added new letters to represent consonants and accentmarks to indicate long and shorL vowels. A year iater, 1569, John Hartfollowed with a new orthography of the same type. In 1580, William Buliokarand in I5S2, Richard Mulcaster proposed to reform spelling too, but withabout the same effect as their predecessors. In the seventeenth century, aparade of names appeared to propose, new orthographies: Alexander Gill(1619), Charles Butler (1634), Simon Daines (1640), Richard Hodges (1643),JolTn Willdns Ц668).

The eighteenth century was less actively reformist, partly because of theimmense prestige of Samuel Johnson, who damped enthusiasm when he rhe-torically wondered whether there was even arty point in trying to make anentire nation change its orthography if it would make its old boots uselessand create extensive confusion among its current writers.

But if Johnson's prestige may have effectively halted any serious attemptsat reform in England until the middle of the next century, two Americans didpropose vast reforms. As we might expect, Benjamin Franklin was one. InI7fi8t he published "A Scheme for a New Alphabet and Reformed Mode ofSpelling." It consisted of a new phonetic alphabet that woutd fit pronuncia-tion, and like n\l such attempts, it came to naught.

Much more influential, indeed so influential Lhat many American dic-tionary makers invoke his name from the public domain, was Noah Webster(1758-1843). His fanciful theories on etymology and the genetic relationshipsof languages were without any foundation or subsequent influence. But hisspelling books and dictionaries set new standards for American spelling and,some claim, pronunciation. Webster's early attempts at spelling reform weremuch more radical than Шояе that survive. After a very conservative approachto spelling in 1733, he recommended in 17&9 such spellings as bred, bitr> giv,

364 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

laf arkitecture, and obliik. He also recommended using various diacriticsfor both vowels and consonants. Most of these appeared in his first dictionaryin \y.V\ A Compendious Dictionary о Г I\K English Language, But they beganto disappear only a year later in his Л Dictionary of the English LanguageCompiled for the Use of Common Schools in the United State». By 1841, whenhe last revised his An American Dictionary of flic English Language, suchspellings were very infrequent.

It was his conservative approach to spelling reform in his immenselyinfluential American Spelling Book that has resulted in many of the modestdifferences between American and British spelling, differences that for somereason buried in the recesses of their souls have driven some British pedagoguesto flights of indignation usually reserved for those who abuse horses or slanderthe Queen.

There are a few random differences: ntask-masquet chetb-cheque,jail-gaol, draft-draught, curb-kerb, plow-plough, story-storey, net-nett,gram-gramme, wagm-waggon, jewelery-jewellery, woolen-woollen, pajamas-pyjamas, gray-grey, tire-tyre. The major systematic differences, most of whichcan be traced to Webster's influence, are these:

1. American (-or> vs. British <-our): hono[u)r, tobo{u)r, coh(it)r.2. American <-ll-> vs. British <-l->: travelled, Iesel(f)edt enrolled.3. American <-dg-) vs, British <-dge->: judgement, acknowledgement.4. American <-se) vs. British <-ce): defense-defence, pretense-pretence)

license—licence, practice-practise (vb.).5. American <-ection) vs. British <-exion>: connection-comexion, infection-

inflexion.6. American (-er) vs. British (-re): center-centre, meager-meagre. (225,

234)

If one has no better way to pass his time, he can debate the logic, effi-ciency, consistency, simplicity, or even the esthetics of these spellings. Butfinally, for either spelling, social contest will determine social consequences.Given two (admittedly artificial) sentences, we can predict how readers willrespond,

1. The meagre grey colour of the gaol scenery at the centre of the theatre'sstage is a reflexion tit'the bad judgement, of the licence given to fledgelingdesigners who may labour hard at their craft hut bring themselves littlehonour.

2, The meager gray color of the jail scenery at the center of the theater'sstage is a reflection of the bad judgment, of the license given to fledglingdesigners who may labor hard at their craft but bring themselves littlehonor.

PHONOLOGICAL CHANCE: т о м OLD ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGI.ISH 365

It is highly probable that most educated Americans would consider thefrit to be rather affected if written by another American, but if written by aBritisher, perfectly normal and therefore little if at all remarked. On the otherhand, many, perhaps most educated Britishers would consider the secondto be hopelessly illiterate if written by another Britisher and, if written by anAmerican, proof of his irredeemably bumpkinesque background. While onemight have personal reasons of orthographic integrity and so on for insistingon one spelling over another, the only valid reasons for preferring theaterover theatre (or vice versa) arc social consequences. Beyond some spuriousappeal to history, neither spelling has any sanction except custom.

After a century lag, spelling reform became a popular issue again inBritain when in the middle of the nineteenth century, Isaac Pitman deviseda shorthand system based on phonetic principles. Since that time, the reformerranks have swelled with the names of such respected scholars and writers asWalter Skeat, Gilbert Murray, Daniel Jones, Harold Orion, Robert Bridges,and most prominently, perhaps, George Bernard Shaw, who left a substantialendowment to evangelize spelling reform.

In the United States, W, D. Whitney, one of the foremost Americanphilologists of the nineteenth century, encouraged spelling reform. In 1875,the American Philological Association created a committee to investigatethe project. From 1906 to 1919, Andrew Carnegie financially supported theSimplified Spelling Board- President Theodore Roosevelt supported itsefforts to the extent of ordering public documents to use new spellings incertain words. Congress reacted predictably and there has been no officialinterest in spelling reform since. In the early thirties the Chicago Tribunebegan to champion reformed spelling in earnest, announcing several newspellings like agasl for aghast, Umd for island, tho for though, crutn for crumb,Uiher for leather. By 1973, the list had shrunk to tho and thru (and theircombinations) and some others as innocuous as catalog for catalogue andcigaret for cigarette.

In recent years, most of the scholarly effort has been devoted to creatingalphabets for languages that do not have writing systems and to the teachingof reading to young children. The latter endeavor is based on the assumptionthat if children can learn to read quickly and easily with a simplified alphabet,(hey can then be gradually weaned to conventional orthography. In this way,they need not endure the Oh, Ok, See, See stage any longer than necessary.Since all experiments of this kind are judged successes by those who devisethem, we will have to wait until the method is used by many teachers with novested interest in the project before we can call it a success.

The objections lo spelling reform arc legion, though most of them aretrivial. The desire to retain the etymologies signalled through traditionalspelling hardly equals the pain children endure when they try to learn toread. The claim that phonetic spelling would eliminate one way to distinguishhomophones is without merit since it is virtually impossible to think of any

366 URAMMAR AND SOUND

likely stretch of continuous discourse in which we could confuse knot andnot, bow and bttugh, sea and see, night and knight, son and sun., hare and bear,two, too, or to, and so on.

The objection that spellings like cewft nife, skweez, and £>Лл/, are un-familiar, distracting or ugly is beyond rational discourse. Many of us areunable to repress a shudder at signs advertising Lhe Kreemi-krunch KawfiKav/ttier. But we must ask whether our eyes are so sensitive that shieldingthem from such orthographic horrors justifies the weekly spelling test or theoccupational problems that dog the poor speller. In the eighteenth century,after all, critic probably offended the eyes of as many Englishmen as hotterand center do today. (63, 92, 178, 182, 225, 245)

There are some objections to spelling reform that are more persuasive,however, particularly in a polydialectal society like our own. For example, asentence like I found a car it) the creek could be represented as either:

1. /a feun э ka in бэ krik/2. /ay faund э каг in оэ krik/

We could simply say that the dialeet with the greatest number of speakerswould be the one on which to base a new spelling. But it would still be aminority dialed since no one dialect is uniformly spoken by a majority ofspeakers in this country.

Indeed, the fact that our spelling is so loosely tied to pronunciationallows speakers from all English dialect areas from England to the UnitedStates to Australia to use the same symbol for somewhat different pronuncia-tions. This does not argue for alternative spellings of /ad/ such as cue, sight,buy, by, lie, neither, and so on. But it does point up the problems in trying toselect one unambiguous symbol for one sound, and the value of having onesymbol for different dialectal pronunciations of the same word. The alterna-tive to excluding large numbers of speakers from the spelling system would beto have multiple spelling systems for different areas, a condition infinitelyless desirable than an inefficient spelling system.

One other kind of systematic relationship between our spelling and pro-nunciation should also be noted, both because it reflects on the history of ourlanguage and because it is another case that testifies to how efficient a non-phonetic spelling can be. As we have abundantly seen, English spelling is notperfectly phonemic. But we could argue that given the variable pronunciationof many Romanee words, the system should under any circumstances not bephonemic. If it were, tiien the vowels in boldface in these pairs of words wouldhave to be spcitcd differently;

abdomen-abdominal, aceede-accssston, adjectice-adjeclkal, angel-angelic,biie-biiious, ctiasie-cliasiity, сапе-conic, «lostic-tUtsActty, infunt-infanti-

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE: FHOM OLD ENOLISH TO MODERN ENGUSH 367

t, chit-civility, pu/iteh-panitive,sign-significant, title-titular.

How we spell these sets of words relates to how we pronounce them inthiee ways. (1) Under light stress, all vowels become a kind of obscured mid-central vowel, /э/, or a high-central vowel, symbolized (if, the vowel of un-stiessedjust in just П minute or in the inflection of Jilted. Thus for this vowel,spelling is irrelevant, once we learn various kinds of stress rules that reduceany full vowel to an obscured vowel. If the two words, cone and conkity, werespelled kon and ksnisity, then given only ksniMty, we would not know fromspelling alone the vowel of Lhc root word. It could be an <L> as in the firstunstressed vowel in civility, or an < 15) as in the first unstressed vowel in reme-dial, or it could be an <a> as in the unstressed vowel in alacrity.

(2) The second kind of relationship pairs stressed and lax vowels. If wernaLch the stressed and lax vowels /6/-/3/ and /п/-/э/, then certain sets ofwords regularly vary between them, depending on the suffix: assume-assumpt ion, verbose-verbosity.

(3) A second kind of tense-lax relationship partially mirrors the GreatVowel Shift:

/ai/-/i/: bile-bilious/I/-/e/: acceed-accession

/ё/-/зе/: chaste-chastity• /au/^/э/: profound-profundity

/5/—/a/; cone-conic

In some cases, one (or two) letters represent three different segments:

/a i/-/i/-/a/; anal_y zc-ап al^tical-analysis/i/-/e/-/a/: repftjt-repetitive-reptftition

/с |'-/зе/-/э/: expldi'n-expltf natory-expl a nation/5/-/а/-/э/: cone-can ic-c<?nicity/й/-/а/-/э/: prod wee-prod uctive-prod wcti vity

In each of these three sets of words, we would need different letters if wefollowed a strictly phonemic spelling system.

What English has in sueh wt?rds is not a phonemic spelling system but amorpho&rapheniic or rjiorjihophoiieinic spelling system. That is, given certainstress patterns and classes of suffixes, the letter or letters represent an underly-ing form that is realized in varying but predictable ways. Give» the nonce-

conelete, we know we can generate condeiition /kanklstiSan/ and/kankletstiv/, just as we can, given, Everyone knew that he left,

generate that he left was known by everyone. The letter actually represents an

368 GRAMMAR AND SOUND

abstract phonetic deep structure that can be manifested in various kinds ofsurface structures.

The rules which we have to learn in order to manifest these deep struc-tures as sound have been proposed at length by generative phonologists. Butsince the most profound generalivc analysis of English sound patterns is over400 pages long, it is impossible to do justice here to the powerful insights theselinguists have had into English phonology. (33)

The same kinds of underlying morphogtaphemic or morphophonemicentities are relevant to consonant changes. Compare these:

/k/-/s/: electric-electricity/k/-,'§/: logic-logicianjtj-lif; divert-dhersioti/t/-/S/: insert-insertion/z/-/s/: analyze-analysis/t/-/E/: right-righteoustf/-/g/: alkge-nllegutionjsj-jsj: impress-impression

In the same way, the first word in pairs like bomb-bombard, resign-resigntt-tion, damn-damnation spell an underlying segment, <b> in bomb, <g> inresign, and <n) in damn, that is phonetically manifested only in certainpatterns, (33)

Precisely ihe same kind of morphophonoJogical alternation characterizescertain dialects of non-standard English, including Black English. Althoughin Black English and in other dialects, final consonants in two-consonantdusters are often deleted: tes for tesi, mas for mask, col for cold, the droppedconsonant is usually realized in inflected and affixed words: ftesterl, jm&skigj,jkolfostj. This precisely parallels strong-stronger, long-lunger, damn-damnation, resign-resigtietiou in standard English. All such speakers constructa highly abstract "image" of the word that manifests itself in different waysunder different circumstances, circumstances that parallel word formation irstandard English.

If we reformed English spelling so that it represented every differentsound with a different symbol, we would, at least in regard to many wordsderived from Romance sources, represent only surface structures, not themore basic deep structures of words. So even if spelling reform were economi-cally and socially feasible, it would not be an unmixed blessing. But the over-riding objection still remains the economic and educational problems. Dr.Johnson's observation still holds: Would it be worth the trouble ? All of whichleaves the fifth grader about where he started.

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96-

99.

100.

101,

102.

103.

104.

105,

106.

107.

108,

109.

1 Ю.

111.

И 2.

ИЗ.

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INDEX OF MODERN ENGLISH WORDS

a, 112, 163, 226,239-242, 290

aardvaj'fc, 101abbey, 81abbot, $1abdomen, 200, 366abdomina!, 366atbduct, 114abet, 140abeyance, 133abide, 260, 261abject, B7able. В2aboard, 265abominable, 207abominably, !91abstract, 1S4academic. 116acctde, 366, lb~accent, 317accept, 32:acte^ion, 366, 367accident, 172, 255actloy. 1-40accordant. 88aazosl, 172account, 114, 187accrue. 135accuracy, 129accuse, 157acid, 209, 210acknowledge. 114, 157

jacknowledgment, 364acquit, 136acquittance, 135acre, 320acrid, 209.210atrouym, 204acrftsb, 28acted, 115acting. L25

n, K2, 125, 157

activate, 129sets. 125actual, S2acule, !40, 210adagio, 100adapt, 92addict, J14, 172addicted, 169Luidilioiial, 2Sadjacent, 2B. 87adjective, 366admiral, 8(, 1(11admit, 114, 157admonish, 172adolescence, S2adventure, 140advert, i&4advcrlisement. 140affability, B2affect, 193, 322affection, !72affirm. 184afford, 125affray, S2, 140ЛГЬСЮ. 141African. 129after. 25?afternoon, 127aftershock. 127agenda, 257

i. 82n. 25. 133

a.ghajt, 365agree, 136aid. 112.309aide-de-camp, 116ain't, 29, 90, 277air, 82airgun, 124jiirport, 12(1alacrity. 367alarm, 100

, 101

albino, 42, 101alchemy, 101, 255alcohol, 10Lalcoholic, Ш , 140alcoran, 101alcove. J0Ialdehyde. 141alembic, 101alfalfa, 101algebra. 101alive, 131alkali, 101all in, 205all set, 205allah, 101allegation, 36Sallege. 36»allegedly, 132allegory, 87allegro, 195alley, 348alligator, 100allow, S2, 114, 309allowance, 114all own nets, 113allude, 176almanac, 101alone. 19 2alpaca, 101aluminum. 44always. 258am, 264. 266amateur. 110amazement, 133amaziriply. 191amazon, 137ambassador. 19&ambition. 25. Шamen, 102amend. [JOamiability, 133amiable 110, 133amiabiencss, 133

382 Index of Modern English Words

amok, 102amongst, 131amorous, 110ampere, 137amused, 125amusement, 123, 13 I

:s. 125amusins, 125an, 239-242analysis, 115.114, 184.

367, 368analytical, 367analyze. 112, 1)4, 367,

36Suncephalize, 92anchorite, 55anchorman, 121anchovyL LOOand, 9Sandante. 100andcrson. 136ал gel, 366angelic. 366angleworm, 107animal. 162, 169, 1*4.

255announcement, 187answer, 115, 1-6anKwcrrd. 222ant. 46antagonism, 298:intc-chamher, 127aim-aircraft, 127antimonyц [01antipodes. 110anxiety, 88, 89anxious. 19?any. 112anybody. 279anyone, 279anywhere, 279apartment. 109ape IClapocalypse, 167apothecary. 82appear, 2 JOapp-asc, 13йappellation, Я2nprlaud. 224apple. 320, 331, 337apply, S2, 112, 140appointment. 188apprehend, 17?approach, 82.136appropriate, 92apricot, 101, 161arcade, 1Й0

archangel, 81arch-thief, 127are, 264argot. 20Jargue, 172ana, 100arm. 135arrnada, 100armadillo, 100army, Ыaroma, 176arrange, S2arrest. 172arrival, 136arrive, 81, 136arsenal, 101, 102art, B2artichoke, l№artifacttial, 204arlillery, 171,205arltsan, 100as. 3L0ascend, 112a&k. [ 15

pasprc, 210ass, 337assailant. 185assassin, 101, 137assault, 185assembly, 32. IS7assertive, 130assignation, 188assist. 112assistant, 129assume, 367assumed, 168assumption, 367astonishingly, 191astronomy, SIasiute, 146at,219h2SS. ЪЪate, 219iithlctc, 114athletics, 355atmosphere. 92atoll, 102, 195alone, 112attack, 100attempt. E15attend, 140attire, 114atlomey, 82, 90auburn, 161auctioneer, 129aunt. 34, 81, 160, 176austere, 210, 211

Austrian. 130author, 3I3-J19authority, S2auiohypnosis, 127atilomania, 131automobile, 141)aversive, 113avocado, 100, 104avoid, 136avow, 136aware. 125awful, 207awfully, 191awkward, 6\ак, 203, 302axed,310axle, 46azimuth, 101, 102azure, 161

babble, ISbabel, LOZ. 137babushka, 101baby bujjsy* 107baby tab, 107haby carriage, 107baby coach. 107babysit, 89. 123, 134, 13Sbabysitter, 134back, 317backbite, 134, 139backbiting 134, 139backpeddlc. [Ubackup crew, 121backward, 96backwards. 96, 258bacon. 90bad, 347, 358badger, 55baggage. [09, 129, 196bagpipe. 120baH, 82bait, M4. 311bake, 261,295, 317baker, 90balcony, 100, 205haJk, 3"l8, 362balloon, 100bells, 206balm, 362bamboo, 46. 102banana, 100band, 61bandana, 102bandit. 100banditti, 257bang, 166,310

of Modern English Words 3&S

banged, 309twnaLjp. 205banjo, 109bankrupt. 100banshee, 35banl, 136, 137banler, 95, 207baptist. 81barbecue, 100barber, 90bare, 366bark, tOO, 261barn. 175, 308, 357. 358,

360baron. 81, 82baroque, 100barrack, 100barrac uda, 100barrel, 311Ьм.чш, £1bass, 256bat. 144, L84, 30*, 310batch, 295bate. 311hath. 337bathe. 310. 337bathroom bowl, 187ba!hs. 309battalion, 100battle, 50, K2bawd. i96, 310bav.1] out, 114bazaar. 102, 116be, 67, (08, 115, 163,

230, 259. 265, 267-274, 282-283

beacon, ><>5bead, 187, 188benn, 48bear, 4(5, 26 К 320, 346,

366beast, 174beat, 261, Hibeatable. 132beautician, 130beautiful, :&, 132beauty. S2. 135beaver, 40became. 219beckon. 295become. 218. 219,230bed, 325, 547bedeck, 127bedlam, ]3(>, 137. 360bedouin, lrjibedtime. 120beech. 46

beef, 82, 90, 205been, 30, 277beer, 116beet, 311beetle, 337. 339befall. [35befriend, 127Ьееваг, 133begin, 261behalf. 323behave, 114behavior, 114behavior ist, 130behemoth, 102behind, 2Яbeing, 266belabor, 166belch, 98belcher. 136belfry, 192believable, I!5bell, 55belly-bumper, 107belly-buster, 107belly button. 201belly-flopper, 107belly-slammer, 107bell. 51bench, 33bend. 176benefit, 92benzedrine. 140Bertram, 302. 303beside, 28bestride, 261bet, 144, 309. 311betray. ! 14between. 2S, 126between times. 139hcwilth: 184biddy. 197

big, 24, 146. 209, 329big shot. 205bigger, 233biggest, 233bijjmyulb, 39bigmouthed. 39brunt, 207bikini, 137bile, 366, 167bilious, 366. 367bill, 114,257,310bill, 219bin. 51bind. 261birch, 46, 6t

bird, [62. [75, 176, 219.341

birds, 312bit, 309, 310, 311bituh, 197bite, 135, 261, 323btller, 184,209,210,363bi-valve, 127blab, U3blackguard, 197blackout, 123bladder. 337blame, 157, 336, 34J, 346bland, 209blarney, 55, 116, 137blast, 135, 1K4blaxploilation, 141bleachers, 205bleat. 143blend. 204. 261blender. 42blight, 207blind, 343bliss, 295blithe, 295blitzkrieg, 11*blobstetrician, 141blood, 344bloodhound, 120bloomers, 137blossom, 199, 201blow, 261bloi*1 up, 184blue, «2, 99bluffs, 205blunderbuss, lOiblunt. 208, 211blurb, 205blurt, 143BM, 199, 202BO, 202boar, 90, 162board, 174,265boat, 144, 309, 311. 326,

335, 336, 344Bobby, П0bog. 55boil, 82boldness, 124bolero, 101bolshevik, 101bolster. 207bomb, 36Йbombard, 36Bbombed, 262bonanza, Kllbone, ЗЛft, 344

:iS4 Index of Modern English Wo ids

bong, 143bonk, 143book,4fi, 156, 239, 257,

344book bind. 134hooker^!, 122bookmaker, 140books, 219bookseller. 139boom, 42, 143, 293boomerang, 102boon, й 1Ьоет, 101, 197booster, 205boot. 82, 311,325booth. 6 Ibooties. 134bootlicl;.. 134booze, I0I, 207bordello, 196borough. 48, 50boss, [01.205both, 61. 321boiher, 311bottle, 517bottom, 311bottomed. 312bouBh. 310, 366bought, 37, 144,223.

30*, 310. 326bounce, 101,114bound, 336bourbon, 1 37bow, 329, 366bowdlerize, Ш , K»5bowler, 137bo*. 176boy, 24, 25. 35. 36, 101,

144, 156. 162, 15*7,23S, 308, 305», 310

boy friend, 120boycott, 138boy's, 233bra, IBSbras, 157brain, 226brainstorm, 205brainwash, 134brandy, 101brand у wine, 140brass, 295bravo, 100brawn, 90braiftn, 295breach, 29 5bread, 1 «4,319

break, 223, Ш , 295, 319,346

break wind. 201breakable, 129breakfast, 140-141breaxl meat, Ш6breastfeed, 134breath. 319breathable, 132breccia, 100breed, 295brethren, 257brew, 4E. 261bribery, 130bricklayer, 134bride, 326bridge, 199brief, 3?, &2brigand, 100bright, I 14, 146. 1S4,

196,209.341brilliant, 209brisk, 211broad, 197, 209broadcast, 195broke, 205. 223brokenhearted. 133bronco, 101bronze, 46, 100brooch, 32$brood, 295. 344broth, 48, 337brothel, 196brother. 22, 34,46, 160,

257, 320, 344, 359, 360brow, 1Я4brown. S2bruise. 135brummagem, 136-137brunch, 140, 141brush, 135bucket, 82, 107buckle, 135buddy. 205budsc. 166buffalo. 256his, 109build, 135. 317building, 187, 265building engineer, 199built, 265bull. 61. 106, 162bully, 95bulwark, 101bum, [01bump, 143. 147bungalow, 102

bunk,137bunxen, 137buoy, 10!burden, 135,34]bureau, 170burglar, 133burglary, 114burke, 136burlesque, I(K)bwn, 26-1burr, 311burro, 101burst, 261Ьич, 207, 303biiih, 303but. 93. 309, 311butcher, 90, 176butler. SI, 9Qbuit in, 205buster, 50,302, 331button, 82, 302, 311buy, 37. 48. 50, 112, 310.

366buzz, 143hu7.jjed, 2fi2BVD. 202by, 2B. 219. 309, 366

cab, 42. 207cabal. 102caboose. 101cabriolet, [JOcad, 207, 326caddy, 102cafeteria, 101cairn, 55cake, 226, 321,346calendar, 82calf, 90, 32«, 336, 349calico, 102, 137call, 61, ЗОВ, 359called, 262Calypso. 167са!ул, 167came, 346uamel, 46camera, 110camouflage, 205camphor, 101и:т. 2R, 186, 267, 26Scancer, 198, 200candle, 51candy, 42, 101caniculture, 138caninal, 13Bcaninity, 138canned, 310

Index of Modern English Words 385

cannibal. 100canoe. 104canon, SIcant, 204cantata. 100canter, 1Э6, 138canticle, t i lcanto, 100cunvastack, 1<52canyon, 101cap, 302capital punishment, 199,

ZOOcapitulate, 114caprine, 100captain, 82, [24captaincy, 129car, 226, 357, Э 5 8, 360carat, 100caravan. 102, J40carcarricrs. 298cardiac, 321cardigan, 137cardinal, Bl. Я2care, 321, J37cargo. 100caribou, 256carmine, 161carnival, 100L-iirnu5c. 101сигр, 172

icarpenler, 90carry, S2, 176, T77cars, 119curl. 348cartoon, 100Carve, 261carves, 224carving. 131

.че, 323

cashmere, 102, 137casijio, 100east, fftOcassava, 1(14cast, € |casrle. Si]. 255castles in Spain, 116Casual, 5*casualty, 199tat, 184. ЗОЯ, 315, 31ft,

326, 328, 33(5, 348catacomb, 100catalogue, 36 scatch, St, 32Scatch on, 205caucus, 104

caul, 167caused, ~^4cause, 224caustic, 92cavalier. 100ceilinj;, 82cell, «1, 167,316« l iar , 167cellule, 167cement, 135censure, 172center. 364central city. 199centre, 364cents. 310centurion, R8Leph.ilopod, 110cereal, 137certain, 82certainly, 132chaff, 328chainsmoke, 134chair, 33, 35, SI. 174chalice. !67chalk, 50, 135chalked, 310chamber. 110champaign, 137chancellor, SIchandler, 90change, 81, 82chant, 203chaos. 28, 92chap, I 14, 140chapel, 81chaplain. 82chapter, 81characters, 82charge, 205chartreuse, [61chaste, 1 И , 366, 367chastity, 366, 367chat, 38chaltefboA, 39chautauqua, 104chajvanism, 137chauvinism, 195check. 364trietked. 310cheukmate. 102cheek, 328cheery. 166cheese, 46, 50chemical substance, 174cheque. 364cherry, 82, If i lcherubim, 101, 257

chess, 82, 102, 116chest, 209chestnut, 161Chevrolet, 140chew, 115, 135,261chewed, 260chiaroscuro, 100Chitsigo-lype, i j ]chicten, 90, 162, 176,

239, 328chicken less. [06chicken out, 114chide, I 14, 135chides, 311chief, 2Bchij-acr. 109child, 135, 2?7. 336children, 160, liJU. 257children's, 233chili, 104,226chill, 135,328chimney. 82chin, 309, 328china, 137chinchilla, 100think, 309chinb, 310chintz, 102chintzy, 207chip, 352chipmunk, 104chippy. 197chit, 102, 196chocolate, 42, 104, 161,

32 Schoice, 3 11choir. 317choke, 32 Schoose. 135, 261, 318chortle. 140, 141chnrus, 302chose, 302chosen, 318chow, 205chrism, 112Christ, 112, 153. 201-202Christianity. 130Christinas, 3fi2chronology, 92chuck, 205chuckle, 141church, [35churl, 197churn. [35chutney. 102cigar, 101cigarette, 101, 365

386 indc* of Modern English Words

cilia. 167cinch, 101cinema, 114cinnamon, 102cipher, 101circulate, 221circumcision, 81circumnavisate, 127citadel, loocite, 366citrine, 1Й1city, 81, Я2, 316civil, 367civility, 367clLibber cheese, 107Clack, 38clan, 55clandestine. 167clams, 42. 120. 143clank, 143claptrap, 99clasp. ПОclassy, 99clatter, 143clean, 224clear, 82. 209cleared. 311cleave, 261clergy, В2clerk, SIclever, 146, LSI, 166cliffs, 48, 325. 32Йclimb, 112, 261, J36Cling, 261clip, 61. 135,204clique, 302cloak, 54clo£, 110dose, 82close up, 205clothes. 114cloud, 135Clown, 197cloy, 210cloying, 109club, 321clucked, 310clump, 147clunk, 143. 147coach. 329coal mine, 120coakmoke, 124coaly ard, 124coarse, 197, 209, 211coal. «2coax, 166cobalt, 101

cobbler, ПОcocaine, 140cock, 201cockatoo, 102, 116cockroach, 100cucklail hour, 109coconut. 195cocoon, 104cod, Ш , 358co-education, 140coffee, 101. 102coffee break, 10?cog, _32<>cognition, 89cognizance. S9, 133cognizani, 89cognoscenti, 89cohort, 82coincidence, 25cold, 44. !56, 1 R 209,

210, 29?, 320collene. 55colloquial, 98cologne, 137colonnade, 100color. 82. 167,364colorfasi. 126colour. 364comb, 321, 336combat. 82combustion, S2, B9come, 261comet, 90comfort station. 199comicstrip, 120command, 349commando, 101, 112commence. 223com mend. 15$commode, 186common, £2. 192commonly, 113communist, 140compare, 19?compendious, SBcomplain, 136complement, 322compliment. 322compose, I £4comprehend, 175. 179,

184, 196,206.207comrade, 100, П0comstoctery, 137conceal, 167conceive, 89, 184concert, 100concerto, 100

concise, 39conclude, 184, 196concrete, !84condemn, 172, 317condemnation, 317condom, 137condor, 104cone, 366, 367confederacy, 129confess, 114, 157, 224confessor, БIconfidence man, 140confounded, 191confused. 114contusion, 341conic, 366, 367conicity, 367conjecture. S2connect. 18Jconnection, 364connexion, 364consolidate, 92conspicuous, 92conspiracy, 87constable-, 81, 198conslcllatioti, 90contempt, 87. 133continual, 193continue. £2, 223continued, 222continuous, 193contraband, 100contrapuntal, 100contrary, S2contrast, 193conventioneer, 129conversation, 82converse. 38, 115convict, HOcook, 50,219,221,222,

223cookie, 101cooks, 219cool. 184,209,295coolic> 102cop, 114copper, 50, \M, 137copra, 102copulate, 201copyread, 134cordial, 112cord wain, 100CORE, 141cork, 187corn. 4S. 171, 328cornice, 100correctness, 132

e]f Modern English Weirds 387

corridor, 100corselcirEum, 131cost, 82cut, 102, 316cottage cheese. 107ccitton, 101cougar, 104, 116cough. 302

could, 267council. SIcount, 82сои п (down, 121countenance. I !4cnunterstalemenl. 127countess, 8Tcountry, 25, Я2courage, 321course. 82, 2 1 0court, SIcourtesan, 197cousin, J4, 81, 140a>vcr. a:covet. 169cow, 46, 90, 162, 257cow], 16?co-worker, 127coy. [90coyole, 104« и , 140crabhed, 39crack, 99, 135cracked. 185сгасЫе. 120craft 337, 34$crafty. I №crag, 55, J02cram, 34<Jcrane, Ifi4crank, 135crap, 205trash, 143crasher, 205crave, 61Crawl, 61crazy, 185cream, 82, 112, 153creation, ]87«*ed, 116creep, 135. 261Creole, 100crepitate, 200crescendo, 100crelin, 112, 153crinianemlies, 202crime. 42, S1

i assault, 199, 200

cripes, 201crisp, 39critic. 92criticism, 130criticize, 157crone, 197croak, 16Rcrooks. 168crop, 3ZSenow, 2ft 1crown, 61, 1Я8crucified, SScrucifix, 81. B2criid cheese. 107cruds, 107cruise, 101crumb, 365crumple. 147crunched- 310crush. 13.6crystal iue, 130cub, 110cuckold. 197culturally deprived, 199cunning, 172, 190cunt. 166, 201cup, 51. 337cupidity, 137cupola, 100curb, 364curd cheese. 107curds, 107curie, 137curricula, 257curry, 102curt.' 39curtain, 82, 135custody, Й7custom, S [customer, 140cut, 184. 31ftcute, 99c a r , 101

dachshund, [01dad-blame, 202dad-burn, 20 2daddy, 130dado, 100dago, 101daguerreotype. 13<Jdam, 197damask, 137dame. 81, 197,336, 345,

346damn, 172, 309, 317, 36Rdamnation. 317. Дб£

damned, 191dance, 82, 349, 358danced, 262dancin', 2156dancing, 26йdandle, 110dang, 202dangerous. Sidarb, 205dare, 321dark. 1S4, 209darken. 130darn,, 201darn ins needle, 107dart, 135data, 257date, 183daughter, 34, 46, 160davenport, 137dawdle, 114dawn, 195day, 295, 329, 340days, 131dead, 323deadly, 115deaf mute, 123, 139deal, 325. 345dealt. 262de-Americanize, 126death, 31Уdebt. 317decade, 113decay, M5deceit, R2deceive. 89, 114decide, 120, 134decision, 120, 134decontaminate. 127decoy, 101deed, 295, 321,325deem, 295deep, 114. 184. 209, 320deer, 46, 90. 170, 171,

174, 196,256defeat, R2defecate, 200defence, 13ft, 140,364defend. 139, 140defendant, 82defense. 82, 364defile, 29?define, 184deft, 321defuse, 126deity, 112delay. 114delicatessen. 101

3$$ Index of Modern English Words

delineation, 88deliver, 168delve, 261demand, 112dernend, 130democracy, 32den, 135denizen. 172denial, 321dental plates. 199dentist, 321dentures. 199deny, 157depart, 115depend. 184deplore. 176depose. l?6depress un*e, 12fidepth, 114deraign, £2derby. 137derrick. 137, 19 5derringer, J 37deruncinatc, 92description, 187desert, 46, SIdeserts, 172desire, i l l . 174desisr. 115desk. 239desperado, 100desperately, 207despite. HAdespondency, 88, 89destroy, 82detective. 140determines, 221detest. 116developed, 222devil, 189,359Jesterily. 92Diana, 112diary, 112

die. 61, 112, 175, 222difference, 135different, 13 Ldiffuse. 39dip. 184, 20*, 529digg[n£, 331dillydally, 114dim, 146, 209dimension, Й8, 112dm. 326dine, 112, 222. 224dined, 222drnshy, 102dingo. 102

dinner, 82, 20^dirt, 61, 176dirty. 184disabled, 199disagree, 92disallow, ]27disappedr, 218, 219, 222disappeared, 219discern, 317discharge, 114, 136discipline, 81discovery, 187disdain. 82disease, 171disestablished, 298disburse. 1315dish, 51disintegrated, 222disinterested, 193dismal, 112dismiss. 114dismissal, 113, 114disparage, 82display. [ 12disport, 140disposal. 129dissident, 112dissolve, 223distillery, [40dislract. 87distribution, 82dive, 330diversion, 120diversity. 82divert, I 20, 368divest, 176divine, 129divvy up, 205do, 163. 264. 281,290,

295. 320doctor, 140doctrine, 317dodge, 110doc., 42. 46, 166, 175,

184,207,239.329doge, 100doggish ness, 138doEEone, 201dogey- 138doghouse. 138dogma. 92do-Eondcr, 163dog-raising, L3Edops, 206t! • •: i i;j -. 1 6 6

doll. 349donation, 133

done, 277, 344doodle, 206doo-doo, 202doom, 135, 172,207,

295, 323doomed, 168Doomsday, 168door, 46, ^ndope, 99, 101, 146,

153-154, 205dope-sheet, 154dopey, 114dope; people, 185dorm, 120, 140dormitory, 120, 140dol. 302dotard, 101dote, 101double cross, 114doublepart, 134doubling, 131doubtful, 132dough, 48, 184, 205down. 61doiy, 197dozen, 82drab, 197draft, 364drag, 184dragon fly, 107drank, 261draper, 90drat, 201draught. 364draw. 261. 329, 333drawed, 261dread, 135, 261dreadfully, 191dream. 193dreams, 323drift, 204drink, 26!drink ability, 132drip, 184, 295drive, 177, 261driver, 130drives, 2L9, 224droop. 61,62, 304drnp, 295droshky, 101druggisl. 109drurnslicks, 1Q<5drunk, 261dry, 209dry clean, 134duuu, 100duct, 162

\ndcx Ы Modern English Words

dude. 205, 207dug, 147, 261dukc.ei, 82dulcet, 210, 211dull, US. 208, 20?, 210,

211dumb. 99, 114, 207dumdum, 102tlu m found, [6f>dump, J43. 146, 147dumps, 110dunce, 137dungaree, 102dupe. 114dust. 224, 226Dutch cheese, 107dwarf. 348dwell. 4!, 193dwindle, 304

eager, В2Л93. 210, 211eagle, 46, 162carl, 48, .10earls, 312earth. 336earth-born, 122earthly, 258earthworm. 107earthy. 130ease, $1, ?23easel. 101CA5t*4Seasy, 82. 121easy j-ainj, 138easy-going, I??easypoing. 123eat, 41,44, 112, 115,203,

220, 22[.224, 261, 309,323

ecstasy, 1 12, 172edge, 135, 352editor, 133education, 92education wise, 131eel, ЗОВeffect, 193, 32?Bffigy, 172e£fi, 61egghead. 99efis-hr;id, 163

s, 219h. 302, 303r. 125, 127. N0

elastic, Збйelasticity, 366

l l , ]36ric. 368

electricity, 368electrocution, 133elephant, 46rlephant дип, J24eleven, 112eliminate, 114eliminating, ] 13, 114elixir. 101elliptical, 39elm, 4*elope, 176emacerale, 92emhargc, I0Aembolden, 127emerald, 161emigrant, 322emir, 101emotion, [33emphasis. 92employ, ] [2employed, [[3ещпгезь, 81empty, 341encircle, 127encounter, 82encyclopedias. 29&end. 337ended, 262enemy, 82, 110enervate. 112enforce, Г 36engagement, 188engineer, 112, 19Rengrave, 261enormously, 191enough, 127enroled. 364enrolled, 364enter, 136entered, 125entering. 125enicrment, 125enlers, 125enthrall. 134enthuse, 94enthusiasm, 92, 133, 137entrance, 125, 129entymolo^y, 29Benvy. 140epigram a tic, 39erotic, [3Sr 172eructiiie, 200escape, 136escheat, 140cspicc, 14(1espy, 140

estate, 140esteem, 136, ]72estrange. 140ether, 332etiquette, 42, 140euphemism, 198even, 209ever, 3 |6everyone. 127evidence, 82evil, 326examination, 140example, 140excavate. 115except, 322, 359exceptional child, ]99excessively. 19Jevciccate, 92excise, Id I

cAcl;imation. 133excuse, 82execute. 171-172exercise, 135eximiuus. $2exist. 92, 184, 219, 220,

222existence, 129exisl.4, 2)9cxpectafion. <)2expectorate. 199, 200expedienl, ] 1Qexpedile, 110expedition. 110expensive. 92experiment, 135experimental, 1 [3experimenicd> [ 13expire, 112, 199,200explain, 92, 184, 196.

206. 207, 224. 225,367

explanation, 187, 367explanatory, 367explicate, 112explicit, 82explode, 165-166evpnrt, 112external, 92extraordinarily, 191extraordinary, 95extrasensory, 298extra-terrestrial, 127e x t r a v j i g a n l l y , I*)]

extremely. 191extremism, 130exult, 185

390 Index of Modern English Words

exulting, Й8, 89ci-wife. \.?7eye, 135, IB4eye of a needle, 207eyes, 20tf

fabulously. 191face. 81, 114fact, 176, 177fadaise, 140fade, 205. 346fade out, 20 Sfahrenhcit, 137fail, 203faint, 168. 209fair, 20?faithfulness, 132fake, 205fakir, IOIfall, 259, 2M>, 26 L, 348fallen. 260, 261falter, 34Kfame, 172. 198,207,336.

346fan, 114,206fanatic, 140fanny, 199, 202fantastically, l^ 1

far, 359farad. 137fare, 261farm, 135,348farmer, 90fart, 99, 135fascinate. IS4fashion, 82fast, 156fat. 321fate. 137father, 34.41,46, 112,

160, 30S, 309,320father-in-law, 34fathomed, 312falmouth. 39fa!mouthed. 39fault, 82fawn, 161, 302feast, S2feature, 204fed, 294fee. 320feed, 294,295, 321fee!, 135.230,294,323feet, 144, 206, 257feldspar, 101fell, 259, 260. 261fellow, 61, 114, 135

felt, 223, 294feminine hygiene spray,

198fend, 139fetlock, 110fetter, L10, 111fever. 51fez, 102, 116fiasco, IWfield, 50, 336fiend. П4, 173fig. 329fight, 224, 261, 321figuraiive, £8figure, 82figurine, LOOfill, 295. 309, Шfilms, 114filth, L35. 163. 173final, 82. 255final solution. 199finale, 100finalize. 130finch. 48find, 2(9.220. 261, 336finding. 187finds.. 221fine. 82, 135finesse, 207finger, L «4,321finger of land, 207fire, 114, 131, 2.07, 326,

343firebLrth, 138fire bus, Wfirefishler, 134fi rehouse. 124fireman, )24fireplug, 124firkin, 101firm, КЮfirs, 312first. 359fish. 45. 48, 49, 256,

257, 320fish bait, 107fisherman, 90fishery, 130fishfurter, 130fishing worm, 107fishmonger, 50fishwife, 34fist, 135,326fit, 144filled. 262, 312, ЗЙ7live, 320fix, 199

fii up, 239fixed, 219flaccid. 147flack, 141flail, 147flame, 147, 345flange, 309flap, 147flare. 147flash, 143, [47flat. 61, 147, 184, 209flatulent, 147flaunt. 147, 193flavor, 135flay, 2Й1flea, 147flee, 147,261fleet. SI. 147. 295flick, 143, 147flicker, 147flicks, 114flimsy, 143, 207fling, 147flint, 147flip, 143, 147flippant. 207flirt, 205flit, 61, 147float, 147. 295. 34Jflog, 147flood, 320, 344floor. 139, 147flourmverings, 298floozy, 197flop. 99, 147florin. 100, 116flotilla, 101flounce. 147flour, 147flourish, 13Л, 147flout, 147, 193flow, 147, 261flower, 82, 147flower bed. 124flowers, 223flown. 260fluent, 147fluid, 147fluke, 99flume. 141flunk, 203flunkey, 147fluiry, 147flush, 147uuslei'. 147flute. 147fl ulter, 147

of Modern EngM^b Words

flux. 147fly- 120,147,260,261,

289dyer, 239flying mathine, 120foci, 257foe, 257fog, 120, 140folk, 74follow, 329follow-up story, 121food, 44Л 14. 203, 295,

309, 344fool, 1 Ufoolish, 146toot, 41, 45, 110, 111,

135, 184.257, 320fop,, 207for, 98, IISfor crying out loud, 202for Pete's sake, 202for the love of Mike, 202forbear, 125forbid. 125force, 25, 82forcefecd, 134foreign toundy, 127foreshadow, 127forester, 90forget, 125forgo, 125forfc,,9G, 203forlorn, 112, 125, 321form, 82formulae, 257fornicate, 201forsake, 125, 261forswear, 125, 127forthcoming, 127fortuitous, 193fortunate, 1*3fortunately, 132fortune, 137. 173, 198foul, 295, 323, 325found, 223, 34Jfourfold, 130four-] egged. 125fiCwt, 17]. 175fowler, 329fracas, 100fragmentary, 129, 207fr&nfcjurrcr, 101, 136, 137franiic, 176freaked out, 207freckle. 61, 62freedom, 1 ]fifreeze. 135. 2fil

freezing told, 46frenzy, 17ftfresco, 100fret, 26 1friar, 82fried, 223friendless, 130friendly, 258f r iendship, ] 3 l

frigate, 100frightfully, 191frisk, 206frolEc, 205froie, 161frozen, 261fruit, 81. 82fruitful, 132frump, 147, 196frustrate, £7fry, 82frying pan, J07fuck, 168, 201fugue, 10»fulfill, 127full, 191, 193, 209. 295,

mfulsome, 193fumble. 147fun. 166, 207fund ion, Ы, 92funeral home, 199funk. 147fur, 62. 187furlough, 101furnish, 136furrow, 46, 48furtive, 82fury, 137fuss, 143. 166fuzz, 205fuzzy, 184

gab, 38gabble, 33gabby, 39gabfest, [30fad, 201gadget, 110, 205&£, 143gain, 257gainsay, 127Bait, 61salary, 90sal I eon, 100galley. ВIgalore. 55gamble, 207

gambler, [ft6gams, 206gang. 176, 177gap, 61

e, 116, 351gar Jen, 116gargantuan, 138garment, 199garrulous, 39gas, 184gasp, 3115gater 321:• : : S - \ • I " '

gaudy, 190gangs, 317gazelle, 101, 102GD, 202gee whiz, 202geese, 257geisha, 102, 116pern, 51. 309, 316general, 112geneva, 140genie, 101genitals, ) 12genius, E7, 112, 137, ]4ftgenre, 35 [gent, 140gentleman, 112, H4, 140gentleness. 132George, 219gerrymander, 138, 140gestapo, 141. 148, \95gesture. Я7get, 61. [84, 196,261,32?ghetto, 42, 100, 116, 195ghost, 168, 173, 174,

317, 321,329ghostwrite, 134ghoul, 101gift, ^42gilded youth, 11 ftgin, 101, 136, 137,316ginger, 102gingham, 102ginfco, 329giraffe. 101girdle, 200girl, 35, 3ft, 157, 162,

197, 226, 239girlish, 130give, 61, 261. 329give up, 114Elsce, 147glacier, 33, M7glad, 147, 329

2&2 Index nf Modern English

glade, 147jl:i.li.:.lu!. 147gladioli, 257gladiolus, 147gladly. 337::.. i : ••!• . 1 4 7

glance. 147(land, 147glare, 147glass, 147. 187, 295, 337,

349glaucoma, 147glaze, 147.295glazier, 90gkam, 135glean, 147flee, 147glen, 147glib. 39. 147glide, 147.260,261glimmer. 147glimpse. 147. 317glimpsed. J09, 334glim, 147glissade. 147plisfcn, 147f i l l e r . 147gloaming, 147float. 147globe, 147gloom, 147glory, 5S7 147gloss, 147glottis, 147glove, 147, 344glcw, 147. 199,201,329glowing. 146glue, 147glum. 147glum p. ] 47glut, 147glutton, ftiglycerine, 147gnat. 329Sn:LlK, 310gnaw, 261gneiss. 101gnomic, 317go. 44, [76. 177, 259,261,

264. 355so to bed with, 20 [go to Ihc bathroom, 199Boal, 364goal, 4Й, 257, 329, 344ЕоЫсТ. B2. 90god, 337God, 201-102

goddess, 130godlike, 130going. 121gol durncd. 202gold, 46, 48. 50. 329golly, 201gondola, 100gong, 102goober, 109good, 34, 44, 219, 329,

344goodby, 27goof, 205, 207goose, 257, 321, 344gosh, 201gossip. 38, 39, 135. 196gossipy. 39got, 316governmeiH, 82gown, 32grab. I «4grace, 137graceful, 132grade, 329graduate, 140, 362graduation, 18-6grafl, 206grain, 46. 43gram, 364grammar. 82grammar sthool, 120grammatical, 204gramme. 364grandly, 191grasp. 170, 178, 179-1 SO.

181. 185, 196, 206, 207grass, 34, 196. 239, 295,

341grate, Я2graveyard, 201gray, 3(>4gra/jc, 295greal, 319,346greatly, 191green, 120green bi:an*i, [07greenhouse, 120grenade. 100grew, 214grey, 364grief, 82cricf lhcr;ipisl, 199, 201grirL. 190grind, П 2 . 135, 153,

261, 320groove, 101, IK4groovy. 173

grope, 135groito. 100ground. JiUground meal, 120grow, 222,223-224. 261,

E » s , 222growth. 131, 19ft, 199.

200b, 114

ц е , 173grummy. 207grunip, 120guard, 317KuerrillEi, 101gjess, 61, 116, 329guest, 135. 317guidance. 136guise. IU7guitar. 100gull, 55gulp, 143Bum. 82, 316gumbo. 109gun play, 168gunk, 147gunny. 102guru, 102guih, 143gats, 184gutlu-percha, 102fiuy. 114. IH, 137eym, 309gym teacher, [20gymnasium. 140gyp- 309

haberdasher, 90hacienda, 101buckney, 140had, 268haddock, 256hag. 197, }2<Jhah, 143hairpiece, 199, 200hairs, 323halberd. 167hale, 318half. 353bnlitosis, 200hallelujah, 102hallow, 295ham, 316, 325. 336hamburger, 101, 136, 137hummer, 33, 135hammock, 104hamster. Id I

Index of Modem English Words 393

hand. 41, 44. 49, 135,336

handiwork, 125handpick. 134. 139handpitkcd, 1 ЗУhands. 184. 306hanHsew, 134bane. 184,2ft 1.309hanged. 96hangnail. 192hanker. 101. |66Hansen'H disease, 199hansom, 136happiness, 124

hara-kiri. 102harangue, N2hard, 156, 20°, 2Г4harem, 1I>1harlm, 196harm, 34ЯЬагтолу, 137harpy. 39. 112. 197hirr id jn, 197harsh, 209, 211harvest, L76has, 348hashish, 101hassock, 33hal, JOB, 348, 349hatched. 3U9bate, 32.1hatred. Mlhave, 25, 30, Л7. 135,

139, 163. 264, 267-274, ,120

have to go, 199hawk. 46, 321. 341hawker. 133hazard, 101

, |hazel, 161he. 219, 234, 235, 23B.

247, 344head, 41, 114. 135, 184.

1*6,319,320, 333,341

headfast, 130heal. 321, 323healthy. 131hearse, L86hcan. 3 3 , 4 ] . 45 184,

32(1. 321heari condition, 199beany, 112heat, 30S. 345heave. 261

heavenly, 25 Кheavy, 1Я4, 2(14, 219he-cow, 106hecior, 13$heir. K!belicqpter, 140hello, lihelinei, 16"?help, 112,222. : 6 |HF.[ P. [42helped. 222hemp. Ш2, 320hen, 197henchman, I9&herinii. 101henpetk. 134henpt-tked. 134her. 234, 23S, 247. 312herb, Я2herculean, 13Яherd. «here, 24Яhero, 137hers, 2Л8, 247herself, 3Shesitancy, 129hew, 261hex. 101hi, 27hiccough. 302hiekey, 199hickory, 104hicky. 202hid. 294hide. 135. 144, 294, 326hideously, 191M«h, I S3, 184,209. 210.

317hike, 205hill. 54him, 234, 235, 238, 247hinge. %№hip. 206nipt. 205his, 234, 235, 238. 247hiss, 42, 143hissed, 262history, 87, 140hitchhike, 134hive, 302hmmnnmn. 143bobble, 101hubby. 321hod, 310, 326hoe. 349hcigde. 134hi>ho, 143

hoist, m ihold, 261holdup, 12 L, 136holiday, 17ftholy,29s, 321,329home, !K4, 31fi, 325, 336,

344homely. 254homeward. 131homewards, 25Khomitide, 87hominy, 104hh Lines t, 82honesty. 2?honor, 364honour, 364hoodlum, 205lioodno voodtio. 109hoodwink, ] 14hook. 135hooch. 32Йhop. 101hope, 321,344HOPE, 142horde, (02. 116horn. 135horribly. 191horridly. 191hors d'oeuvre. 116ho™:, if>. 120. 311horsefly. I2il. 123. 124horsepislol, 124horsejihoc. 124horsewhip, 120hosanna, 102hose, 101hosier, 9(1hoit, 90hot. 184. 209, 308,310.

326. 344. 358hotdoe. 138hotel, [41hound, 171. 175, 196hour. 82, 3 17hoLtri, 101bouse. 44. 120, 304, 337hcusebrenk, 134housebreaker, 134housekeep, 134housepftiot, 134how, 237. JK3howf, 14.1hoyden. 14 fthuckster, 101HUD. 141bii£. 110, 147

394 Index of Modern English Words

hugely, 191huEKci'-iTiLijjjjcr, 99huh, [43hum, 143human waste. 199, 200humble: 147humble pie, 192hump. 147, 320hunchback. 123hundred, 44, J5.320bunu, 96hunger, 321hunt, 135, 221hunter, Whunts. 219hurrah. 143hussy. [97hustle. 10]hni. Шhymn. 317hymnal. 317hyperactive, 127

I. 234, 247iceberg. 101iden, 34, 239id mm, 88idiot. [97idiotic. 14*if, 238i^nftramti'i, 166iguana, 100, 104ill, 61, 16&ilkcetirous, 92itlcjjilimaie. 128illumination. 115illustration. IS7image, 8!imhrcilic, !46imhrdulii]. 100iuiiutc, 25. LEIimmediately. 208immensely. 191immensity. 82immigrant, 322immoderately, 191immoral, 173immune, 87impeach, 1 I ftimpediment, 11 ftimpersonal, I2Simplying, [93imprecation, ПЗimpress, 368impression, 36Bimprove, 225improvement, 136

improves, 224in. 28, 44, IIS, 219incarnate, 87Inch, 112include, S7incommunicado, [01increase, 82, 136, 223incredible, 87incredibly, 191incubus, В7incumbent. &7incursion. 133, 198indecent, 98indent. 321indeji, 57indFjnily, SSindigo, 161individual, Я7, 131infancy, 87infant. 3*6infanticide. 36G-367infanticipatniE, 141irrfer, 99inferior. S7inferring, 19Jinfmile, 317infleclicin, 364inflexion. 364influenza, 100.140inform, 82. 116informal, 9Яinfraction, 133ingenious. 82in-going. 111

iniquity, 58injure, [ 15injury, 58innate, 87innumerable, 87inquisition. 133insane, 92inKert, 120, Шinsertion, 120, 368inside. [27insider, 205insincere, 128insalcnl, [85instruct, 112insult, 185insuperable, 133insurrection, 1J3intaglio, MOintellect, B7intellectual, 163intelligence, BS, 89intelligent. 114, 146, 184,

219

Intelligentsia, 101, 116intense, 115intensely, 191inter, 199international, 126, 127inte.rperit)d, 1 39interrupt, 87intraparty, 127invasion, 341invention, 187iron, 46, 187ironing board. 138irregardtess, 99irregularity, 199

irresolute, 112is. 264, 266, 267, 268. 309island. 48, 365Israeiite, 130issue. 135, 351h\234, 23&.247it go« without saying, 116its, 2.H 238. 247ivories, 205, 206

jabber, 3B, 143Jack, 219jade, 101, 196jail, 364Japanese, 110jar, 101jai'gon, 204jasmin, №2jasper, ][)2jawed, -liftjazz, 42 7 109, 184jealous, 81jc-had, 101icily, 133Jerk, 143Jet, 120, 195jet-propelled aircraft, 120jewellery, 364jib, 101jifi, 329jimminy cricket, 202jinx, 99jive, 184job, 110, 143, i66, 207job action, 199jock. 114join, 82, 112JOIN. 142joked, 3 1 [jostle, [ 12journal, 112journey, 81, 176jov ia l , [ [ 2 . 1 3 8

Index of Modern English Words .395

joy, 81. 302joyful, 146joyridc, 134joyriding, 134jubilee, 102judas, 13 Лjudge, 82, 317judged, 113,262

judgment, 364judo, 102jug, 147

juke, (09jump, 25, 143jumped. 317, 361jumpin', 266jumping, 266jungle, 42, 102jumper, 87junk, 102, 147, 207junker, ]()[juntn, 112jury, Й2just, [24, 31Л, 35$, 367justed, 124justice. 81juslified, 124fussily, 124jute, 54. 102

kale, 205kamikaze, [02kangaroo, 102karate, Ю2Katie, 130fcaytik, 104keelhaul, 101keen, 55, 146. IS4, 208,

209, 211keep, ]35, 168, 328keeps, 221

k*e, жkelp, 32 Rkerb, 3Mketchup, 102, 116, 137kettle, 328Wiaki, 102kibbutz, 102, 116kid, 61, 99, 302kidnap, 114Kilchrisr. 167Kilkenny, 167kill, I 10, 221Kilpatrick, 167kin, 320, 323

kind, 336kindergarten, 101kindle, 61king. 46, 48, 50, 188, 326kingdom, 54kingly. 130kink, 32gKiplmesquc, 130kipper, 32 Яkiss, 326, 32 Яk i t , 101, 32Яkitchen, 5J,32Kkith, 99, 328K K K , 141knapsack, 101knave. 197knead. 48, 261kner, 320kneel, 61, 222knife, 90knigbt, 198, 316, 366knit. 295knock. 99. 143, 348knot, 135, 295, 366knout, 101know, 74, 75, 199,261,

317Kodak, 120koiher, 102, \Ukowtow. 102, 116kvass, 101

labor, 82, 112,364laboratory, 140labour, 364lace, 82laconic. 39lad, 110ladder, 331lady of the evening, 199lag, 329Jager. !01lagoon, 100laissez-faire, 116lake, 55lamb,"??, 185.317lamr, J45, 346lament, 133lamentation, 133lamp, 81, 82lands sake, 202languor, 82lap, 135lapidary, Й7lapsed, JQ9larceny, 114large, 8 1 . 82

largo. tOOlariat, 101laser, 141lasso, 101late, 346latrine, 255laugh, 261, 34Яlaunch, 102, 136launchpad, 121laundreteria, 131lava, 100lavatory, 186lavender, 161law, 329lay, 96, 197lay up. 136lead, 4$, 50, IB7, 262leak, 205, 2O<5leap, 261, 345Irarn, 295,317leather, 317. 365leave. 224, 294lehenstraujll, 116led, 262leech, 48leer, 173left. 224, 294leg, 61. 329

cjiU. 87d> 129

legs. I7S, 206leisure, 82. 302leitmotiv, 101lemon. 101, 16tlength, 131, 135lengthwise. 115leprechaun, 55кккоп, 81, 331lethal. 138letter, 135ieuuee, $2leukemia, 112level, 209leveled, 364leviathan, [02levis. 137lewd. I<J7Lewisite, 136, 148liberty, 135library, 355lice, 257licence, 36Jlicense, 113, 135,364lie, 96, 261, 366lift, Si, 114light, 112, 121, 135,209,

335

Index of Modern English Words

like, 135lilac, 102lilies, 205, 206Lilliputian, 136limb. 30$, 325limbo, 87lime, 100, 324, 325line, 5 b 82Linen. 1Я7link, 61lion, 81, 202lip, 1*5, 320liquefy, I JOliquor, 171lisle, 136, 137literature, 57little, 209little girl's room, 199live, 264. 330liver, 226liverwurst, 101llama, 100load, 1S4loaf. 48. 99. 336loafer, J01Loam, 336loan, 61, 10?lobby, 101loggia, 100lojic. S2. 368logician, 368loiier, 101lonesome, 131Ions, 184,36alonged, 262longer, 368look. 135,230,344loose, 61loot, 102loquacious, 39lore, 4S. 295lose. 112, 114, 224, 261,

321, 330. 337loss, 114lot, 357kmd, 144, IS4, 209, 210louse, 257bve, 25, 32, 163. 330love chUd. 199loveel, 262low, 6t, 196, 209Ion, 141LSD, 141lucid, 112luck, 25, 101,116,195,

207lucrative, S7

luff, 101IUK. 147lull, 14}Lump, 147hina, 112lunatic, 87, S8, 137Lunch. 141lunk, 147lurched, 262lure, Шlush, 9*ILJSL, 135,173, 174luxury. 112lynch, 13S

macadam, 195machiavellian, 136, 138machine. 42. 255mackerel, 256macldnaw, 104mackintosh, 137mad, 168madam. 82, 197madrigal, 100mafia. 100

c 137, 176magician, 55Magna Carta, 167magnanimous, 88magnate, 167magnificence. 167magnificently, 191magnifico, 100magnifier. 167magnify. 87magnitude, 167magpie, 39maid, 90maintain, 136maize. 104make, 295. 345make love. 200-201ma| adopted. 127malady, Й2malaria, 1(10male orjjan, 199, 200malefaclion, 87mallard, 162malt, ЗОВmammoth. [01man, 34. 114. 135, 219,

238, 257. 336, J5Vman-eaLing. 123maneuver, 112. 3J7mangle, 101mango, 102. 116

manna, 102гплппег. 82, 112, 176mansion, S2mansuelude, 92manual, 112manure, 112, 173manuscript, ] 12many, 329marijuana, 101market, SImaroon, 161marriage, Шmarriage of convenience,

116marshal, 135manhall, 198mart, 101marvelously, 191mas, 140mask, 364masochism. 137mason, 90masque, 1Mmaster, 135, 140, 167,

197matador, 100matth, 295mathematics, 140matter, L99, 200mattress, 101maudLin. 138maverick, 137may, 67, 115, 567, 26Яme, 108, 234, 247mead, 46. 320, 337meager, 364теакге, 36*meal, 48, 345mean, 197,294meander, 13Smeaning. 25, 1Я1meant, 294measure. 112, 131meal, 171, 196. 319, 337,

339, 345mediaLe.. 92medicine, 81, 82, KBmeek. 61meerschaum, 1O[meet, 262melody, 82meLt. 261. 337memorial park, !99, 201men, 257menstruate, 112mental retardation. 200mentians, 221

Index of Modern English Words

mentor, 137menu, 1 Irtmercantile, H)Umercer, 90merchant., 90merciful, 132mercy, 31merit, 19Я, 207merriment, 132mesmerize, 13Bmess, 176, 177,205me i, 2ft2metal, 82nietatheory, 127meteor, 90metric, 112me^aninc, JO0mice, 257microbLLS, ]27miJ.century, 127might. 267mightily, 191mild, 2(гУ, J43mile, 50militarism, 130milk, IBSmilkman, 124mi Her, 90millinery, 137million, 100imrnic, Шminaret. 101mince, 82mind, 25, 17ft, 177mine. 234, 247mini-skirl, 12$minister, 198minor, 87mint, 50, 51, 137

e, 81

n, 12Бmischief. 188, 139miss, 135missal, К 7mission, 303mission control, ] 2 lmister, 1*7mistress, 14[)s 197moan, 135mob. 140, 207mobile. <?5

mobile maneuvering. 198monocracy, 129mobster, 130moctiisin. 104moct, 136

m te. 87

rtiodestly, 1^2molded, 13 Jmnlcst, 173mom, 349Monday, 112люпеу, D6, 137monger, 50mongoose, 102, 116monkey, 46monsoon. 101monstrously, 191month, M2, 344monthly difficulties, 199moody, ]89mutvn, 4 l 4 9Q; 112, 344nioonliphr, 134moonshejl, E9, 121moose. 104, 256morale, 195more, 2K9morynic, 141morriscm, 136mortal person. 174mosque, 101, 116mosquito, 100mosquito hawfc, Ш7mold, 140. 141, 148, 195motii. 349mother, 34,41, 44, 46,

160, 344motion, 133. 135motion pictures. ] 14motor. 141motorcade. T2<?motto, 100mountain. SZ. Я 9mountebank, 100oiourn, 135, 261mouse, 46. 165, 257mouth, 135,203,206move, 82, 223moved, 223movie, 130movies., 114, 140moving pictures, 140rrww, 46.48, 261mnp, 114. 147, 206miiEHcr, 102muggy, 61,62mulatto, TOO

multi-colored, 128mummy, 102mump. 147munch, 3 Юmuscle, KS. тяоmusic, &2, 137musket, 10O

t, 104muslin, 100mussel, 180must, 23, 67, 267, 26E

344mustathio, 100mustang, 101mutton, ffZ, 90my, 234, 247myna, 102myself. 3Smystery, J37, 176, 177

nabob, 102tiaj, 39, 61, (52, 197.207,

329name, 337, 345, 354лаге, 140narcotics agent, 140nark. 140narrow, 183, 209narrowing. 204NASA, 142nation, 124nationalities, 124nationality, 124nn i ion hood, 130nations, i 24NATO, 141naiighlY. I8E, 190navy, 82. 161nazi. 141NBC, 141necessary, 87need, 112needle. (12negro. 100. 107neither, 366nemesis. 137ncn-clsLssica], 128nephew, .34, 320nerve, 112nervous, 87net, 33. 364nett, 364neurotic, 112ncwl, 295ne\i, 350nice. £2nickel, 101, Шnickname. 295niece. 34nifty, 99nijger. 100, 107ni-jh, 340nipht. 44. 45. 366nitktrniire, И7

398 Index of Modern English Words

nines, 205nitpick, 180, 18L-IS2nitty. 180nllly-fiiitly, 180nix, 101no, 27no ore. 279nobody. 279nod, 110, 349noise. 82none, ) 11поп -payment, 128non-standard, 98noodle, 101nor, 98Norman, 50Normandy. 59Norseman, 50north, 4£nose, 206nol, 366nolary, 87note, 344nothing. 359, 360noun, 26now, 248NOW, 142nowhere, 279nuclear. 140number, 82nuncio, 100n uncle, 295nunnery, Blnurture, 135nylon, 120nylons, 187

oak, 46, 557oar. 336oaths, 360obdurate, 317obedience, 81obey, 323obligatory, 131obsess, 11 -obstruct. 133obstruction, 133obtain, 113obtuse, 146oocull, 167ocean, 46. 82OLfilOt, !04ochre, 161octajius, 110odd, 61oddity, 132

s. 310

odor, 173, 174„dyssey, 136, J 37of, 28, M5h 163off, 44offer, 331often, 317, 362ohm, 101, 137oil, 176oil painting, 133OK, 143-142ohra, 109old, 27, 115,219,336old maid. 197nldtype, 131olive. 4&. 161omnibus, HOon, 28, 44, 219onanism, 137once, 258one, 112open, 255, 337oj>era. 100. 257opinion, 82opossum, 104opportunity, 113or, 9Rorange, 160,161.295orangeade, !2S>orchestra, 134orchestrate, 129, 134ordeal, 176ore, 46organ iKition. 136orgy. 173original, 131ornate, 87ostrich, 162otter, 46ouch. 143ought, 28, 267, 302, 309ounce, 112our, 2U, 247ourselves, 38outhouse, 139oullay, 12Boutput, 13Soutrageously, 191oven, 90over. 28, 44, 121, 337overdrive, 122over-flawing, 122overpayment, 128overthrown, 122owe, 340owl, 46own, 329own up, 114

ОТ, 46, 257oxen, 257oxygen, П9

pace, 295pacification, 82, 29Bpack, 3*9pad, 348paddle, 110pagan, 185page, Я2pail, 107pain, B-2, 131, 168,226paint. 221painted, 223painting, 82pair, 82pajamas, 102, 364palace, Я2pale, 209paleface. 123palm, 3J8.362psilm tree. 46palming, 95palsy, 112pan, 51Pan-American. 128pander. I3Bpsmtr, 110panic, 137pans, 90pantaloons. 140panlher, 102pamies, 199punts. 136. 137panty, 202paper, 82, 187parade, 100,219paradise, 102paraffin, 101, 116ригаНеIngram, 88parameter, 112para-mil Itary, 128pard, 102parent, 34parents. 160pariah, 102, 197parishioner, SIparliament, 82parliamentarian, 129part, 82pass, 82, 295n*ss on, 199passage, 129passed, 361paslal, 100pat, 143, 309

Index of Modern English Words 399

p*ich, 317palernally, 132path, Э4&, 349. 35Бpatient, SS, 89patio, 101patriatth, Я1patriot. I1 2paw, 110pawn, 110pay, 81,82payee, 129pea. 51pence, 25, 32. 31, 82peaceful, 132peach, 82. 205pea-jacket, [01pear, 321, 346pearl. 82, 226pears, 311peasant, Я2peculiar, 173pedal. I l l ) , 111pedestal, 100. 110, 111pedestrian, MO, I I Ipedigree, l i f t . 111, Шpedlar. 110, 133pee-pee, 202peepers, 206peers, 323peevish, 133pelt, 110perf Я2, ! 75, 310penalty, 135penetrate, BSpenguin, 55. 116penis, 200penitentiary, 140peon, 100, 110. I l lpeople. 82. 219pep, 310pepper, 51, 102perceive, E9perch, 33,256i»erfeetly, 1*1perhaps, 19periwig- 140perpetrate, 112person, 114perspire. 200pew, 100, l i f tpest, 168pet. 309pctly. 168petunia. 104pew. 111phenomena, -57phew, 143

philanthropist, 1*3phlHsttne, 137phony, 205phuocy, 143photoRraph, 140physician, 82, 90piano, 100. 219piano 1ед5, 106piano limbs, 106piazza, 100piccolo, 100pick, 110pickle, I f t l , 116pickpocket, 120, 123, 139picture, S7, 175, 176,351pie, 110pie-a-la-mode. 116piece, 82, 197pierced, 311pig, 46, 1Я5, 239pigeon, 162pigiet, 130pile, 195pilfer, 114pilgrim, 81pill, 173-174pillow, 51pilot, 110. I l lpimple, 110pin. 51, 135, 316pinchbeck, 136pinchn.it. 134pine, 162, ЭТ6, 321pink., 110, 161pipe, 51pipsqueak, 99piquant, 209, 211piss, 99, 136, 200pistol, 100, 137pit, 309pilch, 50pilhy, 39placard, 101place, 32, 136plague. 82plaid, 55, 317planet, 90plant, 51, 162,176plate, 82Platonic. 136. 138platter, S2, 90play, 24, 168playact, 134plaza, 100plea, 135pleasant, 367please. Ai, 323, 367

pleasure, 341, 351pliers. 112plimsoli, 136plot, 110plough, 135, 364plow. 340, 364plowed, 311plum, 5t, 161plumb. 135plummet, 332plump, 110, 147, 199plunder, 101plunk, 147ply. 112podiatrist, 110podium, 110, 111ports, 310podunk, 104, П 6pogrom, 101poignant, 210. 211point, 112pointed, 39poison, 131poisonous, 131poker, 101pole. 257police, 255policejnan, 120polka. 101poll. 101polo. 102poltergeist, 101poly dialectal, 129, 298pompano. 101poncho, 101pooch, 32Bpoodle, 101pooh-pooh, 143pool, 144,311, 326poo-poo, 202poor, 81,82pop, [20. 143pope, 112porcelain, 100porch, 82pork 82, 90portfolio, 112portico, 100positive, 113possibly, 19post, 82posl office. 120postgraduate, 12*pot, 309pot cheese. 107potato, 104pot-pie, 120

400 Index of Modern English Words

pots, 90pouch, 328poulterer, 90poultry, 90pound, 50роигч, 219powder room, 106powerful, 192powwow, ИМpractice, 364practise, 364praise, 136, 157, 173,

198, 295prattle, 38pray, 13*prayer, 82. 188precious, 88predetermine, 128predicament, 170, 173,

207pre-emption, 133prefers, 221prelate, 81pre-owned, 199presidency, 129president, 112, 121pressure, 131presume, 136pretence, 364prelense, 364pretty, 99. IS9, 191prttai , 101prevaricate, 115prevent, 87priest, 238prieMesb. 239primn donna. 100primp, ] ]Qprince, gl, 82, 348prirtLefinj!, 130principal, 193, 322principle, 98, 193, 12?prim, 135piinlatorntm, 131private. 317

private soldier, 140, J74prize, 295pro, 120proceed, 82proclaim. 131pro-corn muniit, 12Я.pnocraslinate, 1J4prod, liftproduce, 367pnotfuclion. 187productive, 367productivity, 367

professional, 120. 140professor, 140profile, 100profound, 367profundity, 367program. 195progress, 109project, £7prolix, 39, Я ftprolongation, 82prum, 206promiscuity, 163promote, 87promptness, 132prong, 110proofread. 134properties, 113prophet, 81. 88proposition, 82, 173,20йprose, Я 2prosecute. 87prosody, S7prostrate. 112protect, 255protein, 101proto-Gcrmanic, 128protrude, 112protuberances. 298proud, 81, 8S, 89prove, SIprowler, 206pscu do-intellectual, 12$psyched, 311psych u lo^. 140, 317pub, 140. 302public drinking house,

140publican. 8Spuce, 161pueblo, 101.333,352pug, 147pugilist, 112pugnacious, f 12puke, 110.203pull. 135, 144, 310. 326pulpit, 87puma, 104pumpernickel, 101pun, ПОptinch, [02punctual, I 12pundit. IdZ. 116punuem, 112, 209, 211ptmi.Hh. 113, 11J, 367punishment, П4punishments, [13punitive. 367

punk, 110, J47punster, 130punt, 112purchase, tli-purgatory, 81purloin, 114pus, 200push, 82, 208PUSH, 142pushed, 262puss, 114pussy, 110. 201put. 135, 309, 310, 311put-il-off-itis, 130put to skep, 199puts, 310putt, 309puttee, 102puzzle, 110puzzled. 114pygmy, 112pyjamas, 364pyragencsis, 132, 138

quack, MKquad, 308, 348quadrangle, 140quadrille, 101qualm. 348quarrel. 3f>8quart, 343quarter of, 107quarter till, 107quarltr to, 107quartet, 100CtuarLi, 101quean, 196queen. 198queer. 110quiet, 146, 190,321quickie, 130quickly, 20fiquiet, 87, 185, 209 : 211quinine, 104quirk. 110quirt, 101quisling, 137quit. 82, 109,302,309,

317quife. 27quixotic, 136, 138

110

rabbi, 102rabbit, *6rabelasian, 13.8race, 61, TOO

Index df Modern English Words 401

racial, 132racial slock, 131rack, 101racoon. 104radar, 14 J, 195ragp, 114rah, 143railroading, 298raise, 61. 109, 115.321raison d'etre, 116rake. 207. 345ramble, 110ran, 355rape. 112rapid, 115rip idly, 208rapport, 112rapresentative, 141rapt. 112rapture. IJ2rascal, 197ri t , 207rather, 27ration. 116rattan. 102raven, 112ravine, 112ravishment, 82read. 221, 2*1,319, 345reads, 219. 224real. S2, 100rc:rt|y, 192

reap, 2fi|, 354rear, 295, 321reason, SIrebec. 101rebuke, [14receipt. 317receive, &9reclaseiry, 123теоа^пЬл, 89reconcile, 223recreation, 82red, 124, !60redbreast. 123redcoat, 123, 139reddish. 124, 130redeem, I3(>red е1пл i fica t ionabili ly F

132red worm, 107reef, 61reek. 173. 261recked. 2(Mrefere*. [40reflect. 25

regatta, 100register. 82rehearse, 136reindeer, 61reinforce. 112. П4neinforce merit, 113, ] 14reject, &7re joke, 136relative, 34relieve, 112religion. Si. £2remain, [36remedial, 367remedy, J<57remember, 82remind, 177reminiscence, 133removal, II37 114remove, 114rendezvous, ISSrent, Я1repair, 1 12. 1 15repeat. 367repetition, 367repetitive, 367replacement, 124report, 1Й5, 187reprehend, 87representation, 82, 167representative, 28reprimand, 114reprove, 114repEidinle. 110require, 112rescue, 1 itiresemble, 25resentful, 132reset. l?3reside. 112resign. 317, 368resignation, 36$resilient, 185resist, 150resistance, 150resolute. В Яresolve, 317respite. 82responsefut, 1?2responsible for, 157restrain, 136result. 185, 206resume. 223resumed, 122resurrection. Sift, Шrelait, 135letaliale. 170, 173reticent, 39

retreat, 19*retrorocket, 42retro-rorkel, 128revealed, 323revemic, B2reverence, 136reversal, 125reversals, 125reverse. 125reverses, 125revise, 150revision, 150revisionism, 298rcvok. ПЗrevolution, 1J3reward, 170ribs, 185rice, 46rich,, 81rid. 61rtddle, 135ride, 177, 260: 261rille-ranse, 120rift. 61rig, 110ri£hL, 192, 316,368righteous, 368rins, 135, 261rip, 1 [0rip off, 114, 185rip-off, 163, IS5ripped. 2b2rise, 135, 261.295risen, 261risk, innriver, %2rivet, 135roach, 323road, 309roam. 1 Юroar, 143roast, 82rob. 81, 249, Шrobber, 28!>robbery, 114robe, 82. 135. 344robin, 49robrtl, 101roc. 102rock, 25. 34, 55, 20S.

226. 239, 349rock резк, 55rocked, 223rocket, !00rodeo, 101roll, 223rolled. 223

402 Indc* of Modern English Words

romance, 82rood, 344rook 344man, [35root, 99rope. 744rosary, 87rose, 81, 161,261.337rotate, I15rote, 110rotten, 61, 312rouble, I ft I

s >2, 351ush, 1S5, 209,210

ground, [38ronghgrind, 123, 13*rough-ground, )33round-windowed, 126routed, 262rove... 110row, ПО. 261myal, Я 2royally, 132nibbed, 262rubber, 331rubbers, LB7ruby, S2rucksack.. 101rude, 304rue. 261ruffle. 110rug, 147rumble, 147rumbullion, MOnimp, 147

mn. 25, 135,261,355rundown, 136running. 131runs, 3i0rush, 136russet, 161rust, 110, 135

Sabbath, 102saber, 101sack, 114.337sacrament, £1sacrifice, 135. 137sad, 1 15, 302sadism, 137safari, 101safe, 82safeguard, 135saffron, 101sag, 34»said, 329sail, 48, 175, 176, 195

sailboat, Шsaint, Я1sake. 102salad, 82salamander, 102salmon, 46.. 161, 165,256salt, 4ft, 131,336Sam hil l, 202same, 61,345.346samovar, 101, 116sanctimonious, 173sanctuary, 111sand, 348sandal, 102sandblind, 128, 192sandwich, 137sang. 37, 219. 222,260sanitary engineer, !99sanitary napkin, 199sapphire, 102sari: 102sarong, 102sarsaparilla. 100sash. 101sassafras, 100Satan, [02Kate. 326satellite, 195satin. 32saucer, 82, 90sauerkraut, lOfsaulerne, 137savoir faire, 116saw, 223saws, 224say, 264, 323scab, 61scads. 110scale, 328scales, 61scare, 61, 62scarlet, [02, 161xuatier. i 10scavenger. 133scene. 317scent, 176, 177schedule. 32Sscheme, 92, 173stherzo, 100schnozzola, 206schooner, 101scientific. «8. 92scientist, 132sclerotic. 333, 35?scoff, ЗЛ9stold, 39, 196scoop, 1 Ю

scorch, 110store, 61scoundrel. 110scowl, r i ! , 110scrap, 61scrape, 166. 261scratched, 310screech, 42screwed up, 114script, 87, 309scripture, B7scrutiny, В7sculptor. 133sculpture, 82sea, 46, 48, 323, 339,366seal, 48season, 82seal. .«.61, 199,319,

326, 345second, В2secrete, 135seculaj, 87sedan. I )0sedation, 112seduce, 173see, 12!, 261,366seed, 46, 261seed bearing, 122seem, 230seemly. 61seems, 323seersucker, 102see-saw, 107seethe, 261,321sell, 37, 113,224>;eme.4ler, 101.Hemi-cij'cle, 12Sseminar, 101senior citizen, 199sense, 348sensible, 166, 207sentence, 114sententious, 39sentimentally. !30separated, 222sepulchre, в Iserape, 101seraphim, Ifl2serenade, 100sergeant, 140sermon, 81, E2, £9servant, 54, 90sesquipedalian, 110sestet, 100set, 26?, 326setback, 123, 136settee, 33

of Modern English Words 403

settle, ] 11setup, 138seven, 45sew, 46sexual relations, 199shabby, ПО, 166,207ebacfc, 110shackle, Э2Вshade, 323, 346shaft, 32Яshall, 195shake, 135,261,329shaken, 261Shakespearian^, 130sbafc, 101shut], 2Я, 2?, 267, 268shallow, 185,209sham, 95, 110, 207shame, 302shamefaced, 126, 192shampoo, 102shamrock, 55shanghai, 138shape, 34, 323, 328shaft. 135sharp. 44, 114, 146, IS5,

19*. 209shave, 261. 32Sshawl, 42, [02she, 234,238,247<ihear, 261sheep. 46, 90, 256, 323shekel, [02shepherd, 90sherbert. 101sherry, 100, 137shibboleth, 102shield, ЗЗЛshift. 204shillelagh, 55shine, 261ship. 46, 4B. 195,302,

303, 304. 328, 352shipment. 132shit, 99, 200shoddy, 110shook. 261, 344shoot, 135, 201,261shoplift, 1Mshotgun, 124should. 30, 267shove. 135, 261shoved, 260shovel. [35shrapnel, 137, 195shrew 39. IBS,196shrewd, 146, 18Я

shrift, 328shrill, 209,210, 211shrimpboal, 124shrimpburger, 129shrink, 261. 309shroud, 171,257shruj>, I JOshucks, 201shuffle. 207shuffling, 95shut, 135shuttle, 135shy, 32 8shy lock, 136sick, 109, 125,219,302sick to the Stomach. ]07,

203sicken, 125sickening. 125sicking, 125sickingen, 125sickly, 130sideways, 25Ssiesta, 100sieve, 317sieves. 310sight. 366si^htsee. 134sign, 317. 367significant, 367silence, HIsilhouette, 137siJk, 102silks, 187Silly, 146, 17(1silc, 101siiver, 4S, 50simple, It2, 146simply. 192simultaneous. 131sin, 309, 326since. JJftsir fnl, 13(1sing, 37, 44, 114, 134,

260, 261, 341singer-, 134singin'. 266. 360singing, 265, 266h 360single, 82sink. 261sip, 303. 304sir. 82, 311sinocco. lotsister. 54, 46. 61, 160sit. 112, 261, 337six-wheeled (ruck. !Z5size. 112

c, 143skate, 101sketch, 101skid, 110,328skidoo, 206-2U7skill, 61, 328skiJlct, 107skim, 32Eskin, 61, 32S, 337skinner, 90skinny, 114skip, 328skirt, 61skit, 32Sskulk, 135skull, 110skunk, 104, 116sky, 61. 328slab, ПОslack, 295slain, 329slake, 295х]апК. 98, 110, 204slattern, 197slaughter, 61slave, 82, П6, 137slay, 261sled. 101sleep, 41, 44. 259, Э20sleep with. 199, 200-2У1sleepwalk, 134sleet, 135sleighs, 311slender, f 14slept, 259slid. 2S>4slide, 261, 294slim, 114, 166, 207slog, 110slo3an, 55, 116, 177slo ip, 101slouch. IIOslow, 146, 156slum, [10slumber robe, 199,201slur, 101slush. UOslut, 110. 197sly, 61, lift, 190smack, 143small, 146,209,210smart, 114, 146,210, 2Visroaze, 140, 141sniearcssc, 107smile, 175smirk, 173, 175smile, 261

404 Index of Modern English Words

5ТПОБ, 120, 140, 143smoke, 120, 140, 141,

337. 344smooth, 185, 209smus, UO, 173smuggle, 101snafu, 141SNAFU. 202snail, 34snake. 46, 185snake doctor, 107make feeder, 107snap, 101snap beans, 107snapped. 262snare. 61snarl, 147.snakh, 101, ПО, 114sneak, 110sneer, 147snicker. 143, 147snide, 110sniff, 147sniffle, 147snigger. 147snob, 110. 147snoop, ] [ ! 1 , 147snore, 143, 147snori, 101, 141, Ш , 147snout, 147snow, 44.45.46, 10!. 135snowman, 124snowshoc, 124snub, 61. l i f t , 147snuff, 101snuflle, 147snuggle, 147so, 9S. 34!so lonjj, 27soap, 135sob. 143SOB, 202social disease, 199social diseases. 200sock, 51sodden. 321sodomy, 136, 137sofa, 101soft, 156. IBS. 20S, 209,

210, 211. 349sojourn. 82wJa«. 82solar, 87solar system. 90sold, 37solder, 135soldier, 82, 351

lid. Я2solitary, 87solon, 137solve, 112, 185sombrero, 100somebody, 27?someone, 279somersault, 185sometimes, 25 Вsomewhat. 27somewhere. 279son, J4, 46, 160, 366son of n sun, 202sonata, 100.Hung, 349songfest, 130songs, 219son-in-law. 46sonnet, |00soon, 344soot, 344sop, 349soprano. 100sorely, 192sorrow, 329sot, 81

sound, 48. 82sour. 196,209sour milk cheese, 107south, 143souIhwards, 25Йsoviet, 101sow, 46. 162,261space age, 109spaced <j"l, 166, 207spacious, Я7spade, 100span, 261spark, 135sparkle, 130,222sparkplug, Шspartan, 13fi, I3S, I4Sspat, 147spatter, 147speak, 261.323, 345spear, 55. 33Vspecial student. 199sped. 2ft2speech, 344speed, 339speeds. 311spend, ?0Yspew, 147, 261sphere, 333. 352spider. 107spin, 261spinach, Ю2

spindle, 333, 34Lspinet, 100spinner, 332spire, 135spirit. 25, 147, 174, 185spiritless. 88, S9spiritually, 132spit, 120, 147,224.spitz, 101splash, 293splashdown, 89splint, 101split, 1*5Kph[rs;e, 143Sponge, 81, 135spook, 101spool, 101spoon, 90, 344sport, 112sportsdom. 129sportsman, E Ыspol, 121spotlight- 121, 138spout, 147sprain, 110.spray, 147spread, 222, 293spree, 110sprig, 141spring, 46, 261sprinl, 61spry, 1 Юspume, 147spurn, 147, 261spurt, 147spulnik, 101spulter, 147squabble, 166squadron, 100squalid, 348squander. 110square, 82, 185, 219squash. 104squashed, JI0squat, 34Rsqueak, 143squ&ezed, 311squelch, 143suuclcrred, 309squid, 110squire. 82squirrels, 312squirlers, 312stack, 61, 309Madia, 257staff. 337stage, 112

Index of Modern English Words 405

c, 134staid. ] 12stamina, 257stampede, 101stand, 25, 112, 261Standard, 1I2, 225standby, 121stanza, 100, 112slar, 90, 219stare, [35stark, 166starling. 48start, 176. 177,308started, 2625<»rvc, 173. 175.215,

222, 223-224, 261starved, 222, 224stale, 82, 112, 157, 323statement, 114, Шstatic, 112station break., 121statistic, 112StulUC, 112

steadfast, 126, 130steak. 61, 319, 346steal, 114, 135, 163, JS5,

261, 337, 345steam bath, 124steamboat, 124steamfittcr, 124steel. 46steeled, 323sleckshafled club, 125sleep, 209steer, 4*stench, 170, 174, 295stentorian, 138step. 261, 337steppe, 101stetson, 137stevedore, 101stew. &2stick, 205still. 205stimuli, 257sting, 261stingy. 99

Mint, 135, I73.2Sl.295slinkcr, 99stint. 2*5stipple. 101stir, ] 3 5

stirrup, 329sttlch, 295Stoker, 101, 133SlolcL 26 I

stomach, HisLunc, 135,226, 344stool, 53, 171, 174, 344stop, 177, 349, 357stoney, 361story, 55, 8 1 , 92, 364stouthearted, 125stove, 90straight, 185, 205,219strain, 136strand, 48strange, 82stream, 135strident, 209strike, 261string beans, iO7stripped, 309slrolj, ПОstrong, 310, 368slrongarm, 123stronger, 36Йstruck. 16$struggle, 110strung out, 17ЙsLutco, 100studio, 100study, 82, 224, 225stump. 147stunt, 147, 295stupendously, 192stupid, 114, 146stupldenls, H islupor, 87subdivide, 87*uhj[]£a.ie, 87submarine, 140submit, 87, 114subordinate, 87subscribe, 87suhslance. 34. 82substitute, 87subsurface, 12-8suburbanite, 130succeed. 224success, 173successful. 132sued net, 39succotash, 104succour, 112such, 359suck. 135rudder, B2suds, 110sugar, 925UEI?e5tive. 1734uicf<Jal, 129sulk, 11()

sumac, 101summary, 87summer, 46summon, 136sump, 147sumptuous, 82sun. 41, 44, 90, 337, 366sung, 260sunk, 147superabundance, Я7supercilious, 167super-heated, 128superman, 116suppeditatc, 92supper, B2supplicate, 87, 112supplies, 187support, N2. 13ftsuppose. 259suppress, B7supra-national, 128sure. В2surgeon, 82surly. 153. 176, 190, 197surrender, 114susceptible, J33svelte, 333. 352swag, 34«swagger, 348SWilrt, 61swallow, 4Я, 261

t. 34Яswamp. 34Kswan, 33ft, 348swear, 261sweet, 209. 210sweet music, 185swell. 261swim, 2ftlswindler, 133swine, 90, 256swing, 261,303, 309, 33?swinged, 261.swinyer, 199, 201swinging, 163swivei, 129swizzle, 110swond play, 168syndicate, !73syrup. 42, 101systaltic, 112system, 92, 112

tab, 114table, 82. 174tabled, 139

406 Index of Modern English Words

labno. 42, 102, ]37, 14Я,195

taciturn. У)tackle, mitaffeta, 102tail, 135, 197tailor, 90take, 6 1 . 323. 345talc, 345talk, 38, 135. ЗОВ, 317,

34Stalkathon. 129talkalive, 39tall. 34Stame, Mfitan, 161tanjsy, 209tantalize. 13 Вtariff, 109tarry. 110tart, 196,209.210lasV, Пtaste, 82tattered, 61taunl, 110tawdry, 139tax, 32, 136taxi, 120.207taxi-mete г cabriolet. L20ТВ, 202tea, 102teach. 29}, 321teaches, 224tear, 261tearful, 146tears. 32?tcchec, 143teeny. 42. 120.293Leeter-board, 107teeler-totter, 107teelh, 203, 206. 257teelhe, 295tclcprionjejtlly, 29 Я1rl с vision, 42, Шtell, 115,337temperate, E7ternj>o, 100temporal. S7tempt. 81

ten, 45. 302. 303, 320tennis, 2fitenuous, 114termagant, 196terminal case, 199terminate, 1t5terribly, 192terrific, 207

terrifically, 192terse, 39testicles, 206testify, 87tctc-si-lcfc, t I fithane, }29thank, 171thanks, 309that, 244, 24 8, 290, 309,

331thalch, 46the, 115,219.226,240,

Ml. 244.290. 331theater. 365Iheatre, 3651hee, 247, 248, 249theft, 114their, 61.98. 234,247theirs. 234, 247them, й I . 234, 247ihen, 24S, 331there, 24S, 331thereabouts. 131th&se, 244, 248, 290, 331they. 51, 234, 247, 359thick. 181209,309, 359thicket, 130thimbie. 112, 333, З Лthin, 114, 185,209,302thin board, 55thine, 247ihing, 112.302,321,341think, 115.259third. 34132-fceyed typewriter, 125this, 244, 24Я. 290, 302,

310,331those, 244, 24S, 290,331thou. 247, 248. 249though, 61, 115, 311, 331,

365thought, 226, 259thoughtful, 131threads. 1 [4thrice, 258thrift, Ыthrob, 143throne. 31H-319thronipi, 310through, 28, 302,311throughout, 122through way, 125throw, 321throw up. 123, 139thrum, 143thrump, 143thrust. 61

thug. 102, 137thumb, 112, 317thunder. 320thimk, 143, 147thus, 248,331, 337thwack, 14Яthwacked. 310thy. 247thyme, 317tic. 110tickle, 110tidal, 132tiddly wink. 110tide, 337

• ! • • ! • : • 6 1

tiff, 110, 166tiger, J<5, 102light. 61, 99ti l l . 61timber, 46tin, 48, 50tincture, 87tinkle, 293tiny, 42, 166lip, 110, 309tipsy, 199tirade. 100tire, 364tired, 219titanie, 13fititle, S2, 367tiLttlar, 367to, 75, 115. 163,366toad. 110toast, «2. 110Lobaccu, 46, 104toboggan, 104to-do, Wtoilet, 186-187,188toll. 50Torn, 219tomato, 104tomb. 112tomtom. 102tone. 131. 135tongue, 185too, 3fifitooth, 45. 257, 295, 320,

321. 344top, 325, 348Torah. 102larnadn, 100tortilla, 100tortoise, 46Lass. 349tote. 42, 109totem, 104

Index of Modern English Words 407

touch. л28touchy, J66. 207tough, 302tournament, 81toward, 12Я(fitter, 81, 82town, 321tract, 87tragedy. 82train, 302(ram, 136, 137trans-Allan lie, 128transfer, 204transition, 133translate, 1S5transmission, 133transmit, Шtransportation, 298trapeze, 110trapezoid, 110trash, M0IraVcl, Ыtraveled, 364travelled, 364travertine, 100tread, 261treason. 135treasure, 135tree. 162trees, 323trek, 101tremendous, 207tremendously, 192trenchant, 39tr ial , ISSU

lrin.1 balloon, 116tributary, 87tribute, 50trick, 114, 135trim, 1 Г0trio, 100lripL 168, Шtripod. 110(ripped. 224troi ia. 101trollop. 197from bone. IIX)trot, 1*7troubled. I [4trout, 256trtid™, ПОIrue, 321turtle, П2irull. 197trunk, 147trusl, 61tryst, IBS

tsk tsk, 143tuberculosis, 112Tuesday, 112tug, 147tulip, 102(umble, 147lum e went, 112tummy, 202tuna. 256tundra, 101tunny, 100turban, 102turk, J37turn down, 206turn off, 20fiturn on. 1S5, 207turnpike, 140turns, 224tush, (43twaddle, 110twain, 329twal, 201(week. 110twite, 258twig, 141twinkled, 219twirl, 140, 141(wish, 143twist. 141twitler. 1<Otwo, 3 17, : Ш , 341, 366two-headed giant, 125lycoon, 42, 102, Шtypeset. 134, 139typeselter, 139typewrite, 134tyre. 364

udder. 46LLBh. 143. 147uh-riuh. 11ukase. 101ulcer, Я7ultra-sonic, 128umbrella, 100umpire, 140unbreakable, 132uncle. 34, 81, 160, 177

under, 2%undergarment. Z00underprivileged. 1°9understand. 128, 135,

179. 18.5, 196untierslandable, ] 3.2undertake, 128undesirable, 113

undiscernina, 88, 89unequal, 128unfeminine, 197ungrummatica], 204un happiness, 24unhunh, 143"uitcJIiviar, 128unicom. 81unintelligent, 114union. 112universe, 90, i 12university, 140unladylike, 197unthinkable, 132until, 316unusualncss, 132up, 139upchuck. 199, 203uphold. 12-8urinate, - 00urination, 200us, 234use. 82usherette, 130usual, S2Utopian. 13B

vagina, 200valiant, 88valley, 3J8vamoose, 101vamp, 197vampire, Ш2vandalize, 13*, 148vane. 323vanilla, 100vapid, 20Уvarlet, 112, 197vassal, 112vastly, 192vat, 323VD, 199,200,20:veal, 82, 90vegetable plant. 174veins, 311veldt. 101velocity. 115vend. 309VendclM, 100venison. 82, 90vent, 323verb, 26

verbosity, 367verdict. 82vcrmillion. 161vermouth, 101

40S Index of Modern English Words

very, 27, 192veteran, 140viands. IMvice, 171vice-cfoairmatt, 128victoria, 136vigilante. 101. 116villain, 197,207vintner, 90viol da gamba, 100viola, 100violently, 192violet, 161viper. 154virago, 1%virgin, 81virtue, 135

vision, 341, 351, 3*2vista, 100vivisection, 133vixen. 323vodka, 101voiced, 311void, L99voiding, 200volt, 137 •voiubic, 39volume, Я2volunteer, 166, 207vomit, 203voodoo, 360vulgar. 98, 1*7

wad, 110,308,348wadJk,34Swade, 261waffle, 101waggon, 364wagon, 46, 364wail, 207wainscAl, 10 iwait, S I , 82, 1 2 5 . 2 5 7

wailed, 219wailer, 90. 125, 238waiter's, 125waitress, 239wait's, 125wake. 261,2*5walk, 24, 115, 135, 177,

31S, 34Swall, 51walinowcr, 197walrus, 101waltz. 101wander, 348wangle, 99

want, 61ww, &l, 1S8, 308,323,

34Bware, 4*, 50warm, 156, 1Б5,209, 2)0warn, 135, 34Swarp, 348warl. 34*was. 219, 264, 265, 267,

268.321,348wash, 135,224,261washroom, 199wasp, 34Swalch. 115,295,34»watched, 219water pistol, 124waterbed. 124water-clock, 120wjitcrdoset, 186watt, 137WAVES. 142wax. 261. 348way. 329WC, 202we, 234, 247wrat,61,3l9. 323, 345weariness, 13 Lweasel. 46weather, 135weave, 46, 261, 295weave!, 337web, 295wee wee, 199week. 337

weep, 135,261,344wee-wee, 202weigh, 25. 261weiner, 136. 137well-penciled student, 126welt&chmeri, 1 16wench, 196wend, 264were, 264. 321west. 4Swet, 309whale, 48wharf, 34Rwhat, 2S3whrjt, 46, 4Swheel, 46when, 237, 2ЯЗwhere, 237, 2B3whet Ktone, 122which. 98while, 115whip, 154whirl. 141

whiskey, 55whisper, 293, 358whispered, 222whistle, 143while, Шwhite meat, 106whizzed, 310who, 12, 283whole, 318, 335,336whom, 12whore, 135, 197whose, 96why, 237, 283wide, 209widow, 46width, 166, 310wife, 44, 154,325wild, 185wildebeest, 101will, 28, 29, 115,267,

268, 337willow. 46wilt, 109win, 261wind, 261windbag, 3?window, 61wine, 50, 219wink, 135winter, 46winterize, 132wire, I,i5wisdom, 129wise. 44, 146wisecrack, 99wise-minded, 122wish, 135wisp, 1 (0witch, 196with, 2.B, 115, 126withali.331withdraw, | | 4 , 126withdrawing, 114wiihhold, 126, 123without, 126withstand, 126. 128, 331witness, 81, 135witty, 146wizard, 140wolf, 46woman, 35, 162. 197,

239, 341womb. 336wombat, MAwomen's liberation, 140wonder child. 116wonderfully, 1LJ2

Index of Modern English Words 409

wondronsly, 192ivouil, 337woodchutk, 104wtujilsman, 90wool, 302woolen, 129, 364wutilcns, 312woollen, 364

. 135, 336/, 39

wort. 112. 222, 223-224a'orld view, I 16worship, 135worm, 38, 50wove, 261woven, 261wow, 143, 302WPA. 148wreak, 26 iwrestle, 185write. 4*, 135. 2 60, 261

write in, 13writhe. 261

легок, 137

yank,110yap, 206yawl, ] 0 lye, 329yea, 319,.year, 302,years, 323yell, 261yellow, 160. 32*yelped, 309yes, 27, ,108yet. 98yield, 261yippee. 143yodel, 101yoga, 112

yoke, 4fi, U 2, 320, 329,344

yon, 329you, 234, 247, 248-249your, 234, 247your*, 234, 247yourself, 38

jxbra, 142zeilacist. 116zen, 102zenifh, 101*eppetin, 137zero, 101, 116*ij='-*;iS> 10tzinc, 10 Jzip, 302zilher, 101uoo, 140

garden, 140r, ] ] 2

SUBJECT INDEX

Ablaut. 260Г Academic francaise, 94Atcademia del I a Crusca, 94Acronyms, 120, 141-42Adjectives;

comparison of, 257conversion to noun*, 140, 174weak-strong, 244-45

Adverbs, 258intensifies, 190-91

Aethelberht, 56Affixes:

derivational, 124-33, 366-68inflectional, 124-25, 234^9. 259-67fee also Grammatical change

Affricate, 307, J5IAfrican languages:

borrowings from, 109influence on Black English, 107-109,

275, 277, 360-62Afrikaans, 4SAin't, origin of, 277Alfred ihe Great, 56, 59, 63, 3J<JAlliterative Marie Arthurs, 15Allophones, 303Alphabet, 312-17

of, 315of, 314

set.' also WritingAlveolar. 303Alveo-psJatal. 308Ambijjuiiy, 30Amelioration, 19BAmerican colonial settlement, 103,

3?7-5SAmerican dialects, 103-109, 357-61

Dictionary vf the Englishge, An, 364

American English:altitudes ifiwanJ, 104pronunciation of, 357vocabulary, I OS

American Heritage Dictionary of theEnglish Language, The, 99

American Indian, borrowings from, 104American РЬЕМо^Ы Association, 367American spelling, 363-66American SpeUing Book, 364Anaphoric do. IllAngles, 5,1-54Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 59, 60, 71Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, SS-5bAngular syrus, J3-I4Animal languages: see Bee; PrimateAii'tflles Angto-fiaxunici Breves. 71Antony and Cieopaira, 135, 249Ape: see PrimateAphesis, ШApocope, 140Arabic, 45, 46

borrowings from, 101Aramaic 46Artjot, 203Aristophanes, 204Aristotle, 91An,' of English Poesy, Tin'. 53Artluiiirctiiti Merlin, 15Arthur, King, 75Articles, 236^9

Middle English, 245-49Modern £m;liih, 239-4JOld English, 236-*J

Arlifactual words, L16, 195At Yon Like It. 249Ash. John. 166Atheistjn, 59Attic Greek, 4*Australian Aborigine, borrowings

from, 102Auxiliary, 267-74

Early Modern English, 268-74Middle English, 272-74Modern English, 267-74negative», 278-SIOld English, 270-72questions, 2SI—B6

AwdcLey, John, 204

411

41U Subject Index

Babel. 1 IHack vowels, 144, J09H i i c k i o i i l l a t i o n , 1 3 3 , 2 2 3

Bacon. Francis, 3J6Bailey. Nathan. LC5Balto-Slavic, 47,49ВаГОПв Wars, 7 [Barton, John, 76Base Rules, 217-2(1, 227,

266, 268-73, 279, 282, 28d-&SBtlllk fff Bnmnanimrg, 60, 352Bauph, Albert С , &2.253

deletion of, 275-77forms of, 264invariant in Black English, 276rebiion lu ain't, 277

Bede, 54, 56, 60, 7 *, 242, 357Be«, language of, 15, IB, 142Beetliovcn, Ludwig van, 23Behaviorisi psychology. 26, 32-33, 154-56Bengali, 49Beowulf. 4,56Bible, 150BflftbW, 30SВЫ, 360Black Americans, hislory of, 5, 107-109,

360-61ВЫ-к Death, 69, SO. 81, в?Black En^ish:

African origins, IO7-L09, 360-61f, 274-77

of, 359-62see alto Social dialects

BleruK. Ш , l40^tlt, Thomas. 16S

a, Queen, 53Boethius, 91Bate Named tkt GovertSOUT, The, 93Bticsk of the Dockets, Tin, 297Borrowing:

derivational ;iffi3i«, 125-33euphemisms, 200H>n[j\. 253vocabulary:

African languages. 109American Indian languages, 104.

192, 256-57Arabic. 101Australian Aborigine, 102Celtic, 56-57Danish, 61Dravidian LanjjilaeieS, 102Flemish, 101French, Й7-ЙЙ. R1-S3, 90,92.

135-36. 149-W. IftlFrisian, 101

Borrow] ПЕvOcabutary (cont.)

German, High, 101German languages. Low, 101Greek, 92Hebrew, 102Hindi, 102Italian, 100Japanese, 102Latin. 52, 57,68, 87,92Malay. 102Persian. 102Phmfeuttch, 101Polynesian languages, 102Kcim;myr 102Sanskrit, 102Slavic languages. 101Spanish. [00Tamil, 102Telegu, 102Tibcto-Chincsc languages, 102Turkic, 102

Bruin, anatomy of, 13-15Breton, 48BrewerK Guiid. 73Bridges, Robert, 367Briganles. 52British spelling, 364-155Brni, 74I!LI]L\L: [LIH. 4 7

Buliokar.Juhn, 164.165Bullokar. William. 363Hiitlcr. Charles, S4, 364

fiicdmrtn, 56, (5(1, 242Calvin. John, 9!C'ambretisis, Giraldus. 74Cant 203-204Canterbury TaUs, The. BS, 249, 297,

29S. 340, 351.352(Tarneg.Ee, Andrew, 367Carr, E.H..SCarr.CT,, 121Case:

function of in Modern En.elivh,234-38. 252-54

function of in Old English, 234-38,252-54

lass of dative, 237, 255-56prepositions, 236-37, 252-54

Cassidy, Frederic G,, J06Causative di>. 276Caxton, William, 80, Bl, 86, 91, 92,93Celtic, 47,4?

borrowings from, 54-55Cells, 51.52Central vowel, 30У

Subject Index 413

CrnLim languages, 47-48Cerebrum, 5 3—15Chaucer, UeofTrey, 5, 29, 30, 75, 80, 85,

92, 249, 349, 350Cheke, Sir John, 8fiT 363Child language, 37, 355Chinese, 45

borrowingifrom, 102Chomsky. Nuam, 28ChristianiIy, influence on English, 56-57Cicero, 9 ]Classical languages, prestige of, 11, L2,

20,24*25,87-89,91-92, 138Claudius, 51Clipping, [39-40Close к oils. 72, 73Cnute, 62, fi3,66Cockeram, Henry, 164, 165Coles, EJishs, 94Coles, Robert, ]79Cofjnare words, 22

in Cpcrniiinic languages, 48, 50, 325,326,328

in fndo-European languages, 44, 45,46, ,120-321

in reconstruction of culture, 44, 46in West European languages 48

Color words:devel[]pment of in Modern English,

20Hmetaphors for, 211Old English, in, 160

Comparison, history of, 257-58Compendious Dictionary of jhc English

LnnwaxL; A, 166Compound [tig., 119, 120-24

in Modem English, 121-2?in Old English, 122stylistic consequences of, 121, 148versus [earned words, Я8-Я9. 115

Consonanls:Early Modern English, 350-52Middle English, 341-42Modern English. 307-309Old English, 327-32symbolism of, 142-47

Continuants, 307Conversion, I3J-38, 174Copland, 204Copltc, 46Cornish. 48Crashaw. Riuhard, 182Cratylus., JCrecy, 71Creole [jLn^tinprs, lus-tf)pCromwell, Thomas, 93Cursor Uundi, 75

Cu&hitie,

Cynewuir, 56Сгесп,45, 47

s, Simon, 364Danelaw, .4 VDanish:

borrowings from, 61, 68conflicts with, 58-60invasion of, 59

Deep slrjcture, 31, 216-2], 236-40,266, 26Й-8У

Definitions, structure of, 33, 155-59Defoe, Daniei, 95Dental preterit, 294Derivation:

and backformation, 133-44history of, 124-33phonology of, Э66-6Яsee и!ш Conversion

l>crivalional suffixes, defined, 124Descriptive grammars, 2, 26-28

and usage. 96-98Dialects:

American, origin of, 103-109, 357-61British:

,t1liludes toward, <)2-l>i, 104-105Farly Modern English, 92-94Middle English. 64, 86, 245-47.

262-65.335, 343-44L 346Old English. 52-54,64

Micial, ld*-50, 166, 174, 203-207,247,254,258,261, 274-78,280-81, 323. 334-35, 345, 347.348,349,356-57,358,359-61,362

and style. &7-ЯЗ, 95-99,112-16,121, 132, 138, 140, 141, 148-50,166, 174, 19B-202, 203-207,224-25,229-30. 232, 248-49,2rf6, 334-35. 343-44, 347, 348,349, 351, 362, 364-65

Hialoglisdr Scaccario, 81Diaphragm, 14riiefceni, Charles, 360Dictionaries:

debates over. 95-99definitions in, 33, 164-67history of, 164-67prestige of, 95-99recovery of meaning from, 164-67in transformational grammars.

156-59, 21В.22П, 225-26usage labels, 98-99, 166

Dictitiintry uf A mericair RegionalEasilifl. 1(16

414 Subject Index

Dictionary of the English language,165, 205

Dictionary of the English Lanx/tageCompiled for the Use ot CSchools in the United Stales, A.364

Diphthongs:Middle Finish . 340Modern English, 144, 309, 310-11Old English, 327

Displacement, 16\ 18Dissertations on the English Language,

105Do:

anaphoric, 272causative 272,empty, 273inlcrroj-jtive, 28Jnegative, 279

Domesday survey, 69DutitT Francois, 7fiDouble letters, 316,331-32, 362-63,

364Double negative, 96, 2SD-81Dowes. Henry, 93Dravidian, bo now ings from, 102Dream, of the Rood, 170Drift, 188-92

causes of, 190Dryden, John, 34SDuctor in Lingttas, I &4Dutch, 22, 45. 4S, &*

borj'owinps frarci, 101

Eadwig, 59Early Modern English:

development of social dtaiecls, 92-94extertiallti$tory( 92-110grammar at 247, 24% 250-51.252,

262-65, 273-74, 280-S1.2B4-85

phonology tif, 342-52East Anpiia, 55.5u.5SEast. Germanic, 48East Midlands:

dialed. 64, 69, 86economic growth оГ. 69emigration from, 69

Eastern New England, 103, 358Echoic words, 120. 142-44

, 59

Athelin{|, 6dEdmund Ironside. (i2Edward Г, 71,72, &SEdward 11.71.77Edward 1ГТ, 72,77Edward rhe Oanfessor, 65

Edward the Elder, 59Efik. 360Egypt, 42, 312Egyptian, ИEleanor of Provence, 70Elevalion, 19BElizabeth I, 349Eiyot, Sir Thomas, 93Emma, 65English;

in relaiian to other lajigujtc;^, 4вsee also Early Modern English,

Middle English, Modem English.Old Enslisb, etc.

English Dtctivtutrii.', The, 123English Grammar, 94English Expositor. 164Eiteyttnx, 92Erasmus, 91Essays, i 17Essex, 55, 56Ethandun, Battle erf, 59Ethel red the Rcdefcss, 62, 65Euphemism, 106, 186-87, lS«-203

causes of, 202-203Ewe, 360External history, 6

Faeroese, 4BFalse etymology, 31RFeminine pronouns, 243, 299Fielding. Henry, 170Finnish, 45, 46Finno-Ugric. 46Fit, of sound and spelling, 301FitzStephen, William, 81Flemish. 48

borrowing, 101Folk etymolagy, 192Franklin, Benjamin, 364Fraternitye of Vognbnndcs, 205Freeman, E. A., SOFrench:

attitudes toward, 64, 71-86borrowings, 67, 68, 81-83, 90, 92,

135-36, 149-50, i 61efTect on Modern Enelish, 67-68,

81-83imposition of, 66, 83-86

Frisian, 6, 48borrowingK, 101

Front vowels, 144, 309Function w»rdi, 163Functional Word Order in Old English

Subject-Object Pattern, 254Fufiare, 315

Subject Г rules 41л

Стае] i с, 48Gallic, 4SG eners t i ve grammar: 2 S~29;

Deep structure; Surface structureGender, 23 £-39, 245

and pronouns, 2+3-44Genitive:

group, 252inflected, 234-35, 252-53in Middle English, 252-53jri Modern English, 252-54periphrasis, 253-54in Old English, 234-35

German, 4S. 68Germanic, 48-51, 110, 167Ghana, 107Gill, Alexander, 94, 345, 364Glide, in diphthong, 30?Gla.isograpkia, 165ffiotta], 30SGloltrs, 14Gloucester, 69Gloucester, Duke itf, 77Gothic, 4*, 167Goihs, 50Grammar, 23-32, 215-99

change:adjectives, 357-58adverbs, 190-91. 258impersonal, 289-У0negalive, 280-fllnoun phrase. 245-54questions, 284-86verb phrase, 259-66, 270-74,

280-81, 284- 86, 239-90causes of, 254-56descriptive. 22, 26-28generative, 28-32traditional, 24-26and usage, 28-29, 95-98

Great Seal, 73Great Vowel Shift, 343-48, 354Greek, 45, 68, 91, HO, 167,312, 314

borrowings frum, 92Greene, Robert, 205Grccnough, James, 204Grimm's Law, 320Grosxeicstc. Robert, 79Group genitive, 252Guinea, 107Gullah, ШGypsy, 47

Haardraada, Harold, 66Haitian Creole, 3uOHamito-Semitic, 46Hamlet, 23, 249

Handbook oi rhe Lixguitric Geographyoj New England, J06

Ha::ctfyng Synne, 75Нагтал, Thoinas. 204Harold 11, 6bHart, John, 93,364Hastings, 66Hausa, 360Havetok the Dane, 74Hebrew, 46

borrowings from, 102Hellenic, 47,49Henry 1, 70, K0Нету Н, 70, 7ЯHenry HI, 70, 72, B5Henry LV, 71, 72, 76, 77, 7S, 80, 65. 86Henry V, 71Hermygenes, 42Herodnlns, 91Higden, UatuiLph. 79, 80, 85,93High German, bonowings from, 101High voweli, 144, 309Hindi, 47

borrowing*, (02Illstorhi Eccltsiasika Gentfs Anglorum,

52-53History, Study of, 3-10History of the Norman Co>ti}Ui.'itt S3Hittite, 48Hodges, Richard, 364Holniej. Oliver Wendell. 204Homer, 23,91,204Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 183Horace, 204Hundred Years War, 71Hungarian, 45, 4(5Tfye Waye to she Spyttel House, 205

Icelandic, 4bIdeographs, 3 UImmigration:

into London, 63, 69, 86to the Unired States, 104, 357

Imperative, 266Impersonal, loss of, 289-90Indian !a.njju;ij:es, by rowings from- 102

pcognate words, 44. 45r 46.47, 320culture of, 4fihomeland of. 46—47

In Лес lions, пудт phrase:Los* of, 254-56Middle English, 245-49, 252-56Modern English, 124-25.252-53

case, 234-35, 23JS

416 Subject Indc*

Inflections, noun phrase {coiu.)Modern Fni-lish (com.)

number, 239-41Old English:

Case, 2J 5-38Gender, 238-39Number, 241^2

survivals from Olrf English, 256-57Inflections, vtrb phrase:

Perfect, 260-62Person, 262-65Preterit, 260-62Progressive, 265-66Transformation rules for, 269-74

Information m Those ItVpo W&ddRemove to America, 108

insular script, 315Intensifies, L9O-91Interdental, 30*Internal history, 6

reconstruction in phonology, 321-24Intonation contour, 27, 295-97Intransitive verbs, 215-22Irish, 55Irish Gaelic, 48Irregular verbs, 260-62, 290Italian, 48, 68, 167

borrowings, from, 100Italic 47,4?, 314Ivory Coast, 107

Japanese, 45borrowings from, 102

Jargon, 203Jespersen, Olln, 115loan, 76lohn, King, 70, S3b h n of Salisbury. 73, 143John pf TYevisa. 93Johnson, Samuel, 95,97, 150, 165,

206, 364dictionary, 95,97, 165spelling, 364usage. 95,97, 165

Jones, Daniel. 367Julius. Caesar, 51,91Julius Caesar, 16?Jutts, Si, 54lutish, 6Juvenal, 204

Kenriclt, William, 165Kent. 53,54, 55,56, 63

Christ^nization of, 56place names. 54

Kentish, 55

Kinesics, 163Kingston, Rkbart), 76Kinship vocabulary:

Modern English, 34, 35Old English, 60

Killretlge, George, 204Knighthood, 80, 85

Labio-denlal, ЗОВLanguage:

change, 36-39evolution o(, 11-20design features of, 15-16description of, 20-32and meaning, 32-36and ihyught, 32-35, 160-61see alsu Bee; Primate

Laryn*, 14Lateral, ЗОВLatin. 11, 12, 20,22, 24, 25,44,45, 48,

.10, 67, 6B, 71, 72, 73, «7, 97, U0,115, 167,312

borrowings from, 50, 57, 67, 87, Пprestige of, 11, 12, 2(1, 24h25, &7-S9,

?1^2,95, 138writing, 314

Laynmon, 74Lrxendof Good Women. The, 297Letters Patent, 72, 73Lettish, 47Lexical field: *ee Semantic fieldLexicon, durability of, 41, J3Liberia, 107Life of Fisher, Tiff, 342I.ily. William. 343Limb ic system, 14Lincoln, <59Lingua franca, 107Lithuanian, 47T.ivy,91Loan translations, 116Loan words: nee Borrowing

fca, 94

Lombards, 50London, 69, 70, S J

dialect of, S6, &2, 105, 344-45, 357history of, 63-64

Long consonants, 331Long vowels, [44, 309

Early Modern English, 343-48Middle English, 336-40Modern English, 311Old English, 325-27

Low (Tierman, 45horrowines from, 101

Low vowels, H47309

Subject Index 417

Lowth, Bishop Robert, $$t 91, 281Lungs, ] 4Luther, Martin, 91

Macbeth, 135. 169, 353Magna Cam, 70Malay-Polynesian, borrowings

from, 102Manx, 4SMarker, in spelling, 316Meaning, 32-36, 15Э-Ш

as categories, 33, 155change of, 170-211defined,32-33and dictionary, 53-35, 164-67as distribution, 156encyclopedic, Ш-Я5global, IS Ias Image, 156linguistic 1&2-85in linguistics, 156as mediation, 202in neurology, 32in phiiosophy, 33, 156in psychology, 32, 154-55, 202-203radiation of, 171rcconstruction of, 164-70and semantic differential, 155-56semantic features, 34, 156-59, 171,

174as stimulus-response, 155structure of,33, 34, J 5t>-59, 161-64theories of, 32-33, 154-59as truth condition, 156as warJ association, 156

Men, pejorative names for, 197Mercers Guild, 72Mereliant of Venice, The, 24?Merda, 53, 55,56,59, 63, 64Mercian, 56, 64Metaphor, 170, 176-35

causes for, 179-82as euphemism, 201and slang, 2Q4-207structure of, ] 7 —83

Method?, 93Metonymy, 1EBMid voxels, 144, 309Middle Enqlish;

dialects, 245-17, 263-65external history of, 65-90grammar of, 245^8, 251-58,

263-66. 271, 27^-73, 2SO-SI,2S4-35

plionology Of, 335-4^Midlands:

from, 46. 247

Midlands (cant.)wealth of, 55

Miihiuiimer Night's Dream, A, 30Milton, John, 5Minsheu, John, 164, 165Mistakes, as meaning cbanit, 193

spelling, 321-23Modal verbs, 2Ы-ПModern English:

dialects, 103-109,357-61external history of, 91-110grammar of, 120-39, 151, 215-27

229-30, 233^5, 249-50, 252,256-57, 259-70, 274-77,27 8~S0, 281-84

phonology of, 306-12, 357-бвMorville, Helewisia deh 78Morvffle, Hu^e Jc, 7SMuJcasler, Richard, 364Murray, Gilbert. 367

Names:Norman, SOwords from, 136-38

NanocephaLic dwarf, 13Narrowing, 170-75

causes of, 17.1-7 \>Tasal, ЪШNative inheritance, 119Negation:

change of, 2Я5double, 96, 280-81Middle FnpMsh, 2Я0-8!Modem English. 27E-30Old English, 2S0-81

New and Complete Dictionary of theEnglish Language, Thr, J66

New Dictionary, 165.V4>H.' Wotidol Words. 165New York Review oi Books, !79Non-vocalic sounds, 307Norman Conquest, 63-66

demographic соп$ео.испсе.ч of. 68-69, 84

Norman French, B3-86adoption of names, 80attitudes toward, 72-SIinfluence on spelling, 315-16use of, 72-SIversus Parisian French, 74, 76, 78,

79, 80Norsemen, 50North Ocrrnanic, 4SSforthern British Dialects:

at fit tides Inward, 92-94influence of, 24S-4S, 265-64, 273, 274

Northhampton, 69

418 Subject Index

Northumbria, 53, 55, 56, 58Northumbrian, 55Norwegian, 48Norwich, 69Noon, 22^-57

compound words, 120-24conversion, 134-36count versus non-count, 226-27,

definition of, 24-25, 27derivation of. 124-132inflection*, 229^*9, 252-54, 254-5Birregular, 257

Noun phrase;transformational rules for, 236-37,

240-41, 252ste also Syntactic changes

Nucleus, of diphthong, 309Number:

Middle English, 245^9Modem English, 239-45, 256О id BngHsfa, 239-45pronouns, 234-35, 238-39, 243-44

Odin, 50Old English:

dialects, 52-56external history, 52-64grammar. 121-23, 125-31, 230-33,

235^5. 25 4-5 6, 260-67, Ш-B1, 2B4, 289-90

origin of, 52-54phonology of, 324-32vocabulary, 43, 50, 54, 57, SB, 61, 160writing, 315-16, 324-25, 327

Oluf, King. 66Old French, 167Old Irish, 167OLd Now, 167Old Prussian, 47Old Slavic, 47Openness, 16, 18Origins, 110Orm, 362Ornmliini, 362-63Orton, Harold, 367

Омап, 4&Overcompeiuation, S4, 149, 346-48, 349Ovid, 9)CM and the Nightingale, The, 74Oxford, 69Oxford, Carl of, 95Oxford English Dictionary. 99, 109.

134, 143h 166,211,215

Paralinguistics, 23, [63Paris, 78, BO, 85. &6

Paris. Matthew, SOPart of speech, defined, ^4-25, 27, 2SParticle, 28G-&S)Passive, 270-74

with progressive, 273-74Past tense, 260Psati, The. 75Peasants' Revolt. 71, 85Pccham. Bishop, 79Pejoration, 19BPeppcrers Guild, 72Perfect, 260,271-74Peripheral speech mechanism, 14-15Persian, 22, 47

borrowings from, 102Person endings, 262-65

Middle English, 263-64Old English, 263-64

Peter borough Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 71Pelronius, 204Peveasty. 6tfPhiiadeiphia, 1(13Pliilip, Kins of France, 70, ЯЗPhillips, Edward, 165Pboeniciaii, 314Phoneme, 303-306Phmesfheme, 147Phonetic distoftion, as c^Lphemism, 203Phonology:

change:in Early Modem English, 342-52in Indo-European, 320-21in Middle English, 335- (2in Oid English, 325-32causes of, 354-57reconstruction of, 31R-24and writing, 316-17

physiology of, 307set also Sound change

Phrygian, 11Pictish, 48Fictographs, 312Picts, 51,52Pidmn languages, 107, 108, 360PfeM Pfowwien, 75r 76Pitch, 295-97Plato, ?Piaudeutsch, borrowing, 101Plautuj, 204Plutarch. 91Poiters, 71Polish, 45, 47Po, 1ychwл icon, 19Pope, Alexander, 323Population, post-1066, 6Я-69, B4Portuguese, 50, 107, 360Preface to Shakespeare, 150

Subject Index 41Э

, history of, 125-2ВPrepositions, 237, 286-89Prescnplmsm, 5*5-96Preterit present verbs, 264Price, Owen, 94Priestly, Joseph, 97Primates:

hmin structure, 13-15language of, 15,17, 38

Printing, 6, 36-36,91,317Privy Seal, 72, 73Progressive, 265, 273-74, 299

with passive, 274Pronouns:

gender, 243-44Middle English, 245^9Modern Fnutish, 234, 23Я-39, 244Old English, 232, 235, 23S-39, 242-

43, 299yvti-lhoti contrast, 249-49

Pronunciation of English in the AtlanticStales, 106

Proposed for Correcting, Improving ttmtAscertaining The EnglLili Tongue,A, 95

Provence, 167ProviiLoriK [>f Oxford, 72Psammetichos, Kin;;, 11Psycho-cultural words, 137, 195Psychology

euphemism, 202-203meaning, 32, 154-55, 202-203

Pultenham, George, 93

Home Dictionary of theEnglish LvngtioRg, The, 69, 99

Rebus, 3)3Reconstruction, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30, 35, 46,

49-5 LOf culture, 43-47, 48, 49-51, 54-55,

57-5», 61, 81-82, 90of meaning, 167-70of phonobsy, 318-24

Relations among languages, 43-4?Restive clauKes, 249-51Rctroflex, ЗОЯReverse spelling, 322, 323, 335, 344, 350Rhymes, evidence from, 322, 323, 345,

3 if-,

Richarel Г, 70, 71, 74Richard П, 11, 76, 77, 80, 85Right Spelling, 94R Libert of Gloucester, 79Roget's Tfxr.wurm, 146, 210Romance languages, 22, 47, 1*7Romance of Richard the Lian-HearUd,

The, 74

Romany, 47borrowings, 102

Roosevelt, Theodore, 367Root creations, 120, 142-47Koot modification, 13?—42Ruiwalsh, 204Royal Society, 94Rudiments of Ertglixh Grammar, The, 97Rule-governed behavior, 119Rumanian, 45, 4BRunes, 315Russian, 45, 47Ruth we II Cross, 315Questions:

Middle English, 2B4-S6Modern English, 281-86Old English, 284-86

5a iL:, Robert L., 2545a[lust, <>lSamson, Abhot, 7BSanskrit, 12, 20, 22, 44, 45 : 46, 47, 320

borrowings, 102Santayana, George, ЛSalem languages, 47—i8Saxons, 52, 53, 54. 63Schtrut for a New Alphabet und Re-

formed Made of Spatting, Л, 363l r , 94

Scots Gaelic, 50Scottish, 55, 167Svaiare, The, 56Semantics:

change, types of, 170-93families, 110features, 34, l5<5-5<>, 171Л74fields:

animals and food, 90color words, 160-61female reference, 136-97kinship, 34, 5%language terms, 38male reference, 197-9Bobscenity, 20Loccupations, 90sensory words, 20^-11

laws:abstract words, 20&color words, 208sensory words, 209-11

replacement. 193structure. 33, 34. 156-55», 161-64

Semiticwritinu, J13—14Semi-vowel, 30SSeneca. 91Scnlac, 66Sensory wo]4ls, development of, 209

420 Subject Index

Sentence:defined, 25, 27parts of, defined, 24, 2.4, 27, 28

Serbo-Croatian, 47Shakespeare, William, 5, 30, 169, 24?,

323, 349, 350, 35 LShaw, George Bernard, 360, 367Sherwood, Robert, 325Shift, 1Я5-8Я

cause* of, 1 -BSeuphemism, 200

Short introduction to English Grammar,A, 95, 281

Short vowels:Early Modern English. 34&-50Middle Bngiiab, 336 J OModern English. 309-10Old English, 324-27

Shorten ins, phrases, 140Shortening, vowels, 336—3SSierra Leone, 107Simplified Spelling Board, 367Sir Gawtdn and rite Grern Knight, 75, 249Ske;U, Walter, 367Slang, 204-207Slang: Yesterday ami Today, 205Slave trade, 107Slavic languages, 22, 47, 4?

borrowings from, 101Slovenian, 47Social dialects: see Dialects, socialSodele de Linguistique de Parts, 12Socrates, 42Sound change:

assimilation, 355causes of, 354—57diuiaiilatien, 355functional load, 354GrsaL Vowel Shift, 343-4В, 354vowel lengtheninB-shortenine, 336-3Etec also Early Modern English, Middle

English, Nfodern Enfiiish, OldEnglish, Phonology

Sound changes in Fngiish:Old English:

/B/ > /ft/, 326/h > /i/, 32*A / > 1Ы - /k/, 328/sk-/ > /s/, 32Я/g/ > /J/, 3J0/a/ > /Г/, 335-36/spirants/ > /voiced/ —

/voiceless/, 330-32/Loft£ conson&nW > /short

tonionants/, ?31-32

'

Sound chunges in ttiglish icon/-)Middle English:

/Jong vowel/ > /short vowel/, 336/short vowel/ > /long vowel/, 337/ i / > / * / , 337/ e / > / a / , 337/u / > S/, 337/ o / > / 5 / , 337/№/'> /»/, 337/a/ > / /, 337/a/ > /ft/, 34В-4УM > A 340[J] > 0. 340LTI > Л 340/i/ > /Ы/, 343^t4/п/ > /эй/, Л43-44/t/ > /I/, 344/О/ > /п/, 344/S/ > /Ё/, Э45-4К/a/ > /*/, 345^18An-/, /gn-/, /hn-/, /hl-/,/hr-/ >

/к-/, /g-ЛЬ-Л 333Early Modfirn English:

/r>i/ > /ai/, 343-J4/im/ > /аи/, 343-44/Ё/ > /I/, 345^tS/3/ > /6/, 344-45/a>/ > /e/, 345--(B/a/ > /S/, 348-49/г/ > /a/. 348-19/N/ > /n/ - /rj/, 350-51/-И + У - / > /z/,351/vowel + r/ > /vowel + 0/, 352

Sound symbolism, 142-47Spenieh. 22, 45, 47, 50, 68, 107

borrowings front, 100Speculum Vitae, 15Spelling 105,312-16

British-American differences, 363-65consistency, 317conventions of established, 315-17Middle Pni-lish vowels, 335mornhogrnphemic, 366-68morphophonemlc, 366-68Old Englkb., 315-16, 324, 326-29,

330-32and pronunciation, 301reform, 362-68

objections to, 365reverse, 322, 323, 335, 344, 350and Noah Webster, 363-64

Spenser, Edmund, J70Spirants, 307si, Augustine, 56, 9)Statutes of Parliament, 73Stephen, Kiflfc 70, SO, R5

Subject Index 421

Stern, Gust;Lf, 20&Stops, ЗО7Stress, 295-99Style:

borrowed words, 61, S7-S9, 99, 106,112-!!, 131-33, 147-50

compounding, В9. 121, 123, 148levels of, 21, 62, 143, 149linguisljc change. 84, 148-49, 324-25set aba Direct, style

Subjunctive, 266Suffixes, 124-33

derivational, 124-33inflecLionai, 124-25

Midttlc English, 245-<7, 252-53,25Я, 262-66

Modern English, 124-25, 227, 233-35, 239-41.258, Z5?-«

Old English, 23 3-45, 258, 25!>-66Л?г iif.Tfl InfleclmnK

Sumerian wriling, 313Sirprasegmenlals, 23, 245-99Surface structure, 31, 215-21Survey of Verb Farms in the Eastern

United States, A, 106Sussex, 55, 56Swahili, 45Swedish, 4^, 4*Swifi, Jonalhiin, 95Syllabic writing, 313Symbol, in spelling. 316

Synesthrtic swirid symbolism, 144Synesthesia, 209-11Syncope, 140Syntadic change, summary of, 290-91Syntactic chunpts:

adjectives, 244^15, 258adverbs, 2-5Sarticles, 22*, 295atuiliury verbs, 270-74comparative, 25Sdirect [jbjrcts, 221-25jenitive, 252-54impersonal verbs, 289-90Joss of dative, 246, 255-56loss of thee, 249negative, 280-S1rrepositional phrasei, 23fl, 252-54,

287-89ргопоиля, 99, 246-49question, 284-S5relative d a u « . 2J9-52subject, 221-25SUperlutive, I^«verb + particle, 2Й7-89

Syntactic changes (cvttl,)word order, major elemenls, 230-33,

254-56you, polite, 24S-49

Tacitus, 91Tag uucsiions, 277Tamil, borrowing, 102Teeth, J4Telej^u, borrowing, 102Terence, 91Thackerv, Williarr, 360Theocritus, 91Thin^, 62.Third person, source of, 263Thur, 50Thuuydides, 91Tibeto-Chinese, borrowings /rum, 102Tocharian, 47Ta»t Jonrs. 170Топкие, 14Traditional grammar:

origin of, 24, 94and prestripiivis[henry of, 24-25

Transfei1, 170,euphemism. 201obst-enily, 201see aha Metaphor

Transforrnalions.: хее Crantmaiicalchange, Syniatiic changes

Transitive verbs, 215-20Trees, grammatical, 218Trees, family of Indo-European

languages, 49Trevisa, John, 80Tryon, Thomas, J70Turkic, borrowings from, J02

'I itrkish, 45Twelfth Night, 24*Twi, 360Two Gentlemen of Verona, The, 249

Ulfilas, Bishop, 48Ulster, migration from, 103, 35&Umbrian, 48U m W l , 257, 294I M I ^ ' :

attitudes towarJ American English,104, 364-65

insecurity, ]()(jlar verbs, 261derivations, 132

reconstruction of, 29See aho nialects, Sficial, Ktylesk, Thomas, 76

422 Subject Index

Vaadtia. JOVelar, 3OfiVenus and Adonis, 330Vert:

causative, 222-26classes, 260-62conversion. 134-36definition of, 24, 26-27impersonal, 289-90inflections, 259-77irttransilive, 2L5-26irregular, 26(1-61partkle, 2K6-S9preieril present, 264transitive. 215-26

Verb phrase:transformation, 220, 223, 231-32, 266,

269-70, 275, 278-E6see alsi> Syntactic changes

Vcrner4 Law, 321Vikings, SO, 51Vilalis, Odericus, 78Vuciibtitary; s?e Borrowing. Native in-

herit u nee. Word formal ionVi'cai Organ, f>4Vocalic siiundv 307Voiced sounds, 30*Voiceleu stmnds, золVoweU:

Early Modern English, 3J3-J0MiJdle Elfish, .1.1.W0Modern tngli^h. 509-12Old En^lish. 324-27

symboJism,p g Middle Eji

Vulgar Latin, 204

Walter of Bibbesworlh, 79Watsdertr, 56IfrtV/fj Health. Thf. 170W;LI Tyler rebellion, 77Webber, NuiLh, 105, 166,364Wtbstei's New World Dictionary ol th

American Language, 99Webster's Second New Intel national

Dictionary, 97, 9«, 9VWc/j.nff;ih,t 77«>f/ Л/гм1 huermiiiotial

Dictionary, 67, 97. 98, 99, 166Wed more. Treaty of, «IWelsh, 4S

borrowings from, ?5Wessex. 55, S6, 58, W, 6!, 64West African l«n£LiaRts, 360

cognate*, 4SWesl Germanic, 6,

cognates. 48

Wesl Saxon, 56, 5S, 63, fi4WMUnimter, 63Whot it History, 5Whitney, W, D., 3*7Widening 170, 175-77

СШй of, 177eupJicmism, 200

Wilkins, John, 364William the Conqueror, 63, 66, 69, 70,

71,78,80William 11,70William of Canterbury, 75William of Mtlmnbury, 92William of Naisyflftoo, 75Willium of Wetimintier, 19Wlocheiter, 63, 6?Witan, 66Women, peforativ* names for. \96Worcester, 69Word families, 110Word formation:

lK, 141-42formiitioa, 13.1-54

Mends. 140^1clipping, [39-40compounding, 120-24tonvcrsion, 134—36derivation, 124-33from names, J36-3Broot crealion, 142-47root codification, 13P—42shortening. 139-40

Word Gtogrnpby of the Eastern UnitedSteles. A, 10*

Word order:change* in, 230-3?major dements, 229-33

Words;disappenrancc of. 43origin of, 42ИС al.it) U[]rrnfwirtj!, Meaning, .Semantic

fields. Word formntioflWordtwortb, William. 323Wreck iij the Dcitl-wMiuvh The, I S3Writing, history of, 312-16

evidente Tfwm, 31Я-24prgstiyc []f, 21ife a ls<? Spel I i nj;

Wyel|(Ге, John, 76

Xcnuphon, 91

Yiddish, 43York. 63, 69Yoruba, 360You, of respect, 2