Lexical System of Middle English.

The sources usually divided into external and internal. Internal ways in development of vocabulary were productive in all historical period Word formation and semantic features were polemic in the creation of the new words and new meaning. They were exceptionally productive in the period of rapid vocabulary growth, such as the renaissance period. The influx of borrowings was directly dependent on the linguistic situation of the country and on the position and role of the foreign language.

The linguistic situation in ME was the most favorable for strong foreign influence. Foreign words were adopted in large numbers in the succeeding periods and their sources because were more diverse. English freely borrowed both from classical and modern sources though at no other kind the immediate effect of the foreign impact was as West men in ME.

The Greater Part of lexical borrowings from old Scandinavian were not recorded until the 13th century. The presence of the Scandinavians in the English population is indicated by a large numbers of place names in the North and east areas. Most frequent are the place names with the Scandinavian components thorp-woodthorp, toft-brimtoft… The fusion if the English and Old Scandinavian settlers progressed rapidly, gradually the Scandinavian dialogs were absorbed by English leaving a profound impression on the vocabulary of the Northern English dialogs. It’s difficult to define the semantic spheres of Scandinavian borrowings They mostly pertain to everyday life and do not differ from native words. Only the earliest lone words deal with military and legal matters and reflect the relations of the people during the Danish rates and rule.

Ex of everyday words of Scand origin-nouns-a bag, a band, crook, egg, sky, aft, adj.- awkward, flat, heavy, verbs- to hit, to cut, to scan, to snag…

Scandinavian words could be the innovation without replacing any other lexical item.

The French language was brought to England with the Norman Conquest. The effect of NC was seen in large numbers of borrowings in ME. At the initial stages French words were restricted to some varieties of English (the speech of aristocracy, middle class, the speech of educated people) Early borrowings were used in literature in translations of French books. Among the earliest borrowings are EME “prison” and EME “ware” The French borrowings are usually described according to semantic spheres. To this day were related to the Government are French by origin (assembly, authority, chamber) Close to this group are words of feudal system, and words indicated titles and nobility(baron, count, duke) A great number of words were adopted in the Eng in order that military matters were new to the English at that period. Many of these words were adopted as judicial words, many words pertain to the church and religion.

 

Билет №8

East-germanic branch

The E-G subgroup was founded by the tribes who returned from Scandinavia at the beginning of our era. The most numerous and powerful of them were Goths. The gothic language (now dead) has been preserved in written records of the 4th and 5th centuries. The Goths were the 1st of the all teutons to become Christian. In the 4th century Ulfilas, a west-gothic bishop, made a translation of the Gospels from Greak into Gothic, using a modified form of the Greak alphabet. Parts of Ulfilus Gospels, a manuscript of about 200 pages, probably made in the 5th or the 6th centuries have been preserved and are kept now in Sweden. It is written on red parchment with silver and golden letters and is known as a Silver Codex (Codex Argenteus). Ulfilus Gospels were first published in the 17th century and have been thoroughly studied by the 19-20 centuries. The other E-G languages, all of which are dead, have left no written traces.

Geoffrey Chaucer

 

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400?) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin.

Chaucer was born circa 1343 in London, though the exact date and location of his birth are not known. His father and grandfather were both London vintners and before that, for several generations, the family members were merchants in Ipswich. His name is derived from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker. In 1324 John Chaucer, Geoffrey's father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the twelve-year-old boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the £250 fine levied suggests that the family was financially secure, upper middle-class, if not in the elite. John married Agnes Copton, who, in 1349, inherited properties including 24 shops in London from her uncle, Hamo de Copton, who is described as the "moneyer" at the Tower of London.

Chaucer's first major work, The Book of the Duchess, was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster (who died in 1369). It is possible that this work was commissioned by her husband John of Gaunt, as he granted Chaucer a £10 annuity on 13 June 1374. This would seem to place the writing of The Book of the Duchess between the years 1369 and 1374. Two other early works by Chaucer were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. Chaucer wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he held the job of customs comptroller for London (1374 to 1386). His Parlement of Foules, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. Also it is believed that he started work on The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s. Chaucer is best known as the writer of The Canterbury Tales, which is a collection of stories told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the cathedral at Canterbury; these tales would help to shape English literature.

The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated by the pilgrims seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators, perhaps as a result of the incomplete state of the work. Chaucer drew on real life for his cast of pilgrims: the innkeeper shares the name of a contemporary keeper of an inn in Southwark, and real-life identities for the Wife of Bath, the Merchant, the Man of Law and the Student have been suggested. The many jobs that Chaucer held in medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administrator—probably exposed him to many of the types of people he depicted in the Tales. He was able to shape their speech and satirize their manners in what was to become popular literature among people of the same types.

Chaucer's works are sometimes grouped into, first a French period, then an Italian period and finally an English period, with Chaucer being influenced by those countries' literatures in turn. Certainly Troilus and Criseyde is a middle period work with its reliance on the forms of Italian poetry, little known in England at the time, but to which Chaucer was probably exposed during his frequent trips abroad on court business. In addition, its use of a classical subject and its elaborate, courtly language sets it apart as one of his most complete and well-formed works. In Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer draws heavily on his source, Boccaccio, and on the late Latin philosopher Boethius.

However, it is The Canterbury Tales, wherein he focuses on English subjects, with bawdy jokes and respected figures often being undercut with humour, that has cemented his reputation.

Chaucer also translated such important works as Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). However, while many scholars maintain that Chaucer did indeed translate part of the text of The Romance of the Rose as Roman de la Rose, others claim that this has been effectively disproved. Many of his other works were very loose translations of, or simply based on, works from continental Europe. It is in this role that Chaucer receives some of his earliest critical praise. Eustache Deschamps wrote a ballade on the great translator and called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385 Thomas Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower, Chaucer's main poetic rival of the time, also lauded him. This reference was later edited out of Gower's Confessio Amantis and it has been suggested by some that this was because of ill feeling between them, but it is likely due simply to stylistic concerns.

One other significant work of Chaucer's is his Treatise on the Astrolabe, possibly for his own son, that describes the form and use of that instrument in detail. Although much of the text may have come from other sources, the treatise indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary talents. Another scientific work discovered in 1952, Equatorie of the Planetis, has similar language and handwriting compared to some considered to be Chaucer's and it continues many of the ideas from the Astrolabe. Furthermore, it is a famous example of early European encryption. The attribution of this work to Chaucer is still uncertain.

 

 

Билет №9

North-germanic branch

The teutons who stayed in Scandinavia after the departure of the Goths, gave rise to the N-G subgroup of languages. The N-G tribes lived on the Southern Coast of the Scandinavian peninsular and in the northern Denmark since the 4th century. The speech of the N-G tribes showed little dialectal variation until the 9th century and is regarded as a sort of common N-G parent language called Old-North or Old-Scandinavian. It came to us in runic inscription objects dated from the 3d to the 9th century. The disintegration of Old-North into separate dialects and languages began after the 9th century when the Scandinavians started out on their sea voyages. The principal linguistic differentiation in Scandinavia corresponded to the political division into Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The three kingdoms couldn’t constantly fight for dominants and the relative position of three languages altered. The earliest written records in old Danish, Norwegian and Swedish date from the 13th century. In the later middle ages with the growth of capitalist relations and the unification of the countries, Danish and then Swedish developed into national literary languages. Norwegian was the last to develop into an independent national language. In addition to these 3 languages the N-G subgroup includes 2 more languages: Icelandic and Faroese. Old Icelandic written records date from the 12th and the 13th century-an age of literary flourishing. The most important records are: the Elder Edda (Poetic Edda), about the 12th century, and the Old Icelandic Sagas.