I I I Областная научно-практической конференции

I I I Областная научно-практической конференции

«Лингвистика в XXI веке»

 

Номинация «Иностранный язык в ХХI веке

Название работы: «Developing and usage of pronoun * thou*

in Old Englishand Modern English languages.»

 

 

Автор работы: Грущина Анна,

ученица 9Г класса, МАОУ Гимназии № 2, г. Балаково,

Саратовской области

Научный руководитель: Шакина Наталья Евгеньевна

учитель английского языка МАОУ Гимназия № 2,

Чуркина Татьяна Николаевна,

Учитель МАОУ Гимназия № 2

 

 

Балаково 2020

 

 

Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….3

Chapter 1. Historical and grammatical features of the old English language…….5

1.1. History of the origin and development of the English language.………...… 5

1.2. Features of the old English language by W. Shakespeare.………………......6

Chapter 2. Sociological aspects of the study of old English language in school ..8

2.1. Analysis of the relevance of learning old English at school ………………..8

2.2 The sociological aspect of learning old English at school. Analysis of the

 relevance of learning old English at school …………………………………….9

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….…11

Reference material……………...………………………………………………..11

Appendices 1-4 ……………………………………………………..…………… 12

Introduction

 

“It’s ashamed to read Shakespeare in translation,

if anyone wants to fully understand him,

because, like all great poets, he is untranslatable

because he is national. You should definitely learn English"

A. Griboyedov

 

Once an English teacher suggested to take part in a poetry contest and learn a favorite sonnet by W. Shakespeare. While reading the original text of the sonnet, I had difficulty in translating old English words and understanding the meaning of the narrative. I asked my teacher for help, and together we began to study the peculiarities of the old English language using the example of W. Shakespeare's sonnets. It was quite difficult for me to make a complete comparative analysis of old English and modern English, we decided to do a study based on comparing the pronouns and endings of some verbs.

Relevance:

· the history of the origin and development of the English language is little studied at school;

· using project materials is useful for students ' self-education;

· an appeal to the works of English literature, which has a certain influence on the formation of students ' personality;

· knowledge of the features of the language at the first stages of its development allows you to trace the development of the language and better understand some of the features of the modern language.

The purpose: to identify the features of the old English language on the example of the work of W. Shakespeare, to acquire skills in working with the original linguistic literature.

Tasks:

1. to study the old English text of the sonnet by W. Shakespeare;

2. to identify the features of the language in this work;

3.  to conduct a study among students to identify interest in the works of V. Shakespeare, the relevance of learning old English in additional lessons.

The subject of research: historical changes of the pronoun " You " and derived endings of some verbs used in the original texts of W. Shakespeare.

The  object of research: the pronoun "You" and its derivatives in a sonnet by W. Shakespeare

The method of research:

1. The comparison;

2. The translation;

3. The analysis and generalization;

4. The survey;

5. The mathematical method of counting the results of the study.

The scientific novelty of the work is to identify historical links between linguistic phenomena in the English language in order to obtain linguistic, geographical, and historical material necessary for reading and translating old English original texts by W. Shakespeare.

 

Chapter 1. Historical and grammatical features of the old English language.

Table 1

Sonet 4

Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend

Upon thyself thy beauty’s legacy?

Nature’s bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,

And being frank she lends to those are free:

Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse

The bounteous largess given thee to give?

Profitless usurer, why dost thou use

So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?

For having traffic with thyself alone,

Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive:

Then how, when Nature calls thee to be gone,

What acceptable audit canst thou leave?

Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee,

Which used lives th’executor to be.

Let's try to analyze the composition using table 2.

Table 2

Chapter 2. Practical part.

2.1. Etymology of pronoun * thou* in Modern English language.

People stopped saying pronoun *thou* several centuries ago. They cancelled

teaching this pronoun to their children at schools, so that, now, we cannot hear this pronoun not only in the everyday life, but also in the whole English culture. We will never hear this pronoun in films, see in the modern poems, we just can hear this word in the theatre, like a joke on a guy, that he is too old fashioned. Nevertheless, there are several exceptions, and I am going to tell about one of them.

Hidetaka Miyazaki, who was born in Shizuoka at 1 January in 1974, is the

Japanese video game director, writer, and producer. Furthermore, he is the president of the game development company FromSoftware. Hideataka joined the company and started working as a game planner at such games, as‘ Dark souls ’ and game ’Bloodborne’, which are popular all over the world. In these games some characters say pronoun * thou*, while addressing to us instead of pronoun * you*. In that case I`ve done a practical work: analyzed dialogues of the characters in these video games and came to the conclusion that the use of old English pronouns makes sense. When we meet one of the most powerful knights he says to us: “Whatever thou art…stay away!” (art – conjugation of the verb *to be*). We can assume, while playing the game, that one of the reasons, why characters are using this pronoun was to show his power, like monarch’s. Other characters of the game do not use the language of the nobles. So, pronoun * thou*, as we see, is widly used in the industry of electronic games. Thus it can be simply used in Modern culture, and develop the language.

Conclusion


 In the course of the research, the works of W. Shakespeare were studied and the features of the use of the pronoun "thou", characteristic of the old English language, were revealed. We learned that compared to modern English, the language of the old English period can be characterized as an artificial language. This means that the old English language had a grammatical structure in which a single word, such as a pronoun, noun, adjective or verb, takes different forms to express the relationship of this word with other words in the sentence. W. Shakespeare independently formed new word forms, which were later fixed in literary speech.

However, we also found that some words, such as the pronoun «thou» can be found in speech at present day: in modern games or theater productions, and even on the streets, if someone wants to show their superiority over others or make a joke. The use of such forms speaks of the person who used them as a noble person. The results of the survey showed that many students who study English want to read Shakespeare in the original. This is an opportunity to learn old English, evaluate its morphological features, and improve your moral and intellectual level. As a result of working on the project, we gained knowledge about the history of the English language, learned to observe certain language phenomena and establish historical connections between them, gained the skill of working with linguistic literature, and increased students ' interest in studying the original English texts of W. Shakespeare.

Reference material

1. Arakin V. D. History of the English language. Moscow, 1985.

2. Big English-Russian dictionary: 2nd edition, corrected and supplemented. - Minsk: Modern writer, 1999, - 1167 p.

3. Ivanova I. P. Chakhoyan L. P. History of the English language. M., 1976.

4. Ilish B. A. History of the English language. M., 1968

5. Dictionary of foreign words.// Edited by Lekhin I. V. and Professor Petrov F. N. Edition 4, revised and supplemented. - Moscow: State publishing house of foreign and national dictionaries, 1954.

6. www.wikipedia.ru

7. http://shakespeare.ouc.ru

8. http://www.openlanguage.ru/anglijskij_jazyk/shakespeare

9. http://www.skypestudy4you.ru/articles/english-shakespearean

Appendix 1

« Celtic alphabet»

Appendix 2

« The map of Great Britain in XI century»

 

Appendix 3

«William Shakespeare»

Appendix 4

« Questionnaire»

1. Your age___________________________________________________________

 

2. Have you ever read the poetry of W.Shakespeare?

- Yes                                       - Now

 

3.  If you have read it, you may have had difficulty pronouncing and understanding old English words? - Yes                                        - No

 

4. How do you understand the meaning of the old English pronoun «thou»?

__________________________________________________________________________

5. Would you like to learn more about old English and try to translate the contents of Shakespeare's sonnets yourself?

- Yes                                        - No

 

 

I I I Областная научно-практической конференции

«Лингвистика в XXI веке»

 

Номинация «Иностранный язык в ХХI веке

Название работы: «Developing and usage of pronoun * thou*

in Old Englishand Modern English languages.»

 

 

Автор работы: Грущина Анна,

ученица 9Г класса, МАОУ Гимназии № 2, г. Балаково,

Саратовской области

Научный руководитель: Шакина Наталья Евгеньевна

учитель английского языка МАОУ Гимназия № 2,

Чуркина Татьяна Николаевна,

Учитель МАОУ Гимназия № 2

 

 

Балаково 2020

 

 

Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….3

Chapter 1. Historical and grammatical features of the old English language…….5

1.1. History of the origin and development of the English language.………...… 5

1.2. Features of the old English language by W. Shakespeare.………………......6

Chapter 2. Sociological aspects of the study of old English language in school ..8

2.1. Analysis of the relevance of learning old English at school ………………..8

2.2 The sociological aspect of learning old English at school. Analysis of the

 relevance of learning old English at school …………………………………….9

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….…11

Reference material……………...………………………………………………..11

Appendices 1-4 ……………………………………………………..…………… 12

Introduction

 

“It’s ashamed to read Shakespeare in translation,

if anyone wants to fully understand him,

because, like all great poets, he is untranslatable

because he is national. You should definitely learn English"

A. Griboyedov

 

Once an English teacher suggested to take part in a poetry contest and learn a favorite sonnet by W. Shakespeare. While reading the original text of the sonnet, I had difficulty in translating old English words and understanding the meaning of the narrative. I asked my teacher for help, and together we began to study the peculiarities of the old English language using the example of W. Shakespeare's sonnets. It was quite difficult for me to make a complete comparative analysis of old English and modern English, we decided to do a study based on comparing the pronouns and endings of some verbs.

Relevance:

· the history of the origin and development of the English language is little studied at school;

· using project materials is useful for students ' self-education;

· an appeal to the works of English literature, which has a certain influence on the formation of students ' personality;

· knowledge of the features of the language at the first stages of its development allows you to trace the development of the language and better understand some of the features of the modern language.

The purpose: to identify the features of the old English language on the example of the work of W. Shakespeare, to acquire skills in working with the original linguistic literature.

Tasks:

1. to study the old English text of the sonnet by W. Shakespeare;

2. to identify the features of the language in this work;

3.  to conduct a study among students to identify interest in the works of V. Shakespeare, the relevance of learning old English in additional lessons.

The subject of research: historical changes of the pronoun " You " and derived endings of some verbs used in the original texts of W. Shakespeare.

The  object of research: the pronoun "You" and its derivatives in a sonnet by W. Shakespeare

The method of research:

1. The comparison;

2. The translation;

3. The analysis and generalization;

4. The survey;

5. The mathematical method of counting the results of the study.

The scientific novelty of the work is to identify historical links between linguistic phenomena in the English language in order to obtain linguistic, geographical, and historical material necessary for reading and translating old English original texts by W. Shakespeare.