The evolution of English syntax was tied up with profound changes in morphology; the decline of the inflectional system was accompanied by the growth of the functional load of syntactic means of word connection. The most obvious difference between OE syntax and the syntax of the ME and NE periods is that the word order became more strict and the use of prepositions more extensive. The growth of the literary forms of the language, the literary flourishing in Late ME and especially in the age of the Renaissance, the differentiation of literary styles and the efforts made by 18th c. scholars to develop a logical, elegant style — all contributed to the improvement and perfection of English syntax.
The structure of the sentence and the word phrase, on the one hand, became more complicated, on the other hand — were stabilised and standardised.
The Phrase. Noun, Adjective and Verb Patterns. I n Early ME while the nominal parts of speech were losing most of their grammatical distinctions, the structure of the main word phrases —. with nouns, adjectives, and verbs as head-words was considerably altered.
In OE the dependent components of noun patterns agreed with the noun in case, number and gender, if they were expressed by adjectives, adjective-pronouns or participles. If expressed by nouns, they either agreed with the head-noun in case and number (nouns in apposition) or had the form of the Gen. case.
By Late ME agreement in noun patterns had practically disappeared, except for some instances of agreement in number. Formal markers of number had been preserved in nouns, demonstrative pronouns and some survivals of the strong declension of adjectives; most adjectives and adjectivised participles had lost number inflections by the age of Chaucer; cf. a few phrases from Chaucer:
sg:... this holy mayden... that requeste
p1: These wodes eek recoveren grene. (‘These woods become green again.’)
as thise clerkes seyn (‘as these learned men say’)
A good man was ther of religioun. (‘There was a good man, a priest.’);
Goode men, herkneth everych on! (‘Good men, listen!) but far more often there was no agreement in number:
his woundes newe, the same ship, strange place, straunge strondes, etc. (‘his new wounds,’ ‘the same ship’, ‘strange place’, ‘strange strands.’)
The last traces of agreement in adjectives were lost in the 15th c. when the inflection -e was dropped; only the demonstrative pronouns, the indefinite article and nouns in apposition indicated the number of the head-word, like in Mod E. When the adjective had lost its forms of agreement, its relationships with the noun were shown by its position; it was placed before the noun, or between the noun and its determiners (articles and pronouns). Sometimes in Late ME the adjective stood in post-position, which can be attributed to the influence of French syntax (in French the adjective was placed after the noun), e. g.: Brother dere; cares colde; woundes neuje. (Chaucer) (Relics of this practice are now found as some modern set phrases such as court martial, time immemorial.)
A noun used attributively had the form of the Gen. case or was joined to the head-noun by a preposition. In Chaucer’s time the use of -‘s-Gen. was less restricted than in Mod E, so that inanimate nouns commonly occurred as inflectional Gen. in a noun pattern: fadres sone ‘father’s son’, seintes lore ‘saint’s lore’, every shires ende ‘end of every shire’. Yet the use of prepositions had certainly become more extensive: the sergeaunts of the toun of Rome ‘the officials of the town of Rome’, men of armes ‘men of arms’, etc.
In the age of the literary Renaissance, the noun patterns became fixed syntactic frames in which every position had a specific functional significance. The attribute in pre-position was enclosed between the determiner and the head-word; hence every word occupying this position was an attribute. This is evidenced by the wide use of nouns as attributes in noun patterns at the time of Shakespeare, an age famous for its unconventional handling of parts of speech, e. g.:
Jog on, jog on. the footpath way; the darling buds of May; the master mistress of my passion; rascal counters. (Shakespeare) The standardised frame of the noun pattern is also confirmed by the fact that the position of the head noun could not be left vacant — it was at that time that the indefinite pronoun one and the demonstrative thci began to be used as the so-called “prop-words”, e. g.:
A barren-spirited fellow, one that feeds
On abject orts and imitations.. (Shakespeare)
With the growth of the written language noun patterns became more varied and more extended. Attributes to nouns could contain prepositional phrases with otherattributes:
For drunkennesse is verray sepulture
Of mannes wit and his discrecioun. (Chaucer)
(‘For drunkenness is the burying (lit. “sepulture”) of man’s wit and his discretion.’)
In Early NE noun patterns began to include syntactic complexes:
predicative constructions with the Gerund and the Infinitive (see 541 ff). § 531. In ME and Early NE adjective patterns, as before, included a
variety of dependent components. Adjectives were commonly modified by adverbs, e. g.:
He was a verray parfit gentil knyght. (Chaucer)
(‘He was a very perfect noble knight.’)
The main difference from the preceding ages lay in the ways of connection between the adjective and the nouns or noun-pronouns used as dependent components of the pattern. In OE an adjective could take an object in the Dat. or Gen. case (with or without prepositions); in ME these objects were replaced by the Comm. case usually preceded by a preposition, e. g.: with face pale of hewe; so harde of his herte; amyable of port; unlyk to my dede;.. discreet in alle his wordes and dedes; so patient unto a man. (Chaucer) (‘with a pale face; hard-hearted; amiable in behaviour, unlike my deed; discreet in all his words and deeds; so patient to a man’).
Some adjectives, especially the most frequent ones, displayed great vacillation in the choice of prepositions. For instance, in the 14th c. fair and good occur with the prepositions of, in, to, at, by.
The adjective freely combined with the Infinitive since the earliest periods. Examples from Chaucer are: redy for to ryde ‘ready to ride’; I am free to wedde ‘I am free to marry’; A manly man, to been an abbot able ‘a manly man, able to be an abbot’.
The use of adjectives with the -ing-form was more restricted; in later periods it increased steadily as the gerund and gerundial complexes began to replace the Infinitive in adjective phrases, e. g.;
measurable in looking and in berunge (Chaucer)
(‘moderate in appearance and behaviour’ (lit. “looking and bearing”)
But yet her portion is worth your taking notice, Master Aimwell. (Shirley, early 17thc.)
The history of the verb pattern embraced a number of important changes and developments.
In some respects verb patterns became more uniform. In OE the verb could take various objects and adverbial modifiers expressed by the oblique cases of nouns. In ME the oblique cases were replaced by the Comm. case (or the Obj. case of pronouns), with — or without prepositions. Even though the inflectional -‘s-Gen. survived, it was no longer used in verb patterns (it occurred in attributive function only). The use of prepositions in verb patterns grew, and so did the number of transitive verbs which took an object without a preposition. The following quotations from Chaucer’s poems show the replacement of the oblique cases: by the Comm. case of nouns and the Obj. case of pronouns:
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke
(‘Who has helped them when they were ill’ — OE helpan took an object in the Dat. case)
And first to Cecilie, as I understonde,
He yaf that one
(‘And first he gave that one (rose) to Cecily’ — the objects correspond to the OE Dat. and Ace. cases.) After her deeth ful ofte may she wayte. (‘She often waited for death’ — the corresponding OE verb bidan governed the Gen. case.)
At nyght were come into that hostelrye
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye...
(‘At night came into that inn a company of twenty-nine’ the respective OE form was nihtes — the Gen. case in an adverbial function.)
In a tabard he rood upon a mere.
(‘He rode upon a mare in a long coat’ — OE mearum ridan ‘ride a horse’ with a noun in the Dat. case;)
Throughout ME and Early NE the use of prepositions displayed great fluctuation. Many verbs were used with a variety of prepositions until the age of prescriptive grammars and dictionaries, and some verbs
a long time after. During the NE period the size and complexity of verb patterns grew, as the verbs came to be extended by noun patterns of more complicated structure, by Infin. phrases and predicative constructions with diverse components. An important change took place in the patterns of numerous verbs termed “impersonal” or “quasi-impersonal”. These verbs indicated a state or feeling, e. g. OE lician ‘ please’ (NE like), OE lystan ‘desire’, OE zescomian (NE shame ), Early ME wanien, semen (NE want, seem). Originally most of these verbs took two objects: one — to indicate the person who experienced the state or feeling, the other — to show its cause, e. g. OE him ne hlyste nUnes metes ‘he did not want any food’; the cause, or object of the feeling could sometimes be shown by the subject of the sentence — in the Nom. case: wife a word wet ticodon ‘those words pleased that woman well’.
In Late ME these “impersonal” constructions were transformed into “personal” in which the relationships were reversed: the subject indicated the person affected by the feeling or state, the object — the direction or cause of the feeling. The change can be described as the transition of the type me liketh into I like.
The following examples from Chaucer show the variation stage of the change — the parallel use of both types of construction with the same verb: so sore longeth me
To eten of the smale peres grene.
(‘So badly I long to eat some of these small green pears.’)
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.
(‘Then folks long to go on pilgrimages.’)
My God, me metie I was in swich meschief
(‘My God, I dreamed I was in such grief.’)
And eek I seyde, 1 mette of him al night
(‘And also I said I dreamt of him all night’.)
This man mette in his bed, ther as he lay...
(‘This man dreamt in his bed, where he lay.’)
The two parallel syntactic constructions—me longeth/I long, me mette/I were used in free variation as synonyms or syntactic variants. Eventually the second variant (the “personal” construction) prevailed with most of the verns. The selection of this variant and the obsolescence of the impersonal type was determined by morphological and syntactic factors. The loss of inflectional endings in nouns made it impossible to distinguish between the subject and object in such instances as this man(e) mette (the last example). Syntactic ambiguity stimulated the appearance of the I like type, for man was more readily associated with the Nom. case of pronouns than with the Obj. case. It must have been interpreted as the subject of the sentence not only owing to the lack of inflectional endings but also due to its position before the verb-predicate, which by that time was becom in the normal place of the subject. The type me likes fell into disuse, being replaced by the type man liketh and I like. Mod E meseems and met hinks are relics of the old construction.
Some verb phrases merged into single grammatical or lexical units and in this sense were “simplified”. As shown in the preceding paragraphs verb phrases consisting of a finite and a non-finite verb turned into analytical forms, thus passing from the level of syntax to that of morphology. Verb phrases consisting of verbs and adverbs — which modified or specified the meaning of the verb — formed lexical units known as “composite verbs” or “verb-adverb combinations” (this process made up for the loss of many OE verb prefixes). Likewise, many verb phrases became inseparable “group-verbs” or phraseological units, e. g. mahen melodie (‘sing’) in Chaucer and have mind upon your health, have war, have business, etc. in Shakespeare.
The Simple Sentence. In the course of history the structure of the simple sentence in many respects became more orderly and more uniform. Yet, at the same time it grew complicated as the sentence came to include more extended and complex parts: longer attributive groups, diverse subjects and predicates and numerous predicative constructions (syntactic complexes).
In OE the ties between the words in the sentence were shown mainly by means of government and agreement, with the help of numerous inflections. In ME and Early NE, with most of the inflectional endings levelled or dropped, the relationships between the parts of the sentence were shown by their relative position, environment, semantic ties, prepositions, and by a more rigid syntactic structure.
Every place in the sentence came to be associated with a certain syntactic function: in the new structure of the sentence syntactic functions were determined by position, and no position could remain vacant. This is evidenced by the obligatory use of the subject. For instance, in OE the formal subject, expressed by the pronoun hit, was used only in some types of impersonal sentences, namely those indicating weather phenomena. In ME the subject it occurs in all types of impersonal sentences, e. g.
For it reynyd almoste euery othir day. (Brut)
(‘For it rained almost every other day.’)
Of his faishede it dulleth me to ryme. (Chaucer)
(‘Of his falsehood it annoys me to speak.’)
The use of the verb-substitute do, as well as the use of auxiliary and modal verbs without the notional verb proves that the position of the predicate could not be vacant either. This is evident in short answers and other statements with the notional verb left out, e. g.:
Helpeth me now, as I dyde yow whileer. (Chaucer)
(‘Help me now as I did (help) you formerly.’) Stand! So I do, against my will... Is Guilliams with the packet gone? He is, my lord, an hour ago. (Shakespeare)
As compared with OE the subject of the sentence became more varied in meaning, as well as in the forms of expression. We have already mentioned the increased use of the formal subject it. Due to the growth of new verb forms the subject could now denote not only the agent or a thing characterised by a certain property, but also the recipient of an action or the “passive” subject of a state and feeling.
The predicate had likewise become more varied in form and meaning. The simple predicate could be expressed by compound forms which indicated multiple new meanings and subtle semantic distinctions, lacking in OE verb forms or expressed formerly by contextual means.
Though some types of compound predicates had turned into simple
— as the verb phrases developed into analytical forms — the compound predicate could express a variety of meanings with the help of numerous new link-verbs and more extended and complex predicatives. ME witnessed a remarkable growth of link-verbs: about 80 verbs occur as copulas in texts between the 15th and 18th c. In a way the new link- verbs made up for the loss of some OE prefixes and compound verbs which denoted the growth of a quality or the transition into a state, e. g.:
And tho it drewe nere Cristenesse. (Brut)
(‘And though it drew near Christmas’, ‘Christmas was coming’)
Cecilie cam, whan it was woxen night... (‘Cecily came when it was night...’)
as me best thinketh (Chaucer) (‘as it seems best to me’)
It fa11ef pro fyte to summe men to be bounde to a stake. (Wyklif) (‘It appears good for some men to be bound to a stake.’)
A murd’rous guilt shows not itself more soon Than love that would seem hid...
The rose looks fair... (Shakespeare).
The structure of the predicative became more complex: it could include various prepositional phrases and diverse attributes, e. g.:
Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse. (Chaucer)
(‘He was twenty years old, I guess.’)
That’s a deep story of a deeper love;
For he was more than over shoes in love. (Shakespeare)
The compound verbal predicate in ME was characterised by a wider use of modal phrases and verbs of aspective meaning, e. g.:
No, though I seye, I nam nat lief to gabbe. (Chaucer)
(‘No, though I say I am not inclined to gabble.’) Most frequent in Chaucer’s works was a verb phrase of aspective meaning gan plus Inf. (NE begin):
He stired the coles til relente gan the wex.
(‘He stirred the coals till the wax began to melt.’)
One of the peculiar features of the CE sentence was multiple negation. The use of several negative particles and forms continued throughout the ME period, e. g.:
Ne bryng nat every man into thyn hous. (Chaucer) (‘Don’t bring every man into your house.’)
(-ne- is a negative particle used with verbs, nat another negative particle)
No berd hadde he, ne nevere sholde have. (Chaucer) (‘He had no beard, and never would have one.’)
See also the example: No, though I seye, I nam nat lief to gabbe above where nam is made up of the negative particle ne and am. In Shakespeare’s time the use of negations is variable: the sentence could contain one or more means of expressing negation. Cf.:
So is it not with me as with that Muse
Good madam, hear me speak,
And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come, Taint the condition of this present hour... (Shakespeare)
Gradually double negation went out of use. In the age of Correctness
— the normalising 18th c. when the scholars tried to improve and perfect the language, multiple negation was banned as illogical: it was believed that one negation eliminated the other like two minuses in mathematics and the resulting meaning would be affirmative. These logical restrictions on the use of negations became a strict rule of English grammar.
Word Order. In ME and Early NE the order of words in the sentence underwent noticeable changes: it has become fixed and direct: subject plus predicate plus object (S+P+O) or subject plus the notional part of the predicate (the latter type was used mainly in questions).
Stabilisation of the word order was a slow process, which took many hundreds of years: from Early ME until the 16th or 17th c. The fixation of the word order proceeded together with reduction and loss of inflectional endings, the two developments being intertwined; though syntactic changes were less intensive and less rapid. They may have been delayed by the break in the written tradition after the Norman conquest and by the general unsettling of the grammatical system during the Early ME dialectal divergence, whereas morphological changes may have been intensified for these very reasons.
Though the word order in Late ME may appear relatively free, several facts testify to its growing stability. The practice of placing the verb-predicate at the end of a subordinate clause had been abandoned, so was the type of word order with the object placed between the Subject and the Predicate (see OE examples). The place before the Predicate belonged to the Subject, which is confirmed by the prevalence of this word order in prosaic texts and also, indirectly, by the transition of the “impersonal” constructions into “personal”: as shown above, in the pattern the mann(e) liketh the noun was understood as the Subject, though originally it was an Object in the Dat. case (cf. him liketh,).
In the 17th and 18th c. the order of words in the sentence was generaUy determined by the same rules as operate in English today. The fixed, direct word order prevailed in statements, unless inversion was required for communicative purposes or for emphasis, e. g.: Now comes in the sweetest morsel in the night... These numbers wilt I tear and write in prose. (Shakespeare).
The order of the Subject and Predicate remained direct in sentences beginning with an adverbial modifier:
then the two bears will not bite one another when they meet. (In OE an initial adverbial modifier required an inverted word order — P+S)
In questions the word order was partially inverted — unless the question referred to the subject group. The analytical forms of the verb and the use of the do-periphrasis instead of simple forms made it possible to place the notional part of the Predicate after the Subject even with simple Predicate. Cf.:
Are they good?... Can you make no use of your discontent? …Who comes here?... Lady, will you walk about with your friend? … Did he never make you laugh? (Shakespeare) Occasionally we find simple verb forms in questions placed before the Subject: Which way looks he?... How came you to this? Full inversion in questions is more common with Shakespeare than with later authors.
Predicative Constructions. One of the most important developments in Late ME and Early NE syntax was the growth of predicative constructions. Predicative constructions date from the OE period, when Dat. Absolute was used in translations from Latin and the Acc. with the Inf. — in original English texts; the latter construction occurred only with verbs of physical perception; a short time later a new type of construction appeared after verbs of physical perception: the Acc. with Part I.
In Late ME and in Early NE the Acc. with the Inf. and the Acc. with the Part. came to be used with an increasing number of verbs of various meanings. New types of predicative constructions appeared in Late ME and Early NE texts: the Nom. with the ml. and with Participles I, II (also known as Subjective predicative constructions), the Nom. Absolute construction and the Absolute construction with prepositions, and, finally, the for-phrase with the Inf. and the Gerundial construction.
The following quotations from Early NE texts exemplify various predicative constructions: Objective Predicative Constructions (“Complex Object”)
I would desire you to draw your knife and grave your name. (Dekker)
When the Noble Caesar saw him stab;... and bid them speak for me;
…mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war. (Shakespeare)
Subjective predicative construction (“Complex Subject”)
Although he were adjudged, in the court of Rome, to have forfeeted, all the right which he had to his Kingdome... (Holinshed)
He was reported to be a very uncontended person. (Puttenham)
Absolute constructions
My flesh being troubled, my heart doth hear the spear. (Wyatt)
… and, after that dede done, ther was no more money yoven us. (Paston Letters)
…and with hym mette a shippe callyd Nicolas of the Towre, with other shippis way ting on him. (Paston Letters)
(The Absolute construction could at first be introduced by various prepositions; later with was standardised.)
Gerundial complexes
… the very next day after his coming home departed out of this world to receive his reward in the Spiritual court of Heaven. (Dekker).
For-phrase with the Infinitive
The descriptions whereof were too long for mee to write, and you to read. (Dekker)
The advantage of the for-phrase and the Gerundial construction over other predicative constructions was that they were less restricted syntactically: they could be employed in various syntactic functions.
All predicative constructions were formed according to a single pattern: they consisted of a nominal element indicating the agent or subject of an action or state and a non-finite form denoting this action. When relationships between the component parts of predicative constructions were firmly established, the second element began to be expressed by nominal parts of speech without the help of verbals, e.g. adjectives and nouns:
…and you shall not sin
If you do say we think him over-proud and under-honest. (Shakespeare) ….came the Emperour... from huntyng, the Dophin on his ryght hand, the Duke of Orleans on the lyfft. (Fabian)
Though all predicative constructions are based on a uniform underlying pattern, they have developed from different sources: from verb patterns with direct and prepositional objects followed by an infinitive or a participle, noun patterns with participles used as attributes, verbal nouns modified by possessive pronouns or nouns, elliptical infinitive sentences. Some scholars believe that predicative constructions. in English arose under the influence of Latin and that they should be regarded as direct borrowings from Latin (M. Callaway). Though predicative constructions were frequently used in translations from Latin at all historical periods, there seems to be no doubt of their native origin. The earliest instances of the Ace. with the Inf. are found in BEOWULF, an original OE epic; as mentioned above they were first used after verbs of physical perception and were soon extended to other verbs, while the Inf. began to alternate with Part.I.
In Late ME and Early NE predicative constructions of different types were commonly used both in translations and in original texts. In the age of the Literary Renaissance many works were translated from Latin into English it has been found that predicative constructions, especially the Objective predicative and the Absolute construction were more frequent in translations from Latin than in original prose. Since their frequency continued to grow in later ages it seems probable that the literal translation of Latin constructions played a certain role in their further growth; it is also probable that some of the more complicated patterns with the passive forms of the verbals — appeared as direct replicas of Latin constructions. With the exception of these aspects, neither the origin of the constructions nor their growth in NE can be attributed to foreign influence. Their growing productivity in the NE period is part of the development towards more complicated syntactic structures in the written forms of the language in the ages of Literary efflorescence.
Compound and Complex Sentences. The growth of the written forms of English, and the advance of literature in Late ME and Early NE manifested itself, among other changes, in the further development of the compound and complex sentence. Differentiation between the two types became more evident, the use of connectives — more precise. The diversity of sentence structures in Late ME and Early NE reveals considerable freedom in the nature and use of clauses. The flexibility of sentence patterns and the variable use of connectives were subjected to new constraints and regulations in the period of normalisation.
The complicated hierarchical structure of the sentence in Late ME and also correlation of connectives inherited from OF is illustrated by the opening stanza of Chaucer’s CANTERBURY TALE.The poem begins with an adverbial clause of time introduced by whan that: the interrogative adverb whan (‘when’) is accompanied by the conjunction that, the two words together being used as a conjunction; another adverbial clause of time whan Zephirus... goes on for two and a half lines, then two temporal clauses are joined by and, and two more clauses are inserted an attributive clause beginning with That slepen... and a parenthetical clause; then, finally, the principal clause begins with the adverb thanne which correlates with whan that and whan in the first and fifth lines.
Many new conjunctions and other connective words appeared during the ME period: both...txnd, a coordinating conjunction, was made up of a borrowed Scandinavian dual adjective bath and the native and; because, a subordinating conjunction, was a hybrid consisting of the native English preposition by and a borrowed Latin noun, cause (by+cause ‘for the reason’); numerous connectives developed from adverbs and pronouns — who, what, which, where, whose, how, why. These connectives sometimes occurred in combination with that (like whan that in the above quotation from Chaucer), which probably served to show that the former pronouns and adverbs were employed in a new, connective, function.
The following examples from Chaucer’s works illustrate various types.of subordinate clauses in ME and some of the connectives used to join the clauses, especially the polyfunctional that:
Subject and object clauses:
And notified is thurghout the toun
That every wight, with greet devocioun,
Sholde preyen Crist that he this manage
Receyve in gree, and spede this viage.
(‘And it is notified throughout the town that every man should pray to Christ with great devotion that he receive this marriage favourably and make the voyage successful.’)
An attributive clause joined by that and which correlated with thilke (‘such’):
A knyght ther was and that a worthy man
That fro the tyme that he first bigan
To riden out, he loved chivalrie...
(‘There was a knight and he was a worthy man, that from the time he first began to ride out (as a knight.’)
That oon of hem was blynd and myghte nat see,
But it were with thi Ike exen of his mynde
With whiche men seen, after that they been blynde.
(‘That one of them was blind and could not see except with such eyes of his mind, with which men see after they get blind.’)
An adverbial clause of result joined by so... that:
And so ferforth she gan oure lay declare
That she the constable, er that it was eve
Converted, and on Crist made hym bileve. (‘Then they saw there such difficulty in it for the reason, to speak plainly, because there was so much difference between their two laws...’)
In the l6th-l7th c. the structure of the sentence became more complicated, which is natural to expect in a language with a growing and flourishing literature. The following passage from a prose romance by Philip Sidney, one of the best authors of the Literary Renaissance, shows the complex structure of the sentence:
“But then, Demagoras assuring himselfe, that now Parthenia was her owne, she would never be his, and receiving as much by her owne determinate answere, not more desiring his owne happines, then envying Argalus, whom he saw with narrow eyes, even ready to enjoy the perfection of his desires; strengthening his conceite with all the mischie vou counsels which disdayned love, and envious pride could geve unto him; the wicked wretch (taking a time that Argalus was gone to his countrie, to fetch some of his principal frendes to honour the manage, which Parthenia had most joyfully consented unto), the wicked Demagoras (I say) desiring to speake with her, with ummercifull force, (her weake arms in vaine resisting) rubd all over her face a most horrible poyson: the effect whereof was such, that never leaper lookt more ugly than she did: which done, having his men and horses ready, departed away in spite of her servants, as redy to revenge as they could be, in such an unexpected mischiefe.”
The structure of the sentence was further perfected in the 18th and 19th c. It suffices to say that from the 15th to 18th c. the number of coordinating connectives was almost doubled. As before, most conspicuous was the frequent use of and, a conjunction of a most general meaning; other conjunctions widened their meanings and new connectives arose from various sources to express the subtle semantic relationships between clauses and sentences, e. g. in consequence, in fact, to condude, neither...nor. In the Age of Correctness the employment of connectives, as well as the structure of the sentence, was subjected to logical regulation in the writings of the best stylists: J. Dryden, S. Johnson, R. Steele, J. Addison, J. Swift, D. Defoe, and others. Their style combined a clear order with ease and flexibility of expression, which manifested itself in the choice of words, grammatical forms and syntactic patterns.
The concern of 18th c. men-of-letters with language matters is illustrated by the debate about the use of relative pronouns. In 1711 R. Steele, one of the editors of the first English newspapers, published a letter entitled “The Humble Petition of Who and Which”, in which he claimed that the upstart that was ousting the older wh-forms. He was wrong in asserting that who and which as relative pronouns were older than thai: that was common as a relative (also as a conjunctive) pronoun since the earliest periods of history, while who and which — originally interrogative — turned into relative pronouns at a far later date — probably in ME.
R. Steele objected vehemently to the use of which in reference to human beings and suggested that the use of that should be restricted. Other authors, who took part in the debate, agreed that a strict distinction should be made between
who and which, and argued that whose was the Gen. of who but not of which. It is noteworthy that the editors of Shakespeare’s plays in the 18th c. (Rowe, Pope) made many “corrections” of the forms of pronouns: they corrected who and what to which with an inanimate antecedent, emended who to whom as an interrogative and relative pronoun in the function of object.’ In this way they attempted to improve English syntax-— in line with the general tendency of 18th c. normalisators to make the language more logical and correct.
The development of English syntax at this stage of history — as well as later — was to a considerable extent determined by the formation and differentiation of
styles which is beyond the scope of this course.
The distinction between who and which recommended by 18th c. grammarians has been established as a standard of ‘‘good”, educated English; the recommendations conceriling whose and whom have not been fully observed: whose is still used instead of o[ which and who interchanges with whom when used as an object. In this way they attempted to improve English syntax – in line with the general tendency of 18th century normalisators to make the language more logical and correct.
The development of English syntax at this stage of history – as well as later – was to a considerable extent determined by the formation and differentiation of styles which is beyond the scope of this course.
6. Планы семинарских (практических) занятий – по плану не предусмотрены
7. Методические разработки для самостоятельных работ студентов (СРСП)
СРСП №1.
1. Explain why linguistic changes are usually slow and gradual.
2. At first glance the vocabulary of the language seems to change very rapidly, as new words spring up all the time. Could the following words be regarded as absolutely new? (Note the meaning, component parts and word-building pattern) jet-plane (cf. airplane), typescript (cf. manuscript), air-lift, baby-sitter, sputnik, Soviet, safari, best-seller, cyclization, air-taxi, astrobiology, sunsuit, pepper, gas.
3. In the 14th c. the following words were pronounced exactly as they are spelt, the Latin letters retaining their original sound values. Show the phonetic changes since the 14th c.: moon, fat, meet, rider, want, knee, turn, first, part, for, often, e.g. nut — [nut]> [nAt 1.
СРСП №2.
1. Point out the peculiarities in grammatical forms in the following passages from Shakespeare’s SONNETS and describe the changes which must have occurred after the 17th c.:
a) As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st In one of thine, from that which thou departest
b) It is thy spirit that thou send ‘st from thee It is my love that keeps mine eyes awake;
Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat —
c) Bring me within the level of your frown.
But shoot not at me in your wakened hate!
2. Comment on the following quotations from the works of prominent modern linguists and speak on the problems of linguistic change:
a) One may say with R. Jakobson, a little paradoxically, that a linguistic change is a synchronic fact. (A. Sommerfelt)
b) Visible change is the tip of an iceberg. Every alteration that eventually establishes itself, had to exist formerly as a choice. This
means that the seedbed for variation in time is simply the whole landscape of variation in space. (D. Bolinger)
c) The structure of language is nothing but the unstable balance between the needs of communication, which require more numerous and more specific units and man’s inertia, which favours less numerous, less specific and more frequently occurring units. (A. Martinet)
d) That two forms, the new and the old, can occasionally exist in wholly free variation is a possibility that has not yet been disproved but, as Bloomfield rightly remarked “when a speaker knows two rival forms, they differ in connotation, since he has heard them from different persons under different circumstances”. (M. Samuels)
СРСП № 3.
1. Name the closest linguistic relations of English.
2. Account for the following place-names: Germany, Saxony, Bavaria, Anglia, Thuringia, Sroiabia, Gothenburg, Gothiand, Burgundy, A lieinagne (Fr for Germany), Gotha, Jutland, France, Frankfurt, Normandy, Angiesea, England.
3. Analyse the shifting of word stress in word-building and form- building and point out the words which can illustrate the original Germanic way of word accentuation: read, reading, re-read, readable; bear v., bearer, unbearable; satisfy, satisfaction, unsatisfactorily; circumstance, circumstantial, circumstiality.
4. Explain the sound correspondence in the following parallels from Germanic and non-Germanic languages (the sounds are italicized).
СРСП №4.
1. Analyse the consonant correspondences in the following groups of words and classify the words into Germanic and non-Germanic:
foot, pedal, pedestrian; twofold, double, doublet, twin, brotherly, fraternl; tooth, dental, dentist; canine, hound; hearty, cordial; three, trinity; decade, decimalc, ten; agriculture, acre; agnostic, know; tame, domestic.
2. Why can examples from the Gothic language often be used to illustrate the PG state while OE and OHG examples are less suitable for the purpose?
3. Classify the following Mod E verbs into descendants of the strong verbs and the weak verbs (Note that the PG -ð- became t or t in English): sing, live, rise, look, answer, speak, run, shake, warn.
4. Prove that suppletion is an ancient way of form-building which goes back to the epoch of the PIE parent-language.
5. We can infer a good deal about the culture of the people, their social structure and geographical conditions from the words of their language. What can be reconstructed of the life of the Teutons from the following list of English words, whose cognates are found in other Germanic languages: borough, brew, broth, cliff, earl, east, lore, king, knead, north, sea, seal, ship, south steer, strand, tin, were, west,whale, wheat?
СРСП №5.
1. What languages were spoken in the British Isles prior to the Germanic invasion? Which of their descendants have survived today?
2. What historical events account for the influence of Latin on CE?
3. Describe the linguistic situation in Britain before and after the Germanic settlement.
4. Explain the origin of the following place-names: Britain, Scotland, Great Britain, Bretagne, England, Sussex, Essex, Middlesex, Wessex, Northumberland, Wales, Cornrjvall.
5. The CE language is often called Anglo-Saxon. Why is this term not fully justified?
6. Why can we regard the group of CE dialects as a single language despite their differences, which continued to grow in later OE? What binds them together?
СРСП №6.
1. Did word stress in OE always fall on the first syllable? Recall some regular shifts of stress in word-building and give similar examples from present-day English.
2. Comment on the phonemic status of OE short diphthongs (give your reasons why they should be treated as phonemes or as allophones).
3. Account for the difference between the vowels in OE eat and monn, all going back to PG words with [a] (cf Gt þata, manna, alls).
4. Account for the interchange of vowels in OE dæze, dazas (NE day Dat. sg and Nom. p1); bæð, baðian (NE bath, bathe).
5. Say which word in each pair of parallels is OE and which is Gt. Pay attention to the difference in the vowels:
rauþs — rēad (NE red); hām - haims (NE home); beald - balþei (NE bold); barms — bearm (‘chest’); dēaf — daufs (NE deaf); triu - trēo (NE tree); lēof - liufs (‘dear’, rel. to NE love); qiþan - cweðan (NE quoth ‘say’).
In the same way classify the following words into CE and 0 Scand:
bēaz — baugr (‘ring’); fảr — fær (NE fear); man or mon — maðr (Gt manna); dauþr — dēaþ (NE death); eall — allr (NE all); earm — armr (NE arm); harpa hearpe (NE harp); faðir fæder (NE father); fæst — fastr (NE fast).
СРСП №7.
1. Account for the difference between the root-vowels in OE and in parallels from other OG languages:
Gt langiza, OE lenzra (NE longer); Gt marei, OHG meri, OE mere (NE obs. mere ‘lake’); Gt sandian, OE sendan (NE send); Gt ubils, OE yfel (NE evil); Gt be-laibian, OE læfan (NE leave); Gt. baugian, OE bŷzan, bīean (‘bend’); Gt fulljan, OE fyllan (NE fill); Gt laisjan —OE læran ‘teach’.
2. Explain the term “mutation” and innumerate the changes referred to mutations in Late PG and in Early OE. What do ‘they all have in common?
3. Which word in each pair could go back to an OE prototype with palatal mutation and which is more likely to have descended from the OE word retaining the original non-mutated vowel? Mind that the spelling may often point to the earlier pronunciation of the word: old -elder; strong — strength; goose — geese; man men; full — fill; food — feed; brother brethren; far further
4. Was the OE vowel system symmetrical? State your arguments in favour and against its interpretation as a completely balanced system (See also question 2).
СРСП №8.
1. Define the sound values of the letters f, у, s and comment on the system of OE consonant phonemes:
OE heofon, faran, ze-faran, hæfde, offrung, ofer (NE heaven, fare, had, of fering, over); odde, oder, Norð, ðanne (‘or’, NE other, North, then); sæ, wisse, cēosan, cēas (NE sea, ‘knew’, choose, chose).
2. What consonant and vowel changes are illustrated by the following pairs of words?
Gt maiza — OE māra (NE more); G t kunþian, CE cyðan (‘inform’); Gt dauþs — OE dead (NE dead). Gt saljan — OE sellan (NE sell); OE þyncan - þūhte (NE think — thought); OE mæzden, mæden (NE maiden); Gt kinnus, OE cinn (NE chin); OHG isarn — OE īren (NE iron). Gt hausjan — OE hīeren (NE hear); 0 Scand skaft — OE sceaft (NE shaft).
3. Why can the voicing of fricative consonants in Early OE be regarded as a sort of continuation of Verner’s Law? Describe the similarities and the differences between the two processes.
4. What peculiarities of OE consonants can account for the difference in the sound values of the italicised letters in the following modern words?
sand; rise (OE rīsan); house — houses (OE hūs); hose (QE hosa); horse (OE hors); think, bathe, path (OE þyncan, bāðian, pæð).
СРСП №9.
1. Explain why OE can be called a “synthetic” or “inflected” language. What form-building means were used in OE?
2. Speak on the differences between the categories of case, number and gender in nouns, pronouns and adjectives.
3. Why are noun declensions in OE referred to as “stems”? Point out relics of the stem-suffixes in the forms of nouns.
4. Explain the difference between the grouping of nouns into declensions and the two declensions of adjectives.
5. Which phonetic changes account for the alternation of consonants in the following nouns: mūþ — mūþa (Nom. sg, Gen. p1 N. -a); hūs — hūsum (Nom. sg, Dat. pl. -a); wif —wife (Nom., Dat. sg N. -a); (NE mouth, house, wife). Were these consonant interchanges confined to certain declensions? Decline zlof ( F. -ō) and zō (F. -root-stem) according to the models to confirm your answer (NE glove, goose).
6. Account for the vowel interchange in hwæl — hwalas (Nom. sg and p1, M. -a); pæþ — paþum(Nom. sg, Dat. p1, M. -a) (NE whale, path).
7. Determine the type of noun declension and supply the missing forms:
Nom. word word earm earmas
Gen. wordes? earmes?
Dat.????
Acc.????
Nom. bōc bēc cuppe?
Gen. bēc, bōce???
Dat.????
Acc.?? cuppan?
(NE word, arm, book, cup)
8. Point out instances of variation in the noun paradigms. From which stems were the new variants adopted?
9. Which forms of the nouns originated due to palatal mutation? Describe their history in Early OE.
10. Prove that suppletion is an ancient way of form-building that can be traced to PIE.
11. Which forms of adjectives, weak or strong, should be used in the following contexts? Fill in the blanks with appropriate endings:
and þā þone hālz — mann ātuzon ūt of his hūse ‘and they drove that holy man out of his house...’; Ic eom zōd — hierde ‘I am a good shepherd’.
12. Account for the interchange of vowels in the forms of the degrees of comparison:
smæl smælra smalost ‘slender’
hēah hīerra hīehst NE high
brād brādra brādost NE broad
brædra brædest
СРСП №10.
1. In what respects was the OE verb system “simpler” than the Mod E system?
2. Would it be correct to say that the strong verbs formed their principal parts by means of root-vowel interchanges and the weak verbs employed suffixation as the only form-building means? Make these definitions more precise.
3. Build the principal forms of the verbs forlēosan, weorpan and drīfan) and explain the interchange of vowels and consonants (NE lose, ‘throw’, drive).
4. Determine the class of the following strong verbs and supply the missing principal forms:
Pres. Tense stem. Past sg. Past p1. Part. II NE
stelan??? steal? scān?? shine?? æton eat eat??? sunzen sing ceofan??? carve? wearð wurdon worden ‘become’? sanc?? sink??? zliden glide? wōc?? wake??? bacen bake
5. Find instances of “breaking” in the principal forms of strong and weak verbs.
6. How was gemination of consonants and the loss of -j- reflected in the forms of weak verbs?
7. What traces of palatal mutation can be found in the weak verbs?
8. Prove that the non-finite forms in OE had more nominal features than they have today.
9. Define the form and class of the verbs and nouns in the following phrases and reconstruct their initial forms: Nom. sg of nouns and the Infinitive of the verbs:
… wīciað Finnas... fōr hē... a Beormas spræcon... Ōhthere mētte... hē bād... his ēazan þŷstrodon... hē clypode... wē willað secan.
СРСРП 11.
1. Why does the OE vocabulary contain so few borrowings from the Celtic languages of Britain? Why do place-names constitute a substantial part of Celtic element?
2. From lists of Latin loan-words in OE speculate on the kind of contacts the English had with Rome at different historical periods.
3. What facts can be given to prove that OE was generally resistant to borrowing and preferred to rely upon its own resources? 4. Pick out the OE suffixes and prefixes which are still used in English and can be regarded as productive today.
5. What is meant by “simplification of the morphological structure”?
Use words from the following list to illustrate your answer: QE ealdian(<*eald-ō-jan) ‘grow old’; mētan (<*mōt-i-an) ‘meet’; wulf Nom. (<*wulf-a-z) NE wolf; wulfe, Dat. sg (<*wulf-a-i); woruld (<*wer-ealdi ‘ age ’, ‘old’) NE world; hlāford (.<*hlāf-weard ‘bread, loaf’, ‘keeper’) NE lord; hlæfdize (<*h1āfdize ‘bread-kneading’) NE lady; ēaland (<*ēa-land ‘water’, ‘land’) NE island; zōdlic (<*godlic ‘good’, ‘body’) NE goodly, fair.
6. Determine the part of speech and the meaning of the words in the right column derived from the stem given in the left column:
leorn-ian v ‘learn’ leorn-ere, leorn-inz, leorn-unz ze-samn-ian v ‘assemble ze-samn-unz
scēot-an v ‘shoot’ scēot-end
lēoht n ‘light’ lēoht-līc
stranz adj ‘strong’ stranz-ian, stranz-lic, stranz-lice eald adj ‘old’ eald-ian, eald-unz, eald-dōm screap adj ‘sharp’ scearp-lic, scearp-lice, scearp-nis sorz n ‘sorrow’ sorz-ian, sorz-lic, sorz-full fæst adj ‘firm, fast’ fæst-e, fæst-an, fæst-lic, fæst-lice, fæst-nis
zeorn adj ‘eager’ zeorn-full, zeorn-e, zeorn-an, zeorn-lice, zeorn-ful-nes, zeorn - ful-lic
frēond n ‘friend’ frēond-lēas, frēond-lic, frēondlice, frēond-scipe, frēond-ræden
7. Add negative prefixes to the following words and explain the meaning of the derivatives:
rot ‘glad’, — Un-...; hal ‘healthy’ wan-...; spēdiz ‘rich’ — un..., wan- ...; cūþ ‘known’ un- ...; līcian ‘please’ — mis-...; limpan ‘happen’ — mis-
СРСП 12.
1. What historical conditions account for increased dialectal divergence in Early ME?
2. Compare the position of the Old Scandinavian and Anglo-Norman (French) in Early ME (comment on the geographical, social and linguistic differences).
3. Account for the shift of the dialect type of the speech of London in the 14th c. Why is the name “English” language more justified than “Anglo-Saxon” or “Saxon” though in the OE period one of the Saxon dialects, West Saxon, was the main form of language used in writing?
4. Describe the events of external history which favoured the growth of the national literary language.
5. Can the evolution of language be controlled by man? Recall the efforts made by men-of-letters in the “Normalisation period” to stop the changes and improve the language.
6. Comment on the following quotations:
J. Hart (1570): “The flower of the English tongue is used in the Court of London.”
G. Puttenham (1589):”... ye shall therefore take the usual speach of the Court, and that of London whithin IX myles, and not much above. I say this but that in every shyre of England there be gentlemen and others that speake but specially write as good Southerne as we of Middlesex or Surrey do, but not the common people of every shire...” Discuss the social and geographical basis of the literary English language.
СРСП 13
1. Analyse the relationships between the letters and sounds in the extract given in § 361 and say in which instances the ME spelling system was less phonetic — and more conventional — than the OE system.
2. Read the following ME words and explain the employment of the italicized letters:
certainly, pacient, carrie, killen (NE certainly, patient, carry, kill); geste, gold, (NE jest, gold); was, seson, ese, sory (NE was, season, ease, sorry); other, thinken, the, that, natheless, both (NE other, think, the, that, nevertheless, both); afere, every, fight, thief, very (NE affair, every, fight, thief, very); yonge, sonne, not, hose (NE young, sun, not, hose); mous, low, loud, toun, how (NE mouse, low, loud, town, how); knowen, whether, straunge, what, knyght, taughte (NE know, whether, strange, what, knight, taught).
СРСП №14.
I. Prove, by instances of phonetic changes, that ME was divided into a number of dialects.
2. Point out some changes preceding the Great Vowel Shift which display the same directions of evolution.
3. Cf. the system of vowels in OE with that in Late ME and say in which respects it has become less symmetrical.
4. How could the vowels in OE talu, findan, hopa, frote, stolen ultimately develop into diphthongs, though originally they were short monophthongs (NE tale, find, hope, throat, stolen)?
5. What are the causes of vowel interchanges in NE keep, kept; feel, felt; wise, wisdom; leave, left; five, fifth? Originally, in OE the words in each pair contained the same long vowels.
6. Account for the interchange of vowels in NE child children, wild — wilderness, bewilder (ME bewildren), behind - hindrance; in OE the root vowel in these words was [i].
7. Give a historical explanation of different spellings of the following homophones: NE son, sun; meet, meat; see, sea; rein, rain; vein, vain: soul, sole; main, mane; cease, sieze; flour, flower; so, sow; law, lore; bare, bear; root, route; or, oar; rode, road. Were all these pairs homophones in ME?
8. Why does the letter e stand for [e] in bed, for [i:] in he, for the nuclei [ı] and [ε] of diphthongs in here and there?
9. Why does the letter o stand for [o] in not, for [ou] in bone, [٨] in front and some, and for [o:] when followed by r: more, port?
10. Why does the letter x stand for [ks] and [gz] in the following words: oxen- axes - example; execute — executor — executive; exercise — examine — exact — exist?
СРСП №15.
1. Account for the sound values of the letter c in the following words:
[s] in NE mercy, centre; [k] in copper, class; [∫] in special, sufficient?
2. Explain from a historical viewpoint the pronunciation of the following words with the letter g: good, again, general, change, regime.
3. Account for the difference in the sound values of s, th, f in the following words: son, busy, wisdom, mouse, east, deserve (ME deserven [de’servən], observe, resemble (ME resemblen [rə’semblən], books (ME bookes [‘bo:kəs]), robes (ME robes [‘ro:bəs]), dresses, thousand, threat, thou, the, mouth, mouths (ME mouthes [‘mu:ðəs]), they, of, fair, fence.
4. What is meant by “discrepancy” between pronunciation and spelling in Mod E? Give examples of phonetic and conventional spellings. Prove that the written form of the word usually lags behind its spoken form and indicates its earlier pronunciation.
5. Explain the origin of different sound values of the following digraphs: ea in seat, dead; ie in chief, lie; ou in pound, soup, soul, rough; ow in sow and how. Why do they indicate other sounds before r, e.g. dear, pear; pier, bier; pour, sour; lower, power.
6. Recall the development of OE [y, y:] and explain the differences in the pronunciation and spelling of merry, hill, busy, buy, evil, bury (all descending from CE words with short [y]) and sleeve, fist, mice, sundry (descending from OE words with long [y:]).
7. Show how modern spelling can help to reconstruct the phonetic history of the words; use the following words as examples: NE drive, might, keen, mete, lead, lake, loaf, boot, about, low, draw, applaud, cast, cart, cord, ant, warn, bird, beard, burn, certain, first, nun, none, blood!/, bony, knee, gnat, often, limb.
8. Give the modern descendants of the following words, which developed in accordance with regular phonetic and spelling changes: OE hind, spēdiz, dūst, sceaft, scīnan, snāwan, rædan, hearm, sceal, wearm, cēap [k’], butere, bōc, bāt, metan,mētan, hund, hundred, hwæt, tūn, steorfan, þræd, smoca, drīfan, bana, dēop, āð.
9. Reconstruct the phonetic changes so as to prove that the words have descended from a single root: NE listen and loud; merry and mirth; deep and depth; foul and filth; husband and house; long and length; sheep and shepherd; tell, tale and talk; thief and theft; gold, gild and yellow; person and parson.
10. Account for the mute letters in late, sight, wrong, often, bomb, autumn, course, knowledge, honour, what, whole, guest, pneumonia, psalm.
11. Try to account for the appearance of mute letters in the following words: NE thumb (OE þuma); NE house (OE hūs); NE delight (ME delite); NE horse (CE hors); NE limb (CE lim); NE whole (OE hāl).
8. Методические рекомендации и указания по типовым расчетам, выполнению расчетно-графических, лабораторных работ, курсовых проектов (работ) - по плану не предусмотрены.
9. Материалы для самостоятельной работы обучающегося: -
CPC №1
Make an abstract of pp. 10-23
Literature:
T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 10-23
CPC №2
Learn the list of modern Germanic languages(11)
Literature:
T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 24-25
CPC №3
Make an abstract of Chapter II “Modern Germanic languages”, §§ 42-49
Literature:
T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 31-33
CPC №4
Learn Table №3 and Tables №4, 5 by heart.
Literature:
T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 38-39, 40-41
CPC №5
Learn Tables №6, 7 by heart.
Literature:
T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 43-44
CPC №6
Make an abstract of Chapter V “Old English. Historical Background”, §§ 89-101, pp. 55-63
Literature:
T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 38-39, 40-41
CPC №7
Learn Tables №3 (p. 79), №4 (p. 80), and №5 (p. 84) by heart.
Literature:
T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 79, 80, 84
СРС №8
Make an abstract of the part “Origin of Old English consonants”
Literature:
T. A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 85- 90, §§ 135- 147
СРС №9
Learn Table 5(p. 103), Table 2(p. 104) by heart.
Literature:
T. A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 103- 104
СРС №10
Learn Table 7(p.106) and Table 8(p. 108) by heart.
Literature:
T. A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp. 106, 108
СРС №11
Make an abstract of the part “Old English Vocabulary. Word- formation in OE. Word- composition”.
Literature:
T. A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp.139- 147, §§ 248- 278
СРС №12
Make an abstract of the part “Historical Background from the 11th to 15th c. Linguistic Situation. Written records”.
Literature:
T. A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp.149- 163, §§ 279- 307.
СРС №13
Get ready with the questions and assignments on p. 188.
Literature:
T. A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English, pp.188. Questions and assignments №№ 1, 2.
СРС №14
Make an abstract of the part “Development of the English voca
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