Three main periods in the history of the English language

1. Three main periods in the history of the English language.

We divide the history of the English language into three main periods:

1. Old English;
2. Middle English;
3. New English or Modern English.
1. OLD ENGLISH covers the period from the fifth (5^th) century to the end of the eleventh (11^th) century; the dates of its end range from 1066, which is the year of the Norman Conquest, to 1150.
2. MIDDLE ENGLISH lasts from the twelfth (12^th) to the fifteenth (15^th)century; the period have ended in 1475, the year of the introduction of printing.
3. NEW ENGLISH, which means the English of the last six centuries.

During the Old English period, most additions to the English vocabulary were based on native English words. Old words were given new meanings, new words were formed by the addition of prefixes or suffixes, or by compounding. Latin was the most influential of foreign languages. The Scandinavians also influenced the language of English during the Old English period. From the eighth (8^th)century, Scandinavians had raided and eventually settled in England, especially in the north and the east. This prolonged unfriendly contact had a considerable and varied influence on the English vocabulary.

The Middle English period was marked by a great extension of foreign influence on English. The Norman Conquest in 1066 brought England under French rule. The English language was for a time of only secondary importance. French became the language of the upper classes in England. The variety of French they spoke is now called Anglo-French. The lower classes continued to speak English but many English words were borrowed from French.

Modern English (or New English) has been a period of wider borrowing. English still derives much of its learned vocabulary from Latin and Greek. English has also borrowed words from nearly all the languages of Europe. From the period of Renaissance up to the present, lots of new words has flown into the language to match the new objects and experiences.

 

2. The Anglo-Saxon invasion and its influence on the development of the English language.

From the middle of the fifth (5th) British Isles were attacked by the Germanic tribes from the Continent. In the 5th century first the Jutes and then other Germanic tribes, the Saxons and the Angles, began to migrate to Britain.

In 449 the Jutes landed in Kent. That was the beginning of the conquest. It took more than a hundred and fifty years for the Angles, Saxons and Jutes to conquer the country.

The Britons were forced to retreat to the west of Britain. Those who stayed became slaves of the Anglo-Saxons.

For a long time the tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes fought against one another for supreme power.

The new conquerors brought about some changes. They destroyed the Roman towns and villages. The roads were broken. The Jutes, Saxons and Angles were closely alike in speech and customs and they gradually merged into one people. The Anglo-Saxon villages were small. Nearly all the villagers were engaged in cultivating the land. Besides arable - farming, they continued cattle-breeding, hunting and fishing. Thus, natural economy predominated in Britain in early medieval times. By the beginning of the 9th century changes had taken place in Anglo-Saxon society. Rich landowners were given great power over the peasants. The king’s warriors and officials held more land and they ruled the country. From tribal organization the society passed to the feudal class organization.

The Anglo-Saxon Element in the English Vocabulary

When the Anglo-Saxon tribes came to Britain they brought their dialects, which we now refer to as Old English and which formed the foundation for the ultimate development of Modern English. The Anglo-Saxon element is still at the core of the language.

Native words stand for fundamental things and generally express the most vital concepts, for example:

actions: go, say, see, find, love, hunt, eat, sleep;

everyday objects: food, fish, meat, milk, water;

names of animals and birds: sheep, bull, fowl;

natural phenomena: land, sun, moon, summer, winter, sea;

geographical concepts: north, east, west, way;

 

names of persons: man, woman, father, mother, son;

qualities: long, short, far.

But a number of Anglo-Saxon words were lost. Many of those words denoting things no longer in use dropped out of the vocabulary, such as, for instance, names of weapons no longer used, garments no longer worn, customs no longer practised, etc.

 

3. The Norman Conquest of England and the Norman-French element in the English vocabulary

The conquest of England by the Normans began in 1066 with the battle at Hastings, where the English fought against the Normans. The conquest was completed in 1071.

Who were those Normans who conquered England? They were Vikings or “Northmen”, people from the North. Some 150 years before the conquest of England they came to a part of France, opposite England, the part which we now call Normandy. There they adopted the French language of their new home in France. They became French.

What did the Norman Conquest do to England? It gave England French kings and nobles. The Normans also brought with them the French language. After the Norman Conquest there were three languages in England. There was Latin, the language of Church and the language in which all learned men wrote and spoke; the kings wrote their laws in Latin for some time after the Conquest.

Then there was French, the language which the kings and nobles spoke and which many people wrote.

Finally, there was the English language which remained the language of the masses. Some men knew all these languages, many knew two, but most of the people knew only one. The poor people, the peasants, did not understand French and Latin. They understood only English.

In time, however, came the general use of the English language. About 1350 English became the language of law.

When the English language came into general use it was not quite the same as it used to be before the Conquest. The grammar remained, but many new words came into English from the French language. 

French borrowings penetrated into English in two ways: from the Norman dialect (11^th century) and from the French national literary language beginning with the 15^th century.

The French words borrowed are:

a) law terms: justice, rent, prison;

b) military terms: army, peace, battle, officer;

c) religious terms: saint, charity, religion, service;

d) words connected with trade and everyday affairs: barber, butcher, chair, beef, pleasure, comfort;

e) terms of rank: duke, prince, baron;

f) terms of art: art, beauty, colour, costume;

g) terms of architecture: arch, tower, palace.

 

4. The problem of gender in the English language

The category of gender is expressed in English by the correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third person.

The category of gender is presented by masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. Masculine gender comprises nouns denoting male sex, for example: a father, a brother. Feminine gender comprises nouns denoting female sex, for example a sister, a mother). Inanimate nouns and animate non-person nouns (e.g.: animals) belong to neuter gender. Thus, gender in English is defined by the meaning of the words.

Besides, English nouns can show the sex lexically: 1) by means of being combined with certain notional words used as sex indicators, i.e. some special words are added to a word to denote the gender in English: boy, male, man, he, tom, bull, cock (e.g.: boy-friend, male-reader, man-servant, man-producer, he-wolf, tom-cat, tom-swan, bull-calf, cock-sparrow, etc.); girl, female, woman, maid, she, cow, hen (e.g.: girl-friend, female reader, female child, woman-producer, woman-teacher, washer-woman, maid-servant, she-bear, cow-calf, hen-sparrow, etc.); 2) by suffixal derivation, i.e. some morphemes are added to a word to denote the gender in English: -ess, -ix (e.g.: actress, lioness, directrix, etc.).

 

5. The grammatical category of case in English.

Case is the morphological category of the noun. It is manifested in the forms of noun declension and shows the relations of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena.

English nouns denoting living beings and some nouns denoting lifeless things have two cases:

- the common case, e.g.: the boy /the boys

- the genitive case, e.g.: the boy’s book /the boys’ school

The category of case is expressed in English by the opposition of the form in -‘s (apostrophe s), usually called the possessive case, or more traditionally, the genitive case, to the unfeatured form of the noun, usually called the common case. The apostrophized -s serves to distinguish in writing the singular noun in the genitive case from the plural noun in the common case. E.g.: the President’s decision, the boy’s ball, the Empress’s jewels.

 

6. Basic semantic types of the Genitive case in the English language

Basic semantic types of the genitive case can be the following:

1) The “genitive of possessor” expresses “inorganic” possession. E.g.: Christine’s living-room; Kate and Jerry’s grandparents.

2) The “genitive of integer” expresses “organic possession”. E.g.: Jane’s busy hands; Patrick’s voice;

3) The “genitive of agent” is explained in its name: this form renders an activity or some procession of its doer. E.g.: the great man’s coming; Peter’s gaze.

4) The “genitive of patient” expresses the recipient of the action or process denoted by the head-noun. E.g.: the city’s business leaders; the Titanic’s tragedy.

5) The “genitive of destination” denotes the destination, or function of the referent of the head-noun. E.g.: women’s footwear; children’s verses.

6) The “genitive of dispensed qualification” expresses some characteristic or qualification given by the genitive noun to the referent of the head-noun. E.g.: a girl’s voice; a book-keeper’s statistics.

7) The “genitive of adverbial” denotes adverbial factors relating to the referent of the head-noun, mostly the time and place of the event. E.g.: the evening’s newspaper; yesterday’s weather; Moscow’s talks.

8) The “genitive of quantity” denotes the measure or quantity relating to the referent of the head-noun. E.g.: three miles’ distance; two months’ time.

 

7. The grammatical category of number in the system of the English language

The category of number is expressed by the opposition of the plural form of the noun to the singular form of the noun. The strong member of this opposition is the plural. Its productive formal mark is the suffix - (e)s as presented in the forms dog – dogs, clock – clocks, box – boxes.

The other, non-productive ways of expressing the number opposition are: 1) vowel interchange in several relict forms (e.g.: man – men, woman – women, tooth – teeth, etc.); 2) the archaic suffix -(e)n  in some relict forms (e.g.: ox – oxen, child – children, cow – kine, brother - brethren); 3) the correlation of individual singular and plural suffixes in a limited number of borrowed nouns (e.g.: formula – formulae, phenomenon – phenomena, alumnus – alumni, etc.). In some cases the plural form of the noun is homonymous with the singular form (e.g.: sheep, deer, fish, etc.).

The absolute singular is characteristic of; 1) the names of abstract notions (e.g.: peace, love, joy, courage, friendship, etc.); 2) the names of the branches of professional activity (e.g.: mathematics, linguistics, etc.); 3) the names of mass materials (e.g.: water, snow, hair, etc.); 4) the names of collective inanimate object (e.g.: furniture, machinery, etc.).

The absolute plural is characteristic of: 1) the uncountable nouns which denote objects consisting of two halves (e.g.: trousers, scissors, tongs, spectacles, etc.); 2) the nouns expressing some sort of collective meaning (e.g.: outskirts, clothes, contents, politics, cattle, etc.); 3) the nouns denoting some diseases as well as some abnormal states of the body and mind (e.g.: rickets, creeps, hysterics, etc).

 

8. The grammatical categories of tense and aspect in English

The grammatical category of tense is expressed in the forms of English verb. This category denotes the relation of the action either to the moment of speaking or to some definite moment in the past or future.

The grammatical category of aspect shows the way in which the action develops, whether it is in progress or completed, etc.

There are three aspects: common, continuous, perfect. He works hard. (Common aspect). He is working now. (Continuous aspect). He has worked for the company for 5 years. (Perfect aspect).

The category of tense and the category of aspect are intermingled.

There are four groups of tenses in English. They are: Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous.

The Indefinite tense has no aspect characteristics; the Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous forms denote both time and aspect relations.

Each of these forms includes four tenses: Present, Past, Future and Future-in-the Past.

The Indefinite form shows that the action usually takes place in the present, past or future. E.g. I study at the Borys Grinchenko University. Four years ago I entered the University. I think, on Saturday I won’t go to the University.  

The Continuous form denotes an action in progress at the present moment or at a given moment in the past or future. E.g.: I’m speaking English now. On Saturday at 2 p.m. I was doing my homework. On Sunday at 10 a.m. I will be playing tennis.

The Perfect form denotes an action completed before the present moment (and connected with it) or before a definite moment in the past or future. E.g.: I have already written my essay in English. When mother came home, I had already gone to the institute. When my mother comes home, I will have gone to the institute.

The Perfect Continuous form denotes an action in progress, whose duration before a definite moment in the present, past or future is expressed. (E.g.: I have been learning English for 10 years. By 2010 I had been learning English for 8 years. By 2013 I will have been learning English for 11 years.).

 

9. The grammatical category of voice in English

The grammatical category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation.

The voice of the English verb is expressed by the opposition of the passive form of the verb to the active form of the verb. The sign marking the passive form is the combination of the auxiliary be with the past participle of the conjugated verb (e.g.: be written). The passive form as the strong member of the opposition expresses reception of the action by the subject of the syntactic construction; the active form as the weak member of the opposition expresses “non-passivity”. E.g.: Have you ever been told that you’re very good-looking?

The formula of the active voice is:  N1 + VACT + N2 (noun 1 + verb in active form + noun 2). E.g.: Tom writes letters. The formula of the passive voice is: N2 + VPAS + BY + N1 (noun 2 + verb in passive form + preposition by + noun 1). E.g.: Letters are written by Tom.

In English there is the problem of “medial” voices, i.e. the real voice meaning is not active, but the form of the verb is active.  Let us consider the following examples: I will wash, and be ready for breakfast. Mary has dressed up. 

     The verbal meaning of the action performed by the subject upon itself is classed as “reflexive”. We can add a reflexive self-pronoun to it: I will wash myself. Mary has dressed herself up.

     The verbal meaning of the action performed by the subjects in the subject group on one another is called “reciprocal”. E.g.: The friends will be meeting one another; Nellie and Christopher divorced each other.

There is still a third use of the verb in English. It is Activo-Passive use of verbs pay, eat, read, sell, etc.

The verbal form of the action is in active, but the verbal meaning of the action is passive. E.g.: The newspapers are selling excellently.

10. The grammatical category of mood in English

Mood is generally defined as a grammatical category expressing the relation of the action to reality as stated by the speaker. In Modern English there are three moods: Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive.

The forms of the Indicative mood are used to present predication as reality, as a fact. E.g.: I study at the University named after Borys Grinchenko.

The Imperative mood serves to express requests, invitations, orders or commands. The necessary meaning is generally signaled by the context and intonation. E.g.: Open the door, please! Stop talking! Turn around! Don’t you forget it!

The Subjunctive mood shows that the action or state expressed by the verb is presented as a non-fact, as something imaginary or desired. It is also used to express an emotional attitude of the speaker to real facts. E.g.: I wish I were an artist. May there always be sunshine! Be it so!

In Modern English the Subjunctive mood is almost out of use. The only regular survival of the non-past (present) Subjunctive is the absence of inflection for the third person singular. It will be found in:

• elevated prose, slogans, a number of standardized phrases, e.g.: So be it. Long live May Day! Be what may!
• formal style, e.g.: I insist that he do it. (I insist that he should do it. – informal style).
• the only Past Subjunctive form is “were” is in the first and third person singular, e.g.: I wish I were a child. If he were president …

 

11. The classification of the simple sentences according to the purpose of utterance in English

The classification of the simple sentences is based on two principles:

• according to the purpose of the utterance (or type of communication);
• according to the structure.

I. According to the purpose of the utterance (or type of communication) we distinguish four kinds of sentences.

1. The declarative sentence. A declarative sentence states a fact in the positive or negative form. In a declarative sentence the subject precedes the predicate. It is generally pronounced with a falling intonation. E.g.: Charles Dickens is a famous Englishn writer.

2. The interrogative sentence asks a question. It is formed by means of inversion. There are four kinds of questions.

1) General question requires the answer yes or no and is spoken with a rising intonation. They are formed by placing part of the predicate the auxiliary or modal verb before the subject of the sentences. E.g.: Do you like oart? Can you speak oEnglish?

2) Special questions begin with an interrogative word and are spoken with a falling intonation. E.g.: Where do you nlive?

3) Alternative questions indicate choice and are spoken with a rising intonation in the first part and a falling intonation in the second part. E.g.: Do you live in otown or in thencountry?

4) Disjunctive questions require the answer yes or no and consist of a positive statement followed by a negative question, or a negative statement followed by a positive question. The first part is spoken with a falling intonation and the second part with a rising intonation. E.g.: You speak nEnglish, odon’t you? You are not ntired, oare you?

3. The imperative sentence. An imperative sentence serves to induce a person to do something, so it expresses a command, an order, a request, an invitation, etc. Commands are characterized by a falling tone. E.g.: Come to the nblackboard! Stop ntalking! Requests and invitation are characterized by a rising intonation. E.g.: Open the door, oplease! Do come to see me otomorrow.

4. The exclamatory sentence. An exclamatory sentence expresses some kind of emotion or feeling. It often begins with the word what and how, it is always in the declarative form, and no inversion takes place. It is generally spoken with a falling intonation. E.g.: What a lovely nday it is! What fine nweather! How nwonderful! nBeautiful!

 

12. The classification of the simple sentences according to the structure

According to their structure simple sentences are divided into two-member and one-member sentences.

A two-member sentence has two members – a subject and a predicate. If one of them is missing, it can be easily understood from the context. E.g.: Every day after classes I go to the University library to prepare for seminars. 

A two-member sentence may be complete or incomplete. It is complete when it has a subject and a predicate. E.g.: I can’t help loving you, Kyiv! It is incomplete when one of the principal parts or both of them are missing, but can be easily understood from the context. Such sentences are called elliptical. They are mostly used in colloquial speech and especially in a dialogue. E.g.: Where were you yesterday? At the cinema.

A one-member sentence is a sentence having only one member which is neither the subject nor the predicate. They are generally used in descriptions and in emotional speech. If the main part of a one-member sentence is expressed by a noun, the sentence is called nominal. E.g.: Freedom Bells ringing out, flowers, kisses, wine.