In OE the vocabulary mainly grew by means of word-formation. The words fell into 3 main types:
· simple words (root-words) – a word consisting of a root-morpheme with no derivational suffixes (e.g. OE ζōd (good), land (land), d æ ζ (day), etc.);
· derived words – a word consisting of a root-morpheme + 1 or more then one affix (e.g. OE be-ζinnan (begin), ζe-met-inζ (meeting), etc.);
· compound words – a word consisting of more then one root-morpheme (e.g. OE mann-cynn (mankind), fēower-tīene (fourteen), etc.).
Ways of Word-Formation
Word-Derivation:
· sound interchange – was employed frequently, but never alone (usually was accompanied by suffixation). Sources of sound-interchange:
- ablaut (OE rīdan (V) – rād (N) = NE ride (V) – raid (N); OE sinζan (V) – sonζ (N) = NE sing (V) – song (N), etc.);
- palatal mutation:
o verbs from nouns (doom à deem; food à feed, etc.);
o verbs from adjectives (full à fill; healthy à heal, etc.);
o nouns from adjectives (long à length; strong à strength, etc.);
- consonantal interchanges (death – dead; rise – rear, etc.).
· word stress – was not frequent; it helped to differentiate between parts of speech and was used together with other means (e.g. OE ‘andswa ru (N answer) – and’swar ian (V answer);
· prefixation – was a productive way (unlike in ModE):
- IE prefixes (OE un- (negative));
- Germanic prefixes (OE mis-, be-, ofer- (over-));
- prefixes were widely used with verbs, but were far less productive with the other parts of speech (e.g. OE ζān (to go) – ā-ζān (to go away) – be-ζān (to go round) – fore-ζān (to precede), etc.);
- prefixes often modified lexical meaning (e.g. OE siþ (journey) – for-siþ (death));
- there were grammatical prefixes, e.g ζe-:
o was used to build Participle 2 of strong verbs (e.g. OE sitten (to sit) – ζe sett (sat), etc.);
o turned durative verbs into terminative (e.g. OE feran (to go) – ζe feran (to reach), etc.).
· suffixation – was the most productive way, mostly applied to nouns and adjectives, seldom to verbs.
Classification of OE suffixes:
1. Suffixes of agent nouns (-end (OE frēond (friend)), -ere (OE fiscere (fisher)), -estre (feminine) (OE b æ cestre (female baker)), etc.);
2. Suffixes of abstract nouns (-t (OE siht (sight)), -þu (OE lengþu (length)), -nes/nis (OE beorhtnes (brightness), blindnis (blindness)), -unζ/inζ (OE earnunζ (earning)), etc.);
3. Adjectival suffixes (-iζ (OE hāliζ (holy)), -isc (OE mannisc (human)), -ede (OE hōcede (hooked)), -sum (OE lanζsum (lasting)) etc.);
4. New suffixes derived from noun root-morphemes (-dōm (OE frēodōm (freedom)), -hād (OE cīldhād (childhood)), -lāc (OE wedlāc (wedlock)), -scipe (OE frēondscipe (frendship)), etc.);
5. New suffixes derived from adjective root-morphemes (-lic (OE woruldlic (worldly)), -full (OE carfull (careful)), -lēas (OE sl ǽ plēas (sleepless)), etc.).
Word-Composition
Word-composition – a combination of 2 ore more root-morphemes – was a highly productive way of word-formation. The main patterns were:
· N + N à N (the most frequent) (e.g. OE ζimm-stān (gemstone), OE mann-cynn (mankind));
· syntactical compounds à N (e.g. OE d æζ es-ēa ζ e (literally “day’s eye” = NE daisy));
· Adj + N à Adj (so-called bahuvrihi type) (e.g. OE mild-heort (literally “mild heort” = NE merciful), OE ān-ēaζe (literally “one eye” = NE one-eyed));
· N + Adj à Adj (e.g. OE dōm-ζeorn (eager for glory), OE mōd-ceariζ (sorrowful));
· V + N à N (very rare) (e.g. OE b æ c-hūs (baking-house)).
Word composition was often accompanied by other ways of word formation mentioned above (e.g. OE þēaw-f æ st-nes (þēaw = “custom” N, f æ st = “firm” N, nes = “-ness” suffix)) = NE discipline).
Lecture 22
Latin Borrowings in Old English
Borrowings from Classical Languages (Latin, Greek) during the Renaissance
OE
Latin has been the most long-lasting donor of borrowings to English because its influence started before the 5th A.D. (when Anglo-Saxons still lived on the Continent) and continues up to present day.
Usually Latin borrowings in OE are classified into the following layers:
1. Continental borrowings – words that the West Germanic tribes borrowed from Latin while they still lived on the Continent. Later, when they conquered the British Isles, they brought these words with them. These words are present in all the Germanic languages.
Semantic fields:
· concrete objects (household (cup, pillow, etc. ), food (cheese, butter, etc.), animals (mule, turtle, etc.));
· units of measurement (mile, pound, inch, etc.).
2. Borrowings after the Roman Invasion of the British Isles (through the Romanised Celts) that lie within the following semantic areas:
· trade (trade, deal, chest, flask, etc.);
· building (chalk, file, copper, etc.);
· domestic life (dish, kettle, etc.);
· military affairs (wall, street, pile, etc.);
· place names:
- -castra (“castle”)(Chester, Lancaster, etc.);
- -wich (“village”) (Norwich, Woolwich, etc.);
- -port (“port“) (Bridport, Devonport, etc.).
3. Borrowings after the Introduction of Christianity (597) that lie within the following semantic areas:
· religion (angel, hymn, idol, pope, psalm; from Greek through Latin – anthem, bishop, candle, apostle, etc.);
· learning (school, scholar, master, verse, accent, grammar, etc.);
· everyday life (plant, pine, radish, cap, sock, etc.).
Plus there appeared a lot of so-called translation loans – words that were translated part-for-part from Latin (e.g. Monday (“moon day”, from Latin Lunae dies), goldsmith (from Latin aurifex (auri = gold, fex = worker)), etc.).
All Latin borrowings in OE underwent assimilation, i.e.:
- changed their spelling according to the English rules;
- underwent some phonetic changes according to the English rules;
- were used in derivation and compounding;
- acquired grammatical categories of the English parts of speech.
ME
After the Norman Conquest the main spheres of the Latin Language remained:
· church;
· law;
· academic activities.
French became the official language of administration (it was used in the king’s court, in the law courts, in the church (as well as Latin), in the army, by the nobles in the south of England).
English was the language of common people in the Midlands and in the north of England. It still remained the language of the majority who were the representatives of the lower classes of society and never learned French, so the Norman barons had to learn English to be able to communicate with locals and soon English regained its position as the language of the country.
The surge of interest in the classics during the Age of the Renaissance led to a new wave of borrowings from Latin and Greek (through Latin mainly).
| Latin | Greek |
| abstract concepts(anticipate, exact, exaggerate, explain, fact, dislocate, accommodation, etc.) | theatre(drama, episode, scene, theatre, etc.) |
| literature(anapest, climax, epilogue, rhythm, etc.) | |
| rhetoric(dialogue, metaphor, etc.) | |
| affixes de-(demolish, destroy, etc.), ex-(extract,, explore, explain, etc.), re-(reread, retell, retry, etc.), -ate(locate, excavate, etc.), -ent(apparent, present, turbulent, etc.), -ct(correct, erect, etc.) | rootsfor creation of new words () |
| affixes -ism(humanism, mechanism, aphorism, etc.), -ist (protagonist, terrorist, cyclist, etc.), anti-(antibody, antidote, antibiotic, etc.), di-(digest, diverse, etc.), neo-(neo-realism, neo-conservatism, etc.) | |
| Greco-Latin Hybrids(words one part of which is Greek and the other one – Latin): e.g. tele-graph, socio-logy, tele-vision, etc. |
Fate of these Borrowings in English:
1. Many of them underwent a shift of meaning:
e.g. Lat. musculus (literally “little mouse”) à Eng. muscle;
Gr. kosmos (“universe”) à Eng. cosmetics;
Gr. climax (“ladder”) à Eng. climax (the top of something).
2. Many of them formed the basis for international terminology:
e.g. Latin borrowings: facsimile, introvert, radioactive, relativity, etc.;
Greek borrowings: allergy, antibiotic, hormone, protein, stratosphere, etc.
3. Many of them increased the number synonyms in English:
| Native Germanic Word | French Borrowing | Latin Borrowing |
| reckon | count | compute |
| size | calibre | magnitude |
| kingly | royal | regal |
Lecture 23
