“Enrichment”

3 textual revolutions

1. Writing

2. Printing

3. Electronics

Change and progress: the Renaissance

• 1476 Caxton’s printing press– mostly Latin– 20,000 English titles by 1640

• Increasing literacy – private letters in the 15th cent; ⅓ to ½ literate in Shakespeare’s London (Baugh)

• Increased commerce, transport• Growth of technology and knowledge, increase

in the fields of specialization.• Latin begins to lose its hold on scientific

discourse.

New Vocabulary

• Need for new words• New words are lexical, not structural

(open and closed classes)

open and closed classes

open classesLexical, content

words

closed classesStuctural,

grammatical words

• nouns• adjectives• adverbs • lexical verbs

• prepositions• pronouns• auxiliary verbs

New Vocabulary

• Need for new words• New words are lexical, not structural

(open and closed classes)

• 2 means of augmentation:– From within the language itself

• compounding, derivation, coinages, recycling...

– From outside• loans

New Vocabulary

• Need for new words• Lexical vocabulary, not structural

(open and closed classes)

• 2 means of augmentation:

From within the language itself• compounding, derivation, coinages, recyclin,

– From outside• loans

Það er alkunnugt hvað hægt er að búa til ný orð á íslensku, bæði samfellinga og allskonar nýgjörvinga. Og hvað er bað sem heimspekingarnir þurfa mest á að halda til að geta komið orðum að því sem þeir hugsa - eru það ekki ný orð handa nýjum hugmyndum? Hvað er það annað en þessi frjósemi málsins sem íslenskan hefir til að bera meir en flest önnur mál?Ágrip af ræðu áhrærandi íslensku eftir Konráð Gíslason (19.öld )

From within the language itself: Icelandic

• Compoundingflugvél farsími kæliskápur sjúkrahús útvarp

• Recyclingsími snælda diskur -væðing

• Derivationpöntun verslun dreifing fallegurlæknir bakari reiði flæði ástúð breidd bót

• Coinagestölva gemsi piltur stúlka

From within the language itself: English

• Derivationsuffixes: some still productivehappiness greatnesslovely elderlybeautiful hatefulgreenish reddish

Others no longer productive:handsome wedlock hatred hundred kingdom

freedom manhood friendship relationship

From within the language itself: English

• DerivationFrench or Latin suffixes:

-ion –ation –able –ity –ous

higly prductive:

likeable thinkable eatable regrettable

do-able undo-able throw-away-able

From within the language itself: English

• Derivationprefixeslost early in Norse and Icelandic

understandbecome believetobreak tohew totere (tear to pieces) toscattterwithdraw, withstandwithsaken (deny), withcwethen (contradict ) forbid forget forgive forbreak forburn, forhang (=put to death) forcleave

From within the language itself: English

• DerivationFrench or Latin prefixes:

return remark remember

redo remake

impossible inelegant illegal (unnecessary)

interfere interact

submit

From within the language itself: English

• (Coinagesboy.girl... )

From within the language itself: English

• DerivationBaugh: “Curtailment of OE processes of

derivation” § 137 p. 181

• Following the Norman conquest, this ability to make new words began to be lost.

• Why?

“Curtailment of OE processes of derivation”

“it is impossible to doubt that the wealth of easily acquired new words had weakened the English habit of word-formation"

p.182 end of §138

“Curtailment of OE processes of derivation”

Pétur Knútsson 1994. ”Learned & Popular etymology” in Íslensk mál

• OE like Icelandic has a monosyllabic constraint

on morphemes

úrne gedæghwámlican hláf ús sele tódægwífmann hláfweard cyning

“Curtailment of OE processes of derivation”

Pétur Knútsson 1994 • Stress on stem and creation of weak syllables

creates polysyllabic phonemes.

hláfweard > hláford >laverd > lordwífman > womanleofmann > lemmanhusband, neighbour

• i.e. the syllables do not all have clear meanings any more.

• English loses the monosyllabic constraint

“Curtailment of OE processes of derivation”

Pétur Knútsson 1994

• This effect is increased by the adoption of foreign words, and may even make it easier for foreign words to be accepted into the language

• At the same time there is an influx of Latin and later French polysyllabic words

apostle history plastercountrey justice prisoun reasoun

– If the foreign words have a complex morphological structure in their own language, this structure will not be visible in the language of adoption.

New Vocabulary

• Need for new words• Lexical vocabulary, not structural

(open and closed classes)

• 2 means of augmentation:

From within the language itself• compounding, derivation, coinages, recycling,

– From outside• loans

New Vocabulary

• Need for new words• Lexical vocabulary, not structural

(open and closed classes)

• 2 means of augmentation:– From within the language itself

• compounding, derivation, coinages, recyclin,

From outside• loans

Loans

• French vocabulary entered English as the use of French waned.

Baugh: 1000 French words at random

before-1050 21051-1000 01151-1150 21151-1200 71201-1250 351251-1300 991301-1350 1081351-1400 1981401-1450 741451-1500 901501-1550 621551-1600 95

(statistics in footnote to §133, p. 178 5th edn)

NB first recorded occurence in a written text !

status of French

Baugh: 1000 French words at random

Loans

• French vocabulary entered English as the use of French waned.

• Same with Latin?

See Latin Loans