Causes of Grammatical Changes 3 page

Some borrowings have a more specialised meaning and belong to scientific terminology (for the most part, they go back to Greek proto­types and may have been taken either from Greek or from Latin and French in a Latinised form), e.g. acid, analysis, antenna, apparatus, appendix, atom, axis, complex, curriculum, diagnosis, energy, formula, fungus, inertia, maximum, minimum, nucleus, radius, species, terminus, ultimatum. A distinct semantic group of Greek loan-words pertains to theatre, literature and rhetoric: anapest, comedy, climax, critic, dialogue, drama, elegy, epilogue, episode, metaphore, prologue, rhythm, scene, theatre. Like all borrowings, classical loan-words could undergo a shift of meaning upon entering the English language or some time later. Thus the original meaning of L musculus (NE muscle) was ‘little mouse’, cosmetic came from Greek kosmos ‘universe’, ‘order’ (hence ‘adornment’ and was also adopted in the original meaning (NE cosmos); atom meant something indivisible and changed its meaning due to the new discov­eries in physics; climax meant a ‘ladder’ in Greek.

§ 579. In addition to true borrowings, classical languages have provided a supply of roots in the creation of new words. Words like protestant, inertia, are based on classical roots but were created in mod­ern times. Thomas Elyot (16th c.) introduced the Greek word democracy, first used the word education in the modern sense, and created the word encyclopaedia from Greek component parts.

Words of this type were not necessarily created in England; they could be borrowed from contemporary languages but, nevertheless, they constitute part of the classical element in the English vocabulary. Now­adays they form the basis of international terminology, which is the chief element that modern languages hold in common.

The vast body of international terms continued to grow in the 18th— 19th c. A new impetus for their creation was given by the great technical progress of the 20th c., which is reflected in hundreds of newly coined terms or Latin and Greek words applied in new meanings, e.g. allergy, antibiotic, cyclotron, hormones, orthopedic, protein, stratosphere — all based on Greek roots; examples of new application of Latin terms are — facsimile, introvert, quantum, radioactive, relativity; some terms are Greco-Latin hybrids, as they combine Latin and Greek roots: socio-logy, tele-vision (Cf. the use of tele in numerous compounds denoting instru­ments or branches of science concerned with transmitting information at a distance: telegraph, telephone, telepathy, telescope, telegramme.)

§ 580. In addition to words and roots, Latin and Greek have sup­plied English (as well as other modern languages) with a profusion of derivational affixes which have become productive in the English lan­guage of the recent centuries. These suffixes can be seen in the following classical loan-words: humanism (-ism from the Gr - ismos, L -ismus); protagonist (from the Gr -istes, L -ista); fraternize (from the Gr -izein, L -izare). The Greek prefixes anti-, di-, neo-, the Latin (and French) prefixes de-, ex-, re- and others occur in numerous modern words com­bined with other components of diverse origin (see below).

§ 581. One of the effects of the classical borrowings on the English language was the further increase of the number of synonyms. Replace­ment of native words by classical loan-words is of rare occurrence; a normal result of the adoption of Latin words (in case they were not in­novations proper) was an addition of another synonym to the existing set. The following examples illustrate three sources of synonyms (or near-synonyms) and their semantic and stylistic differences;

It is evident that Latin and French words are more bookish than na­tive, Latin words being sometimes more “elevated” than French ones.

Some French and Latin loan-words in the English vocabulary go back to one and the same Latin root, i.e. they are etymological dou­blets. They differ in sound, form and in meaning, as the borrowings from O Fr have undergone many changes both in the history of the French lan­guage since the days of the Latin parent-language and in the history of English after their adoption. The borrowings coming directly from Latin have suffered relatively few changes. In the list above, the pairs sever — separate and royal — regal are etymological doublets. Other examples are: sure — secure (from O Fr seure and L securum); defeat — defect (from O Fr defait and L defectum); pursue — prosecute (from O Fr persuir and L prosecutum); vowel — vocal (from O Fr vouel and L vocalem).

§ 582. Early NE borrowings from classical languages have been as­similated by the language: they do not contain any foreign, un-English, sounds and receive primary and secondary stresses like other English words; the grammatical forms of borrowed words are usually built in accordance with the regular rules of English grammar. (Except for some recent borrowings which have preserved their forms: datum — data, antenna — antennae, etc.) And nevertheless they are easier to identify than the earlier layers of borrowings because they were borrowed a rel­atively short time ago and have been subjected to very few changes.

§ 583. In order to identify Latin loan-words of the Early NE period we should note some endings and suffixes which occur in Latin borrow­ings but are not used for word creation in English. Some verbs were de­rived from Latin Past Part. of verbs belonging to different conjugations: verbs in - ale go back to the 1st Latin conjugation with the Part. in -atum, e.g. dominate, locate, separate; verbs in - ute come from Past Part. in - utum, e.g. execute, prosecute, verbs in -ct- — from Past Part. in -ctum (both Part. endings are found in the third conjugation), e.g. correct, inspect. Verbs derived from Latin infinitives have miscel­laneous endings, which cannot serve as reliable criteria for identifi­cation, e.g. admit, compell, induce.

More informative are the elements -ent, -ant in adjectives. They come from respective suffixes of Pres. Part., e.g.: apparent, evident, important, reluctant. The same suffixes may occur in nouns: incident, accident. [71]

Some of the Greek loan-words retain peculiarities of spelling which can facilitate identification: ph for [f], ps for [s], ch for [k], e.g.: photography, psychology, scheme, archaic.

In addition to these formal marks, one should bear in mind the styl­istic and semantic character of classical borrowings: the bulk of these words belong to the bookish varieties of the language, to scientific prose and to special terminology. Hundreds of words of Latin and Greek origin (no matter whether they are borrowings proper or later formations) have parallels in many modern languages — French, German, Russian and others — as they enter the layer of international words. Therefore the existence of Russian parallels (as well as the knowledge of the most frequent international Greek and Latin word components used therein) may prove helpful in identifying words of classical origin, e.g. - logy, - graphy (Gr).

Borrowings from Contemporary Languages in New English (§ 584-591)

§ 584. The foreign influence on the English vocabulary in the age of the Renaissance and in the succeeding centuries was not restricted to Latin and Greek. The influx of French words continued and reached new peaks in the late 15th and in the late 17th c.

French borrowings of the later periods mainly pertain to diplomatic relations, social life, art and fashions. French remained the internation­al language of diplomacy for several hundred years; Paris led the fash­ion in dress, food and in social life and to a certain extent in art and literature; finally, the political events in France in the 18th-19th c. were of world-wide significance. All these external conditions are re­flected in French loans. Examples of diplomatic terms are attache, com­munique, dossier; the words ball, beau, cortege, cafe, coquette, hotel, picnic, restaurant refer to social life; ballet, ensemble, essay, genre per­tain to art; military terms are brigade, corps, manoeuvre, marine, police, reconnaissance; fashions in dress and food are illustrated by words like blouse, chemise, corsage, cravat, champagne, menu, soup. Words of mis­cellaneous character are: comrade, detail, entrance, essay, machine, mous­tache, progress, ticket.

As seen from the lists, later French borrowings differ widely from the loan-words adopted in ME. Most of them have not been completely assimilated and have retained a foreign appearance to the present day — note their spellings, the sounds and the position of the stress. Words like genre and restaurant have nasalised vowels and a French spelling: police, fatigue, marine receive the stress on the last syllable and are pronounced with long [i:] indicated by the letter i like French words; the digraph ch stands for [ʃ] in machine, in beau the letters eau have also retained the sound value of the French prototype [o:].

§ 585. In addition to the three main sources — Greek, Latin and French, English speakers of the NE period borrowed freely from many other languages. It has been estimated that even in the 17th c. the Eng­lish vocabulary contained words derived from no less than fifty foreign tongues. We shall mention only the most important ones.

The main contributors to the vocabulary were Italian, Dutch, Span­ish, German, Portuguese and Russian. A number of words were adopted from languages of other countries and continents, which came into con­tact with English: Persian, Chinese, Hungarian, Turkish, Malayan, Polynesian, the native languages of India and America.

§ 586. Next to French, Latin and Scandinavian, English owes the greatest number of foreign words to Italian, though many of them, like Latin loan-words, entered the English language through French. A few early borrowings pertain to commercial and military affairs while the vast majority of words are related to art, music and literature, which is a natural consequence of the fact that Italy was the birthplace of the Renaissance movement and of the revival of interest in art.

In the 14th c. English imported the Italian words ducato, million, florin (from the name of Florence, where the coin was minted), pistol, cartridge, alarm (probably borrowed from French but traced to Italian all' arme ‘all to arms’). Italian words relating to art are well known to speakers of all European languages. Examples of musical terms adopt­ed in English are: aria, bass, cello (genetically, a diminutive suffix in violoncello), concerto, duet, finale, piano, solo, sonata, soprano, tenor, violin.

The Italian loan-words balcony, cameo, corridor, cupola, design, fresco, gallery, granite, parapet, pedestal, studio reveal the priority of the Italians in certain spheres of culture. The loans replica, sonnet, stan­za indicate new concepts in literature.

As seen from the examples, some loan-words retained their Italian appearance, others were Gallicised (i.e. assumed a French shape); prob­ably they had entered the English language through French, e.g. arti­san, campaign, intrigue. Many words in general use do not differ from English words either in sounds or spelling and cannot be distinguished from native words without a special study: barrack, cash, canteen, es­cort, gallop, laundry, manage, medal, pants, pilot; these borrowings were probably imported at an earlier date and have lost their foreign flavour.

§ 587. Borrowings from Spanish came as a result of contacts with Spain in the military, commercial and political fields, due to the rivalry of England and Spain in foreign trade and colonial expansion. This is apparent from the nature of Spanish borrowings in English made in the 16th and 17th c., e.g.: armada, barricade, cannibal, cargo, embargo, escapade. Many loan-words indicated new objects and concepts encoun­tered in the colonies: banana, canoe, chocolate, cocoa, colibri, maize, mosquito, Negro, potato, ranch, tobacco, tomato.

§ 588. Borrowings from Germanic languages are of special interest as English is a Germanic language too. The influence of Scandinavian in Early ME has certainly remained unsurpassed and the unique con­ditions of close language contacts were never repeated. By the 15th— 16th c. the Germanic languages had driven far apart; their linguistic affinities were disguised by the changes of the intervening periods. Therefore loan-words from related Germanic tongues were no less foreign to English speakers than those from other linguistic groups. Yet their sound form was somewhat closer to English and their assimilation prog­ressed rapidly. Dutch words and some of the German words do not differ in appearance from native English words.

§ 589. Dutch made abundant contribution to English, particularly in the 15th and 16th c., when commercial relations between England and the Netherlands were at their peak. Dutch artisans came to England to practise their trade, and sell their goods. They specialised in wool weaving and brewing, which is reflected in the Dutch loan-words: pack, scour, spool, stripe (terms of weaving); hops, tub, scum. Extensive borrow­ing is found in nautical terminology: bowline, buoy, cruise, deck, dock, freight, keel, skipper. The flourishing of art in the Netherlands accounts for some Dutch loan-words relating to art: easel, landscape, sketch.

§ 590. Loan-words from German reflect the scientific and cultural achievements of Germany at different dates of the New period. Mineralogical terms are connected with the employment of German specialists in the English mining industry, e.g.: cobalt, nickel, zinc. The advance of philosophy in the 18th and 19th c. accounts for philosophical terms, e.g.: transcendental, dynamics (going back to classical roots). Some bor­rowings do not belong to a particular semantic sphere and can only be classified as miscellaneous: kindergarten, halt, stroll, plunder, poodle, waltz.

The most peculiar feature of German influence on the English vo­cabulary in the 18th and 19th c. is the creation of translation-loans on German models from native English components (sometimes also from foreign roots, borrowed and assimilated before). Whenever compound German nouns, in their alien sound form and morphological structure, were hard to reproduce, translation-loans came in handy in rendering their meaning and creating new terms; English swan-song is a literal translation of German Schwanenlied; home-sickness comes from Heimweh, standpoint from Standpunkt; environment was the rendering of Umgebung (proposed by Th. Carlyle), superman was naturalised by B. Shaw as a translation of Nietzsche’s Ubermensch; world outlook and class struggle correspond to Weltanschauung and Klassenkampf; masterpiece consists of two Romance elements reproducing German Meisterstuck.

(Recent German borrowings in English, connected with World War II and other political events, are: blitz, bunker, führer, Gestapo, nazi.)

§591. The Russian element in the English vocabulary is of particular interest to the Russian student of the history of Eng­lish. The earliest Russian loan-words entered the English language as far back as the 16th c., when the English trade company (the Moskovy Company) established the first trade relations with Russia. English borrowings adopted from the 16th till the 19th c. indicate ar­ticles of trade and specific features of life in Russia, observed by the English: astrakhan, beluga, boyar, copeck, intelligentsia, muzhik, rouble, samovar, troika, tsar, verst, vodka.

The loan-words adopted after 1917 reflect the new social relations and political institutions in the USSR: bolshevik, Komsomol, Soviet. Some of the new words are translation-loans: collective farm, Five-Year- Plan, wall newspaper. In the recent decades many technical terms came from Russian, indicating the achievements in different branches of science: sputnik, cosmonaut (in preference of the American astronaut), synchrophasotron.

HISTORY OF WORD-FORMATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 15TH-17TH C. (§ 592-625)

§ 592. The growth of the English vocabulary from internal sources — through word-formation and semantic change — can be observed in all periods of history; as mentioned above, internal sources of vocabulary growth may have become relatively less important in ME, when hun­dreds of foreign words (especially French) entered the language. In the 15th, 16th and 17th c. the role of internal sources of the replenishment of the vocabulary became more important though the influx of borrow­ings from other languages continued.

As before, word formation fell into two types: word derivation and word composition.

Word Derivation (§ 593)

§ 593. The means of derivation used in OE continued to be employed in later periods and their relative position and functions were generally the same. Suffixation has always been the most productive way of de­riving new words, most of the OE productive suffixes have survived, and many new suffixes have been added from internal and external sources. The development of prefixation was uneven: in ME many OE prefixes fell into disuse; after a temporary decline in the 15th and 16th c. the use of prefixes grew again; like suffixes, Early NE prefixes could come from foreign sources. Sound interchanges and the shifting of word stress were mainly employed as a means of word differentiation, rather than as a word-building means. The Early NE period witnessed the growth of a new, specifically English way of word derivation — con­version (also known as “functional change”), which has developed into a productive way of creating new words.

Sound Interchanges (§ 594)

§ 594. Sound interchanges have never been a productive means of word derivation in English. In OE they served as a supplementary means of word differentiation and were mostly used together with suffixes (see § 251 ff.). In ME and Early NE sound interchanges continued to be used as an accompanying feature together with other derivational means. Although new instances of sound interchanges were few, in NE their role as a means of word differentiation grew.

New vowel alternations in related words could arise as a result of quantitative vowel changes in Early ME. Since those changes were positional, they did not necessarily take place in all the words derived from the same root; consequently, there arose a difference in the root- vowels. For instance, the vowels remained or became long in ME cleene, wise, wild, but remained or became short in the related words clensen, wisdom, wildreness. (Cf. the resulting vowel interchanges in NE clean — cleanse, wild — wilderness, wise — wisdom, see § 371.)

The role of sound interchanges has grown due to the weakening and loss of many suffixes and grammatical endings. If these elements were dropped, sound interchanges turned out to be the only means of distinc­tion between some pairs of words. Cf., e.g.:

Consonant interchanges were rare, though sometimes they came to serve the same function as vowel interchanges in the absence of endings. Cf. ME hous — housen, NE house [s] n — house [z] v, NE mouth n — mouth v [θ~ð].

Thus the functional load of sound interchanges in word-building has grown as a result of linguistic changes at other levels — loss of some final syllables.

Word Stress (§ 595)

§ 595. The role of stress in word-building has grown in ME and Early NE in consequence of the same changes as affected the use of sound in­terchanges, namely the weakening and loss of final syllables.

In OE, despite its fixed position in the word, stress was sometimes moved in derivation. The shifting of word stress, together with other means provided a regular distinction between some verbs and nouns with prefixes (see § 114 and § 256).

In ME these pairs of words practically died out, but at the same time word stress acquired greater positional freedom: it was commonly moved in derivatives of borrowed words (Cf. Early NE confide — con­fidence, precede — precedence, prefer — preference). Similarly with the OE practice the verb prefix is unstressed, while the corresponding nouns take the stress to the first syllable. This distinction is important in words having no other differences; cf. Early NE 'contrast n and con'trast v differing in the position of stress alone (also: NE 'export — cx'port, 'conduct — con'duct, 'increase — in'crease).

These words are Franco-Latin borrowings. In the course of their phonetic assimilation the stress was moved closer to the beginning of the word, but in order to preserve the distinction between verbs and nouns; the stress in verbs was sometimes retained on the second syllable, — in line with the OE tendency. Thus word stress became the only distinctive mark in some pairs of modern words. In many derived words it served as an additional distinctive feature together with other word-building means, e.g.: relax — relaxation, necessary — necessity, confide — con­fidence. (In some pairs of words, stress is not used for differentiation, cf. neglect n, v, comment n, v.)

Prefixation (§ 596)

§ 596. During the ME period prefixes were used in derivation less frequently than before. The decline of prefixation can be accounted for by a number of reasons.

As mentioned before (§ 257) OE prefixes were productive means of forming verbs from other verbs. Comparison of verbs with and without prefixes shows that many verb prefixes had a very vague and general meaning, so that the simple and derived verb were synonymous. Con­sequently the prefix could be easily dispensed with; instead of the OE pairs of synonyms, differing in the prefix, ME retained only the simple verb. Cf., e.g.:

If the prefix had a distinct semantic value, it was commonly re­tained, e.g. ME forgiven as compared to given, ME bequethen — quethen, ME becomen — comen (NE forgive — give, bequeath — obs. ‘say’, be­come — come).

Another factor which could favour the decline of verb prefixation was the growing use of verb phrases with adverbs (the so-called “com­posite verbs”). In these phrases the adverbs modified the meaning of the verb like OE prefixes, e.g. OE ā-ʒan, ā-drifan, be-lōcian, Early ME be-kerven were eventually replaced by go away, go off, drive away, look up, cut off. It is believed the frequency of these phrases in ME in­creased under the influence of O Scand (unlike other Germanic lan­guages, North Germanic made wider use of verb-adverb phrases than of verb prefixes).

The loss of some verbs with prefixes in ME can be ascribed to re­placement of native words by borrowings, e.g.: OE forfaren was replaced by ME perishen (from O Fr), OE forʒān by ME passen (NE perish, pass).

These developments do not mean that prefixation was dying out; it became less productive in ME, but later, in Early NE, its productivity grew again, though it never assumed such proportions as in OE.

Native Prefixes (§ 597)

§ 597. Many OE verb prefixes dropped out of use, e.g. a-, tō-, on-, of-, ʒe-, or-. In some words the prefix fused with the root and the struc­ture of the word was simplified, e.g.: OE on-ʒinnd > ME ginnen or beginnen, NE begin, OE tō-brecan > ME breken, NE break.

Some OE prefixes continued to be used as word-building means and their productivity grew in Late ME and Early NE. The OE prefix be- yielded ME beseechen (NE beseech), bewitchen (NE bewitch); NE be­friend, belittle; when added to borrowed stems, it produced hybrids: ME betaken, becharmen; NE becircle, belace.

The negative prefixes mis- and un- produced a great number of new words. Mis- was not very productive until the 16th c.., ME examples are: mislayen, misdemen (NE mislay, ‘misjudge’) with a foreign stem — mistake n; in Early NE its productivity grew: NE misjudge, mispro­nounce, misappreciate, mislead, etc.

OE un- was mainly used with nouns and adjectives, seldom with verbs; it remained productive in all the periods. New formations in ME are unable, unknowen, in Early NE — unhook, unload and others; hybrids with this prefix are: ME uncertain, unreasonable, NE unscale, unreal, unfamiliar.

Several prefixes which had developed from OE adverbs and prepo­sitions yielded an increasing number of words in ME and NE:

OE ūt, ME out-: ME outcome, NE outlook, outspoken; added to borrowed steins it produced ME outcast, NE outbalance;

OE ofer, ME over-: ME overgrowe (n), NE overload, overlook; with bor­rowed stems — ME overcaste (n), overtaken, NE overdress, over­estimate, overpay;

OE under, ME under-: ME underwrite (n), NE underfeed, undermine.

Borrowed Prefixes (§ 598-600)

§ 598. In Late ME, and in Early NE new prefixes began to be em­ployed in word derivation in English: French, Latin, and Greek. Foreign prefixes were adopted by the English language as component parts of loan-words; some time later they were singled out as separate compo­nents and used in word-building.

Probably at the time of adoption most foreign words were treated as simple or indivisible even if they were derived or compound words in the source language (e.g. commit, submit were simple words in Eng­lish, although they go back to derived French and Latin words with the prefixes com- and sub-). But in case a large number of words with the same prefix were adopted and the same root occurred in different words — with other affixes or as part of compounds — the morphological structure of the words became transparent and the function of the prefix was understood. Through analogy, foreign prefixes began to be employed in derivation with other roots, both foreign and native. Assimilation of a foreign prefix can be illustrated by in the history of the French pre­fix re-.

Between the years 1200 and 1500 English borrowed many French words with the prefix re-, e.g.; ME re-comforten, re-dressen, re-formen, re-entren, re-compensen; the same roots were found in simple loan-words and in derived words with other affixes, cf.: ME comforten, dressen, formen, entren; entrance, comfortable; discomforten, undressen, deformen. Re- was separated, as an element of the word, its meaning became clear to the speakers and in the 16th c. it began to be applied as a means of word derivation: