Causes of Grammatical Changes 4 page

16th c. examples: re-greet, re-kindle, re-live

17th and 18th c. — re-act, re-adjust, re-fill, re-construct, re-open

19th c. — re-attack, re-awake

As seen from the examples, re- was used both with foreign and native stems fill, live, open. Eventually it grew into one of the most productive verb prefixes in English. (Most of the borrowed affixes were first applied to borrowed stems, later — to native stems; some only to borrowed stems; in the lists of examples the derivatives from bor­rowed stems are given before hybrids.)

§ 599. Most of the prefixes of Franco-Latin origin found their way into English in Late ME or in Early NE periods. The earliest derivatives formed with their help in the English language date from the 15th c.; in the 16th and 17th c. their productivity grew.

The verb prefixes de- and dis- of Romance origin (French and Latin) entered the English language in many loan-words, e.g.: ME destructive, decresen, dischargen, discomforten, disgisen. Later they came to be used with other foreign stems and with native stems: disconnect, dis­root (borrowed steins), disbelieve, dislike, disown.

The prefix en-/in- displayed high productivity in Early NE but has not increased it since, for its meaning ‘bring into a certain condi­tion’ was commonly expressed by link-verbs and adjectives. ME exam­ples are enablen, enclosen, NE encamp, endanger, enlist, enrich (with borrowed stems). Examples of hybrids with native stems are ME enhungren, NE embody, entwine, entrust.

The adjectival prefix in- (and its variants in-/im-/il-/ir-) was one of many ME prefixes of negative meaning; native mis-, un-, borrowed non-. They produced numerous synonyms recorded in the English texts from the 14th to the 16th c.: unpleasant, displeasant; unpossible, impos­sible; disable, unable, non-able; unfirm, infirm. (In case of absolute syn­onyms, one of the words replaced the others; if the words expressed or came to express different shades of meaning or acquired some stylistic differences, they were retained. Cf., e.g. ME disliken, which replaced OE mislician; unable, which displaced the other synonyms, and the fol­lowing pairs with different prefixes: NE disbelief — misbelief, inhuman — non-human.)

The negative prefix non- of Franco-Latin origin developed into a highly productive English prefix freely applied both to adjectives and nouns: NE non-attendance, non-Germanic, non-aggression, non-existent, etc.

§ 600. A number of new prefixes employed since the 17th c. had entered the language in numerous classical borrowings — Latin and Greek. Since most of the classical loan-words belonged to the sphere of science, philosophy and literature, the use of new prefixes was con­fined to these spheres. Within these spheres many Greek and Latin pre­fixes have become highly productive. Like many Latin and Greek roots, these affixes belong to the international layer; they are mostly used with stems of Latin and Greek origin; e.g.: anti- (Gr) — anti-aircraft, anti­climax; co- (L) — co-exist, co-operate, co-ordinate; ex- (L) — ex-cham­pion, ex-president; extra- (L) — extra-mural, extra-ordinary; post- (L) — post-position, post-war; pre- (L) — pre-classical, pre-written; semi- (L) — semi-circle, semi-official. (In this list only writ — is a native English root.)

Suffixation (§ 601)

§ 601. Suffixation has remained the most productive way of word derivation through all historical periods. Though some of the OE suf­fixes were no longer employed and were practically dead, many new suf­fixes developed from native and foreign sources, so that there has been no decline in the use of suffixes even in ME despite the fact that the vo­cabulary was mainly replenished through borrowing.

Native Suffixes (§ 602-608)

§ 602. Several OE suffixes of nomina agentis were lost as means of derivation; in ME -end, - en, -estre occur as inseparable parts of the stem. ME frend, fyxen/vixen, spinnestre (NE friend, she-fox, spinster).

OE -ere developed into the most productive suffix of agent nouns in ME and NE. At first it formed nouns from substantival stems — OE bōcere from bōc (‘scribe’, NE book); soon it began to produce agent nouns from verbal stems: OE writere (NE writer), ME rider (e), singer (e), weever (e). In ME we find numerous agent nouns in -er derived from va­rious stems, both of native and foreign origin; the former are exem­plified above, the latter are illustrated by the following hybrids: ME partener, fermer, villager.

Gradually the meaning of the suffix extended, and it began to indi­cate also a person coming from a certain locality: Londoner, Southerner. In Early NE the suffix acquired a new meaning: it yielded nouns denot­ing instruments and things, e.g. knocker, roller. Cf. boiler ‘one who boils’ in the 16th c. and a ‘vessel for boiling’ in the 19th c. NE exam­ples are familiar to all students of present-day English; follower, flyer, hearer, listener, teacher, speaker (from native stems); admirer, entertainer, producer (from foreign stems). Its new meaning is exemplified by recti­fier, revolver, type-writer. The suffix -er had several rivals among synon­ymous borrowed affixes -or, -ist, -ite, but it surpassed them all in pro­ductivity and was never stylistically restricted (whereas the three for­eign suffixes are productive mainly in the sphere of science, see below),

§ 603. The old suffixes of abstract nouns -ap, -op, -p, had long been dead in ME, and were supplanted in many derived words by more pro­ductive synonymous native affixes -ness and -ing and later by a few bor­rowed ones.

The suffix -ness was equally productive in all historical periods. It was mainly used with adjectival stems, irrespective of their origin: ME derkness, seekness, NE narrowness, prettiness (native stems); ME cleerness, tendreness, NE — alertness, consciousness, politeness (borrowed stems).

Another highly productive suffix of abstract nouns was ME -ing, which had replaced two OE suffixes: the variants -inʒ/-unʒ. It was ap­plied to verbal stems without restrictions. Thus ME hunting replaced OE huntop, ME meeting replaced OE ʒe-mōt. Numerous new derivatives were produced: ME beginning, feeling, spelling, preeching, NE shopping, etc.

§ 604. Among OE noun suffixes there were some new items, which had developed from root-morphemes: -dōm, -lāc, -hād, -rǣden, -scipe. They remained relatively productive in ME but their productivity fell in the succeeding periods.

New derivatives with - dom, -ship and -hood can be found in the texts of all historical periods, but the words are rather uncommon and do not belong to the ordinary neutral vocabulary, e.g. ME sheriffdom, dukedom, NE boydom, churchdom; ME brotherhood, manhood, NE bookhood, invalidhood; derivatives with -ship are less peculiar but as rare as other abstract nouns with this group of suffixes: ME hardship, courtship, NE editorship, relationship. The meaning of these suffixes was rather vague and sometimes they interchanged with the more productive suffix of abstract nouns -ness; cf. ME richdom and richness, falsedom and false­ness.

§ 605. A new suffix -man, developed from a root-morpheme in ME in the same way as the OE suffixes mentioned in § 604, though its status is debatable since it could also serve as a root-morpheme. Like other suf­fixes, it developed from the second component of a compound noun. Some words with this component were simplified in Early ME, e.g. OE wifman, wimman>ME wimari> NE woman; some new compounds, produced by combining -man with nominal stems in ME, were soon simplified to derived words with a suffix, e.g. NE ploughman, seaman. In NE nomina agentis in -man became highly productive: some words with - man have the connecting element -s — kinsman, statesman; others interchange -man with -woman: nobleman — noblewoman, which seems to justify their treatment as compounds. On the other hand, repeated instances of simplification throughout history point to the suffixal — or at least transitional — nature of -man.

§ 606. Suffixation has always been a very productive way of forming adjectives. Unlike noun suffixes, all the OE adjective suffixes remained productive in the subsequent periods — both suffixes proper and suffixes which had developed from root-mor.hemes.

OE - isc, ME - ish was at first mainly added to nouns indicating na­tions to form corresponding adjectives (OE Enʒlisc), but was soon ex­tended to other nouns to indicate qualities and states: OE cildisc (NE childish), ME sleepish, foolish; NE bookish, modish, feverish (the last two examples illustrate its use with foreign stems). Beginning with ME -ish acquired a new function: it could also yield adjectives from other adjectives to express a weakened degree of a quality: ME and NE red­dish, greenish.

OE - iʒ, ME -y was a suffix of wide application: it produced adjectives from noun-, verb- and adjective-stems in all historical periods: ME fiery, sleepy, faulty, NE — hairy, risky (faulty and risky have Romance stems).

§ 607. The OE adjectival suffix -lic, ME and NE -ly which had de­veloped from a root-morpheme continued to produce adjectives from nominal stems in ME and NE, though in smaller numbers than the suf­fixes -y and -ish, and far less actively than the other OE suffixes of sim­ilar origin -lēas and -fail. Nevertheless, a number of new formations were produced in every period, both from native and borrowed roots, e.g. ME fatherly, manly, masterly, beestly, Early NE neighbourly, lonely, cowardly. [72]

ME - less (from OE adjective and suffix -lēas ‘devoid of’ has devel­oped into one of the most productive suffixes. Originally it was added to noun-stems but later began to be added to verb-stems (though it was less productive in this function). Both native and borrowed stems could freely combine with the suffix, e.g. ME helpless, sleepless, NE heart­less, fearless (native stems); ME colourless, joyless, NE motionless, pow­erless (borrowed steins).

OE and ME - ful also owes its origin to morphological simplification. It had developed from the OE adjective full and was a genuine suffix as early as ME. Originally it was added to noun stems to form adjectives; later it began to be attached also to adjective- and verb-stems. In spite of some variations it has retained its principal meaning and its semantic ties with the adjective full. Numerous examples are to be found in the written records of various periods: ME harmful, wilful, NE hopeful, wishful (with native stems); beautiful, joyful, lawful, respectful (with borrowed stems — French, Scandinavian and Latin).

§ 608. Verb suffixes of native origin have never been productive in English. In ME one native suffix -en was used to derive verbs from monosyllabic adjectives, mainly native. (It is traced to OE - nian, or to the infinitive ending -an, which can be regarded as a verbal deriva­tional affix, cf. OE eald — ealdian ‘old’ — ‘growold’.) ME and NE exam­ples are: gladden, lighten, weaken; sometimes it is applied to noun-stems (derived from adjectives in Early OE with the help of - p): strong — strength, strengthen.

Borrowed Suffixes (§ 609-615)

§ 609. Borrowed suffixes came to occupy an important place in English word derivation. Like prefixes, borrowed suffixes entered the English language with the two biggest waves of loan-words: French loans in ME and classical loans in Early NE. The way of their assimi­lation and their inclusion in the word-building system is similar to that of borrowed prefixes (§ 596). When many words with the same suffix had been adopted, and the stems of these words were also used in simple words or with other affixes, the suffixes were isolated and employed according to the patterns set by the loan-words. The process can be il­lustrated by one of the most productive borrowed adjective suffix -able. French loan-words with the suffix -able contained verbal stems which occurred also m other loan-words as stems of simple verbs or as components of derived and compound words. Cf. ME agreeable, servysable and ME agreen v, serven n, servyce n, servaunt n. In Late ME the suffix -able began to be used in adjective derivation — at first with Romance stems — admittable, sesonable, but later also in hybrids with native stems — ME lovable, etable, redable, understandable. New derivatives of the subsequent centuries are very numerous: acceptable, admirable, endurable, presentable (with borrowed stems) — breakable, shakable (with native English stems — break, shake).

§ 610. Borrowed suffixes were used to form different parts of speech; nouns, adjectives and verbs. Many suffixes had similar functions and meaning and were synonymous with native suffixes. Like other syno­nyms they were either preserved, with certain differentiation of meaning, function or style, or one of the synonyms supplanted the ethers. For instance in the days of Shakespeare there were five adjectives derived from the stem effect: effectual, effective, effecluous, effectful, effectuat­ing; as we know, only two of them live on today: effective and effectual.

§ 611. In Late ME and Early NE several borrowed suffixes began to be used in forming nomina agentis. The French suffix -ess produced many derivatives in ME, as it had replaced the native -estre; e.g.: ME authoress, princess, captainess — with borrowed stems, goddess, hunt­ress — with native stems; it remained productive in the New period and yielded many more words, e.g.; governess, butleress, priestess.

The French suffix -ee (from the form of the Past Part. Fem. gender with the ending -ée — donnée, montrée) is found in derived words in ME, but becomes more productive only in later NE, e.g. ME grantee, NE employee, addressee (also with native stems; trustee).

The suffix -or (from Fr) resembled the native suffix -er, though its application remained more restricted; it was used only with borrowed Romance stems, and was mainly confined to scientific style, e.g. collec­tor, educator. It has acquired a secondary meaning of ‘instrument’, — probably from the new meaning of the suffix -er, e.g. refrigerator, com­pressor.

The suffixes adopted as components of classical borrowings in Early NE -ist, -ite came to be used as means of derivation some time later. They combine with foreign stems and yield such modern words as col­umnist, capitalist, structuralist (also Darwinist from the name of Dar­win); Muscovite, Ibsenite and the like.

§ 612. Borrowed noun-suffixes include a large group of suffixes of abstract nouns - ance or -ence (the latter is a Latinised form of the French - ance), -ty, -age, - ry, -ment; to these French suffixes we should add Franco-Latin -tion/-sion and Latin or Greek -ism.

ME examples of abstract nouns derived with the help of borrowed suffixes are; avoid-ance, and hindr-ance (a hybrid with a native stem), peerage, leekage and stowage (with the native stem stow). NE formations with borrowed suffixes are known from present-day English; examples of hybrids with native or foreign stems are: forbearance, shortage, goosery, sophistry (Gr), readability, fulfilment, starvation, Darwinism.

§ 613. Borrowed adjective suffixes were less numerous than noun suffixes, perhaps because native suffixes were very productive. The most productive borrowed adjective suffix was -able/-ible (which goes back to Latin -bilis and French -able). It is not related to the adjective able but may have been confused with it, for it means ‘able to act or be acted upon’. Its original active meaning was largely supplanted by the passive meaning in recent derivatives. Cf. capable, drinkable, eatable (see other examples in § 609),

Another frequent adjective suffix -ous is traced to O Fr and L - osus ‘abounding in’. It is found in many borrowings — dubious, fero­cious, tremendous — but original formations with -ous are rare: lustrous, thunderous, righteous dating from Early NE — the two latter adjectives employ native stems.

The adjective suffixes -al and -ic which were adopted as components of classical borrowings (and also -ive from French) began to yield new words in the last few centuries, and can be exemplified by modern ad­jectives: economical, atomic, defective.

§ 614. Borrowed verb suffixes were few, but two of them -ise and -fy became highly productive in some spheres of written English — po­litical, scientific and the like. Like other suffixes, which entered the language in Early NE they were mainly applied to borrowed stems, e.g. memorise, militarise, normalise, but womanise (native stem); -fy — classify, intensify.

§ 615. It should be realised that the restricted application of some borrowed affixes does not mean that they have not entered the system of English word-building; some of them are as productive as native affixes. Semantically and stylistically most borrowed affixes belong to the language of science, literature, politics, philosophy, that is to the spheres where borrowed roots abound and native stems are in the minority; it is natural, that the creation of new terms with these affixes is based on borrowed roots. The high frequency of the affixes in the sphere of terminology, and the derivation of new terms with their help in present-day English, is sufficient proof of their complete assimilation and productivity.

Conversion (§ 616-619)

§ 616. Conversion was a new method of word derivation which arose in Late ME and grew into a most productive, specifically English way of creating new words. Conversion is effected through a change in the meaning, the grammatical paradigm and the syntactic use of the word in the sentence. The word is transformed into another part of speech with an identical initial form, e.g. NE house n and house v.

§ 617. The growth of conversion is accounted for by grammatical and lexical changes during the ME period: reduction of endings and suffixes and the simplification of the morphological structure of the word. After the loss of endings and suffixes a large number of English verbs and nouns became identical in form. Cf. the following pairs of OE and ME nouns and verbs derived from the same roots, with their descend­ants in NE:

In Early NE the words in each pair became homonymous: they dif­fered, however, in their grammatical forms (paradigms) and syntactic functions: one of the words was used as a noun, the other — as a verb. The possibility of using identical words as different parts of speech set up a new pattern of word-building. In Late ME this pattern began to be applied by analogy in creating new words, mainly verbs from nouns, e.g.

ME fyren v from ME fire n (OE fӯr); timen v from time n (OE tima); agen v from ME age (borrowed from Fr), and many others.

§ 618. The use of conversion was not restricted to the formation of verbs from nouns; when the new relations within the pairs had been well established, the reverse process could occur as well: nouns came to be derived from verbs. These instances were rare in ME but became in­creasingly common in the subsequent periods: e.g. ME breke n from ME breke (n) v, NE break — break; ME look (e) n from ME loken v. NE look — look; Early NE drive n from drive v, paint n from paint v.

§ 619. Conversion was particularly productive in the Early NE. The great playwrights of the Literary Renaissance are famous for their “freedom of grammatical construction” and “unconventional handling of parts of speech”, i.e. for creating new words by conversion. Numerous examples of occasional conversion, as well as of new words which stayed on in the language, have been found in Shakespeare’s plays, e.g.:

such stuffe as madman tongue and braine not; you shall nose him as you go up to the stairs; our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city; fisting each other’s throats, etc.

In present-day English conversion has grown into one of the most productive ways of word-building, accounting for the free transforma­tion of nouns into verbs and verbs into nouns through a change in their syntactic position.

Word Composition in Middle English and Early New English (§ 620-623)

§ 620. Many compound words recorded in OE texts went out of use in ME. Numerous compound nouns used in OE poetry died out together with the genre. In ME word compounding was less productive than in the OE period but in Early NE its productivity grew, together with other ways of word formation. As before, compounding was more char­acteristic of nouns and adjectives than of verbs.

§ 621. The Early OE classification of compounds into syntactic and morphological (also termed “asyntactic”) is irrelevant for later periods. This classification could have been used to explain the origin of the “linking elements” in compounds — but the employment of linking elements, irregular as it was in OE, has never gained ground and has remained rare to this day. Examples like ME domesman, craftesman are few. In NE the element -s (going back to the Gen. case of the OE noun, which served as the first component) is found in isolated instances and is entirely unmotivated, e.g. spokesman, sportsman.

In some compounds, especially nouns, the order of the components resembles that of a free word group, e.g. ME swete metes (usually pl.), NE sweetmeat, from the ME adjective swete (NE sweet) and mete which meant any kind of food; sweetheart which occurs in Chaucer: Again he calls her my swete herte dere. NE examples are horseshoe, blackboard, smallpox, redtape, doorbell. Judging by the order of the component parts these compounds could be referred to the “syntactic” type.

Compound words of the ME and Early NE periods were formed after the word-building patterns inherited from OE, modifications of these patterns and new structural patterns. In addition to compounds made of native stems there appeared many hybrids with stems of diverse ori­gin.

§ 622. Compound nouns were built according to a variety of patterns. The most productive type — two noun-stems — was inherited from OE, it can be illustrated by many new formations of later periods. A group of compounds with the first component god have been recorded since Early ME: godson, godfader, godmoder (NE godson, godfather, godmother). The compounds mousetrap, nightertale (‘night time’) found in Late ME texts are made of native stems; ME shopwindow, football, nightgown are hybrids (window and ball come from Scandinavian, gown — from French). Early NE compounds of this type are more numerous: workshop, snow­drop, lighthouse, cranberry, gooseberry — native, and also hybrids; bread­basket (E + Fr); lime-hound, chestnut, puppetshow, tablecloth (Fr + E), law-suit (Scand + Fr); schoolboy, schoolgirl (with the L school); armchair (E + Fr).

Compounds containing a verbal noun or the newly formed gerund or the stem of agent nouns were new modifications of this basic pattern. They yielded words like ME working-day, dwelling-house; NE looking- glass, reading-room, smoking-room, drawing-room (from room for with­drawing since the 17th c.).

Instances of compound nouns with stems of agent nouns in -er are ME landholder, householder, standard-bearer, Early NE fortune-teller, rope-dancer; (the recent Mod E type-writer, baby-sitter (the last five words are hybrids).

Other types of compound nouns were less productive. Adjective stems as the first components occur in ME stronghold, Early NE hot­house, shorthand and the recent greenhouse and greenback; blackguard and bilberry are hybrids — with Fr and Scand components. Adverb stems are rare — ME forefader (NE forefather). The patterns with verb- stems have become more productive in NE, e.g. ME lepeyeer, charcole (NE leapyear, charcoal), ME breekfast, which comes from “breaking or interrupting the fast”, (NE breakfast); also NE telltale, lay-day, keep­sake, makeshift.

A new pattern of compound nouns arose in NE — consisting of a verb-stem and an adverb. The development of this type owes its origin to the use of stereotyped verb phrases with adverbs and prepositions, which became common in ME as “composite verbs”; cf. NE break down v — break-down n, lay out v — lay-out n, make up v — make-up n, fall out v — fall-out n (see § 596). This kind of formation of nouns from verbs can be treated as an instance of conversion.

§ 623. Compound adjectives in ME and Early NE continued to be formed in accordance with the same patterns as in OE. Noun- and adjective stems are combined in ME threedbare, heedstrong, NE world-wide, coun­try-wide, colour-blind, sea-green, stone-dead, etc, The second element can be represented by adjectivised participles — either Pres. Part. or, more often, Past Part. — ME gold-hewn (‘cut of gold’), moth-eaten, Early and Late NE heart-broken, home-spun, hand-written, (Pres. Part. as second components usually combine with adjectives — good-looking, easy-going).

The most productive type of compound adjectives in ME and NE was “derivational compounds”. They appeared in Late OE and have been gaining productivity ever since. Derivational compounds consist­ed of an adjective stem, a noun-stem and the suffix -ed (from OE -ede). They had developed from the OE “bahuvrihi” type (see § 272), which is sometimes found in the texts of later periods, e.g. Early NE light-foot (adj + n without derivational suffixes). Derivational compounds have been produced unrestrictedly in ME and NE with native and borrowed stems: ME light-herted, grey-hared (NE light-hearted, gray-haired), NE long-legged, dark-eyed, short-tempered, absent-minded, etc. (the last two words are hybrids).

Simplification. Back Formation (§ 624-625)

§ 624. All through the ME and Early NE periods compound words could be subjected to morphological simplification. Instances of mor­phological simplification can be found even in Early OE (recall OE hlāford and hlǣfdiʒe § 232). Simplification of compound nouns and adjectives in OE transformed many compounds into derived words, producing new suffixes out of root-morphemes — -dōm, -scipe and the like (see §265). Instances of morphological simplification can be observed in later periods as well. For example, Late OE hūs-bōnda a compound noun — ‘holder of the house’ (adopted from Scand) changed into a simple indivisible word, NE husband; OE ʒod-sib ‘sponsor in baptism’ (cf. godfather) was simplified to ME gossib, NE gossip (modern meanings ‘familiar acquaintance’ and ‘idle talk’), OE wifman was simplified to NE woman. Many modern English words have arisen as a result of simplification: hussy — from Early NE house-wife; daisy — from OE dǣʒes-ēage; window — from OE windoʒe, O Icel wind-auga ‘eye for the wind’. Simplification could also affect word phrases: alone is a contrac­tion of all one; always comes from OE ealne weʒ ‘all the way’; good-bye is a contraction of God be with you, an old form of farewell.