Causes of Grammatical Changes 5 page

§ 625. The concept of “simplification” (or, perhaps, “contraction”) can be applied to one more way of word formation often termed “back formation”. “Back formation” is a process of word-building based on analogy. For instance many ME and Early NE nouns contained the suffix -er (also -or/-our/-ar); most of them had been derived from verbs by adding this suffix to the verb-stem. Therefore pairs like write — writ­er, speak — speaker, ride — rider were quite common. Though some nouns ending in -er were not derived from verbs, they gave rise to new verbs, which were formed by dropping the suffix. Thus ME beggere (NE beggar) produced the verb beg, swindler produced swindle, editor was contracted to edit. “Back formation” is a sort of simplification as it changes derived words (or, perhaps, allegedly derived words) into simple ones. (Recent developments of this type are: televise from tele­vision, electrocute from electrocution, enthuse from enthusiasm.)

Semantic Changes in the Vocabulary (§ 626)

§ 626. The growth of the English vocabulary in the course of history has not been confined to the appearance of new items as a result of va­rious ways of word formation and borrowings. Internal sources of the replenishment of the vocabulary include also multiple semantic changes which created new meanings and new words through semantic shifts and through splitting of words into distinct lexical units.

Semantic changes are commonly divided into widening and narrow­ing of meaning and into methaphoric and metonymic shifts, though a strict subdivision is difficult, as different changes were often combined in the development of one and the same word. Sometimes semantic changes are combined with formal changes. It will suffice to give a few examples.

Instances of narrowing can be found in the history of OE dēor which meant ‘animal’ and changed into the modern deer; OE mete ‘food’, NE meat; OE sellan ‘give, sell’, NE sell; OE mōtan ‘may, must’, NE must; OE talu ‘number’, ‘story’, NE tale; OE loc ‘fastening, prison’, NE lock; ME accident ‘event’, NE accident, etc. Nanowing of meaning can often be observed in groups of synonyms, as in the course of time each synonym acquires its own, more specialised, narrow sphere of appli­cation: thus deer was a synonym of animal and beest in ME, must a syno­nym of may, lock — a synonym of prison.

Widening of meaning can be illustrated by slogan which was formerly only a battle cry of Scottish clans; journey which meant a day’s work or a day’s journey (from O Fr journee related to jour ‘day’); holiday was formerly a religious festival, as its first component comes from OE hāliʒ, NE holy, but came to be applied to all kinds of occasions when people do not work or attend classes.

Many words of concrete meaning came to be used figuratively, which is an instance of widening of meaning and of metaphoric change. Thus the verbs grasp, drive, go, start, handle, stop and many others formerly denoted physical actions alone but have acquired a more general, non­concrete meaning through metaphoric use. The change of ME vixen ‘she-fox’ to ‘bad-tempered, quarrelsome woman' can be interpreted as metaphor or metonymy (and also as widening of meaning as the old meaning has also been preserved).

A well-known example of metonymic change is pen which meant a feather used in writing. Gang formerly meant a ‘set of tools’, hence ‘a group of workmen’, ‘a group of people’. Metonymic change transferred caravan from a ‘company of travellers’ into ‘wagon’; lark — from the name of a bird, producing a cheerful song to ‘fun’, the former meaning being preserved as well.

Some semantic changes can only be referred to miscellaneous as they involve different kinds of semantic changes and sometimes structural changes too. The changes of meaning undergone by lord, lady, daisy, window in the course of their morphological simplification were de­scribed above. The meanings of the verbs strike and hit became synonymous, though in OE the former verb meant ‘stroke’, ‘rub gently’ and the latter ‘not to miss’; gradually they replaced smite and slay in the meaning of ‘striking, hitting’ as more neutral ways of expressing these actions.

Many semantic changes in the vocabulary proceed together with stylistic changes, as in changing their meanings words acquire or lose certain shades of meaning and stylistic connotations. All these subtle changes account for the enrichment of the vocabulary in the ME and NE periods.

QUESTIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

1. What conclusions can be drawn about the nature of contacts be­tween the English and the Scandinavians from the nature of Scandina­vian loan-words?

2. Comment on the English-Scandinavian etymological doublets — skirt — shirt; scatter — shatter.

3. Compare the French and Scandinavian influence on the Middle English vocabulary (linguistic, geographical and social aspects; the number, nature and spheres of borrowings).

4. Comment on the following fragment from IVANHOE by W. Scott:

‘Why, how call you those grunting brutes running about on their

four legs?’ demanded Wamba.

‘Swine, fool, swine,...’

‘...And swine is good Saxon,’ said the Jester; ‘but how call you the sow when she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and hung up by the heels, like a traitor?’

‘Pork,’ answered the swine-herd.

‘I am very glad every fool knows that too,’ said Wamba, ‘and pork, I think, is good Norman-French; and so when the brute lives, and is in charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman and is called pork, when she is carried to the Castle hall to feast among the nobles; what dost thou think of this, friend Gurth, ha?’

5. Discuss the following figures showing the percentage of borrow­ings from various languages in the first, second and third most frequent thousands of English words;

6. Describe the semantic changes exemplified by the following words; point out instances of metonymic and metaphoric change, narrowing and widening of meaning:

APPENDIX

OLD ENGLISH TEXTS

Text 1. From King Alfred’s translation of the WORLD HISTORY by Orosius (9th c.)

Read the text and the translation. Study the models of analysis and the commentary.

OHTHERE'S ACCOUNT OF HIS VOYAGE AROUND THE NORTH CAPE

Ōhthere sǣde his hlāforde, Ælfrēde cyninʒe, pǣt hē ealra Norðmanna norpmest būde. He cwæð pӕt hē būde on pǣm lande norpweardum wip pā Westsǣ. Hē sǣde pēah pæt pӕt land sie swipe lanʒ norp ponan; ac hit is eal wēste, būlon on fēawum stōwum styccemǣlum wiciað Finnas, on huntoðe on wintra and on sumera on fis- cape be pǣre sǣ.

Model of Grammatical Analysis and Translation