HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Самостоятельная работа студентов по темам:         - English Vocabulary;
        - Dialects and Variants of the English Language;
        - вопросы и упражнения для подготовки к квалификационному тесту и зачету.

Здесь вы найдете план работы по данным темам, перечень заданий, которые вы должны выполнить, дополнительные материалы, а также ссылки на дополнительные источники информации.

ENGLISH VOCABULARY
How did it change? Why did it change?

        1. The OE vocabulary
a ) Compare the Proto-Germanic vocabulary and the OE vocabulary
b) Describe the means of the word-building in OE
        2. Linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that influenced the growth and enrichment of the English vocabulary
a) Adoption of Christianity
b) Scandinavian and Norman conquests
c) The epoch of Renaissance
d) Colonial expansion
e) Development of science and technology
        3) New ways of word-building in ME and NE
a) Changes in affixation productivity of affixes, borrowed affixes, new native affixes/
b) New ways of word-building
c) What makes conversion so productive

Additional material:

Отрывки из В.Д.Аракин, Очерки по истории английского языка, М., 1955, стр.250 – 332.

Tasks:
1. Obligatory

     Why does the vocabulary change? Enumerate linguistic and extra linguistic factors that caused the changes of the English vocabulary.
      The model of your answer:
        Period: factors – changes. 2. Optional: chose a question to give a detailed answer:      a) The structure of the English vocabulary in the OE period.
     b) The structure of the vocabulary in the ME period.
     c) The structure of the vocabulary in the NE period.
     d) The changes in the sphere of affixation in the cause of development of the English language.
     e) Development of new ways of word-building in ME and NE.
     f) Changes in the sphere of word-composition.
     g) Borrowings from different languages in OE, ME and NE.

Practical Tasks (to be done in written form)

Task 1.
Write a short essay on one of the following topics:

        -Describe the results of borrowing from the Scandinavian languages.
        -Describe the results of borrowing from French.
        -Characterize Latin loan-words of different periods.
        -Describe borrowings of the epoch of Renaissance.
        Describe changes of means of word-building.

Task 2.
Define from what language the following words were borrowed.

       The model for your answer:
        Word - Language - Period
      piano - Italian      - NE

Attract, conduct, cordial, convenient, cup, butter, plaid, outlaw, bloom, abbey, bishop, war, ski, cushion, napkin, pleasure, fresco, embargo, easel, waltz, zinc, deck.

DIALECT AND VARIANTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

            1. Old English dialects
            2. English dialects in the ME period
                a) Status of the dialects
                b) Foreign influence on the dialects
            3. NE dialects
            4. Variants of the English language

Additional sources: 1. Бруннер К. История английского языка. М.:Иностранная литература, 1955.
2. Швейцер А.Д. Очерк современного английского языка в США. М.: Высшая школа, 1963.
3. Mаковский М.М. Английская диалектология, М.1980.
См. также:
Margaret Schlauch, The English language in Modern Times (since 1400), Oxford University Press, London 1964 ( Middle and New English dialects, Scottish and Irish variants, "General American")
О.А. Домашнев, O лексикографическом отражении американского стандарта английского лотературного языка. (Лингвистические исследования. 1985. Структура языка и языковые изменения. - М., 1985. - С. 70-79)

http://www.philology.ru/linguistics3/domashnev-85.htm

Internet Resources:
Британский и американский английский

Wicked Good Guide to Boston English

Tasks

1. Describe the peculiarities of one of the dialects or variants of the English language.
2. Make a chart to show the development of one of the dialects.

            Model of the chart:
    Saxon tribal dialect -> West Saxon
          East Saxon -> London dialect

PREPARE FOR YOUR TEST IN HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Get ready to answer the following questions:

1. What factors of the language development are called linguistic?
2. What factors of the language development are called extralinguistic?
3. Give examples of some extralinguistic factors.
4. What does “diachronic study” mean?
5. What does “synchronic study” mean?
6. What languages are called synthetic?
7. What languages are called analytical?
8. What language is called “Proto-Germanic”?
9. What subgroups did the Old Germanic language consist?
10. What languages belonged to the North Germanic subgroup?
11. What languages belonged to the East Germanic subgroup?
12. What languages belonged to the West Germanic subgroup?
13. What alphabets did the old Germanis tribes use?
14. What does Grimm’s law explain?
15. What does Verner’s law explain?
16. To what subgroup did the English language belong?
17. What Germanic dialects did it develop from?
18. What event startrd the development of the English language?
19. What tribal dialects did the OE language consist of?
20. Why did the dialects become local?
21. What local dialects constituted the OE language?
22. What was the linguistic situation in the OE period?
23. When did the written language begin to be used?
24. What alphabets did hey use?
25. Name the oldest writings in English.
26. Why did the Wessex dialect dominate by the end of the OE period?
27. When did the Scandinavian invasion begin?
28. In what parts was England divided after the Scandinavian invasion?
29. How did the Scandinavian invasion influence the English language?
30. What event determined Latin borrowings in OE?
31. Why did the Norman Conquest of England take place?
32. Characterize the linguistic situation after the Norman conquest.
33. What was the position of the dialects after the Norman Conquest?
34. When and why did the English language restore its position?
35. How did Chaucer and Shakespeare influence the development of the literary language?
36. What political and cultural actors determined the development of the National language?
37. Printing and its influence on the language development.
38. What do you know about William Caxton?
39. What are the characteristic features of the epoch of Normalization?
40. What can you say about the position of dialects in modern time?
41. What variants of English developed as the result of its expansion beyond England?
42. What dialects is the Scottish variant based upon?
43. What determined the expansion of the English language beyond Great Britain?
44. What countries use the English language now?
45. How do the national variants used in those countries differ from the British variant? What determined these differences?
46. What changes are called assimilative?
47. What changes are called independent?
48. What was the main tendency of the changes of stressed long vowels?
49. What was the main tendency of the changes of stressed short vowels?
50. What is an alteration of vowels in one and the same root called?
51. What vowel change is called “breaking”?
52. What vowel change is called “diphthongization”?
53. What vowel change is called “palatal mutation”?
54. What vowel change is called “velar mutation”?
55. What are the principal features of the OE vowels?
56. What vowel change is called contraction?
57. What vowel change is called quantitative?
58. What vowel change is called qualitative?
59. What phonetic condition influenced the lengthening of vowels in ME?
60. What vowels underwent qualitative changes in ME and in NE?
61. What vowel change is called the Great Vowel Shift?
62. What group of vowels underwent the Great Vowel Shift?
63. What consonants were vocalized in OE, ME and NE?
64. What vowels could be used in the unstressed position in OE and ME?
65. What peculiar features did the consonants have in OE?
66. What change is called “hardening”?
67. What change is called “rhotacism”?
68. What change is called “gemination”?
69. What caused splitting of velar consonants in OE?
70. How did sibilants and affricates develop in ME and NE?
71. What consonants were lost in OE, ME and NE?
72. What parts of speech were there in OE? What parts of speech did it lack?
73. What morphological categories did the OE Noun have?
74. What types of declensin did the noun have?
75. What classes of pronouns were ther in OE?
76. What morpholodical categories did the OE personal pronoun have?
77. What did the possessive pronoun develop from?
78. What morphological categories did the demonstrative pronouns have in OE?
79. What part of speech develop from the demonstrative pronoun?
80. What new classes of pronouns developed in ME?
81. What morphological categories did adjectives have in OE?
82. What determined the use of a strong or a weak form of the adjective?
83. How were the degrees of comparison built in OE?
84. How did the forms of the degrees of comparison of adjectives change in
and NE?
85. How can you characterize the development on nominal parts of speech in o
86. word?
87. What classes of verbs were there in OE?
88. What were the characteristic features of strong verbs, weak verbs, preteri
89. present verbs and irregular verbs?
90. How did strong and weak verbs change in ME?
91. What categories did the verb have in OE?
92. What did the analytical forms develop from?
93. What are the features of an analytical verb form?
94. What did the Infinitive develop from?
95. What did the Participle develop from?
96. How were Participle I and Participle II opposed?
97. What did the Gerund develop from?
98. What verbal features did the verbal aquire in the cause of their development?
99. Characterize the word order in OE.
100. How and why did the word order change in statements ME and NE?
101. How did the word order change in exclamatory sentences in ME and NE?
102. How did the negative sentences change?
103. How did the compound sentences change in ME and NE?
104. How did the complex sentences change in ME and NE?
105. Characterize the structure if the OE vocabulary.
106. What words are common Indo-European?
107. What did the common Germanic word denote
108. What means of word-building were used in OE?
109. What types of word-composition were used in OE?
110. Wha were the sources of new prefixes and suffixes in ME and NE?
111. What new ways of word-building developed in ME and NE?
112. Why has conversion become so productive in NE?
113. What languages were the sources of borrowing words in OE?
114. Characterize Scandinavian loan-words.
115. To what spheres did words of French origin belong in ME?
116. What does “the fight of synonyms” mean?
117. How did native English words and their borrowed synonyms coexist?
118. What extralinguistic factors determined extensive borrowings in NE?

Fulfill the following tasks:

Page 1 – Instructions how to fulfill the tasks;
Page 2 – Name the changes of vowels;
Page 3 – Name the changes of consonants.