psycho

2. Changes in language are changes in the
grammars of the speakers of the language,
and are perpetuated when new generations
of children learn the language by acquiring
the new grammar.
All components of the grammar may change:
phonological, morphological, syntactic,
lexical and semantics changes occur.

3. The Great Vowel Shift
Middle Modern example
[i:] [aj] [mi:s] [majs] mice
[u:] [aw] [mu:s] [maws] mouse
[e:] [i:] [ge:s] [gi:s] geese
[o:] [u:] [go:s] [gu:s] goose
[Є:] [e:] [brЄ:ken] [bre:k] break
[a:] [e:] [na:m∂] [ne:m] name

4. Case OE ME
Nominative stan-stanas stone-stones
Genitive stanes-stana stone’s-stones
Dative stane-stanum stone-stones
Acusative stan-stanas stone-stones

5. Pronouns
F1rst Second Third
person person person
sing.N I thou he she it
A me thee him hir hit
G my,min thy,thyn his hir him
D me thee him hir him
Plur N we ye they
A us yow hem
G oure youre hir
D us yow hem

6. SVO/SVX
OE: Se cyning het hie feohtan
S V X
ME:The king ordered them to fight
S V O
OE: Pǽt hie pone Godes mann abitan scolden
S O V
That they the man ofGod devour should
ME: “in order that they should devour the man of God’

7. English has borrowed extensively of the 20,ooo
or so words in common use, about three-fifth
are borrowed.
E.g.
from french:nation,crown,prince,judge,crime, etc.
from greek: drama,comedy,tragedy,botany,etc.
from German: quartz, cobalt, etc
from Scandinavian: they, their,them,etc
from Italian: opera,piano,balcony,etc
from Arabic: algebra,chiper,alcohol,zero etc.
from spanish: barbecue, ranch, cockroach, etc.

8. New words
 Jet set, zookeeper, water cooler, undergo,
moreover,takeover, etc.
Loss ofWords
taken from Shakespeare’s work Romeo&Juliet:
beseem “to be suitable”
mammet “a doll or puppet”
wot “ to know”
fain “ gladly”
wherefore “why”

9. BROADENING
Middle English Modern English
dogge (a specific food for dog) to encompass all members of the
species canis familiaris.
holiday (holy day a day of religious) any day on which we do not work
Picture ( painted representation) a picture with camera
quarantine ( forty days isolation)

10. Narrowing
in 17th century modern
meat (food)
flesh (meat)
deer ( beast or animal)
hound (dog) special kind of dog

11. Meaning Shift
knight (youth) shifted to ( mounted man-at-arms)
lust (pleasure) (sexual overtone)
lewd ( ignorant) ( immoral)
silly (happy) ( naive, foolish)

12. Language Death:The disappearance of a
language whose speakers progressively
switch to using another or others, e.g. Latin
language as with others in many languages in
North America.
Language Murder: language death
represented as the killing off of a language by
another whose speakers are e.g. Politically
dominant.