Transcript Later changes: structure

Changes since 1600
1. Pronunciation
2. Grammar
3. Vocabulary
2 Grammatical changes since
1600
I shall deal with these points:
• Changes in the verb system
– tense and aspect
– modal verbs
– do-support
• present tense verbal inflexions
• 2nd-person forms of address
• group genitive
Changes since 1600
(Early Modern English)
I shall deal with these points:
• Changes in the verb system
– tense and aspect
Changes since 1600
(Early Modern English)
I shall deal with these points:
• Changes in the verb system
– tense and aspect
Development of the English Tense
System
Reduction of the IE tense system
→
2 tenses in Germanic
Development of the English Tense
System
2 “pure” tenses in Germanic:
traditionally known as “present” and “past”:
• I think, she thinks – I love, she loves
• I thought, she thought – I loved, she loved
Compare the periphrastic verbal forms: I have thought,
had thought, will think, will have thought, am thinking, will
be thinking, might have been thinking, etc., etc.
Development of the English Tense
System
2 tenses in Germanic:
traditionally known as “present” and “past”:
• past = simple past = preterite:
I thought – she thought
Loss of the simple past in (spoken)
French and German
je l’ai vu
je le vis
ich habe ihn gesehen
Development of the English Tense
System
2 tenses in Old English:
traditionally known as “present” and “past”:
• Héo céapað fiscas be þám sǽmannum
she buys fish from the seamen
• Héo céapode gystran dæg þonne fisc
she bought the fish yesterday
• se scóp singþ/singeþ
• se scóp sang
Development of the English Tense
System
2 tenses in Germanic:
traditionally known as “present” and “past”:
(why the quotes?)
Development of the English Tense
System
• Asymmetry between “present” and “past”:
Present:
Past:
• she buys – he sings –
• she bought – he
they laugh
sang – they laughed
past time
(Note the scare quotes)
unspecified time
Development of the English Tense
System
problem with the “present”
• Héo céapað fiscas be þám sǽmannum
• Se scóp singþ
• Héo céapað tó merigen þá fiscas
• Se scóp singþ tó dæg on æftentíde
• þætte mon éaþe tóslíteð, þætte næfre
gesomnad wæs ....
Development of the English Tense
System
problem with the “present”
• She opens the door and enters the house
(Intructions? Narrative present?)
• She buys fish from the seamen
• I see her every day
• I see her on Mondays
• I see her on Monday
Development of the English Tense
System
“present” and “past”
“unfinished” – “finished”
TENSE
ASPECT
• Héo céapað - se scóp singþ
• Héo céapode - se scóp sang
Development of the English Tense
System
Modern English makes a clear distinction
between
• She buys fish at the market
• She is buying fish at the market
Development of the English Tense
System
Modern English makes a clear distinction
between
• What do you read?
• What are you reading?
Development of the English Tense
System
16th century English does not:
• What read you my Lord?
• What do you read my Lord? (Hamlet)
Development of the English Tense
System
Modern English makes a clear distinction
between
• I never saw her
• I have never seen her
Development of the English Tense
System
16th century English does not:
• I never saw so fair a child
• In OE and ME and even later the simple past
could be used where we would now use a
perfective
• In OE and ME and even later the simple past
could be used where we would now use a
perfective:
– Næfre ic ne gesáwe swá fæger cild
• In OE and ME and even later the simple past
could be used where we would now use a
perfective:
– Næfre ic ne gesáwe swá fæger cild
– Se Ælfric wæs þá abbot siððon fiftig wintre
(OE Chr. 956)
• In OE and ME and even later the simple past
could be used where we would now use a
perfective:
– Næfre ic ne gesáwe swá fæger cild
– Se Ælfric wæs þá abbot siððon fiftig wintre
(OE Chr. 956)
– I was not angry since I came to France
(Shakespeare)
• In OE and ME and even later the simple past
could be used where we would now use a
perfective:
– Næfre ic ne gesáwe swá fæger cild
– Se Ælfric wæs þá abbot siððon fiftig wintre
(OE Chr. 956)
– I was not angry since I came to France
(Shakespeare)
– Ne’er saw I, never felt a calm so deep
(Wordsworth)
• In OE and ME and even later the simple past
could be used where we would now use a
perfective:
– Næfre ic ne gesáwe swá fæger cild
– Se Ælfric wæs þá abbot siððon fiftig wintre
(OE Chr. 956)
– I was not angry since I came to France
(Shakespeare)
– Ne’er saw I, never felt a calm so deep
(Wordsworth)
But also:
• I have done the deed (Shakespeare)
Development of the perfect
How did the form have + past participle arise?
We have heard this song
We
have heard
this song
Development of the perfect
How did the form have + past participle arise?
We have heard this song
We
have
this song
heard
wé habbað þisne sang gehyredne
wé
We
við
habbað
have
höfum
þisne sang
gehyred-ne
this song
þennan söng
heard
heyrð-an
wé habbað þisne sang gehyredne
við höfum þennan söng heyrðan
wé habbað þisne sang gehyred
við höfum þennan söng heyrt
we hauen þis song yhered
we have (y)hered þis song
we have heard this song
Another example:
Ic hine ne gesáwe siððon þritig dagas
(“I saw him not since 3 days”)
Ic ne hæbbe hine gesawenne siððon þritig dagas
Ic ne hæbbe hine gesawen siððon þritig dagas
I haue him noht ysene þese thirtie dayes
I have not seen him for thirty days
Intransitive verbs used be + past participle:
Se weall is gefeallen
Þe wall is (y)fallen
The wall has fallen down
Ic eom gecumen
I am come
I have come
Modal Verbs
can – could
will - would
may - might
must
shall –should
These verbs have changed their meaning since OE:
OE
Mod E
can cúþe
'know how to'
can/could
mæg mihte
'be able'
may/might
sceal sceolde
'ought to'
shall/should
willan wolde
‘desire, will’
will/would
mót móste
'be allowed to'
only past: must
Modal Verbs
can – could
will - would
may - might
must
shall –should
Note how the correponding Icelandic verbs kann
and vil have retained their meaning:
OE
Icelandic
ic þæt can
ég kann þetta
ic wile faran ég vil fara
Mod E
I know how to do that
I want to go
Preterite-present verbs
Why do can may shall will not take -s
in the 3rd person singular?
Originally, some preterite-present verbs had a preterite
(past) form but a present meaning.
hé cann
‘he knows
how to’
héo wát
‘she knows’
hann kann
hún veit
And then they acquired a new past tense:
hé cúþe
‘he knew
how to’
héo wisste
‘she knew’
hann kunni
hún vissi
Preterite-present verbs
Why do can may shall will not take -s
in the 3rd person singular?
Originally, some preterite-present verbs had a preterite
(past) form but a present meaning.
Later, other verbs such as “will” and “dare” started to
behave the same
Compound future
will originally means ‘wish, desire, intend’
cf. Icelandic vilja
shall originally means ‘owe’
cf. Icelandic skuld
Compound future
will originally means ‘wish, desire, intend’
cf. Icelandic vilja
shall originally means ‘owe’
cf. Icelandic skuld
hé wille þæt hors céapian
he wants (is going?) to buy the horse
Gif þú æfre cymst tó þære stówe, þonne wilt þú
cweþan þæt heo swíþe unfæger síe
if you ever come to that place, you will say
that it is (subjunctive) very ugly
Compound future
will originally means ‘wish, desire, intend’
cf. Icelandic vilja
shall originally means ‘owe’
cf. Icelandic skuld
Hú micel scealt þú mínum hlaforde?
How much do you owe to my Lord ?
Þú scealt on æghwelc tíd Godes willan wercan.
Thou shalt always do God’s will.
Þú scealt gréot etan þíne lífdagas.
Thou shalt eat stones all the days of thy life.
Compound future
18th-century prescriptivism dertermined
the use of “shall” and “will according to
person:
I shall, we shall
you will, he will, they will
Do support
Affirmative
I saw the Queen arrive
I did see the Queen arrive
Interrogative
Saw you the Queen arrive?
Did you see the Queen arrive
Negative
We saw not the Queen arrive
We did not see the Queen arrive
Do support
Affirmative
Goes back to OE; very common 1500-1700; died out
in prose in 18th century.
She ded call after hym ryght pyteousli (Caxton 1489)
Used to avoid inversion
There did I see that low-spirited Swaine (Shakespeare)
Not a single word did Peggotty speak (Dickens)
Well do I remember the scene
Now only emphatic / repetitive / contradictive
But we do want them
Do support
Interrogative
The original form was simple inversion:
slæpest þú ‘do you sleep?’
What rowne ye with oure mayde ?
‘What are you whispering to our girl?’ (Chaucer)
Do support
Interrogative
The original form was simple inversion.
Chaucer occasionally uses do:
Fader why do ye wepe? (=Fader why wepe ye?)
Do support
Interrogative
The original form was simple inversion.
Chaucer occasionally uses do.
Shakespeare could use both simple inversion and do:
How say you, Lady?
‘What’s your opinion, Lady?
Had he his hurts before? (Siward, Macbeth)
Wash they his wounds with tears?
Why dost though whet thy knife so earnestly? (Merchant
of Venice)
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? (Romeo and Juliet)
Dost thou forget from what a torment I did free thee?
(Tempest)
Do support
Negative
The development is as follows:
OE:
early ME:
later ME:
Early Modern:
Modern English:
héo ne lufode hine
ho ne luvede him
sche ne luvede him noht
she loved him not
she did not love him
Some verbs can still use simple “not”:
I know not, it matters not, I think not
won’t shan’t aren’t isn’t wasn’t
am’t an't ain't
Later verbal inflexions
Middle
English
2nd
thou
pers. sg. sleepest
Early
Modern
English
Modern
English
thou sleepest you sleep
Later verbal inflexions
Middle
English
2nd
thou
pers. sg. sleepest
Early
Modern
English
Modern
English
thou sleepest you sleep
3rd pers.
he sleepeth
he slepeth
sg.
he sleeps
he sleeps
Later verbal inflexions
Middle
English
Early
Modern
English
Modern
English
2nd
thou
pers. sg. sleepest
thou sleepest you sleep
3rd pers.
he slepeth
sg.
he sleepeth /
he sleeps
plural
they
they sleep /
sleepeth / en (sleepeth)
he sleeps
they sleep
be
Eight forms in Standard Modern English:
• be been being
• am is are
• was were
Non-overlaping grammatical functions
be
Three original verbs
• Indo-European es- ‘be’
> is am are
• Indo-European beu- ‘become’
> be been being
• Germanic wes- ‘remain, stay’
> was, were
Two in Old English:
Etymonline
be
Early Modern English:
the Shakespearean verb ‘to be’ had two
alternative forms
in the present:
I am
thou art
he is
we are
you are
they are
I be
thou beest
he be (older beeth, bith)
we be (been, beeth)
you be (been, beeth)
they be (been, beeth)
do, have
2nd person sg:
dost, hast
What dost thou think?
What hast thou eaten?
3rd person sg:
doth, hath
What doth he say?
What hath he eaten?
Forms of address:
2nd person forms
OE had singular, dual and plural
singular
dual
plural
þú þec þé þín
git inc incer
‘you two’
gé éow éower
Forms of address:
2nd person forms
OE and Old Norse had singular, dual and plural
singular
dual
plural
þú þec þé þín
git inc incer
‘you two’
þið ykkur ykkar
gé éow éower
þú þig þig þín
þér yður yðar
Forms of address:
2nd person forms
In Middle English, the dual disappeared
singular
plural
þú þec þé þín
gé éow éower
þow þe þine
ye yow yowr
thou thee thine
ye you your
Forms of address:
2nd person forms
In Late Middle English, the plural form came to be
used as a sign of respect
familiar
respectful
þow þe þine
ye yow yowr
Forms of address:
2nd person forms
In Early Modern English, the singular (familiar) form
was increasingly used as a sign of contempt:
PAROLLES. I beseech your honour to hear me one single
word.
LAFEU. You beg a single penny more; come, you shall ha't;
save your word.
PAROLLES. My name, my good lord, is Parolles.
LAFEU. You beg more than word then. Cox my passion! give
me your hand. [....]
PAROLLES. It lies in you, my lord, to bring me in some grace,
for you did bring me out.
LAFEU. Out upon thee, knave! Dost thou put upon me at once
both the office of God and the devil? One brings thee in
grace, and the other brings thee out.
All’s Well that Ends Wel.
Forms of address:
2nd person forms
Only you, your remain in Modern English
Group genitive
Early Modern English:
The Dukes sonne of Norfolk
(-s is a bound morpheme)
Group genitive
Early Modern English:
The Dukes sonne of Norfolk
(-s is a bound morpheme)
Modern English:
The Duchess of Norfolk's daughter
Group genitive
Early Modern English:
The Dukes sonne of Norfolk
(-s is a bound morpheme)
Modern English:
[The Duchess of Norfolk] 's daughter
Group genitive
Early Modern English:
The Dukes sonne of Norfolk
(-s is a bound morpheme)
Modern English:
[The Duchess of Norfolk] 's daughter
(-s is a clitic attached to the NP)
Group genitive
Early Modern English:
The Dukes sonne of Norfolk
(-s is a bound morpheme)
Modern English:
The Duchess of Norfolk's daughter
(-s is a clitic attached to the NP)
The bloke we gave a lift to's dog.
Changes since 1600
1. Pronunciation
2. Grammar
3. Vocabulary
- end -