Nature of the English language and English Words
number of words in English countability of words in English comparison of sizes of vocabulary of languages closest linguistic relations of English native vs. borrowed words
English as a World Language
dialects of English (geographical and social varieties of English) major national varieties of English richness of English vocabulary synonyms in English absence of national language academies in English-speaking world
History of English
Pre-English - from about 300-400 (pre-migration)-ca. 600
Old English (Anglo-Saxon lg.) 600-1100
Middle English 1100-1500
Early Modern English 1500-1650
Present Day English (PDE) 1650-present
Modern English (includes Early Modern and Present Day English) 1500-present
Celts (Native Britons) Harold Godwinson, Harold King of England
Anglo-Saxons Normans
Romans William of Normandy = William the Conqueror
Angles, Saxons, Jutes Norman French
Anglo-Saxons Norman Conquest
Christianization, Christianity Battle of Hastings (1066)
Beowulf Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
Kingdom of Wessex William Caxton, printing press
King Alfred = Alfred the Great, late 800s
beginnings of standardization (of language, of spelling)
mismatch of spelling and pronunciation in English
Vikings, Norsemen, Danes King James Bible = King James Version
sacking of monasteries by bands Great Vowel Shift
of pagan adventurers Shakespeare
Alfred's victory (Other greats of Elizabethan English:
Danelaw Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson)
Watling Street European conquest and colonialization
(line of partition) 18th century--start of prescriptive movement
Height of Anglo-Saxon power and Increasing standardization:
cultural success: -privileging of London-Cambridge-Oxford variety of spoken English
900s-early 1000s - establishment of conventions for
written English syntax
2nd wave of Vikings attacks from - less and less variability in spelling
about 1014: armies under kings - more conventions for punctuation
Athelred the Unready Dictionary makers
(driven to Normandy) [Samuel Johnson - first DESCRIPTIVE
dictionary of English]
Canute (Cnut) Noah Webster
Edward the Confessor British vs. American spellings
Review the Periods of the various major waves of loanwords
(borrowings) in English.
For each stage, which languages were major sources of loanwords?
Pre-Old English:
Old English:
Middle English:
Early Modern English:
Present-day English:
See also:
Loanwords
Words in English
native borrowed nativized words, nativization loanword, borrowing place names vs. common words descriptive, descriptivism doublets, triplets prescriptive, prescriptivism Classical (or Latinate) standard, nonstandard varieties word elements etymology (word origin) [difference from parsing] Oxford English Dictionary
Morphology or Word Formation
word structure
word elements, word components
parse, parsing words into word components
morphs - minimal, indivisible word components that have an
identifiable meaning or function
(Ch. 4 introduces morphemes, a closely related
concept. Difference not relevant yet.)
lexical components or lexical morphs:
roots
grammatical components or morphs:
affixes
prefixes
suffixes
base - what an affix attaches to.
Has at least one root, but may be more complex
stem - a base to which inflectional affixes can be added.
(distinction of base and stem not relevant for us now)
free vs. bound morphs
English type language (many free morphs) vs. Latin, Greek type (most
morphs bound to others)
filler or linker morph (book calls it an interfix - an affix that
requires something before and after.) Fillers/linkers have no
function or meaning other than linking two other morphs.
complex words created by
inflection (grammatical variants of one word: plural, tense marking etc.)
derivation (creates new word; makes a new part of
speech/new function or new meaning)
Types of word formation (creation of words):
derivation
compounds, compounding
hypernym
hyponym
(more types p. 56 and following)
relation of meaning of component morphemes to meaning of whole word
relations of morphemes (whether whole words, roots, or affixes):
synonyms - morphs with similar meaning
homonyms - morphs with same form (accidental resemblance)
See also study aids:
Roots vs. Affixes
Morphemes
Also, see
Definitions from "morphemes" on.
© Suzanne Kemmer
Last modified 16 Sept 2015