Introduction to English Linguistics

Competence: the knowledge we have of the language we grow up with

Performance: the speech we actually produce

Me Tarzan, You Jane

descriptive-prescriptive: factual language use/ binding rules for correct use of the language

synchronic-diachronic: language at a specific point of time/ language changes over time

Non-constrastive-constrastive: monolingual-one language in focus/ languages are compared and contrasted

Old English       450(700)-1100

Middle English   1100-1500

Early Modern English  500-1700

Modern English  ab 1700

Germanic tribes arrive from the middle of the fifth century

-mostly Germanic word-stock

-fully inflected

-inflections begin to be levelled

introducing of printing into England by William Canxton in 1476

spread of English around the world starts (Colonisation)

-Great Vowel Shift

-Standarisation and regularisation

-large-sclae borrowing from Latin, Greek, French and other European languages

Norman Conquest in 1066 --> start Renaissance--> End

-enormous influx of French vocabulary

-levelld inflections

-Great Vowel Shift starts

English as a global language

-almost no inflections

-borrowing from many languages world-wide

street, wall, wine, kitchen

dorchester, Lancester..

abbot, altar, candle, pope (Christianizing)

Latin as the base for most of the French words

benefit, demonstrate, expensive, modest (Renaissance)

Place  names; -by, -thorpe, -thwaite, -toft

words starting with <sk>

words of daily life: egg, husband, ill, knife, law, take

function words: they, them, their

Government and Administration: crown, empire, majesty, parliament

Ecclesiastical words: abbey, cloister, religion, saint, virgin

Law: crime, judgement, justice, prison

Army and Navy: battle, enemy, soldier

Lifestyle, Fashion, Meal and Social Life: appetite, beef, feast, jewel, leisure

Art, Learning, Medicine: beauty, chapter, literature, music, poet