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THE SUBJECT OF HISTORY ENGLISH

It is well known that language, whether it is English, Russian or any other, is a historical phenomenon. As such it does not stay unchanged for any considerable period of time, or for any time at all, but it is constantly changing throughout its history.

In studying this subject we are faced with driving forces which cause change in the L.-inner and outer history of the English L.

The subject of the course “history of English language” is based on the history of England; it is connected with such disciplines: theoretical phonetics, theoretical grammar, and lexicology.

The purpose of this subject is a systematic study of the L. development from the earliest times to the present day and to trace the L. from Old English period up to modern times.

 

2. DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Different schools of linguistics took different views of the essence of L. development.

1) view which prevailed since the 19 century down the 1920: development was seen as a series of disconnected changes, which gradually resulted in a new state of things;

2) “Young grammarians”(late19th and early 20th) stuck the point, that phonetic changes disarranged the grammatical system of a L.

3) Ferdinand de Saussure introduced the concept of a synchronic linguistics, didn’t object to young grammarians

4) Prague linguistic Circle (1926) - development of L. came to be seen as the evolution of the L. system not as a change accumulation of disconnected changes(diachronic linguistic)

 

3. GERMANIC LANGUAGE

E.L. belongs to the Germanic subdivision of the Indo-European family of the L., to which most of the L. spoken in Europe.

At the beginning of A.D. Germanic tribes occupied vast territories in western, central and northern Europe. It is common to speak the East Germanic group of dialects-mainly spoken in:

central Europe(Gothic,Vandalic);

North-Germanic group of dialects Old Icelandic, Old Swedish;

West-the dialects of Angles, Saxons.

Nowadays Germanic L. are spoken in many countries: Germany, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, English.

 


Date: 2015-01-12; view: 1614


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