Latin loans in dif. historical periods of English

Negation in the history of English

In OEthe common word for negation was ne (IE origin). It was simply placed before a word that was to be negated:

e.g. OE Ne can ic (“I don’t know”, or literally “Not know I”).

As a result of this position before a word the particle ne often fused with:

· a verb (e.g. OE nis ← ne is; næs ← ne wæs; næfde ← ne hæfde (had), etc);

· a numeral (e.g. OE nān ← ne an (none));

· a pronoun (e.g. OE nic ← ne ic (not me));

· an adverb (e.g. OE nēfre ← ne āfre (never)).

Multiple negation was perfectly normal:

e.g. OE Nis nān wisdom ne nānrēad naht onean God. – “There is no knowledge concerning God.”

Often the particle ne was strengthened by the particle naht.

In MEparticle ne fell out of use and was replaced completely by the particle naht that later developed into not, stood manly after a verb (V + not) and negated it:

e.g. I fell to earth I knew not where.

In NE, during the Normalisation Period, no-double-negation rule appeared that prohibited more than one negative word in a sentence.

Word Order in the history of English

In OEthe word order was free as far as there were a lot of inflections that showed the relations between the words in a sentence.

Most common word-order patterns were:

1. S + P + O(in non-dependent clauses);

2. S + O + P(when the Object was a pronoun, e.g. OE Ic þe secζe – literally “to you say”); (in dependent clauses, e.g. OE þis wæs ζefohten siþþan hē of Ēāst Enþlum cōm – literally “This battle was held when he from eastern England came” – such word order was called “frame” –after a connective went the Subject, it was followed by all the other parts of the sentence and the last place was occupied by the Predicate which thus created a frame together with the Subject);

3. P + S + O(in questions, e.g. OE Hwat sceal ic sinζan – “What shall I sing?”): (in sentences starting with adverbial modifier, e.g. OE Nū synt ζeþrēāde þeζnas mīne – literally “Now were threatened my servants”).

In MEand NE, due to the loss of the Cases and, as a result, loss of the inflections the distinction between the Subject and the Object of a sentence was lost. Thus the word order became fixed and direct (S + P + O – The Subject almost always took the first place and was followed by the Object).

Such word order led to the appearance of the formal Subject (formal it, there, e.g. It was winter; There is a book.) that took the place of the Subject if a sentence did not have one and thus preserved the direct word order.

Inversion was used only in questions and for emphasis.

Latin loans in dif. historical periods of English

Borrowings from Latin were numerous. The mixed character of Eng. vocabulary, particularly the great number of French loan words, facilitated an easy adoption of words from Latin.

The most recognizable types:

1. Verbs in –ate, derived from the past Participle of Latin verbs of the 1^st conjugation (abbreviate, exaggerate, frustrate)

2. Verbs in –ute, from the participle II of Latin verbs of the 3^rd conjugation (constitute, pollute, contribute)

3. Verbs derived from other forms of Latin verbs (dismiss, collect, correct)

4. Verbs derived from the infinitive of Latin verbs of the 3^rd conjugation ( permit, admit, expel, include)

5. Adj. derived from Latin present participle of verbs of 1^st conjugation (-ant), 2, 3, 4 conjugation (-ent) (reluctant, evident, patient)

6. Adj. with –ior(superior, junior)

The main spheres of the L. languages were:

the church, the law courts, acadmic activities

14century High proportion comes from religious texts translated from Latin; 15c Renaissanse – interest in the classics-new way of borrowings; 16-17c Latin – main language of philosophy and science.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1276