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Analysis of Middle English Text

Analysis of Middle English texts is aimed only to show changes in the language system, compared to the texts of the Old English period. The spheres of language are the same as for Old English texts. But if analysing Old English texts we looked for changes only in the phonetical sphere, for ME texts we have to look for them in all spheres.

For example, we may take the text:

And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,

So hadde I spoken with hem everichon,

That I was of her felawshipe anon,

And made forward erly for to ryse,

To take oure wey ther, as I yow devyse.

In ME texts we may trace the following phonetical changes:

1. Narrowing of long “a” and “ae” – o, e.

2. Fusion of short “ae” and “a” into “a”.

3. Lengthening of short vowels in opened stressed syllables of two-syllabic words.

4. Shortening of long vowels in closed syllables of two-syllabic words, and in three-syllabic words in any position.

Items 3 and 4 do not touch “i” and “u”.

5. Delabialization of “y”.

6. Vocalization of “gh” and “j”

7. Palatalization of “k’” and “g’”.

8. Reduction of the unstressed vowels.

9. Levelling of OE diphtongs.

10. Development of new diphtongs as a result of vocalization of “gh” and “j”.

The phonetic changes can be traced by comparing the OE and ME versions of the word.

 

Graphical properties. The spelling system of ME has radically changed under the influence of the French manner of writing. OE runic letters disappeared and were substituted by combinations of Latin letters. OE “ð” and “þ” were substituted by “th”. For example in “with” “ǽ” was substituted by “a”. For example – “hadde”. “Æ” was substituted by “e”. For example “erly”.

The length of the vowel is usually indicated by the type of the syllable. Short vowels are found in closed syllables, and long – in open syllables. Short vowels appear in phonetically opened syllables; they were made close graphically by doubling the consonant. For example “hadde”. Long vowels were also written by doubling the letters for long “e” and “o” or by combination of letters “ou” for long “u”. For example “oure”. Combination of letters were also used to show new consonants. “Ch” for [tch], for example “everichon”.

 

Phonetical properties. If we take the OE version of “anon”, we can see, that it was “on ān”. Narrowing of “ā” can be also traced in “everichon” (OE æfre ælc ān).

Narrowing of long “æ” can be found in such words as “ther” (OE þǽr), “erly” (OE ǽrlic), “everichon” (OE ǽfre ǽlc ān).

Shortening can be found in the following words: “everichon”, “erly”.

Lengthening can be found in “spōken” (OE “spoken”), “māde” (OE macode), “tāke” (OE tacan).

The passage does not contain words with delabialization.

Vocalization of “gh” is found in “felawshipe” (OE felaჳascipe).

Palatalization is found in “everichon” (OE ǽfre ǽlc ān), “felawshipe” (OE felaჳaskipe).



Reduction of the unstressed vowels is found in “everichon” (OE ǽfre ǽlc ān), “anon” (OE on an), “forward” (OE foreweard), “erly” (OE ǽrlic), “rise” (OE rīsan), “tāke” (OE tacan).

Levelling can be found in “forward” (OE foreweard).

Diphtongization can be traced in “felawshipe” (OE felaჳaskipe) and “wey” (OE weჳ).

 

Morphology. Morphological analysis of a ME text presupposes that we should find three classes of phenomenona. Appearance of new categories, disappearance of old categories and category forms and re-arrangement of morphological structures. For ME the new categories are Passive and Perfect. In this passage perfective form is found; “hadde spoken”. This form is very interesting, because the auxiliary ‘haven” is used with an intransitive verb. Originally in early ME intransitive verbs were used with the auxiliary “bēon”. We can find also two new category forms of the infinitive – “to ryse”, “take”. The nominal parts of speech practically lost difference in their declensions and cases. Thus nouns “forward” and “felawshipe” have the same form, though in OE they belong to different declension. The same can be said about the pronoun “everichon”, which in OE should have an ending of the Dative case – “ǽfre ǽlc āne”. We may also note that the second person Plural Dative, which at this time is used also for Accusative, changed in analogy with the Nominative case. OE “ēow” > ME “yow”.

 

Syntax. Syntactical features differ from OE only in one respect, and namely in the forms of word connection. Agreement in ME is found in connection with subject and predicate. Connection of adjectives and nouns is still based on agreement, but only in number; moreover the weak and the strong plural have the same form, so the importance of adjective agreement is very weak. Agreement can be found here in the groups “hadde I”, “I was”, “I made” and “I devyse”. In all these occasions the verb agrees with the pronouns in number and person. We can see absense of endings and specific forms in nouns, depending on verbs and prepositions (“felawshipe”, “wey” and “forward”). The same is true for pronouns (“everichon”). The word order is still not fixed. The subject sometimes may follow the predicate (so hadde I spoken). Direct object may precede the predicate.

 

Etymology. For ME the etymological properties of words are reduced only to finding borrowings from other languages. The words, that were not borrowed are considered English. In this passage we can find two elements which are borrowed. One is the root of the word “felaweshipe”. The root was borrowed from Scandinavian. And the second word is “devyse”, borrowed from French “deviser”. Besidess we can find here also borrowing of method of producing new names. It presupposes use of a verb of general meaning in combination with a noun to give a name of a process. Here it is “made forward”. This method of giving names for actions was developed in French and then spread to Germany and Britain. Thus to analyse a ME text we have to use the information in the vocabulary and OE grammatical tables. The best way is to try and translate word for word ME text into OE. Those elements, which could not be translated in the word for word method, should show appearance of new categories, new ways of naming and borrowings. Below you will find these four lines, translated into OE. These structures that cannot be found in OE or are unnatural for the OE texts are shown in italics.

Swā wǽs ic sprocen wið heom ǽfre ǽlcum āne,

Þat ic wæs of here felaჳescipe on ān,

And macode foreweard ǽrlīc to rīsenne,

Tacan ēowerne weჳ þær, ealswā ic eōw devyse.

 


Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1742


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