Section C - Historical cue cards

Question 1

Vikings

Answer 1

Context:
800s Vikings invaded England
Needed way to communicate w/ anglo saxons b/c of intermarriage and trade

Evidence:
1000 borrowings: Rear + Raise, Knife, Slaughter
Pronouns: They, Them, Their
Grammatical stripping -> SVO

Quotes:
“1000 words were added into the
english lexicon” (HOE)

“Place, personal naming can only be explained by settlement of the vikings on England” (Rideal, Linguist)

Link:
=Invasion
=Social change
=need for communication

Question 2

Normans

Answer 2

Context:
1066 William the conquerer invaded England + established french nobility to stratify society

Evidence:
10,000 borrowings such as beef + pork
semantics: Luxury = Mansion, Jewerelly, Banquet
Semantics: Government = Gov, Parliament
Blendings = Cottage -> Cot (french), age (old english)

Quotes:
“Reasons we have different words for the flesh of an animal” (Joel, Journalist)

“As a result, England became a nation in which latin, french and english co-existed” (Crystal, Linguist)

Link:
=Societal structure and division
=French assert power not only politically but in language too

Question 3

Printing Press

Answer 3

Context:
1476 Caxton intro PP to England and the London dialect

Evidence:
500 diff ways to spell church: “Church” + “Kirk”
Eggys = Egges = Eggs (spellings)

Quotes:
“Different words for the same thing” (HOE)
“Language course to uniformity thanks to the print revolution” (HOE)

Link:
ling norm/ desire for literacy
advent of PP
Standardisation + codification

Question 4

Standardisation + Codification

Answer 4

Context:
This rapidly increased after the advent of PP in England and resulted in multi dictionaries being created. By this spellings are set in place at that time

Evidence:
“Ich” -> “I” for 1st person pronoun
“Lond” -> “Land” for spelling

Quotes:
“the purpose of standard language is to reduce variation in its usage” (Crystal, linguist)

“Reduce linguistic chaos to order” (Burchfield, Linguist)

Link:
-Creation of dictionaries + standard ways of spelling lead to more literacy among the people at the time
-created a set way to speak and write English
-increased desire for literacy

Question 5

Shakespeare

Answer 5

Context:
16 and 17th century
time of classical works and plays where expression and language interconnected and thrived to create interesting semantics

Evidence:
Idioms “In a pickle” or “To be or not to be” , “The naked truth”
New words like the noun “Bandit”

Quotes:
“He used them to create new expressions and meanings” (Crystal, linguist)
“Made the language richer and more flexible” (David, Linguist)

Link:
Expression
Semantics
Shakespeare still influential today