Terminology

Question 1

Synchronic

Answer 1

• “with time”
• study of language at a
  particular moment in time (usually refers to contemporary states)

Question 2

Diachronic

Answer 2

• “through time”
• study of changes in language or
  languages over time

Question 3

Historical Linguistics

Answer 3

• study of change in
  individual languages and
  language in general

Question 4

History of English

Answer 4

• socio-cultural history of English, its speakers and speech communities linguistic development

Question 5

STAGES OF ENGLISH

Answer 5

Old English: 450-1100
Middle English: 1100-1500
Early Modern English:1500-1750
Late Modern English: 1750-?
(Contemporary/Present-Day): 1950 -, 2000-, …?

Question 6

How do we classify periods?

Answer 6

a) cultural (external): major events in history
b) linguistic (internal): major changes to lexicon, morphology, phonology, typological
shifts: synthetic → analytic

→ periodization is difficult (years of periods vary)
→ change is gradual

Question 7

Old English (450-1100)

Answer 7

• synthetic morphosyntax → rich case system, inflectional morphology, flexible word order
• Germanic vocabulary with Latin loan vocabulary
• dialectal variation (Northumbria, West-Saxon, Mercian, Kent)

Question 8

Middle English (1100-1500)

Answer 8

• morphosyntactic changes continue
• • almost entire loss of inflections (synthetic > analytic)
• French: massive impact on morphology and lexicon (-able
  -ment -ize -al)
• basic vocabulary remains largely Germanic

Question 9

Early Modern English (1500-1700)

Answer 9

-Great Vowel Shift → all long vowels: raised or diphthongized
- continued rise of periphrastic constructions (do-support, rise of the progressive)
- loss (e.g. thou/thee/thy → you)

Question 10

Late Modern English (1700-now)

Answer 10

• influx of vocabulary from colonies & regional varieties
• spread of English around the world
• English spoken by app. 1.5bn people
• English now official language in 50+ countries; language of commerce, trade, aviation, etc.