timeline Flashcards
old english 450CE
- around 450CE= angles, saxons & jutes (germanic tribes) invaded britain –> brought old german dialects.
- ‘Englisc’ developed
-lexemes from these dialect= common words for everyday objects
e.g house, loaf, sheep, room
old english 587CE
- christianity= brought to England by latin-speaking St Augustine
- major shift in identitty and values of old english speaker
- e.g monk, fork, school, altar, verse
old english 793CE
- vikings invaded
- settled in north = 865CE –> brought old Norse
- around 1000 Norse words added to old english
- lexemes from this origin = skin, sky, skilly, gate, hit, want again
- -son added to father’s name to produce surnames e.g Anderson, Johnson, Nicholson
middle english 1066
- shift began with Norman conquest,1066
- Norman spoke old french (norman french)
- introduced > 10,000 lexemes from semantic fields of court law, church etc
- e.g castle, nobility, liberty, justice, govern
- complicated infelctional system
- french became language of power in england (bc french installed in pos. of power)
-synonyms e.g house, mansion, ask, question, motherly, maternal, cow, beef
continue with middle english Norman
-black death= hit britain in 1348
- wiped out 50% of french-speaking clergy = rise of english
- great vowel shift (c.1350-1700) (vowels go higher and changes in pronunciation)
- spelling of some words changed to reflect new pronunciation but most did not
early modern english
-this period= characterised by the movement from incredible variety to a uniform standard
- go 60 miles from London and no longer understand someone
- 500 ways to spell the noun ‘church’ bc only small number of people could read, write and afford books
early modern english 1476
-william caxton = printing press to London
- cheaper and easier to mass produce texts
- begins movement towards widespread literacy and a standard
- happening same time as great vowel production
early modern english 1623
-shakespeare’s foliopub –> posthumously
-heard slangs ppl were speaking and phrases= plays
-came up wth idioms such as “vanish into thin air”, “lackloster”, “as dead as a door nail”, “in the twinkling of an eye”, “fight fire with fire”
early modern english renaissance and reformation
- 1500+ = intellectual movement which celebreated reason, order and the human capacity to understnad, explain and improve the world.
-discovery in science, literature, art = need new words (neologisms) - many words borrowed and adapted from greek and latin
- growing desire for ‘correct’ way to write
early modern english 1755
- samuel johnson’s dictionary
modern english 1950s
- western society and culture began to shift away from values of hierarchy, formality, uniformity.
- headed towards diversity, tolerance and informality
- = increase in tolerance and acceptance and adoption of non- standard varieties
e.g African-American english - finance and transportation, especially w influence of amer. eng. = brought lexemes
e.g blue chip, white colour, freeways. subways
-tech and computer age
e.g software, hacker, laptop, database, microship
-mobile phones
e.g l8tr, c, u, plz, omg, thx, gtg
and more
discourse
formatting and layout features:
-script
-font
-font size
-layout
- formatting
-punctuation
-spelling
-handwritten vs typed
lexicology
-etymology (where words come from)
-word classes
-word creation
“thy” “his”
morpho-syntax
relay grammatical information and indicate the relationships between elements in sentence
morpho-syntax : modern english
number= singular, plural
person= first, second, third
tense= past, present, future
aspect= simple, progressive, perfect, perfect progressive
subject= always in initial position
indirect= objects
