Review Materials for Exam III

Use this review page as a way to organize your study for examination three. Notice that Mr. McGowan has indicated page numbers from Fennell and Bloomfield to connect you to important ideas in their texts. He also has tried some linking with within this page and with outside webpages to deepen your study and make it more interesting. Don't just print this review help; move around in it by using links and the BACK button of your browser.

Dictionaries

You've worked with the OED, American Heritage Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary on the web. Their editors and lexicographers plan them as descriptive dictionaries, but their authority makes them important steps in the codification of Standard English and prescriptivists often use them in more conservative ways.

Your work in these dictionaries should have familiarized you with their methods of representing and distinguishing data about the English language.

AHD: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

Descriptive dictionary used in our course for information on contemporary English in U.S. On-line version available on the Internet. Entries include headword (spelling and syllabification), pronunciation information with non-IPA "user friendly" symbols, list of inflected form spellings, senses arranged by main meaning (not historical like OED listings), occasional quotes, short etymological note at end of entry, and occasionally special Usage Notes or historical discussions of special words. We've learned how to interpret the etymological entries, which don't repeat a spelling if the previous reference, i.e., the more recent example, including the headword, lists the same spelling. On-line version allows searching by headword, definition, etymologies, and full text.

 

OED: Oxford English Dictionary

Comprehensive descriptive historical dictionary of English. Entries give headword (current U.K. spelling), pronunciation (usually British Received Pronunciation) in IPA symbols, form history giving variant spellings over time (in second edition listings, numbers=teenth century [4=fourteenth century], but new edition gives straightforward dates), considerable etymological information, senses arranged chronologically, large numbers of examples of word's use over history of English. The on-line version allows word (headword only), text (the entire dictionary), quotation (only text in quotation examples), and etymology (only text in etymological entry) of the twenty volumes of the second edition and its supplements. We have a sense of how to interpret information in OED entries, to manage searches to help find different kinds of information, and to use this dictionary as a general authority for historical information.

Merriam-Webster's Third International Dictionary

Comprehensive descriptive dictionary of contemporary English. The strong commitment to descriptivism in its assembly caused great criticism from conservative defenders of the Standard, who oppose change, variation, and acceptance of more informal forms. The on-line Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary incorporates many of the entries from this controversial dictionary, but seems to use the historical data of the OED for listing first dates of a word's appearance in English

Dictionary of American Regional English

Recent compilation of work on American dialects. Uses past linguistic studies, literature, and fieldwork to collect lexical and grammatical features of regional (often rural) speech in the U.S. Represents distribution with maps shaped to show speech communities. Frederick Cassidy, scholar-speaker at the end of American Tongues, was an organizer of this project.

Bakhtin's Dynamic

McGowan has preached Bakhtin's idea about the dynamics of language use: every expression includes a mix of same and new features: the centripetal and the centrifugal.

Centripetal: forces maintaining sameness, promoting uniformity, opposing change.

Centrifugal: forces promoting change, variation, individuality.

The mix of these forces makes every speech event unique. They also affect the development of language over time. The openness of English to borrowing is a centrifugal characteristic, but the word's acceptance is a centripetal event. Standardization is centripetal, but different individuals using the standardized form create centrifugal variations and uses. Be able to apply these terms to language change, its use in different contexts, and even your own experiences.

Early Stages of English

Indo-European
Common ancestor of a number of European and West Asian languages. Our course used the American Heritage Dictionary listing of IE roots to see common source of cognate words across these languages. English belongs to the West Germanic branch of Indo-European languages.

Old English
Form of English spoken and written between 449 and 1100 by the Anglo-Saxon invader-settlers of Britain (Bloomfield xv). Period of full inflections. By 1100, enough changes occur that linguists label the language "Middle English."

 

Middle English
Historical variety of English spoken, written, and sung in England from 1100-1500. Major changes from OE are reduction of inflections and large borrowings in the lexicon from French and Latin (Bloomfield xvi). Period of reduced inflections.

Early Modern English

Dates: 1500-1800. By 1500, the Great Vowel Shift has changed the long-vowel system radically, and English has borrowed many more words from Latin and French. Scholars call this next stage of the language "Early Modern English." Fennell notes that by this period "the structure of the standard language was very close to its structure in Present-Day English" (138) so you know many points about EModE morphology and syntax.  Developments in standardization in the eighteenth century contribute to the establishment of Present Day English.

Great Vowel Shift & English Spelling

Great Vowel Shift
Major phonological change between Middle English and Modern English that affected the ME long vowels. The high long vowels became diphthongs and the other long vowels moved up a slot in the vowel chart. Some of McGowan's rules for determining ME vowel pronunciations apply steps in the Great Vowel Shift, including his "Flip Flop Rule" about open and close long-o pronunciations and ModE <ea> spelling to distinguish open and close long-e. Use McGowan's Great Vowel Shift summary sheet to memorize the changes and be able to write the long vowel chart at the start of your final examination.

Inconsistent spelling

 

A liability for World English. Baugh and Cable goes so far as to describe "chaotic" spelling (Fennel 261). Some of the spelling inconsistencies in English are caused by late ME spellings becoming established as standard forms, but the Great Vowel Shift changing the pronunciations of the words. The development of printing with mechanical type promoted this establishing of spellings. Caxton's press was set up in Westminster in the southeast Midlands and often used the Chancery Standard spellings of words.

Some spellings are etymological spellings: forms based on the orthographic shape of the word in the language it was borrowed from. When Greek and Latin words were borrowed, often their scholarly contexts promoted etymological spellings; e.g., <ph> appears for /f/ in philosophy because of etymological spelling from Greek. Sometimes etymological spellings lead to spelling pronunciations:e.g., ME host with silent-h of its French spelling develops pronunciation as /host/ in EModE.

EModE Morphology and Grammar

Much of the noun and verb morphology is similar to Present Day English; however, we did discuss some significant differences:

• Present tense verbs still have -est and -eth inflections. Shakespeare can say, "Thou studiest," because the language still has a separate singular second person pronoun. The King James Bible reads, "He liveth," because this -eth is still the common third person singular present tense verb inflection. The Northern-inluenced -(e)s has not take over yet.
• Singular and plural second person pronouns exist: thou, thee, thin and ye, you, your. But speakers start to use the plural to address a single person with respect or some sense of distancing; the thou and thee start to have a sense of closeness or possibly lack of respect. Shakespeare uses such distinctions in his play. They started to develop in late Middle English.
• Early Modern English can still use Verb + Subject word order to ask a question. The use of periphratistic-do in negatives and questions is beginning to occur; by 1700 the do-forms are required (Fennell 144-45).

Present-Day English

Importance of Eighteenth-Century
Standardization influences of the eighteenth-century create centripetal forces that contribute to the development of modern Standard English.

Prescriptivism
Eighteenth-century movements to "fix" English contribute to the development of Standard English as a preferred and prestigious form of the language. Swift's Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Language supports the establishment of an academy, but unlike French, Spanish, and Italian, the English language never receives an official supervising body. However, language anxiety and self-reflexivity do create other institutions and a market for efforts to establish a Standard. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755) provides an important codification for spelling and meaning. Lowth's Short Introduction to English Grammar begins a long tradition of prescriptive grammars. Some eighteenth-century decisions about forms use extra-linguistic criteria for preferring forms: logic and mathematics in proscribing use of the double negative, Latin models in opposing split negatives. Latin grammatical terms and models describe English, a problem because synthetic and analytic languages are different. The prescriptive tradition has, however, been part of school English.

Standardization
Important technological and social developments fostering standardizing include the selection of Chancery Standard spellings, printing and the marketing of vernacular texts, the spread of literacy, the development of popular education, and improved communications.

McGowan emphasizes the three processes of standardization:

• selection: preference for a regional or social dialect
• elaboration: development of forms to meet communicative needs
• codification: development of institutions and written documents to apply the preferred form.

Be able to apply these terms to steps to events and influences in the history of the English standard.

Colonialism and Globalization
British colonialism spread English to many other countries where a new circle--the outer circle--has resulted in new varieties of English. In some cases, although English had the negative connotation of an instrument of suppression, its usefulness as a link language between speakers of different languages results in an important role in administrative, educational, and literary contexts in a post-colonial world. We looked at Indian English in a video clip as an example.

Industrialization, communications, technology, and education also result in more shared global concepts and practices. American English has been important to this process and developed in a world language because of its use internationally. This influence contributes greatly to the role of English as a second language in an expanding circle of nations.

Expansion of Lexicon
Old English had conservative drift: some borrowing for new concepts, but relatively high use of semantic change, compounding, derivation, and loan translation to develop new words. Middle English opening to French borrowing also opens a general drift in English to accept neologisms 'new words' adopted or adapted from other languages over time, particularly Latin. English and American colonial, technological, and cultural influences also cause words from other languages to be borrowed into English. Globalization adds to such borrowing. Baugh and Cable consider "cosmopolitan vocabulary as an asset for English as world language (Fennell 260).

Word Formation

Compounding: separate words joined. Examples: burnout, fanny pack, laptop, laserdisc, leading-edge, lifestyle, sleazebag, boy toy, ladyfinger. Notice that the consistency of single word, hyphenation, and separated word forms for compounds is arbitrary, but good writers often use the first dictionary word as a conventional selection of form.

Derivation or affixation: use of derivational affix with root. Examples: blondism (blond + -ism), unCola, polyunsaturated, megastar, burlarize, hospitalize, un-American, ageism.
Note we talked about words being derived, meaning in a general sense that they develop. This second sense of derivation refers to a narrower meaning: formation of word from use of a prefix or suffix and a root. We as young linguists used the jargon, the technical lexicon of linguistics, to communicate, but also to join the membership of the professional group.

Clipping: New word (clipped form) produced by shortening. Examples: Examination > exam. Appalachian State University > Appalachian > App. University > varsity.

Blend: New word from parts of elements (not morphemes) of other words. Example: breakfast + lunch > brunch. Motor + hotel > motel.

Functional shift or conversion: change of part of speech or word class: Dog n. > to dog v. 'to follow.' Smell n. > verb. Thou 'pronoun' > EmodE verb 'to insult by addressing as thou.' Doorstep n. > v. 'to canvass political support by going door to door.'

Acronym: word formed from initial letters or sounds of a phrase. Example : the compound Acquired immune deficiency syndrome > AIDS. Appalachian State University > ASU. Gamete Intra-Fallopian Transfer > GIFT.

Register and types of borrowing
McGowan suggested register and style often depends on the sources or word formation processes present in the text's vocabulary. Popular media often operate in the left-hand side of this chart; more learned and scientific discourse use words described on the right.

British dialects

Dialect: variety of language most often differing in phonology and lexicon, usually less often in grammar and morphology.

Some common phonological distinctions:

• /r/-less (non-rhotic) and /r/-full (rhotic)
• retarded Great Vowel Shift sounds (e.g., /u/ in Northern British English and Tidewater Virginia, rather than /aU/, the fully sifted form)
• alternation of // and /æ/ in certain words (Consider McGowan's eastern New England pronunciations of half.)

Fennell's distinctions about British dialects

Traditional: set of regional (often) rural dialects in England. Northern line at Humber is often referred to as a main boundary. McGowan used Fennell list (180) to illustrate use of phonology, lexicon, and grammar to distinguish dialect.

Modern: Set of more urban and often social dialects. Southern line assumes more importance as boundary.

Received Pronunciation: Regionally neutral prestige accent of British English. Important spoken standard for administrative power and social advancement in nineteenth and twentieth century. Some characteristics: /r/-less, use of // for /æ/. Video showed public school (i.e., private school) setting of RP-speakers. But contemporary reaction against upper-class identification has resulted in more acceptance of other regional dialects and use of Estuary English in British public life. Acronym: RP . /rpi/ (If speaker is non-rhotic: /pi/ . RP-speakers are /r/-less in this context.)

Estuary English: variety of PDE that is a mixture of southeastern and non-regional pronunciation. As a compromise between Cockney and RP, this variety had become a less-class oriented accent preferred by some English speakers (Fennell 188).

American Dialects

McGowan used American Tongues to illustrate American regional dialects and the association of judgment and reaction to dialect. See his Power Point notes for a review of some important ideas and terms. All semester you've reacted to McGowan's eastern New England pronunciations. (You've laughed at his laugh.) Its /r/-lessness and /a/ vs. /æ/ variations probably reflect features East Anglian speakers brought to Massachusetts in its settlement of this "linguistic hearth" area.

Noah Webster: We've noted the important role of Noah Webster in codifying an American Standard in his dictionaries and spelling books. His influence contributes the development of American English as a separate variety expressive of the individuality and separateness of American culture. His language entrepreneurialism, however, is just a small part of the way separate national culture and language affect one another.

Regional dialects: Variety of a language common to a place. Isolation and community identity contribute to maintaining regional dialects. Fennell has a helpful map charting some of the dialects (230). The Dictionary of American Regional English reports research on lexical and some phonological differences among American dialects.

Dialect endangerment: centripetal standardizing forces that level variation. American Tongues promotes maintaining dialects, but noticing how speakers adapt to different communicative demands.

Dialect focusing: special attention to some distinctive dialect features by speakers desiring to maintain dialect identity. The Boston Italian speaker who spoke like Sylvester Stallone focused on certain features. He uses the covert prestige of his speech to express identity, machismo, and group solidarity. Ocrakokers use their oi pronunciation as a marker of Island phonology versus the /aI/ of most American speech and the /a:/ of Southern English.

Social dialects: Variety distinctive to a group distinguished by ethnicity, class, age, gender, occupation. The Power Point on Black English includes important ideas about this social dialect, and we viewed sections of Black on White, Program Six from the Story of English series to broaden our understanding of this dialect and develop more tolerant reactions to its users.

Jargon: Special language of occupational group or field.

Register: a socially defined level of language. McGowan distinguished a range--intimate, casual, informal, formal, frozen--where relationship and formality make speakers choose certain forms and structures. Some of the distinctions in American Tongues about social situations involved speakers' choosing different registers.

Kachru's Three Circles

Fennell uses a model developed by Braj Kachru to distinguish the spread of World English (255-56).

• The inner circle includes nations where English is a native language of most of the population. (United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). These national languages do have differences; in fact, each has established a Standard form with identifying characteristics.
• The outer or extended circle includes nations where English spread as a result of colonial influence among speakers with other first languages. It gained important roles as a link language and a language of administration and education. McGowan emphasizedthe development of English creoles and nativization of English as a factor in these contexts. Fennell provides a long list of African, Caribbean, Central Asian, South-East Asian , and Pacific countries. In video clips, we heard a pidgin spoken on an African reiver, Creole from Jamaica, and the Indian English variety.
• The expanding circle includes nations where English serves as an important international language for communication, science and technology, commerce, and international relations.

Globalization supports the use of World English in these different contexts. Fennell discusses the mixed values of this situation: English can be a "killer language," whose dominance homogenizes culture and may contribute to the "death" of other languages. But the use of English by non-native speakers in different contexts also develops variation so that new varieties of English--"other Englishes"--arise (Fennell 268), a point emphasizes in our film clip on Indian English and creative writing.

Nativization: changes in a language when members of another speech community use its forms in new contexts and language contact situations. Our video clip showed Indian English users affecting English. Words and images from native Indian languages become part of an Indian-English lexicon, and pronunciations may be affected by the other language. Post-colonial literature particularly shows native writers using English in new ways. Some outer circle text communities, in fact, want to have a local standard, expressive of their identity and not some Anglo-American cultural hegemony.

Variety: Term for a distinctive form of English with wider sense than dialect. For example, American English, British English, Indian English, Canadian English, and Philippine English. Such varieties may develop their own Standard forms.

Post-Creole (or Creole) Continuum

In outer ring countries, simplified forms of English often developed as link or contact languages. These creoles spread and develop new Englishes, but at the same time, Standard English has an important role in education, administration, and possibly national literature. For speakers in such situations, some linguists see code switching over a range:

• basilect: forms close to a pidgin or simplified creole
• acrolect: forms close to Standard usage (superstratum language)
• mesolect: forms in between these two poles of language structure

World English

Sociolinguistic explanation: Historical, social, economic, political, and cultural events cause English to become an important international language. Fennell's time lines and lists of historical events show important influences on the development of English as global language. British colonialism, the spread of the Industrial Revolution, American cultural and military hegemony, technology, and communications media contribute to the use of English and its special global roles. Fennell insists, "English could not have spread without the social, economic, technological and political developments of the English-speaking world of the past two centuries" (261).

Structural support: Certain internal features of English advance its facility as a world language.

Umberto Eco proposed the following structural features as supporting World English (Fennell 261):

• large number of monosyllabic words
• capability of absorbing foreign words
• flexibility in forming neologisms

Baugh and Cable propose three assets (Fennell 261):

• cosmopolitan vocabulary. McGowan noted change of drift in Middle English to more external borrowing because of relation to French.
• inflectional simplicity. Our course has noted the loss or simplifying of inflections, sometimes because of unstressed positions in final syllables.
• natural gender. Loss of OE grammatical gender markings led to natural gender.

Baugh and Cable list two liabilities in English structure for its international use:

• idiomatic expressions. Yuri commented on the problem of understanding the meanings of to turn on in American English.
• "chaotic" spelling. Result of changes in pronunciation, etymological spellings, and other historical factors. We now understand some of the history behind English orthography: alphabetic spelling being standardized but some sounds changing, etymological spellings and their sometimes developing spelling pronunciations, spelling reform (particularly Webster and American English), and the role of dictionaries as codifications of standard forms.

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Final revision, 24 April, 4 p.m..