Historic Development of the English Verb

Questions for discussion

1. Morphology of the Middle English verb.

2. Historic development of modern irregular verbs in English.

3. Growth of analytical forms.

4. Development of verbals.

Assignments

1. Give the present and past perfect forms of the following verbs.

ME writen, chēsen, riden, rinnen, walken, gifen.

2. Define the form of the verb ME stonding. What verb was it derived from?

3. What modern irregular verbs can be traced back to strong verbs of the 3d class in Old English?

4. Describe the development of the principal forms of the following verbs.

OE fēdan (w. I); wēpan (str. 7); āscian (w. II); sincan, windan (str. 3).

3. Point out traces of OE preterite-present verbs in modern modal verbs.

4. Use the following quotations to describe the history of the Continuous forms:

«It was not for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday» (Shakespeare).

«The clock struck ten while the trunks were carrying down...» (J.Austen, late 18^th c.).

Seminar 7

Development of the Syntactic System of English

Questions for discussion

1. Word order in the simple sentence in OE, ME and NE.

2. Negative sentences in OE, ME, NE.

3. The development of interrogative sentences in the English language.

4. The compound and complex sentences in OE, ME, NE.

5. Phrase patterns in OE and their change in later history of English.

Assignments

1. Find complex object and define the parts of speech it consists of:

OE «hē geseah betwēōh ōÞer Þing cyÞe cneohtas Þær gesette».

2. Define the type of the subject in the main and principle clauses:

OE «... man mihte geseglian an ānum monÞe gyf man on oiht wīcode».

3. Characterise relations between the nouns and their determiners in the following phrases:

ME These wodes eek recoveren grene.

... as thise clerkes seyn...

A good man was ther of religioun.

Goode men, herkneth everych on!

4. What developments in English syntax can be illustrated by the following quotations:

«Madam, my interpreter, what says she? Whereupon do you look?»

«Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck. And yet methinks I have astronomy...»

«How likes you this play, my lord?»

(Shakespeare).

Seminar 8

Development of the National Literary English Language (11-19 centuries)

Questions for discussion

1. Establishment of English as the language of the state and literature (12-15 c.).

2. Formation of the British nation and the English national language in the Early New English period.

3. London dialect.

4. Establishments of the written and spoken standards (Early New English). The notion of Norm.

5. Geographical expansion of English outside Great Britain.

6. Contacts with other languages.

Assignments

1. What historical conditions account for increased dialectal divergence in Early ME?

2. Account for the shift of the dialect type of the speech of London in the 14^th century. Why is the name «English» language more justified than «Anglo-Saxon» or «Saxon» though in the OE period one of the Saxon dialelcts, West Saxon, was the main form of language used in writing?

3. Describe the events of external history which favoured the growth of the national literary language.

4. Can the evolution of language be controlled by man? Recall the efforts made by men-of-letters in the «Normalisation period» to stop the changes and improve the language.

5. Comment on the following quotations:

«The flower of the English tongue is used in the Court of London»

(J. Hart, 1570)

«... ye shall therefore take the usual speach of the Court, and that of London whithin IX myles, and not much above. I say this but that in every shyre of England there be gentlemen and others that speake but specially write as good Southerne as we of Moddlesex or Surrey do, but not the common people of every shire...»

(G. Puttenham, 1589).