TMA 1
Part 1
Explain the meaning of the following terms, using examples from the module materials and any relevant examples of your own.
Morpheme
A morpheme is defined as the smallest meaning-bearing unit of language. There are two types of morphemes: bound and free. A free morpheme can stand as a word in its own right, whereas a bound morpheme cannot stand alone and must be added to another unit to acquire meaning ; a bound morpheme can either be added as a suffix or prefix and must be accompanied by a hyphen to show that it must be linked to another morpheme. For example, the word ‘sincerely’ is made up of the free morpheme ‘sincere’ ,and the bound morpeme –ly. In this way the adjective ‘sincere’ has been transformed by the bound morpheme into the adverb, ‘sincerely’. However, in some cases, spelling changes arise in words such as beautiful (beauti + -ful) where a seventeenth century rule is applied for the word-final ‘y’ to change to an ‘i’ if anything was added to it (U211, Unit 2, Origins of Old English).
Words: 158
Orthography
Orthography is defined as the way in which language is spelt. It should, however, be distinguished from phonology which is the sound system of a language. In orthography, different letters (orthographic symbols) can at times represent different sounds according to their context.Conversely, in phonology, the phoneme (phonetic symbol) will always represent the same sound (U211, Unit 5, Describing the sounds of English: a phonological approach).
The Essay on Sound Waves and Room Acoustics
We generally think of the speakers in our stereo or home theater systems as the final link in the audio chain — and the one that makes the biggest difference to our ears. But there’s much more to the sound we hear than just where you place your speakers in a stereo or home theater setup, and what comes out of them. You might not even realize it, but your room plays a rather large part in the ...
Consistent spelling wasn’t always as important as it is today and lacked uniformity due to the wide variety of regional dialects and lack of conventionalised spellings and authoratative sources; for instance the word ‘egg’ could be spelt either ‘egges’ or ‘eyren’. William Caxton, who first brought printing to England, resolved this problem by printing the dialect of the south-east Midlands (Leith & Graddol, 2007, p.86).
This along with the introduction of the first ever dictionary written by Dr. Samuel Johnson, was influential in establishing a standard form of spelling.
Words: 154
Part 2
‘Some linguists argue that the language of the Anglo-Saxons was the ‘’same language’’ as Modern English’. Using this quotation as your starting point, discuss the linguistic arguments for and against regarding Old English and Modern English as the ‘’same language’’. Illustrate your answer with relevant arguments and examples from the module materials.
The English language first appeared in England in the fifth century AD, following the Anglo-Saxon invasions, and has been influenced by other settlers over the centuries. Tracing the history of contact between English and other languages, records have indicated that an identifiable language, now known as Old English, had evolved which closely resembled Germanic languages specifically Old Frisian, following the migration of certain Germanic tribes; it has been argued that Modern English can be traced back to the same Germanic family of languages, (The Adventures of English, Ep.1, Ch. 2) as some linguists have debated that there is a continuous development from Old to Modern English; indeed the term ‘Old English’ rather than ‘Anglo-Saxon’, perhaps reveals that scholars and linguists wanted to emphasise the continuity between their language and Modern English. To illustrate this I will examine the linguistic evidence, including its morphological structure, vocabulary and orthography, as well as the influence of various settlers over the centuries.
According to Bede, different varieties of English were developed and spoken by each tribe of settlers, which were derived from their area of origin on the European mainland. However, some language scholars, such as DeCamp, have argued that these distinctive dialects were forged in England (Leith, 2007, p.45).
The Essay on ‘to What Extent Is Modern-Day English the Same Language as That Introduced to the British Isles One and a Half Millennia Ago?’
TMA 01 ‘To what extent is modern-day English the same language as that introduced to the British Isles one and a half millennia ago?’ English is both a changed and an ever-changing language. Since its introduction to the British Isles the very nature of the language, its structure, appearance and uses have undergone remarkable transformations. Comparing transcripts from Old English and its ...
Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, however, provides internal evidence about the dialect of Old English, as well as evidence of morphological structure, spelling and grammar. Looking at the story of the poet Caedmon, a story told by the Anglo-Saxons themselves, the text’s linguistic features reveal some continuity between the old and modern form of English. The Anglo-Saxon’s conversion to Christianity brought renewed contact with Latin and the introduction of literacy using the Roman alphabet (Leith, 2007, p.55).
This continuity may have been obscured by changes in spelling which took place when extra letters were introduced to the Roman alphabet, each with a special name, to denote some sounds not found in Latin; two such letters were thorn þ, used for the sound ‘th’ as in the word thick, and ash @ used for the vowel sound ‘a’ in words such as tap. These spelling patterns can help us predict what Old English might have sounded like, as many scholars believe that Old English spelling is a closer representation of pronunciation than is the case with Modern English (Leith, 2007, p.54).
When looking at the word ‘ þ@t’ it may appear completely unintelligible at first, however by rewriting the word and applying the letters to their respective symbols it becomes recognizable as the word we know in Modern English as ‘that’. Similarly, examining more rules closely, it transpires that hw=wh and ht=ght, therefore the words hwat and n@ht become the Modern English words ‘what’ and ‘night’ (Leith, 2007, pp. 50 & 53 Furthermore, when examining the structure of Old English in Caedmon’s poem, it is apparent that there was greater freedom in word order in Old English, in comparison to Modern English. Conversely, however, irregular word-order patterns also occurred alongside sequences which are much the same as those found in Modern English. For instance, the translation of line 11 of the poem, ‘Hw@t sceal ic singan?’ translates as ‘What shall I sing?’ is identical to Modern English word-order (Leith, 2007, p.57).
The Essay on English as a global language
Crystal begin “ English as a Global Language” by asking what means for a language to be global ,and what the advantages and disadvantages of having a global language. There is no official definition of “global” or “world” language, but it essentially refers to a language that is learned and spoken internationally, and is characterized not onlty by number of its native and second language speakers, ...
Thus, it is possible to say that there are clear lines of continuity between Old and Modern forms of the language.
However, one profound grammatical change which distinguishes Old English from Modern English and illustrates discontinuity between the two, is the loss of inflections which was believed to be due to contact with Old Norse, a language used by the Vikings who invaded and eventually settled in England (Leith, 2007, p.60); Old Norse had a substantial impact on the lexicon and the inflectional system that represented the grammar of Old English. Nouns, adjectives and verbs were inflected for gender, case and number and had a distinct case system; however, the inflectional differences between the two languages could have been resolved by disposing of them altogether suggests Leith (2007), due to possible communication issues(p.63).
In addition to this, the prolonged contact with Old Norse meant an expansion in vocabulary with many Scandinavian words infiltrating the English language evidenced by thirteenth and fourteenth century texts which show that large numbers of Scandinavian vocabulary and grammatical forms were adopted into English; the linguistic historian Kastovsky suggests that Scandinavian languages were abandoned in favour of English. Many of the new adoptions, such as the basic verbs ‘are’ and ‘to be’ are among the commonest words in the Modern English lexicon (Leith, 2007, p.63).
Following these significant changes, Old English was once again transformed as a French speaking dynasty from the dukedom of Normandy was installed in England with sociolinguists believing this played a key role in the development of Modern English .The process of adopting gave the English vocabulary a great many French words to refer to things which already had names and radically changed its spelling and grammar (Leith, 2007, p. 67); this led to a linguistic shift whereby Old English evolved into Middle English. Two spelling conventions, s for sh and q for wh, along with the form th which gradually spread replacing the older h- forms, illustrate some important features of the language in Middle English. These conventions are evident in a verse fragment from York (1272) which shows signs of French versification with the language becoming all the more intelligible, and the word order much closer to that of Modern English (Leith, 2007, p.69).
The Essay on Politics and the English Language Answers
In Orwell’s essay Politics and the English Language, Orwell expresses his raw opinion on the deterioration of the English language and how politics is a cause for the “vagueness and incompetence” that writing has succumbed too. Though the title of the essay introduces politics first and the English language last, Orwell’s thesis seems to consist of neither; it consists of the silliness of modern ...
In conclusion, Old English has developed from complex patterns of contact between speakers of different languages (Leith, 2007, p.73), and in doing so has ultimately become the language we know today as Modern English. In all its varieties it has retained a level of familiarity, with scholars and linguists able to reveal that Old and Modern English were in fact the same language at different periods of time.
Words: 980
Bibliography
Exploring the English Language U211 DVD-video, Unit 2.
Leith, D. (2007) ‘The Origins of English’ in Graddol, D., Leith, D. ,Swann, J., Rhys,M. And Gillen, J. (eds) Changing English London, Routledge/The Open University, pp.39-77.
