The History and Linguistic Changes of English

Preface __ 5


I. Backgrounds to the History of English

CHAPTER 1. English: Its Present and Future __ 13
1.1. English Today 13
1.2. Why is English so Important? 16
1.3. Strengths and Weaknesses of English 19
1.4. English Tomorrow 28

CHAPTER 2. Language Change and History of English __ 33
2.1. Language Change and English 33
2.2. Internal History vs. External History 34
2.3. Chronological Division of English 35
2.4. Changes in English 37
2.5. English is Still Changing. 45
2.6. Reasons for the Study of the History of English 59

CHAPTER 3. The Pre-Old English Period (before 449) __ 67
3.1. Ancestor of English: Proto-Indo-European Language 67
3.2. Language Families within the Indo-European Group 71
3.3. Germanic Language Family 77
3.4. Celtic and Romance Language Families 81
3.5. Typological Classification of English 83


II. The History of English: External History

CHAPTER 4. The Old English Period (449-1100) __ 91
4.1. Before the English: Celtic and Roman Britain 91
4.2. The Early Old English Period (c. 450-900) 95
4.3. The Late Old English Period (900-1100) 113
4.4. Old English Literature 120

CHAPTER 5. The Middle English Period (1100-1500) __ 123
5.1. The Early Middle English Period (1100-1300) 124
5.2. The Late Middle English Period (1300-1500) 130
5.3. Middle English Dialects 135
5.4. The Rise of Standard English 138
5.5. Middle English Literature 141

CHAPTER 6. The Modern English Periods (1500-1800) __ 144
6.1. The Early Modern English Period (1500-1650) 144
6.2. The Late Modern English Period (1650-1800) 164
6.3. Modern English Literature 173

CHAPTER 7. Expansion of English around the World __ 177
7.1. English as a World Language 177
7.2. Processes of the Spread of English 180

CHAPTER 8. The American English __ 195
8.1. Language Variation in America 196
8.2. Differences between British and American English 199


III. Linguistic Changes of English: Internal History

CHAPTER 9. Language Change __ 229
9.1. Language-external Causes for Language Change 230
9.2. Language-internal Causes for Language Change 233

CHAPTER 10. Changes in Vocabulary: Lexical Change __ 238
10.1. Borrowing Words from Foreign Sources 239
10.2. Creating Words from Native Sources 254
10.3. Current Changes in English Vocabulary 260

CHAPTER 11. Changes in Spelling and Pronunciation: Orthographic and Phonetic Change __ 262
11.1. Spelling Change 268
11.2. Pronunciation Change 279
11.3. Remedies for Discrepancy: Efforts for Spelling Reforms 287

CHAPTER 12. Changes in Word Form: Morphological Change __ 290
12.1. Inflection: Declension and Conjugation 290
12.2. Pronouns 294
12.3. Articles and Demonstratives 306
12.4. Nouns 308
12.5. Adjectives and Adverbs 313
12.6. Verbs 317

CHAPTER 13. Changes in Grammar: Syntactic Change __ 322
13.1. Word Order 323
13.2. Internal Structure of the Noun Phrase 328
13.3. Internal Structure of the Verb Phrase 336
13.4. Grammatical Functions 356

CHAPTER 14. Changes in Meaning: Semantic Change __ 368
14.1. Aspects of Meaning 368
14.2. Metaphoric and Metonymic Transfer of Meaning 370
14.3. Synesthesia 372
14.4. Abstraction of Meaning 372
14.5. Objectization and Subjectization of Meaning 373
14.6. Broadening and Narrowing 374
14.7. Pejoration and Amelioration 376
14.8. Taboo and Euphemism 379
14.9. Semantic Bleaching 380
14.10. Why do Meanings Change? 380
14.11. Meaning Change and Dictionaries 383

Cited Bibliography __ 385
Index __ 392