Конспект лекций по дисциплине «История языка (англ.)» для студентов специальности «Иностранная филология»

Кафедра иностранной филологии

по дисциплине «История языка (англ.)»

для студентов специальности «Иностранная филология», «Переводческое дело», «Иностранные языки»

Составитель: ст. преп. Ордабаева Ж. Е.

Павлодар

Lecture 1.

Subject and aims of the History of English.

The English language of today reflects many centuries of development. The political and social events that have in the course of English history so profoundly affected the English people in their national life have generally had a recognizable effect on their language. Among these events we can name such as: the Christianity of Britain in 597 that brought England into contact with Latin civilization, the Scandinavian invasions that resulted in a considerable mixture of the two races and their languages, the Norman conquest that made English for two centuries the language of the lower classes, while the nobles used French. In a similar way the development of England as a maritime power, the expansion of the British Empire, the growth of commerce and industry, of science and literature, each in its way contributed to make English what it is today. Thus, the English language reflects in its entire development the political, social, and cultural history of the English people.

The subject of the history of English is to give a systematic account of the development of history from early times till nowadays.

A language can be considered from different angles. In studying Modern English we regard the language as fixed in time and describe each linguistic level – phonetics, grammar or lexis taking no account of the origin of present-day features or a tendency to change. The synchronic approach can be contrasted to the diachronic.

When considered diachronically every linguistic fact is interpreted as a step in the evolution of language.

Through learning the history of the English language the student achieves a variety of aims: theoretical and practical. One of the aims is to provide the student with the knowledge of linguistic history sufficient to account for the principal features of present-day English.

While studying modern English we find in its vocabulary, phonetic and grammatical structure a number of phenomena difficult to understand. It is very difficult to read English words as the written form of the English word is conventional rather than phonetic.

e.g. bit-[ bit]- 3 letters, 3 sounds

bite-[bait]- 4 letters, 3 sounds

no correspondence between the vowels and their graphic representation , the final -e is not pronounced, but serves to show how to read -i.

In the vocabulary we find the commonness between English and German. In English summer, in German Sommer, long-lang,etc. The history of English accounts for these and other peculiarities.

As for grammar , the history of English will supply explanations both for the general features of the grammatical structure and for its specific peculiarities.

The theoretical aim of the course is to supply the student with all necessary to consider such problems as 1) the relationship between statics and dynamics in language; 2) the role of linguistic and extralinguistic factors; 3) the interdependence of different processes in language history.

The history of English is connected with other disciplines. It is connected with the history of England, connecting the development of English with concrete historical conditions of English people’s life. The history of English is closely connected with theoretical grammar, phonetics and lexicology.