English grammar in the 18^th century. is marked by the development of Continuous Tense Forms. It is а commonplace that English is distinctly more varied and flexible in some of its verbal expressions than other modern languages. Thus where German says "ich singe", English may say ""I sing, I do sing," or "I am singing"„ The do-forms are often called emphatic forms, and this they sometimes are; but their most important uses are in negative and interrogative sentences

(I don’t sing, do you sing?). The forms with 'to be common use is to indicate an action as in progress at the time implied by the auxiliary. The wide extension of the use of continuous forms one of the most important developments of the English verb in the modern period. The chief factor in their growth is the use of the participle as а noun governed by the preposition 'on' (he burst out on laughing) This weakened to 'he burst out а-laughing' and finally to 'he burst out laughing' In the same way 'he was on laughing' became 'he was а-laughing' and 'he was laughing'. Today such forms are freely used in all tenses (is laughing, was laughing, will be laughing, etc.).

The extension of such forms to the passive (the house is being built) was an even later development. It belongs to the very end of the 18^th с. The construction 'the man is on laughing' was capable also of a passive significance under certain circumstances. Thus 'the house is on building' can only suggest that the house is in process of construction This use is found from the 14^th с. on, and its weakened form can be met today' In the last years of the 18^th с. we find the first traces of the modern expression 'the house is being built'. The combination of 'being' with participle II to form а participial phrase had been in use for some time. The history of the new continuous passive shows that its grammar is not fixed, that it will change in the future as it has changed in the past.

The gerund, which came into being in Middle English, developed further in Modern English; it was gradually more and more clearly separated. From the verbal noun in -ing. In Modern English analytical gerund forms appear: the perfect and, the passive gerund.

The mood. System developed in Modern English mainly towards creating more precise means of expressing modal meanings, and, in this connection, towards growth of analytical verb forms, Thus, in the sphere of the subjunctive, use of the pattern 'should/would plus infinitive' gradually grew in main clauses of а conditional sentence.

The category of aspect seems to have arisen only in the Modern English period. In Modern English a continuous aspect was gradually formed, ехрrеssed by a very obvious morphological pattern (be plus participle I). Verbal forms lacking this pattern became а system of common aspect. It is hard to state a definite point at which the category of aspect came into being, as the process developed slowly, and even as late as the 19^th c. it was still possible to use forms of the common aspect to denote an action as in progress at а definite moment.

The system of perfect forms, which had arisen in Old English and developed in Middle English, goes on spreading in the modern period. Thus in Shakespeare’s text there is а fully developed system of perfect forms. The perfect forms of the continuous aspect (has been writing, had been writing, will have bee writing) appeared only after the formation of the continuous aspect.

The number of French words, which was borrowed by English, was great. There is nothing comparable to it in the previous or subsequent history of the language. Two stages can be observed, an earlier and, а later, with the year 1250 as the borderline. The borrowings of the first stage differ from. Those of the second in being much less numerous, being more likely to show peculiarities of Anglo-Norman phonology, and, especially, in the circumstances that brought about their introduction (Roughly 900 in number). The largest single group of words was associated with the church; another single group was associated with а French-speaking society.

(1) The Normans became masters of England, and they remained masters for а sufficiently long time to 1еаvе а deep impress on the language. It is true that they left the old words 'king' and 'queen' intact, but apart from these пеаг1у all words relating to government and. to the highest administration are French: government, govern, administer, crown, state, empire, realm, reign, authority, sovereign, majesty, tyrant; oppress , court, parliament, assembly, treaty, alliance, tax, revenue, tally, exchequer; subject, treason, traitor, rebel, exile, liberty; office, chancellor, treasurer, marshal, governor, councilor, minister, warden, mayor, coroner; noble, nobility, peer, prince, princess, duke, duchess, count, countess, marquis, baron, page, squire, courtier, sir, madam, mistress, vassal, peasant, slave.

(2) as ecclesiastical matters were also chiefly under the control of the upper classes; there are many French words connected with the church, such as religion, service, trinity, savior, virgin, saint, relic, abbey, cloister, friar, clergy, parish, sacrifice, homily, altar, miracle, preach, pray, prayer, sermon, feast; rule, lesson, save, 'blame, order, nature; virtue, vice, duty, grace, charity, cruel, chase, desire, jealousy, pity, mercy, discipline, piety, mystery, immortality, vicar, hermitage; crucifix, image, sanctuary, creator, savior, Ха1th, heresy, temptation, damnation; solemn, devout, preach, chant, confess, adore.

(3) The upper classes, as a matter of course, took into their hands the management of military matters; there is а host of French military terms, many of them of very early introduction. Such are war, peace, battle, arms, armour, mail, lance, dart, cutlass, banner, ensign, assault, siege, defence, ambush, retreat, guard, soldier, officer, sergeant, lieutenant, chieftain (captain' and colonel' аrе later), troops, navy, enemy, company, force, march. Some words which are now used very extensively outside the military sphere were without any doubt: at first purely military, such as challenge, danger, escape, aid, prison, gallant, etc.

(4) Another natural consequence of the power of the Norman upper classes is that most of the terms pertaining to the law are of French origin, such as justice, just, judge; suit, sue, plaintiff and defendant, plea, plead, summon, cause, assize, session, attorney, fee, accuse, crime, felony, damage, dower, heritage, property, real estate, tenure, penalty, injury, privilege. Some of these are now hardly to be called technical juridical words, and there are others which belong still more to the ordinary vocabulary of everyday life, but which were undoubtedly at first introduced by lawyers at the time when procedure was conducted, entirely in French; for instance, case, marry, marriage, prove, fault, heir, male and. female, while 'defend' and 'prison' are common to the juridical and the military worlds. There are many French verbs associated with legal processes: sue, implead, accuse, indict, depose, blame, arrest, seize, pledge, arrant, assail, condemn, convict, award, distrain, imprison, banish, acquit, pardon, the names of many crimes and misdemeanors are French: felony, trespass, arson, fraud, libel, slander perjury, adultery, and many others. Suits involving property brought into use such words as property, estate, tenement, chattels, bounds, tenant, dower, legacy, patrimony, heritage, heir, executor, etc.

(5) The upper classes set the standard in fashion, meals, dress and social life. The words 'fashion' and 'dress' are themselves French, as are apparel, gown, robe, саре, cloak, frock, veil, petticoat, lace, pleat, embroidery, button, kerchief, garter; satin, taffeta, fur, beaver, ermine; jewel, ornament, brooch, ivory, enamel, topaz, garnet, ruby, emerald, sapphire, pearl, diamond, etc. The superiority of the French cuisine can be shown by such words as dinner and supper, feast, repast, mackerel, sole, perch, bream, sturgeon, salmon, sardine, oyster; venison, beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, sausage, etc. One could have pottage, toast, biscuit, cream, sugar, olives, salad, lettuce, and for dessert almonds and many fruits, including raisin, fig, date, grape, orange, lemon, cherry, peach, or а confection, pastry, tart, jelly. The verbs roast, boil, stew, fry, grate, and mince describe various culinary processes, and goblet, saucer, cruet, plate, platter suggests French refinements in the serving of meals. It was а popular remark by Sir Walter Scott in 'Ivanhoe' that has been often repeated that while the names of several animals in their lifetime are English (ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine, boar, deer), they appear on the table with French names (beef, veal, mutton, port, bacon, brawn, venison). The use of the French words here is due to the superiority of the French cuisine.

(6) А variety of new words suggests the innovations made by the French in domestic economy and social life. Improvements in domestic arrangements were implied in such words as recreation, jollity, leisure, рlеаsure, dance, revel, lute, music, melody, chess, checkers, conversation, parlor, wardrobe, closet, pantry, scullery; chase, tournament, pavilion, sport, cards, dice, асе, deuce, trey, size, etc.

(7) The French were the teachers of the English in most things relating to art; not only such words as art, beauty, colour, image, design, figure, ornament, to paint, but also the greater number of the more special words of technical significance are French: arch, tower, pillar, porch, column, aisle, choir, chapel, cloister, palace, castle, manor, mansion, etc. One cannot fail to be struck with the difference between the more elementary occupations (such as English baker, miller, smith, weaver, shoemaker, fisherman, shepherd. and others) and the more fashionable ones (French tailor, mason, painter, carpenter, butcher, and joiner).

(8) Literature is represented by the word itself and by poet, rime, prose, romance, lау, story, chronicle, tragedy, соmedy, prologue, preface, title, volume, chapter, paper, pen, parchment; and learning is represented by study, grammar, logic, geometry, compilation, noun, gender, clause, and many more. Among the sciences medicine has brought in the largest number of early French words still in common use, among them being the word medicine itself, ch1rurgy, physician, surgeon, apothecary, malady, pain, ague, palsy, gout, leper, paralytic, plague, pestilence, anatomy, anatomy, remedy, ointment, balm, alkali, poison.

(9) One has only to glance over а misсе11аneous list of words - nouns, adjectives, and verbs - to realize how universal was the French contribution. For instance, nouns which were already in English by 1300: action, adventure, affection, age, air, bucket, bushel, business, calendar, cheer, city, coast, country, courage, coward, cruelty, damage, deceit, debt, envy, error, face, fame, fault, flower, folly, force, grief, glutton, harlot, hour, jest joy, malice, manner, marriage, metal, mischief, mountain, noise, number, ocean, opinion, order, pair, people, реr11, person, рiесе, point, poverty, powder, quality, quart, rage, reason, river, scandal, seal, season, sign, sound, spirit, square, strife, substance, sum, task, tavern, tempest, unity, use, vision, waste. The same universality is shown in the adjectives: able, active, actual, am1sble, amorous, barren, blank, brief, calm, certain, chief, clear, common, contrary, courageous, courteous, соу, cruel, curious, debonair, double, eager, easy, faint, feeble, fierce, final, firm, foreign, frail, frank, gay, gentle, gracious, hardy, hasty, honest, horrible, innocent, jо11у, large, liberal, luxurious, malicious, mean, moist, natural, nice, obedient, original, perfect, pertinent, plain, poor, precious, principal, probable, proper, рurе, quaint, real, rude, safe, savage, scarce, second, secret, simple, single, sober, solid, special, stout, strange, subtle, sudden, sure, tender, treacherous, universal, usual. А list of the verbs borrowed at the same time shows equal diversity. Examples are: advance, advice, aim, allow, approach, arrange, arrive, betray, carry, change, chase, close, commence, complain, conceal, consider, continue, count, cover, cry, deceive, declare, defeat, defer, defy, delay, desire, destroy, embrace, enclose, endure, enjoy, enter, err, excuse, flatter, flourish, force, forge, form, furnish, grant, increase, inform, join, lmgu1sh, marry, mount, move, murmur, muse, nourish, obey, oblige, observe, pass, рау, pinch, please, practice, praise, prefer, proceed, propose, prove, purify, pursue, quash, quit, receive, refuse, rejo1cе, relieve, remember, reply, rob, satisfy, save, serve, spoil, strive, succeeded, suppose, surprise, tempt, trace, travel, tremble, wait, waste, wince, Finally, the influence of French may be seen in numerous phrases and turns of expression, such as to take leave, to draw near, to hold one’s peace, to do justice, on the point of, according to, subject to, at large, in vain, without fail. In these and other phrases, even when the words are English the pattern is French.

The calculations of French words show that the total number of borrowings adopted during the Мiddle English period was slightly over ten thousand, of these about 75 per cent are still in current use.

It must not be thought that the extensive modification of the English language caused by the Norman Conquest had made of it something else than English. It had absorbed several thousand French words as а natural consequence of а situation in which larger numbers of people were for а time bilingual and then gradually turned from the habitual use of French to the habitual use of English. It had lost а great many native words but basic elements of the vocabulary were still English.

ТНE PROBLEM OF SPELLING PRONUNCIATION

The spelling of Middle English is much more phonetic than that of Modern English. The trouble was not merely that English spelling was bad, for it is still bad today, but that there was no generally accepted system that every one could conform to. In short, it was neither phonetic nor fixed. The confusion was increased when certain spellings gradually became conventional while the slowly changed. And here we must confine ourselves to а few observations about the importance of sound-changes and their representation in writing.

In considering the changes in pronunciation which English words underwent passing from Old to Middle English we may say that qualitatively they were slight. Changes in the consonants were rather insignificant, as they have always been in English. Some voiced consonants became voiceless, and. vice versa, and consonants neither were occasionally lost nor were they’re much alteration in the quality of vowels in accented syllables. Most of the short vowels, unless lengthened, passed over into Middle English unaltered. The Old English diphthongs were all simplified, and all diphthongs in Middle English are new formation. If the quality of Old English vowels did not change much in passing into Middle English, their quantity or length was subject to considerable alteration. All these changes in length are little noticeable in the spelling.

When we come to the vowel changes in Modern English we see the importance of the factors that determined the length of vowels in Middle English. All Middle English vowels, which were long, underwent radical alteration in passing into Modern English, but the short vowels, in accented syllables, remained comparatively stable. So far as the short vowels are concerned it is clear that а person today would have little difficulty in understanding the English of any period, of the language.

The situation is very different when we consider the long vowels. In Chaucer's pronunciation these had still their so-called 'continental' value, as for instance Modern German vowels. But in the 15th с. all the long vowels gradually became raised and those that could not became diphthongs. These major vowel changes from about 1350 mark the shift from Middle English to Modern English, and they are usually termed the Great Vowel Shift. It will be noticed that the Great Vowel Shift is responsible for the rather disorganized use of the vowel symbols in English, spelling. The spelling of English had become fixed in а general way before the shift and therefore did not change when the quality of the long vowels changes. Consequently English vowel symbols no longer correspond to the sounds, which they once represented in English and. still represent in the other modern languages in which vowels have their 'continental' value accurately represented by well fixed symbols.

Norman scribes introduced some confusion in English spelling even before the Great Vowel Shift when they tried to write а language that they imperfectly knew and carried over habits that they had formed in writing French. In some cases а further confusion in spelling arose when letters were inserted in words where they were not pronounced (like the -b- in debt or doubt) because the corresponding word in Latin was so spelled (debitum, dubitare), or in other cases (for example, the -gh- in delight, tight) by analogy with words similarly pronounced (light, night) where the -gh- had formally represented an actual sound [х].

All in all spelling was one of the problems that the English language began consciously to face in the 16^th c. During the period from 1500 1о 1650 it was fairly settled. Mention should be made of the fact that the detailed history of English spelling has yet to be written.

Before 1798 the system of polite language, which had developed in the 18 century, was under strain. It can be highlighted only four of them. According to W. Blake the first is freeing up of restrictions on newsprint and copyright. The second is the American Revolution leading to the independence of the former American colonies. The third is the French revolution and the impetus that provide for democratic movements and the inevitable backlash from those who wanted to preserve conservative values and social standards. The fourth is the discovery by Sir William Jones that Sanskrit was related to Latin and Greek as well as possibly other European languages. These events became associated with other developments which took place during the 19^th century to put the old system under pressure.[Blake, 273]

In the 18^th century copyright law was uncertain, but the fear of prosecution under the law inhibited many printers from publishing material for that they thought they could be put in prison. In 1774 the limits of copyright were clarified and it became far easier to publish material that might previously have been considered suspect. This is not immediately stop the prosecution of those who published material to which the government took exception, and during the Napoleonic wars various acts restricted liberty and freedom of expression. However, the end of the copyright and the general availability of newsprint meant that many cheap editions were issued so that those who could read might have better access to reading matter other than the Bible.

During the 19^th century circulating libraries grew in importance and there was a growth in literacy. Newspapers became more widespread, and in 1835 the repeal of the newspaper stamp duty meant that newspapers came down in price and could reach a wider audience.

It should be pointed out that there is another theoretical approach to the problem under discussion. This theory says that the generally accepted view that English orthography bears little relation to English phonology is in fact quite false. The pronunciations of words are quite generally predictable from their spelling. Moreover, quite aside from pronunciation, this orthography preserves information about the history and meaning of words that is of great value in human communication.

As R. Burchfield states that of all the main languages of the world none is widely disseminated and more subtly sliced and severed than English, and all within the space of only 1500 years. From the diversity of the earliest records of the Anglo-Saxons it can be assumed that it already divided into a multitude of linguistic subgroups using different modes of pronunciation, grammar and usage even though they remained mutually intelligible. [Burchfield]

In the period since 1800 most of the observable changes to received pronunciation have been brought by Mitford factor – in other words by sociological change and not by phonetic change. They include the substitution of [ei] for [i:] in words like deity, homogeneity and spontaneity; and the replacement of a soft g in gynaecology by a hard one.

This is not to deny that there are quite а few no phonological, no phonetic spellings in English. Clearly, there is some orthography that is of no value. Standard spelling persists over the decades and centuries. The resistance of standard spelling to change reflects, rather, an important fact of historical linguistics. The underlying phonological spellings of language that are represented by alphabetic writing systems are themselves quite resistant to change. And the complicated interaction between Modern English orthography and pronunciation is а striking example such resistance.