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LECTURE 4.

NEW ENGLISH. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

List of principal questions:

1. Outer history

1.1. Emergence of the nation

1.2. Establishment of the literary norm

1.3. Geographical expansion of the English language

2. Inner history

2.1. Phonetics

2.2. Grammar

2.3. Word-stock

Literature

1. R.V. Reznik, T.C. Sorokina, I.V. Reznik A History of the English language. M., 2003.

2. T.A. Rastorguyeva History of English. M., 1983.

3. А.И. Смирницкий Лекции по истории английского языка. М., 2000.

4. К. Бруннер История английского языка. Т.1 М., 2001.

5. И. Чахоян, Л. Иванова, Т. Беляева. История английского языка. СПб., 1998.

1. Outer history

1.1. Emergence of the nation

The 15^th century is a border-line in the history of the English people. In 1485 there ended the War between the Roses. The end of the war meant the end of feudalism and the beginning of the new economical and political stage of the English society capitalism. It was a transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. An absolute monarchy was established, the first absolute monarch being Henry Tutor. It meant a real unification of the country, political and economic, resulted in the development of capitalism and made it evitable that one nation and one national language be established.

The first king of this period, Henry VII (1485 – 1509) strengthened the monarchy and provided the revenue imperative for its very existence. During his reign commerce and shipbuilding were encouraged, and the material wealth of the country increased. New lands – Newfoundland and Nova Scotia – were discovered. Following in his steps, his son, Henry VIII (1509 – 1547) broke away from the ecclesiastical influence of Rome, made himself head of the Church of England and of the State and transferred the property of the monasteries to himself. Dozens of large ships were built, trade continued to develop, and new territories were drawn into it. It was during the reign of Henry’s son, Edward VI (1547 – 1553), that trade with Muskovy or Russia, as we call it today, was opened up.

The long reign of Elisabeth I (1558 – 1603) was one the most remarkable for the country, its progress in the discovery and colonizing field tremendously. Queen Elisabeth’s reign was also particularly rich in learning – it was the age of Shakespeare, Sydney, Spencer, Beckon, Marlowe and many other famous names.

Nevertheless, the evident achievements in foreign policy, trade and culture did not put an end to the controversy of various powerful forces in the country. Another problem which was to have far-reaching consequences was that of whether sovereignty lay with monarch or Parliament advocating the interests of the new developing classes of society. The strife between the Crown and Parliament was aggravated by religious differences. The development of the country required more regular revenue, and forced the Crown to raise taxes, which met with disapproval from Parliament.

In the XVII century Charles I (1625 – 1649) for over a decade ruled without Parliament, but had finally to reach a compromise, according to which the powers of Parliament were greatly extended. Hence force one legal system was to apply to the king and his subjects alike, and no taxation was to be raised without Parliament’s consent. However, when Parliament demanded further concessions, denied the king control of the army, a crisis followed which is now known under the title of the Great Rebellion. The Crown lost the ensuing war, Charles I surrendered and was executed, and for over a decade the country was ruled by Parliament alone, the most notable leader of that time being Oliver Cromwell. Granted the title of Lord Protector, he was a virtual dictator of the nation, heavily relying on the Army and disillusioning Parliament which had first brought him to power.

After the death of Oliver Cromwell the Army and Parliament were unable to agree on a government, and the restoration of monarchy that followed in 1660, when the son of the executed king, Charles II, was invited to return to the throne, was more a restoration of Parliament than of the king himself. Charles II, who during the time of Cromwell lived in exile in France, brought with him from the Continent a keen interest in scientific development, culture and arts, together with a considerable influence of the French language spoken by his supporters.

1.2. Establishment of the literary norm

As we have said, in the New English period emerged one nation and one national language. But the English literary norm was formed only at the end of the 17^th century, when the first scientific English dictionaries and the first scientific English grammar. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries there appeared great number of grammar books whose authors tried to stabilize the use of language. Thus Samuel Johnson, the author of the famous Dictionary (1755), wrote that he preferred the use of “regular and solemn” pronunciation to the “cursory and colloquial”. Many famous writers also greatly contributed to the formation of the English language, and among them, first and foremost, the great Shakespeare.

Early New English (15^th – beginning of the 18^th century) – the establishment of the literary norm. The language that was used in England at that time is reflected in the famous translation of the Bible called the King James Bible (published in 1611). Although the language of the Bible is Early Modern English, the author tried to use a more solemn and grand style and more archaic expressions.

A great influence was also connected with the magazine by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele called The Spectator (1711 – 1714), the authors of which discussed various questions of the language, including its syntax and the use of words.

Late New English – since the 18^th century.

If the gradual acceptance of a virtually uniform dialect by all writers is the most important event in the emergence of Modern English, it must be recognized that this had already gone a considerable way before 1500, and it was undoubtedly helped by Caxton’s introduction of printing in 1477. The fact that the London dialect was used by him in his translations and prefaces, and that Chaucer’s works were among the books he published, led to its rapid diffusion throughout the country. But the adoption of a standard of spoken English was a slower process. It was not until Elizabeth’s time that the language of the court came to be generally recognized as the best form of spoken English; and as late as the 18^th, and even the early 19^th century country gentlemen in their occasional visits to polite society in London were not ashamed to use dialect.

Nevertheless, despite the persistence of wide varieties in pronunciation, the basic phonetic changes that distinguish Modern English from Middle English are profound, though they are not reflected in a similar modification of spelling. The early printers, whose practice was to prove of decisive importance for the future, derived their spelling from the Middle English scribes (a fact that largely accounts for the difficulty of English spelling today). The most important of theses changes was that affecting the sound of vowels and diphthongs, with the result that the “continental values” of Middle English were finally replaced by an approximation to modern pronunciation. Lesser changes also occurred in the pronunciation of consonants, though some of these have been restored by conscious, and often mistaken, attempts to adapt pronunciation more closely to the received spelling.

Geographical expansion of English in the 17^th – 20^th centuries and its effect on the language

Up to the 17^th century the English language was spoken by the people who lived only on the British Isles (at that time of William the Conqueror there were about 2 million people), but even there in the far-away mountainous parts of the country the people preserved their own Celtic dialects very long into the New English period. Thus in Cornwall the local dialect, Cornish died out in the 18^th century. In Wales there arose a tendency to revive the local Celtic language. In 1893 the Welsh University was founded, and in 1961 the number of those speaking Welsh amounted to 650 thousand. In Ireland through centuries a struggle against English was fought. It reached its climax in 1916 with the Irish rebellion. In 1922 the Irish Free State was formed and in 1949 the new state – Eire – left the Commonwealth of Nations. Now Eire occupies the whole but the northern part of Ireland, which is a part of Britain. The number of people rose from 300 thousand to over 600 thousand, but the majority speak English.

The penetration of the English language to other parts of the globe mainly began in the 16^th century together with the expansion of British colonialism. The 16^th century was an age of great adventurers, and England’s progress in the discovery and colonialized field was tremendous. The first Virginian colony was founded; Drake circumnavigated the globe; the East India Company was established and English seamen left their mark in many parts of the world. In 1620 the famous ship The Mayflower reached North America in the region which is now the state of Massachusetts. This marked the beginning of English in the New World.

The 18^th century witnessed the coming of English to India where nowadays the language is widely spread, although its sphere is limited to large cities and a certain social layer, and in today’s India English is a state language together with the native languages of Hindi and Urdu.

In the 18^th century England conquered Canada. During the 19^th century the colonization of Australia took place. In the 20^th century English penetrated into South Africa.

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Now about 300 million people speak English as their native language in various parts of the globe, and many times that – as a second language. To foretell the future of any language, English among them, is of course impossible, but the mere fact of its wide diffusion throughout the world is a guarantee that it will continue to change and develop.

Cultural Development in the 14^th Century

In the long run, the Norman kings did much to centralize power and unite England into a state, preparing the ground for the decay of feudalism, bourgeois development and the beginning of the nation. The unifying English language, the growth and influence of the bourgeois, religious “heresies” undermining the catholic church, this bulwark of feudalism - all these were signs of the time. The appearance of the House of Commons (1343) heralded future developments.

There were big changes in the material life of the population. Life was safer and more comfortable for the rich than it was in the early Norman period when the wealthy families had to live in the dark of the fortress-homes, with little light, less convenience. Now palaces and castles were built with spacious halls illuminated by wide windows lots of light pouring in.

The farms and cottages of the poor people were buit of logs or planks, the floors were usually bare earth and the roof made of thatch: the walls might be made of mud and timber.

There was progress in letters as well. John Wycliffe translated the Bible from Latin into English creating actually the beginning of English prose.

The development of the national language was greatly promoted by the works and creative activities of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) an outstanding poet, “father of English literature”. His works paved the way for English Renaissance literature. His realistic approach his optimism and folk-spirit made that everfresh masterpiece of his “Canterbury Tales” immortal. It depicts the England of the 14 th century. It is the source not only of lively satisfaction but of authentic information as well. Influenced by Italian Renaissance literature, particularly by Boccaccio, Chaucer rises above his Italian teacher in lifelikeness.

Son of the ordinary tradesman, Chaucer rose to high court positions, traveled on diplomatic business, but died in poverty. When Henry IV came to the throne, his father, Duke of Lancaster who replaced the last Plantagenet on the throne of England used to be Chaucer’s patron, the aging poet sent him a poem entitled “Complaint to My Empty Purse”. The king took the hint and increased Chaucer’s small pension, but it was too late-the great poet did not use the money to enjoy.

PRE-RENAISSANCE CULTURE

Compared to the preceding and the following centuries, the 15^th century was comparatively barren. At that time tere were no great poets and writers no great masterpieces were created. The most important book of that time was “Morte de’Arthur” written by Thomas Malory, a Yorkist nobleman. It was one of the last chivalric romances of the king’s Arthur cycle, a swan song of the nobility.

But folklore flourished all long through the 15^th century. Many of them were printed (at that time Caxton started printing]. Some of them are ballads of Robin Hood, who had to leave his oppressors and come to Sherwood Forest where very soon other good and honest outlaws gathered to proclaim Robin Hood their leader and begin a life full adventure for justice and nobleness.

Other ballads were historical; many of them described the brinkmanship between England and Scotland.

By the end of the 15^th century new forces were beginning to work in English culture. The Oxford University was becoming the center of learning, science and culture. The professors of the university started to discover the antique authors.

ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

Renaissance is the epoch of Humanism and the Revival of Learning born in Italy after revival of the culture and science of Italy and the whole western world. The human being, the beauty and the joy of this life were now the center of attention.

In England three main stages of this process could be distinguished: the early stage of the end of the 15^th century and the first half of the 16^th century and the later stage coinciding with reign of Queen Elizabeth and the life-span of Shakespeare. The period after Shakespeare’s death and to the beginning of the puritan revolution was the time of decline of the Renaissance and the crisis of Humanism.

The earlier Tudor period was a time of transition from the late medieval to Renaissance culture. The new architecture imported from Italy had little in common with the Gothic style. With the interest to classics there came a tendency to the ancient forms and styles in architecture and art. It was in early 16^th century that the influence of the Italian Renaissance architecture was really felt in England in the pure classical lines of Inigo Johnes the example of this style was the Whitehall palace. Christopher Wren, a very outstanding architect used the classic forms with great purity and correctness. After the great fire of London he rebuilt a great number of churches, cathedrals, palaces, houses of the rich people of London. St. Paul’s cathedral is a good example of this style.

Architects and painters were invited from Italy and other western countries. Many of them, though being foreigners were allowed to enrich British culture and are generally treated by historians as the founders of the English school of painting, as for instance Hans Holbein Junior, an outstanding German painter. He depicted all details of the sitter’s appearance. His portraits were so realistic, that they expressed the sitter’s character, his thoughts, and his inner life. English portrait painting started from Hans Holbein Junior’s works. The wealthy houses were soon filled with portraits of ancestors often painted by provincial painters imitating Holbein. Rubens and Van Dyck, the great Dutchmen are also revered as creators of English painting for they were attracted by the English titles and agreed to be treated as English painters.

One of the most famous representatives of the English Renaissance culture was Thomas More, lawyer, scholar, writer, and statesman. His great work was “Utopia” published in Latin in 1516, a scathing satire on feudalism and the emerging capitalism, on the government and society of England.

The description of contemporary England with all the evils of poverty for the many and luxury for the few is made in striking contrasts to the island of “Utopia” where there is not private ownership of land and industrial tools, where community of goods, a national system of education, the rule of work for all. More does not condemn the feudal system, sad assurance that the new system, based on money is no smaller evil. He looks forward the new fair social society with no exploitation, equal rights to all members of the society.

The second stage of Renaissance in England was the age of the theater. In the first period it was the time of “morality play” and the “mystery play”. The theater reflected the reality of those days, showing the political antagonism of the society. There were also plays by classical Greek and Roman tragedians staged by university students. The first theaters were mobile. The actors staged their plays on the squares, markets, taverns and roadside inns.

In 1576 the first theater was built in London by a group of actors and soon theaters appeared everywhere – rough and primitive structures, roofless and curtainless, seating some thousand people.

The third stage of Renaissance epoch was characterized by increasing decay of drama.

2. Inner history

The speed of the development of language was lesser than in Middle English. The language developed quickly at the beginning of this period and slower – at the end (with the exception of the word stock which develops equally quickly during the whole period). When the literary norm was formed, it, being always very conservative, prevented the change of the language that is why the speed of the development slowed down.