History of English + Prescription & Standardisation

Question 1

Old English

Answer 1

• Angles, Saxons and Jutes
• first surviving documents dates back to 8th century
• Beowulf
• Germanic language, words added from Latin, Greek and Old Norse
• end comes after 1066

Question 2

Middle English

Answer 2

• Anglo-Norman English
• most famous work is Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (late 14thC)
• influx of Norman French and Latin

Question 3

Early Modern English

Answer 3

• Starts in the 16th century (before Shakespeare)
• End comes during the 18th century (one often cited date is Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary in 1755)
• since 18th century we talk of modern English

Question 4

The Great Vowel Shift

Answer 4

-It took place 1400-1750
- All Middle English long vowels changed as a result
- Along with the standardisation of spelling, the GVS is the major reason why spelling is so different from pronunciation in modern English
- many linguists claim it were the open-mid vowels that changed first; they were raised so [ɛ:] and [ɔ:] became merged with [e:] and [o:] respectively
- the change is a combination of push and drag (pull) chain

Question 5

The GVO shift chain (symbols)

Answer 5

• a: -> ɛ: -> e: -> i: -> ai
• ɔ: -> o: -> u: -> au

Question 6

The GVO push and drag chain (explained)

Answer 6

• The open-mid [ɛ:] and [ɔ:] pushed the vowels above (the closer ones). Since there was no place for [i:] and [u:], they became diphthongised.
• The movement of [ɛ:] left a void to be filled, which was to be occupied by former [a:] -> [ɛ:]. We can thus say that [a:] was dragged/pulled up.

Question 7

Prescription

Answer 7

• Based on a set of beliefs that certain variants are better than others (sounds, words, grammatical forms, accents, dialects, languages)
• Such variants are often imposed from above by the authorities (educational institutions, media, business, marketing, etc.)
• no distinction betweem language system (langue) and language use (parole)

Question 8

Prescription in linguistics

Answer 8

• Prescriptive ideologies started in the 18th C
• In the 19th C linguistics attempted to establish itself as a scientific discipline, hence issues of prescription were rejected as non-scientific
• Prescription entered the realm of linguistics with the advent of socially realistic linguistics (i.e. sociolinguistics) in the 1960’s

Question 9

Why are arbitrary linguistic forms assigned social values?

Answer 9

• Relative social mobility (based on one’s education, behaviour, manners, clothes, and, unsurprisingly, language as well) and the attendant rise of the middle class (from 18th C onwards) made linguistic variants subject to value-judgments.

Question 10

Why do people persist in using stigmatised (non-standard) forms even though they clearly know what the standard is?

Answer 10

• The Milroys introduced a notion of overt and covert prestige
• overt = open, prestige supported by the authorities
• covert = hidden, they are prestigious within a language community (among peers)
• There are two opposing tendencies: status v. solidarity

Question 11

Standardisation

Answer 11

• prescriptive attitudes are only possible if they are backed by a set of standardised forms
• an idea in the mind rather than a reality—a set of abstract norms to which actual usage may conform to a greater or lesser extent
• In English, standardisation is not institutional, but rather natural (you have some awareness of the “correct” form)

Question 12

Stages of standardisation

Answer 12

1. selection
2. acceptence
3. diffusion
4. maintenance
5. codification