Lexicology
Give an example of compounding.
e.g. Ice-cream
Girlfriend
What is a case?
- Changes to nouns and their modifying words to mark the relationship to these of each other and to the verb of the clause.
Was Old English heavily inflected?
Yes, allows some flexibility in word order
What is a shift?
- Comes to mean something completely different.
Do we know what Latin sounds like?
Yes/NO
NO
Give an example of a reason for word loss
either:
- obsolescence
- confusion
- sounds like a rude word
- disappears if too short
- no obvious reason
- object no longer exists
what is a strong verb and give an example
a strong verb is a verb that is amongst the most used and is conjugated in a number of ways to indicate grammatical information
eg. sing, sang, sung
List one of the major changes in Syntax.
- Verb Conjugations
- Losing Endings
-Grammatical Genders
- Modifications to Pronouns
What is Narrowing?
- Reduction in the context in which a word can appear.
What were the origins of old English?
Germanic
what is affixation
Involves the use of bound morphemes to create new words (prefixes + suffixes)
What is a weak verb and give an example
Least common of the verbs and indicated tense in a regular way
eg. jump, jumped, jumping
What was the inflected ending [um] used for?
The preposition "to" eg. Gumum "to men"
What is the difference between elevation and deterioration?
Elevation: unpleasant meaning to positive meaning
Deterioration: word takes on negative connotation
What is Grimm's Law?
A consistent set of consonant sound shifts.
How many words existed in old English times.
~25k
List the OE nouns have 4 cases which took inflections.
Possession
Subject
Object
Indirect Object
What is the inflected ending [an] used for?
Indicates plural form of noun: eg. blancan 'horses'
Give an example of Elevated Connotation.
- Anything unpleasant to pleasant for eg. terrible to awfully good.
Explain umlaut.
When the back vowel became fronted.
what was the first alphabet called and how did it develop?
futhorc : 6 letters formed from the first six letters of the alphabet developed by Christian missionaries who introduced Latin
How are inflected endings used in Old English?
Used to determine gender, possession, subject, object and indirect object
How did inflected endings cause confusion?
As sounds eroded (ends are always prone to erosion) they sounded the same.
What is deterioration.
- Negative Connotations of words.
When did this sounds shift take place?
1450-1700