Gramatyka-Historyczna-11, gram.historyczna

Gramatyka Historyczna 11

v      Yes-no questions - either introduced by the pronoun hwæþer or by inversion itself:

o        hwæðmoton twagenæwe gebroðr twa geswustor in gesinscipe onfon?                                  ‘whether may two full brothers two sisters in marriage take?’

v      Sentence patterns:

o        Subjectless structures ­ - the subject NP could be dropped when it could be recovered from the context:

§         he þeæsunde oferflat, hæfde mare mægen                                                                                          ‘he thee at swimming surpassed, (he) had more strength’

§         Especially with reference to natural phenomena:

·         norþsniwde               ‘of-north snowed’

o        Basically, no subjectless clauses in PDE

o        In polish, they are present (mówi się)

o        Impersonal constructions did not have nominative subjects either

§         finite clauses – subject in nominative case – he goes

§         Himðæsceamode

§         Them-DAT this-GEN shamed                            ‘im był wstyd tego / they were ashamed of that’

o        common in OE (in Polish they are quite common today, too: mi się podoba, in Spanish: me gusta)

The seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy)

v      Heptarchy:

1.       Northumbria,

2.       Mercia,

3.       Wessex,

4.       East Anglia,

5.       Kent,

6.       Sussex,

7.       Essex

v      Four main dialects

1.    Northumbrian – Northumbria

2.    Mercian – Mercia, East Anglia, Essex

3.    West Saxon – Wessex, Sussex

§      most of the texts from OE that survived are West Saxon texts

§      Standard English is not a direct continuation of West Saxon – it’s not always easy to see the continuation in words of English, some words are taken from Mercian, but more words in PDE English came from roman LGs: French, Latin

4.  Kentish – Kent

Events / works written

v      Cadmon’s Hymn (670?) Bede finishes Ecclesiastic History

v      King Alfred the Great – ordered to translate many texts (mainly Latin) into English – this texts are also classified as early OE texts and ordered Anglo Saxon Chronicle to be written

v      Gospels written (translations from Latin) –

o        970 Exeter Book (Riddles, the Wanderer, the Seafarer)

o        975 Vercelli Book copied

o        Alfric’s Catholic Homilies and Lives of Saints

o        Beowulf – manuscript copied

o        Junius manuscript copied (contains Oenesia, Exodus, Christ and Satan) / Some parts of the Bible

v      Most written documents were found in OE in comparison to other Germanic LGs

v      At least three million words in writings

Christianisation – in 597, Roman emissary, Augustine, arrived in South England, converted the king of Kent, and set up Canterbury cathedral, 1066 Norman Conquest

v      by 700 all of Anglo-Saxon England was Christian

v      replacing runic alphabet

v      Quite a peaceful process

v      New monasteries were founded

v      Classical culture brought together with Latin and Greek

v      Monks studied arts, classical LGs, literature, science, chronology

o        Caused the introduction of new words in English (words connected with religion, studying, e.g. monk, candle, some words were adapted from English or changed meaning)

o        Practically all England Christianised

o        Several linguistic effects of Christianisation

§         New words (Latin: abbot, hymn, candle, oil, master, school, apostle, pope, monk, mass, verse)

§         The change of old words in new meanings ( heahfæder ‘patriarch’, godspell ‘Gospel’, halend ‘saviour, heofon ‘heaven’, gast ‘spirit’, halga ‘holy’, god changed grammatical category)

§         Replacing the runic alphabet by the roman alphabet

v      Viking Invasion (Old Norse) – 787-850 – raids for plundering. Shallow penetration of the coastal area, plundering of towns and monasteries and a relatively quick return. In 793 and 794 the monasteries of Lindisfarne and Jarrow, the centres of learning and Christendom, were attacked and plundered

o        3 periods – plunder, plunder+occupy, conquer

o        Canute – the 1st “Danish” king

o        865-879 – the participation of large and well organised forces, whose aim was not only plunder but also the occupation and settlement of the invaded land

o        By 875, the Vikings had conquered all of England except Wessex. …

o        991-1042 in 991 Olaf Tryggvason invaded England and defeated the English army at the Battle of Maldon

o        Scandinavian invaders came to England without women and married English females

o        Intermarriages and close everyday contacts between the English and the Scandinavian settlers ultimately led to the amalgamation of the two peoples.

§         This amalgamation was facilitated by more cultural similarities than differences between them and by a relatively small difference between the two genetically related (Germanic) languages they spoke

o        Danelaw – the occupied territory of England by Vikings/Danes

o        English absorbed a lot of words and some semantic changes were introduced

v      William Caxton – set up the first printing press in London (i śmieszkował o liczbie mnogiej jajek, hehe)

v      Old Norse and Old English à similar

Germanic:

v      /sk/

o        North Germanic (Scandinavian)               shirt, scatter, skip

§         /sk/                                                        vs.

o        West Germanic (English)                            shirt, shatter, ...