语言学

2/29/20207.3.2Lossofaffixes——英语092蒋彦磊宋云凤严蕾2/29/2020•Briefintroduction•Affixes•ThreestagesinthedevelopmentofEnglish•Case•SoundChange2/29/2020Everythingrollson,nothingstaystills.Bynaturelanguageisacontinuousprocessofdevelopment.Amongallthedescriptionsandexplanationsoflanguagechange,wejustfocusonthelossofaffixes.Affixes：affixesareformsthatattachedtowordsorwordelementstomodifymeaningorfunctionAllaffixesareboundmorphemesbecausenoneofthemcanstandaswordsintheirownright.Asaffixescanbeaddedtothegrammar,theycangetlost.2/29/2020Reasonsforthelossofaffixes:Someaffixessimplyfadeoutofusefornoapparentreason,somelosscanbeexplainedviasoundchange.OldEnglishMiddleEnglishMordernEnglish2/29/2020OldEnglish:midfifthcenturyA.DGermanictribesinvadedEngland.449-1066severaldialectsemerged;WestSaxonbecamethemostimportantone,thislanguageisnowcalledOldEnglish.2/29/2020MiddleEnglish:NormanconquestofEnglandbyWilliamtheConquerorin10662/29/2020ModernEnglish:istheformoftheEnglishlanguagespokensincetheGreatVowelShiftinEngland,completedinroughly1550.TheGreatVowelShiftisoneofthehistoricaleventsmarkingtheseparationofMiddleandModernEnglish.PriortotheGreatVowelShift,thesevowelshadcontinentalvaluesmuchlikethoseremaininginItalianandliturgicalLatin.However,duringtheGreatVowelShift,thetwohighestlongvowelsbecamediphthongs,andtheotherfiveunderwentanincreaseintongueheightwithoneofthemcomingtothefront.2/29/2020Case:Ingrammar,thecaseofanounorpronounisaninflectionalformthatindicatesitsgrammaticalfunctioninaphrase,clause,orsentence.Forexample,apronounmayplaytheroleofsubject(Ikickedtheball),ofdirectobject(Johnkickedme),orofpossessor(Itismyball).LanguagessuchasAncientGreek,Latin,andSanskrithadwaysofalteringorinflectingnounstomarkroleswhicharenotspeciallymarkedinEnglish,suchastheablativecase(Johnkickedtheballawayfromthehouse)andtheinstrumentalcase(Johnkickedtheballwithhisfoot).2/29/2020OldEnglishhadacomplexsystemofaffixesmakingcaseandgender.Nounsweredividedintothreegenderclasses:masculine（阳性词），neuter（中性词),feminie(阴性词)Theassignmenttoaclasswasbasedonitsgrammaticalgender,notonthenaturegender,sex.2/29/2020masculineneuterfeminiesingularhunddogdēoranimalgiefgiftnominative主格hunddēorgief-uaccusative宾格hunddēorgief-egenitive所有格hund-esdēor-esgief-edative与格hund-edēor-egief-epluralnominativehundasdēorgief-aaccusativehund-asdēorgief-agenitivehund-adēor-agief-adativehund-umdēor-umgief-umOldEnglishcaseaffixesmasculineneuterfeminiesingularhunddogdēoranimalgiefgiftnominative主格hunddēorgief-uaccusative宾格hunddēorgief-egenitive所有格hund-esdēor-esgief-edative与格hund-edēor-egief-epluralnominativehundasdēorgief-aaccusativehund-asdēorgief-agenitivehund-adēor-agief-adativehund-umdēor-umgief-um2/29/2020OldEnglishhadfivedistinctaffixesofcases,MiddleEnglishhadonlytwosuffixes,-eand-es,which,withthelossofschwa中元音，werelaterreducedtoasinglesuffix-s,stillusedinModernEnglishforthepluralandthepossessiveasthefollowingtableillustrates.Thisisatypicalexampleofhowsoundchangecanresultinmodificationtothemorphologicalcomponentofgrammar.2/29/2020ThelossofcaseaffixesthroughsoundchangeOldEnglishMiddleEnglishModernEnglishsingularnominativehundhundhundaccusativehundhundhundgenitivehund-eshund-(e)shund'sdativehund-ehund-(e)hundpluralnominativehund-ashund-(e)shundsaccusativeHund-asHund-(e)shundsgenitivehund-ahund-(e)hunds'dativehund-umhund-(e)hunds2/29/2020