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What is historical linguistics?

It helps to understand human capacity of language learning, aims at finding language universals, and allows to understand language better: how languages work and how their pieces fit together.

Synchronic lingustics

describes language rules at a specific point of time

Diachronic linguistics

studies the development and evolution of a language through history.

Topics in historical linguistics

1. Studying changes in the history of a single language. 2. Analyzing changes revealed in the comparison of related languages (comparative linguistics) to reconstruct proto-languages. 3. Describing the history of individual words (etymology of words)

Sound changes

◦ the replacement of one speech sound by another, ◦ the complete loss of a sound, ◦ or even the introduction of a new sound in a place where there had been none

regular changes (sound laws)

[a:] —> [e:] and [b] —> [p]

Grammatical change

MORPHOLOGICAL and SYNTACTIC CHANGES

MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES

They involve changes in the inflectional system and in word formation

SYNTACTIC CHANGES

Syntactic change means the evolution of the syntactic structure of a natural language, e.g.: changing the regularities in word order.

Semantic changes

These refer to any change in the meaning(s) of a word over the course of time. The word’s variety of senses and connotations can be added, removed, or altered over time.

Semantic changes - types

WIDENING / EXTENSION OF MEANING anc NARROWING / SPECIALISATION, RESTRICTION

WIDENING / EXTENSION OF MEANING

word can be used in more contexts

NARROWING / SPECIALISATION, RESTRICTION

word can be used appropriately in fewer contexts

Semantic changes types 2

DETERIORATION / PEJORATION OF MEANING and AMELIORATION / ELEVATION OF MEANING

DETERIORATION / PEJORATION OF MEANING

the sense of a word takes on a less positive

AMELIORATION / ELEVATION OF MEANING

the sense of a word shifts towards a more positive value

what is Borrowing?

Borrowing is an attempted reproduction in one lg of patterns previously found in another.

types of borrowing

Lexical borrowings: in vocabulary. Structural borrowings: in structure, e.g., adopting derivational morphemes, new inflections, new word order, new speech sounds. Heavy structural borrowing leads to typological change.

external reasons for languge change

caused by influences from other languages or dialects. Invasions, colonizations, migration and trade. Speakers borrow words, sounds or even constructions.

internal reasons for languge change

caused by the tendency to simplify and balance the language system. Assimilation of speech sounds in casual speech. Change in word meanings by conventionalization of such processes as widening or narrowing.

Linguistic reconstruction

This procedure is used to determine older, non-recorded, or insufficiently attested stages of a language. Reconstruction may be done by means of comparative reconstruction (based on a comparison of forms between related languages).

Kinds of linguistic changes: Old English

Lexical change: loss of vocabulary items. Sound change: the loss of r from. English vowels underwent a number of changes. Orthographic changes: some letters are no longer used

grammatical changes: Old English

Grammatical changes: word order was different than today. The loss of case endings. The loss of the -n ‘third person plural’ verbal agreement marker, another change is the loss of the prefix ge-, reduced in time from [je] to [j] to [i] and finally lost

Kinds of linguistic changes: Middle English

Sound change: final -n was lost by regular sound change, Grammatical change (morphological and syntactic), no marker (-n) for the plural persons. Borrowing: the hem —> them (scandinavian)

Kinds of linguistic changes: Early Modern English

Lexical changes (replacement of meanings), Grammatical (syntactic and morphological) changes: came vnto [unto] him they > they came to him, thou was ‘you’ and suffix -eth (3rd person) changed go -s ending.