Ways of Reading Third Edition - Martin Montgomery, Alan Durant, Nigel Fabb, Tom Furniss, Sara Mills 2007

5.3 Some types of language change
Unit 5 Language and time
Section 2 Language variation

5.3.1 Sound

We have seen that many of the English vowel sounds (particularly long vowels) changed as a result of the Great Vowel Shift. But the relics of older pronunciations are still preserved in the spellings of English words that were codified before the Shift was completed. For example, the related words ’meet’ and ’met’ are spelt with the same vowel letter (because they were originally pronounced with the same vowel sound), but are now pronounced with different vowel sounds. A more extreme example would be the word ’knight’, whose spelling reflects a very different pronunciation from the current one; if we go back five hundred years we have evidence that the ’k’ was pronounced, that the vowel was pronounced more like the vowel in ’neat’, and that the ’gh’ was pronounced like the ’ch’ of ’Bach’.

5.3.2 The arrangement and interrelationships of words (syntax)

In the early form of English known as Anglo-Saxon or Old English (spoken in much of Britain, in various dialects, from about ad400 into the early Middle Ages), word order was fairly flexible, since the relations between words was signalled by word-endings. Some aspects of this flexibility survived into the modern English of the seventeenth century - such as allowing particular parts of sentences (such as the verb or an object) to be moved to the front of sentences. But the fact that this flexibility seems to have survived only in literary texts (it is difficult to find examples of this in non-literary documentary evidence such as letters and diaries) provides one example of the way that literature uses archaism to create literary effects. Vestiges of this flexibility in word order can be found in Wordsworth’s writing in the eighteenth century. The first stanza of ’The Last of the Flock’ (1798) is given an archaic feel by repeatedly placing elements (italicized in the extract) before the verb, which would normally follow it:

In distant countries I have been,

And yet I have not often seen

A healthy man, a man full grown,

Weep in the public roads alone.

But such a one, on English ground,

And in the broad high-way, I met;

Along the broad high-way he came,

His cheeks with tears were wet.

In the first line, for example, a more usual sequence in modern English would be:

I have been in distant countries

(subject) (verb) (adjunct)

Although adjuncts (in this case a prepositional phrase) are more movable than other elements, it is unusual for them to be consistently placed before the verb as they are here. This can also be thought of as a literary deviation (see Unit 19, Deviation) from more usual syntactical sequences.

5.3.3 Pronouns

The history of the distinction between the second person pronouns ’thou’ and ’you’ is a revealing example of how language change relates to social change. The OED tells us that early forms of ’thou’ (plus ’thee’, ’thine’ and ’thy’) and ’you’ (plus ’ye’, ’your’ and ’yours’) were both used in ordinary speech in Old English, where the distinction was primarily a grammatical one. In Middle English ’you’ began to be used as a mark of respect when addressing a superior and (later) an equal, while ’thou’ was retained for addressing an inferior. This distinction between ’thou’ and ’you’ was related to the rigid stratification of society in the Middle Ages. It allowed an aristocratic speaker to distinguish between an equal (referred to as ’you’) and someone inferior in social standing (referred to as ’thou’), or to signal intimacy. The lower orders, on the other hand, were required to address aristocrats as ’you’ as a mark of deference. In the fifteenth century, the rising merchant classes began using ’thou’ to the lower orders. Increasing social mobility and competition between this merchant class and the aristocracy meant that by Shakespeare’s time there was widespread confusion about who should use the term ’thou’ to whom. The seventeenth-century radical Quaker movement seized on the confusion about ’thou’ and ’you’ by using ’thou’ to everyone, as a political act of levelling. The distinction eventually collapsed, and only ’you’ survived. ’Thou’ only appears now in archaizing registers, including those of poetry and religion, where it functions, curiously enough, as a marker of respect rather than of inferiority.

The King James Authorized Version of the Bible(1611) perhaps influenced this change in the function of ’thou’ by having biblical characters address God as ’thou’.

A second distinction between ’thou’ and ’you’ was one of register (see Unit 7, Language and context: register), since ’thou’ was a familiar form of address, whereas ’you’ was more formal. Shakespeare’s texts often seem to mix ’you’ and ’thou’ indiscriminately, but the distinction is important in the following exchange between Hamlet and his mother:

Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

Hamlet. Mother, you have my father much offended.

Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

Hamlet. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

       (Hamlet, c.1600, III, iv, 10-13)

The queen’s initial use of ’thou’ to Hamlet and his ’you’ in return are quite standard choices for parent-to-offspring and offspring-to-parent, respectively. It is the queen’s follow-up ’you’ that is significant; annoyed by Hamlet’s caustic rejoinder, she switches icily to a distancing ’you’.

5.3.4 Lexis or vocabulary (words and their meanings)

The vocabulary of a language can change (1) through the introduction of new terms on the model of older forms (for example, ’personal stereo’ describes a new machine by using a combination of already existing words; ’air rage’ describes a form of violent behaviour on aeroplanes on the model of wordcombinations such as ’road rage’), or (2) through adopting foreign language forms, such as ’pizza’ or ’segue’. Vocabulary changes often result from pressures of social change or because of new technological inventions. Thus, in Britain at the moment, many American vocabulary items are being adopted (such as the use of the verb ’to progress something’ and nouns such as ’ballpark figure’ and ’raincheck’ ) because of the social, economic and political influence of America on Britain. The vocabulary of computers has been very productive in introducing new terms into mainstream usage (e.g. ’log in/out’, ’interface’, ’to access’).