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THE MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD (1700- present day)

I. 1700-1800: The Age of Lexicography and Prescriptivism

- N. Bailey, Universal Etymological English Dictionary, 1721.

- An English Academy (cf. Italy 1582/1612; France 1635/1694): John Dryden (1631-1700),

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

- Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of The English Language (1755); R. Lowth, Short

Introduction to English Grammar (1762); L. Murray, English Grammar (1794); T. Sheridan

(1780); J. Walker (1791)

à Two conflicting schools of thought: description (e.g. J. Priestley, Rudiments of

English Grammar, 1761) vs. prescription (e.g. R. Lowth; G. Campell, Philosophy of Rhetoric,

1776)

- aims of the 18

-c. grammarians: à codify principles of the language, reduce to rule

à settle disputes regarding usage

à highlight common errors

II. 1800-1900:à purism victorious

à a new prestige ‘dialect’

III. English as a World Tongue

“The voice of this society should be sufficient authority for the usage of words, and
sufficient also to expose the innovations of other men’s fancies; they should preside
with a sort of judicature over the learning of the age, and have liberty to correct and

censure the exorbitance of writers, especially of translators. The reputation of this
society would be enough to make them the allowed judges of style and language; and
no author would have the impudence to coin without their authority. (…) There
should be no more occasion to search for derivations and constructions, and it would

be as criminal then to coin words as money.” (D. Defoe, Essay upon Projects, 1697)

“How then shall any men, who hath a genius for history equal to the best of the

ancients, be able to undertake such a work with spirit and cheerfulness, when he
considers that he will be read with pleasure but a very few years, and in age or two
shall hardly be understood without an interpreter.” (J. Swift, Proposal for

Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue, 1712).

“Those who have been persuaded to think well of my design, require that it should fix

our language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance have hitherto
been suffered to make in it without opposition. With this consequence I will confess
that I flattered myself for a while; but now begin to fear that I have indulged
expectation with neither reason nor experience can justify. When we see men grow

old and die at a certain time form one another, from century to century, we laugh at
the exlixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice
may the lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation
that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that this

dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay, that it
is in his power to change subulunary nature, or clear the world at once from folly,
vanity, and affectation.” (S. Johnson, Dictionary, preface)

cough: A convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity.
to fart. To break wind behind.
As when we gun discharge,
Although the bore be ne're so large,
Before the flame from muzzle burst,
Just at the breech it flashes first;
So from my lord his passion broke,
He farted first, and then he spoke - Swift
lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge
net: Anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the
intersections.
Oats: a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the
people.
Puberty: The time of life when the two sexes begin first to be acquainted.
Shrew: A peevish, malignant, clamorous, spiteful, vexatious, turbulent woman
Smoke: The visible effluvium, or soothy exhalation from anything burning.

Words excluded by Johnson:

beau monde (1714)
bouquet (1716)
bourgeois (1564)
casserole (1706)
champagne (1664)
clique (1711)
concierge (1646)
corsage (1481)

cortège (1679)
coterie (1738)
cutlet (1706)
debris (1708)
envelope (1707)
esprit (1591)
façade (1656)
faux pas (1676)

meringue (1706)
picturesque (1703)
riposte (1707)
roulette (1734)
spa (1626)
unique (1602)
vampire (1734)

Words included by Johnson:

denominable
opiniatry
areolation
clancular
comminuible

conclusible
detentition
digladiation
dignotion
cubiculary

discubitory
exolution
exenterate
incompossible
indigitate

LANGUAGE STATISTICS

Total Living Languages: between 3,000-7,000 (M. Ruhlen, A Guide to the World's
Languages, Stanford University Press, 1987: 5,000; Ethnologue: 6,809)

The Americas: 1,013

Africa: 2,058

Europe: 230

Asia: 2,197

Pacific: 1,311

(Ethnologue)

- 417 of the languages listed in Ethnologue are classified as nearly extinct:

Africa: 37

Americas: 161

Asia: 55

Europe: 7 (e.g. Yiddish in Germany, Saami varieties in Norway, Russia and

Sweden)

Pacific: 157

- Half of the languages in the world today are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people

and a quarter by less than 1,000.

- 90% are spoken by fewer than 100,000 speakers.

- 30 languages with about 100,000 speakers

- 357 languages with fewer than 50 speakers;
- 46 languages have only one speaker

- 150-200 languages with more than 1 million speakers

- over the past 500 years: 4.5% of the world’s languages have disappeared.

- Over the last 400 years, Europe has lost ca. 12 languages; North America 52.

- Australia has only 20 left of the 250 spoken at the end of the 18th century.
- In Brazil, about 540 (three-quarters of the total) have died out since Portuguese

colonization began in 1530.

The most widely spoken languages in the World

Chinese

874m (1,052m)

English

341m (508m)

Hindi

366m (487m)

Spanish

417m (358m)

Russian

167m (277m)

Arabic

186m (256m)

Bengali

207m (211m)

Portuguese

176m (191m)

Indonesian

30m (140m)

French

77m (128m)

English Fact Sheet:

à English is spoken in 105 countries

à first language: Antigua, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda,

Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, St

Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, South Africa, Tinidad and Tobago,

United Kingdom, United States of America

à official language: 89 countries

à as a foreign language: 750 m

1 out of every 5 people on earth speak English to some level of

competence

à English learners: 1 bn

à the Internet: 80% of home pages (German: 4.5%; Japanese: 3.1%)

60-85% of e-mail messages

à the longest words: ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM

PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS

English

German

Russian

French

Spanish

Italian

1500 4-5m

10m

10-12m

8.5m

9.5m

1600 6m

10m

14m

8.5m

9.5m

1700 8.5m

10m

12m

20m

8.5m

10/11m

1800 30m

31m

28m

29m

26m

14m

1900 120m

77m

79m

49m

48m

40m

1926 170m

80m

45m

41m

1934 191m

85m

80m

50m

100m

42m

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING BORROWED,

SOMETHING NEW (Revisited)

I. FORM

- ACRONYMS: e.g. yuppie, dinkie

- ANALOGY: generalization based on form: telethon, shoppaholic, chocoholic, workaholic,
motorcade, monokini, yuppie

- APHESIS: omission of word-initial vowel: e.g. esquire/squire, affray/fray

- ASSIMILATION : e.g. early OE stefn à late OE stemn; umlaut; hlaf/hlafas à loaf/loaves

- BACKFORMATION : reduction: e.g. resurrect, enthuse, swindle, burgle, pea, alms, riches,

molasses, aircondition, ice-skate, globe-trot

à hypocorisms : e.g. movie, telly, brekky, bookie, Barbie, hankie, pressie

- BLENDING (portmanteau words): e.g. motel, smog, brunch

- BORROWING (loans, loanwords):

1.  Latin:  50,725
2.  French: 37,032
3.  Greek: 18,675
4.  German: 12,322
5.  Italian:7,893
6.  Dutch: 6,286
7.  Spanish: 5,795
8.  Norse: 4,430
9.  Swedish: 3,438
10. Portuguese:: 3,130
11. Danish:3,046
12. Provencal: 2,294
13. Frisian: 2,120
14. Norwegian: 1,214
15. Arabic: 958
16. Sanskrit: 873 (e.g. candy, jungle, jute, swastika, yoga)
17. Icelandic: 819 (e.g. berserk, geyser, saga)
18. Irish:730 (e.g. brogue, slogan, banshee)
19. Russian: 615 (e.g. Cossack, intelligentsia, mammoth)
20. Flemish: 563
21. Persian: 536
22. Hebrew: 476
23. Hindi: 426 (e.g. bungalow, dinghy, dungaree, pajamas, shampoo, thug)
24. Gaelic: 413 (e.g. bard, crag, whiskey)

25. Welsh: 365
26. Japanese: 343
27. Catalan: 295
28. Chinese: 289 (e.g. junk, ketchup, tea, typhoon)
29. Afrikaans: 272
30. Turkish: 265 (caftan, caviare, coffee, yoghurt)

à + African languages (zebra, mumbo-jumbo, gnu), American Indian (moccasin,

cockroach, moose, skunk, squash, toboggan), Australian (boomerang, aborigine), Dravidian
(e.g. catamaran, curry, mango, pariah, teak)…

à INDIRECT BORROWING: e.g. coffee, veranda (< Portuguese < Hindi

veranda), tomato (< Spanish < Nahuatl tomatl), potato (< Spanish patata < Taino batata),
chess (< OF eschecs < Persian shah mat, cf. ‘checkmate’!)

à MULTIPLE BORROWING (doublets!): e.g. disk/dish/desk/discus (<

discus), damask/Damascene/damson (< Damascus), chief/chef, zero/cipher,
cretin/Christian, pannier/companion/pantry/pastille/marzipan (< Latin panis!)

à Garland Cannon, Historical Change and English Word-Formation: Recent
Vocabulary, New-York: Lang, 1987:

French (25%)
Japanese (8%)
Spanish (8%)
Italian (7%)
Latin (7%)
African languages (6%)
German (6%)
Greek (6%)
Russian (4%)
Yiddish (4%)
Chinese (3%)
Arabic
Portuguese
Hindi,
Sanskrit,
Hebrew
Afrikaans
Malayo-Polynesian
Vietnamese
Amerindian languages
Swedish
Bengali
Danish
Indonesian
Korean
Persian
Amharic
Eskimo-Aleut
Irish
Norwegian

… (+ 30)

à Lexical core etymology (G. Hughes 2000)

Anglo-Saxon: 43%

Norman Fench: 33%

Latin: 12%

Norse: 4%

Greek: 2%

Other: 2%

- CALQUE (loan translation/indirect borrowing): marriage of convenience

- CLIPPING (truncation): doc, ad, lab, sub, deli, demo, zoo, fax, cab, bus

- COINAGE (word manufacture): e.g. blurb, geek, chortle, gas

- COMMONIZATION :

1. PERSONIFICATION/EPONYMS:

a. real: lynch (Capt.William Lynch [1742-1820]), sandwich (Earl of Sandwich [1718-

1792]), boycott (Charles Boycott [1832-1897]), Blairite, pasteurize, diesel, morse,
Kalashnikov, silhouette

b. imaginary: malaproprism, Pickwickian, morphine, gargantuan, Romeo, Kafkaesque

2. TOPONYMS: e.g. jeans, balaclava, paisley, jersey, bikini, denim, bedlam,

bayonet, cashmere, frankfurter, italic, limousine, laconic, mayonnaise, sherry, worsted

- COMPOUNDING:

i. noun+noun: e.g. handbook, window, ice-cream, shop window, saucepan

ii. adjective+adjective: e.g. bitter-sweet, holiday

iii. adjective+verb: e.g. blindfold

iv. noun+verb: e.g. babysit, shoplift

v. adjective + noun: e.g. black market

vi. phrase: e.g. good for nothing, off-the-peg (clothes), sweet-and-sour (chicken

dumplings)

- CONVERSION (zero derivation): new syntactic category:

e.g. from noun to verb: beach, finger, button

from verb to noun: permit, report, record

from adjective to verb: to open, to dry, to empty

- DELETION:

1. vowel

à apocope: nama à name

à syncope: stanas à stones

2. consonant: e.g. knot, night, Riding

- DERIVATION (affixation):

1. prefixes

native English: after-, be-, cross-, for-, fore-, half-, hand-, home-, mid-, mis-, out-,

over-, self-, un-, under-, up-, with-;

French: counter-, em/-n-;

Latin: ante-, anti-, audio-, cent-, circum-, col/-m/-n-, contra-, ex-, infra-, inter-, mal-,

man-, mini-, mono-, multi-, neo-, non-, omni-, post-, pre-, pro-, quasi-, re-, semi-,
socio-, sub-, super-, trans-;

Greek: arch-, auto-, bi-, bio-, cardi-, dys-, geo-, hetero-, homo-, hydr-, hyper-, kilo-,

macro-, mega-, physio-, pseudo-, sym/-n-, tele-, thermo-, ultra-;

2. suffixes

native English: -craft, -dom,-ed, -en, -er, -est, -fold, -ful, -hand, -hood, -ing, -ish,
-kind, -less, -like, -ly, -made, -man, -ness, -ship, -side, -some, -ster, -th, -ward, -ware, -
wide, -wise, -worthy, -wright, -y;

French: -age, -ance, -ee, -ese, -esque, -ess, -ise, -let, -ment, -ure;

Latin: -able, -ant, -arian, -ary, -centric, -cide, -cy, -ian, -ible, -ic, -ion, -ity, -ive, -ular,

Greek: -archy, -ectomy, -gon, -graph, -ics, -ist, -itis, -logue, -ology, -osis, -ocracy, -

osis, -phobia, -phone.

Dutch: -scape

Russian: -nik

- DISSIMILATION : e.g. grammar/glamour, purple

- EPENTHESIS: e.g. æmtig à æmptig; spinel à spindle

- GENERIFICATION (< trademarks): e.g. kleenex, Primus (< Primus stove), thermos, aga,
Teflon, nylon

- METATHESIS: e.g. OE wæps à wæsp; bridd à bird; þridda à þirdda; acsian à ask;

frist à first; hros à horse; brinnan à beornan

- ONOMATOPOEIA (echoic words): e.g. buzz, hiss, pshaw, tut-tut

- REANALYSIS (folk etymology, hypercorrection): erroneous attribution of morphemes:

e.g. hamburger, earwig, crayfish, adder, bridegroom, shamefaced,

- REDUPLICATION : e.g. walky-talky, willy-nilly, higgledy-piggledy, tittle-tattle, fuddy-

duddy, hocus-pocus, namby-pamby, lovey-dovey, fuzzy-wuzzy, hanky-panky, helter-
skelter, hurly-burly, roly-poly, super-duper, bow-wow, gee-gee, shilly-shally, mish-
mash, zig-zag, riff-raff, ping-pong, pitter-patter, dilly-dally, criss-cross, knick-knacks

Type %

Compounding 40

Affixation

Shifting

Shortening

Blending

Borrowing

Creating

-.5

(J. Algeo & A. Algeo (eds.), fifty years among the new words: a dictionary of

neologisms, 1941-1991, New Yord: Cambridge University Press, 1991)

II. MEANING

- AMELIORATION : e.g. knight

- BROADENING:

à increase/decrease in intensity

e.g. flesh (ON ‘ham’); town, decimate, holiday

- NARROWING: e.g. catholic, hound, undertaker, deer, fowl

! à common terminological process! (+ cf. jargon)

- SEMANTIC SHIFT (- drift): change in meaning: e.g. starve/die; warp/cast, kidnap

à old meanings in dialects and fixed phrases:

e.g. old wives’ tales

the quick and the dead

Whitsuntide

fair sex

midwife

one man’s meat is another man’s poison

- PEJORATION :

e.g. mistress; knave (OE cnafa, ‘boy’; cf. German Knabe, Du. knaap) à ‘serving boy’
à ‘dishonest man’; lewd (‘lay’ <> ‘clerical) à ‘ignorant, base’ à obscene; vulgar (<
vulgus, ‘common people’) à ‘common’ à ‘unsophisticated’ BUT: Vulgar Latin)

- SEMANTIC TRANSFER

e.g. hearse (< OF herce, ‘triangular harrow’)

à triangular frame for church candles

à device to hold candles over a coffin

à framework for curtains hung over a coffin/tomb

à coffin

à vehicle to transport coffins

à METAPHOR (metaphorical extension, figurative transfer): a concrete meaning à

abstract sense (POLYSEMY):

e.g. foot (of a mountain), Cold War, iron, warm (colour) [= synaesthesia: from one
sensory faculty to another], the crown (‘the monarch’) [= metonymy]