The Cambridge History of the English Language Volume 2 part 7 pdf

Olga Fischer 440-1; Visser (1963-73) discusses the prepositional passive in §§1947-57 and the indirect object passive in sections 1959, 1963-85. One of the standard works on the emergence of phrasal verbs is Kennedy (1920). He is, however, more interested in the Modern English situation than in historical developments. His historical survey (pp. 11—18) shows that the new idiom only establishes itself slowly; that it occurs from the first in southern as well as northern dialects (which seems to argue for a native development, possibly reinforced by foreign patterns, rather than 'pure' foreign influence) and that it appears to be a feature more of colloquial than formal English. The latter would explain the fact noted by Strang (1970: 275) that, in spite of its infrequent occurrence, we find verb—particle combinations already by the mid- twelfth century that' have so specialised a lexical sense that we must suppose the type to have become deeply entrenched even before period IV [i.e. the period between 1170 and 1370].' Kennedy also suggests that it is possible that the influx of Romance compound verbs stopped the development of new verb—particle combinations for a while, because they only begin to show real strength in the fifteenth century. 4.9.2 Allen (1977) explains the separate domains of pied piping and preposition stranding (P-stranding) with reference to the presence or absence respectively of a movement rule. Old English grammar had a prohibition against movement out of a prepositional phrase in the case of personal and locative pronouns. In Middle English this prohibition was lost. Van Kemenade (1987) believes that movement takes place in both cases but that P-stranding can only occur with movement of a clitic element to a non-argument position (for the latter see Chomsky 1981: 47). She shows that personal and locative pronouns, because of their different behaviour in comparison to nouns, are best interpreted as syntactic clitics. In relative pe clauses, she presupposes an empty clitic that is moved out of the prepositional phrase in order to explain the obligatory P-stranding in these clauses. The extension of P-stranding in Middle English is related mainly to two new developments: (a) the fact that in Middle English the preposition no longer assigns oblique case and can become a proper governor (in the sense of Kayne 1981); and (b) the reanalysis of the preposition into a particle of the verb, which becomes possible only in Middle English. For the appearance of P-stranding in Tough-movement constructions, see van der Wurff(1987, 1990a). TEXTUAL SOURCES The illustrations in this chapter have been drawn from a large number of Middle English texts, early as well as late, representing a variety of dialects, although there is a clear bias towards the south east midlands, the dialect that provides us with the later standard. Apart from major authors like Chaucer I have used the references in the MED, part 1, Plan and Bibliography (1954) and 398 Syntax in Supplement 1 (1984). Below, I provide an alphabetical list of the Middle English texts used, accompanied by the name of the editor(s), an indication of the date of the manuscript(s) used (and if possible the date of the original composition (in parentheses)) and an indication of the dialect in which the manuscript(s) was (were) written. This information has likewise been taken from the MED and from later studies or editions where appropriate. Whenever I have deviated from the edition referred to in the title abbreviations of the MED (indicated by '*'), a full reference will be provided. Texts marked with a dagger (f) occur widely in this volume and are referred to in this chapter either by a general abbreviation (see pp. xviii-xxi) or by editor and publication date. The references to Old English texts are the standard ones as given in Healey & Venezky (1980). The Old English sources are listed after the Middle English sources below. Abbreviations EML Kt. Lnd. ML NEML NML No. NWML Oxf. S Sc. SEML SW SWML WML WNorf. East Midlands Kentish London Midlands Northeast Midlands North Midlands Northern Northwest Midlands Oxfordshire Southern Scottish Southeast Midlands Southwestern Southwest Midlands West Midlands West Norfolk Sources of Middle English texts Title abbreviation Alter. (Corp-C) Alter. (Nero) Ancr. (Tit) Ajenb. Barbour Bruce Bevis (Auch) \BkofUn Engl. Editoi\s) J. R. R. Tolkien F. M. Mack M. Day R. Morris & P. Gradon* W. W. Skeat* E. Kolbing R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt* Date ca 1230 (?a 1200) ca 1250 (a 1225) a 1250 1340 1487 (1375) ca 1330 (?ca 1300) 1384-1425 Dialect SWML SW/SWML SWML/NEML Kt. Sc. SEML SEML 399 Olga Fischer Title abbreviation Editor(s) Date Dialect brut (Clg) Brut (Otho) BrutA 333 (RwlB. 171) BrutA 419 (CmbKk) Capgr. Chron. (Cmb) Caxton Enejdos j-Chaucer Cleanness Cloud (Hrl 674) Cursor (Vsp) and (Got) Cursor (Frf) and (Triii) Destr.Trqy (Htrn) Digby PI. EEWilh Emare Gawain Gen.&Ex. Glo.Chron.A (Clg) fGower CA (Frf) Greg. Leg. (Vern) Guy{4) (Cmb) Havelok (Ld) Horn (Cmb) Horn (Htl) HMaid. (Bod) ]acob&] (Bod) KA/ex. (Ld) KenSerm. (Ld) Launc. Malory Wks (Add.59678) (formerly Win- College) G. L. Brook & R. F. Lesley* F. W. D. Brie F. W. D. Brie P. J. Lucas* W. T. Culley & F. J. Furnivall* L. D. Benson* J. J. Anderson* P. Hodgson R. Morris R. Morris D. Donaldson & G. A. Panton D. C. Baker, J. L. Murphy & L. B. Hall F. J. Furnivall A. B. Gough* J. R. R. Tolkien & E. V. Gordon* R. Morris W. A. Wright G. C. Macaulay C. Keller* J. Zupitza G. V. Smithers* J. Hall J. Hall B. Millett* A. S. Napier G. V. Smithers R. Morris W. W. Skeat E. Vinaver (2nd edn) ca 1275 (ca 1200) ca 1275 (ca 1200) ca 1400 ca 1450 (ca 1425) a 1464 1490 (1370-1400) ca 1400 (?ca 1380) a 1425 (?a 1400) a 1400 (a 1325) a 1400 (a 1325) ca 1450 (?a 1400) 1387-1439 a 1500 (ca 1400) ca 1400 (?ca 1390) a 1325 (ca 1250) ca 1325 (ca 1300) (a 1393) ca 1375 (ca 1300) 15th cent. (?ca 1300) ca 1300 ca 1260 (?ca 1240) ca 1325 (?ca 1240) ca 1225 (?ca 1210) ?a 1300 ca 1400 (?a 1300) ca 1275 (ca 1490) ca 1485 (a 1470) SWML SWML SEML SEML WNorf. SEML SEML NWML North of central EML No WML Lnd, mixed EML - NWML SEML SW SEML NEML SEML Norfolk SW-SWML East of middle south SWML SW SEML Kt. Sc. -(-mixture of S and ML standard with No. + NML features 400 Syntax Title abbreviation Mandev. (Tit) Mannyng Cbron.Pt.2 (Petyt) Mannying HS (Hcl) ME Sermons MKempe A Orfeo (Auch) Orm. Owl&N (Clg) Palladins (Tit) •fPaston PC (Ld) Pearl Pecock R///« Perceval (Thrn) PPl.A[1] (Trin-C) PP/.B (Trin-C) W/.C(Hnt 143) Proc. Privy C Prov.Alf. (Trin) fRolle Engl.Wks \Kose 7 Sages {1) Siege Trqy(1) SUg. (Ld) SLeg. Fran. (2) St.Juliana (Bod) + (Roy) JV./CaM. (Bod) St.Katb. (Tit) St.Marg. (Bod) Stonor Towmley PI. (Hnt) Trev.Higd. (StJ-C) Trin.Horn. Vices& V(1) (Stw) Editor(s) P. Hamelius T. Hearne F. J. Furnivall W. O. Ross* S. B. Meech & H. E. Allen A. J. Bliss R. M. White & R. Holt E. G. Stanley* B. Lodge & S. J. H. Herrtage N. Davis C. Clark* E. V. Gordon W. C. Greet W. H. French & C. B. Hale G. Kane G. Kane & E. T. Donaldson* D. Pearsall* H. Nicolas O. S. A. Arngart* H. E. Allen L. D. Benson* K. Brunner M. E. Barnicle C. Horstmann C. Horstmann S. R. T. O. d'Ardenne* S. R. T. O. d'Ardenne & E. J. Dobson F. M. Mack C. L. Kingsford G. England & A. W. Pollard C. Babington & J. R. Lumby R. Morris F. Holthausen Date a 1425 (ca 1400) ca 1375 a 1400 (ca 1303) ca 1450 (1378-1417) (a 1438) ca 1330 ?ca 1200 (?a 1200) ca 1275 (ca 1200) a 1250 (?ca 1200) 1422-1509 a 1121-60 ca 1400 (?1380) ca 1450 ca 1440 (?a 1400) ca 1400 (a 1376) ca 1400 (ca 1378) ca 1400 (?a 1387) ca 1250 (ca 1150) ca 1440 (a 1349) (a 1380) ca 1520 (ca 1300) ca 1400 (?a 1350) ca 1300 a 1450 ca 1220 (?ca 1200) ca 1220 (?ca 1200) a 1250 (?ca 1200) ca 1220 (?1200) 1290-1483 a 1500 (a 1460) ca 1400 a 1225 (?a 1200) a 1225 (ca 1200) Dialect SEML NEML SWML SEML SEML NEML, Stamford SW (-SWML) SWML SEML SEML NWML SEML No. WML WML WML S and ML No. SEML (mixed) SEML SEML-(-WML SW SW SWML SWML SWML (mixed) SWML Oxf. NEML SW SEML SEML 401 Olga Fischer Wooing Lord (Tit) Wycl.J"«/.l^4f(I) Yonge S.Secr. W. M. Thompson* T. Arnold R. Steele & T. Henderson a 1250 (?ca 1200) ca 1400 a 1500 (1422) NEML + AB language SML Sources of Old English texts (see Healej & Vene^ky 1980) Reference Description Editor MAdmonA JECHom.l JECHom.ll JELS{Lucy) ^U(Oswald) And. Ap.T Bede Bo. Chron. A(Plummer) Chron. E(Plummer) Dan. El. Gen. HomU 34 (Nap 42) Judg. Lk.(WSCp) LS 32 (Peter & Paul) Maid. Marv. Mk.(WSCp) Mt.(WSCp) Or. Sol.l Solil. WCan. 1.1.1 (Fowler) WHom. Admonitio ad filium spirituakm jElfric's Catholic Homilies I jElfric's Catholic Homilies 11 iHfric's Lives of Saints /Elfric's Lives of Saints Andreas Apollonius of Tyre Bede's History Alfred's Boethius AS Chronicle, Parker Chr. AS Chronicle: Ms Laud Daniel E/ene Genesis De temporibus Anticristi judges The Gospel according to Luke The Blickling Homilies The Battle of Maldon The Marvels of the East The Gospel according to Mark The Gospel according to Matthew King Alfred's Orosius Solomon and Saturn (1) St Augustine's Soliloquies Wulf stan's Canons of Edgar The Homilies of Widfstan H. W. Norman (1848: 32-56) P. A. M. Clemoes (1955-6) M. Godden (1970, 1979) W. W. Skeat (1881-1990: 1, 210-18) W. W. Skeat (1881-1900: 11, 124-43) G. P. Krapp(1932: 3-51) P. Goolden (1958) T. Miller (1890-8) W. J. Sedgefield (1899) C. Plummer (1892-9) C. Plummer (1892-9) G. P. Krapp(1931: 11-32) G. P. Krapp (1932: 66-102) S. J. Crawford (1922: 81-211) A. S.Napier (1883: 191-205) S.J.Crawford (1922: 401-14) W. W. Skeat (1871-87) R.Morris (1874-80: 171-93) E. V. K. Dobbie(1942: 7-16) S. Rypins(1924: 51-67) W. W. Skeat (1871-87) W. W. Skeat (1871-87) H. Sweet (1883) J. M. Kemble (1848) W. Endter (1922) R. Fowler (1972: 2-18) D. Bethurum (1957) 402 Syntax NOTES 1 For the knotty question 'When did Middle English begin?', consult chapter 2, section 2.1.2. This survey, too, will take 1066 as a symbolical starting point to be used with tact. 2 The only historical atlas that besides phonological and morphological data contains some maps on syntactic phenomena is that by Dees (1980) on Old French. Maps 269—81 provide information on subject—verb inversion, the omission of the subject, and the relation between the use of pronomina and changes in word order. 3 Sorensen (1957: 148) suggests that in certain biblical phrases, like 'God Almighty', Latin influence may have played a role as well. 4 According to Sorensen (1957: 147), Medieval Latin, where the title was always placed before the proper name, may have been of influence here too. 5 Object in (a) future, (b) modal or (c) negative scope means that the direct object is part of a clause that is (a) future in reference, (b) contains an element of modality, or (c) is negated. 6 It is interesting to note, however, in this connection that certain seventeenth-century grammarians, e.g. Wallis (1653), report that some people believe that 's stood for his. Wallis does not agree with this, but in spite of that he describes 'J- as a possessive adjective (see Kemp 1972: 305-11). 7 The expression can still be used in Present-Day English when it is immediately followed by a restrictive relative clause as in The car of jours that I mentioned just now. Here it is virtually equivalent to That car of yours. 8 The forms dryveth and bryngeth are two-syllabic in all other cases (fifteen) in which they are used in Chaucer with only two exceptions. 9 Sorensen (1957: 142-3) notes that Latin, 'with its rigorous sequence of tenses', may have influenced the use of the pluperfect in these cases. 10 Quite a few of the non-finite forms, especially the participials, have not been attested in Old English; they first appear in Late Middle English texts. See Campbell (1959) and the MED for more details on Old and Middle English respectively. 11 This remark constitutes no more than a mere suggestion because it would be impossible to prove that anything like what is described below actually happened in Middle English. By their very nature, structures like (156) would not have been recorded in older written texts. Another, but different, account that searches for the origin of periphrastic do in the use of a ' bleached' form of factitive do is that presented in Tieken-Boon van Ostade (1989). 12 Although examples in Visser (1963-73) show that other causative verbs do indeed appear in Middle English with infinitival constructions of the do x type (so without an infinitival subject NP), Ellegard emphasises that these constructions are, as in the case of do, not all that frequent (1953: 106-8). 403 Olga Fischer 13 At this stage it is not really correct to speak of progressive be. Not until the modern period does be + V-ing exist as a grammatical category expressing durative aspect. However, the use of be+ present participle was one of the ways in which the function of duration could be expressed. 14 Lightfoot (1979: 28ff.) for that reason believes that this is an 'accidental gap' and that in fact modal and perfect have must have occurred together already in Old English. He argues likewise for the possibility of the combination passive and progressive be, which likewise has not been attested in Old English. Although one cannot disprove Lightfoot, I doubt whether this latter statement is correct. He does not take the fact into account that the perfect, passive and progressive forms were recent developments in Old English, which clearly had not become (fully) grammaticalised yet. Combinations of these forms within the VP are therefore not yet to be expected at this stage. Concerning the combination of modal and perfect have, he may be correct, but it is noteworthy that infinitival perfectives are also rare, if not non-existent, in Old English. 15 Cliticisation of ne is in Middle English a mainly southern feature. 16 This use of ne is very similar to the Middle Dutch use of the negative en (see van der Horst 1981: 49-51). 17 Matti Rissanen very kindly pointed out to me that there are a few examples of not+any in the Helsinki Corpus. They all seem to be late. An instance is: & 3it was f>at si3t only by pe schewyng of oure Lorde whan hym likid to schewe it, & not for any deseert of his trauayle. (Cloud (Hd 674) 128, 15-17) 18 This is the language used in the manuscript of the Ancrene Wisse (Corpus Christi College Cambridge 402) and in the Katherine Group (MS Bodley 34). Both manuscripts are written in the same west midland dialect. For a description see Tolkien (1929), but see also Hulbert (1946), Benskin & Laing (1981: 91ff.). 19 Klima (1964: 314) refers to the implicit negatives illustrated here as adversative. Notice that Present-Day English would use any in such constructions. 20 This is the reading given to it by Eitle (1914). For a different interpretation see Robinson (1957: 765). 21 Mitchell (1984) takes up a middle position. He believes that pe was originally a subordinating particle and that its use as a relative pronoun is 'probably a special adaptation' (p. 281). But he does not reject the possibility that it may have been originally of'relatival nature' and that its presence in phrases like peah pe etc. was due to analogical use (p. 282). He cannot agree with Geoghegan (1975: 43) that 'pe can in no way be considered a pronoun' (p. 295, note 9). 22 The OED gives as the earliest occurrence yff patt from the Ormulum. Mitchell (1984: 273) has attested an earlier instance in Late Old English. 404 Syntax 23 Mclntosh (1948) stresses that this pe goes back to earlier Old English pe. It seems to me that the employment of se, seo with masculine and feminine nouns must also have influenced this use of pe since the s- in these forms was soon levelled out in favour of p- (see also Kivimaa 1966: 135). 24 Whose is a special case since it comes to be used more and more with inanimate antecedents, presumably to avoid the clumsiness of of which. 25 I leave the use of the so-called zero relative out of account here. 26 Mustanoja (1960: 200) writes that whose does not occur with inanimate objects before the latter half of the fourteenth century. Instances given in Kivimaa (1966: 85, 90) from Early Middle English texts, however, show that this statement is not correct. 27 For the close proximity of possessive have and existential be, see Allan (1971). 28 This was first formulated by Emonds (1976), who showed that trans- formations should be structure preserving. 29 This is also true in Modern English varieties that have resumptive pronouns (e.g. Scots). These varieties generally have no relative pronouns proper (wh-forms) but only indeclinable that. I would like to thank Roger Lass for providing me with these observations. 30 In the case of which this is only true in so far as it allows a preposition in front of it (taking the place of the case form), something pe and pat do not allow. 31 Warner (1982: 65, 108) gives some Late Middle English examples from Chaucer's Boece and the Wycliffite sermons, which show finite and non-finite subject clauses in initial position. 32 See Warner (1982: 116ff.), who likewise argues for a structurally rather than a lexically conditioned selection between zero and (for) to in the case of the modals on the basis of their largely auxiliary status in the Late Middle English period. 33 The Old English verb agan 'to possess' developed into a modal verb in Middle English: ought. Since in the original construction ought was followed by an object noun and an infinitive 'to have/possess a thing to do' (see Kenyon 1909: 98), it normally took a /o-infinitive. In later Middle English one also quite often finds a bare infinitive (especially in poetry); this could be an analogy of other modal verbs, or because ought also came to be used as an impersonal verb in Middle English, which verbs regularly took the bare infinitive (see below). Need was in Middle English still an impersonal verb and consequently appeared with the plain as well as the /o-infinitive, although the latter is more frequent (see Visser 1963-73: § 1345). The first instances of' personal' need with infinitive date from the last quarter of the fourteenth century (Visser 1963-73: §1346). Dare is always followed by a plain infinitive in Middle English. Instances with to (not until the seventeenth century - see Visser 1963-73: § 1385) only occur when dare develops full-verb next to its auxiliary status. 405 Olga Fischer 34 The same is true for the verbs go and come, which appear often with a bare infinitive when used 'aspectually': Therfore 1 wol,go slept an houre or tweye, (CT 1.3685 (1: 3697]) But certeinly she moste by hir leve,/ Come soupen in his hous with hym at eve. (Troilus 111.559-60) 35 Two manuscripts have to, two have tie instead of to, and one has the bare infinitive. 36 Interesting in this connection is the use of to + -jng rather than just -jng to translate the Latin future participle in some Late Middle English texts (see Mustanoja 1960: 513, 516). Thus, he was dying becomes he was to dying. 37 In Fischer (1989, 1990) I also discuss reasons why a change from 'ordered the city to destroy' to 'ordered to destroy the city', which would also have solved the problem, was in most cases not the preferable option. 38 Mitchell (1985: §3782ff.) believes that there existed a so-called dative and infinitive construction (analogous to the accusative and infinitive con- struction) in Old English, in which the dative functions as subject of the infinitive. However, he gives no evidence of the kind presented here which shows convincingly that reanalysis has taken place. In all his examples the dative noun phrase can still be interpreted as governed by the matrix verb. 39 It is interesting to observe in connection with this that in the Late Middle English prose corpus analysed by Kaartinen & Mustanoja (1958) not a single bare infinitive is encountered, not even with impersonal verbs. 40 These kinds of examples do occur in texts based on Latin originals. However, since they do not occur outside these texts and since they are all word-for-word translations of Latin accusative and infinitives, these instances should not be considered as having been generated by the grammar of Old English (see Fischer 1989). 41 For the relative-clause interpretation see e.g. Mustanoja (1960: 202ff.); Visser (1963-73: §§75, 606); Kerkhof (1982: §541). For the opposite view see Kivimaa (1966: 41ff.) and references given there, and Diekstra (1984). 42 For instance, example (410) gives an instance of that used in a temporal clause. That is also regularly employed to continue the co-ordinate part of a subclause which itself was introduced by a more specific conjunction, as in: Men sholde hym brennen in a fyr so reed/ If he were founde, or that men myghte hym spye, (CT V1I1.313-14 (7:313-14]) Yit make hyt sumwhat agreable,/ Though som vers fayle in sillable;/ And that I do no diligence/ To shewe craft, but o [= only] sentence. (HF 1097-1100) 43 Dubislav (1916:284) suggested that causal that developed from OE for p~xm 406 Syntax pe. This seems unlikely, since in all other cases of conjunctive phrases, it was the preposition that survived (whether or not followed by that), not that. 44 For a discussion of the possible use of and us a conditional subordinator in Old English, see Mitchell (1985: §§3668-70). 45 This seems a new development in Middle English as far as concessive clauses are concerned; see below, example (394b); cf. Mitchell (1985: §§3440—1). The situation concerning the use of inverted word order in conditional clauses in Old English is somewhat unclear — see Mitchell (1985: §§3678-83). 46 Po is also used as a demonstrative and relative pronoun, as an adverb and as a shortened form of poh 'though'. Ponne/penne functions as a temporal and locative adverb meaning 'then' and 'thence' and as the conjunction 'than'. 47 The reason why the verb is plural rather than singular, or, in other words, agrees with the subject-complement rather than with the subject is probably because in (488) after //, the verb be identifies Gowrdes. The emphasis is on Gourdes, not on it. In (481) and (482) the verb be introduces what is in the subject-complement. Here the emphasis is on be (or there, if present) and not on the subject-complement. 48 Stockwell & Minkova (1991: note 14) show by means of some examples how notoriously difficult it is to compare word-order counts because of the different traditions in which, and the different assumptions with which, linguists work. 49 For some problems in relation to van Kemenade's theory that all Old English pronominals are clitics, see Koopman (forthcoming). 50 Van Kemenade (1987) relates the clitic behaviour of the pronominals to the inflectional morphology which is still a characteristic of Old English. She calls the Old English clitics syntactic clitics because they are distinguished by position but they behave like case affixes. Consequently, they are lost (i.e. the special position of the pronominals changes) when the case system disintegrates in the course of the Middle English period. 51 Swieczkowski (1962) has looked at the influence of what he calls 'semantic load' on word-order patterning in Late Middle English poetry and prose (i.e. the distribution of heavy (full nouns, verbs, etc.) and light (pro- nominals, prepositions, etc.) elements) (see also Reszkiewicz 1966 for Late Old English prose). Although he has found that weight is of influence (still) in Middle English, his evidence clearly shows that, especially in prose, rhythmical patterns are overruled by the syntactic need of having sentences conform as much as possible to the SVO pattern. 52 Mustanoja's (1985) study of a large body of Middle English texts confirms this. Of the objects preceding the infinitive, half were found to be nouns, half pronouns. Of the objects following, the majority were nouns. 53 These observations are mainly based on Borst (1910). It is difficult to 407 [...]... the conception of the mere adoption of single word-forms would be an oversimplified account of the processes involved When words are adopted by one language from another, depending on the competence of the language user, there takes place a certain degree of substitution of the forms of the borrower's language into the patterns adopted According to the extent of the patterns taken over, substitution... justify his choice of English rather than French as the medium for his work, but he does this by the rather surprising claim that there are many English words which he cannot understand: 'many termes there ben in English, of which unneth we Englishmen connen declare the knowleginge' (Skeat 18 97: 2) That being so, how much less, then, can we understand the 'privy termes' of French? These termes, to which... this was to become the language of all official business 5.1 .2. 4 The influence of French upon English is more complex than that of the Scandinavian languages, since in addition to the early oral contact between the two languages, there is a prolonged history in which French influenced English as a technical written language Moreover, French influence came from two separate dialects of French: firstly... in English 'lest the French language be altogether lost', and in 13 47 the Countess of Pembroke, as though to fend off such deterioration, had founded a college in Cambridge at which preference was to be given to teachers born in France (Tout 1 922 : 122 ) 5.1 .2. 6 In the administrative sphere, French had been used as an alternative to Latin since the early thirteenth century The choice between the two languages... to the variation of form arising from direct reproduction of the spoken language and from competing spelling practices, uncertainty as to the meaning of words might arise from the fact that Middle English is a conglomeration of separately developed dialects English speakers of the time were well aware of the problems this raised Referring to irregularities in the pronunciation of Yorkshire Middle English, ... spoken and written language, and later, as an artificially acquired literary language, from the French of the lie de France At this later stage, there developed a distinction in prestige between the contemporary Anglo-French of England and the French of the Continent Central French superseded both English and AngloFrench as the language of social prestige The major watershed in this 426 Lexis and semantics... (Strang 1 970 ) The Danish forms are generally those widespread in the dialect of the east midlands from which standard English derives, and so are more immediately recognisable as the modern forms Norwegian forms are more common in the dialects of the north and west 5.1.1.10 In conditions of oral contact between the two languages, English ignorance of the grammar of Scandinavian inflections led to the adoption... like, it is apparent that the density of French loans increases with the passage of time, the rate of new adoptions into English reaching a peak in the second half of the fourteenth century as the uses of French were eroded by English (jespersen 19 62; Finkenstaedt, Leisi & Wolff 1 970 ) But density of French loans in a text is also connected with the subject matter of the work - courtly literature tends... influence 5.1.1.1 The inhabitants of Britain since Gerald of Wales {Description of Wales 23 1) in the twelfth century have been content with the paradoxical view that, although they speak a language which matches in its diversity the various origins of the people, fresh influence from outside is to be regarded as a form of corruption In the Renaissance period opposition by the proponents of pure English to... 5.1 .2 The influence of French 5.1 .2. 1 French influence upon the grammar and phonology of English was of relatively little importance, but the impact of that language upon the lexis was prolonged, varied and ultimately enormous It commenced before the Conquest as the result of the political and religious contacts between Anglo-Saxon rulers and Normandy, where Ethelred II was forced to take refuge from the . Morris F. Holthausen Date a 1 425 (ca 1400) ca 1 375 a 1400 (ca 1303) ca 1450 (1 378 -14 17) (a 1438) ca 1330 ?ca 120 0 (?a 120 0) ca 1 27 5 (ca 120 0) a 125 0 (?ca 120 0) 1 422 -1509 a 1 121 -60 ca 1400 (?1380) ca. alphabetical list of the Middle English texts used, accompanied by the name of the editor(s), an indication of the date of the manuscript(s) used (and if possible the date of the original composition. 1 376 ) ca 1400 (ca 1 378 ) ca 1400 (?a 13 87) ca 125 0 (ca 1150) ca 1440 (a 1349) (a 1380) ca 1 520 (ca 1300) ca 1400 (?a 1350) ca 1300 a 1450 ca 122 0 (?ca 120 0) ca 122 0 (?ca 120 0) a 125 0 (?ca 120 0) ca