Білет 11

Everyone knows that language changes. Here are 4 rather subtle changes happening in English, as determined by looking at the numbers.

1. SHIFT FROM " THEY STARTED TO WALK" TO " THEY STARTED WALKING" There are a number of verbs that can take a complement with another verb in either the " -ing" form or the " to" form: " They liked painting/to paint; " " We tried leaving/to leave; " " He didn't bother calling/to call." Both of these constructions are still used, and they have both been used for a long time. But there has been a steady shift over time from the " to" to the " -ing" complement. " Start" and " begin" saw a big increase in the " -ing" complement until leveling out in the 1940s, while emotion verbs like " like, " " love, " " hate, " and " fear" saw their proportion of " -ing" complements start to rise in the 1950s and 60s. Not all verbs have participated in the shift: " stand, " " intend, " and " cease" went the " to" way.

2. GETTING MORE PROGRESSIVE English has been getting more progressive over time—that is, the progressive form of the verb has steadily increased in use. (The progressive form is the –ing form that indicates something is continuous or ongoing: " They are speaking" vs. " They speak.") This change started hundreds of years ago, but in each subsequent era, the form has grown into parts of the grammar it hadn't had much to do with in previous eras. For example, at least in British English, its use in the passive (" It is being held" rather than " It is held") and with modal verbs like " should, " " would, " and " might" (" I should be going" rather than " I should go") has grown dramatically. There is also an increase of " be" in the progressive form with adjectives (" I'm being serious" vs. " I'm serious").

3. GOING TO, HAVE TO, NEED TO, WANT TO It's pretty noticeable that words like " shall" and " ought" are on the way out, but " will, " " should, " and " can" are doing just fine. There are other members of this helping verb club though, and they have been on a steep climb this century. " Going to, " " have to, " " need to, " and " want to" cover some of the same meaning territory as the other modal verbs. They first took hold in casual speech and have enjoyed a big increase in print in recent decades.

4. RISE OF THE " GET-PASSIVE"

The passive in English is usually formed with the verb " to be, " yielding " they were fired" or " the tourist was robbed." But we also have the " get" passive, giving us " they got fired" and " the tourist got robbed." The get-passive goes back at least 300 years, but it has been on a rapid rise during the past 50 years. It is strongly associated with situations which are bad news for the subject—getting fired, getting robbed—but also situations that give some kind of benefit. (They got promoted. The tourist got paid.) However, the restrictions on its use may be relaxing over time and get-passives could get a whole lot bigger.

БІЛЕТ 12

. Between 1475 and about 1630 English spelling gradually became regularized. There are noticeable differences in the look of printed English before the mid-seventeenth century, but after that date it is largely the same as modern English, the major difference being the use of the long s (∫) in all positions except finally.

Pronunciation change and the Great Vowel Shift

By the sixteenth century English spelling was becoming increasingly out of step with pronunciation owing mainly to the fact that printing was fixing it in its late Middle English form just when various sound changes were having a far-reaching effect on pronunciation.Chief among these was the so-called ‘Great Vowel Shift’, which can be illustrated (with much simplification) from the three vowel sounds in mite, meet, and mate. In Middle English these were three long vowels with values similar to their Latin or continental counterparts [i: ], [e: ], and [a: ] (roughly the vowel sounds of thief, fete, and palm); the spelling was therefore ‘phonetic’. After the shift:

long i became a diphthong (probably in the sixteenth century pronounced [ə i] with a first element like the [ə ] of the first syllable in ago)

long e took its place with the value [i: ]

long a became a front vowel, more like that of air to begin with, but later [e: ].

For example:

· ou in double, trouble and oo in blood, flood and good, hook became identical with short u (either as in bud or as in put).

· similarly originally long ea in bread, lead (the metal) became identical with ein bred, led.

· in southern (standard) English the short vowel u became an unrounded central vowel in most words (bud, cut) but remained a close rounded vowel in certain environments (full, put); the latter vowel subsequently merged with the originally long vowel spelt oo which had become short in certain environments (good, hook).

· a after the sound of w became a back rounded vowel, identical with short o (e.g. wad, wash, squat as against mad, mash, mat).

Changes in the pronunciation of consonant sounds during the early modern English period contributed significantly to the incongruity between spelling and pronunciation. Accordingly consonant sounds ceased to be pronounced in many contexts.

For example:

· initial k- and g- ceased to be pronounced before n (as in knight, gnaw) as did initial w- before r (as in write).

· final -b and -g ceased to be pronounced after nasal consonants (lamb, hang) as did medial -t- in such words as thistle and listen.

· in late Middle English l became a vowel after back vowels or diphthongs in certain positions (as in talk, folk), but the spelling remained.

· in certain dialects of Middle English the velar fricative [x] (like ch in loch), written gh, either disappeared (as in night, bought) or became [f] (as inrough); in standard English the old pronunciation of gh continued until about 1600, but was then replaced by the present pronunciation. Because gh was now mainly silent it was introduced into several words where it did not etymologically belong (delight, inveigh, sprightly).

БИЛЕТ 13

From the point of view of etymology, English vocabulary can be divided into 2 parts: 70% of borrowings in English language, 30% of native words.

Words of native origin are divide into 3 groups: IE, common Germanic, English proper element.

ROMANIC BORROWINGS.

Latin borrowings: they are divided into 3 periods:

1) 5 century, words are connected with trade (pound, inch, kitchen, wall, port);

2) The time of Christianity, words are connected with religion (Latin words: alter, cross, dean; Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem);

3) Time of renaissance, words were borrowed after great vowel shift (17 century) (item, superior, zoology, memorandum, vice versa, AM, PM).

French: the largest group of borrowings is French borrowings. Most of them came into English during the Norman ConquestThere are following semantic groups of French borrowings:

1) words relating to government (administer, empire, state); 2) ~military affairs (army, war, battle); 3) ~jurisprudence (advocate, petition, sentence); 4) ~fashion (luxury, coat, collar); 5)~jewelry (topaz, pearl); 6)~ food and cooking (lunch, cuisine, menu); 7)~literature and music (pirouette, ballet).

Italian: cultural and trade relations between England and Italy in the epoch of renaissance brought in many Italian words:

1) musical terms: concert, solo, opera, piano, trio; 2) political terms: manifesto; 3) geological terms: volcano, lava.

Among the 20th century Italian borrowings, we can mention: incognito, fiasco, and graffiti.

Spanish: a large number of such words was penetrated in English vocabulary in 1588 when Phillip 2 sent a fleet of armed ships against England (armada, ambuscade); trade terms: cargo, embargo; names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, guitar; names of vegetables and fruits: tomato, tobacco, banana, ananas.

BILET 14

French
French continues to be the largest single source of new words outside of very specialized vocabulary domains (scientific/technical vocabulary, still dominated by classical borrowings). High culture—ballet, bouillabaise, cabernet, cachet, chaise longue, champagne, chic, cognac, corsage, faux pas, nom de plume, quiche, rouge, roulet, sachet, salon, saloon, sang froid, savoir faire. War and Military—bastion, brigade, battalion, cavalry, grenade, infantry, pallisade, rebuff, bayonet. Other—bigot, chassis, clique, denim, garage, grotesque, jean(s), niche, shock. French Canadian—chowder. Louisiana French (Cajun)—jambalaya

Spanish armada, adobe, alligator, alpaca, armadillo, barricade, bravado, cannibal, canyon, coyote, desperado, embargo, enchilada, guitar, marijuana, mesa, mosquito, mustang, ranch, taco, tornado, tortilla, vigilante

Italian alto, arsenal, balcony, broccoli, cameo, casino, cupola, duo, fresco, fugue, gazette (via French), ghetto, gondola, grotto, macaroni, madrigal, motto, piano, opera, pantaloons, prima donna, regatta, sequin, soprano, opera, stanza, stucco, studio, tempo, torso, umbrella, viola, violin

from Italian American immigrants —cappuccino, espresso, linguini, mafioso, pasta, pizza, ravioli, spaghetti, spumante, zabaglione, zucchini

Dutch, Flemish Shipping, naval terms—avast, boom, bow, bowsprit, buoy, commodore, cruise, dock, freight, keel, keelhaul, leak, pump, reef, scoop, scour, skipper, sloop, smuggle, splice, tackle, yawl, yacht. Cloth industry—bale, cambric, duck (fabric), fuller's earth, mart, nap (of cloth), selvage, spool, stripe. Art—easel, etching, landscape, sketch. War—beleaguer, holster, freebooter, furlough, onslaught. Food and drink—booze, brandy(wine), coleslaw, cookie, cranberry, crullers, gin, hops, stockfish, waffle. Other—bugger (orig. French), crap, curl, dollar, scum, split (orig. nautical term), uproar

German bum, dunk, feldspar, quartz, hex, lager, knackwurst, liverwurst, loafer, noodle, poodle, dachshund, pretzel, pinochle, pumpernickel, sauerkraut, schnitzel, zwieback, (beer)stein, lederhosen, dirndl20th century German loanwords—blitzkrieg, zeppelin, strafe, U-boat, delicatessen, hamburger, frankfurter, wiener, hausfrau, kindergarten, Oktoberfest, schuss, wunderkind, bundt (cake), spritz (cookies), (apple) strudel

Russian apparatchik, borscht, czar/tsar, glasnost, icon, perestroika, vodka

Words from other parts of the world Sanskrit avatar, karma, mahatma, swastika, yoga

Hindi bandanna, bangle, bungalow, chintz, cot, cummerbund, dungaree, juggernaut, jungle, loot, maharaja, nabob, pajamas, punch (the drink), shampoo, thug, kedgeree, jamboree

Dravidian curry, mango, teak, pariah

Persian (Farsi) check, checkmate, chess

Arabic bedouin, emir, jakir, gazelle, giraffe, harem, hashish, lute, minaret, mosque, myrrh, salaam, sirocco, sultan, vizier, bazaar, caravan

African languages banana (via Portuguese), banjo, boogie-woogie, chigger, goober, gorilla, gumbo, jazz, jitterbug, jitters, juke(box), voodoo, yam, zebra, zombie

American Indian languages avocado, cacao, cannibal, canoe, chipmunk, chocolate, chili, hammock, hominy, hurricane, maize, moccasin, moose, papoose, pecan, possum, potato, skunk, squaw, succotash, squash, tamale (via Spanish), teepee, terrapin, tobacco, toboggan, tomahawk, tomato, wigwam, woodchuck(plus thousands of place names, including Ottawa, Toronto, Saskatchewan and the names of more than half the
states of the U.S., including Michigan, Texas, Nebraska, Illinois)

Chinese chop suey, chow mein, dim sum, ketchup, tea, ginseng, kowtow, litchee

Japanese geisha, hara kiri, judo, jujitsu, kamikaze, karaoke, kimono, samurai, soy, sumo, sushi, tsunami

Pacific Islands bamboo, gingham, rattan, taboo, tattoo, ukulele, boondocks

Australia boomerang, budgerigar, didgeridoo, kangaroo (and many more in Australian English)