自考英语词汇学 第二章 英语词汇的发展史

Chapter 2 The Development of the English Vocabulary

第二章 英语词汇的发展史

1. The Indo-European Language Family 印欧语系的谱系关系

识记：印欧语系的各个分支和各个分支的主要语言

Armenian (亚美尼亚语) –existing till now

Albanian （阿尔巴尼亚语） –existing till now Prussian 普鲁士语 Lithuanian 立陶宛语 Polish 波兰语 Balto-Slavic(波罗的海语系) Czech 捷克语 Bulgarian 保加利亚语 Eastern set:

Slovenian 西洛文尼亚语

Russian 俄罗斯语

Persian 波斯语

Bengali 孟加拉语

印度伊朗语系

Romany 吉普赛语

Scottish 苏格兰语

Celtic 凯尔特语 Irish 爱尔兰语

Welsh 威尔士语

Breton 法国布里多尼语 Portuguese 葡萄牙语

Spanish 西班牙语

Italic 意大利语系 French 法语

Italian 意大利语

Rumanian 罗马尼亚语 Western Set :

Hellenic 希腊语 Greek 希腊语

Norwegian 挪威语

Icelandic 冰岛语

Danish 丹麦语

Germanic 日耳曼语 Swedish 瑞典语

German 德语

Dutch 荷兰语

Flemish 弗兰德语

English 英语

2. A historical overview of English vocabulary英语发展的历史回顾

考点：英语词汇发展的三个阶段：古英语词汇，中古英语词汇，现代英语词汇及其特点

Inhabitants of the Island:

Celts(Celtic) – Roman Legions(Latin，55) – German Tribes(Anglo-Saxon，410)-Norwegian and Danish Vikings (Scandinavian，900) – Norman（French, 1066）

①Old English 古英语（450-1150）(Anglo-Saxon)

Character:

1. Latin speaking Roman missionaries under St. Augustine came to spread Christianity at the end of the 6th century. The introduction of Christianity had a great impact on English vocabulary.

(New Words: abbot男修道院长, candle, altar圣坛, amen, apostle使徒)

2. Didn’t borrow as heavily as later, they changed meaning of native words, the common practice was to create new words by combining two native words.

（e.g. handbook）

3. Many Scandinavian words came into the English language. Many of the words are alike or interchangeably.

4. Old English has a vocabulary of 50000-60000 words, which was highly inflected. Nouns, Pronouns, Adj., verbs, Adv, had complex endings or vowel changes, differ greatly from what we use today. 内部高度曲折，有复杂的词尾原音变化。

②Middle English （1150-1500）中古英语

Character:

1.English were defeated, reduced to the status of an inferior people like, French

became the polite speech. English, Latin and French existing simultaneously for over a century.

2.Between 1250-1500, 9000 words of French origin poured into English.75% of

them are still in use today. 2500 Dutch words found their way to English as

Britain had trade relationship with the Low Countries. (荷兰、比利时、卢森堡) 3.Retained much fewer inflections. Endings of Nouns and Adj. making distinction

of number, case and often of gender lost their distinctive forms. The same is true of verb. If we say Old English was a language of full endings, Middle English was one of leveled endings. 内部曲折形式少了很多，标志名词和形容词的数，格，性词尾形

式已经不再明显了，动词情况也是一样。如果古英语尽是词尾的话，那么中古英语的词尾已经去了一半。

②Modern English 现代英语（1500-up to now）

1.Subdivided into Early English(1500-1700) and Late English(1700-Now)

2.Borrowed heavily from Latin during 1500-1700 known as Renaissance which

is a new upsurge of leaning ancient Greek and Roman classics, over 10000

new words entered English Language, many of which were taken from Latin and Greek by scholars who wanted to replace the forms earlier adopted

form French.

3.English absorbed words from all major languages of the world.

(Experienced by Bourgeois Revolution and industrial Revolution, rose to be a great

economic power and began to stretch tentacles to every corner of globe)

4.More words are created by word formation since the world has seen

breathtaking advances in science and technology.

5.Word endings were mostly lost with just a few exceptions. English has

evolved from a synthetic language to the present analytic language.

英语从古英语的综合型语言变成了现在的分析型语言。

3.Growth of Present-day English Vocabulary 当代英语词汇的发展状况