Exploring the English Language - Essay Example

Exploring the English language: It is a common practice in English language to modify some word in order to express a variety of other words of othergrammatical categories through that modification. Many words and nouns are inflected by adding inflectional plural affix “–s” like converting the word house to houses and call to calls. Similarly, verbs can also be modified to express the grammatical category of tenses. This is done by adding inflectional past tense affix “-ed” like converting call to called or touch to touched, so that the other person understands the nature and meaning of the message conveyed through a statement. Verbs are also inflected in English to highlight the third person singular by using present tense affix “-s”, present participle affix “-ing”, and past tense “-ed”, as in he walks, he is walking, and he walked. Language planning can be defined as actions taken and strategies planned at official level to amend and modernize a language in a certain speech community. Different steps are taken, not only officially but also at grass-root level, to strengthen any desired language and to solidify its influence within a society, so that people acquire control over that language in better terms. Deliberate efforts are made to prepare the people from every level get acquainted with the function and structure of a certain language, so that they can more easily comprehend it and give it a priority status. For this purpose, many language ideologies are considered in language planning that help in promoting a language among common people. The most important ideology suggests that every person should necessarily learn and speak the dominant language existing in that community where he/she resides, irrespective of his/her mother language. Linguistic and non-linguistic histories are two basic approaches that are considered when contemplating the development of the English language. Discussing the role of the linguistic evidence in the development of the English language, Akmajian (2001, p. 342) has identified that linguists customarily divide the development period of English language in three major periods. First comes the Old English period that remained in vogue from fifth to eleventh century. Then the Middle English period is prominent historically, and which stretched from eleventh to fifteenth centuries. Finally, the Modern English period commenced from the fifteenth century and is in progress still. The history of English language goes back to the time when three tribes, namely the Angles, the Saxon, and the Jutes, invaded Britain and spread Old English or Anglo-Saxon English language. With time, many Greek and French words began to be infused in the English language that was influential among people in those days, and Middle English became the dominant language. It is the general consensus among almost all the historian that French played a dominant role in the development of the English language. Later on, the period of Modern English language commenced, in the earlier part of which, the social communication of British people with the rest of the world increased and English became more modernized and easy as compared to the old or middle English. Gradually, British Empire expanded and many old English words got modified and new words were included in the vocabulary, and this modernized vocabulary differentiates the presently influential English language from the old-fashioned English language styles. There are numerous linguistic evidences spanning more than 1200 years, which are a major source of help for those researching on English language history. All such old documents and literary works highlight the major transformational changes that the English language has gone through from the beginning. For example, meanings of many words became less inclusive than their earlier meanings, and words themselves also shifted or progressed towards new word versions. This is called semantic shift and narrowing. According to Akmajian (2001, p. 344), meaning changes in many individual words in the context of Old English and Modern English can be observed from the Modern English words hound and dog, both of which were known as hund and docga in Old English. Moreover, the word “hund” referred to any kind of dog, while “hound” refers to a particular type of a dog. The word “docga” on the other hand, referred in Old English to the mastiff breed of dogs, while presently, “dog” refers to any breed of dog. These examples identify the semantic shift and narrowing observed over the years in English language. According to Graddol, Leith, & Swann (1996, p. 99), history of any language can be divided into linguistic evidence and non-linguistic evidence. Linguistic evidence has already been discussed, that refers to the changing trends in meanings and grammar of the words over time. Non-linguistic or external evidence on the other hand, refers to the accounts and narrations that have been preserved and which identify who, when, and where spoke a particular language. Contemporary written histories are suggested as the main source of non-linguistic or external evidence of English language. However, one has to depend on linguistic evidence for interpreting most of the non-linguistic evidence related to the history of English language, because linguists still find difficulty in segregating internal and external evidence. According to Hogg & Denison (2006), the dialects of the Anglo-Saxons were copied in England in the same way that words and traditions are carried by people travelling all over the world. The Anglo-Saxons exercised maximized influence on the development of Old English, but the Modern English is totally different from the Old English. According to Graddol et al. (1996, p. 116), inflections are less common in Modern English than in Old English. In fact, a rich range of inflections is observed in Old English, as is seen in the word “wordum” that is now known as “word”. The suffix –um refers to the preposition “to” and identifies that the word is in plural form. It is claimed by Kastovsky (cited in Graddol et al., 1996, p. 119) that during the Middle English period, the Scandinavian vocabulary had such a dominant impact on English language that Scandinavian language was abandoned for developing the English language. Over time, the inflected word endings in much of the vocabulary, that identified the grammatical nature of the words, reduced in number and a non-inflected language became dominant in the later Middle ages and Modern period. References: Akmajian, A. (2001). Linguistics: an introduction to language and communication. (5th ed.). USA: MIT Press. Pp. 342-344. Graddol, D., Leith, D., & Swann, J. (1996). English: history, diversity, and change. Illustrated. London: Routledge Publishers. Pp. 99-119. Hogg, R. M., & Denison, D. (2006). A history of the English language. Illustrated. Cambridge University Press. Read More