A Study on the Change and Developmentof English Vocabulary

Sun+Yiwei

中图分类号：TV213.4

1.I

Generally speaking， we can divide the language in the world into two big classes， namely living language and dead language. The latter means the language that had no longer been used at present or seldom used， such as ancient Latin language .While the former means the language that is used at present， for instance Chinese， Japanese， French， German， English， etc. The living language has an important characteristic， that is， all change with the passage of the time.

In the following text we will talk about the change and development of the English language influencing English words.

1 A Survey of the History of English Vocabulary

2.1 The Influence of Celtic， Latin and Scandinavian

English is an In do-European language. In do-European language was discovered to be the parent language. The earliest period begins with the migration of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth century A.D. Characteristic features of Old English are that the vocabulary is almost purely Germanic. The first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge are the Celtic. But Celtic made only a small contribution to the English.

In 55-54 B.C. Julius Caesar invaded the British Island. But he left the British Island with his troop soon and this event has a small influence on the English vocabulary. It was in A.D.43 that the Emperor Claudius decided to undertake the actual conquest of the island. With the knowledge of Caesars experience behind him， he didnt underestimate the problems involved. Accordingly an army of 40，000 was sent to Britain and within three years had subjugated the people of the island. Where the Romans lived and ruled， there Roman ways were found. Among must be include the use of the Latin language. A great number of inscriptions have been found， all of them in Latin. In the year of 449， Jutes invaded Britain with Saxons and Angles. Soon they took permanent control of the land， and their language historically known as Anglo-Saxon. Now people generally refer to Anglo-Saxon as Old English.

2.2 The Influence of Norman Conquest on the Middle English

Toward the close of the old English period an event occurred that had a greater effect on the English language than any other in the curse of its history. This event was the Norman Conquest in 1066. Williams victory at Hastings and his subsequent coronation in London involved more than a mere substitution of one monarch for another. In that case there would doubtless have been more French favorites at court， as in the time of the confessor and Normans in certain important offices. Many of the English higher class had been killed on the field at Hastings. Those who escaped were treated as traitors， and the places of both alike were filled by Williams Norman followers. This process was repeated several times during the next four years while the conquest was being completed.

2.3 Modern English—the Renaissance and World War

In the Modern English period， the beginning of which is conveniently placed at 1500， certain of these new conditions come into play， conditions that previously either had not existed at all or were present in only a limited way， and they cause English to develop a long somewhat different lines from those that had characterized its history in the Middle Ages.

In the later Middle Ages a surprising number of people of the middle class could read and write. This has two aspects， one is individual the other is public. At the individual level we may observe a phenomenon that has become intensely important in modern times. At the public level a similar self-consciousness has driven issues of language policy over the past four centuries. As another example of how great developments leave their mark upon language. We may observe some of the words that some into English as a direct consequence of World War. In this period England became the most powerful country in the world. So English was becoming the international language at that time. Nevertheless it made its contribution to the language in the form of certain new words and new meanings.

2 An Overview of English New Words

2.1 The New Words of English

We are living in the 21st century， now we are going through the rapid development and change in social life and politics， and economy， our knowledge of Latin are little. We know many English words， especially the English new words. We can often come across the following English words and phrases from newspapers and magazines： OICQ， lay off， AD. OICQ is a word produced on the basis of the network， first invented by the Israelis. OICQ is short for “oh， I seek you.” and nowadays， almost all young people know OICQ， and they are glad to connect with each other in this way on line. Lay off is a phrase appearing in recent years， because the competition between enterprises is fierce now. AD is short for advertisements.

We can often come across a lot of internet English everyday. Internet： It is the blending of International Net， it had another name called Internet. It came into being in 1969. The major service item of Internet are： The E-mail， Telnet， the inquiry service（Finger ）， the file transfer （FTP ）， the file server （Archive ）， the forum of the news （Usenet ）， the electronic billboard （BBS ）， one group of groups （News Group ） of news， global network （World Wide Web）

HTTP： The simplification of Hyper Text Transmission Protocol.

IP： Internet's agreement or it can be called internet agreement.

IE： Internet Explorer， Explorer means “the explorer ".

2.2 Reasons for the Rise of English New Words

2.2.1 The Manufacture of New Products in Economy

Economic development is the mainstream of our era. The improvement of language， to a certain extent， benefits a lot from the new phenomenon that occurs in the economic field. In this competitive world， any innovation or fresh things taking place in economic will soon find their voice in the language. If there is anything a new product needs， it is a brand name. To the extent that the product succeeds， the name will too. Its a sure thing， the one way to guarantee that a new term will be a success： spend mighty amounts of money on marketing persuade people to buy and keep on buying a product， and they will call it by the name you give it.

2.2.2 The Events in the Field of Politics

The form of English new words is sometimes considered as the result of the political changes. Language reflects the society， as it has always been. Politics is an essential part of the development of the world； therefore， it can easily find its relative neologisms in the language field.

For instance， when Mr. Bill Clinton was elected as the president of the U.S.， his name has been associated with many political words. His policy is Clintonion， he is carrying out the Clintonism， his economics policy is Clinntonomics， and his supporters were called Clintoonites， he ultimately wanted to realize his Clintonization.

2.3 The Formation of English New Words

It is interesting to discuss how new words are formed. In any language， people express a new idea， describe a new process， and market a new product through three ways.

2.3.1 Affixation

Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to stems. Affixation is an effective way to increase the English vocabulary. “Affixation has played a positive role during the history of English development. Not only has it enlarged the pronunciational words， but also it has enriched the performative power of the language.” Over 100 affixes exist in English， dozens of which are the most active， for example， a-， an-， au-， be-，co-， counter-，de-， dis-， en-， e-， inter- and so on. According to the positions which affixes occupy in words， affixation falls into two subclasses： prefix and suffix. Prefix is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to stems. Prefixes do not generally change the word-class of the stem but only modify its meaning. It allows us to expand our vocabulary without specifically memorizing new words. Suffix is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems. Unlike prefixes which primarily change the meaning of the stem， suffixes have only a small semantic role， their primary function being to change the grammatical function of stems.

2.3.2 Compounding

Compounding， also called composition， is the formation of new words by joining two or more stems. Words formed in this way are called compounds. So a compound is a ‘lexical unit consisting of more than one stem and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word （Quirk et al 19885）. Silkworm and honeybee are compounds； so are tear gas and easy chair. These examples show that compounds can be written solid （silkworm）， hyphenated （honey-bee） and open （tear gas and easy chair）. Moonlighting is a compound， as is scofflaw and doublespeak. Some compounds spelled with hyphens， like also-friendly， or with spaces， like dark matter and mad disease， but these count as compounds because they are different in the sum of their parts.

2.3.3 Blending

A blend is a word formed by combining parts of other words， e.g.

smog - smoke + fog

motel – motor+ hotel

brunch – breakfast + lunch

camcorder – camera + recorder

comsat – communication + satellite

videophone – video + telephone

2.3.4 Shortening

Shortening refers to the abbreviation of longer words or phrase， e.g.

gym – gymnasium

expo – exposition

memo – memorandum

disco – discotheque

burger – hamburger

dozer – bulldozer

quake – earthquake

fridge – refrigerator

script – prescription

2.3.5 New Words Borrowing From Other Languages

When different cultures come into contact， words are often “borrowed” from one language to another. The loan word may label a new concept， or it may replace or become a synonym of a native word. English has borrowed a very large number of words from many different languages throughout its history. The examples below are some of the loan words in English.

Latin bonus education exit

Greek tragedy cycle physics

French prince question coup detat

Spanish ranch guitar barbecue

Italian balcony balloon opera

German beer waltz quartz

Dutch freight pump buoy

Chinese tea kowtow sampan

3 Conclusion

Word is the basic unit of forming a sentence， the sentences that we usually speak all formed by words. We live in a society that science and technology are highly developing now， and our society has become more and more complicate， creation of new things is unavoidable in our daily life. The study of new words is a very important thing to English learners， so is the research of vocabulary， especially the study of new vocabulary of English is a very important and essential thing to us. The modern society is developing with the development of the agriculture and the industry， the change of the society is no ending， so the change of the English language is no ending. We should try our best to do as much research as we can， and find the rule of the change of the English.

References

Blake， N.F.1988. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Volume 2： The Middle English Period. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press.

Coates， J.1986. Women， Men and Language. London： Longman.

Drachmann， G. 1978. Child Language and Language Change： a conjecture and some refutations[C].London： In Fisiak.

Potter， S. 1969. Changing English [M].London： Deutsch.

Hu， Wenzhong. 1999. Kuawenhua jiaojixue gailun. [Introduction to Intercultural Communication]. Beijing：Waiyujiaoxueyuyanjiu Chubanshe.