languages, pronouns & sociohistorical context

situation in the Old English period

• Germanic

• Celtic

• Romance

• Latin: Lingua Franca of the time

Grammatical Categories and Forms

Categories

• Person

• Number

• Case

• Gender

Forms

• very suppletive paradigm

suppletive paradigm

forms are not formally related

1. person

Posessives:

phonological conditioning: environment determines form

grammatical conditioning: tells about word class/ grammatical environment

2.person

3. person

Early Middle English

1066-1204

◼ 1066: Norman Conquest under William the Conqueror –

William the Bastard?

◼ Context: Edward the Confessor

dies without an heir

◼ Struggle for succession!

• Harold Godwinson becomes king

Rivals:

• Harald of Norway

• William of Normandy

◼ 14th October: Battle of Battle!

◼ Norman administration/clergy: few people!

◼ New social system: feudalism

◼ 1086: Domesday Book – tax assessment

◼ Barely any French loan words

◼ 1170: Henry II expands dominion → Ireland!

◼ Wales is still independent

◼ Scotland anglicized in the south

High Middle English

1204-1400

◼ Henry II (1154-1189): Angevin Empire

◼ Several children

❑ Richard “Lionheart“ (1189-1199)

❑ John “Softsword“/“Lackland“ (1199-1216)

◼ King John “Softsword“/“Lackland“ 1199: King of England,

conflict with nobility

◼ Peace with Philipp II of France

→cessions of territory

◼ 1200: marriage with Isabella

(Philipp‘s Cousin) as a means of

maintaining power

◼ 1202-1204: several defeats

Nobility settled in England permanently

◼ Language contact

◼ Bilingualism

◼ Diglossia (court vs. back home)

◼ Massive French influence on vocabulary

◼ from 1370s on: emancipation of English literature

◼ Wales became anglicized by the “Edwards“ (1-3)

Late Middle English

1400-1476

◼ French influence decreases

❑ Fewer loan words

❑ 1362: opening of the parliament in English

❑ Status of French – language of the enemy!

◼ 1337-1454: Hundred Years‘ War

❑ Succession to the French throne unclear

◼ War of Roses (1455-1487)

❑ Competing but related dynastic families:

❑ Lancaster (red rose)

❑ York (white rose)

◼ 1476: printing press – Caxton

◼ 1485: Battle of Bosworth

❑ Richard III vs. Henry Tudor

❑ Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York

◼ Tudors as the new dynasty