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Chapter 4: Morphology

  • Claire Cowie
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Volume 4 Early Modern English
This chapter is in the book Volume 4 Early Modern English

Abstract

By the end of the Middle English period there is already considerable loss of inflectional morphology, and in Early Modern English we see the last reflexes of a shift from synthetic Old English to analytic Modern English (Lass 1999: 139). In fact, the inflectional system of Early Modern English is not very different from what we have today (Görlach 1991: 79). The changes in inflection which do take place between 1500 and 1700 show marked sociolinguistic differentiation and are the subject of well-known case studies in sociohistorical linguistics. The derivational morphology of Early Modern English, on the other hand, is considered to demonstrate much more wholesale and radical change in the form of new Latin prefixes and suffixes reanalyzed from borrowed lexis. The rate of integration of these word-formation processes is not, however, very uniform, and capturing this diversity is a major aim of this survey.

Abstract

By the end of the Middle English period there is already considerable loss of inflectional morphology, and in Early Modern English we see the last reflexes of a shift from synthetic Old English to analytic Modern English (Lass 1999: 139). In fact, the inflectional system of Early Modern English is not very different from what we have today (Görlach 1991: 79). The changes in inflection which do take place between 1500 and 1700 show marked sociolinguistic differentiation and are the subject of well-known case studies in sociohistorical linguistics. The derivational morphology of Early Modern English, on the other hand, is considered to demonstrate much more wholesale and radical change in the form of new Latin prefixes and suffixes reanalyzed from borrowed lexis. The rate of integration of these word-formation processes is not, however, very uniform, and capturing this diversity is a major aim of this survey.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Abbreviations VII
  4. Chapter 1: Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 2: Early Modern English: Overview 8
  6. Chapter 3: Phonology 27
  7. Chapter 4: Morphology 47
  8. Chapter 5: Syntax 68
  9. Chapter 6: Lexicon and semantics 89
  10. Chapter 7: Pragmatics and discourse 108
  11. Chapter 8: Dialects 128
  12. Chapter 9: Language contact 150
  13. Chapter 10: Standardization 167
  14. Chapter 11: Sociolinguistics 188
  15. Chapter 12: Pronouns 209
  16. Chapter 13: Periphrastic DO 224
  17. Chapter 14: The Great Vowel Shift 241
  18. Chapter 15: Relativization 267
  19. Chapter 16: Literary language 287
  20. Chapter 17: The language of Shakespeare 309
  21. Index 333
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110525069-004

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Abbreviations VII
  4. Chapter 1: Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 2: Early Modern English: Overview 8
  6. Chapter 3: Phonology 27
  7. Chapter 4: Morphology 47
  8. Chapter 5: Syntax 68
  9. Chapter 6: Lexicon and semantics 89
  10. Chapter 7: Pragmatics and discourse 108
  11. Chapter 8: Dialects 128
  12. Chapter 9: Language contact 150
  13. Chapter 10: Standardization 167
  14. Chapter 11: Sociolinguistics 188
  15. Chapter 12: Pronouns 209
  16. Chapter 13: Periphrastic DO 224
  17. Chapter 14: The Great Vowel Shift 241
  18. Chapter 15: Relativization 267
  19. Chapter 16: Literary language 287
  20. Chapter 17: The language of Shakespeare 309
  21. Index 333
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