LANGUAGE CHANGES: THE LEXICON

Through the basic processes of word formation, all people are capable of producing words-not only those words they have used or encountered in the past but also "new" words, such as the plural of a noun they have just learned or the past tense of a newly acquired verb. Such words result from the combination of mor- phemes (which the speaker knows) according to general princi- ples of word formation (which the speaker also knows)

Since the morphemes and the principles are familiar, the speaker is seldom aware that he or she has used language creatively. Such individual creation is the result of the fact that language, by its very nature, is productive.

Words produced in this way by a particular speaker have no consequences whatsoever for other speakers of the lan- guage. Every speaker of the language can produce similar words in exactly the same way Throughout the history of any language,

however, there are cases when truly new words appear, words that no speaker of the language has ever produced before. The study of the origin and development of words is etymology.

In this chapter we examine the chief sources of words that were new to English at one time

discuns some of the efllects the introduction of new words has had on the lar.gua investigate vertain popular attiudes toward word creation.

BORROWING All languages change over a period of time, often so gradually that speakers are no aware of the changes until a century or more has passed. Changes may occur in all a el a language-in pronunciation. in syntax, and in the lexicon. Of these three exical changes are the most noticeable and may be observed almost daily.

An vpe of lexical change in English is borrowing, the addition to the lexicon of a word another language. English has borrowed so many words from so many languages today it is almost impossihle to say anything without using at least one borrowed Modern borrowings are most ob ious, such as kibbur from Hebrew, while words rowed long ago are now often indistinguishable from native English words. One e is the word cheese, which our inguistic ancestors borrowed from Latin about 1600 a8o. even example yeury e new word When a language borrows a word, as English borrowed cheese.

the new wonl s pronounced according to the sound system of the language to which it is being added hus, the word for cheese' was cuseus in Latin, but in the English spoken at the was borrowed, the word became rse ithe letter c represented a k sound in both Latin and Old English) Caseur was assimilated into the English language as cese, became a part of it, and thereafter was subject to the same sount changes as native words.

When the sound spelled e became that spelled ch in English.

the change took place in all words in the lexicon at the time-native words like Old English ceowun (Modern English chew) and borrowed words like Old English cese tModem English cheese).

Once such a sound change has taken place, the ongin of a borrowel word is no longer apparent. Even if you knew tatin. you might not realize that cheese was a word of Latin onigin.

The Modan German word Kuse, however, is more obviously of Latin ongin because German did not undergo the same sound change as English.

Therefore, the k sound remains in Moden German much as it was in Lalin when the word was borrowed Languages do not borrow words from one another in a haphazard fashion, but rather under particular conditions.

To trace the history of linguistic borrowing is to trace the history of a penple-where they setled, whom they conquered, who conquered them, tterns of commerce, their religious and intellectual history, and the development of their society.

In this way linguisties is closely linked to history. The linguist's accounts o borrowing can confirm the historian's hypotheses, and the historian's description d contacts between nations can guide the linguist to the sources of linguistic borrowing Tc their pat anthropologist, of course, also shares many concerns of the historian and the linguist borrowing is a phenomenon not only of language but of many aspects of culture. T study of lexical borrowing links these three disciplines, and it is impossible to discuss uit wh sor matter without including linguistic, anthropological, and historical facts In order to trace the patterns of lexical borrowing in English, we must go back to the time when English was, in fact, not English at all, but merely one uf several dialects of tbe Gemanic language, a language that over the centuries developed intoa umber 50 we