HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - Chapter 4 – Questions

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Chapter 4 – Questions

1.      Which nationality invaded the British Isles in 1042? What happened to the language spoken there after this fact? For how long did it last?

2.      Was the French language, at the time of Hastings, the same as Modern French? Justify your answers.

3.      How was the French that was brought to the British Isles?

4.      What happened – especially in Paris – to the variety of French that was brought to the British Isles? Justify your answer.

5.      Did the common people, at this period of time, spoke exclusively Anglo Saxon and the noble aristocracy solely English? Justify your answer

6.      What did the adoption of Latin as a written meant to the Anglo Saxon heritage?

7.      What as a remarkable fact about the written Anglo Saxon?

8.      What is a Romance? In which language was it written? What did it reflect? Talk about the historical account of King Arthur – as mentioned in the text?

9.      What happened in the middle of the 13^th. century?

10.  Which are the categories that the early medieval English texts fall?

11.  The English texts were influenced by French. Which is the most striking influence? Give examples.

12.  Which aspect of Norman spelling can be confusing for the modern reader?

13.  How did English remerge? What role did bilingualism played in this context?

14.  What historical event brought the separation of English and French? What were its consequences to the English and French language?

15.  Comment on the use of English in Courts around 1362.

16.  What is the linguistic impact of the rise of the middle class of manufacturers?

17.  How the Latin terms in court became English in the fifteenth century? Give examples.

18.  Is the sentence true or false? Justify your answer. In view of the variety of Middle English dialects, the shift from French to English was accompanied by a sudden burgeoning of dialect texts.

19.  What was the economic reason behind the fact that London achieved a dominant position? What was the linguistic change it brought?

20.  How Henry the V used English?

21.  Which are the two routes from French to English. How did they develop?

22.  What is code switching? When did it happen? Give examples.

23.  What does early French loans reflect? Explain with examples.

24.  List the collocations and expressions that were borrowed from French.

25.  What was the grammatical impact of the borrowing of French words and expressions? Explain with a list of examples. You should draw a table with the differences and similarities between old English and Middle English.

26.  How did the second word pronoun changed? Draw a table draw a table with the differences and similarities between French and Middle English.

27.  How did French influence English pronunciation. Draw a table draw a table with the differences and similarities between French and Middle English.

28.  Who was William Caxton? What did he do? What principles did he follow? Who did he praise? Was he consistent in what he did?

29.  What were the changes that the printing brought? Who was the main figure in the market? What were the rules that guided the printing market?