Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the second edition and acknowledgements
- An introduction to the textbook
- 1 Word-origins
- 2 The background of English
- 3 Composition of the Early Modern and Modern English Vocabulary
- 4 Smaller than words: morphemes and types of morphemes
- 5 Allomorphy, phonetics, and affixation
- 6 Replacement rules
- 7 Deletion rules and other kinds of allomorphy
- 8 Fossilized allomorphy: false cognates and other etymological pitfalls
- 9 Semantic relations and semantic change
- 10 The pronunciation of classical words in English
- Appendix: morpheme list
- Index
An introduction to the textbook
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the second edition and acknowledgements
- An introduction to the textbook
- 1 Word-origins
- 2 The background of English
- 3 Composition of the Early Modern and Modern English Vocabulary
- 4 Smaller than words: morphemes and types of morphemes
- 5 Allomorphy, phonetics, and affixation
- 6 Replacement rules
- 7 Deletion rules and other kinds of allomorphy
- 8 Fossilized allomorphy: false cognates and other etymological pitfalls
- 9 Semantic relations and semantic change
- 10 The pronunciation of classical words in English
- Appendix: morpheme list
- Index
Summary
This book is about the sources of English words, about their etymology and history, about their sound-structure, and about some formal properties of English word-formation rules. It is important to realize, however, that it is not about all possible origins, it is not about all the ways in which English has introduced new words into the language, but rather it is primarily about a particular subset, that portion of the vocabulary which is borrowed from the classical languages (Latin and Greek) either directly, or indirectly through French.
This (very large) portion of our vocabulary is a familiar subject. Greek and Latin roots in the English language have been studied and have been part of the core educational curriculum at least since the Renaissance. Departments of Classical Languages traditionally offer courses under titles like “Classical Roots in English,” and in the past a decent education necessarily included a full program in the classics. In the twenty-first century, however, it is extremely rare for students entering college to have a clear idea even of what Latin is – some ancient language, perhaps –, or whether English is derived from it or not, and even what it means for a language to be “derived,” in any sense, from another. The word cognate is not only generally unknown to undergraduate students, it often remains conceptually obscure, because it is simply not one of the topics we grow up with these days.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- English WordsHistory and Structure, pp. 1 - 4Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009