5 - EARLY MODERN ENGLISH LEXIS AND SEMANTICS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
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Summary
Introduction
Overview
Despite the long life and stability of core vocabulary, the rate of language change is no doubt greatest in the lexicon. Lexical words differ from phonemes and grammatical morphemes in that they can be freely added to the existing stock. As we shall see in more detail below, the Early Modern English period is marked by an unprecedented lexical growth. It is achieved both by extensive borrowing from other languages and by exploiting native resources by means of word-formation.
One of the most obvious differences between Old English and Present-Day English is the increase in borrowed lexis. According to one estimate, loan words take up a mere three per cent of the recorded vocabulary in Old English, but some seventy per cent or more in Present-Day English (Scheler 1977: 74). In Early Modern English their share varies between forty per cent and fifty per cent of the new vocabulary recorded (Wermser 1976: 40).
This large-scale borrowing no doubt reflects both the various foreign contacts of the period and the growing demands made on the evolving standard language. This is the period in the history of English when for the first time the vernacular extends to practically all contexts of speech and writing. Borrowed lexis supplies new names for new concepts, but also increases synonymy in the language, thus providing alternative ways of saying the same thing in different registers.
The means by which words are formed are increased by a number of new productive elements that owe their existence to borrowed lexis.
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- The Cambridge History of the English Language , pp. 332 - 458Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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