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this work is about french influence on the english vocabulary,phonology,and grammar
ful,gentil-man,gentil-woman(NE
very,unfruitful,gentleman,
words are hybrids as their component parts come from different languages.French derivational affixes began to be used in word-building some time later.
Quite a few changes in grammar are to be noted with the borrowing from French into Middle English.On the one hand there are cases where not the infinitive is the model for the loan into English but plural present form of the verb (sometimes unexpectedly).Thus,we have words like resolve which comes from the plural resolvens and not from the resoudre (in which the /u/ indicates that the former /l/ had already vocalized in French).The infinitive which usually forms the point of departure may be borrowed in its entirety.(i.e.with the infinitive ending) in words like “render”from French “render”. In other cases the borrowed infinitive with its
ending became a noun,cf.diner which turned into dinner,the corresponding verb being dine.A further case is user which became user (noun) with the verb use. In
some cases there may be no verb as a result of the change in word class.cf.souper which turned into supper,the verbal paraphrase being “to have supper”.
Evidence for the strong influence of French on Middle English is nowhere as forthcoming as in the area of hybridisation by which is meant that a word consists of two elements, one of Germanic and the other of Romance origin.Let’s consider the following:
(1) The formation of verbal nouns from a French stem and the Germanic ending {ing}: preaching, serving.
(2) The formation of nouns by the addition of Germanic suffixes: {ness}: faintness, secretiveness; {dom}: martyrdom; {ship}: companionship, relationship.
(3) The addition of the ending {ly} (< OE -lich) to French loanwords: {ly}: courtly, princely. The same applies to the following endings {ful}: beautiful, powerful; {less}: colourless, pitiless, noiseless.
The reverse can also be the case, i.e. the ending of a word is French in origin and the stem is Germanic. Consider the following:
(1) The formation of nouns by the addition of suffixes: {age}: mileage, shortage, leakage; {ment}: endearment, enlightenment, bewilderment.
(2) The formation of adjectives by the use of endings: {able}: likeable, loveable, proveable, drinkable, bearable.
In the case of the last examples one can see that many of the French
suffixes became productive in English. Indeed the productivity can exceed
that of the donor language. This can be seen in the case of the word
mutiner ‘to mutiny’ which in English has lead to no less than
six forms:mutine, mutinous, mutinously, mutinousness, mutiny,
mutineer. The number of word forms may also have developed differently
in the course of time, thus English has entry, entrance
while Modern French only has entreé, and of course English has
the latter as a recent loan meaning‘something small before starting
a full meal’.The height of productivity is reached, however, by
the French adjective veri which originally meant ‘true, real, genuine’
(as is seen nowadays in expressions like You're the very man
I'm looking for) and which came to be used in Late Middle English
as an intensifying adverb and which has retained and expanded this function
since. Originally the English adverb full was used as an intensifier
and is still found in fixed phrases like You know full well.
4.1 French derivational Affixes in English.
Alongside words,English also adopted some French derivational affixes (both suffixes and prefixes).This was the way it happened.If English had adopted a certain number of words containing the same affix,the affix could now be used to derive new words from French (and occasionally Scandinavian) stems.
A few examples of French derivational affixes used in English to derive new words are already found in ME:husbandry,goddess.However,a wider spread of the procedure is a fact of the MnE period.
A number of French substantives were derived by means of the suffix “ance,ence; “ignorance, arrogance, entrance, repentance, innocence, excellence,
dependence,etc”.The meaning of the suffix became clear to English speakers,and this made possible derivation of new substantives from native English stems,such as hindrance from the stem of the native English verb “hinder”.
Both Dalton-Puffer and Miller propose that French derivational suffixes became productive in Late Middle English.
-esse- is employed to form feminine nouns from other nouns. The suffix appears
in fairly large number of loans dating from 1160 onwards.The first attested borrowings are “countesse” the wife of a count or an earl is emperice “the consort of an empera” from the Peterborough Chronicle.Later loans are,e.g,clergesse “a learned woman”,grateresse “a female grater”.
According to Jespersen and Marchand –esse was a profilic formative occurring on English bases in the 14th century,or even the latter part of this century,judging by the examples they quote.The suffux did appear,however,in hybrids already in the early 13th century and in a variety of instances in the late 13th and the first half of the 14th century MED records it in “bolleresse” a woman who makes bowls; disheresse “a woman who makes or sells dishes” ; clerkesse “a learned woman”,
breuresse “a female brewer”and shepherdesse “a female keeper of sheep;also “the
wife of a shepherd,gloveresse “a female glove maker;prioresse “prioress and maistresse,governess”.
-age –is employed to form nouns denoting state or rank from other nouns or to convert verbs into nouns of various meaning.The French loan-words with-age are also numerous and started to appear at the beginning of the ME period.The first borrowing according to MED is pilgrimage “a pilgrimage originally found in Kentish Serionons (1275) and later in the South English Legendary(1300),Guy of Warwick (1300).Early borrowings with date of their first occurance are “hermitage” “a hermitage” (The place-names of the East Riding of Yorkshire and York 1280) pelrinage “ a pilgrimage”,servage “servitudes, bondage, slavery
and taillage “a royal land tax,barnage “the nobility and passage” the act of crossing or passing from one place to another.
-erie-is a suffix forming nouns which denote professions or crafts,as well as the collectivity of their members or products or “quality of behavior”,sometimes also rank or conditions.The suffix may be added to nouns,verbs and adjectives.
The French loan-words containing the suffix are abundant and the first is “druerie”
love between God and man or affection.Other examples: daierie “a pantry”,reverie “robbery,portmanrie “the rank of portman or free citizen.
-ment had penetrated into English as part of such substantives as “government”, “treatment”, “agreement” and was used to derive new substantives from native stems fulfillment, bereavement, amazement, bewilderment,etc.The suffix forms
mostly nouns
of action,result,state or condition from verbs.The first loan-words
from French were found in Ancrene Wisse,e.g,amendement “improvement
or chastisement”,admonition,
ment “magic
power and amendement”,improvement;
etc.According to Jespersen the ending –ment did not come to be considered as an E formation till the latter part of the 13th century.Dalton-Puffer claims that the suffix
-ment is unusual in the sense that it shows an abrupt growth in productivity already in the subperiod of ME from 1250 to 1350.
A number of French substantives contained the diminutive suffix –et ,such as coronet “small crown”,cabinet.In some words the final consonant of the stem was
-l,as in islet,circlet. It is from words of this type that the suffix –let was formed,
which was eventually joined on to native stems to derive the substantives streamlet
ringlet,leaflet,booklet,etc.
The French suffix –é, used to derive the past participle of French group I verbs (from Latin –atum) penetrated into English as a part of some substantives denoting “a person taking a possessive part in some action or agreement”,such as lesse,
employee.Eventually the suffix was joined on to a Scandinavian stem to derive the substantive trustee.
The suffix –ard (of German origin) penetrated into English as a part of the substantives coward,bastard.Joined on to native English stems it yielded the substantives “wizard” (from the stem of the adjective wīs),drunkard,dullard;joined on to a Scandinavian stem,it yielded the substantive “niggard”.
The suffix –al (from French –aille),used to derive abstract substantives from verb stems,penetrated into English as part of the substantives funeral,refusal,arrival
proposal.Eventually it was joined on to an English stem to derive the substantive burial.
The suffix –able,-ible, deriving adjectives which mean
“capable of undergoing the action denoted by the verb stem”, came
into English as of the adjectives admirable,tolerable,legible,
Some French prefixes also became productive in English. Thus, the prefix dis-,
des- with a negative meaning,came into English as part of the French verbs disappoint,disdain,disagree and was eventually used to derive verbs from native stems:disown,disburden,and from a Scandinavian stem:distrust.
The French prefix en-(from Latin in-), familiar from such words as encompass,
encircle,encage,was joined on to native stems to derive to verbs endear, embed
(enb->emb-).
4.2.The French Influence On Middle English Syntax.
Old English has often been described as a Verb Second (V2) language,i.e.as a language like modern German or Dutch in which the finite verb immediately follows the initial constituent.The characteristic property of a V2 language is the inversion of the subject and the finite verb in clauses in which a non-subject constituent occupies the initial position.Such inversion can be indeed be frequently found in OE.However,the V2 syntax of Old English is not as systematic as that found in Modern Germanic languages. For example, except in a small number of
contexts (e.g.interrogative), pronominal subjects generally do not invert with the
finite verb when some other constituent occurs clause-initially,thereby giving rise to Verb Third orders.But also with non-pronominal subjects,subject-verb inversion with an initial non-subject constituent is not obligatory even though it is the more frequently used option in OE texts than non-inversion.The situation in Early Middle English(EME) is comparable to that in OE.
Although OE and EME may thus not be considered as V2 languages on a par with modern Germanic languages,it remains nevertheless true that they feature productive subject-verb inversion patterns that cannot be found in Modern English any more. The main period that has been identified for the loss of this productive
inversion grammar is the second half of the Middle English period. In most texts
from this period, we can indeed observe a considerable increase in “XP-SU-V”
orders at the expense of “XP-V-SU”orders.The issue that has drown most attention
in the literature in this connection is the question why subject-verb inversion declines in the Late Middle English (LME) period.However,the developments in
LME raise several other questions that have remained without satisfactory answers so far:
Whereas the overall trend in LME is a substantial decrease in subject-verb inversion as compared to OE/EME,we can observe the opposite development in clauses with pronominal subjects.Inversion with subject pronouns was virtually absent in certain contexts in OE/EME,but in later ME we can suddenly observe an increase in inversion in these contexts.
In their popular history of the English language,Baugh and Cable rightly observe
“that the upper classes should have set the standard in fashion and dress is so obvious an assumption that the number of French words belonging to this class occasions no surprise”.The question of the standardization of English in the Middle English period is still discussed by scholars.There is no variety of English that can be seen to be fully elaborated and it is only by considering the shift in the range of the functions of the variety which took place during the Middle Ages that we can analyze attitudes to English in this period.Following the Conquest and increasingly through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,the number of Anglo-French and later Continental French terms representing textiles,items of clothing and other accoutrement imported into Middle English went hand-in- hand with
evolving attitudes towards language and fasion practices and economics.
Advanced L2 users make some errors with grammatical gender,and with constructions involving null arguments. Balanced bilingual speakers, however, are usually able to keep the grammatical systems of their two languages separate, using gender marking almost entirely consistently when acquiring French. In
this study we attempt to evaluate the competence of later Anglo-Norman administrative prose writers on null impersonal subjects and noun gender agreement, in order to assess whether a profile of balanced bilinguals or of advanced L2 users is more appropriate. We have sought evidence from Anglo-Norman petitions dating from the end of the 13th century to the 1430s. This data source is now available in a machine-readable corpus, is fairly homogenous in style, making diachronic change more salient, and was produced by Anglo-Norman users whose competence in French needed to be of a very high order for them to perform their duties as royal government clerks.Old French impersonal verbs such as co(n)venir,which expressed obligation, often involved an impersonal null subject, with the dative or the accusative case used to mark the role of the person on whom the obligation rests. In psycholinguistic terms, their grammatical knowledge would have been stored and processed in such a way that it was not influenced by English. Their competence in French was thus that of a balanced bilingual, at least in the respects investigated in this study. By the late C14, that was plainly no longer the case: their competence in French appears to have been more at the level of an advanced, but not nativelike, L2 learner who was to an extent influenced by English.Up to that period, the most expert users of French, at least, seem to have been balanced bilinguals, whereas after it they were not. This outcome suggests that a significant change took place in the circumstances in which French was transmitted in England in the second half of the C14, such that balanced bilingual users became extinct.
The French Influence on English Phrasing.
Aside from borrowing and word formation,French considerably influenced Eng phrasing. While A. Prins dates the peak of this influence to late ME,Nevalainen points out that it continues to be felt in EModE. The loan translations range from polite turns of speech,such as at your service,do me the favour,to engage somebody in a quarrel, to make (later: pay) a visit, to idiomatic phrases like by occasion, in detail, in favour of, in the last resort, in particular, to the contrary.
Though the number of French loans in the EModE period is relatively minor in comparison to M.E, the contribution is most important.The EModE French loans
were primarily
borrowed to provide richness to the language.Whilst it was arguable
during the Restoration whether the loans were corrupting or enriching
the language, today there is no doubt or disputable grounds to argue
that the loans did anything but enrich the English language
Since the Norman Conquest in 1066 the French language became more and more important. The Normans (North-man) were descendants of the Danes and spoke French influenced by a Germanic dialect. They inhabited some parts in the north of France and adapted not only to the language, but also to the French culture. They had a talent for building churches, cathedrals, castles and proved the English their rank of military quality.
Yet, that does not mean the English culture was inferior to the French one. The Anglo- Saxons were excellent writers, artists and craftsmen. They did not lack in civilization. “French became the language of the upper classes in England simply because it was the language of the conquerors, not because of any cultural superiority on their part.”By this time, the French and English language existed side by side and French took over to be the language of the court and “royalty
of England throughout the twelfth,thirteenth and (diminishingly) fourteenth centuries.”The kings of England spoke French, took French wives and lived mostly in France. The Normans became the new upper class. They dominated all high positions like the church, education, aristocracy, administration etc.. So, many other people, particularly among the gentry whose native language was English had to acquire French, if they “wanted to get on in the world.”
Although there were more common people holding on to their mother tongue than noblemen speaking French, English was on a decline, as the French language had its prestige in the most important ranks.The character of the words now borrowed,the objects and ideas they denoted,are full of significance for England’s early history. This period is one of the most important stages in the development of the English language. "It marks the transition between English as a typologically ′Old Germanic′ language and English of the type familiar to us."The Norman Conquest in 1066 and hence the French influence play a major role in this development.More clearly,French considerably influenced the vocabulary,the morphology and the phonolgy of the English language.
However,
in order to be able to understand the changes in Middle English, it
is undispensable to know about the historical events namely the Norman
Conquest which led to these changes. As the French influence hardly
affected the English grammar,I only considered the changes in the vocabulary.I
also briefly referred to other language borrowings to show that the
French influence was not the only one, but the most effective in the
period of great change – the Middle English. Lastly, in my conclusion
I summarized my results.
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