The “one-to-one” replacements

[3] Публікувався під псевдонімами: Земляк; Издатель; Мешлинський; Мітла; Метл. Амвр., Могила Амвр., Петренко Михайло.

[4] Публікувався під псевдонімами: Богучаров Иван.; Галка Ієремія; Николай; Н.К-ва; Равви.

[5] Публікувався під псевдонімом Руслан.

[6] Публікувався під псевдонімами: Вагилевич Далибор; Волк Заклика.

[7] Публікувався під псевдонімами: Балагура Яцько; Балагур Я.; Галичанин; Головацький Ярослав; Ярослав; Чепеленко; Русин Гаврило.

Development of the English Vocabulary

From the 12th to 19th c.

 

Types and Sources of Changes

According to the estimates made by modern philologists, in the course of the thousand years — from OE to modern times — the English vocabulary has multiplied tenfold. Perhaps, if it were possible to count all the meanings expressed by lexical items in different historical periods, the figure would be much higher.

Among the changes in the vocabulary we can distinguish losses of words or their meanings, replacements and additions.

A) Losses

Like many other lexical changes losses were connected with events in external history: with the changing conditions of life and the obsolescence of many medieval concepts and customs.

Some regulations and institutions of OE kingdoms were cancelled or forgotten in the ME period. OE witena3emōt ‘assembly of the elders’ ceased to exist under the Norman rule; OE Dane3eld, the tax paid to the Scandinavians, was not collected after the collapse of the Danish Empire — both words have survived only as historical terms. OE wer3eld was a fine paid by the murderer to the family of the murdered man; the word became obsolete together with the custom.

Some rituals of the heathen religion were abandoned — after the introduction of Christianity — and their names dropped out of use, e.g. OE tiber, blōt which meant ‘sacrifice’.

In OE there were many groups of synonyms whose differentiation became irrelevant in ME; therefore some of the synonyms fell out of use. For instance, OE here, fierd, werod indicated an armed force, an army (here must have had a negative connotation as it was used only in reference to a hostile army, the Danes). The distinction between the synonyms was lost when they were all replaced by the ME borrowings from French army, troop.

The English vocabulary suffered considerable losses when a whole stylistic stratum of words, the specific OE poetic vocabulary, went out of use together with the genre of OE poetry; those were numerous poetic synonyms of ordinary, neutral words, stock metaphors and traditional “ kennings ”.

Many words current in ME fell out of use and became obsolete in NE, e.g.: ME chapman ‘pedlar’, ME romare ‘pilgrim to Rome’, ME outridere ‘rider visiting the manors of a monastery’, ME gypoun ‘short jacket’.

Losses could also affect the plane of content. Though the word survived, some of its meanings became obsolete. Thus OE sift had the meaning ‘price of a wife’ connected with one of the early meanings of the verb 3yfan (NE give) ‘give in marriage’; OE sellan lost the meaning ‘give’ which it could express in OE alongside ‘sell’; OE talu meant ‘number, series’ and ‘story, narrative’, while its ME and NE descendant tale retained only the latter meanings.

B) Replacements and Additions

Though losses proper can be illustrated by numerous examples in all periods, they played a less important role in the development of the vocabulary than replacements and additions.

The “one-to-one” replacements

It has been calculated that from 80 to 85% of the OE words went out of use in the succeeding periods. Most of these words were not simply lost; they were replaced by other words of the same or similar meanings. The replacement came as a result of the co-existence and rivalry of synonyms and the ultimate selection of one of the rivals. Thus OE clipian came to be replaced by ME callen, NE call; OE niman was ousted by ME taken, NE take; the pronouns hie and heo were substituted for by they and she; OE weorðan was replaced by become; NE river took the place of OE ēa; NE table — the place of OE bord and so on and so forth.

Replacements could also occur in the sphere of content: the word was retained but its meaning was changed or was replaced by a new meaning. Thus OE drēam meant ‘joy’ but acquired an entirely different meaning, formerly rendered by OE swefn; OE cniht ‘boy, servant’ changed its meaning to ME and NE knight; OE clerec ‘clergyman’ developed into ME clerk ‘student, scholar’ and NE ‘secretary in an office’. Sometimes the meanings of the word changed when its referent (the thing it denoted) underwent some kind of changes, for instance, ME carre ‘wheeled vehicle’ now indicates a motor car or part of a train (sleeping car), NE car, Early ME carriage; coche denoted an old form of carriage pulled by four horses, while its descendant, NE coach, has acquired the meaning of ‘car, carriage’ in a train.