4.Group work. The following texts contain archaisms. Translate the texts into Modern English.
1 text.
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
“Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
(“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe)
2 text.
“And do you like me too? Do I please thee? I will look better later.”
“Thou art very beautiful now.”
“Nay,” she said. “But stroke thy hand across my head.”
(For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway)
3 text.
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field
Thy youth proud livery, so gaz’d on now
Will be a tatter’d weed of small worth held
(Shakespear, Sonnet 2)
5.Discussion. There are some examples of archaic words from the literature and mass media. Discuss what is the main purpose of using archaism.
"The old man raised the axe and split the head of John Joel Glanton to the thrapple." (the throat or windpipe) (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, 1985)
…He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.(Song of Solomon 1:13) (between)
"Though thou hast ever so many counsellors, yet ("yet" is generally not an archaism, but it is in this context) do not forsake the counsel of thy own soul." (English proverb) (you have, but, your)
"To thine own self be true." (William Shakespeare) (your)
It's what a cove knows that counts, ain't it, Sybil?
6. Comment in the following sentences on the archaic and dialectal words given in bold type. Which of them are in use in modern English, and why have the rest fallen out of use?
1. a) If you carry this wench from him, it will break his heart... If I can win this girl from him, I will win her (W. Sc). b) Ravenswood despatched Babie to the neighbouring village to procure the assistance of some females (id.). c) But he married a bonny young quean, Jean Lightbody, old Lightbody's daughter (id.), d) Such sordid things as stabbing affrays were evidently not fit subjects for conversation with a lady. (J. L.).
2. a) Give me my ambling palfrey, you knaves: exclaimed the marquis (W. Sc). b) The foreman, stooping from his nag, where he sat perched betwixt the two barrels, whispered in Caleb's ear (id.), c) One of the Lord Keeper's grooms having saddled the Master's steed, they mounted in the courtyard (id.), d) Ravenswood was at the lady's bridlerein, guiding her horse carefully down the rocky path (id.), e) The Master of Ravenswood had mounted the ambling hackney which he before rode on finding the accident which had happened to his horse (id.), f) Released from the halter, the pony made at once for the door, in spite, of all the efforts which I could make to detain it (George Borrow).
Text for reading. Comment on it. After reading explain the notions of obsolete words, obsolescent words, archaic proper, historical words.
Language is never stable. In the course of time the vocabulary changes by being supplemented with new words which come into being with the development of science and culture. A certain number of obsolete words usually drop out of the vocabulary of the language. Obsolete words pass out of use completely or remain in the language as elements performing purely historical descriptive functions. The disappearance of old occupations causes the disappearance of their old names. The names of such old occupations can be preserved as family names: Chandler (candle maker), Webster (weaver), Wright (worker). Archaic words can be preserved in proverbs: Many a little makes a mickel. The verb to read in the old meaning to interpret, to guess survived in to read a riddle. An old sense of favour (features, looks) survived in hard-favoured, ill-favoured, well-favoured. The preposition on was once common in the meaning because of. This meaning survives in on purpose, on compulsion. The preposition with originally meant against and now this meaning is preserved in withdraw, withstand. Archaic are the following adverbs: therefore, therefrom, wherein, thereon. Archaic are the participles ending in -en: drunken, gotten, washen.
Here we came to the definition of an archaism. Archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately (to achieve a specific effect) or as part of a specific jargon (for example in law) or formula (for example in religious contexts). Many nursery rhymes contain archaisms. Archaic elements that occur only in certain fixed expressions (for example 'be that as it may') are not considered to be archaisms.
Another term that can be confused with an archaism is historism. Historisms belong to obsolete words. The causes of their appearance are extralinguistic. It is the denotatum that is outdated. They are very numerous as names for social relations and institutions and objects of material culture of the past. The names of ancient weapons, types of boats, types of carriages, instruments belong to historisms: battle axe, battering ram.
Archaisms differ from historisms in this respect that they are obsolete names for existing objects. Archaisms always have synonyms: to deem - to think, glee – joy.
Archaisms can be classified into lexical and grammatical. Lexical archaisms are words: woe (sorrow), nigh (near), aught (anything). Grammatical archaisms are old grammatical forms: thou (you), the -est inflexion for the 2nd person singular, -th for the 3rd person singular, the plural form of brother (brethren), tense forms like wilt, spake, builded.
Sometimes a lexical archaism begins a new life, getting a new meaning, then the old meaning becomes a semantic archaism, e.g. “fair” in the meaning “beautiful” is a semantic archaism, but in the meaning “blond” it belongs to the neutral style.
Sometimes the root of the word remains and the affix is changed, then the old affix is considered to be a morphemic archaism, e.g. “beauteous” - ous was substituted by - ful, “bepaint” - be- was dropped, “darksome” -some was dropped, “oft” -en was added etc.
Archaisms are most frequently encountered in poetry, law, and ritual writing and speech. Their deliberate use can be subdivided into literary archaisms, which seeks to evoke the style of older speech and writing; and lexical archaisms, the use of words no longer in common use. Archaisms are kept alive by these ritual and literary uses and by the study of older literature. Should they remain recognised, they can be revived, as the word anent was in the past century.
Archaisms are frequently misunderstood, leading to changes in usage. One example is the use of the archaic familiar second person singular pronoun “thou” to refer to God in English Christianity. Although originally a familiar pronoun, it has been misinterpreted as a respectful one by many modern Christians.
We shall distinguish three stages in the aging process of words:
The beginning of the aging process when the word becomes rarely used. Such words are called obsolescent, i.e. they are in the stage of gradually passing out of general use. To this category first of all belong morphological forms belonging to the earlier stages in the development of the language. In the English language these are the pronouns thou and its forms thee, thy and thine, the corresponding verbal ending -est and the verb-forms art, wilt (thou makest, thou wilt), the ending -(e)th instead of -(e)s (he maketh) and the pronoun ye. To the category of obsolescent words belong many French borrowings which have been kept in the literary language as a means of preserving the spirit of earlier periods, e. g. a pallet (a straw mattress); a palfrey (a small horse); garniture (furniture); to peplume (to adorn with feathers or plumes).
The second group of archaic words are those that have already gone completely out of use but are still recognised by the English-speaking community: e. g. methinks (it seems to me); nay (=no). These words are called obsolete.
The third group, which may be called archaic proper, are words which are no longer recognizable in modern English, words that were in use in Old English and which have either dropped out of the language entirely or have changed in their appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable, e. g. troth (=faith); a losel (=a worthless, lazy fellow).
From literature find out the examples to archaisms proper, obsolete word, obsolescent words and historical words and explain their usage.
Compare archaic words in English and Uzbek languages. Comment on it.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |