hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2016-05-28

■ #2588. Baugh and Cable の英語史からの設問 --- Chapters 1 to 4 [hel_education][terminology]

　今期，大学の演習で，英語史の古典的名著 Baugh and Cable の A History of the English Language の第6版を読んでいる．この英語史概説書について，本ブログでは「#2089. Baugh and Cable の英語史概説書の目次」 ([2015-01-15-1])，「#2182. Baugh and Cable の英語史第6版」 ([2015-04-18-1])，「#2488. 専門科目かつ教養科目としての英語史」 ([2016-02-18-1]) でレビューしてきたし，その他の多くの記事でも参照・引用してきた．
　この英語史書には，演習問題集がコンパニオンとして出版されている．5版に対するコンパニオンなので，細かく見ると6版と対応しない部分もあるが，各章の内容が理解できているかどうかの確認としては十分に利用できる．今回は，1章から4章の設問を集めてみた．一覧すると，一種の英語史用語集としても使える．

[ Chapter 1: English Present and Future ]

1. Define the following terms, which appear in Chapter 1 of Baugh and Cable, History of the English Language (5th ed.):
   Analogy
   Borrowing
   Inflection
   Natural gender
   Grammatical gender
   Idiom
   Lingua franca
2. Upon what does the importance of language depend?
3. About how many people speak English as native language?
4. Which language of the world has the largest number of speakers?
5. What are the six largest European languages after English?
6. Why is English so widely used as second language?
7. Which languages are likely to grow most rapidly in the foreseeable future? Why?
8. What are the official languages of the United Nations?
9. For speaker of another language learning English, what are three assets of the language?
10. What difficulties does the non-native speaker of English encounter?

[ Chapter 2: The Indo-European Family of Languages ]

1. Explain why the following people are important in studies of the Indo-European family of languages:
   Panini
   Ulfilas
   Jacob Grimm
   Karl Verner
   Ferdinand de Saussure
2. Define, identify, or explain briefly:
   Family of languages
   Indo-European
   Rig-veda
   Koiné
   Langue d'oïl, langue d'oc
   Vulgar Latin
   Proto-Germanic
   Second Sound Shift
   West Germanic
   Hittites
   Laryngeals
   Object-Verb structure
   Centum and satem languages
   Kurgans
3. What is Sanskrit? Why is it important in the reconstruction of Indo-European?
4. When did the sound change described by Grimm's Law occur? In what year did Grimm formulate the law?
5. Name the eleven principal groups in the Indo-European family.
6. Approximately what date can be assigned to the oldest texts of Vedic Sanskrit?
7. From what non-Indo-European language has modern Persian borrowed much vocabulary?
8. Which of the dialects of ancient Greece was the most important? In what centuries did its literature flourish?
9. Why are the Romance languages so called? Name the modern Romance languages.
10. What were the important dialects of French in the Middle Ages? Which became the basis for standard French?
11. For the student of Indo-European, what is especially interesting about Lithuanian?
12. Name the Slavic languages. With what other group does Slavic form branch of the Indo-European tree?
13. Into what three groups is the Germanic branch divided? For which of the Germanic languages do we have the earliest texts?
14. From what period do our texts of Scandinavian languages date?
15. Why is Old English classified as Low German language?
16. Name the two branches of the Celtic family and the modern representative of each.
17. Where are the Celtic languages now spoken? What is happening to these languages?
18. What two languages of importance to Indo-European studies were discovered in this century?
19. Why have the words for beech and bee in the various Indo-European languages been important in establishing the location of the Indo-European homeland?
20. What light have recent archaeological discoveries thrown on the Indo-European homeland?

[ Chapter 3: Old English ]

1. Explain why the following are important in historical discussions of the English language:
   Claudius
   Vortigern
   The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy
   Beowulf
   Alfred the Great
   Ecclesiastical History of the English People
2. Define the following terms:
   Synthetic language
   Analytic language
   Vowel declension
   Consonant declension
   Grammatical gender
   Dual number
   Paleolithic Age
   Neolithic Age
3. Who were the first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge?
4. When did the Romans conquer England, and when did they withdraw?
5. At approximately what date did the invasion of England by the Germanic tribes begin?
6. Where were the homes of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes?
7. Where does the name English come from?
8. What characteristics does English share with other Germanic languages?
9. To which branch of Germanic docs English belong?
10. What are the dates of Old English, Middle English, and Modern English?
11. What are the four dialects of Old English?
12. About what percentage of the Old English vocabulary is no longer in use?
13. Explain the difference between strong and weak declensions of adjectives.
14. How does the Old English definite article differ from the definite article of Modern English?
15. Explain the difference between weak and strong verbs.
16. How many classes of strong verbs were there in Old English?
17. In what ways was the Old English vocabulary expanded?

[ Chapter 4: Foreign Influences on Old English ]

1. Explain why the following people and events are important in historical discussions of the English language:
   St Augustine
   Bede
   Alcuin
   Dunstan
   Ælfric
   Cnut
   Treaty of Wedmore
   Battle of Maldon
2. Define the following terms:
   i-Umlaut
   Palatal diphthongization
   The Danelaw
3. How extensive was the Celtic influence on Old English?
4. What accounts for the difference between the influence of Celtic and that of Latin upon the English language?
5. During what three periods did Old English borrow from Latin?
6. What event, according to Bede, inspired the mission of St Augustine? In what year did die mission begin?
7. What were the three periods of Viking attacks on England?
8. What are some of the characteristic endings of place-names borrowed from Danish?
9. About how many Scandinavian place-names have been counted in England?
10. Approximately how many Scandinavian words appeared in Old English?
11. From what language has English acquired the pronouns they, their, them, and the present plural are of the verb to be? What were the equivalent Old English words?
12. What inflectional elements have been attributed to Scandinavian influence?
13. What influence did Christianity have on Old English?

　・ Baugh, Albert C. and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. 6th ed. London: Routledge, 2013.
　・ Cable, Thomas. A Companion to History of the English Language. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2002.

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