Syntactic change

1
Syntactic change

• Example
• OE fæder ur ME Our Father
• NP ? N Det NP ? Det N
• SOV ? SVO

2
Semantic Change

• Broadening
• OE docga (ME dog) was a breed of dog
• Narrowing
• OE hund (ME hound) was dog in general
• Elevation
• OE chiht (ME knight) was just a youth
• Degredation
• OE lust was simply pleasure

3
Language (sound) change?

• substratum or superstratum theory
• analogic change cows (kine) sweeped (swept)
• ease of articulation
• assimilation
• pancake p æ ? k e k spaceship s p e š I p
• Old English w u l f a s ? w u l v a s
• elimination (elipsis)
• Catepillar
• Metathesis
• spaghetti (psaghetti), produce (perduce)
• mystery (unconditioned)
• Great Vowel Shift of 16th century