The "Modularbeit" is concerned with questions of language contact between Old Norse and Old English in the region later "Danelaw", which might have influenced the modification of Old English third person plural pronomina with base "h" into a new form with the base "th", as we still know it today: "they, them, their". Walking through the streets of York several years ago, I was welcomed by a fierce-looking crowd of Vikings running towards me. In my case, though, the horde was just a group of actors commemorating regional history. At the end of the 8th century, Scandinavian Viking armies conquered different territories in Europe. England was attacked by Danish Vikings starting in the 780s . After several years of mere raiding, 851 marked their first stay during winter. The Danish conquests developed into a permanent settlement in some parts of England and finally led to a treaty signed in 886 between a Danish leader and the king of Wessex, then central power of England. The treaty acknowledged the Danish rule over Northeast England, the territory later being called Danelaw . The Danish influence ceased until 954 , but linguistic evidence of this contact with the Danes remains incorporated even in Modern English . One remarkable feature of this evidence is the English system of the third-person plural personal pronouns they, them, and their, whose development shall be examined more closely in this paper. In Modern English, ‘they’ plays an important role. On one hand, it can be used as a generic synonym for ‘people’ , often leading to an imprecise definition of who “they” actually are. On the other hand, it has served as a common-gender substitution for the masculine third-person singular pronoun ‘he’ when speaking of a person of unknown sex. Most importantly and originally, however, ‘they’ has been a personal pronoun in the plural of the third person.
The reasons for the use of pronouns are mainly economical, for abbreviation . An aforementioned object is referred to by a shorter word, the pronoun. Following this approach of linguistic economy, it is important to remark the difference between suppletion and grammaticalization, or between condensation and expansion .
Table of Contents
1 Where they came from
2 ‘They’ as a third-person personal pronoun
2.1 The Old English system
2.1.1 Relevant changes in the English language
2.2 The Old Norse system
3 Sources
3.1 Written records of Old English
3.2 Written records of Old Norse
3.3 Language contact
3.4 Pronominal borrowing
3.5 The contact between Scandinavian and English
3.6 The combined paradigm of northern Middle English
3.7 them spreading southward
4 The integration process of they, them, and their in the English language
Research Objectives and Core Topics
This paper examines the linguistic evolution of the third-person plural personal pronouns "they", "them", and "their" in the English language, specifically focusing on how Scandinavian influence during the Viking Age facilitated the integration of these closed-class items into the Middle English paradigm.
- The linguistic impact of Old Norse on the English language during the Danelaw period.
- The distinction between Old English and Old Norse pronominal systems.
- The mechanism of pronoun borrowing and the concept of contact-induced change.
- The integration process of Scandinavian pronouns as a solution to communicative ambiguities in English.
- Evidence from historical texts such as the Ormulum and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Excerpt from the Book
The Old English system
In Old English, the different forms of the third-person personal pronouns share an initial h as common “base” and marker for usage of the third person. No gender distinction is given for the plural, it can thus be seen as a simple opposition to the singular. Altogether, nine different forms can be distinguished – filling sixteen different slots. There are thus several indistinct, homonymous cases. Indistinct forms are masculine and neuter genitive his; as for dative him, it is shared by masculine, neuter, and plural; nominative and accusative are drawn together in neuter hit. hire is used as genitive of feminine or plural and as feminine dative.
Probably the most critical situation arises for hie, which can be feminine or plural accusative or plural nominative, but which at the same time is nearly homonymous with the feminine nominative heo and the masculine nominative he respectively – since vowels can be affected by sound shifts most easily, this situation could be described as ‘bearing formal ambiguities’ or as ‘designed to become “chaotic”’.
Summary of Chapters
1 Where they came from: Provides an overview of Viking history in England, the establishment of the Danelaw, and the linguistic legacy of Scandinavian contact.
2 ‘They’ as a third-person personal pronoun: Discusses the grammatical necessity of pronouns and the theoretical distinction between suppletion and grammaticalization.
2.1 The Old English system: Analyzes the Old English third-person paradigm and identifies internal formal ambiguities within the pronoun system.
2.1.1 Relevant changes in the English language: Explains how phonological changes and the loss of verbal inflections increased the communicative need for distinct pronouns.
2.2 The Old Norse system: Outlines the differentiated Old Norse pronoun paradigm and the distinction between animate and inanimate forms.
3 Sources: Addresses the difficulty of finding direct evidence due to the scarcity of written records in the relevant dialects.
3.1 Written records of Old English: Details the limitations of existing Old English sources, which were primarily produced in the West Saxon dialect.
3.2 Written records of Old Norse: Explains the lack of written Anglo-Danish sources and the need for linguistic reconstruction.
3.3 Language contact: Defines language contact and explores how contact-induced change influences the integration of foreign linguistic features.
3.4 Pronominal borrowing: Evaluates the rarity of borrowing closed-class items like pronouns and argues why this exception occurred.
3.5 The contact between Scandinavian and English: Examines the sociolinguistic environment in the Danelaw and the prestige of the Norse language.
3.6 The combined paradigm of northern Middle English: Describes the integration of the Þ- base forms into the northern Middle English system.
3.7 them spreading southward: Discusses the gradual geographic expansion of the new pronoun forms from the North to the South.
4 The integration process of they, them, and their in the English language: Synthesizes the findings to explain how communicative needs led to the successful adoption of Scandinavian pronouns.
Keywords
Middle English, Old Norse, language contact, third-person pronouns, Danelaw, pronominal borrowing, linguistic economy, homonymy, contact-induced change, suppletion, grammaticalization, Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, linguistic markers, Scandinavian influence
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary subject of this research paper?
The paper investigates the historical development and integration of the third-person plural personal pronouns "they", "them", and "their" into the English language during the Middle English period.
What are the central thematic fields covered in the text?
The work explores language contact, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics in the Danelaw, and the morphological evolution of pronoun systems.
What is the primary research question?
The research asks how the contact between Old English and Old Norse led to the borrowing and integration of a closed-class set of pronouns, which is typically considered a rare phenomenon.
Which scientific methods are employed by the author?
The author uses a historical-linguistic comparative approach, analyzing pronoun paradigms, evaluating existing historical and written sources, and applying theories of language contact and grammatical change.
What does the main body of the text discuss?
It covers the specific pronominal systems of Old English and Old Norse, the historical context of the Viking settlements, the socio-linguistic motivations for borrowing, and the later spread of these forms through Middle English dialects.
Which keywords characterize the work?
The core keywords include Middle English, Old Norse, language contact, pronominal borrowing, and linguistic evolution.
How did the loss of verbal inflections affect the need for new pronouns?
As verbal inflections were reduced, the verb could no longer clarify the person and number of the subject, making the existing ambiguous pronoun system more problematic for communication.
What role does the "Danelaw" play in the author’s argument?
The Danelaw serves as the contact zone where Scandinavian influence was strongest, providing the socio-political conditions necessary for the linguistic adoption of Norse pronoun forms.
Why are Chaucer’s works cited as proof for the integration process?
Chaucer’s work serves as linguistic evidence showing a "hybrid" system, where "they" was already adopted while other forms were still being assimilated from the Northern dialects.
Was the integration of "they", "them", and "their" a sudden process?
No, the integration was a gradual process that moved geographically southward over centuries, with the nominative form "they" generally preceding the adoption of "them" and "their".
- Quote paper
- Martin Jähnert (Author), 2008, How 'they' conquered England, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/91925
