Content
Introduction
1 General informationabout archaisms
Archaisms
Usage
The process of words aging
Alternativemeanings
Neologisms
Retronym
List of archaic Englishwords and their modern equivalents
2 Analysis of ancient texts
W. Shakespeare, Sonnet 2
"Love and duty reconcil'd" by W. Congreve
3 Archaisms in literatureand mass media
Deliberate usage ofarchaisms
Commonly misusedarchaisms
Conclusion
References
Introduction
The word-stockof a language is in an increasing state of change. Words change their meaningand sometimes drop out of the language altogether. New words spring up andreplace the old ones. Some words stay in the language a very long time and donot lose their faculty of gaining new meanings and becoming richer and richerpolysemantically. Other words live but a short time and are like bubbles on thesurface of water - they disappear leaving no trace of their existence. Inregistering these processes the role of dictionaries can hardly beover-estimated. Dictionaries serve to retain this or that word in a languageeither as a relic of ancient times, where it lived and circulated, or as astill living unit of the system, though it may have lost some of its meanings.They may also preserve certain nonce-creations, which were never intended forgeneral use. In every period in the development of a literary language one canfind words which will show more or less apparent changes in their meaning orusage, from full vigour, through a moribund state, to death, i. e. completedisappearance of the unit from the language.
Usually we donot notice the change that takes place during our own time because it happensquite slowly. But if we take a look back over a considerable span of time,language change becomes more obvious. If we touch the problem of historicaldevelopment we can not pass over in silence peculiarities of early Englishlanguage, and comparison between initial and today's English. Such line ofinvestigation considers diachronic approach to the main question of this coursework - archaisms in literature. It's very important to reveal the notion ofarchaism, the sphere of usage, origin and many other essential components thatare comprised by the word "Archaism". Besides the direct investigation ofarchaisms I included information about neologisms, as contrary notion, and alsoabout retronyms.All the aspects statedabove will be carefully investigated in this work; moreover there will beincluded olden text with and analysis of poetry.
1Generalinformation about archaisms
Archaisms
Archaisms are words which are no longerused in everyday speech, which have been ousted by their synonyms. Archaismsremain in the language, but they are used as stylistic devices to expresssolemnity. Most of these words are lexical archaisms and they are stylisticsynonyms of words which ousted them from the neutral style. Some of them are:steed (horse), slay (kill), behold (see), perchance (perhaps), woe (sorrow)etc. An archaism can be a word, a phrase, or the use ofspelling, letters, or syntax that have passed out of use. Because they are bothuncommon and dated, archaisms draw attention to themselves when used in generalcommunication.
Writers of historical novels, as well ashistorians and film makers, for example, do their best to represent time andculture accurately and avoid unintentional archaisms. Creating a fictionalcharacter from times past may require extensive research into and knowledge ofarchaisms.
An example of a fairly common archaisminvolving spelling and letters is businesses that include Ye Olde intheir name. The word Ye does not actually start with a y , asit may appear; it begins with the letter thorn which has passed out ofuse. Thorn was a letter used to spell the sound we now spell with the consonantdigraph th . Hence, Ye is pronounced as and means the . Olde reflects a spelling from Middle English of the word we now writeas old . Businesses may use such archaisms to invoke a mood oratmosphere - as in Ye Olde Tea Shoppe or The Publick Theare; or to conveysomething about their product - as in Olde Musick and Cokery Books, anAustralian firm specializing in sheet music and recipes from the past.
Certain phrases are associated withrituals and traditions, and though they would not be considered current if usedin general speech or writing, they continue to be used in the venues orsituations in which they are meaningful. For example, phrases such as "thoushalt "and" thou shalt not "are considered archaic in general use, but beingpart of the common English translation of the Ten Commandments, they continueto be repeated and used in that context without calling attention tothemselves. Syntax falls into this category as well. Legal writscharacteristically include lists of phrases beginning Whereas, followed by one beginning therefore - an archaic style and structurenot typically found elsewhere.
Archaisms can also be put to good usewhen they are carefully chosen to create irony or humor. One could, forexample, mock the triviality of an errand run by saying, "Alas, I must away onmy journey betimes. I must traverse the roads, journeying hither and yon insearch of. . . muffins. "Used seriously in general discourse, however,archaisms can seem affected or be misunderstood.
Sometimes a lexical archaism begins anew life, getting a new meaning, then the old meaning becomes a semanticarchaism, e.g. "Fair" in the meaning "beautiful" is a semantic archaism, but inthe meaning "blond" it belongs to the neutral style.
Sometimes the root of the word remains and the affix is ​​changed, then the oldaffix is ​​considered to be a morphemic archaism, eg "Beauteous" - ous wassubstituted by - ful, "bepaint" - be-was dropped, "darksome"-some was dropped,"Oft"-en was added etc.
In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writingthat is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately (to achieve aspecific effect) or as part of a specific jargon (for example in law) orformula (for example in religious contexts). Many nursery rhymes containarchaisms. Archaic elements that only occur in certain fixed expressions (forexample "be that as it may") are not considered to be archaisms.
Usage
Archaisms are mostfrequently encountered in poetry, law, and ritual writing and speech. Theirdeliberate use can be subdivided into literary archaisms, which seeks to evokethe style of older speech and writing; and lexical archaisms, the use of wordsno longer in common use. Archaisms are kept alive by these ritual and literaryuses and by the study of older literature. Should they remain recognised, theycan be revived, as the word anent was in the past century.
Some, such as academicand amateur philologists, enjoy learning and using archaisms either in speechor writing, though this may sometimes be misconstrued aspseudo-intellectualism.
Archaisms arefrequently misunderstood, leading to changes in usage. One example is the useof the archaic familiar second person singular pronoun "thou" to refer to Godin English Christianity. Although originally a familiar pronoun, it has beenmisinterpreted as a respectful one by many modern Christians. Another exampleis found in the phrase "the odd man out", which originally came from the phrase"To find the odd man out", where the verb "to find out" has been split by itsobject "the odd man", meaning the item which does not fit.
The compound adverbsan...
