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Norman conquest and its consequences for the English Language:  From IX century settlement of Danes (England (N and E), France (Northern coast, Normandy).Normans (name given Scandinavian people who settled in the northern France), among other elements of the French civilization they gave up their language and learned French.  Edward the Confessor dies childless in the year 1066, his successor was Godwin, the earl of the West Saxon earldom. When Godwin dies a dispute for his throne was carried out between his son Harold and his cousin William the Great, duke of Normandy.  The rivalry between these men led to the Battle of Hasting, in which Harold was killed. However William had to wait till the citizen’s surrender to be crowned king of England on Christmas Day of 1066.Most of the nobility was killed in Hastings, new nobility was introduced and for several generations after the Conquest the great estates and the important positions were almost held by Normans or foreigners. This fact allowed the Normans to continue using their language. For two centuries after the Conquest French remained the language among the upper classes in England.  Many English learnt French through intermarriage. In time the distinction between both languages was social. Intermarriage led to the middle classes learning French in the same way that the upper class would acquire some familiarity with English because it was the language of the mass and they were exposed to it.   Thus, those Normans who belonged to the lower classes, such as soldiers, would learn English. A main factor that favoured the use of French by the upper class was that William felt closer to Normandy than England. Despite English being the language of a socially inferior class there was mutual respect and cooperation between the English and the French.English was spoken among churchmen but bishops and abbots preached in Latin or French. The stewards and bailiffs of the knights, as well as the children of parents that spoke different languages were able to speak both French and English. At the end of the 12th c. the knowledge of English was something quite common among the higher classes in the same way that French was often found in the lower classes. By the loss of Normandy in 1204, there were many bilinguals and people who understood both languages even if they didn’t speak one of them. Effects of the loss of Normandy upon English and French nobility and the English Language After 1200 England loss an important part of its possession in France, among the causes we find that King John married Isabel of Angoulême, who was engaged to Hugh of Lusignan. He also attacked Hugh’s family and consequently they appealed for an amend to Philip, king of France. The king wanted John to submit to his judgement, but John thought that as king of England he wasn’t subject to the jurisdiction of the French court. King Philip thought he was obligated as duke of Normandy, but since King John didn’t appear at the trial so, the king of France making use of the feudal law, confiscated his territory and invaded Normandy. King John lost Normandy the English nobles were forced to think only of England. The foreign invasions that were taking place in the 13th c. delayed to some extent the natural spread of the use of English by the upper classes that had begun.  Although French wasn’t anymore the mother tongue inherited from Norman ancestors, the upper classes still continued speaking it. French was a cultivated tongue supported by social custom and by business and administrative convention. English was becoming more and more important, in this moment there is a great adoption of French words into the English language, this borrowing was mainly produced because those who spoke French tried to express themselves in English. Treatises from this period for learning French have been found, which indicates that French was now considered a foreign language. At the end of the 13th century there was a strong tendency to speak English, even in those conservative institutions, like the church and the universities. The artificial use of French in the 14th c. can be seen in the fact that regulations and band tried to prevent the loss of its use.  The fact that the French language represented the enemies’ language is probably one of the causes of the disuse of the French language in England. The definite Reestablishment of English. By 1250 new towns had grown in England; these towns were self-governed, and mostly engaged in trade. A new class emerged halfway between the rural peasant and the hereditary aristocracy.In 1348 the appearance the Black Death, had a deep impact on the English population. This illness killed a high percentage of the population, especially those of the lower classes. The shortage of workers led to an increase of the wages and allowed many people to leave the land and search for the better conditions and the higher wages of independent workers.  All these conditions benefited particularly the English-speaking part oft the population and were very important for the final triumph of the English language. Even if by the 14th century French was still known and used in places like the Parliament or the church, English had already taken its place. Till those days the literature works had been in French and now the writers felt the need to justify the use of English; as a result writers frequently began their works with a prologue in which the linguistic situation was explained. The Statute of Pleading was enacted in 1362, and restored English to its dominant place as the language of the country, from this moment all lawsuits shall be conducted in English.The last step that English had to make for its gradual ascent was its use in writing, something that till these days was done in Latin due to its international and fixed characteristics. In 1430 towns started to translate their ordinances and books of customs into English, as well as using it for their transactions. Henry V used English in his letters and made an effort to promote the use of English in writing. The period of Great Individual Writers went from 1350 to 1400 and was characterised by the adoption of the English language in their works, among these writers we find Geoffrey Chaucer the greatest English poet before Shakespeare.Changes undergone by nouns in Middle English The changes occurred in English grammar during the Middle English period can be described as a general reduction of inflections. Endings marking distinction of number and case, and often gender, were so altered in pronunciation that they lost their distinctive form and as a consequence  their usefulness. Two main factors lead to this levelling of inflections: phonetic changes: in the dative plural of nouns we find the change of final -m to –n; the –n being lost through time.  Inflectional endings -a-o-u-e became pronounced as the so-called indeterminate vowel, written e (and in some stages and areas i,y,u) As a result of these phonetical changes,  a number of distinct endings such as -a,-u,-e,-an, -um were normally reduced to a uniform -e Analogy: the indeterminate vowel was organic (stood for an ending in the OE paradigm) in the singular and plural dative and the  plural genitive; this was extended by analogy to the sing nominative, thus the only distinctive termination was the -s of the singular possesive and genitive and to the plural nominative and accusative. The -s became the marker of the plural and was extended to all plural forms. In some declensions the changes were more extreme; in the -u stem where all distinctions of case and number were removed. In addition to these changes there was a shift from grammatical gender to natural gender and eventually all nouns joined the strong masculine class. The plural The major inflectional distinction maintained is that of number; the singular was unmarked while the plural was marked by -s/-es. However, the south dialect preserved old variant forms much longer and it alternated the regular -s/-es forms with the -n plurals, a form also used  with nouns that originally did not have that form  (sho, shoon). At the beginning of this period we still find some -r plurals (lomb/lomber) that were progressively regularised into -s form. Plural forms like child/childer became almost exceptions, and the system was forced to strenghen them by adding a second plural mark (-n). This phenomenon is known as double plural. We must bear in mind that all these changes took place at different rates through the different geographic areas, which means we can find different forms in the literary production of the period.  Explain How the Levelling of Forms affected the Adjective and Pronoun paradigms in Middle English Middle English period 1150-1500. Facts like the Norman Conquest, or the continuation of the tendencies from the OE let to many fundamental changes in this period. One of these changes was the shift from an inflected language to an analytic one. Other changes have to do with the loss of a great number of OE words and the borrowing of thousands of words from French and Latin. The significant alteration of the endings in nouns and adjectives to mark distinction of case, number and sometimes gender, led to the loss of their distinctive from and consequently to their usefulness, thus resulting in the levelling of inflectional endings. Analogy and also sound changes produced an adjective levelling; in both declensions the form of the nominative singular was early extended to all cases of the singular, and the nominative plural to all cases of the plural. Thus, in the weak declension the singular and the plural both ended in –e, e.g. blinda>blinde and blindan>blinde. This was also extensive to the adjectives under the strong declension whose singular ended in –e. By 1250 only certain monosyllabic adjectives that ended in a consonant had a distinctive form for singular and plural in the strong declension, e.g. glad/glade; thus the only ending which stays for the adjective often didn’t have a distinctive grammatical meaning. After the decline in noun’s and adjective’s inflections it wasn’t so necessary to rely on formal indications of gender, case , and (in adj.) number. To make clear the relation of the words in a sentence they had to rely more on juxtaposition, word order and the use of prepositions. This loss of inflections was greatest in the demonstrative were we are only left with the and that surviving through Middle English and continuing in use today. With the exception of plural tho (those) which survived Elizabethan time, all the other forms disappeared in most dialects early in the Middle English period. The same occurred to the demonstrative p?s, p?os, pis, in which everywhere but in the south the neuter from pis came to be used early in Middle English for all genders and cases of the singular, while the forms of nominative plural were similarly extended to all cases of plural, appearing in Modern English as those and these. Regarding the personal pronoun the losses weren’t so great and most distinctions form OE were retained, nevertheless we find that the dative and accusative cases were early combined, normally under the dative (him, her, [t]hem). In the neuter the form of the accusative (h)it became the general objective case, partly because it was like nominative and partly because the dative him would have been subject to confusion with the corresponding case of the masculine. The form she (h?o in OE) developed partly under the influence of the demonstrative s?o. And the third person plural forms they, their, them, came from the Scandinavian influence, in which hi started to be replaced by pei (ON (Old Norse) peir). The fact that English was in contact first, with the Scandinavian and then with the Norman French language, accelerated the process of inflection loss that in started in OE. We must bear in mind that French was an uninflected language and that English borrowed many words from it, which caused the loss of inflectional endings. Nevertheless as pointed before two inflectional endings survived –es, -s and the genitive singular‘s. Another fact to be remembered is that this levelling was homogeneous throughout England at the same time but it showed different degrees depending on dialectal variance. The Verb in Middle English. Middle English: weak verbs were the most common. Many new verbs were formed from Ns and Adjs, which increased their number. Others were borrowed from other languages and conjugated as weak.Many native word were lost after the Norman Conquest, a fact that led to the weakening of the strong verb conjugation; those strong verbs that survived were exposed to the influence of the majority, i.e. the weak verbs. Losses among the Strong Verbs: A great amount of strong verbs were lost during the Middle English period, others by the principle of analogy developed weak forms.  At this time English was the language of the lower classes and wasn’t influenced by education and literary standard, many speakers applied the weak conjugation to verbs that were historically strong. We find many verbs that were transformed from strong to weak during the 14th century. Some verbs we find in the 15th had been using both, the strong and the weak form, for more than a century, e.g. oke (strong past tense of ache), low (laughed) or shove (shaved). We also find verbs that despite having both forms, maintained the strong form: blowed/blew, knowed/knew, and teared/tore). Survival of strong participles:  even if the verb had become weak, many times, the strong form of the participle continued being in use (beat-beaten); there are still a number of verbs that use the strong participle, especially as adjectives, e.g. swollen, molten (melt), shaven. Surviving strong verbs: In present English that have either kept the strong form or that can be conjugated in both ways.  The surviving strong verbs have been subjected during time to different forms of levelling and analogical influence. Normally the singular from was the one that survived in Modern English, but other times we find verbs like sting that should have a past tense stang,  but it was replaced by stung from the plural and the past participle. Phonological changes in Middle English led to the reduction of the verb inflectional system. The weakening of unstressed vowels to /?/ reduces the three classes of weak verbs to two; in the strong verbs simplifications took place as well. Three main tendencies can be identified: A homogenisation of the preterit took place so the singular and the plural have the same vowel, In Class 1, the preterit presented o for singular and plural as present-day English ride/rode. In Class 4, the form of the past participle takes over the preterit. In present-day English we find bore that comes from the OE past participle boren, instead of from bæron. Some strong verbs disappeared because the frequent patterns absorbed those that were more infrequent. Transfer of strong verbs into weak classes. Some verbs followed both paradigms till they became weak, e.g. sleep and help. The loss of unstressed vowels led to a simplification of the inflectional system. The final e disappeared, producing  a union and an assimilation of consonant –(e)st, -(e)p, -en,  many times this led to disappearance of the inflection so many forms of the verb become undistinguishable, particularly in the case of distinguishing indicative from subjunctive. Its use wasn’t relevant any more and modals started to be more and more present in the language. Compound tenses, namely progressive and perfect tenses, appeared after a process of grammaticalisation. According to Blake, the development that affected modals according to Blake were:  the disappearance of their non-finite forms their inability to take an object the absence of temporal indication in their present and preterit forms Their identification with the base form of the infinitive. Middle English Syntax.  One of the consequences of the decay of inflections that took place during the Middle English period was the rearrengement of syntactic structures. As a result of the levelling of inlections, syntactic and semantic relationships that had previously been signalled by word endings became unclear. The most direct way to avoid this ambiguity was through limiting the possible patterns of word order.  The Peterborough Chronicle serves to see the changes undergone from the highly synthetic stage of Old English to the highly analytic  stages of Late Middle and Modern English. This text, pertaines to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was written in intervals from 1070 to 1154, spans the period from OE to Early Middle English. Through the different stallments it is possible to trace first a significant loss of inflections and subsequently a corresponding rigidity of word order, making clear that the loss of inflections was the cause of the latter.   The word order looked like OE while the inflectional system looked like Modern English. However, through Middle English the syntactic patterns acquire the usual form of present-day English. The changes that affected the grammatical structure of English after the Norman Conquest were not the result of the conctact with the Fench language; contrary to what happenend with some idioms and syntactic usages. such contact. The true significant development in Middle English is the decay of inflections and the confusion of forms were the result of the Norman Conquest only to the degree of having favoured the condition for these changes, given that the possibility of the authority of a Standard English was removed. Thus grammatical changes went forward unchecked. French influence on the vocabulary. For 200  years after the Norman Conquest French remained the language of communication among the upper classes in England. This fact was favoured by the close connection that still existed between england and France, because the kings of England till Henry II’s son lost it, were dukes of Normandy.  In addition, the English nobility was made up of Anglo-French aristocracy which meant that the contact with the French language was never lost.  Another aspect is that English was the language of a socially inferior class, an uncultivated tongue that had much to gain from French. The cultural relations between France and England through history favour the influx of French words into the English language. We find two stages for this borrowing: 1- up to 1250 approximately: less numerous, show more peculiarities of the Anglo-Norman phonology. Many words were borrowed through the contact that the English-speaking lower classes had with the French-speaking nobility, e.g. baron, dame. Other words were borrowed from literary channels,e.g. story, rime. The largest group is related to the church.  2-From1250 to 1400: many French speakers started using english and used the words that were more familiar in their vocabulary. (blending) The words that English borrowed from French belong to many different fields, among these we find word related to  the crown (empire, royal), the church (vicar, incense, creator), legal processes (judge, defendant), pieces of clothing (gown, boots). Some words also refer to the social life of the upper classes (feast, salmon, beef), or the innovation in domestics (curtain, cushion), medicine (surgeon, remedy) Particularly adjectives, were of great significance, since OE was not very rich in them. In addition, the influence of French may be seen in some phrases and turns of expression (to take leave, in vain, by heart, according to) As  a conclusion, as far as the vocabulary is concerned, the influence of the Norman Conquest created a merging of the resources of both languages. Thousands of words in common use in French and English became partners in a reorganized concern (e.g. OE pig=animal, Anglo-Norman pork=meat) Anglo-Norman and Central-French:  Due to the different routes of development, there is a difference between the French words introduced in the English language as a result of the Norman Conquest and Modern French words.  OF   feste> ME feste > PDE feast OF feste>  Modern French fête pronunciation  OF judge>ME judge> PDE judge [dz] OF judge> MF juge [z] Another reason for these differences is the fact that the Anglo-Norman dialect spoken in England was different in many ways from the present French language.  Some examples are: Anglo-Norman ca- retained, while in Central French it became cha-, chie-  Carry vs charrier . In some cases English has taken both forms: Norman and Central French Anglo-Norman cachier > PDE catch Central French chacier> PDE chase Anglo-Norman retained the sound /w/ while Central French avoided it.  Anglo-Norman warden vs Central French guardian. The Latin endings -arius, -orius, appear in Anglo Norman as -arie, -orie, but in Central French they developed into -aire,-oire English salary, victory vs French salaire, victoire  These differences evidence the fact that until well the 14th century, the French words borrowed by the English language normally had the form from the  spoken French of England. This language was possibly a mixture of various northern dialectal features.  T The predominance of the Norman language and the influence of English linguistic tendencies led to a gradual development into something quite different from any of the continental dialects. In fact Anglo-Norman shows a great variety of forms that may reflect the variety of French people who settled in England  However, with the literary borrowings of the 15th century the forms of Central French  were made more familiar in England . Importance and spread of the London Standard.  Emergence of standard English in 15th century. The raise of the standards English in the 15th century was caused by three factors, all of which established the foundations for the modern language: 1- The appearance of London English: London's status as an influential, commercial and industrial city favoured the flood of immigrants that took place during this time; and as a consequence, the speech of the city started to change quickly.  2- The invention of the printing press: Introduced in England in  1476 by Caxton . For the 1^st time, ordinary people and not only scribes in a religious environment, started to produce literature. 3- A new conception of learning: The learning system, influenced by the Renaissance spirit, turned to a high philological interest in the classical word, which led to the borrowing of Greek and Latin words. The dialectal variety of Middle English led at the end of the period to the general adoption of a standard written English, later a spoken standard was adopted. Three main causes led the East Midland variety to win a general recognition over the other dialects: geographical: This region occupied a middle position and it shared characteristics of both its neighbours (Southern, Norhtern) in its sounds and inflections. Largest and most populous of the 4 major dialectal areas (Northern, Southern, West Midland, East Midland) Presence of Oxford and Cambridge Universities in a period in which monasteries were playing a less important role in the dissemination of learning than that played by universities. Due to their geographical situation, the Cambridge’s influence on London English was higher than Oxford’s one.  The most influential factor in the rise of Standard English was by far the importance of London as the capital of England. It was the seat of the court, of the highest judicial tribunals, the focus of the social and intellectual activities of the country. Migration was a key fact, since influence was mutual which helped the spread of  th London Standard. By the middle of  the century a fairly consistent variety of written English in both spelling and grammar had developed. This process was greatly favoured with the introduction of printing: London became the center of book publishing and Caxton himself used the current speech of London in his numerous translations. Finally, it must be taken into account that complete uniformity wasn't attained overnight. In fact, in matters of vocabulary dialectal differences have persisted in cultivated speech down to the present day. And all through this period of standardization there were many French and Latin words that were not assimilated. As a consequence of this variety the choice of words was not an easy matter for XV th century writers.  Cultural and social conditions in the modern period that affected the development of the English Language The Modern English period started at 1500, some factors that were previously present in a limited way, as well as new factors, conditioned the development of languages. The process of printing was a really important issue (allowed for thousands of copies of one book, allowed books to reach to everyone). At the beginning most of these books were in Latin, but by the year 1640 appeared in English. Nevertheless, this process alone would not have been possible if education would have not made the rapid progress among the people, which allowed literacy to become much more common. Other conditions that favoured the development of the language and also favoured the diminution of the local peculiarities were: the fact of people throughout the world being brought together by means of transportation (steamship, airplane, automobile or rail-road), commerce, TV, radio, the post office, etc.  The growth of specialized knowledge was very important in this development since it required new vocabulary. The fact of Latin became less and less the vehicle for learned discourse also helped.  Another important factor was the self-consciousness about language, which can be viewed from both, an individual and a public aspect. At the individual level the people who rise into a different economic, intellectual or social level, normally try to adopt the standards of grammar and pronunciation of the people with whom they have identified. When referring to the public level, even before “language policy” acquired its modern meaning, we can perceive through history how an effort has been carried out to shape the English language.  The planning of the English language has effects upon its grammar and its vocabulary; these effects can be viewed as conservative when regarding grammar since it tended to preserve the existing status. When referring to vocabulary we talk about a radical effect in the sense that it promotes change in language.  The growth of vocabulary is favoured by all forms of communication, e.g. the reading habit. These forms of communication, together with social consciousness, work actively towards the promotion and preservation of the standard, especially in grammar and usage. Despite the recovery of the English language, in the 16^th century, running parallel to other important European language, it had to face three great problems.  Recognition in the fields where Latin had for centuries been supreme. Establishment of a more uniform orthography. Enrichment of the vocabulary so it could meet the demands it would require in its wider use. Although the use of Latin was still authorized in all the fields of knowledge, its use was strengthened by the “revival of learning.” All over Europe Latin was universal and it was the language together with Greek in which highly esteemed poetry, oratory, and philosophy was read. Nevertheless, people of high reputation such as Alberti or Richard Mulcaster defended the use of the vernacular, thus the Renaissance with the support of academicians allowed and favoured the use of the vernaculars, and many works were translated and generated in vernacular languages. Other factors besides the humanist’s work, favoured the victory of the vernacular, e.g.  the attempt to reform Latin,  the Protestant Reformation, the market for English books that was greater than the one of Latin. Something to bear in mind is that many authors, who used the English language in those days, justified its use at the beginning of their works because of their desire to reach all the people in the language. Towards the end of the century English slowly won recognition as a language of serious thought, and many people had a patriotic feeling towards it. Opposition to inkhorn terms:  During the 16^th and the 17^th century the English vocabulary was enriched by the borrowing of words from other languages. Most of these new words were borrowed from Latin, but there was also many words borrowed from languages like Italian, French and Spanish.  Not everyone agreed with the incorporation of words from other languages and some people considered the use of learned words mere pedantry and ridiculed their use by calling them inkhorn term. Inkhorn term refers to a pretentiously learned and unclear borrowing from another language. It is precisely the obscurity of these terms the one that mainly causes the rejection of people, one of the most outstanding critics about the use of inkhorn terms was Thomas Wilson; in his Arte of Rhetorique he makes a savage attack on these terms and ridicules their use by writing a burlesque letter overloaded with them. Although the terms used by Wilson in his letter were infrequent in his period, many of them are in common use today.  Dictionaries in the Renaissance Among the earliest dictionaries we find Robert Cawdrey’s  Table Alphabetical of Hard Words (1604), John Bullokar’s English Expositor (1616) or the English Dictionarie by Henry Cockeram (1623); only the more difficult words would appear in later compilations, till the publication of Baileys’ Universal Etymological English dictionary in 1721. Nathaniel Bailey was the first person who ever tried to list all the words in a language.  The incorporation of new words into the general use of the language helped towards the development of dictionaries. Although many words disappeared shortly after they appeared, we know that about half of the total number has become permanent, most of these words being borrowed from Latin. Normally these words entered English through the written language, these new words weren’t always needed to fill in gaps for non-existing ways to designate something, sometimes they gave the language a wealth of synonyms. These words are a remarkable evidence of the new force put forth by the printing press, more evidence can be seen in the simplicity with which the printed word can pass into everyday speech, since although many of the new words were of a markedly academic character at the beginning, they did no remain so for very long, this fact can be inferred from their common popular use today, but also can be exemplified in Shakespeare’s plays or most of his contemporaries’.  Changes undergone by the personal pronoun in the 16^th century:  The establishment of the personal pronouns that has reached our days was carried out in the 16^th century, three changes occurred to attain this establishment: 1-The disuse of thou, thy, thee:In the earliest period of English the second person pronoun was thou for the singular and ye for the plural. In the 13^th century, different forms were used depending on the familiarity of interlocutors. To address relatives, children or people from inferior rank thou, thy and thee were used. The plural forms ye, your and you were used as a mark of respect, but in time these forms became of general use regardless of the rank or intimacy between interlocutors.In the 16^th century the singular form had disappeared from contexts in which the plural forms were considered more appropriate, only the Quakers maintained this form into the 20^th century.  2-the substitution of you for ye as a nominative case:At the beginning there was a clear distinction between the nominative ye and the objective you. These forms were pronounced alike and in the 14^th century the objective form you began to be used as a nominative. In time the use of ye disappeared by a similar substitution.In the 17^th century you become the regular form for both cases. 3 The introduction of its as the possessive of it.  The neuter pronoun: The merger of the dative and accusative in Middle English resulted in hit, his, hit.   In unstressed positions: hit was weakened to it, the form used for the subject and object.His, remained the proper form of the possessive.The lifeless objects we thought of as neuter. The personal pronouns of the third person singular (he, she, it) had a distinctive form for each gender in the nominative and objective cases. The distinctive form in the possessive case was also needed, eventually the possessive of nouns should propose the analogical form it’s for the possessive of it (horse’s)Another development of the pronouns in the 16^th century is the use of who as a relative. The definite article (s?, s?o, þaet) was used for the union of clauses because OE did not have a suitable pronoun for this use. Sometimes the indeclinable particle þe was added to these articles, sometimes þe was used alone. At the end of the OE period the particle þe was the most usual relative pronoun, although early in the Middle English period it was replace by þaet (that) which was a relative pronoun universally used for all genders.In the 15^th century which begins to alternate fairly frequently with that, at first its use was mainly for neuter antecedent, but sometimes it was used for persons.The use of who as a relative pronoun came to use in the 16^th. This form developed from two earlier uses, one as an indefinite pronoun and the other as an interrogative in indirect questions. Grammatical features of Early Modern English: nouns and verbs: English grammar in the 16^th and early 17^th century is marked above all by the survival of certain forms and usages that have since disappeared. Some of the main features of English grammar in this period were:The Noun: The only inflections that were maintained were the possesive singular and the plural mark. Plural formation:          the –s ending was the common form. We find some plurals with mutated vowels like mice and feet and other with unchanged plurals like sheep and swine. In the 16th century we still find words with the old weak plural in –n like kneen (knees). his-genitive: In Middle English, when the –es of the genitive was unaccented it was often identical to the pronoun his, which normally lost its h when unstressed.  Thus, there was no difference in the pronunciation of stonis and ston is (his). The group possessive: Constructions such as the Duke of Gloucester's niece became established during these period (earlier it would have been the Duke's niece of Gloucester). Since expressions as Duke of Gloucester or King of England occurred very often as a single unit in the 15^th century, the possessive began to be added to the group instead of to the noun. However, this usage didn't become fully established until the 16^th century. The Verb: interrogative form without auxiliaries: Goes the king hence today? Vs does/is the king...?Present perfect form with be + past participle: is execution done on Cawdor? Vs has beenShortage of progressive forms and of compound participle: what do you read, my Lord? / having spoken thus. Common use of impersonal forms of the verb: it dislikes me (PDE I don't like it) There was also differences in inflections, for example we find that the standard form for the 3rd person singular was –eth except in the Northern dialect. During the 15th century the usage of –s forms appear. In the 16th century  their number increases and at the end of this century forms like tells, gives or says predominte.  At the end of the 16th century we find the –s ending for the 3rd person plural which can sometimes be found as late as the 18th century. Fluctuation and alteration in the past tense and past participle forms: During the Middle English Period many OE strong verbs were lost and many became weak, a tendency still seen at the beginning of the modern period.  Some verbs became weak (mow, dread) while their strong form has since disappeared; strong forms alternate with weak forms in verbs that had already begun to change (waxed-waxen, helped-holp); some weak verbs were in use although ultimately remained strong (blowed-blew, growed-grew). And in certain common verbs the form of the past participle differed from that of today (brake-broken, spake-spoken)The Adjective (not included in the question)It didn’t express distinctions of case, number or gender anymore since it  had already lost all its endings. The most interesting feature was the form of the comparative and superlative degrees which were formed with the adverb more and most together with –er and –est;  there was more variation in their use than there is today. We find form like lenger, strenger.  No attention was paid to the number of syllables: violentest, honester. There was a use of double comparatives/superlatives: more larger, most unkindest. Features related to Usage and Idiom:Frequent omission of the article: creeping like _  snail or inclusion when we don't use it today: at the last, negative particle preceding the verb: I not doubt. Use of a double negative as a stronger negative:  I know not, nor I greatly care not. Uses of prepositions: I'll rent it after threepence (at) Well done of you (by) Traces of Renaissance on society and language In the Renaissance people felt that the English language could be moulded to their will and we find that any part of speech can appear in the place of another, and although a great effort to reach a uniform standard was made, there were still many variations in grammar, pronunciation and spelling, as well as experiments with new words.  The technological and economic advances of the 17^th century, together with a new social and cultural order had important implication for the language and its developments.The 18^th century was characterized by a sense of order and the value of regulation. The most important consideration in the foundation of this standard is reason. The spirit of scientific rationalism in philosophy was reflected in many other domains of thought. A great satisfaction was felt in things that could be logically explained and justified. Nevertheless Latin was a great influence in language and in literature. In earlier periods the use of a particular vocabulary, together with the question of whether it was necessary to use the English language in writings in which Latin was the traditional language to be used, and the choice for a particular spelling had been put under discussion. In the 18^th century for the first time the focus was on grammar. Since English did not have any regulations for grammar, there was a great variation in the usage of the language even among educated people. This fact didn’t meet the expectations of a period that desired above all an orderly universe; there were different attempts to solve this problem, some of the features of this attempt were:  Ascertainment (to make certain, definite and precise): this term refers to the need for standardization and regulation of the English language. Three purposes of the 18^th century were: to reduce the language to rule and set up a standard of correct usage, to remove supposed defect and introduce certain improvement, and to fix the language in the desired form. Expansion of the British Empire and its effects on the Language:  Britain, unlike other countries like Spain and Portugal that had founded great empires during the 15th and 16th centuries, didn’t enter the race for colonial territory till the 17th century. A colonisation process marked by the continuous rivalry with France. The English settlements in Jamestown and Plymouth marked the beginning of a process of colonization in North America. This process started with the expansion all through the North Atlantic coast and ended with the American Revolution in the 18^th century. However, the loss of its influence over the American land didn't prevent the language from remaining English. The Britsh expansion also pointed to the East. In 1600  the East India Company was founded to promote trade with India, establishing settlements at Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. A struggle with the French to expand this territory during the 18^th century gave the British Empire an area almost equal to European Russia. The English occupation of Australia also started in the 18^th century. James Cook sailed around the isles of New Zealand and explored some of the Australian territory, planting the British flag on both. Later on, Australia became the destiny of British convicts and, when gold was discovered there, the destiny of a large number of migrants. The colonizing of Africa took place mostly during the 19^th century. This process began when in 1795 England seized the Deutch settlement at Cape Town and from this point sprang the control of England over a large part of South Africa and the later acquisition of control over the Suez Canal. With the expansion of the British Empire the area of activiy of the English language spread out and the sources for local variation multiplied. The situation of the English language varied according to the type of colonisation. Thus, in territories with white  dwellers the language served as a mark for distinction from the native inhabitants; in other territories  teaching the language became a tool for consolidating the new civilization.  The expansion of the language in countries with a majority  of non-English population, such as India or Africa, was  slower.  The more easily perceived effects of English expansion are seen in the vocabulary, among many others we find the following borrowings:  Native Americans: moccasin, moose, totem. Spanish speaking American colonies: chili, chocolate, tomato. other S.Amer regions: buccaneer, jaguar, petunia, poncho India: bandana, bungalow, china, curry, mandarin, nirvana, further East: indigo, mango, Africa: banana, chipanzee, gorilla, zebra- Australia: boomerang, kangaroo To conclude, the Expansionist era was the period when the foundations were being laid for the wide extension of English and its variations. It can be said that one of the reasons for the worldwide character of the English vocabulary today is the multitude of contacts the English language has had with other tongues in widely spread parts of the world.