Grammar

Tenses

Present

Present Simple

Present Continuous

Present Perfect

Present Perfect Continuous

Past

Past Continuous

Past Perfect

Past Perfect Continuous

Past Simple

Future

Future Simple

Future Continuous

Future Perfect

Future Perfect Continuous

Passive and Active

Parts Of Speech

Nouns

Countable and uncountable nouns

Verbal nouns

Singular and Plural nouns

Proper nouns

Nouns gender

Nouns definition

Concrete nouns

Abstract nouns

Common nouns

Collective nouns

Definition Of Nouns

Verbs

Stative and dynamic verbs

Finite and nonfinite verbs

To be verbs

Transitive and intransitive verbs

Auxiliary verbs

Modal verbs

Regular and irregular verbs

Action verbs

Adverbs

Relative adverbs

Interrogative adverbs

Adverbs of time

Adverbs of place

Adverbs of reason

Adverbs of quantity

Adverbs of manner

Adverbs of frequency

Adverbs of affirmation

Adjectives

Quantitative adjective

Proper adjective

Possessive adjective

Numeral adjective

Interrogative adjective

Distributive adjective

Descriptive adjective

Demonstrative adjective

Pronouns

Subject pronoun

Relative pronoun

Reflexive pronoun

Reciprocal pronoun

Possessive pronoun

Personal pronoun

Interrogative pronoun

Indefinite pronoun

Emphatic pronoun

Distributive pronoun

Demonstrative pronoun

Pre Position

Preposition by function

Time preposition

Reason preposition

Possession preposition

Place preposition

Phrases preposition

Origin preposition

Measure preposition

Direction preposition

Contrast preposition

Agent preposition

Preposition by construction

Simple preposition

Phrase preposition

Double preposition

Compound preposition

Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunction

Correlative conjunction

Coordinating conjunction

Conjunctive adverbs

Interjections

Express calling interjection

Grammar Rules

Preference

Requests and offers

wishes

Be used to

Some and any

Could have done

Describing people

Giving advices

Possession

Comparative and superlative

Giving Reason

Making Suggestions

Apologizing

Forming questions

Since and for

Directions

Obligation

Adverbials

invitation

Articles

Imaginary condition

Zero conditional

First conditional

Second conditional

Third conditional

Reported speech

Linguistics

Phonetics

Phonology

Semantics

Pragmatics

Linguistics fields

Syntax

Morphology

Semantics

pragmatics

History

Writing

Grammar

literature

Reading Comprehension

Elementary

Intermediate

Advanced

Change in grammar and pronunciation

المؤلف: P. John McWhorter

المصدر: The Story of Human Language

الجزء والصفحة: 33-7

2024-01-10

351

Change in grammar and pronunciation

A. Even as late as Jane Austen’s novels in the early 1800s, there are usages that we would consider “mistakes” that were quite proper in Austen’s time, such as:

So, you are come at last

...and much was ate

It would quite shock you…would not it?

She was small of her age

B. William Cobbett wrote a Grammar of the English Language in a Series of Letters to his 14-year-old son. Cobbett’s conception of proper English to pass on to his son included such usages as I bended, I sunk, loaden, shotten, and spitten!

C. As late as the late 1800s, it was typical in English to say A house is currently building on Mott Street, rather than A house is currently being built, which was processed as somewhat vulgar.

D. Long after the Great Vowel Shift that we saw , pronunciation of English words continued to drift, creating pronunciations different from ours in more ways than just the English accent we tend to imagine English spoken in before, roughly, the Andrew Jackson presidency. In John Walker’s Pronouncing Dictionary of English in 1774, Walker recommends that dismay be pronounced “diz-may” and dismiss “diz-miss” and that cement be pronounced “SEE-ment” and balcony “bal-COH-nee.”