A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1
Pre-historic period Tribes in Britain speak Brythonic, a
Celtic language. No writing before Roman invasion.
AD 43 ca. AD 410 Roman period in Britain Latin introduced
as written language and spoken language of ruling class.
AD 450 550 Invasion of Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons,
Jutes) from Holland, northern Germany and southern Denmark,
bringing Germanic language with various dialects.
AD 450 1150 Old English period. Old English originally
written with runes, gradually replaced by adapted Latin
alphabet.

OLD ENGLISH
y ilcan gare drehton hergas on astenglum ond on Norhymbrum
Westseaxna lond swe be m sste mid stlhergum, ealra
swust mid m scum e he fela gara r timbredon. ht
lfred cyng timbran lang scipu ongn scas; wron fulnah t
sw lange sw ru; sume hfdon LX ra, sume m; wron
ger ge swiftran ge unwealtran ge ac herran onne ru; nron
nwer ne on Frsisc gescpene ne on Denisc, bton sw him selfum
hte t he nytwyroste bon meahten. t sumum cirre s
ilcan gares cmon r sex scipu t Wiht, ond r mycel yfel
gedydon, ger ge on Defenum ge wel hwr be m sriman.
In the same year the plunderers in East Anglia and Northumbria greatly harassed the
land of the West Saxons around the southern shore with marauding bands, most of all
with ships which they built many years before. Then King Alfred ordered (his men) to
build long ships (to be used) against the (Danish) ships; they were almost twice as
long as the others; some had 60 oars, some more. They were both swifter and
steadier and also higher than the others; they were shaped neither on the Frisian nor
on the Danish (model), but as it seemed -- to he himself -- they might be most useful.
At a certain time of the same year there came six ships to (the Isle of) Wight, and did
much mischief there, both in Devonshire and almost everywhere near the seacoast.
Source: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 10th century

Features of Old English

Phonology - most of the consonants found in English
today, including th ( and ); short vs. long vowels
stress on initial or root syllable
Verbs two categories: strong vs. weak verbs.
Strong verbs show ablaut (vowel change), weak verbs add
ede, -ode, -de.
Only two inflected tenses (present and past), other tenses
and passive formed periphrastically.

Nouns three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter); four

cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative);
singular and plural
Adjectives comparative/superlative in -er/-est.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE 2
AD 312 Roman Emperor Constantine
converts to Christianity
AD 380 Christianity (Catholicism)
becomes state religion of Roman Empire
AD 597 686 Christianization of AngloSaxons in Britain
ca. AD 700 onwards
Translation of psalms, gospels and large
parts of the Bible into Old English

Word Formation
by addition of prefixes and suffixes:
e.g. md nimo, coragem > mdig
animado, corajoso; mdiglic
magnnimo; mdiglice corajosamente,
com nimo; mdignes magnanimidade;
mdfull altivo; mdlas sem nimo
by compounding:
e.g. mdcrft inteligncia; mdlufu
afeto.

The Viking Legacy

AD 787 1042 Viking invasions and conquest
Vikings spoke a Germanic language (Scandinavian) very
similar to Old English.
Linguistic similarity meant that form words (pronouns
[e.g. they, them, him], prepositions, adverbs, part of the
verb to be [e.g. are]) were also absorbed.
Syntactic features:
loss of relative pronoun in some relative clauses (e.g. the
man I saw) and placement of preposition at the end (e.g.
Where do you come from? the book Im looking for)
use of shall and will for future
phrasal verbs

Britain AD 890

Old Norse
er eir kmu at, vissu eir eigi hvrt Gunnarr myndi heim vera, ok
bu at einnhverr myndi fara heim fyrir ok vita hvers vss yri, en
eir settusk nir vllinn. orgrmr austmar gekk upp sklann;
Gunnarr sr at rauan kyrtil bar vi glugginum, ok leggr t me
atgeirinum hann mijan. orgrmi skruppu ftrnir ok var lauss
skjldrinn, ok hratai hann ofan af ekjunni. Gengr hann san at
eim Gizuri, ar er eir stu vellinum. Gizurr leit vi honum ok
mlti, "Hvrt er Gunnarr heima?" orgrmr svarar, "Viti r at, en
hitt vissa ek, at atgeirr hans var heima." San fell hann nir daur.

When they arrived, they did not know whether Gunnar would be at home, and
they said that someone should go up to the house and find out for certain,
while the others set themselves down on the ground. Thorgrim, a Norwegian,
went up to the hall; Gunnar saw that a red tunic appear at the window, and
shot out a spear at his midsection. Thorgrim's feet slipped and his shield
came loose, and he tumbled down off the thatch. Then he went back to the
rest, Gizur among them, where they sat on the ground. Gizur looked at him
and said, "Is Gunnar home?"
Thorgrim answered, "You find out; but I discovered this: his spear was home."
Then he fell down dead.

Source: Brennu-Njls Saga, 13th century

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE 3
1066-1200 Norman conquest language of court
and government, upper class and church became
Norman French; period of bilingualism

1200-1500 Bilingualism to English only as England and

France break apart and English nationalism grows
Middle English period (1150-1500)
huge influx of loanwords from French
inflection greatly simplified leading to fixing of word
order and shift of grammatical gender to natural gender
loss of native words
huge increase in number of regular verbs formed from
nouns or imported

Middle English
`Thou hast yhad fyve housbondes,' quod he,
`And that ilke man that now hath thee
Is noght thyn housbonde,'
thus seyde he certeyn.
What that he mente therby, I kan nat seyn;
But that I axe, why that the fifthe man
Was noon housbonde to the Samaritan?
How manye myghte she have in mariage?
Yet herde I nevere tellen in myn age
Upon this nombre diffinicioun.
Men may devyne and glosen,
up and doun,
But wel I woot, expres, withoute lye,
God bad us for to wexe and multiplye;
Source: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Wife of Baths Prologue, 14th century

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE 3
1500 present Modern English period
changes in pronunciation, fixing of spelling,
input of loanwords from more exotic languages.
From 16th century onwards, progressive verb
forms started to develop (he was on laughing >
he was a-laughing > he was laughing).
Progressive began to be used in all verb tenses,
creating an aspectual system.
British Empire and then American influence
spread English around the world: today, first
language of 400 million, second language of 1.4
billion.

Early Modern English

As for the antiquitie of our speche, whether it be measured
by the ancient Almane, whence it cummeth originallie, or
euen but by the latest terms which it borroweth daielie from
foren tungs, either of pure necessitie in new matters, or of
mere brauerie, to garnish it self withall, it cannot be young.
Onelesse the Germane himself be young, which claimeth a
prerogatiue for the age of his speche, of an infinit
prescription: Onelesse the Latin and Greke be young,
whose words we enfranchise to our own vse, tho not allwaie
immediatlie from them selues, but mostwhat thorough the
Italian, French, and Spanish: Onelesse other tungs [ ]
will for companie sake be content to be young, that ours
maie not be old.

Source: Richard Mulcaster, The First Part of the Elementarie,

1582

Exercise 1
Find a Germanic word or phrasal verb to replace
the underlined words:

1. Remove the foil lid before placing the lasagna in the oven.
2. He had to have several of his teeth extracted.
3. I will now distribute some questionnaires for you to
complete.
4. Please board now as the train is about to depart.
5. I need to deposit these cheques and withdraw some cash.
6. It is prohibited to consume alcoholic beverages on these
premises.
7. You would have obtained a higher grade if you had not
omitted the second paragraph of the translation.
8. Did you acquire any French during your stay in Paris?

English and Portuguese

Comparative Timeline
Date

England

Portugal

B.C.

Brythonic (Celtic)

Lusitanian (Celtic?)

0 400 A.D.
Roman Empire

Speech: Celtic
Writing: Classical Latin

Speech: Vulgar Latin

Writing: Classical Latin

400 700 A.D.

Germanic invasions
Christianization

Speech: Old English

Writing: Classical Latin/Old
English (650 onwards)

Speech: Vulgar Latin

Writing: Classical Latin

700 - 1000

Viking period
Speech: Old English/Old Norse

Moorish period
Speech: GalicianPortuguese/Arabic

1000 - 1200

Norman period
Speech: Old/Middle English
Old French
Writing: Old French/Latin

Kingdom of Portugal
Speech: Galician-Portuguese

1258: First official documents

appear in English

1296: Portuguese adopted for

official documents

Many words borrowed from Latin

Many words borrowed from Latin

Renaissance

Exercise 2
1. De onde voc veio hoje?
2. O homem com quem eu falava o diretor da
escola.
3. Este o lugar a que temos que voltar.
4. Voc tem uma sacola para eu colocar as minhas
coisas?
5. O que que voc est olhando?
6. Ele finalmente achou a casa que estava
procurando.
7. Voc vai no carro de quem?
8. um assunto em que no quero entrar.
9. Voc sabe do que so feitas aquelas esculturas?
10.O rio muito largo para atravessarmos a nado.

Difference between English

and Portuguese in motion
expressions

Consider the following sentences:

Lets swim across.
Vamos atravessar a nado.

A tank rumbled past.

Um tanque de guerra passou com grande
estrondo.
The thief crept in and stole the money.
O ladro entrou de mansinho e roubou o
dinheiro.

Phrasal Verbs of Motion

Phrasal verbs of motion consist of:
verb of motion + adverb of direction
e.g. go up, come out, walk around, run
across
Phrasal verbs of motion can also be
transitive:
e.g. take sth up, bring sth out, carry sth
around, ferry sb across, push sth down

Adverbs of Direction

Examples of Motion Phrasals

Lets swim across.

I was cycling along when all of a sudden my chain broke.
Move your legs further apart.
The children were running around in the garden.
He got in the car and drove away.
I had no money left so I had to hitch back to where my parents live.
A tank rumbled past.
The cat was up in a tree and couldnt get down.
The thief crept in and stole the money.
The elephant knelt down so I could climb on.
Her sandals kept slipping off.
When the bell went, the students flooded out into the schoolyard.
There was a big puddle outside the door and we had to jump over.
There was a very small opening but I managed to squeeze through.
There was a gap below the fence and the dog had crawled under.
The elevator wasnt working so we had to walk up.

Prepositions of Direction

Examples using Prepositions of

Direction

They ran across the road.

He cycles around town.
We drove past your house.
They skied down the mountain.
He dashed in/into the kitchen.
The car shot out of a side road.
They clambered over the wall.
We had to crawl under the fence.
He managed to scramble up the
riverbank.

Exercise 3
1. Fui pedalando at o centro da cidade.
2. Desci a escada de mansinho, para
ningum me ouvir.
3. perigoso atravessar a rua correndo.
4. Vou trabalhar de carro
5. Deram a volta na ilha a nado.
6. Ela saiu da sala igual a um furaco.
7. O jogador saiu mancando do campo.
8. Decidimos voltar para So Paulo de avio.

Directionality in English
entrar to go in/to come in
sair to go out/to come out
subir
to go up/to come up
descer to go down/to come down
voltar
to go back/to come back
atravessar to go across/to come
across
passar to go by/to come by

Direction of motion relative to

the speaker
The verbs go and come and transitive
equivalents take and bring show
direction of motion relative to the speaker:
go/take - motion away from the speaker
come/bring - motion towards the speaker
Portuguese has the same distinction:
ir/levar vs. vir/trazer, but basic rules are
broken in some cases in English:

Differences in usage of
come/bring and vir/trazer (1)
In English, come/bring are also used when
motion is towards the place where the addressee
is, will be or was:
Ill come and see you at your office tomorrow.
(vou)
Do you mind if I bring someone to the party? (se
eu levar)
Look out! Theres a snake coming toward you!
(indo )
When youre living in China, Ill come and visit
you. (vou)
Hollywood, here I come! (l vou eu!)

Differences in usage of
come/bring and vir/trazer (2)
Come/bring are usually used when the
speaker talks about accompanying the
addressee somewhere, especially when the
addressee is about to leave, or when it is the
speaker who is going somewhere:
Do you want me to come with you? (que eu v)
Oh, so youre going to see a movie? Can I
come too? (ir)
Ill come to the library with you and bring my
laptop. (vou ... levo ...)
Im going to the mall. Do you want to come?
(ir)

Exercise 4
1.
2.
3.
4.

Voc pode subir aqui um pouco?

Ns vamos sair. Quer sair conosco?
Voc pode trazer a roupa suja para baixo?
D uma buzinada quando voc chegar que eu
deso.
5. Volto para a Inglaterra amanh.
6. Voc fica aqui que eu subo com as compras.
7. Vimos o ladro entrando na casa da vizinha.
8. Ela entrou na sala e me cumprimentou.
9. Vai sair agora? Que horas voc volta?
10.Vou a almoar com voc. Quer que eu leve
alguma coisa?

What is a phrasal verb?

Semantic definition any combination of a
verb and an adverb/preposition that has a
distinct meaning from the simple verb
(includes verbs like count on and account
for).
Syntactic/phonetic definition combination of
a verb and a stressed particle
(adverb/preposition). Adverb particles can
usually be placed before or after a noun
object e.g. put on your hat or put your hat
on (excludes verbs like count on and
account for).

Phrasal Verbs in ELT

Dictionaries
Most ELT dictionaries use the semantic
definition because it facilitates look-up:
stand
stand around
stand by
stand down
stand for
stand in
etc.

Verb + Preposition or True

Phrasal?

But arent phrasal verbs

informal?
You may have heard that phrasal verbs are
informal and should be avoided in formal
writing.
This is FALSE. Corpus evidence shows that
phrasal verbs are frequently used even in the
most formal written contexts.
Most phrasal verbs are neutral in register, but
there are formal, informal, slang, technical etc.
phrasal verbs just as with other lexical items
It is true that phrasal verbs are extremely
common in everyday spoken English, so learning
to use them correctly and with confidence is one
of the keys to sounding like a native speaker!

The meaning of a phrasal

verb
The meaning of a phrasal verb is a combination
of two elements:
the meaning of the verb
the meaning of the particle

The exact meaning of the particle is determined

by the meaning of the verb:
e.g. around
with verbs denoting linear motion = in various
directions
walk around, run around, dance around, look around
with verbs denoting circular motion = in circles
turn around, spin around, whirl around

Moving beyond motion

verbs
Phrasal verbs have developed new
meanings because:
the basic verbs have developed
figurative meanings
and/or
the particles have developed figurative
meanings

Figurative meanings of
around (1)
Literal meaning

Figurative meaning

Examples

in various directions,
to different places

to different people

ask around, phone

around

in various directions,
to different places

distribution,
circulation

go around, hand sth

around, pass sth
around, spread sth
around

in various directions,
to different places

aimlessly, without
purpose

fool around, hang

around, lie around,
lounge around, mess
around, mope around,
play around, sit
around, stand around,
wait around

in various directions,
to different places

making a person go in boss sb around, order

various directions
sb around, push sb

Figurative meanings of
around (2)
Literal meaning

Figurative meaning

Examples

turning

changing your/sbs
mind

bring sb around,
come around, talk sb
around, win sb around

turning

from unconsciousness bring sb around,

come around

surrounding
going around an
obstacle

crowd around, gather

around
avoiding or finding an
alternative way

get around sth, go

around sth, skirt
around sth, work
around sth

The progression from literal to

figurative meaning

go around
I went around collecting signatures.
Theres a rumor/virus going around.
You cant go around threatening people.
I hope theres enough food to go around.

literal
figurative

come around
Call the waiter when you see him coming around.
literal
A note came around saying there would be no school on Friday.
Why dont you come around tonight?
My birthdays coming around again soon.
The patients starting to come around from the anesthetic.
Im glad hes finally come around to our way of thinking.
figurative

Different figurative senses

Some particles have a wide range of figurative sentences
(e.g. out, up) so can combine with the same polysemous
verb to produce quite diverse meanings, e.g. bring up:
Literal sense:
Will you bring the suitcases up?
Figurative sense 1:
Bringing up children is not easy.
(cf. grow up)
Figurative sense 2:
Why did you have to bring the
subject up?
(cf. come up. dig up, rake up)
Figurative sense 3:
I brought up my dinner.
(cf. cough up, throw up)
Figurative sense 4:
The salesman brought the prices
up on the screen for me to look at.
(cf. come up, hang up, put up)

Exercise 5
Read the following sentences. Identify five different
figurative meanings of off and put the sentences into
pairs:
Im not sure Ill be able to get that day of.
Well get the contract of to you today.
Get of youre hurting me!
He got of with a $200 fine.
Im getting of at the next stop.
I have to get the kids of by 8.00 a.m.
Her fathers hired a top lawyer to get her of.
What time do you get of on Fridays?
Would you please get your feet of the table?
The cabin crew helped to get the passengers of safely.

The grammar of phrasal

verbs
In terms of grammar, we can distinguish
four main types of phrasal verb:
1. verb + adverb (classic phrasal)
2. verb + preposition (prepositional
phrasal)
3. verb + adverb + preposition (threeword phrasal)
4. verb + object + adverb + preposition
(two-object phrasal)

Classic phrasals
This category includes the vast
majority of phrasals:
all intransitive phrasals (e.g. go out, laze
around, come over etc.)
most transitive phrasals (e.g. take out,
put on, tear down etc.)

Intransitive phrasals

Transitive phrasals

Prepositional phrasals

Three-word phrasals

Two-object phrasals
These consist of a verb + object +
adverb + preposition + object, e.g.:
Dont take your anger out on me!
They put the accident down to
human error.

Exercise 6
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Vou descer na prxima estao.

Ele limpou os culos e colocou-os.
O dentista tirou o dente podre.
Ela no via a hora de tirar o sapato.
Quando eu virei, tinha um policial atrs de mim.
Ele ficou de retornar a minha ligao depois do
almoo.
7. Vou embora para Nova York amanh. Estou ansioso.
8. A gasolina subiu de novo.
9. Ns nos damos superbem.
10. A histria no verdadeira. Eu a inventei.
11. No descarregue em cima de mim!
12. No sei como voc aguenta aquele barulho!

Difficulties with phrasal

verbs

Tips on learning and teaching

phrasal verbs (1)
Concentrate first on the most frequent
phrasals those that are introduced in
coursebooks and simple motion
phrasals (come in, go out etc.)
Dont try to learn lists of phrasals you
will just get confused. Dictionaries of
phrasal verbs list every one imaginable,
so are bewildering unless there is some
indication of frequency. Better to pick
up phrasals as you go along.

Tips on learning and teaching

phrasal verbs (2)
With transitive phrasals, try to memorize (and
teach) them together with a typical object, e.g.
turn the light off, put your shoes on etc. Note
that some transitive phrasals are used with a
very restricted range of objects, e.g. run up a
debt/bill.
As you read English, start to take note of what
meanings phrasal verb particles have in
combination with certain kinds of verbs, e.g.
with verbs of giving, out often has the idea of
distribution to a number of people, as in deal
out, give out, hand out, send out, share out.
This will help you to guess and learn the
meaning of new phrasals.

Tips on learning and teaching

phrasal verbs (3)
Opposites can be helpful when learning and teaching
phrasals.
e.g. on vs. off
literal meaning (Start the skateboard moving and then
jump on/If you cant stop the skateboard, just jump of)
means of transport to get on vs. to get off
with clothes put on vs. take off
with machines turn on vs. turn off

Also transitive vs. intransitive equivalences:

e.g. bring vs. come
bring up levantar (assunto) come up surgir (assunto)
bring out publicar; ressaltar come out sair; sobressair
put vs. go etc.

Phrasal nouns and phrasal

adjectives
There are many phrasal nouns derived from
phrasal verbs. Verb and particle are joined
with a hyphen or written together:
set-up, check-in, breakup, crackdown
There are also phrasal adjectives spelled
with hyphens:
sought-after, made-up, watered-down
For those ending in -ing, the particle comes
first:
off-putting, ongoing, upcoming, outstanding

New phrasals
Native speakers create and understand new
phrasal verbs all the time by analogy with
existing ones, e.g.
She vacuumed up the crumbs.
Can you copy me in on that e-mail?
I bluetoothed the photos across to my laptop.
Im carnivaled out.
Lets watch that moment back and see exactly
what happened.
Tony Blair denied that he had asked anyone to
sex up the report.

Recommended Dictionary