TheCausesforthelossofInflectionandItsImpactupontheEnglishLanguage

余佳

【Abstract】 As one of the linguistic phenomena，inflection has embodied strong brands of times，experiencing enormous change of which the trend is the loss of inflection.This thesis analyzed the reasons of the development trend of inflection from the internal and external factors，explaining the profound influences of the reduction of inflection on the English language which are both on the micro level and on the macro level.

【Key Words】 The loss of English inflections； Causes； Impacts on English

1.The Definition of Inflection

Inflection，broadly defined，is a modification （initial，internal，or final） in the form of a word to indicate distinctions of case，number，gender，person，tense，voice，mood，or some like grammatical aspect for the purpose of showing corresponding changes in its use and meaning.That is to say，inflection manifests grammatical relationship by means of attaching affixes which indicate the number，person，finiteness，etc.，while this addition would not influence or change the word-class of the original word.

2.The Development and the Trend of the Changing Inflection in the English Language

2.1 Three Periods of Inflection in the English Language

2.1.1 Full inflection in Old English （450--1150）

During most of this period，the different inflectional affixes of the noun，the adjective，the pronoun and the verb had been more or less preserved，and English had a distinctive feature of comprehensive language.

2.1.2 Leveled Inflection in Middle English （1150--1500）

The inflection began to break down at the end of the old English period.During the time of Middle English，most of the inflections had drastically reduced and gradually disappeared，and the comprehensive language came to change into analytic language.

2.2 The Trend of the Changing Inflection in the English Language

As Baugh，Albert C.and Tomas Cable pointed，“The development of language is a gradual process of simplification，at least in a historical perspective，especially the inflected language.” And this is the same with the English language.We can see it clearly that there is a general trend of the loss of inflection in English from the development of inflection in more than 1500 years，during which English has experienced the evolution from synthetic language to analytic language，from full of changes in part of speech to no change in word class.However，the loss of inflection means that inflections have a sharp reduction in Modern English relative to Old English and Middle English，but not that inflection has been extinct from the English language.

3.The Causes of the Loss of Inflection

3.1 Internal Causes of the Loss of Inflection

3.1.1 Phonetic Change

In the period of Old English，the root or stem of a word usually had the stressed syllable while the ending had the unstressed.The pronunciation of unstressed vowel mainly played the role of distinguishing the grammatical relationships and grammatical functions.Because of vowel reduction in the ending such as -a，-e，-o，-u in the period of Middle English as a result of the strengthening of the first syllable，the function of the unstressed ending had been weakened to a large extent and even lost its original syntax relationship and feature.For instance，the older ending -an，-on，were all spelled as -en，and then -n was further lost and only -e was left.Consequently，most inflectional endings had been abandoned in this process.

3.1.2 The Replacement of Grammatical Gender by Natural Gender

Natural gender had taken the place of grammatical gender，leading to the loss of inflection of noun which set people free from the complex system of word ending.When the upper class of England under Normans rule had to use only Latin，common people had the opportunity to make the reform of the English language for their use，contributing to the loss of unnecessary grammatical gender of noun and pronoun and then the disappearance of some related inflection of adjective.Thus the inflection had been greatly lost.

3.2 External Causes of the Loss of Inflection

3.2.1 Language Contact

Language contact is a direct cause of the change of inflection in English.The contact here is mainly with Norman French and Scandinavian.For one thing，“with extensive exposure to French but no standard or guidance，English grammar could only make its evolution naturally centering on semantic meaning and following the law of human language psychology，abandoning the miscellaneous changes in morphology and using simpler word order which complies with humans thinking feature to express ideas” .For another，the existence of totally different inflections in Scandinavian and in English resulted in the barrier in the communication between two peoples using their own language.What they had done is to eliminate the different inflections in the ending in both languages to get better understanding of each other.Finally，the numerous inflections had been vanished and the English language had been simplified to some degree.

3.2.2 The Social and Cultural Development and Progress

Language is the product of society and culture.On the one hand，the social development endows the language with endless driving forces and exuberant vitality as well as influences the gradual evolution of language.On the other hand，language is also a mirror of society，reflecting the progress and change of society，and language has also always been adjusting itself to follow the trend of social development.On account of advances in productivity since the period of Old English，the tendency of English had conformed to the trend of society and tends to meet the needs of increasingly fast pace，high speed and economy and convenience of social changes.Therefore，English had greatly removed the complex changes such as inflection of the endings，and turned to be more concise and practical.

4.Influences on the English Language

4.1 On the Micro Level

The abandonment of inflections gives rise to flexibility of the use of words and a fixed syntactic order in English.

About the flexibility，conversion is a case in point which is considered as a result of entire loss of most inflectional endings.“The almost entire loss of inflection in English has brought about a curious result in the possibility of our language，namely，the free interchangeableness of verb and noun” .In other word，words that once marked as either nouns or verbs can now be used in both way，adding more flexibility of the use of words.

4.2 On the Macro Level

for language itself

For one thing，the loss of inflection increases the economy and efficiency of the English language.The growing conciseness and simplicity makes English a more practical and natural language full of the force of expression and inflexibility，conveying the profound word meaning and indicating the relationship of words within limited changes in morphology.For another，inflectional simplicity enables English “stand out in the Indo-European Family and help it win a reputation of world language” .Among European language on the whole，English has gone further than others in the process of simplification.

5.Conclusion

It is important to note that we can neither take it that the loss of inflection contributes the transition of English from synthetic language to analytic language nor think that this transition leads to the reduction of inflection.After the language has experienced the changes and evolution in the long stretches of history，we could draw the conclusion of its development trend，which is the above-mentioned transition in the English language，and the loss of inflection is just one feature and reflection of that transition.Besides，with the knowledge of the causes and influences of inflection reduction，we could get a better understanding of the development of the English language and grasp its tendency accurately，which is of great importance for us to study English and have an extensive insight of the language.

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