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1、暑期英语阅读每日练习（5） WhenonelooksbackuponthefifteenhundredyearsthatarethelifespanoftheEnglishlanguage,heshouldbeabletonoticeanumberofsignificanttruths.Thehistoryofourlanguagehasalwaysbeenahistoryofconstantchange—attimesaslow,almostimperceptiblechange,atothertimesa
2、violentcollisionbetweentwolanguages.Ourlanguagehasalwaysbeenalivinggrowingorganism,ithasneverbeenstatic.Anothersignificanttruththatemergesfromsuchastudyisthatlanguageatalltimeshasbeenthepossessionnotofoneclassorgroupbutofmany.『Atoneextremeithasbeenthepropert
3、yofthecommon,ignorantfolk,whohaveuseditinthedailybusinessoftheirliving,muchastheyhaveusedtheiranimalsorthekitchenpotsandpans.』①Attheotherextremeithasbeenthetreasureofthosewhohaverespecteditasaninstrumentandasignofcivilization,andwhohavestruggledbywritingitdo
4、wntogiveitsomepermanence,order,dignity,andifpossible,alittlebeauty. Asweconsiderourchanginglanguage,weshouldnoteheretwodevelopmentsthatareofspecialandimmediateimportancetous.OneisthatsincethetimeoftheAnglo-Saxonstherehasbeenanalmostcompletereversalofthediff
5、erentdevicesforshowingtherelationshipofwordsinasentence.Anglo-Saxon(oldEnglish)wasalanguageofmanyinflections.ModernEnglishhasfewinflections.Wemustnowdependlargelyonwordorderandfunctionwordstoconveythemeaningsthattheolderlanguagedidbymeansofchangesintheformso
6、fwords.Functionwords,youshouldunderstand,arewordssuchasprepositions,conjunctions,andafewothersthatareusedprimarilytoshowrelationshipsamongotherwords.Afewinflections,however,havesurvived.Andwhensomewordinflectionscomeintoconflictwithwordorder,theremaybetroubl
7、efortheusersofthelanguage,asweshallseelaterwhenweturnourattentiontosuchmatersasWHOorWHOMandMEorI.Thesecondfactwemustconsideristhataslanguageitselfchanges,ourattitudestowardlanguageformschangealso.『Theeighteenthcentury,forexample,producedfromvarioussourcesate
8、ndencytofixthelanguageintopatternsnotalwayssetinandgrew,untilatthepresenttimethereisastrongtendencytorestudyandre-evaluatelanguagepracticesintermsofthewaysinwhichpeoplespeakandwrite.』② 1.Incont
