【WhenonelooksbackuponthefifteenhundredyearsthatarethelifespanoftheEnglishlanguageheshouldbeabletonoticeanumberofsignificanttruths.Thehistoryofourlanguagehasalwaysbeenahistoryofconstantchange—att】

　　WhenonelooksbackuponthefifteenhundredyearsthatarethelifespanoftheEnglishlanguageheshouldbeabletonoticeanumberofsignificanttruths.Thehistoryofourlanguagehasalwaysbeenahistoryofconstantchange—attimesaslowalmostimperceptiblechangeatothertimesaviolentcollisionbetweentwolanguages.Ourlanguagehasalwaysbeenalivinggrowingorganismithasneverbeenstatic.Anothersignificanttruththatemergesfromsuchastudyisthatlanguageatalltimeshasbeenthepossessionnotofoneclassorgroupbutofmany.Atoneextremeithasbeenthepropertyofthecommonignorantfolkwhohaveuseditinthedailybusinessoftheirlivingmuchastheyhaveusedtheiranimalsorthekitchenpotsandpans. Attheotherextremeithasbeenthetreasureofthosewhohaverespecteditasaninstrumentandasignofcivilizationandwhohavestruggledbywritingitdowntogiveitsomepermanenceorderdignityandifpossiblealittlebeauty.

　　Asweconsiderourchanginglanguageweshouldnoteheretwodevelopmentsthatareofspecialandimmediateimportancetous.OneisthatsincethetimeoftheAnglo-Saxonstherehasbeenanalmostcompletereversalofthedifferentdevicesforshowingtherelationshipofwordsinasentence.Anglo-Saxon(oldEnglish)wasalanguageofmanyinflections.ModernEnglishhasfewinflections.Wemustnowdependlargelyonwordorderandfunctionwordstoconveythemeaningsthattheolderlanguagedidbymeansofchangesintheformsofwords.Functionwordsyoushouldunderstandarewordssuchasprepositionsconjunctionsandafewothersthatareusedprimarilytoshowrelationshipsamongotherwords.Afewinflectionshoweverhavesurvived.AndwhensomewordinflectionscomeintoconflictwithwordordertheremaybetroublefortheusersofthelanguageasweshallseelaterwhenweturnourattentiontosuchmatersasWHOorWHOMandMEorI.Thesecondfactwemustconsideristhataslanguageitselfchangesourattitudestowardlanguageformschangealso.Theeighteenthcenturyforexampleproducedfromvarioussourcesatendencytofixthelanguageintopatternsnotalwayssetinandgrewuntilatthepresenttimethereisastrongtendencytorestudyandre-evaluatelanguagepracticesintermsofthewaysinwhichpeoplespeakandwrite.

　　1．Incontrasttotheearlierl