Language change: Decay or growth

A. Language “going to the dogs.” In Modern English, ever fewer speakers are distinguishing lie (as in The pencil is lying on the table) from lay (as in I laid the pencil on the table). Similarly, few speakers spontaneously distinguish between disinterested (unbiased) and uninterested (finding nothing of interest in). Many bemoan this as evidence of decay. But just this kind of decay explains much of how Old English became even the most standardized, formal Modern English.

B. Losses of yore. For example, English once distinguished here from hither, there from thither, and where from whither. Now, these words are strictly archaic. German and related languages still use equivalent words—in German, ich bin hier (I am here) but I ask you Komm her. We can imagine that while these words were being lost in English, some may have complained that a “useful” distinction was being lost, but few of us consider the absence of those words a problem today.

C. Ring in the new? In fact, sometimes, when some English speakers attempt to “compensate” for such losses later on, we process the compensation as “wrong.” For example, you once was used only in the plural, and thou was used for one person. You was, specifically, the object form, and ye was the subject form. Thou lookest, ye look; I see thee, I see you. But today, we see such expressions as you all and you’uns as “wrong”! This shows that it is less loss that disturbs us than change itself.

D. The grass is always greener. The truth is that English has gained features all its own while losing other things, but this is clear only if we compare our language to its relatives, whereas losses are obvious even if we have no familiarity with other languages.

1. For instance, in Shakespeare’s time, while hither and thou were on their way out of the language, the use of -ing in the progressive was emerging. Before this, one said Right now, I sit in the chair— just the way most foreign languages we learn would—where we would now say Right now, I am sitting in the chair or Right now, I am building a house.

2. In this, English now has a feature that German and its sisters lack. Now, I sit in the chair usually means that one sits on a regular basis, while I am sitting in the chair means that one is doing it right now. Other Germanic languages—as well as Romance ones—do not make this distinction as clearly or as regularly as English does.