Hedging Para Sentence

Expressio grap
ns h
Num
ber
Modal 1 No understanding of the English language can be very satisfactory without a
Auxiliary notion of the history of the language.
Verbs
Modal 1 The
Auxiliary history of English is long and complicated, and we can only hit the high spots
Verbs .
Modal 2 The history of our language begins a little after A.D. 600. Eveverything befor
Auxiliary e that is pre-
Verbs history, which means that we can guess at it but can't prove much.
Modal 3 For convenience, we can refer to them as AngloSaxons.
Auxiliary
Verbs
Adverbs 4 Probably some of the AngloSaxons
wandered into the Empire occasionally, and certainly Roman merchants and t
raders traveled among the tribes.
Adverbs 9 Bede's
account is plausible enough, and these were probably the main lines of the
invasion.
Adverbs 10 He was a
Romanized Celt, a general, though probably not a king.
Indicators 12 Old English runs from the earliest records—i.e., seventh century—
of degree, to about 1100; Middle English from 1100 to 1450
quantity, or 1500; Modem English from 1500 to the present day.
frequency
, and time
Indicators 16 The long struggle ended in 877 with a treaty by
of degree, which a line was drawn roughly from the northwest of England to the
quantity, southeast.
frequency
, and time
Adverbs 17 Probably speakers of English could understand, more or less, the
and language of the newcomers who had moved into eastern England.
Modal
Auxiliary
Verbs
Indicators 17 These words were borrowed first by
of degree, the eastern and northern dialects and then in the course of hundreds of years
quantity, made their way into English generally.
frequency
, and time
Modal 19 We may now have an example of Old English.
Auxiliary
Verbs

Modal 20 If you pronounce the vowel in bit with your lips rounded, you may approach
Auxiliary it.
Verbs
Modal 22 Some of this grammar we can see in the Lord's Prayer.
Auxiliary
Verbs
Modal 23 Most of the Old
Auxiliary English words are what we may call native English: that is, words which
Verbs have not been borrowed from other languages but which have been a part of
English ever since English was a part of Indo-European.
Indicators 24 Of the words in The American College Dictionary only
of degree, about 14 percent are native.
quantity,
frequency
, and time
Modal 26 One might wonder why, after the Norman Conquest, French did not become t
Auxiliary he national language, replacing English entirely.
Verbs
Modal 27 Some of the changes—in sound structure and grammar—
Auxiliary would no doubt have taken place whether there had been a Conquest or not.
Verbs
Modal 32 But a week of good study should put one in
Auxiliary touch with the Middle English poet Chaucer.
Verbs
Modal 32 Indeed, you may be able to make
Auxiliary some sense of Chaucer straight off, though you would need instruction in
Verbs pronunciation to make it sound like poetry.
Indicators 35 Since we still keep the Middle English system of spelling these
of degree, words, the differences between Modem English and Middle English are often
quantity, more real than apparent.
frequency
, and time
Adverbs 38 Probably the average educated American today has more words
from French in his vocabulary than from native English sources, and more fr
om Latin than from French.
Modal 39 Such forms as hath and doth have been replaced by has I
Auxiliary and does', "Goes he hence tonight?" would now be "Is he going away tonight
Verbs ?"; Shakespeare's "Fie, on't, sirrah" would be "Nuts to that, I Mac."
Modal 40 But it is very doubtful that this pronunciation would be
Auxiliary understood at all by Shakespeare.
Verbs
Modal 41 The history of English since 1700 is filled with many movements and
Auxiliary counter movements, of which we can notice only a couple.
Verbs
Modal 41 There was much talk of an academy which would rule on
Auxiliary what people could and could not say and write.
Verbs
Modal 43 As English came to replace Latin as the language of scholarship, it was felt th
Auxiliary at one
Verbs should also beable to control and dissect it, parse and analyze it, as one could
Latin.
Indicators 43 This activity is not often popular with school children, but it is sometimes
of degree, an interesting and instructive exercise in logic.
quantity,
frequency
, and time
Indicators 44 But probably the most important force on the development of English in the
of degree, modern period has been the tremendous expansion of English
quantity, speaking peoples.
frequency
, and time
Adverbs 44 Now it is perhaps the greatest language of the world, spoken natively by over
a quarter of a billion people and as a Second language by many millions
more.