Lecture 1 Introduction
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System of Declensions
Though the stem-suffixes merged with the root, declensions were still existent in OE and were based on the former IE stem-suffixes: a-stem – the most numerous declension (M, N):
Traces of a-stem in Modern English: -es (M, Sg, Gen) ‘s (student’s book) – Possessive Case; -as (M, Pl, Nom) -(e)s (watches, books) – plural ending for the majority of nouns; - (N, Pl, Nom) zero ending (deer, sheep) – homogeneous Sg and Pl. n-stem (M, N, F):
Traces of n-stem in Modern English: -an (M, Pl, Nom) -en (oxen, children, brethren) – irregular plural ending. root-stem – never had stem-suffix, words consisted of just a root (M, F):
Traces of n-stem in Modern English: root-sound interchange (M, Pl, Nom) root-sound interchange (men, geese, mice) – irregular Plural. Middle English Most changes occurred to the Noun in ME. System of Declensions In ME the declensions disappeared due to the reduction of endings. As far as the Case endings were reduced to one or two, there remained no distinction between the Case forms of different declensions and there was no necessity any more to distinguish these declensions. Gender The Gender in OE was not supported semantically. It was only a classifying feature for the declensions and as far as the declensions disappeared there was no necessity to preserve the Gender. It disappeared by the 11th – 12th c. Number The quantity of the Number endings was also reduced as far as the declensions disappeared. The markers of the Plural became more uniform (-s, -en, root-sound interchange). The preference of the consonantal endings can be explained by the fact that the vowels were more apt to change and reduction then the consonants that in general proved to be more stable. Case The Case system was contracted in ME due to the reduction of endings. As far as the Case endings were reduced to one or two, there remained no distinction between the Case forms and there was no necessity any more to distinguish 4 Cases:
Causes for Decay of Case System: Influence of the Scandinavian Dialects that were grammatically simpler in comparison with OE Dialects and this influence led to the minimization of grammar. Phonetic reduction of final unstressed syllables (inflections). Consequences of Case System Decay: The number of prepositions started to grow to help to replace the former Case forms. As far as there was no distinctions between the Cases, the distinction between the Subject and the Object of a sentence was lost fixed word order appeared (The Subject almost always took the first place and was followed by the Object). H/w: 1. After reading the material of the lecture, use the glossary of “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука and analyse the following nouns: ēaζan, sunu, daζas, fæder, brēðer. Plan of analysis: initial form; type of declension; Gender; Case; Number; Modern English equivalent; etymology; translation. 2. Find all the nouns in the abstract from “Beowulf” on p. 8 in “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука and analyse them according to the plan given above. 3. Find the proofs of the changes in the Noun in ME in the abstract from the “Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer (lines 1-14) on p. 33-34 in “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука. Lecture 16 The Development of the Adjective See Lecture 14 for general information on the Adjective. Historically the Adjective is a younger class of words as compared to the Noun. So it has borrowed many of its categories and inflections from the Noun and the Pronoun. The Adjective had the following categories: Gender It still existed in OE but was the first category to disappear in the 11th c. Case At the end of OE Period Instrumental Case fell together with Dative Case due to the homonymy of inflections (see the table below); All other cases disappeared by the end of the 13th c. also due to the homonymy of inflections (see the table below). System of Declensions The system of declension was inherited from PG. Adjectives had two declensions that had to do also with the category of determination – strong (definite) and weak (indefinite) – and unlike nouns practically all adjectives could be declined both ways (by strong and weak declension). So an adjective did not belong to a particular declension, its declension depended on several factors that will be mentioned below:
There were exceptions from the rule: some adjectives were declined always strong (eall (all), maniζ (many), ōþer (other)), others – always weak (ilca (same)). The endings of the adjectives showed the agreement between a noun and an adjective. There were a lot of homonymous forms (e.g. -um (OE) – N, Sg, Dat, strong; N, Pl, Dat, strong; N, Pl, Dat, weak; N, Pl, Instr, strong; N, Pl, Instr, weak; -e (ME) – N, Pl, strong; N, Sg, weak; N, Pl, weak) the distinction between the declensions faded in ME and the declensions disappeared as far as there was no necessity any more to keep them. Number There were some homonymous forms in Singular and Plural in both declensions (see the table above: e.g. -um (OE) – N, Sg, Dat, strong; N, Pl, Dat, strong; -e (ME) – N, Sg, weak; N, Pl, weak), so the category of Number disappeared together with the system of declensions. The Adjective lost many of its categories in ME as far as all the inflections were lost. Thus it became an unchangeable part of speech. Degrees of Comparison In OE there were three ways of formation of the degrees of comparison:
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