Lecture 7 changes in the nominal system in middle english and new english
- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Personal Pronouns Old English Middle English New English Nominative Ic
- Gender As a grammatical phenomenon gender disappeared already in Middle English, the pronouns he and she
| Old English
Middle English New English |
Зōd Зood good |
betera bettre better |
|
betst best best |
It should be noted, however, that out of three principal means of forming degrees of comparison that existed in old English: suffixation, vowel interchange and suppletive forms, there remained as a productive means only one: suffixation, the rest of the means seen only in isolated forms. At the same time there was formed and developed a new means – analytical, which can be observed in such cases encountered, for instance, in the works of J. Chaucer, as:
Comfortable – more comfortable.
The pronoun
In old English all pronouns were declined, and the pronominal paradigm was very complicated. In Middle English the system was greatly simplified and nowadays what remained of the pronominal declension is mainly represented by the declension of the personal pronoun and on a small scale – demonstrative and interrogative (relative).
Case
The four-case system that existed in Old English gave way to a two-case system in Late Middle English and in New English. The development may be illustrated by the following scheme of the pronominal paradigm.
Personal Pronouns
Old English Middle English New English
Nominative Ic → Nominative I → Nominative I
Accusative mec
Dative mē } Objective me → Objective me
Genitive mīn
Possessive Pronouns → mine → mine
Gender
As a grammatical phenomenon gender disappeared already in Middle English, the pronouns he and she referring only animate notions and it – to inanimate.
Number
The three number system that existed in early Old English (singular, dual, plural) was substituted by a two number system already in late Old English.
5. The article
The first elements of the category of the article appeared already in Old English, when the meaning of the demonstrative pronoun was weakened, and it approach the status of an article in such phrases as:
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