Lecture 7 changes in the nominal system in middle english and new english

Lecture 7 changes in the nominal system in middle english and new english

List of principal questions:

1. 
   General survey of grammar changes in Middle and New English.
   
2. 
   The noun
   
   1. 
      Middle English
      
      1. 
         Morphological classification
         
      2. 
         Grammatical categories
         
   2. 
      New English
      
      1. 
         Morphological classification
         
      2. 
         Origin of irregular noun forms
         
      3. 
         Grammatical categories
         
3. 
   the adjective
   
4. 
   The pronoun
   
5. 
   The article
   

1. General survey of grammar changes in Middle English and New English

The grammar system of the language in middle and new English periods underwent radical changes. As we remember, the principal means of expressing grammatical relations in Old English were the following:

• 
  suffixation
  
• 
  vowel interchange
  
• 
  use of suppletive forms,
  

all these means being synthetic.
In middle and New English many grammatical notions formerly expressed synthetically either disappeared from the grammar system of the language or came to be expressed by analytical means. There developed the use of analytical forms consisting of a form word and notional word, and also word order, special use of prepositions, etc. – analytical means.
In Middle and New English we observe the process of the gradual loss of declension by many parts of speech, formerly declined. Thus in Middle English there declinable parts of speech: the noun, the pronoun and the adjective, against five existing in Old English (the above plus the infinitive and the participle). In New English the noun and the pronoun (mainly personal) are only parts of speech that are declined.

2. The noun

2.1. Middle English

1. 
   Morphological classification
   

In Old English there were three principal types of declensions: