4. The oe Adjectives.

Like nouns, OE adjectives had 3 genders and 2 numbers. The category of case in adjectives differed from that of nouns: in addition to the 4 cases of nouns they had one more case, Instrumental. It was used when the adjective served as an attribute to a noun in the Dative case, expressing an instrumental meaning – e.g.:

lýtlewerede – "with (the help) of small troop".

OE adjective had the following typological features:

1) the grammatical agreement with the noun it modified;

2) declension according to the weak and strong forms which depended on the definiteness or indefiniteness of the nouns;

3) distinguishing between the degrees of comparison.

a) Adjectives of Weak and Strong Declension.

The relations between the declensions of nouns, adjectives and pronouns are shown in the following chart:

PRONOUNS NOUNS

↓ a-stems ō-stems n-stems (weak)

↓ ↓ ↓

ADJECTIVES OF STRONG DECLENSION

ADJECTIVES OF WEAK DECLENSION

The difference between the strong and weak declension was formal (depending on the stem-forming suffixes) and semantic: the strong forms were associated with the meaning of indefiniteness (roughly corresponding to the meaning of the modern indefinite article), the weak forms – with the meaning of definiteness (corresponding to the meaning of the definite article). The formal and semantic opposition between the two declensions of adjectives is regarded by some historians as a grammatical category of "definiteness/ indefiniteness" (A.I. Smirnitsky).

Most adjectives could be declined in both ways. The adjective had a strong form when used predicatively and when used attributively without any other determiners, e.g.:

Þā menn sindon 3ōde “the men are good”,

mid hnescre beddin3e “with soft bedding”.

The weak form was employed when the adjective was preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the Gen. case of personal pronouns, e. g.:

Þæt wēste land "that uninhabited land",

Þý betstan lēoþe "with the best song";

And also when the adjective formed a part of a direct address:

Þū lēofa drihten "thou dear Lord".

Table 3

Declensions of adjectives

Singular

Strong ( pure a- and ō-stems) M N F	Weak M N F
Nom. blind blind blind Gen. blindes blindes blindre Dat. blindum blindum blindre Acc. blindne blind blinde Instr. blinde blinde blindre	blinda blinde blinde blindan blindan blindan blindan blindan blindan blindan blinde blindan blindan blindan blindan

Plural

Nom. blinde blind blinda, -e Gen. blindra blindra blindra Dat. blindum blindum blindum Acc. blinde blind blinda, -e Instr. blindum blindum blindum (NE blind)

All genders blindan blindra, -ena blindum blindan blindum

b) Degrees of Comparison.

Most OE adjectives distinguished between 3 degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. The regular means used to form the comparative and the superlative from the positive were the suffixes –ra and –est/ ost. Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by an interchange of the root-vowel. Some adjectives (3ōd, lýtel, micel) had suppletive forms.

Table 4

Means of form-building	Positive	Comparative	Superlative	NE
Suffixation	soft	softra	softost	soft
Suffixation + vowel interchange	lon3	len3ra	len3est	long
Suppletion	3ōd lýtel micel	bettra lǽssa māra	bet(e)st lǽst mǽst	good little much