- •Contents
- •List of abbreviations
- •Preface
- •Introduction
- •Germanic languages
- •Classification of germanic languages
- •Ancient germanic tribes and their classification
- •Germanic alphabets
- •Some phonetic peculiarities of germanic languages
- •Consonants
- •The First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law)
- •Ііі. Act The ie aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh changed in Gc to corresponding unaspirated plosives b, d, g, e.G.
- •Verner`s Law
- •Word – Stress
- •Stressed vowels
- •Germanic Fracture (Breaking)
- •Gradation or Ablaut
- •Unstressed Vowels
- •Grammatical peculiarities of germanic languages
- •The Noun
- •The Adjective
- •The Verb
- •Gothic Strong Verbs
- •Vocabulary
- •Old english
- •2.1. Periods in the History of English
- •2.2. Historical Background
- •2.2.1. The Roman Conquest of Britain
- •2.2.2. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
- •2.3. Alphabet and Pronunciation
- •Old English Alphabet
- •2.4. Old English Dialects and Written Records
- •2.5. Some Phonetic Changes of the Old English Period
- •2.5.1. Vowels
- •2.5.2. Old English Breaking
- •2.5.3. Palatal Mutation (I-mutation)
- •Monophthongs
- •Diphthongs
- •2.5.4. Back or Velar Mutation (Velarization)
- •2.5.5. Diphthongization of Vowels after Palatal Consonants
- •2.5.6. Lengthening of Short Vowels
- •2.5.7. Unstressed Vowels
- •2.5.8. Consonants
- •2.5.9. Palatalization of Velar Consonants
- •2.5.10. Assimilation, Metathesis, Doubling of Consonants, Loss of Consonants
- •2.6. Old English Morphology
- •2.6.1. Old English Noun: General Characteristics
- •Vowel Stems
- •Consonant Stems
- •2.6.2. Vowel Stems Strong Declension
- •2.6.3. Consonant Stems: Weak Declension, Minor Declensions
- •2.6.4. Root-Stems
- •2.6.5. Pronouns
- •2.6.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •2.6.5.2. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •Declension of the Demonstrative Pronoun þes
- •2.6.6. Adjectives
- •2.6.6.1. Strong Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.2. Weak Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.3. Degrees of Comparison
- •2.6.7. Adverbs
- •2.6.7.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •2.6.7.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •2.6.8. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of verbs
- •2.6.8.1. Strong Verbs
- •2.6.8.2. Weak Verbs
- •Conjugation of Weak Verbs
- •2.6.8.3. Preterite-Present Verbs
- •Conjugation of Preterite - Present verbs
- •2.6.8.4. Anomalous verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb dōn
- •Indicative mood
- •2.6.8.5. Suppletive Verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon
- •Indicative mood
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān
- •Indicative mood
- •2.7. Old English Syntax
- •2.8. The Old English Vocabulary
- •2.8.1. Word-Building
- •Suffixation
- •Prefixation
- •Composition
- •2.8.2. Borrowings
- •Latin borrowings
- •Celtic Borrowings
- •Middle english
- •3.1. Historical Background
- •3.1.1. Scandinavian Invasions
- •3.1.2. The Norman Conquest
- •3.2. Middle English Dialects Rise of the London Dialect
- •3.3. Early Middle English Written Records
- •3.4. Word Stress
- •3.5. Vowels
- •3.5.1. Unstressed Vowels
- •3.5.2. Stressed vowels
- •3.5.2.1. Quantitative Vowel Changes
- •3.5.2.2. Qualitative Vowel Changes
- •Monophthongs
- •3.5.2.3. Monophthongization of Old English Diphthongs
- •3.5.2.4. Rise of New Diphthongs
- •3.6. Evolution of Consonants in Middle English
- •3.7. Spelling Changes in Middle English
- •3.7.1. Changes in the Designation of Vowels
- •3.7.2. Changes in the designation of Consonants
- •3.8. Changes in the Grammatical System
- •3.8.1. Preliminary Remarks
- •3.8.2. The Noun
- •3.8.2.1. Gender
- •3.8.2.2. Number
- •3.8.2.3. Decay of Noun Declensions
- •3.8.3. The Adjective
- •3.8.3.1. Declension of Adjectives in Late Middle English
- •3.8.3.2. Degrees of Comparison
- •3.8.4. Adverbs
- •3.8.4.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •3.8.4.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •3.8.5. The Pronoun
- •3.8.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •3.8.5.2. Possessive pronouns
- •3.8.5.3. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •3.8.5.4. Rise of the Articles
- •3.8.6. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of Verbs
- •Conjugation of Verbs Past Indicative
- •3.8.5.1. Changes in the Morphological Classes of Verbs in Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.1. Strong Verbs
- •3.8.6.2. Weak Verbs
- •3.8.6.3. Preterite-present Verbs
- •3.8.6.4. Suppletive verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.5. Rise of Analytical Forms
- •Future Forms
- •Perfect Forms
- •Passive Forms
- •Continuous Forms
- •3.8.7. Development of the Syntactic System
- •3.9. Middle English Vocabulary Changes
- •3.9.1. Native Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.2. French Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.3. Scandinavian Borrowings
- •3.9.4. French Borrowings
- •New english
- •4.1. The formation of the English National Language
- •4.2. Changes in Pronunciation
- •4.2.1. Development of Unstressed Vowels
- •4.2.1.1. Loss of unstressed –e [ə]
- •4.2.1.2. Loss of Vowels in Intermediate Syllables
- •4.2.2. Stressed Vowels
- •4.2.2.1. The Great Vowel Shift
- •4.2.2.2. Shortening of Long Vowels
- •4.2.2.3. Development of Short Vowels
- •4.2.2.4. The Development of the New Short [л]
- •4.2.2.5. Changes in Diphthongs
- •4.2.2.6. Vowel Changes under the Influence of Consonants
- •4.2.3. Consonants
- •4.2.3.1. Voicing of Voiceless Consonants
- •4.2.3.2. Loss of Consonants Development of [X]
- •Simplification of Consonant Clusters
- •4.2.3.3. Change of [d] to [ð] when Close to [r]
- •4.2.3.4. Development of Sibilants and Affricates in Early New English
- •4.3. Changes in Spelling
- •4.4. Local Dialects in New English
- •4.4.1. Scottish Dialect
- •4.4.2. Northern Dialects
- •4.4.3. Western, Central and Southern Dialects
- •4.5. Some Essential Grammatical Changes of the New English Period: Morphology
- •4.5.1. The Noun
- •4.5.1.1. Number
- •4.5.1.2. Cases
- •4.5.2. The Pronoun
- •4.5.2.1. Personal Pronouns
- •4.5.2.2. Possessive Pronouns
- •4.5.3. The Adjective
- •4.5.4. The Adverb
- •4.5.5. The Verb
- •4.5.5.1. Personal Endings
- •4.5.5.2. Changes in Strong Verbs
- •4.5.5.3. Changes in Weak Verbs
- •4.5.5.4. Rise of Invariable Verbs
- •4.5.5.5. Changes in Preterite-Present Verbs
- •4.5.5.6. Irregular Verbs
- •4.6. New English Syntax
- •4.7. New English Vocabulary Changes
- •4.7.1. Latin Loanwords
- •4.7.2. Latinization of French Loanwords
- •4.7.3. Greek loanwords
- •4.7.4. French Loanwords
- •4.7.5. Mixed vocabulary of New English
- •4.7.6. Italian and Spanish Loanwords
- •4.7.7. Russian Loanwords
- •4.8. The Expansion of English
- •4.9. The English Language in the usa
- •4.9.1. Some peculiarities of American Pronunciation
- •4.9.2. American Spelling
- •4.9.3. Some peculiarities of American Grammar
- •4.9.4. Vocabulary of American English
- •Conclusion
- •Bibliography
2.7. Old English Syntax
The syntactic structure of a language is interrelated with its morphology. In a highly inflected language a word mostly carries with it indications of its class, of its function in the sentence, of its relations to other words. It depends but little on its position in the sentence, and it may do without special function words. Thus, in the OE sentence Ohthere sǣde his hlāforde… the ending –e of hlāforde showed that the noun was in the dative case and that it fulfilled the function of indirect object. With the loss of inflections, the dependence on the word order grows. Much of difference between the OE and modern syntax is of that nature. In the ModE translation «Ohthere said to his lord…» the relations formerly expressed by the dative case ending are now denoted with the help of the preposition to.
The syntax of the sentence in OE was relatively simple and reflected mostly a spoken language.
The order of words in a sentence was comparatively free as contrasted with the rigid word order of ModE. It often depended on logical and stylistic factors rather than grammatical constraints.
The most widely used patterns of word order in declarative sentences were the following:
(1) Direct word order: the subject preceded the predicate, as in modern English, e.g.
Ōhthere sǣde his hlāforde… Ohthere said to his lord…
(2) Inverted word order: the predicate preceded the subject, as in modern Russian. Such word order took place when the sentence began with an adverbial modifier or object, e.g.
Þā fōr hē norþryhte… - then he travelled Northward
Fela spella him sǣdon þā Beormas … – The permians told him many stories …
(3) The so-called synthetic word order or the «the framing structure» (subject…predicate) mostly found in subordinate clauses, as in modern German. The subject came at the beginning of the clause, the predicate – at its end, all the secondary parts enclosed between them, e.g.
Ōhthere sǣde his hlāforde, Ælfrēde cyninʒe, þæt hē ealra Norðmonna norþmest būde. – Ohthere said to his lord, King Alfred, that he had lived farther North than all Northmen.
In interrogative sentences the predicate preceded the subject, e.g.
hwæt sceal ic sinʒan? – What shall I sing?
The subject of a sentence or clause was frequently unexpressed in OE as the form of the predicate and the context showed the doer of the action, e.g.
Þā com hē…tō þæm tūn-ʒerefan…; sæʒde him, hwylce ʒife hē onfēnʒ - then he came to the town-sheriff, (he) said to him what gift he had received.
There were some types of impersonal sentences alien to ModE but close to the Russian мне хочется, меня знобит, e.g.
Him þūhte - it seemed to him (cf.methinks)
In OE a multiple negation was perfectly normal. The most common negative particle was ne placed before the verb. It was often accompanied by the negative words, mostly nāht or nōht (>not) or nā / nō (never), e.g. hit nā būton ʒewinne næs (næs = ne wæs) - it was never without war.
Nān ne dorste nān þinʒ āscian – nobody dared ask anything (none)
Ne con īc nōht sinʒan – I cannot sing anything.
In verb word combinations grammatical government was of much greater importance in OE than in ModE. Some verbs required a dependant noun in the genitive case, others - in the dative (an indirect object), e.g.
bīdan windes (wait for the wind); hys mēder (to his mother).
Transitive verbs required a dependant noun in the accusative case (a direct object), e.g.
ēoð wyrcan (compose songs), andsware onfōn (receive an answer).
An object either followed or preceded the verb.
The comparative freedom of word order in OE is evident not only in the predicative word combinations but in attributive combinations of words too. It is by no means rare to find modifiers following their nouns instead of preceding them, especially in direct address, e.g.
wine mīn – my friend, Bēowulf lēofa – dear Beowulf.
A genitive attribute usually preceded the noun it modified but sometimes it followed it, e.g.
Norþmanna land – the Northmen’s land, sunu Beanstanes – Beanstan’s son.
Noun modifiers agreed with their head noun in gender, number and case, e.g. on þǣm ōþrum þrīm daʒum (dative, pl, masculine) in those three days
Prepositions (which usually preceded the nouns or pronouns they governed) often followed them, sometimes at a considerable distance, e.g.
þā stōd him sum man æt – then some man stood near him.
The OE interrogative pronouns hwæt (what), hwilc (which), hwa (who) etc. were not used as relative pronouns. Relative clauses were usually introduced by the invariable þe alone or with a demonstrative pronoun, e.g.
þā com hē…to þæm tūn-ʒerefan sē þe his ealdorman wæs – then he came to the town sheriff the one that was his alderman.
OE complex sentences often involved correlation. There were many sets of correlative elements among the commonest were þā… þā, þonne…þonne, swā… swā, e.g.
þā hē ðā þās andsware onfēnʒ, þā onʒan hē sōna sinʒan… – when he received this answer, (then) he soon began to sing,
þonne hē ʒeseah þā hearpan him nēalecan, þonne ārās hē for scome from þǣm symble. ..– when he saw the harp approach him, he rose for shame from the feast;
swā feor swā hē meahte -as far as he could.
The subjunctive mood was an additional means of indicating subordination in OE complex sentences. It was typical of clauses of condition, concession, cause, result, purpose, indirect questions. It was by no means rare in independent sentences or principal clauses, e.g.
Him wǣre betere þǣt hē nǣfre ʒeboren wǣre – It would have been better for him if he had never been born; þēah man swā nē wēne – although people do not think so; hē wolde…fandian hū lonʒe þæt land norþryhte lǣʒe – he wanted to find out how far that land stretched to the North.