OE personal pronouns had 3 persons, 3 numbers (sing, pl, dual) and 3 genders. Eg: ic – sing, wit – dual, wē – plural. Dual number – Germanic feature (wit – мы оба, git – вы оба).
Gender was in the 3rd person sing. Eg: hē – hēo – hit (m – f – n).
Cases: m f n
N ic þэīī hē hēo hit
G min þin his hire his
D mē þe him hire him
Acc me þe hine hie hit
1st pers. sg→2nd pers.sg→3rd pers. sg.
Many forms have survived in ME. Eg: “and I’ll love thee”.
In OE – a tendency toward harmony which increased in ME.
The fem. pronoun of the 3rd pers. and mascul. pron. of the 3rd per. could become identical. The language developed new ways:
1. The pl. “hie” is replaced by Sc (от скандинав.)“they” (13th);
2. The object case represented by Sc “them” (OE hem);
3. The fem “hēo” → shē (ME) → she (NE) (as hēo was homonymous to hē; hit. The language discriminated this form, “he” – survived.
4. dual number pron. have disappeared;
5. possessive pron have appeared from Germ.
6. the new pron. “there” appeared (Sc);
7. In NE:
· the pron of the 2nd pers. sg went out of use in the 17th cent → “you” for sg and pl, the 2nd pl “you” replaced “gē” OE.
· Late ME “she” is believed to have developed from the OE demonstrative pron of the femin. gender – “sēo”
· the other forms of OE “hēo” were preserved “hire/her” used in ME as the Obj. case and as a possessive pron. is a form of OE “hēo”. “Hers” was derived from “hire/here”.
The OE verb, its gram. categories and morphological types.
The OE verb had numerous persons, number cases, but fewer gram. categ. than Mod. verbs have.
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The verb-predicate agreed with the subj. in 2 gram. cat.:
1. number: sg/pl.;
2. person was shown in the Pres. Tense of the Ind. Mood sg. Eg: hē binderþ (he binds) – 3rd pers sg.
Mood:
1. Indicative – finde → Infin.- findan (sg)
2. Imperative – find
3. Subjective – finde
Tense: Present, Past.
Morphological types:
1. Strong verbs (purely of OE origin) form their Past tense by changing their root vowel. R. – беру – брал. Strong verbs represent an unproductive type.
4 forms: writ an (Infin), wrāt (Past sg), writon (Past pl), written (Past Participle).
2. Weak verbs form their tense with a help of –d/-t (dental suffix) → productive type; Germanic origin.
3 forms: maxean (Infin), maxode (Past sg), maxod (Participle II). Eg: maxodon – Past pl.
3. Preterent - Present (12th cent). Their present forms were once past tense forms. Eg: dugan (avail), cunnan (can), magan (may).
4. Anomalous (irregular). The forms are derived from different roots. Eg: bēon: ist (1st pers. sg), wæron (Past pl), wæst (Past sg.). Also: dōn (do), gān (go), willan (will).