Вопрос 36 The evolution of nouns. The rise of the articles

OE The OE noun had two grammatical categories: number and case. There were five major cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and instrumental.Общее количество типов склонения 7: 1) гласные основы: -a-, -ō-, -i-, -u-, 2) основы на согласный: -n-, -s-, -r-.OE nouns distinguished three genders: Masc., Fem. and Neut. Old English nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak nouns are easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their declensional system. Strong (a,o,i,u -stem). Weak decl - n -m,f,n. es -n. room-stem (Root-stemm formed some cases not by an inflexional ending, but by the chance of the root vowel due to mutation)-no form suffixes. Mutation was used to define number and gender of noun. Stem - part of the word comparasing(connected) root and stem.

ME – Noun have no gender. 2 group exist in ME in Pl form. The one is the former a-declention and n-decl, which of former feminine noun(weak decl). The root-decl. has lost some words, but it cont to exist. The noun has 2 cases: the Common and Possessive. The weak decl. has no case forms at all. Noun was rejected into reduction of their flexion. All vowels endings –e-. OE a-stem, became the productive type. Grammatical gender was lost and difference between Weak and Strong decl. disappeared. (-n)/: -s- became for Pl all nouns (for G). Some nouns retain Pl with o-inflexions. For root-stem nouns their mutated forms were used only in Pl. Weak decl. –n- express the Pl.

The rise of the articles is English Causes: 1.loss of strong & weak declensions of adjectives - articles wereemployed to show definiteness & indefiniteness.2.word order: It is a book. The book is interesting.Definite articles -> mascul, singular "se"Indefinite article -> an (= one)(numeral). It had 5 case declension -> in.Middle English cases were lost, 13th century an > oon/one -> a/an

Вопрос 37 The evolution or pronoun. OE Pronouns in OE were subdivided into following categories: personal (now I, you), demonstr (this, that), interrogative (who, which), possesive (my, his), indefinite (one, some), negative (no+body). In OE personal pron. Had 3 persons, 1,2 had 3 numbers: Sg, Pl, dual. 3P. Sg, Pl had 3 genders in Sg. – m,f,n. ME – Person. Pron 1P change Ich into Early NE I. 2P –ME thou/thow into NE -thou/ye, 3P –ME m-he, f-he/she, n-hit, it into NE – he, she, it. The forms of the dual number of the 1st and 2nd p. went into disuse in Early ME. two cases fell together— Dat. and Ace. — into what may be called the Obj. case but its distinction from the Nom. case was preserved. In Late ME the paradigm of personal pronouns consisted of two cases: Nom. and Obj.

The OE Gen. case of personal pronouns split from the other forms and turned into a new class of pronouns — possessive. In ME possessive pron lost thir declention. Some possessive pronouns had two variant forms in ME: myne/my,our(e)/ours, etc.

Appears a new type of pron – reflexive. The appeared from oblique case-forms of personal pronouns+ME Possesive+ adjective self.

Demonstrative Pronouns. There were two demonstrative pronouns in OE: the prototype of NE that, which distinguished three genders in the sg. And had one form for all the genders in the pl. and the prototype of this. They were declined like adjectives according to a five-case system: Nom., Gen., Dat., Acc., and Instr. In ME they lost category of case and gender, preserve only number. The0theo-thes-this –Sg and these-Pl. Weak form of Dem. Pron was used as a definite of the noun/formal indicator of noun.. The rise of the articles is EnglishCauses: 1.loss of strong & weak declensions of adjectives - articles were employed to show definiteness & indefiniteness. 2.word order: It is a book. The book is interesting. Definite articles -> mascul, singular "se" in the 13th c. the uninflected oon/one and their reduced forms an/a Indefinite article -> an (= one)(numeral). It had 5 case declension -> in. Middle English cases were lost, 13th century an > oon/one -> a/an

OE demonstrative and interrogative pronouns became thesource of a new type of pronouns — relative. Relative pron – joined in subordinate clauses(from interog. Pron)

Вопрос 39 The evolution of adjective. In OE the adjective was declined to show the gender, case and number of the noun it modified; it had a five-case paradigm and two types of declension, weak and strong. In ME lost all its grammatical categories with the exception of the degrees of comparison. The first category to disappear was Gender, which ceased to be distinguished by the adjective in the 11th c.

The number of cases shown in the adjective paradigm was reduced: the Instr. case had fused with the Dat. by the end of OE; In the 13th c. case could be shown only by some variable adjective endings in the strong declension (but not by the weak forms); towards the end of the century all case distinctions were lost.

Adjectives lost agreement with the noun, but the weak ending -e still remained.

Degrees of Comparison -In OE the forms of the comparative and the superlative degree, like

all the grammatical forms, were synthetic: they were built by adding the suffixes -ra and -estl-ost, to the form of the positive degree. In ME the comparative degree is formed with the suffix -er, and superlative with the suffix – est.

The alternation of root-vowels in Early NE survived in the adjective old, elder, eldest, where the difference in meaning from older, oldest, made the formal distinction essential.

Вопрос 34 The evolution of consonant English consonants were on the whole far more stable than vowels. A large number of consonants have probably remained unchanged through all historical periods. Thus we can assume that the sonorants [m, n, l], plosives [p,b, t, d] and also [k, g] in most positions have not been subjected to any noticeable changes. The most important developments in the history of English consonants were the growth of new sets of sounds, - affricates and sibilants.