- •МThe old Germanic langs, their classification and principal features
- •2. The common features of Germanic langs
- •The Scandinavian invasion and its effect on English.
- •The Norman Conquest and its effect on English.
- •Principal oe & me written records
- •Spelling changes in me
- •Oe sound system. Vowel & consonant changes in oe.
- •Monophthongs in the history of English
- •12. Consonant changes in the history of English
- •14. Oe noun system
- •13. Form-building means in the history of English
- •15. The simplification of the noun declension in English
- •16. The development of personal pronounce in the history of English
- •17. The development of the adj in the history of English
- •18. The development of demonst pronouns
- •19. Oe verbal system
- •20. Oe weak verbs and their further development
- •21. Oe strong verbs & their further dev-t
- •22. Oe preterite-present & anomalous verbs & their further development
- •23. Changes in the verb conjugation in the e
- •24. The rise of analytical forms within the verbal system in e
- •25. Verbals in the history of English
- •26. The cause of changes in the morphol-l system in me &ne
- •Diphthongs in the history of English
- •27. The principal features of oe syntax
- •28. The main trends in the development of e syntax
- •29. Oe vocabulary & its etymological character-cs
- •30. The main trends in word-formation in e
- •31. Borrowing as a source of the replen-t of e vocabulary in me & ne
15. The simplification of the noun declension in English
Most changes occurred to the Noun in ME. System of Declensions: In ME the declensions disappeared due to the reduction of endings. As far as the Case endings were reduced to one or two, there remained no distinction between the Case forms of different declensions and there was no necessity any more to distinguish these declensions.
Gender: The Gender in OE was not supported semantically. It was only a classifying feature for the declensions and as far as the declensions disappeared there was no necessity to preserve the Gender. It disappeared by the 11th – 12th c.
Number: The quantity of the Number endings was also reduced as far as the declensions disappeared. The markers of the Plural became more uniform (-s, -en, root-sound interchange). The preference of the consonantal endings can be explained by the fact that the vowels were more apt to change and reduction then the consonants that in general proved to be more stable.
Case: The Case system was contracted in ME due to the reduction of endings. As far as the Case endings were reduced to one or two, there remained no distinction between the Case forms and there was no necessity any more to distinguish 4 Cases. (Common, Genitive (Possessive))
Causes for Decay of Case System: 1)Influence of the Scandinavian Dialects that were grammatically simpler in comparison with OE Dialects and this influence led to the minimization of grammar. 2)Phonetic reduction of final unstressed syllables (inflections). Consequences of Case System Decay: 1)The number of prepositions started to grow to help to replace the former Case forms. 2)As far as there was no distinctions between the Cases, the distinction between the Subject and the Object of a sentence was lost fixed word order appeared (The Subject almost always took the first place and was followed by the Object).
16. The development of personal pronounce in the history of English
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:
The pl. “hie” is replaced by Sc (от скандинав.)“they” (13th);
The object case represented by Sc “them” (OE hem);
The fem “hēo” → shē (ME) → she (NE) (as hēo was homonymous to hē; hit. The language discriminated this form, “he” – survived.
dual number pron. have disappeared;
possessive pron have appeared from Germ.
the new pron. “there” appeared (Sc);
In NE: 1)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. 2) Late ME “she” is believed to have developed from the OE demonstrative pron of the femin. gender – “sēo” 3)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”.