Seminar 2

Phonetic and Grammatical Peculiarities of Middle English

The Outline of Seminar 2

1. Major dialects in Middle English (ME). Dialect changes of individual vowels.

2. Quantitative changes of stressed vowels in ME. Leveling of ME vowels: lengthening and shortening.

3. Monophthongization of diphthongs in ME and formation of new ME diphthongs.

4. Reduction of vowels in unstressed positions.

5. Orthography in ME.

6. General characteristics of ME grammar. Reduction of unstressed vowels and morphological changes connected with it.

7. The Noun. Changes within the system of its grammatical categories in ME.

8. Personal pronouns in ME. Establishing of the separate class of possessive pronouns. Changes within the class of demonstrative pronouns. Rise of the system of articles.

9. The Verb. Rearrangement of classes in ME. 10. Development of non-finite forms of verbs.

Recommended Literature

Obligatory:

1. Verba L. "History of the English Language".-„Мова книга", 2006. Pp.111-117; 118-122; 125-128; 130-141.

2. И. II. Иванова и др. «Практикум по истории английского язьїка». -М., 1985.

Theory Урок1О, р.70-77; Урок11, р.78-86; Урок12, р.86-93; Урок1З,

р.93-98

Texts for analysis Textl2 (p.73); Textl3 (p.80); Text14 (p.83); text 16-2І; Text 23

(p.97)

Assignments 1 (p.73); 2-12 (p.74); 16 (p.76); 12 (p.83); 14-16, 18-20 (p.84); 1, 8

(p.88); 10, 16 (p.89); 26 (p.90); 29 (p.91); 17 (p.97); 26, 27 (p.98) Exercises 1-3, 5-7 (p.77); 1-4 (p.85-86); 3 (p.92)

3. B. Ilyish. "History of the English Language".-M., 1973. Pp.142-144; 160-166; 167-169; 174-180; 180-187; 189-206.

3. Lectures on the material.

Additional Literature:

1. G. I. Stoudenets. "History of the English Language in Tables". – K., 1998. Tables 65-81.

2. T. A. Rastorguyeva. "History of English".-M.,1983. Pp.154-160; 184-188; 190-200(only changes referring to ME); 222-254 (only material on ME); 260-262;

262-264 (only material on ME); 267-276 (only material on ME).

Questions for Self-Testing:

1. What dialects can be distinguished in ME and how did they differ from OE dialects?

2. Compare OE and ME vowel systems. Which of the sounds disappeared? What new monophthongs and diphthongs appeared?

3. What happened to unstressed vowels and syllables in ME? How did it influence Mod. E.?

4. Speak of the changes which affected the OE sounds у, у, гг, 33, a, a in ME.

5. What changes took place within the system of consonants in ME?

6. How can you explain the discrepancy between the pronunciation and spelling in ME? How did it influence Mod. E.

7. What happened to the categories of gender in ME?

8. What changes affected cases of nouns in ME and what was the reason for these changes?

9. How did the category of number change in ME?

10. What changes characterize adjectives in ME?

11. What changes affected different classes of pronouns in ME?

12. How can you explain the appearance of the article system?

13. What changes within the verb conjugation can you name?

14. What factor promoted the rearrangement of classes of strong and weak verbs in ME?

15. What analytical forms developed in ME? How did it influence the grammatical structure of English?