Morphology. Parts of speech

1. General characteristics.

2. The noun. Nominal categories.

3. The nominal declension: a-, ja-, wa- stems; o-, jo-, wo- stems; i- stems; u- stems; n- stems; root stems; -r stems.

4. The pronoun. Personal pronouns. Demonstrative pronouns. Other groups of pronouns.

5. The adjective. The adjective declension. Degrees of comparison.

General characteristics.

The English language has gone a long way from an inflectional language it used to be in the Old English period to an analytical language it is now. OE possessed a well-developed morphological system made up of synthetic grammatical forms. The means of form building employed were as follows:

• grammatical endings or suffixes;

• sound alternations in the root-morpheme /mann – menn/;

• prefixes;

• suppletive forms /beon - wesan/.

Endings were used unrestrictedly in all the inflected parts of speech. The use of prefixes was confined to verbs. Suppletive forms were restricted to verbs, pronouns, adjectives. Sound alternations were represented by an interchange of vowels. Some parts of speech did not exist: modal words, particles, words of category of state. The noun, the pronoun, the adjective, and the verb had endings characterizing different grammatical categories. OE compared to Gothic greatly changed before the epoch of writing. In Gothic every case, every finite form of the verb has its endings. The picture is altered in OE.

E.g. Gr. lykos, L. lupus, Goth. wulfs, but OE wulf.

The Noun. Nominal categories.

Indo-European noun is composed of three parts: the root, the stem-forming suffix, the case-ending.

E.g. Goth. dative plural

dag-a-m	a – stem-forming suffix
gast-i-m	i – stem-forming suffix
sun-u-m	u – stem-forming suffix

L.	homo – homi-n-is	n – stem-forming suffix
Goth.	guma – gumi-n-s	n – stem-forming suffix
Russ.	знамя– знаме -н-и	n – stem-forming suffix

The paradigm of the noun included all the case forms of the noun. Stem-suffixes were the final factor of belonging to this or that paradigm. In Gothic the tripartite structure of nouns is obvious. In OE the stem-suffix and the inflexion are merged but there are certain traces of belonging to a definite paradigm. It is in the n-type where a stem-suffix remains intact.

OE noun has two numbers, four cases, three genders and traces of a division according to stem-suffixes. According to stem-suffixes nouns are divided into a-stems, ō-stems, u-stems, ī-stems, root-stems, etc. The division has a purely historical significance.

The Nominal Declension

Vowel stems constitute the strong or vocalic declension, n-stems and other consonant stems constitute the weak or consonant declension.

Table 2

Strong declension or vowel declension				Weak or consonant declension
M, N	F	M, F	M, F, N	M, F, N	M, F, N	M, F, N
-a- -ja- -wa-	-o- -jo- -wo-	-u-	-i-	-n-	Other consonant stems	Root stems

The majority of OE nouns belonged to a-stems, ō-stems, and n-stems. Nouns of other stems were less frequent. See the table of nominal declension, page 17.

Table 3

Masculine

Masculine

Neuter

-a-

-ja-

-wa-

-i-

Sing

NA

stān-

scip-

hrycZ-

here--

bearu--

hyll--

sife

hylt-

G

stānes

scipes

hrycZes

her(iZ)es

bearwes

hylles

sifes

hyltes

D

stāne

scipe

hrycZe

her(iZ)e

bearwe

hylle

sife

hylte

Plur.

NA

stānas

scipu

hrycZ(e)as

her(iZe)as

bearwas

hyllas

sifu

hylt-

G

stāna

scipa

hrycZ(e)a

her(iZe)a

bearwa

hyla

sifa

hylta

D

stānum

scipum

hrycZ(i)um

her(iZ)um

bearwum

hyllum

sifum

hyltum

stone

ship

ridge

army

forest

hill

sieve

handle

Neuter

Masculine

Feminine

-a-

-ja-

-wa-

-u-

Sing

NA

reced-

rīce

bealu-

sunu

duru

G

recedes

rīces

bealwes

suna

dura

D

recede

rīce

bealwe

suna

dura

Plur.

NA

reced-

rīc(e)u

bealwu

suna

dura

G

receda

rīc(e)a

bealwa

suna

dura

D

recedum

rīc(i)um

bealwum

sunum

durum

house

kingdom

evil

son

door

Feminine

-o-

-jo-

-wo-

-i-

Sing

NA

swaþu/e

brycZe

sceadu/we

hyd-

G

swaþe

brycZe

sceadwe

hyde

D

swaþe

brycZe

sceadwe

hyde

Plur.

NA

swaþa

brycZa

sceadwa

hyda

G

swaþa

brycZa

sceadwa

hyda

D

swaþum

brycZum

sceadwum

hydum

trace

bridge

shadow

hide

Masc.

Femin.

Neut.

Masc.

Femin.

Neut.

-n-

root-stems

-es-

Sing

NA

nama/an

cwene/an

ēaZe

man(n)-

hnutu

bōc-

lamb

G

naman

cwenan

ēaZan

mannes

hnute

bōce/ bēc-

lambes

D

naman

cwenan

ēaZan

men(n)-

hnyte

bēc-

lambe

Plur.

NA

naman

cwenan

ēaZan

men(n)-

hnyte

bēc-

lambru

G

namena

cwenena

ēaZena

manna

hnuta

bōca

lambra

D

namum

cwenum

ēaZum

mannum

hnutum

bōcum

lambrum

name

queen

eye

man

nut

book

lamb

4. The Pronoun.

OE pronouns were of different kinds: personal, two groups of demonstrative pronouns, interrogative, indefinite (possessive and relative appear later; reflexive pronouns are missing).

Table 4