The Development of the Adjective

See Lecture 14 for general information on the Adjective.

Historically the Adjective is a younger class of words as compared to the Noun. So it has borrowed many of its categories and inflections from the Noun and the Pronoun.

The Adjective had the following categories:

 

Gender

It still existed in OE but was the first category to disappear in the 11^th c.

Case

· At the end of OE Period Instrumental Case fell together with Dative Case due to the homonymy of inflections (see the table below);

· All other cases disappeared by the end of the 13^th c. also due to the homonymy of inflections (see the table below).

System of Declensions

The system of declension was inherited from PG. Adjectives had two declensions that had to do also with the category of determination – strong (definite) and weak (indefinite) – and unlike nouns practically all adjectives could be declined both ways (by strong and weak declension). So an adjective did not belong to a particular declension, its declension depended on several factors that will be mentioned below:

 

Type of Declension	Strong(definite)	Weak(indefinite)
Borrowed inflections	from a-stemando-stem	from n-stem
Factors for distinguishing type of declension	– Adj used attributively without any determiners (demonstrative pronouns); – Adj used predicatively.	– Adj preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or Genitive Case of a noun;
Gender	Neuter	Neuter
Number	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
OE Cases	Nominative	blind	blind	blinde	blindan
Genitive	blindes	blindra	blindan	blindra
Dative	blindum	blindum	blindan	blindum
Accusative	blind	blind	blinde	blindan
Instrumental	blinde	blindum	blindan	blindum
ME	Cases disappeared	blind	blinde	blinde	blinde

 

There were exceptions from the rule: some adjectives were declined always strong (eall (all), maniζ (many), ōþer (other)), others – always weak (ilca (same)).

The endings of the adjectives showed the agreement between a noun and an adjective. There were a lot of homonymous forms (e.g. -um (OE) – N, Sg, Dat, strong; N, Pl, Dat, strong; N, Pl, Dat, weak; N, Pl, Instr, strong; N, Pl, Instr, weak; -e (ME) – N, Pl, strong; N, Sg, weak; N, Pl, weak) à the distinction between the declensions faded in ME and the declensions disappeared as far as there was no necessity any more to keep them.

 

Number

There were some homonymous forms in Singular and Plural in both declensions (see the table above: e.g. -um (OE) – N, Sg, Dat, strong; N, Pl, Dat, strong; -e (ME) – N, Sg, weak; N, Pl, weak), so the category of Number disappeared together with the system of declensions.

 

The Adjective lost many of its categories in ME as far as all the inflections were lost. Thus it became an unchangeable part of speech.

Degrees of Comparison

In OE there were three ways of formation of the degrees of comparison:

 

Way of formation	Positive Degree	Comparative Degree	Superlative Degree
inflections	soft	softra	softost
root-sound interchange + inflections	lonζ	lenζra	lenζest
suppletion	ζōd	bettra	betest

 

In ME the following changes happened:

· In most cases inflections -er, -est were used to form the comparative and the superlative degrees;

· Root-sound interchange fell into disuse (l o ng – l o nger – l o ngest), though in some cases it was preserved as an exception from the rule (e.g. old – elder – eldest; far – further – furthest);

· A new way of formation of the degrees of comparison appeared:

more + Adj (comparative) || most + Adj (superlative)

It was applicable to all adjectives and was interchangeable with -er, -est way of formation till 17^th – 18^th c. In NE, during the Normalisation Period, the modern rule appeared and this way was applicable only to a certain group of adjectives.

Lecture 17

The Development of the Pronoun. The Rise of Articles

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns belong to an ancient class of words that goes back to two Indo-European roots – se and to. In OE the sound [Ө] started to dominate over the sound [s] due to the pressure of the system (the forms with the sound [Ө] were more numerous (see the table below)).

Demonstrative pronouns in OE changed in Gender, Number, Case:

 

Pronoun in ModE	Demonstrative Pronouns in OE
Case	Masculine, Sg	Feminine, Sg	Neuter, Sg	Plural
that	Nom	se*	sēo*	þ æ t*	þa
Gen	þes	þ ǽ re	þ æ s	þara
Dat	þ æ m	þ ǽ re	þ æ m	þam
Acc	þone	þā	þ æ t	þa
Instr	þý*	þ ǽ re	þý	þam
this	Nom	þes	þeos	þis*	þās
Gen	þisses	þisse	þisses	þissa
Dat	þissum	þisse	þissum	þissum
Acc	þisne	þās	þis	þās
Instr	þissum	þisse	þys	þissum

 

In ME the Case system disappeared due to the fact that there were some homonymous forms (see the table above: e.g. þ ǽ re – F, Sg, Gen; F, Sg, Dat; F, Sg, Instr; þa – Pl, Nom; Pl, Acc; þisse – F, Sg, Gen; F, Sg, Dat) and due to phonetic reduction.

 

In NE the Gender was lost due to the fact that there were some homonymous forms (see the table above: e.g. þes/þ æ s – M, Sg, Gen; N, Sg, Gen; þ æ m – M, Sg, Dat; N, Sg, Dat; þissum – M, Sg, Dat; N, Sg, Dat) and the following changes happened to the pronouns marked with * in the table above:

· se (M, Sg, Nom) – turned into the definite article “the” (discussed more particularly in the point “Rise of Articles” below);

· sēo (F, Sg, Nom) – turned into the personal pronoun “she” (discussed more particularly in the point “Personal Pronouns” (changes in the 3^rd person) below);

· þ æ t (N, Sg, Nom) – remained as the unchangeable demonstrative pronoun “that”;

· þis (N, Sg, Nom) – remained as the unchangeable demonstrative pronoun “this”;

· þý (M, Sg, Instr) – in OE was used in the comparative constructions like “the sooner…the better” but in NE was not distinguished any more phonetically and merged with the unchangeable form of the definite article “the”.

The only category that was left in the demonstrative pronouns was the Number (e.g. ModE this – these, that – those).

 

Rise of Articles

The articles have to do with the category of Determination (definiteness/indefiniteness).

Causes for Rise of Articles:

1. In OE the there were two declensions of adjectives – strong (definite) and weak (indefinite) – and the inflections of these declensions indicated whether the noun that followed the adjective was definite or indefinite. At the end of the ME Period the declensions of the Adjective disappeared and there was a necessity to find another way to indicate the definiteness/indefiniteness of a noun. Thus the articles appeared.

2. In OE the word-order was free because inflections were employed to show the relations of the words in a sentence. In ME and NE the majority of the inflections disappeared and the word-order became fixed. This meant that the first place in a sentence was usually occupied by the theme (information already known à marked with the definite article) and the second place – by the rheme (new information à marked with the indefinite article).

Definite Article

As it was mentioned above, the definite article appeared from the OE demonstrative pronoun se (M, Sg, Nom) from the paradigm of the OE demonstrative pronoun “that” because it was often used to indicate a definite object or notion.

 

Indefinite Article

The indefinite article appeared from the OE numeral ān (one) and had the meaning of “oneness” (it still indicates only nouns in Sg, i.e. nouns indicating one object or notion).

In OE ān had 5-case paradigm that was lost in ME and only one form was left – oon/one. Later it was employed in the building of the indefinite article a/an.

 

Personal Pronouns

See Lecture 14 for the categories of the personal pronouns.

Personal Pronouns possessed (and still do) a very vivid Indo-European feature – suppletivity (i.e. they build their forms with the help of different roots (see also Lecture 4)).

Personal pronouns in OE changed in Gender, Number, Case, Person:

 

Pers.	Case	Number
Singular	Plural	Dual
1st	Nom	ic	wē	wit
Gen	min	ūre	uncer
Dat	mē	ūs	unc
Acc	mec/mē	ūsic	uncit
2nd	Nom	þu*	ζē*	ζit
Gen	þin	ēower	incer
Dat	þe	ēow*	inc
Acc	þec/þe	ēowic	incit

 

 

Pers.	Case	Gender, Number
M, Sg	F, Sg	N, Sg	Plural
3rd	Nom	hē*	hēo/hīo*	hit*	hēo/hīe*
Gen	his	hire	his	hira
Dat	him	hire	him	him
Acc	hine	hīe	hit	hēo/hīe

 

Later the following changes happened to the personal pronouns (some of them are marked with * in the table above so that one can trace the connection easily):

 

Gender

Genderisstill preserved(he, she, it) in ModE but is often denied by scholars because it is expressed lexically and practically has nothing to do with grammar.

2. Cases:

· In ME the Genitive Case turned into a new class of pronouns – Possessive Pronouns (e.g. ModE I (pers.) – mine (possess.); you – yours, he – his, she – her, etc.);

· The Dative and the Accusative Cases fell together and formed the Objective Case. Thus in ME there were only two cases left in the personal pronouns – Nominative and Objective (e.g. ModE I (Nom) – me (Obj); he – him, she – her, etc.).

Number

Dual formsdisappeared in ME. In NE the category of Number disappeared in the 2^nd person of the personal pronouns (see the explanation below).

 

4. 3^rd person

As far as in the Early ME many forms in the 3^rd person coincided phonetically and often caused confusion and difficulties in communication, the following changes occurred:

 

Pers.	Gender	OE	Early ME	Late ME	Comments
3rd	M, Sg	hē à	he à	he	preserved original form
F, Sg	hēo/hīo à	he à	she	As far as it coincided with M, Sg and Plural forms, a new word was found – derived from the demonstrative pronoun sēo (F, Sg, Nom) – to distinguish the forms.
N, Sg	hit à	hit à	it	preserved original form, lost initial [h]
Plural	hēo/hīe à	he/hi à	they	As far as it coincided with M, Sg and F, Sg forms, a new word was found – a Scandinavian borrowing – to distinguish the forms.

 

5. 2^nd person

Pers.	Number	OE	ME	Comments	NE
2nd	Sg	þu à	thou à	Fell out of use due to the French etiquette (it forbade impolite “thou” form, so it was replaced with the polite “ēow” form).	ēow (Pl, Dat)(you)
Pl	ζē à	ye à	Coincided phonetically with wē à was dropped

 

Thus in NE the category of Number disappeared in the 2^nd person of the personal pronouns.

Lecture 18

The Development of the Verb

See Lecture 14 for the categories of the Verb in OE.