Middle English Grammar. Changes within the Nominal Parts of Speech. Changes within the System of Verb.

Part 1: Get ready for a test on the theme: “Middle English Phonology”.

Use materials for Seminar5(the previous one).

 

 

A sample of the test:

TEST 7. Card N...

1. Insert the missing sound and letter and explain:

OE hyll - ME hill, h_ ll, h_ ll or State whether the root vowel is short or long in in the following of ME words: ME first (OE fyrst); ME now (OE nu).

2. Give the ME spelling: OE fāh ME ____; OE sceort ME_____.

3. State what changes occured in the OE words and explain their causes: OE cepte - ME kepte; OE word -ME word.

4. Give the ME word and explain: OE east - ME ___; OE we3 - ME ___.

5. Explain the origin of the diphthongs: ME tahte, grey.

6. Give the spelling of the words in ME: OE dea0 -ME __; OE feld - ME ____.

 

 

Part 2: Middle English Grammar.Changes within the Nominal Parts

Of Speech. Changes within the System of the Verb.

 

The Outline of Seminar 6

 

Points for Discussions:

1. General Characteristics of ME Grammar.

2. Changes within the Grammatical Categories of the Noun:

a. Gender b) Case c) Number.

3. Changes within the Noun Declensions.

4. The Adjective. Changes within the Grammatical Categories. Degrees of Comparison.

5. The Influence of the Reduction of Unstressed Vowels upon the Declination of Nouns and Adjectives.

6. Personal Pronouns in ME. Changes within the Morphological Categories.

7. The Appearance of Possessive Pronouns.

8. The Situation within the Class of Personal Pronouns Connected with the Appearance of their Parallel Forms in ME.

9. Demonstrative Pronouns in ME. Changes within the Class.

10. Other Classes of Pronouns.

11. Rise of the System of Articles.

12. Changes in the Verb of Conjugation.

13. Strong Verbs. Rearrangement of Classes.

14. Weak Verbs. Rearrangement of Classes. Other Changes.

15. Preterite-Present Verbs. Leveling of Endings. Phonetic Changes of

their Forms.The Remnants of the Verbs in ModE.

16. Development of Analytical Forms:

a) Passive;

b) Future;

c) Perfect;

d) Continuous.

17. Development of Non-Finite Forms of Verbs.

 

 

Recommended Literature

Obligatory 1. Lectures on the theme.

2. Verba L. History of the English Language.-Nova Knyha,

2004.

P.118-122;125-128;130-141.

3. B. Ilyish. History of the English Language.-Л.,1973.

P.174-179;180-183;185-186.

4. И. П. Иванова и др. Практикум по истории

английского языка.-М.,1985.

 

TheoryTexts for analysisAssignmentsExercises

Les.11,12,13, pp.78-93 Text13, p.80 12, p.83 1-4, p.85-86

14-16,18-20, p.84

Text14, p.84 17, p.97 3, p.92

26,27, p.98

 

Text16-21, p.88-91 1,8, p.88

13-16, p.89

Text22, p.95 26, p.90; 29, p.91

 

Additional: 1. T. A. Rastorguyeva. History of English.-M.,1983.

P.220-294(choosing only material on ME).

2. G. I. Stoudenets. History of the English Language in

Tables.-K.,1998.

Tables 75-81.

 

Questions for Self-testing:

1. What factors prove that the grammatical category of gender continues to decay in ME?

2. Which of the nominal grammatical categories were the first to decay?

3. Which of the cases of nouns fell together in ME and what was the reason for that?

4. What factors promoted the reduction of cases within the system of the Noun and the Adjective in ME?

5. How did the Genitive case of nouns develop in ME?

6. Was the process of the development of declensions the same in different dialects?

7. What new class of pronouns appeared in ME?

8. What changes occurred within the system of demonstrative pronouns in ME?

9. What article was the first to appear in ME and what factors promoted its rise?

10. What is the connection between the rise of articles, development of pronouns and the decay of the declensions of adjectives?

11. Did any analytical forms develop within the system of the nominal part of speech in ME?

12. What new form building means developed within the system of the Verb in ME?

13. What changes characterize the present tense paradigm in ME? In what does it differ from ModE?

14. How did the plural endings of the present tense develop in ME?

15. Which of the classes of verbs (strong or weak) are more productive in ME? Why?

16. What changes affected the classes of weak verbs in ME?

17. What changes affected the classes of strong verbs in ME?

18. How many basic forms of verbs existed in OE? How did they develop in ME? How did it influence ModE?

19. Which of the preterite-present verbs that existed in OE went out of use in ME?

20. What changes affected the verbs 'should' and 'would' in ME?

21. What can you say about the rise of Passive, Future, Perfect and Continuous forms in English? Why did the forms appear only in ME but not earlier?

Seminar 7