Principal features of the gram structure of the Germ langs (noun, adj, v)

1 ) Grammatical structure

Both PG and the OG langs had a synthetic gram structure which means that the relationships bet the parts of the sentence were shown by the forms of the ws rather by their position or by auxiliary ws. One of the main processes in the development of the Germanic morph sys was the change in the w-structure.

The gram forms were built in the synthetic way (they expressed the gram mean by changing the forms of the w itself): by means of inflections, sound interchanges and suppletion [sə'pli;ʃ(ə)n].

2) Nouns.

A well-developed case sys with (4 cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative). Two number forms (singular, plural). Have the category of gender (feminine, masculine and neutral). The same categories: gender, case, number.

Acc to the ending of their stems 3 types of declension:

- a-stem (mostly masc and neutr); n-stem; root- declension (masc with the help of suff as well as by changing roots – man-men)

3) Adj Have: gender, case (Nomin< accus< dative, genitive+instrumental (творит), number. Have strong and weak declension (acc to the ending of the stem). The degree of comparison: suffixation and the comparative degree (ra-re); suff – est\ost for superlative [su'pɜːlətɪv] degree.

4) Verbs.

The Inf had 2 case forms: the common case (что делать) and dative case (с тем чтобы сделать – маркер окончание -enne) The use of the dative was limited. The finite forms could only be conjugated. 4 gram forms: category of person (3 person forms only in the singular; it was the characteristic of only indicative mood), number, tense (2: Pr and Past or Preterite), mood (3: Indicative, Imperative, Oblig). No future forms (instead Pr+an adv with the Future meaning). Morphologically: strong (7 classes); weak (3 classes); and others. The main difference lies in the means of building the principal forms: The strong vs built their principal forms with the help of root vowel interchanges plus certain grammatical endings.

The weak vs are a specifically Germanic innovation because the device used in building their principal forms is not found outside the Germanic group. They built the Past tense and Participle II by inserting a special suffix between the root and the ending.

Вопрос №6 Periods in the history of English

The evolution of Eng in the 15 hundred years it possible to single out 3 main periods:

Old English (OE); Middle English (ME); New English (NE)

1. Early OE (from the West Germanic invasion of Br till the beg of writing) from the 5 to 7-th cent. The 1-st pre-written or pre-historical period oral communication.

2. OE or Anglo-Saxon The 2-nd from the 8till the end of 11-th (written OE).

3. Early ME – after 1066 (the Norman 'conquest) covers 12, 13 and half of the 14-th (Fr and Scand influence).

4. Late or Classical ME from the later 14-th till the end of the 15-th (the restoration of Eng)

5. Early NE – from the introduction of printing to the age of Shakespeare 1475-1660. the formation of the National Eng lang.

6. NE or Mod Eng -The age of normalization and correctness the mid of 17-th to the 18-th.

7. Late NE or Mod Eng the 19-th and 20-th acquired all the qualities of the Nat Eng Lang.

Old English

It began in the 5^th century, when the German tribes settled in the British Isles. Originally the social and economical sys was tribal and slave owning, which gradually developed into a feudal one. The main historical events are:

- the introduction of Christianity;

- the Scandinavian invasion.

Word-stock (WS) Originally OE was a purely G lang. The WS comprised 3 layers of native ws:

1^st – IE words (mother, father)

2^nd – CG words (to rise, to sink)

3^d - OE proper (hlaford - lord)

There were some borrowings from the Celtic lang, denoting mostly place-names (London, York) and names of rivers (the Thames). After their settlement in Britain the G. tribes came into contact with the Celtic tribes, but the Celtic borrowings are very few (Loch Ness).

Latin borrowings are: Latin ws borrowed by Ancient G. tribes when they lived on the continent of Europe; borrowed by the Anglo-Saxon tribes from Romanized Celts on the British Isle; Latin words which penetrated into OE after the introduction of Christianity.

The gram forms were built in the synthetic way (they expressed the gram mean by changing the forms of the w itself): by means of inflections, sound interchanges and suppletion [sə'pli;ʃ(ə)n].

2) Nouns. A well-developed case sys with (4 cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative). Two number forms (singular, plural). Have the category of gender (feminine, masculine and neutral). The same categories: gender, case, number. Acc to the ending of their stems 3 types of declension: - a-stem (mostly masc and neutr); n-stem; root- declension (masc with the help of suff as well as by changing roots – man-men)

3) Adj Have: gender, case (Nomin< accus< dative, genitive+instrumental (творит), number. Have strong and weak declension (acc to the ending of the stem). The degree of comparison: suffixation and the comparative degree (ra-re); suff – ost for superlative degree.

4) Verbs.

The Inf had 2 case forms: the common case (что делать) and dative case (с тем чтобы сделать – маркер окончание -enne) The use of the dative was limited. The finite forms could only be conjugated. 4 gram forms: category of person (3 person forms only in the singular; it was the characteristic of only indicative mood), number, tense (2: Pr and Past or Preterite), mood (3: Indicative, Imperative, Oblig). No future forms (instead Pr+an adv with the Future meaning). Morphologically: strong (7 classes); weak (3 classes); and others.

Middle English

ME began in the 9 and lasted till the 14 cent (the introduction of printing). ME corresponds to the well developed feudal system. Local dialects were distinguished. There were no common national lang. The period after the Norman conquest is the period of French as it was the official lang of the country (300 years). Eng existed only in oral form. That’s why there developed a gap in the written history of the Eng lang.

Later on there appeared some records in local dialects and in the 14^th century (at the time of Choser) the London dialect developed as literary lang. On the basis of this dialect the national Eng lang developed. Geographically Eng spreads to cover the entire territory of England.

As a result of the Scandinavian Invasion and the Norman conquest the WS lost its purely G. character. There took place numerous borrowings and replacements.

Scandinavian	OE
Taken	niman
Callen	clypian

W-formation was slightly affected by the foreign influence.

Phonetics.

The G. system of w-stress was partly lost due to the addition French borrowings with a different system of w-accentuation and due to the stress shift in the course of the assimilation vowels underwent positional changes in quantity, which undermined the original contrast between long and short vowels. Some OE cs and consonant clusters gave rise to new kinds of cs in ME which had not existed before.

E.g. sibilants and affricates. [, d, t, ]

Some OE diphthongs (ea, ea, eo, eo) were monophthongized and new diphthongs appeared.

Spelling

It was affected by French spelling. This influence is mainly seen in the introduction of diagraphs (диграф): -th (French); -“oo” (French)

Grammar was considerably simplified. This period is called a period of leveled endings, as the inflexions were greatly reduced especially in the nominal system (nouns, adjs & pronouns) Now declensions were practically lost; adjs retained some traces of declension. Great changes took place in the system of vs, as there began to develop analytical forms.

New English

Began in the 1475. 2 per: early New English (15^th – 18^th centuries) mod Eng (18^th – up to now)

Is the period of growth of capitalism, Renaissance, the growth of the nation and the national lang. WS grew both due to w-formation and borrowings from the classical and contemporary langs.

Phonetics.

The shift of the w-stress continues and the original Germanic system is distinguished. Great changes especially the Great Vowel Shift (all long monoths in NE XV-XVII underwent a qualitative change. affected the vowels and as changes were not reflected in spelling, there developed a gap between the written and spoken ws. Consonant changes, such as losses and vocalizations produced similar results: Kniht – knight

Grammar There were a few changes in the nominal system Adjs lost the last traces of declension. Former case relations were performed mostly by analytical means such as prepositions and w-order.

Simplification also affected the verb. Some personal endings were lost and the division of strong vs into classes was lost as well. Analytical forms continued to develop and embraced both finite and non-finite vs. There appeared new grammatical categories.

This period is called a period of Lost Endings. (a theory of Henry Sweete).