Mid. E. grammar. Noun. Adjective. Pronoun.

THE NOUN. In OE there were 9 declensions which depended on the type of stem. During the MEP the E noun lost its types of declensions so that towards the end of the MEP (by the 14^th century). They didn’t distinguish declensions. 4 case system turned into 2 case system: N. fissh fisshes (goes back to the -a-stem declension)G. fisshes fisshes (goes back to the -a-stem declension) The plural and the genitive of the unified paradime goes back to the old «-as reduction» of the -a-stem declension. As to the irregular nouns, they have always been irregular (non-standard). Together with the loss of endings the E noun lost its category of grammatical gender. The weak -n-stems declension resisted analogy longer than all the other stems. The development of the noun declension lasted for about 3 centuries and the -n-stems resisted unification longer than other stems. Now: ox - oxen (настоящее только это), brother - brethren, child - children and in some dialects: horse - horsen. THE ADJECTIVE. The adjective began to lose its markers even earlier than the noun. The process began at the end of the OEP. The development went along the same lines: that is - the reduction of the endings led to dropping and simplification. The adjective lost the distinction between the strong and the weak declension. The adjective markers of agreement with the noun. Towards the end of the MEP we find only some relics of the old system of declension: in Chaucer’s works - -e good e - the plural of the strong declension, but it was already occasional. As to the degrees of comparison alongside the old system with the suffixes er, est there developed a new way - the analytical way with «more, most». The development was to some extent influenced by the French language. So towards the end of the MEP we had two parallel ways of the formation of decrees of comparison. However even at the beginning of the NEP there wasn’t a fixed rule as to which of the two forms to use. (Shakespeare - most beautifullest). THE PRONOUN. In OE the groups of pronouns were fewer in number. The system of the personal pronouns had changed greatly. In the peace of the old 4-case system we find a 2-case system in ME. The old nominative case has remained up to now except for «you» («зew») in which the old N. r. form was replaced by the objective case form. (старая форма «це» - is used in dialects and in spoken language) as to u>thou (библия + возвышенный стиль) The modern objective case developed from the oblique cases (the D. and the A.); with some of them (I) the D. case became the unified form, with some (it) the unified for was the A. Case.As to the G. case it left the case system and gave rise to a new group of possessive pronouns.As to the Dem. Pronouns like all the other declinable parts of speech they lost their case forms, their forms of the gender: they have preserved only the pl./sg. forms: this - these / that-those. There was the group of interrogative pronouns. They only changed their pronunciation. Generally they have always be the same. The other groups developed during the MEP. Some of them developed as compound words.

 

Mid. E. grammar. Verb.

THE VERB. NON - FINITE FORMS. The development of the non-finite forms: the infinitive and the participles may well be described as gradual verbalization. The OE Infinitive was a verbal noun. During the MEP the Infinitive lost all its noun features except for some of his syntactic functions. It’s suffix -an was reduced and dropped -an>-en>-e>zero. As to the particle «to» it was a preposition. With the meaning of purpose (у мод. (после них) глаголов нет «to»б т.к. они не выражают значение цели). The same is true of the participle. The EP lost its nominal morphological characteristic (and the category of agreement with the noun). Alongside this loss the Infinitive and the P. began to develop verbal features and categories. The Gerund is a much later development. FINITE FORMS. The classes (4 classes in OE) of verbs were in the main preserved. The speakers still distinguished the classes. But there were certain very important developments. The number of strong verbs was reduced from 300 in OE to 200 in ME. At the same time some strong verbs became weak, they lost their vowel gradation and took on the dental suffix: to help, to climb, to walk and some others. At the same time there was a mixture of classes: strong verbs remained strong, but they changed their class, their gradation (4^th <>5^th - more often): to speak (5 в 4). As to the weak verbs the 3^rd class stop existing: two classes. The suffixes were -du and -ed. The most regular was the second weak class - it later gave us the standard suffix -ed for standard or regular verbs. The MEP witnessed the development of weak verbs which then turned into regular verbs. A great number of verbs joined the class of regular verbs. The new formations which joined the group of regular verbs were French (and some other languages). As to the preterit-present verbs they preserved their modal meaning, but their paradime had changed greatly. Towards the end of the MEP they lost their infinitive and participles and turned into defective verbs. Some of their old forms were dropped or gave rise to other words: cunning < can (cunnan); own (owe) < ought (aзan). As to the suppletives they have always been the same: to be, to go. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANALUTICAL FORMS. In OE there were only 4 grammatical categories. They are the Tense (Present & Preterit), the Mood, Person and Number. All of them were synthetic. But during the MEP some other categories which were mainly analytical appeared. One of the first to develop was the category of time correlation. In OE there were many constructions with the verb «to have» in its main meaning +an object +an attribute, which referred to the object (to have something done). Later this construction developed into the Perfect Form. We see it when Participle II lost its agreement with the object and when later the object took the position after the Participle. This process was going in the middle of the MEP => «to have done something». The Continuous forms developed in the same way. From a free form combination to a morphological form. In the beginning it was a compound nominal predicate with the verb «to be» as a link-verb and Participle I as a predicative. And originally it didn’t express a process, it meant only permanent characteristic as a Present indefinite now. The Continuous form acquired its modern meaning much later in the 16^th century, even after Shakespeare. The process which took place was the same as with the Perfect form: originally the Participle agreed with the subject, but then it lost its category of agreement and became a part of the Continuous form. The same process took place with the Passive which developed from a free word combination to a fixed morphological form. Originally it was a compound nominal predicate with the verb «to be» + Participle II as a predicative. Gradually the Participle lost its agreement with the subject of the sentence. As we know the Future Tense Form was not represented in the OE and developed only during the MEP. It developed from a combination which was a compound verbal modal predicate with the verb «shall» and «will». But even in the time of Shakespeare this combination could be still to either as a modal predicate or as a Future form. The Perfect Continuous Form was one of last to appear. It appeared at the beginning of the NEP. And the last to appear was the Continuous form of the Passive which began developing only in the 19^th century. In OE we may find passive infinitive, though no passive forms far finite forms may be found. Other analytical non-finite forms developed during the MEP, but only after corresponding analytical forms of finite forms had developed. The gerund was also one of the last to appear. There are several theories concerning the development of the Gerund and the most current of them is that it developed as a mixture of Participle I and the verbal noun with the preposition «on» in the function of the predicative (He was on hunting. OE).

NEP.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTIC. The NEP begins in the 15^th century. So the NEP is the period from the 15^th century up to our time. There are subdivisions here: - early NE, which is the period of the development of the E nation as a nation from the political point of view and the period of the formation of the uniform literary language and of the establishing of the literary norm.Unlike the borderline between the ancient times and the OEP, and the borderline between the OEP and the MEP when there some cataclysms, battles and so on, the borderline between the MEP and the NEP is not so historically marked. There were no cataclysms, nevertheless some very important events and particular events took place in the country and new conditions came into play.As early as the 13^th century within the feudal system new economic relations began to take shape. The villains were gradually superseded by copy-holders (пожизненные арендаторы). New industries and trade began to develop; new crafts appeared and these very new crafts began to be separated from agriculture. Together with the decay of the feudal system, the development of new relations within the feudal system, the development of new industries and crafts new social groups into being: artisans, rich merchants, owners of workshops, money lenders - they were typical of the capitalist system. It couldn’t but change the situation in the country in all its spheres. The most crucial periods were the 15^th and the 16^th centuries. A new mode of production developed rapidly, new industries sprang into existence. The development of industry required new resources and new markets. So it was a period of great projects, of great maritime projects. All this changes influenced the cultural situation in the country: different regions of the country, which had been isolated before, were brought together through commerce, transportation, trade. It stimulated the necessity to have greater contacts and a uniform language.The process of the formation of the uniform language was further supported by printing. The first printer was William Caxton (the second part of the 15^th century). He founded the first printing house (before that all written matter was written in hand). Caxton printed his first book in 1476 in the London dialect which strengthened it.At first glance it may seem that the process of the development of the national language was a peaceful process, but in reality it was a painful process. Many people, who were more or less concerned with writing: writers, scholars, had their hands in the development of the language. They had heated discussions as to how the language should develop.There were 3 main groups of opinions: 1)the language can borrow as many words from other languages as possible => it would enrich the language. 2)strongly against borrowings: English should remain a monosyllabic language as it was.(Спенсер - Fair e Queen - старался показать, что он приверженец старины). 3)«leave the language as it is and let it develop by itself» (это не цитата!).Unification: it was a period of normalization, which achieved not by itself, but through the activity of many people. As to the spelling, they were trying to work out certain general fixed rules of spelling, but at the beginning of the NEP the spelling varied from writer to writer yet. For example, Sir John Cheke doubled his vowels to mark their length. The first grammars and the first comprehensive and fundamental dictionaries appeared. Bullocar «Brief Grammar for English». New genres sprang into existence during the early NEP: the genre of newspaper - Still and Edison - they started newspaper in England. Sentimentalism, realistic novels began to develop. It was then that the novel was born. (рубет 17-18 вв.).