Lin Session 3 OE grammar PDF

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Old English: Grammar Characteristics of Old English  Synthetic language  Inflection on nouns, adjectives verbs  Strong and weak declension of adjectives  Strong and weak forms

OE 2/3

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Why do we have inflections? oWord order in OE relatively free oRelations between words largely indicated by inflections (to mark the words for their function) oVarious word orders possible, but certain patterns occur more often than others oGrammar of OE resembles modern German

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What are inflections? oAffixes (in English: suffixes) that denote grammatical information on e.g. Number, person, tense, case (provide grammatical information) Not in modern English because of fixed word order

1. Two classes of inflectional languages: 1. Analytic • few inflections/affixes, grammatical relationships expressed through word order – extensive use of auxiliaries & prepositions •

Mandarin Chinese, Modern English

2. Synthetic • •

many inflections carrying information on grammatical relationships – relations of words in a sentence largely indicated by inflections Latin, German, Old English

2. Inflections on nouns Nouns 

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Linguistics features relevant in Old English: o

Number: Singular, Plural

o

Case: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, sometimes Instrumental

o

Gender: feminine, masculine, neuter

strong vs. weak declension classes: o strong: noun stem in Proto-Germanic ends in vowel o weak: noun stem in Proto-Germanic ends in consonant ▪

subdivision within each type according to gender: feminine, masculine, neuter

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minor declension classes (e.g. root/consonant declension)

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The case system is somewhat simpler than that of Latin and some of the other Indo-European languages. There is no ablative, and generally no locative or instrumental case, these having been merged with the dative. There is a vowel declension and a consonant declension, also called the strong and weak declensions, according to whether the stem ended in Germanic in a vowel or a consonant, and within each of these types there are certain subdivisions It is apparent from these examples that the inflection of the noun was much more elaborate in Old English than it is today. Even these few paradigms illustrate clearly the marked synthetic character of English in its earliest stage.

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Grammatical Gender  As in Indo-European languages generally, the gender of Old English nouns is not dependent upon considerations of sex. Although nouns designating males are often masculine and those indicating females feminine, those indicating neuter objects are not necessarily neuter. Examples noun declension classes:

a) a-stem declension (strong) (masculine) Number Case DAY Singular Nominative se dæg

Plural

Genitive

þæs dæges

þæs cyninges

Dative

þæǣm dæge

þæǣm cyninge

Accusative

þone dæg

þone cyning

Instrumental

þy dæge

þy cyninge

Nominative

þā dagas

þā cyningas

Genitive

þāra daga

þāra cyninga

Dative

þæǣm dagum

þæǣm cyningum

Accusative

þā dagas

þā cyningas

There are a lot of similarities between this and modern German Words behave in a regular way b) n-stem declension (weak) (masculine) Number Case OX Singular Nominative se oxa

Plural

-a

Genitive

þæs oxan

-an

Dative

þæǣm oxan

-an

Accusative

þone oxan

-e

Nominative

þā oxan

-an

Genitive

pāra oxena

-a

Dative

þæǣm oxum

-ena

Accusative

þā oxan

-an

c) Minor declension: root/consonant declension (masculine) Number Case FOOT Singular Nominative se fōt

Plural

KING se cyning

Genitive

þæs fōtes

Dative

þæǣm fēt

Accusative

þone fōt

Nominative

þā fēt

Genitive

pāra fōta

Dative

þæǣm fōtum

Accusative

þā fēt

3. Adjective Inflection:

Plural in OE  day king – declension astem  oxen declension n-stem o foot – root /consonant declension Moderns  Days king regular plural  Oxen irregular plural  Feet irregular plural (vowel change)

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An important feature of the Germanic languages is the development of a twofold declension of the adjective: one, the strong declension, used with nouns when not accompanied by a definite article or similar word (such as a demonstrative or possessive pronoun), the other, the weak declension, used when the noun is preceded by such a word

Strong declension vs. weak declension Weak: with article: der dumme König strong: without article: dummer König => distinction still there

Number Singular

Plural

Case Nominative

Weak declension se dola cyning

Strong declension dol cyning

Genitive

þæs dolan cyninges

doles cyninges

Dative

þæǣm dolan cyninge

dolum cyninge

Accusative

þone dolan cyning

dolne cyning

Instrumental

þy dolan cyninge

dole cyninge

Nominative

þā dolan cyningas

dole cyningas

Genitive

pāra dolena cyninga

dolra cyninga

Dative

þæǣm dolum cyningum

dolum cyningum

Accusative

þā dolan cyningas

dole cyningas

Syncretism the same form denoting different cases markings (weak declension)

The definitive article

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Like German, its sister language of today, Old English possessed a fully inflected definite article. How complete the declension of this word was can be seen from the following forms:

4. Verbal inflection  A comparison of the Old English verb with the verbal inflection of Greek or Latin will show how much has been lost. Old English distinguished only two simple tenses by inflection, a present and a past, and, except for one word, it had no inflectional forms for the passive as in Latin or Greek. It recognized the indicative, subjunctive, and imperative moods and had the usual two numbers and three persons. 

OE: two ways forming the past tense o Additional dental suffix  weak forms o Change of the stem vowel= vowel gradation /Ablaut  strong verbs

4.1. strong verbs vs. weak verbs  A peculiar feature of the Germanic languages was the division of the verb into two great classes, the weak and the strong, often known in Modern English as regular and irregular verbs. These terms, which are so commonly employed in modern grammars, are rather unfortunate because they suggest an irregularity in the strong verbs that is more apparent than real. The strong verbs, like sing, sang, sung, which represent the basic Indo-European type, are so called because they have the power of indicating change of tense by a modification of their root vowel. In the weak verbs, such as walk, walked, walked, this change is effected by the addition of a “dental,” sometimes of an extra syllable. weak verbs: adding dental suffix strong verbs: vowel gradation (Ablaut) 4.2. Inflectional paradigm for strong verbs  Seven classes of strong verbs o

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A peculiar feature of the Germanic languages was the division of the verb into two great classes, the weak and the strong, often known in Modern English as regular and irregular verbs. These terms, which are so commonly employed in modern grammars, are rather unfortunate because they suggest an irregularity in the strong verbs that is more apparent than real. The strong verbs, like sing, sang, sung, which represent the basic Indo-European type, are so called because they have the power of indicating change of tense by a modification of their root vowel. In the weak verbs, such as walk, walked, walked, this change is effected by the addition of a “dental,” sometimes of an extra syllable.

Four verb forms for each class (compare: Modern English 3 forms: see saw seen) 

o o o

Nowadays these verbs, generally speaking, have different vowels in the present tense, the past tense, and the past participle. In some verbs the vowels of the past tense and past participle are identical, as in break, broke, broken, and in some all three forms have become alike in modern times (bid, bid, bid). In Old English the vowel of the past tense often differs in the singular and the plural; or, to be more accurate, the first and third person singular have one vowel while the second person singular and all persons of the plural have another. In the principal parts of Old English strong verbs, therefore, we have four forms: the infmitive, the preterite singular (first and third person), the preterite plural, and the past participle.

Infinitive Past tense 1st + 3rd person singular Past tense 2nd person singular and all person’s plural

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o Past participle Each of the seven classes of strong verbs show a distinctive and regular change in the stem vowel (vowel) gradation/ablaut: a systematic alternation or gradation of the stem vowel

Verb class

Infinitive

1

drīfan Drive bindan Bind scacan Shake

3 6

4.3.

1st +3rd pers. sgl. past drāf Drove band Bound scōc Shooke

2nd pers. sgl. + plural past drifon bundon scōcon

Examples for strong verbs ◦

class I: bite, glide, hide, ride, shine, write

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class II: choose, creep, fly, freeze

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class III: begin, fight, find, sing, sink, swim, wind

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class IV: bear, break, come, steal, swear

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class V: eat, give, lie, see, sit, speak

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class VI: draw, shake, stand, swear

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class VII: beat, blow, fall, grow, hold, know, throw

Personal Pronouns

past participle gedrifen driven gebunden Bound gescacen shaken

5. Word order in Old English  Because of features such as case marking and explicit subject–verb agreement, OE word order was much more flexible than that of modern English, allowing for both OV and VO structures. 

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Old English: synthetic language o Position of words within the sentence is relatively free o Relation of words to each other is expressed by inflectional endings Modern English: analytic language o Position of words within the sentence is relatively fixed o Relation of words to each other is expressed by position in the sentence

Possible word order in OE: synthetic  AVS  SVA  SOV  VSV Word order in ME: analytic  SVO

6. Questions

Additional reading: Fischer, Roswitha (2003) Tracing the History of English. A Textbook for Students. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, pp. 40-45. (good summary of basic issues). Baugh, A.C./Cable, T. (20136) A History of the English Language. London: Routledge, Chapter 3 (53-62). (an overview of key grammatical issues). Hogg, R. (2002) An Introduction to Old English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. (Chapter 2-5) (a more detailed account of OE grammar) (please check the Seminarapparat in the library for additional sources)...