3. The changes in the English adjective

The adjective also underwent simplifying changes in ME and NE. The trend was towards the loss of all grammatical categories with the exception of the degrees of comparison.

The loss of the grammatical gender in ME nouns and the reduction in the number of case-endings affected the adjectival declension. In EME only two grammatical categories, the number and the determinateness, were preserved and the only marker used to show them was the ending –e, which was used to express the number as well as the type of declension.

	sg	pl
Strong	yong	yonge
Weak	yonge	yonge

The difference between the types of declension was shown only in sg, and the difference between the number forms persisted only in the strong declension.

Towards the end of ME the ending –e was lost and the adjective became indeclinable, as it is today.

Contrary to that the degrees of comparison of adjectives were not only preserved in ME and NE, but also developed new means of expressing them. In OE this category was expressed namely synthetically:

• by means of suffixation (heard – heardra – heardost)

• by means of vowel gradation (eald – ieldra – ieldest)

• by means of suppletion (hod – bettra – betst).

In ME only the suffixation remained a productive means of forming the degrees of comparison (-re for the Comparative, -est for the Superlative), while the other two means: vowel gradation and suppletion are traced only in isolated forms. In NE the vowel gradation survived only in the adjectives old and far, in which two sets of degrees (one with mutated vowel and one with unmutated) differ in meaning.

At the same time a new means of forming degrees of comparison developed. It descended from OE phrases consisting of the adverbs māra, mæst, betra, betst, swīþor ‘more, better, to a greater degree’ and the adjective. In ME the phrases with more and most became more and more common, and they were used with all adjectives in free variation. Besides, the suffixation and the analytical means could be combined (eg. more frescher, the most kindest). It was until the 17^th and 18^th cc. that the use of synthetic and analytical forms was normalised.

4. The development of English pronouns

In ME and NE the system of pronouns was also simplified. Nowadays what remained of the pronominal declension is mainly presented by personal pronouns. The other pronouns whose paradigms were similar to those of the adjective became indeclinable.

4.1. Changes in the personal pronoun in me and ne

As for the personal pronouns:

1) They lost dual number in Late OE.

2) The four-case system that existed in OE gave way to a two-case system in ME and NE. The forms of the Dat. frequently replaced the Acc. ones even in Late OE. That led to the fusion of the two cases into the Objective. The forms of the genitive case were occasionally used after some verbs that require the object in the Genitive Case (hlyste mīn). In the course of time the Genitive seized to perform this function and it was replaced by the form of the Objective case.

3) Besides the grammatical changes there appeared lexical replacements in the system of personal pronouns. The reason for the replacement was to avoid homonymy crush, because different forms of personal pronouns became identical due to phonological changes.

OE	ME
hē	he
hēo	he

In EME the OE 3 person sg feminine pronoun hēo was replaced by a group of variants: she, sho, hui, he, etc. from which she became dominant. Its origin is uncertain, it is one of the puzzles in the history of English. First it appeared in the North and spread southwards. But it affected only the nominative case-form, while the other forms of the OE pronoun preserved in ME and NE.

Another replacement is they, the borrowed 3 p. pl. pronoun from Scandinavian. It first emerged in North-Eastern areas and then spread southwards. The replacement affected the whole paradigm: them (the Objective case) and their.

By the 12th c. the third-person sg. neuter lost the initial [h] of OE hit in some areas. For the most of the period the OE Dat. form him survived for indirect objects, while it (or hit) was used for direct objects or objects of prepositions. In LME the latter form supplanted the Dat. to keep the neuter form distinct from the masculine one, which were identical (him).

Beginning with the 15^th c. there was a tendency to use the 2 p. pl forms ye, you and your in addressing one person to sound polite. It was widespread in higher social strata, while people of lower classes normally used thou, thee and thine to one another. During the 17^th c. the polite form supplanted thou in speech, however thou continued to be used in literary language.

In the 16^th c distinction between subject and object uses of ye (Nom.) and you (Obj.) began to disappear, and you became the norm in all grammatical functions and social situations. In the 17^th c. ye finally became archaic and was restricted to religious or literary contexts.