3. Types of syntactical relations between words in the phrase. Their further development
OE had 3 major types of syntactical bond: coordination, subordination and predication. Respectively there existed: coordinate phrases, subordinate phrases and predicative phrases.
In a coordinate phrase the components are not dependent on one another: e. g. in the sentence þā Finnas, him þūhte, and þā Beormas spræcon nēah ān 3eþēode “the Finns, he thought, and Beormas spoke nearly the same language” the words "Finnas" and "Beormas" are joined in a phrase by means of coordination.
The component members of a predicative phrase predetermine each other: e.g. cwæþ hē (said he). This phrase is capable of producing a sentence.
In a subordinate phrase one word (adjunct) is subordinated to the other (head) word. The relations between the head and the adjunct fall under 2 main types: agreement and government.
By agreement we mean such a syntactical relationship in which the inflection of the head-word is the same in the adjunct. The OE agreement occurred in gender, number and case:
a) between noun (head) and adjective (adjunct): e. g. hīe cōmon mid langum scipum “they arrived in long ships” (Dat. case., plural, neuter); micle meras fersee “big lakes with fresh water” (Nom. case. plural, masculine).
between demonstrative and other attributive pronouns (adjuncts) and noun (head): e.g. hē būde on þæm lande “he lived on that land” (Dat. case., singular, neuter); mīne dagas “my days” (Nom. case, plural, masculine); ond ic for-þon of þeossum 3ebēorscipe ūt ēode “and I therefore from that feast went away” (Dat. case, singular, masculine).
The components are connected by means of government if the adjunct takes a grammatical form required by the head. Government doesn't imply any coincidence in form of the governing word and its adjunct. In OE a verb governed:
a) The Accus. Case of the object, expressed by a noun or a pronoun. The latter is then termed "directed": e. g. þa Deniscan þone cyninh ofslō3on "The Danes that king killed".
The Dative case of the object (“indirect”): e. g. Ohthere sæde his hlāforde “Ohthere told his lord”; swā-swā wē foryfaþ ūrum 3уltendum “as we forgive offenders”.
The Genitive case of the object (partitive complement): e. g. hē þær sceolde bīdan westanwindes “he was obliged to wait for me the western wind there”.
2a) An adjective may govern the Gen. or the Dat. case of the object: e. g. morþres scyldi3 “guilty of killing”; wæs 3ehwæðer ōþrum lāð "was everyone hateful to the other".
2b). The notion of government also applies to a noun which may govern the Gen. case of another noun: e. g. hwales bān “whale bone” and to some pronouns and numerals: e.g. dō3ra 3ehwilc “each of the days”; þara ān “one of them”.
2c). Prepositional government can also be found in OE. Thus, the preposition “tō” governs the Dat. case: e .g. hē ēode tō his hūse “he went to his house”; the preposition “ymb” governs The Accus. case: e. g. hū 3iorne hīe wæron…ymb liornun3a “how aelous they were … concerning learning”; the preposition “from” can sometimes govern the Dat. case: e. g. þā ārās hē from þæm slæpe “then arose he from that sleep”.
3. There are 2 other ways of expressing syntactical relations between the components of a phrase in OE: adjoinment and enclosure
a) Adjoinment implies such subordination of the adjunct to its head which is achieved by their position and their meanings, but not by agreement or government or by any other special forms. The most typical OE example of adjoinment is between an adverb and a verb: e. g. Ælfric munuc grēt Æðelwærd ealdorman ēadmōdlīce “monk Ælfric greets alderman Æthelward humbly” (The adverb “ēadmōdlīce” is subordinated to the verb “grētan”).
In the phrase: hām ēode “went home” the word “hām” is adjoined to the verb “hān”.
Enclosure as a means of expressing syntactical relations is of minor importance in OE. By enclosure we understand the setting of a component of a phrase between 2 constituent elements of another component. In OE an attribute may be put between a preposition or an article.
Middle English
The gradual weakening and loss of many inflections and, as a result of it, great changes in the morphological system of the language in ME brought about modification in the means of expressing syntactical relations.
Agreement is reduced to a small number of cases. An adjective or a pronoun is no longer able to agree with its head in gender and case. Only occasionally agreement in number between a noun and adjective/pronoun is found in ME texts: e. g. in alle the gramere scoles of England “in all grammar schools of England”; fresshe floures “fresh flowers”.
Agreement in number is also preserved between the demonstrative pronoun and the noun.
Government is retained in ME. A verb may govern the Objective case of a pronoun or the Common case of a noun: e. g. some gentlymen which late blamed me “some gentlemen who blamed me not long ago”.
A noun may govern the Genitive case of another noun: e. g. In his hertes botme “in the bottom of his heart”.
Adjoinment gains ground in ME since not only adverbs are subordinated to verbs by means of it, but also some adjectives and pronouns (used attributively) are adjoined to their heads: e.g. she understode him wel “she understood him well”.
The role of enclosure also increases. It becomes more important in the identification of the attributive function of the word which happens to be enclosed between an article/or a preposition and a head-word.
Early NE
With the decay of the adjective declension, agreement has totally lost except between the demonstrative pronoun and a noun: this book/these books which agree in number.
Government also decreased greatly. It applies only to the Objective case forms of personal pronouns (me, him, her, us, them) and the form “whom” which are required by a verb or a preposition.
Adjoinment, unlike government or agreement, is on the increase in ENE. As no agreement is possible between an adjective and a noun, adjoinment becomes the only means of syntactical bond between them.
Enclosure becomes as significant in ModE as adjoinment. Not only adjectives and nouns, but also other parts of speech and even phrases can be found enclosed between a preposition/or an article and the noun which they refer to: e. g. the then government; He went on in a more-matter-of-fact tone.