- •The Germanic languages. The Germanic tribes.
- •3.The North Germanic languages.
- •4.The West Germanic languages.
- •5.The periods in the History of English.
- •6.The Old English dialects and the formation of English language.
- •7.Middle English dialects and the formation of the National Literary English Language.
- •8.The Anglo –Saxon conquest and its historical and linguistic importance.
- •9.The historical background of Middle English.
- •11.The development of the English Vocabulary.
- •10.The development of Middle English dialects.
- •12.The English Basic Word Stock.
- •13.Foreign Influences upon English and their importance.
- •14.The Celtic influence.
- •15.The Latin influence.
- •16.The Scandinavian influence.
- •17.The French influence.
- •18.Phonetic peculiarities of Germanic languages.
- •19.The Germanic phonetic system.
- •20.First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s and Verner’s law).
- •21.Principles oe phonetic changes (breaking,I-umlaut (mutation) lengthening of vowels).
- •After sk’ k’
- •2. After j
- •22.Consonant changes in oe. Oe alphabets.
- •Voicing or devoicing
- •After sk’ k’
- •2. After j
- •23.Middle English spelling change and principal sound changes.
- •24.Weakening of Unaccented Vowels and its results.
- •25.Consonant changes in Middle English.
- •Voicing of Fricatives
- •The Great Vowel Shift and its importance.
- •Modern English consonant changes (Vocalization of r, appearance of sibilants in new positions, loss of consonants).
- •Phonetic analysis of Old English sound changes.
- •Phonetic analysis of Middle English and Modern English phonetic change.
- •The Evolution of the Old English phonetic system.
- •Middle English spelling change and principal sound changes.
- •The evolution of the English Noun.
- •The evolution of the Verb.
- •The evolution of the English Adjective.
- •The evolution of the English Pronoun.
- •The evolution of the English Numeral.
- •The evolution of the English Syntax.
- •The discovery of Sanskrit.
- •The Indo-European Family.
- •Grimm’s Law.
- •The Romans in Britain. Romanization of the Island.
- •The Latin Language in Britain.
- •The Anglo-Saxon Civilization. The names “England” and “English”.
- •The Periods in the History of English.
- •The dialects of Old English.
- •Verner’s Law
- •The Definite Article.
- •The Norman Conquest. The origin of Normandy.
- •The Influence of Christianity on the Vocabulary.
- •80. Preterite-present and suppletive verbs.
- •81. The development of analytical tenses.
- •84. Wessex dialect.
- •85. Old English dialect and formation of the English language.
- •86. The periods in the history of English.
- •88. The main oe dialects.
- •89. The development of the English vocabulary. The English Basic Word Stock
- •92. Me phonetic system. Weakening of the unaccentedwords.
- •2.Development of oe å
- •94. Modern English phonetic changes. The Great Vowel Shift.
- •95. Modern English phonetic changes. Vocalization of “r”.
- •96. The importance of the Anglo-Saxon Conquest.
- •100. The definite article
- •Vikings and their influence on English.
- •Grammatical changes in Old English.
- •Grammatical changes in Middle English.
- •Grammatical changes in Early Modern English.
- •Loss of case system in Old English.
- •English as a Germanic language. Periods in the history of English.
- •Main Germanic historical written monuments.
- •London dialect. Formation of National language.
- •Phonetic changes in Germanic languages.
- •Word Stress
- •Consonants. Proto-Germanic consonant shift
- •Phonetic changes in Old English.
- •Phonetic changes in Middle English.
- •Phonetic changes in Early New English. Great Vowel Shift.
- •Word-building in Old and Middle English periods.
- •Main sources of borrowings in Old English.
- •Main sources of borrowings in Middle English.
- •Main sources of borrowings in Modern English.
- •The Noun. Main categories, declensions.
- •Main causes of losing the case system in English.
- •The adjective.
- •Development of degrees of comparison of adjectives.
- •Personal pronouns.
- •Possessive pronouns.
- •Demonstrative and indefinite pronouns.
- •Development of the articles.
- •Strong verbs in the history of English.
- •The periods in the History of English.
- •Middle English Prosody
- •Latin Borrowings
- •Scandinavian Borrowings
- •French Borrowings
- •Celtic Borrowings
- •Greek Borrowings
- •Semantic Borrowings
Development of degrees of comparison of adjectives.
There are three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative, superlative.
The adjective in the positive form expresses a simple quality without comparison. Ways of formation of the comparative and superlative degrees may be synthetic, analytic andsuppletive (irregular, from different roots). The synthetic way is by adding –er, -est as tall – taller – tallest, the analytic way is by adding more, most, as ridiculous – more ridiculous – most ridiculous.
Mindthespellingrules:
fine -finer –finest (no doubling of e)
hot - hotter - hottest (doubling of final consonants in one-syllable words)
easy – easier – easiest (-y changes into –ie)
dry - drier – driest
But: shy – shyer – shyest
gay – gayer – gayest
I. One-syllable adjectives take –er, -est
Big – bigger – biggest
Soft - softer – softest
Note. One-syllable past participle adjectives in – ed (bored, creased, pleased) and the adjectives fun, real, right, wrong form their degrees of comparison analytically:
After I’d ironed my shirt it looked more creased than before.
I expected the film to be rather dull, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
II. Most two-syllable adjectives can form their degrees of comparison in both ways, thus they take either er/estor more/most:able, common, cruel, gentle, handsome, pleasant, polite, simple, stupid, quiet, wicked, horrid, etc.
Two-syllable adjectives ending in -y usually take er/est(luckier - luckiest), although more/mostis possible.
Note 1. Some two-syllable adjectives can take only more/most. Here belong adjectives ending in - ful (careful, helpful), - less (helpless, useless), - ing (boring, pleasing, tiring), - ed(amused, confused) and the adjectives afraid, certain, correct, eager, exact, formal, foolish, modern, normal, recent, active, complex, direct, frequent, special, proper, etc.
Note 2. In modern English adjectives that admit of both analytical and synthetic forms usually take the analytic form when they are used predicatively:
He was more angry (angrier).
His life in Paris was much more happy than in London.
When these adjectives are used attributively the synthetic form is more common:
He is a cleverer man.
Personal pronouns.
Personal pronoun describes a particular person or thing or group.
Personal pronoun describes the person speaking (I, me, we, us), the person spoken to (you), or the person or thing spoken about (he, she, it, they, him, her, them).
Example. He helps poor.
The pronoun “he” in above sentence describes a person who helps poor.
UseofPersonal Pronouns.
Namber |
Person |
PersonalPronoun |
|
Subject |
Object |
||
Singular |
1st Person |
I |
Me |
2nd Person |
You |
You |
|
3rd Person |
He, She, It |
Him, Her, It |
|
Plural |
1st Person |
We |
Us |
2nd Person |
You |
You |
|
3rd Person |
They |
Them |
|
Examples. She is intelligent They are playing chess. He sent me a letter. It is raining. We love our country. The teacher appreciated them. I met him yesterday. He gave her a gift. Did you goto home?