2. Development of Demonstrative pronouns

Among OE demonstrative pronouns we distinguish only 2 (ModE that & this), which had 3 genders in the Sing. and one form for all genders in the Plural. In OE they agreed with the noun in case, number and gender, and had a well-developed morphological paradigm. They were declined like adjectives according to a five-case system (the latter – only for Masc. and Neut.).

Singular Plural

Masc. Neut. Femin.

N. sē N. þæt N. sēo N. þā

G. þæs G. þæs G. þære G. þāra, þæra

D. þæm D. þæm D. þære D. þæm, þām

Ac. þone Ac. þæt Ac. þā Ac. þā

Instr. Þy, þone Insr. Þon, Þy Instr. þære Instr. þæm, þām

N. þēs N. þis N. þēos N. þās

G. þisses G. þisses G. Þisse G. Þissa

D. þissum D. Þissum D. þisse D. þissum

Acc. þisne Acc. Þis Acc. þās Acc. þās

Instr. Þis Instr. Þis Instr. Þisse Instr. Þissum

The pronouns sē, sēo, þæt even in OE were often used with a weakened demonstrative meaning, so their function was very close to that of the definite article: e.g. sē mann (the man), þæt land (the land).

3. Other classes of pronouns in oe

Interrogative pronouns hwā (who) (Masc., Fem.) and hwæt (what) (Neut.) had 4-case paradigm only in singular. The Instrumental case of “hwæt” was used as a separate interrogative word hwÿ (ModE why). The interrogative hwilc (which) is declined as a strong adjective.

Indefinite pronouns were a numerous class of simple and compaund pronouns (e.g. ān and its derivative ænig (ModE one:any), and are declined as strong adjectives.

Definite pronouns in OE are: 3ehwā (every) (declined as the interrogative hwā), 3ehwilc/ælc (each), æ3þer (either), swilc (such) (declined as strong adjectives), sē ilca (the same) (declined as a weak adjective).

Possessive. In OE the Genetive case of personal pronouns were used in the function of possessive pronouns. They were indeclinable in the 3^rd person, while in the 1^st and 2^nd (mīn, þīn, ūre, ēower) they were declined as strong adjectives. Thus, the Genetive case of personal pronouns in OE had a double function:

1. it played the role of an indirect object;

2. it expressed the notion of possession, so was used as an attribute.

OE had no spezial relative pronouns. Their function was expressed by the form þe, sometimes in combination with the demonstrative sē. Relative clauses were also introduced by the demontrarive sē, sēo, þæt.

IV. Oe Adjective.

Originally in all Indo-European languages the adjective declension practically coincided with the noun declension. This fact suggests that IE didn’t clearly distinguish between the formal status of words denoting objects and words denoting the qualities of objects. Only later on this word aquired a specific feature to denote a quality only.

One of the features distinguishing Germanic languages from the rest of IE family ist that they have developed a two-fold declension of adjectives: the strong and the weak.

OE Adjective was characterized by such grammatical categories as: number, gender and case. They were dependent on the agreement with the noun it modified. Like nouns, adjectives had 3 genders and 2 numbers. But, unlike nouns, adjectives had one more case, Instrumental.

As in other Old Germanic languages, OE adjectives could be declined in 2 ways: according to the weak and strong declensions. The formal difference between the two was similar to those of the noun.

1). Within Strong declension OE adjectives are declined as nouns of a-stem for Masc. and Neut., and as o-stem nouns for Femin. With some differencies between long- and short-vowel stems, and also btw monosyllabic and polysyllabic adjectives.

Some endings of strong adjectives had no parallels in the noun paradigm, for they are similar to the endings of pronouns (e.g. –um in Dat., sing.; -ne in Acc., sing., Masc.; -r in some adj. of Femin.). That’s why the strong declension of adjectives is often called the “pronominal”. (By the way, it’s interesting to mention that in Gothic, for e.g., adjectives in Nomin., sing., Neut. appear in 2 forms: substantival /without any ending/ and pronominal /with the ending –ata as in the demonstrative pronoun Þata).

Singular

Masc. Neut. Femin.

N. blæc N. blæc N. blacu

G. blaces G. blaces G. blæcre

D. blacum D. blacum D. blæcre

Ac. blæcne Ac. blæc Ac. blace

Instr. blace Instr. blace ––

Plural

N. blace N. blacu N. blaca

G. blacra G. blacra G. blacra

D. blacum D. blacum D. blacum

Ac. blace Ac. blacu Ac. blaca

2). As for the Weak declension it used the same markers as n-stem nouns, except the pronominal ending –ra in Gen., pl. (instead of the weak –ena).

Singular

Masc. Neut. Femin.

N. 3oda N. 3ode N. 3ode

G. 3odan G. 3odan G. 3odan

D. 3odan D. 3odan D. 3odan

Ac. 3odan Ac. 3ode Ac. 3odan

Plural (all genders)

14. 3odan

G. 3odum

Ac. 3odan

Most adjectives could be declined in both ways. It depended on some factors: the syntactical function, the degree of comparison and noun determiners. For e.g., the adjective could be strong when used as a predicative or attribute without any determiners. But, it could be weak when preceeded by a demonstrative pronoun. Some adjectives didn’t conform with these rules, so they always declined as strong (eall “all”, oÞer “other”) or weak (ilca “same”, in the comparative/superlative degrees, ordinal numerals). The main semantic difference btw weak and strong forms was the meaning of definiteness and indefiniteness (corresponding to the definite and indefinite articles accordingly).

To sum up, homonymy of forms in the adjective paradigm was 3 times as high as in the noun. It affected the grammatical categories of the adjective. Gender distinctions, for e.g., were practically non-existent in the plural and lost in most cases of the weak declension in the singular, the forms of Masc. and Neut. of strong adjectives were alike. In late OE the distinction of forms in the adjective paradigm became more blurred (confused, mixed).

3). Degrees of comparison. Like adjectives in other Old Germanic languages, OE adjectives had 3 degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. The suffixes –ra-, -est/ost- were used to form comparative and superlative accordingly. Sometimes the interchange of the root-vowel was added (which had some historical sources, one of which is palatal mutation or i-umlaut).

The adjectives like 3ōd and some other had suppletive forms. It is a very old way of forming degrees of comparison and is still presented in many Indo-European languages (Compare: Ukr. гарний - кращий).