The Object

Objects are words which modify verbs and adjectives. Objects can be expressed by nouns or pronouns in the accusative or dative case. There are 3 kinds of objects:

1. direct – a prepositionless object in the acc. case: hī hine forbærnaþ they burn him.

2. indirect - a prepositionless object in the dat. case: sing mē sing me.

3. prepositional – an object introduced by a preposition: hæbbe we gesæd ymb Europa we have spoken about Europe.

The Attribute

An attribute modifies nouns giving them some kind of characteristic. In OE it may be expressed by an adjective, a pronoun, a numeral, a noun in the gen.case, a prepositional phrase: his yldran sunu his elder son, ælces geþēodes man a man of every tribe.

The Adverbial Modifier

An adv. mod. modifies verbs, adjectives and adverbs, specifying the circumstances of an event. The adv. mod. may be expressed by an adverb, a noun with a preposition: þā ēōde hē hām then he went home; geond wid-wegas across wide roads.

The Apposition

An apposition modifies nouns and pronouns, specifying their meanings by giving them another name. It is expressed by a noun: Claudius cāsere the emperor Claudius; wæs hē, sē mon, …

The Direct Address

A direct address is the name of a person to whom the rest of the sentence is addressed: Cedmon, sing mē.

The Parenthesis

Ways of expressing parts of a sentence

Any part of the sentence may be expressed in different ways: by a single word-form, by a phrase or by a clause. A word- form is any form of the grammatical paradigm of the word. It may contain either one component or more than one. One-component word-forms are various synthetic forms, while multi-component word-forms are analytical forms which are composed of auxiliary components and one notional component.

Phrases and ways of expressing syntactical relations

Phrase is a group of two or more notional words functioning as a whole. There are two-, three-, four- etc. component phrases. Two-component phrase consists of a head word and a dependent word – an adjunct word.

Phrases in OE are of different kinds and their main types are: A + N, N nom+ Nnom, Prn + N, Num + N Noun being the head word, while Nnom, A, Num – the adjunct words.

The words in these groups are connected syntactically by agreement (согласование): lytlan bōc “little book” (acc.), đære bēc “that book” (dat.). The words agree in number, gender and case.

Other groups comprise: N + V, V + N, Prn + V, V + Prn. In these groups the words are connected by government (управление) – the verbs require the adjunct word to be in a certain case: hlyste mīnra worda (gen.pl) “listen to my words”; hire sæde (dat.) “said to her”.

In phrases V + Adv, Adv + A an adverb is connected with the head words without any formal means – by joining (примыкание): grētan frēondlīce “greet in a friendly way”.

The Composite Sentence

A composite sentence consists of two or more simple sentences joined together. The component parts of a composite sentence are called clauses. The relationships between the clauses may be that of coordination and subordination. In the case of coordination we have a compound sentence whose clauses are independent of each other syntactically. They may be joined by coordinating conjunctions: and, ac, oþþe or asyndetically.

In the case of subordination one of the syntactic functions within a simple sentence (e.g. object) is expressed by a clause thereby forming a complex sentence: I know the girl’s name (object) – I know what the girl’s name is (object clause).

The basic structure is called the principal clause; the cause performing some syntactic function within the principal clause is termed a subordinate clause. Subordinate clauses may be joined to principal clauses by means of conjunctions and conjunctive words. In OE subordinate clauses are: object clauses, attributive clauses, adverbial clauses. They are introduced by the conjunctions and conjunctive words: þæt, gif, sē, þe, þā, þonne, þanne, siþþan, oþþæt, þeah, interrogative pronouns and adverbs –hwā, hwæt, swā etc.