Oe Adjectives

An adjective is a word used to modify or limit the meaning of a noun. In Indo-European the inflexion of the adjective changes to reflect the grammatical characteristics (gender, case and number) of the noun it's modifying. So it does in OE. That’s why the categories of adjectives – gender, number and case are not morphological categories, they are syntactical categories.

Strong and weak adjectives

Most adjectives in OE belong to different declensions, depending on the context in which we find them. An adjective has the endings of the strong declension when no pronoun or possessive adjectives precede it. It has the endings of the weak declension when it is preceded by a pronoun or possessive adjectives.(Make grammar charts). The main peculiarity of strong adjectives is the similarity of their endings and the endings of the demonstrative pronouns. The endings of the weak adjectives resemble those of the weak nouns. The adjectives had the ending of the instrumental case.

Oe Pronouns

According to the traditional definition, a pronoun is a word used in place of a noun (a modern term – anaphoric pronouns). However, some pronouns work like adjectives, modifying the meaning of a noun (indefinite, negative pronouns). OE pronouns are of 6 types: personal, demonstrative (anaphoric), interrogative, indefinite, reflexive, and possessive.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns (OE Ic, þū, he, heo, hit; MnE I, you, she, he, it) refer to specific objects and are marked for person - the 1 person referring to the speaker, the 2nd person to someone or something the speaker is addressing, and the 3rd person refers to any other thing. They are declined according to number and case, the gender being distinguished in the 3 person pronouns. OE dual pronouns are wit we two and git you two. (Make grammar charts).

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns point out specific things (OE sē that тот, þæt то, sēō та; đes this этот, đis это, đēōs эта; MnE that, this). The demonstrative meaning of the pronouns sē, þæt, sēō is weakened (rus. тот), so it approaches the status of an article: sē mann the man. The meaning of the pronouns đes this, đis, đēōs is a clear demonstrative meaning (rus. этот). The demonstrative pronouns are declined. they have their own pronominal declension.

OE used a demonstrative where we now use the definite article and the MnE definite article is by its origin a demonstrative pronoun.

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns introduce questions. The most common OE interrogatives are hwa who, hwæt what, hwelc which. They are declined like the demonstratives.

Indefinite pronouns

Indefinite pronouns comprise a large roup of items that indicate that we are speaking about one or more members of some category of things but do not specify exactly which: man "one", ænig "any", nan "none", hwa "anyone, someone", sum "some", eall "all", elc "each", swelc "such". Modern examples are all, any, anyone, each, few, many, none, something. The indefinites are declined like the demonstratives.

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses. OE used the particle þe, the demonstrative pronoun sē, or a combination sē þe for these purposes (тот, который). In MnE the most common relatives are that and who.