Changes in grammar of me & ene

Principal changes:

• loss of inflexions

• developing and spread of analytical structures

• establish of more or less strict word order

NOUN

Complete destruction of stems

The OE gender disappeared

OE: N, G, A, G

ME: D, G, common

ENE; G (‘s) and common

Number reduction of endings: -es (remains in ENE), -en

ADJS

Lost all their gram forms, except for the degrees of comparison

Gender (11^th) > the case system > number by the end of the ENE period

Loss of ending: agreement is joining

double comparatives (more better)

PRONOUNS

Personal pronouns

1. OE hie was replaced by Scandinavian they

2. OE ic > ME ich > NE I; OE θu > ME thou > ENE thou > NE you

3. the dual number was lost

4. possessive pronouns (new class) from the Gen case (14-15 centuries)

5. the OE oblique case-forms of personal pronouns and the ME possessive pronouns gave rise to one more type of pronouns – reflexive

Demonstrative pronouns

4 forms remained by the end of the ME period.

Formation of the article system

• ‘the’ from ‘se’. Became more specific when opposed to indef. art

• sum, aenig

• ‘a’ from the numeral ‘an’

The other classes

• hwa was reduced to who and whom

• -thing, -body, -one

• new class relative pronouns (OE demonstrative and interrogative pronouns)

VERBS

Number

more consistent and regular, in the 15^th century – neutralized in most positions.

Person

differences maintained in ME

Mood

Tenses

1. the Future tense appeared

2. perfect tenses developed

3. Aspect – the growth of the continuous tenses. ‘beon’ + P2

4. Voice – OE beon & weorthan (become) + P2

VOCABULARY OF ME AND ENE

New way of word derivation was conversion.

1. Sound interchanges (operates with suffixation)

result of quantitative changes – new vowels

cons-ts – loss of endings

2. Word stress was commonly used in derivatives of borrowed words (confide – confidence)

3. Prefixation

Many OE prefixes dropped out of use:

• a

• to

• on

• ʒe

• or (it merged with the root of the word > simplification of words)

Native prefixes:

• be

• mis

• un

• out

• over

Borrowed:

• de

• dis

• en/in

• non

• anti

• co

• semi

4. Suffixation

Native suffixes

• ere

• ness

• ing

• man

• dom

• ship

• hood

• ish

• y

• less

• ful

Borrowed suffixes

• ess (goddess)

• or (collector)

• ance

• ty

• age

• ry

• ment

• tion/sion

• ism

• able/ible

• ous

• ise

• fy

5. Conversion

A change in the meaning, the grammatical paradigm and the syntactic use of the word in the sentence. The word is transformed into another part of speech with an identical initial form.

6. Word composition

• N + N (godson)

• Gerund + N (working-day)

• adj + N (hothouse)

• V + N (telltale)

• V + Adv (make-up; a new pattern)

SCANDINAVIAN BORROWINGS

Nouns: law, fellow, sky, skirt, skill, skin, egg, anger, awe, bloom, knife, root, bull, cake, husband, leg, wing, guest.

Adjs: big, weak, strong, ugly, twin.

Verbs: call, cast, take, happen, scare, hail, want, gape.

Pronouns: they, them, their, etc.

CONDITIONS:

1. a borrowed word had no synonym (law, fellow)

2. the English synonym was ousted by the borrowing: taken & callen vs. niman & clypian.

3. Both the words corresponded, but they became different in meaning.

4. etymological doublets: shirt – skirt, shatter – scatter, raise – rear.

5. same in meaning, slightly different phonetically (give, get)

6. a shift of meaning (dream)

FRENCH BORROWINGS

Government and legislative: government, noble, prince, duke, judge, court, crime, prison, sentence.

Military life: army, battle, peace, banner, victory, general.

Religion: religion, pray, saint, charity.

City crafts: painter, tailor, carpenter, BUT country occupation remained English: smith, shepherd.

Pleasure & entertainment: music, art, feast, pleasure, leisure, supper, dinner, pork, beef, mutton; BUT the corresponding names of domestic animals remained English: pig, cow, sheep.

Words of everyday life: air, place, river, large, age, branch, brush, catch, chair, table.

Relationship: aunt, uncle, nephew, cousin.

CONDITIONS:

1. to denote unknown (government)

2. English synonym is ouster be the French borrowing (micel – large, here – army, ea – river)

3. stylistically different (begin – commence, work – labour, leave – abandon, life – existence)

4. Sometimes the EL borrowed many words within the same word-building affix. Later – Efr hybrids (fulfillment, amazement; admirable, tolerable, but also reasonable, eatable)

5. etymological doublets (fatherly – paternal (Fr), yard – garden (German)

6. similar in meaning, different in origin (mouth – oral, sun – solar, see – vision)