С. Case

B. Number

In OE the noun has two numbers: singular and plural. There are numerous types of plural forms some of which have not survived in the MoE.

The OE noun has four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive (an older instrumental case having been merged with the dative).

The Nominative can be defined as the case of the active agent, for it was the case of the subject mainly used with verbs denoting activity; the Nominative could also indicate the subject characterized by a certain quality or state; could serve as a predicative and as the case of address.

The Genitive case was primarily the case of nouns and pronouns serving as attributes to other nouns. The meanings of the Genitive case were very complex and can only be grouped under the headings “Subjective” and “Objective” Genitive. Subjective Genitive is associated with the possessive meaning and the meaning of origin: ʒrendles dæda ‘Grendel’s deeds’, Beowulf ʒēata ‘Beowulf of the Geats’.

Objective Genitive is associated with what is termed “partitive meaning” as in sum hund scipa ‘a hundred of ships’.

The Dative was the chief case used with prepositions, e.g. on morзenne ‘in the morning’. The OE Dative case could convey an instrumental meaning, indicating the means or manner of an action: hit haʒolade stānum ‘it hailed with stones’. Alongside the Accusative, the Dative could indicate the passive subject of a state expressed by impersonal verbs and some verbs of emotions: him ʒelīcode heora þēawas ‘he liked their customs’ (lit. ‘him pleased their customs’).

The Accusative case was the form that indicated a relationship to a verb. Being the direct object it denoted the recipient of an action, the result of the action and other meanings: sē wulf nimþ and tōdlþ þā scēap ‘the wolf takes and scatters the sheep’.

It is important to note that there was considerable fluctuation in the use of cases in OE. One and the same verb could be construed with different cases without any noticeable change of meaning. The semantic functions of the Genitive, Dative and Accusative as objects commonly overlapped and required further specification by means of prepositions. The vague meaning of cases was of great consequence for the subsequent changes in the case system.

The endings of the OE cases vary greatly with different nouns, but they fall into certain broad categories or declensions. Originally there seem to have been more declensions than can be distinguished in the earliest OE texts. Already in OE there was a tendency for nouns to pass by analogy from the smaller declensions into the larger ones. A general trend is noticeable to reduce the number of declensions.

It is usual to differentiate declensions according to the nature of the stems of the nouns concerned in Common Germanic:

1. the Vowel Declension

2. the Consonant Declension

Within each of these principal types there are certain subdivisions.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-20