Category of Degrees of Comparison

Declension of Adjectives

Adjectives in OE could be declined into the weak and strong declension which obviously made their paradigm even more complicated. The principle of this division is different from that of nouns. The type of declension of the adjec­tive depended on its function in the sentence. If the adjective was used attribu­tively, without any modifier before it, the declension was strong (e.g. bl æ c stan).The declension is also strong if the adjective was used predicatively, after an auxiliary verb (e.g. Se stan is bl æ c). When a modifier that specified the word appeared, it was weak declension (e.g. se ʒode man - this good man).

Thus, we can conclude that one and the same adjective could be declined either to the weak or to the strong declension. There developed sets of endings for the strong declension mainly coinciding with the endings of a-stems of the noun for adjectives in masculine and neuter, and of ō-stems in feminine. Some endings of the strong declension of adjectives are similar to the endings of pronouns: -urn for Dative sing., - ne for Accusative sing., masculine, [r] in some feminine, and plural endings. Therefore the strong declension of adjectives is sometimes called pronominal.

As for the weak declension, it used the markers of n-stems of nouns, except in the Genitive pl. The pronominal ending -ra was often used instead of the weak - ena.

			Singular
	Strong (pure a- and o-stems)		Weak
	M	N	F	M	N	F
Nom.	blind	blind	blind	blinda	blinde	blinde
Gen.	blindes	blindes	blindre	blindan	blindan	blindan
Dat.	blindum	blindum	blindre	blinden	blindan	blindan
Ace.	blindne	blind	blinde	blindan	blinde	blindan
Instr.	blinde	blinde	blindre	blindan	blindan	blindan
			Plural
					All genders
Nom.	blinde	blind	blinda, -e	blindan
Gen.	blindra	blindra	blindra	blindra, -era
Dat.	blindum	blindum	blindum	blindum
Ace.	blinde	blind	blinda, -e	blindan
Instr.	blindum	blindum	blindum	blindum

Degrees of comparison is the only set of forms which the adjective has preserved through all historical periods. However, the means employed to build up the forms of the degrees of comparison have considerably altered.

OE adjectives distinguished between three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. The regular means used to form the comparative and the superlative degrees from the positive were the suffixes - ra and -est, -ost, -ist, -ast, -ust. Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by root vowel interchange.

Comparison of Adjectives in Old English:

Suffixation: soft - softra - softest (soft)

Suffixation plus vowel interchange: lonʒ - lenʒra - lenʒest (long)

Suppletion: ʒod - bettra - betest (good)

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11