Lecture III. Morphology. Parts of speech.

1. General characteristics.

2. The noun. Nominal categories.

3. The nominal declension: -a,-ja,-wa stems; -ō, -jō, -wō stems; -i stems; -u stems; -n stems; -root stems; -r stems.

4.The pronoun. Personal pronouns. Demonstrative pronouns. Other groups of pronouns.

5. The adjective. The adjective declension. Degrees of comparison.

1. The English language has gone a long way from an inflectional language it used to be in the old English period to an analytical language it is now. 0E possessed a well-developed morphological system made up of synthetic grammatical forms. The means of form-building employed were as follows: (a) grammatical endings or suffixes; (b) sound alternations in the root-morpheme /mann— menn/, (c) prefixes, and (d) suppletive forms /bеоn-wesan/. Endings were used unrestrictedly in all the inflected parts of speech. The use of prefixes was confined to verbs. Suppletive forms were restricted to verbs, pronouns, adjectives. Sound alternations were represented by an interchange of vowels. Some parts of speech did not exist: modal words, particles, words of category of state. The noun, the pronoun, the adjective, and the verb had endings characterizing different grammatical categories. 0E compared to Gothic greatly changed before the epoch of writing. In Gothic every case, every finite form of the verb has its endings. The picture is altered in 0E.

E.g. Cr. lyko s, L. lupu s, Coth. wulf s, but 0E wul f.

2. Indo-European noun is composed of three parts: the root, the stem-forming suffix, the case-ending.

E.g. Goth, dative plural

dag - a - m a - stem-forming suffix

gast- і - m і - stem-forming suffix

sun- u – m u - stem-forming suffix

L. homo - homi - n - is n - stem-forming suffix

Goth. guma -gumi -n -s n - stem-forming suffix

Russ. знамя - знаме- н -и n - stem-forming suffix

The paradigm of the noun included all the case forms of the noun. Stem-forming suffixes were the final factor of belonging to this or that paradigm. In Gothic the tripartite structure of nouns isobvious. In 0E the stem-suffix and the inflexion are merged but there are certain traces of belonging to a definite paradigm. It is in the n-type where a stem-suffix remains intact.

OE noun has two numbers, four cases, three genders, and traces of a division according to stem-suffixes. According to stem-suffixes nouns are divided into a-stems, ō-stems, u-stems, ī-stems, root-stems, r-stems, etc. The division has a purely historical significance.

Masculine
- a -	- ja - - wa -
S i n g.	N, A G D	stān scip stānes scipes stāne scipe	hrycʒ hrycʒes hrycʒe	here her(iʒ)es her(iʒ)e	snaw snawes snawe	bearu bearwes bearwe
P l u r a l	N, A G D	stānas scipu stāna scipa stānum scipum stone ship	hrycʒ(e)as hrycʒ(e)a hrycʒ(i)um ridge	her(i)ʒ(e)as her(i)ʒ(e)a her(i)ʒum army	snawas snawa snawum snow	bearwas bearwa bearwum forest

Masculine	Neuter
-i-		-a- -ja- -wa-	-i-
S i n g.	N, A G D	siʒe siʒes siʒe	hyll hylles hylle	sife sifes sife	reced recedes recede	rīce rīces rīce	bealwu bealwes bealwe	hilt hiltes hilte
P l u r.	N, A G D	siʒe/eas siʒea siʒum victory	hyllas hylla hyllum hill	sifu sifa sifum sieve	reced receda recedum house	rīc(i)u rīc(e)a rīc(i)um kingdom	beal bealwa bealwum evil	hilt hilta hiltum bandle

Feminine	Masc.	Fem.
-o-	-jo-	-wo-	-i-	-u-	-u-
S i n g.	N, A G D	swaþue swaþe swaþe	brycʒe brycʒe brycʒe	sceaduwe sceadwe sceadwe	hd hde hde	sunu suna suna	duru dura dura
P l u r.	N, A G D	swaþa swaþa swaþum trace	brycʒa brycʒa brycʒum bridge	sceadwa sceadwa sceadwum shadow	hda hda hdum hide	suna suna sunum son	dura dura durum door

Masc.	Femin.	Neut.	Masc.	Feminine	Neut.
		-n-	root - stems	-es-
S i n g.	N, A G D	namaan naman naman	cwenean cwenan cwenan	ēaʒe ēaʒan ēaʒan	man(n) mannes men(n)	hnutu hnute hnyte	bōc bōce/bēc bōc	lamb lambes lambe
P l u r.	N, A G D	naman namene namum name	cwenan cwenena cwenum queen	ēaʒan ēaʒen ēaʒum eye	men(n) manna mannum man	hnyte hnuta hnutum nut	bēc bōca bōcum book	lambru lambra lambrum lamb

3. Vowel stems constitute the strong declension, n-stems constitute the weak declension. Other declensions are consonant declensions.

Table 2

Strong declension or vowel declension	Consonant declension
Weak declension Other consonant declensions
M,N F M,F M,F,N	M,F,N M,F M,F,N
-a- -o- -ja- -jo- u ī -wa- -wo-	Other n Root consonant stems stems

The majority of OE nouns belonged to a-stems, ō-stems, and n-stems. Nouns of other stems were less frequent.

4. OE pronouns were of different kinds: personal, two groups of demonstrative pronouns, interrogative, indefinite (possessive and relative appear later; reflexive pronouns are missing).

Дата добавления: 2014-01-13