Morphology. The Substantive

Grammatical changes.

LECTURE 12

Loss of consonants in initial clusters

Loss of Consonants in Clusters.

In many cases when a word ended in two consonants, the final one was lost.

Final [mb] was simplified to [m] in lamb, dumb, climb, comb.

Final [mn] is also simplified to [m] an damn, column, autumn.

In some cases, in a cluster of three consonants the middle one was dropped. For example: the cluster [stl] was simplified to [sl] in castle, rustle; the the cluster [stn] was simplified to [sn] in glisten, fasten; the cluster [ftn] was simplified to [fn] in often, saften.

Change of [d] to [ð] when Close to [r].

The consonant [d] becomes [ð] in the neighbourhood of [r] in the words in the words fader>father, moder>mother.

[j] merged with preceding consonant.

The last essential phonetic change in the sphere of consonants was merger of [j] with the preceding consonant. This happened after a stressed vowel. The change affected the clusters [sj, zj, tj, dj], and a few others. The change [sj>ʃ] occurred in the following words: Asia [eiʃə], Russia [‘r˄ʃə], etc.

In many words the spelling is -ti-.

This spelling, borrowed from French, denoted in French the cluster [sj] and was taken over into English. After the change [sj>ʃ] it came to denote the consonant []: nation, population, etc.

In a few words we find the spelling –xi- and –xu-; anxious [æŋkʃəs], luxury [l˄kʃəri].

In issue and tissue both pronunciations can be heard: [‘iʃu:] [‘is ju:], [‘tiʃu:] [tis:ju:] [tj] becomes [tʃ] in a number of words: question [‘kwestʃn], etc.

In certain cases the initial consonant of a cluster is lost. Thus, [k] and [g] are lost before [n] in knight, knee, gnat, gnaw. Initial [w] is lost before [r]: write, wrong, etc.

Development of Plural Forms.

In several substantives with final [f] or [Ɵ] alternation of the voiceless fricative with its voiced counterpart was eliminated. This is the case with roof (plural roofs and other words in – off; also with belief (beliefs), death (deaths).

However, with other substantives the alternation has been preserved, as in wife (wives), etc. With a few words two variants are possible: scarf (scarfs, scarves).

The alternation [f-v] begins to extend to the word handkerchief, whose second part is of French origin; alongside the plural form handkerchiefs a new form handkerchieves is occasionally used.

A few substantives have preserved their plural forms due to the weak declension or to mutation: ox (oxen), child-children, man (men), etc.

The case system

The two-case system which was typical of Chaucer’s language has been preserved in MnE. The sphere of the genitive case has been restricted to substantives denoting living being and also some time notions, e.g. year, month, week, day. With words denoting inanimate objects or abstract ideas the genitive has been generally replaced by the phrase “of + substantive”.

As far as written English is concerned, we must note the use of the apostrophe to denote the genitive case. In the genitive singular the apostrophe was first used about 1680.

The pronoun

Personal and Possessive

The ME forms of personal pronouns underwent little change in the MnE period. In the 16^th century distinction between nominative ye (in addressing one person) and objective you began to disappear. In the 17^th century ye finally became archaic.

In the neuter pronoun vacillation between hit and it continued during the 16^th century. By the end of the century hit disappeared altogether.

Reflexive

Reflexive pronouns developed in MnE from corresponding ME forms without any particular changes.

Demonstrative

In MnE demonstrative pronouns acquired the following forms: this(these), that(those).

Interrogative

MnE interrogative pronouns acquired the following forms: who, whom, whose, what, which.

The adjective

Adjectives dropped in MnE the ending –e, which had signalled the plural and the weak declension in ME. Thus MnE adjectives no longer agree with their substantives in number.

Degrees of comparison

In MnE the two types were differentiated: suffixes of degrees are used for monosyllabic and some disyllabic adjectives, while the phrases are limited to the other disyllabic and to polysyllabic ones.

In the 15^th and 16^th centuries mutation, which had survived in ME in the comparative and superlative of some adjectives is eliminated. Thus, for example, the series long, lenger, longest is replaced by long, longer, longest.

The only remnant of mutation in degrees of comparison is seen in elder, eldest from the adjective old (alongside older and oldest).

Polysyllabic adjectives form the degrees of comparison by means of words more, most.

Verbs

Personal Endings

Since the ending -e of the first person singular, of the plural present indicative, and of the infinitive was lost, these forms now had no ending at all.

Another change affected the 3^rd singular present indicative. The ending -eth was replaced by -s.

The 2^nd person form in -st, connected with the personal pronoun thou, was gradually ousted during the 17^th century from normal literary language.

Strong verbs

In OE and ME every strong verb was characterized by 4 basis forms: infinitive, 1^st and 3^rd person singular and past subjunctive, second participle.

In MnE these 4 forms were reduced to three: infinitive, past tense, second Participle.

Weak verbs

Classification of weak verbs into I and II classes is no longer applicable to MnE.

A number of strong verbs became weak in the MnE period, e.g.: grippen-grip, gliden-glid, lien-lie, climben-climb, etc.

In a few cases weak verbs became strong, e.g. the OE weak verb hydan-hydde-hyded “hyde”.

ME diggen-diggede-digge “dig”.

The verbs be, go, do, will

The verb be did not change much since the ME period. The main change was the penetration of the form are into the present plural indicative instead of be. In the past tense, the distinction between the indicative was (I, he), and the subjunctive were (I, he) has been preserved.

The verb do has undergone some changes: in the form dost, does, doth, done the vowel has been shortened.

In the verb go the past form went has been preserved, while the form yede disappeared.

The verb will (would) has preserved its forms in MnE mostly as an auxiliary.

Aspect

The category of aspect seems to have arisen only in the MnE period. In OE differences in the way an action proceeds in time were expressed by the prefix 3e.

In the 19^th century continuous forms are used more widely. But in the early 19^th century they were considered a feature of colloquial style.

In the 19^th century passive continuous forms appeared. But the system of passive continuous forms has been limited to the present and the past; neither a future continuous passive nor any perfect continuous passive forms have been developed so far.

Use of Auxiliary do

In Early MnE the verb do was widely used as an auxiliary verb. In the 16^th and 17^th centuries forms of the present and past are often derived by means of the auxiliary do. In negative sentences the use of do gradually grew during the 17^th century.

The Gerund

The gerund, which came into being in ME, developed further in MnE.

The adverb

In the MnE the suffix -ly became the only productive adverb-forming suffix. The ME adverbs with the -e- suffix, inherited from OE, lost their -e and thus became undistinguishable from the corresponding adjectives: fast, loud, hard.

In the formation of degrees of comparison no change occurred in MnE as against ME.

Syntax

Ways of expressing syntactic connection

Agreement

Agreement in MnE goes on decreasing. Only the two pronouns this and that still agree in number with their head word.

Government

Little has remained of government. Particularly only the personal pronouns and the interrogative and relative pronoun who are governed. The pronoun it has no distinction of cases; the pronoun ye/you tends to lose this distinction.

The sentence

No material change can be found in the structure of the simple sentence in Early MnE. The means of expressing the subject, the object, and other parts of the sentence remain basically the same.

The freedom of word order became gradually still more restricted that it had been in ME.

Impersonal and Personal Constructions.

It was typical of Early MnE to replace impersonal constructions by personal. The verbs happen, seem, think, like, lack, need, remember, ought, etc., which in the 14^th century had been mainly used in impersonal constructions, began in the 15^th century to become personal, e.g. it likes me – I like it.

Negation

Since about the middle of the 17^th century double negation began to decline and gradually became a feature of dialect and non-literary speech.

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