Changes in PRONOUNS

LECTURE 8. GRAMMATICAL CHANGES IN ME.

I. Morphology

1. The Noun.

2. The Pronoun.

3. The Adjective.

4. The Article.

5. The Verb and its Categories.

II. Syntax.

In ME the leveling of unstressed vowels was going on. This process was reflected in morphology in the leveling of inflections.

We can observe it while analyzing the NOUN. Besides, many endings of different declensions are formed in the same way on the analogy. This reduction develops most quickly in the Northern dialect, which is followed by the Midland one.

In the Northern and Midland dialects the distinction between grammatical genders had already been lost by the 11^th- 12^th centuries. The differentiation between the strong and weak declension was also lost: the ending –n, the characteristic feature of the weak declension disappeared. (e.g. OE nama-nam e n > ME name-nam e s).

Only 2 endings remained stable: Genitive singular – es, and Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative plural – es.

OE – as expresses both the categories of case and number. The same applies to the other case forms: there is no sign of plural that might be found in all plural forms. This is typical of the synthetic structure of the language.

In ME there comes a radical change in this respect: the expression of number is separated from the expression of case. So there is a fundamental difference between OE – as and ME – es: while OE –as expresses number and case simultaneously, ME - es (of the plural) expresses number alone and is not connected with any notion of case.

Along with the process of leveling endings another process takes place. It is the substituting of case system for prepositional system, and the definite word-order. The Dative case is superseded by to+noun, the Genitive case by of+noun.

e.g. … from every shires ende of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende. (Chaucer. Canterbury Tales)

Changes in PRONOUNS.

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