Characteristics of Middle English Flashcards
What happens to inflections in the ME period?
Inflections all start to disappear.
What are 2 grammatical changes that were impacted by Norman French?
- Semantics of the lexicon (word meaning and word creation).- Certain syntactical structures.
When did the changes of the language really started?
In the late OE period.
What kind of language was English in the OE period and what does it become in the ME period?
It went from a higly inflectional and synthetic language (OE) to an analytic language (ME).
What amount of the word stock of Anglo-Saxon origin is lost in ME?
85% of the word stock of the language from Anglo-Saxon.
In Old English, nouns were declined in what 3 ways?
- Gender- Number- Case
In OE, how many genders, numbers, cases were there and what were they?
- 3 genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.- 3 persons: singular, plural and double.- 5 cases: accusative, nominative, dative, genitive and instrumental.
In Old English, nouns and their endings were modified depending on what?
They were depending on how they were used (their function and what they represented).
In Middle English, what happens to vowels and consonants?
Vowels start to level and consonants get lost.
What were inflections replaced by in ME?
Inflections were replaced by prepositions.
What happens to the classification of strong and weak verbs in ME?
It gets lost.
What happens to grammatical gender in ME?
It disappears (apart from ships, cars, countries, etc).
What happens to the articles in ME?
There is a rise in the importance of the articles in ME.
Today, what are the 2 inflections of nouns?
-Case (genitive/possessive).-Number (plural).
What are the 2 factors causing the merging of inflections in ME?
- Vowel reduction- Process of analogy (try to make things similar)
What happens to unstressed / a, o, u, e / at the end of words in ME?
They tend to become all a final / e /, but the final / e / drops or changes for a schwa.
When is the pronunciation of “es” kept and not reducted to schwa?
When the sound before is a sibilant or a / z / or a “sh” sound.
What happens to inflections of Adjectives in ME?
They get inflected for number, but not for case or gender.
In ME, what are strong and weak adjectives?
- Strong adjectives (or strong inflections): nothing in singular and a / e / in plural.- Weak adjectives (or weak inflections): / e / in singular and plural.
What happens to the final / m / or / n / sounds of words?
They have a tendency to fall, to disappear.
When does the / s / at the end of nouns disappear?
When it is preceded by a / u / or a / m /.
How are comparatives and superlatives constructed in OE and ME and what difference occurs in ME?
In OE as in ME comparatives are created by adding -er at the end of adjectives and superlatives are created by adding -est. However, in ME, the use of “more” and “most” appear.
What is a periphrastic construction of superlatives and comparatives?
It is the process of using more than one word to create an idea = use of “more” and “most” instead of “-er” and “-est”.
Why is “children” considered a double plural?
Because in ME, adding “-en” was a way to create plural, but adding “-r” was a way to create plural as well.
What are 3 ways to create plurals in ME?
-adding -en-adding -s-changing vowel (umlaut).
What is the difference between “brother”, “brether” and “bretheren”?
Brother is the singular, brether is the plural and bretheren are members of a fraternity.
What is the syntactical element that resisted change the most?
Personal Pronouns.
How many cases did personal pronouns maintain?
3 distinct case forms (me, my, mine).
In ME, what are the demonstrative pronouns used and what are their 2 functions?
This, that, these, those (anaphoric and deictic functions).
