Grammar Flashcards
On the basis of you reading of chapter 15, note at least THREE grammatical differences
between poetry and prose
Omission of subject and objects in poetry, Weak adjectives are frequently found where you would find strong adjectives in prose (no demonstrative pronoun or possessive adjective precedes), accusative singular ‘þec’ (you) and ‘mec’ (me) where prose has þē and mē
What are preterite-present verbs?
preterite-present verbs are verbs which present tense looks like the past tense of the strong verbs
What kind of Modern English verbs do most of these preterite-present verbs resemble?
Preterite-present verbs are ModE auxiliarly verbs
Why can the inflectional ending –um be confusing?
“-um is used for masculine/neuter dative singular, dative plural nouns and adjectives
‘Comparative adjectives and ordinal numbers (except for ōðer
‘second’) are always ______’
weak
What is concord?
agreement in gender, case, number or person between different words that share a reference
How does concord work with respect to verbs and subjects?
the verbs must agree with its subject in person and number
What are impersonal verbs?
impersonal verbs lack a subject or have ‘hit’ as placeholder subject
How does concord work with respect to noun phrases?
a noun + all modifiers must agree in gender, case and number
what is the purpose of cases?
cases tell us something about the function of a noun, adjective or pronoun in a sentence or clause
How many cases are there for Old English and which are they?
genitive, nominative, dative, accusative, instrumental
what is Grimms law?
sound shift in germanic languages, voiceless stops –> fricatives, voiced stops –> voiceless stops, voiced aspirated stops –> voiced stops or fricatives
Strong verb class 1 rule
one consonant after the stem
strong verb class 2 rule
one consonant after the stem
strong verb class 3 rule
two consonants after the stem
strong verb class 4 rule
one final consonant, always <mlnr></mlnr>
strong verb class 5 rule
one final consonant, always plosive or fricative
strong verb class 6 rule
only one to have ō in stem of 1st and 2nd past
strong verb class 7 rule
only one to have ē or ēo in stem of 1st and 2nd past
what are the verbs of weak verbs class 3?
habban, libban, secgan, hycgan
what are the functions of the nominative?
subject, subject complement, direct address
what are the functions of the accusative?
direct object (of transitive verb), motion towards/movement
what are the functions of the genetive?
modifies or limits a word by associating it with something, possessive, partitive, descriptive
what are the functions of the dative?
indirect object, interest, possession, comparison, instrument means manner
what are the functions of the instrumental?
instrument means manner, accompaniment, expression of time, inflect masculine + neuter singular adjectives and pronouns
3rd person singular pronouns are inflected by what?
gender
3rd person plural pronouns are NOT inflected by what?
gender
how are weak and strong nouns identified?
by looking at the inflectional ending and pronoun in front of it
when is a stem short?
when it consists of 1 vowel and 1 consonant (with <u>)</u>
when is a stem long?
when it consists of 1 vowel and 1 consonant (no <u>) OR ī</u>
when are verbs weak in the preterite?
when they have a dental suffix (t/d)
they can also have a stem vowel change
when are verbs strong in the preterite?
when they only have a stem vowel change
when is the subjunctive used? + what are its inflections?
the subjunctive is used to state conditions contrary to facts (requests, non-facts), noun clauses following verbs of desire and commanding, singular = -e AND plural = -en
when is the imperative used? + what are its inflections?
the imperative is used with direct command, plural = th
when is the indicative used? + what are its inflections?
the indicative is used with full facts, 2nd singular present = -(e)st, 3rd singular present = th
when is an adjective weak?
when it is preceded by a demonstrative pronoun, third person pronoun or a genetive noun
when is an adjective strong?
when none of the weak paradigm apply
what is breaking?
/æ/ becomes /ea/ when it is followed by: r + C OR L + C
/e/ becomes /eo/ when it is followed by: h OR r + C
what is palatalisation?
he process of palatalisation implied that the velar plosives (or “stops”) /g/ and /k/ moved from a velar to palatal (i.e. more fronted) place of articulation, when they preceded or followed a front-vowel within the same syllable; as a result, they became /j/ and /tʃ/, respectively
what is fronting?
a short /a/ spontaneously became
/æ/ unless it was followed by a nasal
or a back vowel in the next syllable. If a back-vowel (/a, o, u/) followed, /a/
remained /a/. However, if a nasal followed /a/, the result was /ɔ/, spelled. This is more pronounced then written
what are the types of i-mutation with short vowels? (8)
a –> æ
an/am –> en/em
e –> i
æ –> e
ea –> ie (i,y)
eo –> ie (i,y)
o –> e
u –> y
what is i-mutation?
modification of a stressed vowel due to the influence of /i/ or /j/ in the following syllable
what are the types of i-mutation with long vowels? (5)
ā –> ǣ
ēā –> īe (ī, ȳ)
ēō –> īe (ī, ȳ)
ō –> ē
ū –> ȳ
what are athematic nouns?
athematic nouns sometimes have i-mutation of the root vowel instead of an ending, ancestors of ModE man/men
þonne + verb =?
then (adverb)
þonne + subject =?
when (conjunction)
what are the anomalous verbs?
dōn, bēon, willan, gan
