The Adjective in OE.

was a fully declinable part of speech. It had 2 numbers, 3 genders and 4 (5) cases. The categories of adj. are dependable upon the nouns. The adj. had 2 types of declensions: strong and weak. Strong adj. had more endings opposed to each other , so these adj. supported the nouns by their specific forms, helping the latter to render the relations in the phrase in a “stronger” way, therefore they are called strong. Weak declension was characterized by the ending –en. Most adj. could be declined according to both declensions. Some adj. also changed their forms in accordance with the category of Degrees of comparison..

The Pronoun in OE.

In OE there existed several groups of pronouns: Personal, Demonstrative, Definite, Indefinite, Negative and Relative. Personal pronouns had the following grammatical categories: the category of Person( 3 persons); the category of Number( 3 numbers: singular, dual and plural); the category of Case( Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative). Demonstrative pronouns played an important functional role in the grammatical system of OE, helping to differentiate homonymous forms of nouns..

Strong, Weak, Preterite-Present and Anomalous Verbs in OE.

TheStrong verbs may be called “ablaut verbs”, the verbs which have the alternation of vowels in the stems. There are 7 classes of strong verbs. Weak verbs formed their Past and Participle II by means of the dental suffix –d- or –t-. Have only three basic forms which are differed in the ending of the Infinitive, the sonority of the suffix, and the sounds preceding the suffix. The Preterite-Present verbsare of the specific character in the verb system of OE. There were 12 preterite-present verbs. Irregular verbs . there are 4 verbs in OE listed as irregular b͞eon/wesan ( be ), ᴣan (go), do͞n (do) and willan ( will). The first 2 differ from all other verbs in their forms are derived from different roots, that is their system is based on suppletivity

Verbal Grammatical Categories in OE.

The finite forms of the Verb had the categories of Person, Number, Tense and Mood. The category of Person was based on the opposition of three persons: 1, 2, 3, which were grammatically marked only in the singular. As far as the plural form is considered, there was no distinction between persons. There were 2 numbers – the singular and the plural. The category of tense was represented only by 2 opposite members – the Present and the Past. There was no the category of voice in OE. There were 3 moods: Indicative, Conjunctive and Imperative.

Strong Verbs in OE.

There were about 300 strong verbs in OE. TheStrong verbs may be called “ablaut verbs”, the verbs which have the alternation of vowels in the stems. There are 7 classes of strong verbs. The first 5 classes are based on the ablaut “chains” which are characterized by quantitative ablaut, in the 6^th class the original gradation was purely quantitative, but in PG it changed into quantitative-qualitative series. The 7^th class is based on the reduplication of the root

Weak Verbs in OE.

There 3 classes of OE weak verbs as contrasted to the 4 in Gothic. . Weak verbs formed their Past and Participle II by means of the dental suffix –d- or –t-. This way of building grammatical forms is considered to be a purely Germanic Phenomenon. The origin of the dental suffix is a disputable question. Some scholars trace it back to the Past tense of the verb d̅͞͞͞͞͞o͞͞n . Some consider that it originated from the suffix of Participle II.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1085