The Noun Grammatical Categories

The OE noun had two numbers, singular and plural; three genders: masculine (M), feminine (F) and neuter (N); and four cases: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative.

Adjectives and some pronouns had in addition special forms for the instrumental case, but in nouns the function of this case was taken over by the dative case.

Declensions

In ancient times nouns were classified according to their meaning. Nouns denoting objects of the same kind formed a special group with their own stem-

forming suffix. But later the principle of the original classification was lost.

The stem-forming suffix in OE had ceased to be a distinct component part of the noun. Though the types of nouns as a-stems, ō-stems, n-stems, etc. were distinguished, there was little in the OE forms themselves to show any traces of these stems. The stem-forming suffix had merged either with the root or with the ending, or had become an inflection itself. As a grammatical ending it had survived only in a few types of declension: n-stems had many forms ending in –an, u-stems had the inflection -u in some cases [Rastorgueva, 2001].

The OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the stem-suffix, the gender of nouns, the phonetic structure of the word, phonetic changes in the final syllables.

Usually the noun declensions are classified on historical, or etymological, grounds, i.e. according to whether the stem in the given paradigm originally ended in a vowel or in a consonant (hence comes the distinction between vocalic and consonantal declensions).

The majority of nouns belonged to a-stems, ō-stems and n-stems.

(1) Typical paradigms of the strong masculine (a-) declension:

Singular

Plural

Notes:

1. About one third of OE nouns were Masculine a-stem. More and more nouns which originally belonged to other stems or were borrowed from other languages joined this declension.

2. The inflections of the Dative plural – um and Genitive plural –a were alike in all declensions.

3. It was characteristic of OE nouns to have homonymous forms for the Nominative and Accusative plural.

4. The Mod E plural marker -(e)s goes back to the OE –as in the Nominative and Accusative plural forms of Masculine a-stems. This inflection began to be added to the other Masculine stems towards the end of the OE period.

5. The OE Genetive singular ending –esof a-stems was a prototype of the Mod E Possessive Case marker -’s. In OE it began to spread to other Masculine and Neuter stems, but its use was limited to the singular nouns [Smirnitsky, 1998].

(2) Typical paradigms of the strong neuter (a-) declension:

Singular

Plural

Notes:

1. Neuter a-stems differed from the masculine a-stems in the plural of the Nom. and Acc. cases. Instead of -as they usually took -и for short stems, i.e. nouns with a short root-syllable, and did not add any inflection in the long-stemmed variant.

2. The homonymy of long-stemmed Neuters in the singular and plural resulted in identical singular and plural forms of some Mod E nouns: sheep (OE sceāp), deer (OE deōr), swine (OE swīn). Many of these words are the names of animals.

(3) ja-stems and wa-stems

ja-stemsandwa-stemsdiffered from pure a-stems in some forms, as their endings contained traces of the elements –j- and –w-.

(4) Typical paradigms of the strong feminine (ō-) declension:

Notes:

1. Talu is a noun with a short root vowel; lār is a noun with a long vowel.

2. In sāwol the unstressed vowel is omitted in the oblique cases.

ō-stems were all feminine. Practically no word of this type ends in -ō, which was lost or transformed. The paradigm of ō-stems contains many homonymous forms.

(5) jō- stems and wō-stems:

jō-stems and wō-stems are declined like pure ō-stems except that –w- appeared in some endings.

Note: In ecg the root-vowel moved to a higher front position under the influence of [j].

(6) i-stem, u-stem

Notes:

1. Division into genders break up i-stems into 3 declensions, but is irrelevant for u-stems: masc. and fem., u-stems decline alike.

2. The length of the root-syllable is important for both stems: mete (i-, short-stemmed), sunu (u-, short-stemmed), fēld (u-, long-stemmed).

(7) The weak or n-declension includes:

a) all masculine nouns ending in Nom. sg. in -a, e.g. nama (ModE name), guma (man), hunta (hunter), tima (time), wita (councillor), etc.

b) all feminine nouns ending in -e, e.g. hlǣfdige (lady), tunge (tongue), sunne (sun), etc.

c) two neuter nouns ending in -e: ēāge (eye) and ēāге (ear).

n-stems were the most numerous group of consonantal stems. They had

only two distinct forms in the singular: one form for the Nom. case and the other for oblique cases. In fact, n-stems had begun to lose their declensional system.

Masculine n-stems often denoted a doer of the action (nomina agentis), e.g. hunta (a hunter), dēma (a judge), bylda (a builder), cræfta (craftsman), etc [Smirnitsky, 1998].

The only relics of n-stems in Mod E are oxen (OE oxan), brethren and children, although the latter was an original s-stem and only later converted to the n-stem paradigm. The n-steminflection was added to the OE word cildru (s-stem), when the former plural marker failed to distinguish the plural form.

n-stems correspond to the Russian nouns семя, время, знамя, племя, etc [Ylysh, 1973].

(8) (r-) declension (bropor, fæder, dohtor, modor, sweostor):

-r – declension included a small number of masculine and feminine nouns denoting kinship.

Instability was characteristic of this declension [Smirnitsky, 1998]. Every word of this group had some peculiarities in its paradigm. Some nouns had a mutated vowel in the Dative singular (brēþer, dehter), others dropped the second vowel in some forms (brōprum, mōdra) or employed some endings of other stems (fæderas - Nom., Acc. pl. Cf. –as in a-stems) [Rastorgueva, 2001].

r-stems correspond to the Russian nouns мать, дочь [Ylysh, 1973]. The original suffix –rcan be found in the forms of oblique cases: матери, дочери, etc.

Singular

(9) (s-) declension

To this declension there belonged neuter nouns denoting young beings, baby animals: cild (child), cealf (calf), lamb (lamb), eʒ (egg), etc [Ivanova, 2001]. The stem-suffix –swas transformed into –r by Verner’s Law (rhotacism).

es-sterms correspond to the Russian nouns небо – небеса; чудо – чудеса. [Ylysh, 1973].

(10) (nd-) declension.

Masculine stems in -nd- are old active (present) participles; some of these show i-umlaut in Dat. sg. and Nom./Acc. pl. Typical examples are frēond (ModE. friend), hettend (enemy), hǣlend (saviour), wealdend (ruler), āgend (owner), etc.

The(nd)-declension combines the peculiarities of the declension of a-stems and, to some extent, r-stems as they all denote persons.

(11). Root Consonant Stems.

From the historical point of view this declension was made up of monosyllabic consonant stems, i.e. nouns in which the old case endings were added directly to the final consonant of the root. Typical examples are man(n), fōt, tōþ, hnutu (nut), āc (oak), gōs (goose), mūs (mouse), burg (fortress, town), cū (cow), niht (night), ēа (water, river), lūs (louse), bōc (book), etc.

The paradigms for these nouns are affected by i-mutation [Mitchell, 2007].

The interchange of root-vowels typical of this declension has left traces in Mod E. irregular plural forms – men, women, teeth, mice, etc [Rastorgueva, 2001]. Most of the OE masculine examples can be recognized by thinking of the Mod E plural of the corresponding word: ‘foot’ (OE fōt), ‘man’ (OE mann), ‘tooth’ (OE tōþ). Most of the feminine nouns have become regular in Mod E: ‘book’ (OE bōc), ‘oak (OE āc), ‘goat’ (OE gāt), nut (OE hnutu), night (OE niht); but a few survive: goose (OE gōs), louse (OE lūs), mouse (OE mūs) [Mitchell, 2007].

Note: The masculines have adopted the a- stem form of Gen., sg.; the feminines most often have an ō-stem Gen. in - e (bec/bōce).

Unit 16

Date: 2014-12-22; view: 1950