The structure of the Simple Sentence in OE.

The following examples show the structure of the simple sentence in OE, its principal and secondary parts:

Sōðlice sum mann hæfde twēʒen suna (mann – subject, hæfde – Simple Predicate) ‘truly a certain man had two sons’. Predicates could also be compound: modal, verbal and nominal:

Hwæðre pū meaht sinʒan ‘nevertheless you can sing’

Hē was swyde spediʒ mann ‘he was a very rich man’

The secondary parts of the sentence are seen in the same examples: twēʒen suna ‘two sons’ – Direct Object with an attribute, spēdiʒ ‘rich’ – attribute. In the exapmples of verb and noun patterns above we can find other secondary parts of the sentence: indeirect and prepositional objects, adverbial modifiers and appositions: hys mēder ‘to his mother’ (Indirect Object), tō his suna ‘to his son’ (Prep. Object). His hlāforde, AElfrēde cyninʒe ‘his lord king Alfred’ (apposition), etc. The structure of the OE sentence was made up of the same parts, except that those parts were usually simpler. Attributive groups were short and among the parts of the sentence there were very few predicative constructions (‘syntactical complexes’). Absolute constructions with the noun in the Dat. case were sometimes used in translations from Latin in imitation of the Latin Dativus Absolutus. The objective predicative construction “Accusative with the Infinitive” occurred in original OE texts:

…ðā līðende land ʒesāwon, brimclifu blīcan, beorʒas stēape (BĒOWULF)

‘… the travelers saw land, the cliffs shine, steep mountains’.

Predicative constructions after habbaan (NE have) contained a Past Participle.

The connection between the parts of the sentence was shown by the form of the words as they had formal markers for gender, case, number and person. As compared with later periods agreement and government played an important role in the word phrase and in the sentence. Accordingly the place of the word in relation to other words was of secondly importance and the order of words was relatively free.

The presence of formal markers made it possible to miss out some parts of the sentence which would be obligatory in an English sentence now.

Formation of New Short Vowels in Mod E

Rise of new short phonemes æ, o, a(in but as )

a>æ (man, sat)

a>o after w- (watch,was)

a>æ after w- before –x, -g, -n (wax, wag)

u:>a(as in but) (o:>u:>u>a) blod(OE)-blood[o:](ME) – [u:](ME) – [u](NE) – [a](NE)

features: u or o in spelling; before d,θ,n,r

a>u between bilabial and after labial consonants (full[a]-full[u])

The peculiarities of the complex sent. in OE. Its historical development.

The complex sent. clauses: subject, object, attributive, adverbial of diff. types. Conjunctions: hwæþer, þe,zif, þanne, ar, forþ, on…

Formation of New Long Vowels in Mod E

• [a:] formed from: [æ]+r /+l+labial /voiceless fricative(s,θ,f,t∫(ch),∫(sh)) / voiceless sibilant(∫, z(j), t∫) – arm, calf, after, fast, glass
• [a:] - a+r (in French borrowings) – alarm, car
• [o:] – o:+r/ au+l/ au+x/ u+r/ o+voiceless sibilant/ ou+x/ w+ar – floor, all, chalk, taught, court, law, bought, warm
• [ə:] – u+r/ e+r/ i+r/ w+o+r – burden, earnest, first, word

The Old English Vowel System.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 2062