Прилагательное как часть речи в истории английского языка

Дисциплина: История английского языка

Московский Государственный Авиационный Институт

Выполнил: студент группы 201

Боровик Ирина Игоревна

Москва, 2011

History of adjectives in English Language

Germanic language and the Old English language

System of 4 or 5 cases

Period 1

Period 2

Period 3

Middle English language

Reduction and weakening of unaccented syllables

Early modern English language

Simplification of language

Period 4 Modern English language

General grammatical standards of language

Germanic language and the Old English language

The distinguishing features of adjectives were then:

• adjectives agree with gender, number and case of nouns;

• double adjective declension: strong declension (indefinite) and weak declension (definite)

• system of 4 or 5 cases

Germanic language and the Old English language

Strong declension (indefinite)

Indefinite adjectives define nouns generally without special emphasis. There was the difference in suffix declension in stems of adjectives with -jă- and -jō-, -wă- and -wō-. Such adjectives in nominative case of masculine and neuter gender lost or changed

their endings with the lapse of time from -jă- to -i- and then to -e- (swōtja>swōti>swēte, but swētum – in masculine and neuter gender in other cases)

Some adjectives with stems -wă- and -wō- such as ʒearu, nearu were the same in all genders in nominative case, but changed according to rules in other cases ʒearwe,

nearwes )

CASE Masculine gender Neuter gender Feminine gender

Nominative

Genitive

Dative

Accusative

Instrumental

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

Ʒōd

singular plural Singular plural singular plural

-es-u-ne-e

-e-ra-um-e

-es-um

-e

-u, --ra-um-u, -

-u, --re-re-e, --re

-a-ra-um-a-um

Germanic language and the Old English language

Weak declension (definite)

These adjectives define nouns which are known and distinguishable from others. There were demonstrative pronouns (sē – masculine, sēō – feminine, ƥӕt – neuter,

ƥᾱ - plural) near definite adjectives and nouns too. Later these pronouns became articles – new grammar word form.sē Ʒōde mann – хороший человек

sēō Ʒōde ewēn – хорошая женщина pӕt lytle bearn – малое дите

CASE Masculine gender Neuter gender Feminine gender

Nominative

Genitive

Dative/ Instrumental

Accusative

Ʒōda

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdra

Ʒōdum

Ʒōdan

Ʒōde

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdan

Ʒōde

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdra

Ʒōdum

Ʒōdan

Ʒōde

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdan

Ʒōdra

Ʒōdum

Ʒōdan

singular plural singular plural singular plural

Germanic language and the Old English language

Degrees of comparison of adjectives

There were three degrees such as: positive, comparative ( with the suffix –ira, later changed to –ra), superlative (with the suffix –ist, later changed to -est). Some

exceptions were with the suffix –ora, later changed to –ra and with the suffix –ost.

Positive Comparative Superlative Meaning

eald ealdira > ieldra ealdist > ieldest old

earm earmra earmost poor

The other system of adjective degree formation was suppletive system which joined together different roots of words having the same meaning.

Ʒōd – betera – betst = good, better, bestYfel – wiersa – wierst = bad, worse, worst

Lytel – lǣssa – lǣst = little, less, least

CASE Masculine gender

Neuter gender

Feminine gender

All genders

Nominative

Genitive

Dative

Accusative

singular plural singular

plural singular plural singular plural

Middle English language

The simplification of declination started in XII century and the great changes took place in the second half of XIII century:

• there were no differences between indefinite and definite types of adjectives, this difference moved to articles

• nouns and adjectives lost grammatical category of gender

• destruction of case system beganIndefinite adjectives Definite adjectives

XII CENTURYXIII CENTURY

--es-e-e

--es-e-

--re-re-

-

-es

-en

-en

-e

-re

-en

-e

-

-es

-en

-

-e

-re

-en

-e

-e

-re

-en

-e

-

-re

-re

-

-e

-en

-en

-en (neut. -e)

-en

-re

-en

-en

-e

-re

-e

-e

-e

-re

-e

-e

-e

-re

-e

-e

-e

-e

-e

-e

-e

-re

-e

-e

Middle English language

XIV centuryEnding – re fell away and the only one suffix of adjectives in cases was unstressed –e. It helped to distinguish singular forms without endings such as short, wild, long from plural forms of indefinite adjectives: shorte, wilde, longe.

XV century

Ending –e fell away too as the last difference in forms of adjectives and as the last possibility to agree adjectives with nouns.

Adjectives are invariant part of speech, except degrees of comparison which exist up to date.

Middle English language

Degrees of comparison of adjectives

At this time suffix of comparative degree took some changes from –ra > -re > -r > -er but sounded as [ǝ]

Superlative degree changed from-ost > -est and some had mutation in roots

Old – elder – eldest Long- lenger – lengest

Strong – stenger – stengest

Suppletive system of adjectives changed to more modern English language form:

Gōd – bettre – bestEvel, ivel – werse, worse – werst, worst

Litel, lutel – lesse – lestMichel, muchel – more – mest, most

Early Modern English language

The Great Vowel Shift is one of the historical events marking the separation of Middle and Modern English, which took place mainly during the 15th century. English has continuously adopted foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. During the Renaissance (1400's and 1500's) the Latin language became important in England especially in the church and in medicine. Thereby English acquired many Latin words in this period.

English was further transformed by the spread of a standardized London-based dialect in government and administration and by the standardizing of printing. By the time of mid-late 16th century the language had become almost recognizable as Modern English. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published which was named as A Table Alphabeticall. It was monolingual English dictionary, created by Robert Cawdrey which was claimed purpose was "for the benefit and help of Ladies, Gentlewomen, or other unskillful persons".

Standardization and Simplification began and came into the open in XV century. These process can be seen in changing forms of adjectives

which became invariable part of speech.

Early Modern English language

Suppletive adjectives had changes in sounds and had some lexical changes. Some forms came into existence from the other roots (like bad forced out evil, which in modern English has the different meaning) but suppletion is retained as the essential quality of adjectives.

Good – better – bestBad – worse – worst

Much, many – more – mostLittle – less – least

In Early Modern English appeared new type of adjectives named as polysyllabic adjectives such as beautiful, interesting and etc. New method of forming degree of comparison of adjectives was found according to the tendency in English grammar to use auxiliary words. Analytical forms of degree of comparison of polysyllabic adjectives were formed with the help of a generalized adjectives.

Beautiful – more beautiful – the most beautifulInteresting – more interesting – the most interesting

Modern English language

Modern English has two methods of forming degrees of comparison of adjectives:

Synthetical method ascending up to writing antiquity for short adjectives

Analytical method ascending appeared at the end of the middle period of English language for polysyllabic adjectives

History in practice

Periods Positive Comparative Superlative

Old English eald ealdira > ieldra ealdist > ieldest

Middle English old elder eldest

Modern English old older oldest

Periods Positive Comparative Superlative

Old English ʒōd betera betst

Middle English gōd bettre best

Modern English good better best

Modern English language

History in practicefor suppletive adjectives

Modern English language

The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

Citations

1.Arakin V. D. «Essays about a History of English language», 2007

2. Fennell B. A. «A History of English»

3.Smirnizkiy A. I. «Lectures about a History of English language», 2006

4.Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia