ELS 103 History of the English Language

Old English Morphology and Syntax

Morphology

1. Modern English inflections:

Noun parrot mouse

Plural parrots mice
Possessive Sg. parrot's mouse's
Pl. parrots' mice's

Verb listen sing

3rd person sg. pres. ind. listens sings
Past listened sang
Past Participle listened sung
Present Participle listening singing

Adjective or adverb fat soon good

Comparative fatter sooner better
Superlative fattest soonest best

2. three reasons the OE inflectional system fell apart:

(i) many of the endings were the same, hard to tell apart
(ii) the Germanic heavy stress on the root syllable meant that the
endings were eventually reduced to [ ] – even harder to tell apart
(iii) OE had a pretty fixed word order (syntax) – didn’t need endings to
tell you what the words did in the sentence
(iv) after Old English, lots of loanwords from Old Norse and French –
easiest just to leave the endings off

3. instrumental case: means or instrument: πy scipe (‘by means of the ship’)

4. unmarked plurals in Modern English (from long neuter –a stems, or imitating them):

folk (“Folk are getting angry.”) in some English dialects

menfolk, kinfolk
sheep, deer (OE sceap, deor)
fish, elk (had –as plurals in OE)
 moose (borrowed from Algonquian) – by analogy with sheep etc.

5. Modern English personal pronouns:

singular plural
1stperson
nominative I we
genitive (possessive) me us
dative me us

2nd person
nominative you you
accusative you you
genitive (possessive) your your
dative you you

3rd person
nominative he, she, it they
accusative him, her, it them
genitive (possessive) his, her, its their
dative him, her, it them

they, them, their all borrowed from Old Norse

5. development of the 2nd person pronouns:

OE: (singular) πu/πe/πin
(plural) ge/eow/eower
ME: (singular) thou/thee/thine
(plural) you/you/your
ME: (familiar) thou/thee/thine
(polite) you/you/your
EMnE: (familiar) thou/thee/thine
(polite) you/you/your
MnE: (drops) thou/thee/thine

6. strong verbs in OE (about 300 of them):

 (i) lost in OE: πeon (‘to prosper’), (ge)limpan (‘to happen’), πicgan (‘to
receive’)
(ii) changed to weak (regular) verbs: scufan (‘to shove’), murnan (‘to
mourn’), wascan (‘to wash’)
(iii) remained strong (regular) verbs: rædan (‘to read’), seon (‘to
see’), stelan (‘to steal’)

Syntax

7. MnE: The dog bit the man.

The man bit the dog.
OE: Se hund bat πone mann.
∏one mann bat se hund.

8. A normal-looking OE sentence:
He sæde ∂æt Nor∂manna land wære swyπe lang and swyπe smæl.
He said that (the) Northmen’s land was very long and very narrow.

9. adjective sometimes before noun (as in MnE), sometimes after:

πa beorhtan
steorran beorn
unweaxen
the bright
stars
boy youthful

10. multiple negatives were permissible and common:

Ne ure nænig his lif ne fadode swa swa he scolde…and na∂er
ne heldan
Not of us none his life not arranges as he ought to and neither not
(we) observe
ne lare ne lage ne manna swa swa we scoldan.
neither teaching nor law nor men as we ought to.

11. prepositional phrases:

usually preposition + noun/pronoun, as in MnE:
æt his hlafordes fotum
at his lord’s feet
occasionally noun/pronoun + preposition:
hie comon him to
they came him to
12. verbs:
no progressive tense, as in MnE:
Ic swimme.
I am swimming.

subjunctive mood (to express wish, hope, desire, condition contrary to fact)
gif ic wære rice mann (past subjunctive)
If I had been a rich man

impersonal verbs (no subject) common in OE:

him limp∂ oft æfter hiora agnum willan
(to) them happens often according to their own desire

archaic English: ‘methinks’

MnE ‘there is’ ‘it is’, ‘it seems’, etc. never used in OE

MnE ‘do’ for negatives and questions never used in OE:

He cwæπ πæt heo ne wære swi∂e wlitige.
He said that she not was very beautiful
Hwilce fixas gefehst πu?
Which fishes catch you?

13. syntax within clauses:

subject (S), verb (V), object (O)
SVO (as in normal MnE) very common:
and mæsse-preost asinge feower mæssan ofer πan turfon
and (the) mass priest (should) sing four masses over (the) turves

in dependent clauses, SOV:

for ∂an Ælmær hi becyrde
because Elmer them betrayed

VSO in questions:
Hæfst ∂u hafocas?
Have you hawks?

VSO in commands (with an expressed subject):

Ne sleh πu, Abraham, πin agen bearn.
Not slay you, Abraham, your own son.
 VSO after adverbs or adverb phrases:
Îa cwæπ se fæder to his πeowum…
then said the father to his servants…
Eall πis gear wunode se cyng Henri on Normandig
all this year stayed King Henry in Normandy

14.
syntax within sentences: loose, not many subordinate clauses, lots of ‘and’ and ‘then’
‘rambling’ or ‘run-on’ sentences

∏a hie genfengon micle herehy∂ ond πa woldon ferian norπweardes over Temese, in
on
When they seized great plunder and it wanted to carry northward over Thames,
into

Eastseaxe ongean πa scipu, πa forrad sio fierd hie foran ond

him wi∂ gefeaht
Essex toward the ships, then intercepted the army them in front and them
against fought

æt Fearnhamme, ond πone here gefliemde ond πa herehyπa ahreddon; ond hie flugon
ofer
at Farnham, and the army put to flight and the plunder
rescued; and they fled over

Temese buton ælcum forda, πa up be Colne on anne igga∂.

Thames without any fords, then up along Colne onto an island.

A tighter, more impressive sentence from Wulfstan, ‘Sermo Lupi ad Anglos’:

Her syndan mannslagan and mægslagan and mæsserbanan

and mynsterhatan, and
Here are homicides and kinsmen-slayers and priest-killers and church-
persecutors, and

her syndan mansworan and morπorwyrhtan, and her syndan myltestran and
bearnmyr∂ran
here are perjurors and murderers, and here
are harlots and infanticides
and fule forlegene horingas maege, and her syndan wiccan and wælcyrian, and her
syndan
and foul fornicated whores many, and her are witches and sorceresses,
and her are

ryperas and reaferas and woruldstruderas, and hrædest is to cweπenne, mana and
misdæda
robbers and thieves and plunderers, and most hastily is to
say, wickedness and crimes

ungerim ealra.
countless number of all