LECTURE

DEVELOPMENT OF THE GRAMMATICAL SYSTEM (OLD ENGLISH –

MIDDLE ENGLISH – NEW ENGLISH) PRELIMINARY REMARCS
PARTS OF SPEECH AND GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES

OUTLINE
1. Old English Grammatical System
2. Middle English Grammatical System
3. New English Grammatical System
(Short Characterization of each Period in the development of the English
Language).

SUGGESTED READINGS
1. Ilyish B., History of the English Language, L., 1973, pp. 273-274
2. Rastorgueva T.A., A History of English, M., 1983, pp. 92-93, 220-222
3. Pyles Th., Alger S., The Origins and Development of the English
Language, Orlando, Fl., 1992, pp. 108-109, 151-153, 182
4. Blakeley L., Old English, London, 1973, pp. 10-24, 30-36

LISTENING
The Birth of a Language, The Structure of English

OLD ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL SYSTEM

We will make a short account of the Grammatical Categories of all these

threeperiods in the development of the English language. We will begin with a
characterization of the Grammatical Structure of OE.
OE possessed a well-developed morphological system made up of
synthetic grammatical forms. OE was a synthetic language. It showed the
relations between words and expressed other grammatical meanings mainly with
the help of simple grammatical forms. The means of grammatical form building
were as follows:
1. grammatical endings
 2. sound alternation in root-morphemes
3. prefixes
4. suppletive formation
1.Grammatical endings (or inflexions), were certainly the principal
formbuilding means used: they were found in all the parts of speech that
could change their form; they were usually used alone but could also occur in
combinations with other means.
2.Sound alternations (or interchanges) were employed on a more limited
scale and were often combined with other form building means, especially
endings. Vowel interchanges were more common than interchanges of
consonants. Sound alternations were not confined to verbs, but were also
used in the form-buildings of nouns and adjectives.
3.The use of prefixes in grammatical forms was rare and was confined to
verbs.
4.Suppletive forms were restricted to several pronouns, a few adjectives and
a couple of verbs.
It is important to note that no analytical form existed in OE. The
grammatical system was of a synthetic (inflected) type. In discussing OE
grammar, we will consider the main inflected parts of speech, characterized by
certain grammatical categories the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb
and the verb.
Grammatical categories are usually subdivided into nominal categories,
found in nominal parts of speech and verbal categories found chiefly in the finite
verb.
We shall assume that there were 5 nominal grammatical categories in OE:
1. Number
2. Case
3. Gender
4. Degrees of Comparison
5. The Category of Definiteness/Indefiniteness
The noun, the adjective, the pronoun and the numeral in OE had the
categories of gender, number and case.
These categories were independent in the noun, while in the adjective
andthe pronoun they were dependent, i.e. they showed agreement with the
corresponding noun.
Gender was represented by 3 distinct groups of nouns: masculine,
feminine, neuter.
 From the point of view of number, the parts of speech fell into 2 groups,
they all distinguished 2 numbers; the singular and the plural. While the personal
pronounsof the 1st and 2nd person had also special forms to denote 2 objects, i.e.
forms of dual number.
The category of case was represented by 4 cases: in the noun, adjective,
pronoun and some cardinal numerals.
1. Nominative
2. Genitive
3. Dative
4. Accusative
(Sometimes - the Instrumental case - for the adjective)
Verbal grammatical categories were not numerous:
1. Tense
2. Mood (verbal categories proper)
3. Number
4. Person (showing agreement between the verb-predicate and the subject)
The distinction of categorical forms by the noun and the verb was to a
large extent determined by their division into morphological classes: declensions
and conjugations.

MIDDLE ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL SYSTEM

As it was said, the grammatical system of OE was of a synthetic type.
But in OE, a general tendency towards the leveling, simplification and
sometimes disappearing of some inflected forms may be observed. Thus, the
survival of the inflected forms of the Instrumental Case in some OE adjectives
(and some pronouns) indicate that at an earlier period of time there must have
been an Instrumental Case in the declension of Nouns.
The i-stem nouns had lost almost all their specific inflexions in the OE
period. This process of weakening and disappearing of inflective forms is
accelerated in the ME period.
In the course of 400 years of the ME period most of the inflected forms
of nouns, adjectives and verbs are gradually reduced and many of them
disappeared.
The disappearing inflected forms are gradually replaced by new so-called
analytical forms, such as form words, prepositions and auxiliary verbs instead of
inflexions.
 Analytical forms developed from free word groups (phrases, syntactical
constructions).
The first component of these phrases gradually weakened or even lost its
lexical meaning and turned into a grammatical value in the compound form. Cf.,
e.g. the meaning and function of the verb to have in OE he hæfde Þa –― he had
them‖ (the prisoners); Hie hive ofslǽ3ene hæfdon - they had him killed or,
perhaps, they had killed him, Hie hǽfdon ofer3an fasten3le - they had
overspread East Anglican territory. In the first sentence have denotes possession,
in the second the meaning of possession is weakened, in the third; it is probably
lost and does not differ from the meaning of have in the translation of the
sentence into MdE. The auxiliary verb have and the form of Part.II are the
grammatical markers of the Perfect; the lexical meaning is conveyed by the
rootmorpheme of the participle.
The growth of analytical grammatical forms from free word phrases
belongs partly to historical morphology and partly to syntax, for they are
instances of transition from the syntactical to the morphological level.
By the end of the ME period (XV century) the grammatical system of
English is rather close to that of Modem English. The line of development of the
grammatical system, i.e. from the predominance of inflected forms to analytical
forms is typical of Germanic Languages.
The process of leveling and weakening the inflexions is closely connected
with the phonetic process of the reduction of vowels in unstressed endings.
But still it is difficult to determine the inner relations of these two
processes. The ME weakening of inflexions and the reduction of final vowels
began first and developed faster in the Northern and Midland dialects, because
these dialects were influenced by Scandinavian dialects (X-XII cent.). In the
Southern dialects the process was slower.

NEW ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL SYSTEM

The leveling and the simplification of the morphological system, the loss
of inflexions and the development of analytical forms brought the English
grammatical system very close to the present-day condition by the beginning of
the NE period.
But in early NE there were many survivals of earlier periods.
Generally, it must be said that analytical form-building was not equally
productive in all parts of speech: it has transformed the morphology of the verb
but has not affected the noun.
 The main direction of development for the nominal parts of speech in all
the periods of history can be defined as morphological simplification.
Simplifying changes began in PG times. They continued at a slow rate during the
OE period and were intensified in Early NE.
The period between 1000 and 1300 has been called the age of great
changes for it witnessed one of the greatest events in the history of English
Grammar: the decline and transformation of the nominal morphological system.
Some nominal categories were lost - Gender and Case in Adjectives, Gender in
Nouns. Morphological division into types of declension practically disappeared.
In late ME the adjective lost the last vestiges of the old paradigm: the distinction
of number and distinction of weak and strong forms.
Already at the time of Chaucer, and certainly by the age of Caxton the
English nominal system was very much like modem, not only in its general
pattern, but also in minor details.
The evolution of the verb system was a far more complicated process; it
cannot be described in terms of one general trend. The simplification and
leveling of forms made the verb conjugation more regular and uniform. The OE
morphological classification of the verb was practically broken up. But on the
other hand, the paradigm of the verb grew, as new grammatical forms came into
being. The number of verbal grammatical categories increased. The verb
acquired the categories of voice, time correlation and aspect. Within the category
of tense there developed a new form: the Future Tense. In he category of Mood
there arose new forms of the Subjunctive. The Infinitive and the Participle lost
many nominal features and developed verbal features; the acquired new
analytical forms and new categories like the finite verb. It should be mentioned
that new changes in the verb system extended from Late OE till
Late NE.
Other important events in the history of English grammar were the
changes in syntax. The main of them were:
the rise of new syntactic patterns of the word phrase and the sentence;
- the growth of predicative constructions;
the development of the complex sentences and of diverse means of
connecting clauses.
Syntax changes are mostly observed in late ME and in NE.

CONCLUSIONS: In the course of development the grammatical system of

the language underwent profound alteration. Since the OE period the very
grammatical type of language has changed: from a synthetic (inflected) language
with a well-developed morphology English has been transformed into a language
of the analytical type, with analytical forms and ways of word connection
prevailing over synthetic ones.
But the history of English grammar was a complex evolutionary process
made up of stable and changeable constituents.
The following survey of grammar under consideration deals with the main
parts of speech: the Noun, the Adjective, the Pronoun, the Verb (+ the Adverb).
We shall consider them separately in the course of three periods: OE - ME - NE.
Many features of syntax will be self-evident from the study of morphology. The
description of syntax is confined only to the main peculiarities which may help
to trace the trends of development in later periods.