Possessive Pronouns in ME and Early NE

Singular Plural

ME Early NE ME Early NE

1^st sing. myne,my my, mine our(e), ours our, ours

2^nd plur. thyn(e), thy thy /your /thine, yours your(e) /yours your, yours

3d plur. his(m), her(e)(F) his, her,his / its her(e) / their(e) their, theirs

In early ME the OE demonstrative pronouns sē, sēo, Þæt,Þes, Þēos, Þis lost most of their inflected forms.

The other direction of the development of the demonstrative pronouns led to the formation of the definite article. In OE texts the pronouns sē, sēo, Þæt were used as noun determiners with a weakened meaning, approaching that of the modern definite article the [θe]. The article became a short unaccented form-word. The meaning and functions of the definite article became more specific when it came to be opposed to the indefinite article, which had developed from the OE numeral and indefinite pronoun ān. In OE there existed 2 words, ān- a numeral, and sum-an indefinite pronoun. In early ME the indefinite pronoun ān which had a five-case declension in OE lost its inflection.

The other classes of OE pronouns- interrogative and indefinite were subjected to the same changes as all nominal parts of speech. The OE interrogative pronoun hwā was reduced to two forms who –the Nom. case and whom- the Obj.case.

The Gen case of OE hwā, hwæt - hwæs developed into a separate pronoun why; OE hwelc turned into ME which and began to be used with relation to things. ME whether developed from OE hwæÞer.

Most indefinite pronouns of the OE period simplified their morphological structure and some pronoun fell out of use. OE derived pronouns with the prefixes ā, ǽʒ, ne-were replaced by phrases or simplified. New types of compound indefinite pronouns came into use –with the compound –thing, -body, -one etc. OE demonstrative and interrogative pronouns became the source of a new type of pronouns- relative.

The Adjective

The adjective underwent greater simplifying changes in comparison with any other part of speech. It lost all its grammatical categories with the exception of the degrees of comparison. In OE the adjective had the categories of case, gender, number. It had five cases and two types of declension (weak, strong). In the course of Early ME the agreement of the adjective with the noun was practically lost. The 1^st category to disappear was gender. The number of cases was reduced: the Instrumental case had fused with the Dative. Towards the end of the 13^th century all case distinctions were lost. The strong and weak forms of adjective were often confused. The difference between them was sometimes shown in the sg. with the help of ending –e, but later it disappeared and it made the adjective an uninflected part of speech.

The degrees of comparison is the only set of forms which the adjective has preserved through all historical periods.

In OE the forms of the comparative and the superlative degrees were synthetic and they were built by adding the suffixes –ra and –est / ost to the form of the positive degree. Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by an interchange of the root-vowel, and some adjectives had suppletive forms.

In ME the degrees of comparison could be built in the same way, but the suffixes were weakened to –er, -est and the interchange of the root-vowel was less common.

OE long lenger longest

ME long longer longest

The most important innovation in the adjective system in the ME period was the growth of analytical forms of degrees of comparison.

The use of the OE adverbs mā, bet, betst, swīÞor (more, better) became more common in ME as they were used with all kinds of adjectives and with mono and disyllabic words.

So the adjective has lost all the dependent grammatical categories but has preserved the only specific category – the comparison.

The morphology of the verb displayed two distinct tendencies of development. Firstly it underwent simplifying changes affected the synthetic forms and the second fact was that it grew new, analytical forms and grammatical categories.

Many markers of the grammatical forms were reduced. Number distinctions were not only preserved in ME but became more consistent and regular. The ending –en became the most universal marker of the plural forms of the verb but it was dropped in the 15^th century. The difference in the forms of Person, were maintained in ME but they became more variable. The OE endings of the 3d person sg. –Þ, -eÞ, -iaÞ merged into a single ending –(e) th. A new marker first recorded was the variant ending of the 3d p. –es. It is believed to be borrowed from the pl. forms ended in –es in the North.

With the reduction of endings and levelling of forms the formal differences between the moods were greatly obscured. The distinction of tenses was preserved in the verb through all historical periods. The past tense was shown with the help of the dental suffix in the weak verbs and with the help of the root-vowel interchange in the strong verbs.

The system of verbals consisted of the Infinitive and two Participles. The main trends of their evolution in ME were the loss of most nominal features and growth of verbal features.

The Infinitive lost its inflected form of Dative case in Early ME. The preposition tō which was placed in OE before the inflected infinitive to show direction or purpose, lost its prepositional force and became a formal sign of the Infinitive and it was a marker for distinguishing the Infinitive form from other forms built from the Present tense stem.

The distinctions between the two Participles were preserved in ME. Participle 1 had an active meaning expressed a process or quality of the events. Participle 2 had an active or passive meaning expressed a preceeding action or its results. Forms of Participle 1 were derived from the present tense stem with the help of –ing(e) or –inde, -ende (it depended on the dialects).

The forms of participle 2 of the weak verbs were built with the help of the dental suffix –(e)d, t, the strong verbs with the help of vowel gradation and the suffix –en. Being verbal adjectives Participles 1 and 2 lost their gender, case and number distinctions.