Category of Number
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 482.
The NE Noun
Syntax and Vocabulary
NE Changes in Morphology,
1. The NE Noun
2. The NE Pronoun
3. The NE Adjective
4. The NE Verb
5. The changes in syntax
6. NE vocabulary changes
1. Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. – M., 1983. – Pp. 220-328
2. Êîñòþ÷åíêî Þ.Ï. ²ñòîð³ÿ àíãë³éñüêî¿ ìîâè. – Êè¿â, 1963. – C. 319-333
3. Àðàêèí Â.Ä. Èñòîðèÿ àíãëèéñêîãî ÿçûêà. – Ì, 1985. – C. 208-247
4. Lukianova G.L. History of the English Language. – Cherkasy, 2004. – Pp. 97-106
In Early New English the ending –es which was the marker of nouns in plural in ME extended to more nouns. The new words of the growing vocabulary and many words that built their plural forms in a different way used now –es in plural. This inflexion in Early NE underwent different phonetic changes:
1. After a voiced consonant or a vowel it was pronounced as /z/
ME stones /stLnqs/ > /stEVnqz/ > /stEVnz/ (NE stones)
ME (days) /dQIs/ > NE /deIz/
2. After a voiceless consonant as /s/
ME bookes /bLkqs/ > /bHks/ > /bVks/
3. After sibilants and affricates /s, z, S, C, G/ as /Iz/
ME /dISqs/ > /dISIz/ (dishes)
The ME plural ending –en which was used as a variant marker with some nouns lost its productivity. In Modern English it is only found in “oxen”, “brethren”, “children” (OE cild – cildru)
The small group of ME nouns with homonymous forms of number (ME deer, hors, thing) was reduced to “deer”, “swine”. The group of former root-stems survived as exceptions: “man”, “tooth”.
| <== previous lecture | | | next lecture ==> |
| The Nativity Story | | | Category of Case |