OE Syntax

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 488.

OE Changes in Phonology

1. Exception. Palatal Mutation: cognate words

maniZ

lufiZan

2. Metathesis

Goth. brinnan – OE beornan

OHG forohta – OE fryhtu

3. Breaking

OHG fehtan – OE feohtan

OHG nah – OE neah

Goth. haldan – OE healdan

OHG saltz – OE sealt

Goth. halp – OE healp

Goth. sah – OE seah

Goth. halbs – OE healf

Old Frisian herte – OE heorte

Goth. kalds – OE ceald

Old Icelandic hirþer – OE hiorde

OHG melkau – OE meolcau

OHG seeh – OE seolh

OHG herza – OE heorte

4. Palatal Mutation

OE an – OE seniZ

Goth. badi – OE bedd

Goth. sandjan – OE sendan

Goth. domjan – OE deman

OHG kuning – OE cyniZ

Ú dohtri – OE dehter

Ú manniz – OE menn

Ú halian – OE hxlan

Ú musiz – OE mys

5. Velar Mutation

OE hefun – heofon

OE cxru – cearu

6. Lengthening of Short Vowels

Ÿ before ld, nd, mb

OE blind – blind

OE feld – feld

OE cald – cald

OE climban – climban

Ÿ loss of h

OE sxZde – sxde

OE sehan – seohan – seoan – seon

Ÿ Ú onþar – OE oþer

Goth. tunþus – OE toD

Ú tonþ – OE toD

Ú Zons – OE Zos

Syntax is the least studied aspect of the OE Grammar. It is due to different causes:

1) The limited number of sources for the study.

2) The study of linguistic material belonging to a dead language presents great difficulties, particularly in syntax.

3) Little attention paid to this subject as yet.

One of the most obvious features of syntactic style in any language is the degree to which grammatical and semantic relationships are expressed by subordinate clauses. A high proportion of long sentences with subordination, as in prose of Edward Gibbon or Henry James or the poetry of John Milton, is known as hypotactic style, whereas shorter sentences and a higher proportion of principal clauses, as in the prose of Ernest Hemingway, is paratactic. Parataxis may also be interpreted as immature and childish, as in examples given by S.O. Andrew:

Then I asked him; then he replied…