Good evening to everyone. I'm Carlos Hernandez, one of your teachers in
this subject, English Diachrony and Typology. And today we are going to
review some basic aspects of Old English Grammar. More precisely, the Old
English Verbal System and Old English Syntax. In this lesson, the term
grammar will be used narrowly to refer to inflectional morphology and
syntax. That is to say, we will deal with various forms of lexemes and the
functions carried out of these forms. So firstly, we will summarize Old
English Verbal Classes and then we will pay special attention to the
relationship between form and function in the study of Old English Syntax.
In order to contextualize this session, I have selected an illustration of
an Anglo-Saxon king and his council representing a biblical scene from the
Old English Exotope, a project of the late Anglo-Saxon period that
translated the six books of the Exotope into Old English. Smith presents a
thorough study of the inflectional morphology of Old English verbs. That we
will summarize here. In present-day English, there are three types of verbs
distinguished by the manner of form in the preterite. Strong, such as sing,
sang. Weak, such as laugh, laughed. And irregular, such as go and went. Old
English similarly distinguishes between strong, weak and irregular verbs,
which may be differentiated by the manner of form in various tenses. The
terms are strong and weak, as applied to the verbs of the Old English
Exotope and Old English Syntax. The first two verbs were first developed by
Jacob Green. Binden to bin is a typical strong verb. For instance, we have
he bound, he binds. Lupien to love is a typical weak verb. We have he
lupoder, he lupat, which means he loved, he loves. Irregular verbs include
what better to be. It was. I was. This is almost similar to preterite
English, almost the same, I mean. And ich elm, I am. Both strong and weak
verbs follow regular patterns or paradigms called conjugations. All verbs
conjugate to take account of the categories person, number, tense and mood.
We present now four mobile conjugations. The first one, binden, to bind, a
typical to bind verb. The third one, lupean, to love. The fourth one,
fremen, to perform, a typical strong verb. And the last one, fremen, to
perform, which are two typical weak verbs. And also we will present the
most important irregular verb, besen, to be. The je prefix might be noted
in past articles. Please be reminded that you don't have to memorize the
verb conjugations, but just try to simulate some general features of the
inflectional morphology of all English verbs. So we have the inflectional
morphology of all English verbs. En infinitivo, BINDEN, para unir,
INJECTIVE MOOD, presente acento, singular, BINDER, para la primera persona,
BINDEST, o BINDST, para la segunda persona, BINDETH, y BINDT, para la
tercera persona. BINDST y BINDT son formas sincopadas. BINDETH, comúnmente
encontrado en los textos extantistas de la Saxona del Oeste. En el plural
tenemos BINDER, para todas las personas. Y en el medio МУЗЫКА,
presente acento, tenemos en la forma sincopada BINDER, para todas las
personas, y BINDEN, para todas las personas. En el modo lugar, pretérito,
singular, encontramos BAND, para la primera persona, BUNDE, para la segunda
persona, y BAND, para la tercera persona. Y en el plural, BUNDEN, para
todas las personas. Ahora, en el sentido subjetivo, pretérito, paramos en
la forma sincopada, BUNDE para todas las personas. Y en el live, BUMBEN,
para todas las personas. bunden, for all persons also. Imperative, bin, the
second person singular, that is one person is commanded. And binder, the
second person plural, when more than one person is commanded. The
participles are bindende, the present participle, and rebunden, the past
participle. The infinitive, lupien, which means to laugh. In an indicative
mood present tense singular form, we find lupiche, for the first person,
lufast, for the second person, lufa, for the third person. And in the
plural, lufia, for all persons. Now in the subjunctive mood present tense,
we find the singular form lufiche, for all persons, and the plural
lupichen, for all persons. In indicative mood, predative tense singular, we
find lufoda, for the first person, lufobest, for the second person, lufoda,
for the third person. And in the plural, lufoden, for all persons. In the
subjunctive mood, we find lufoda, for all persons, and the plural form
lufoden, for all persons. In the imperative, we find lufa, the second
person singular, and lufia, the second person plural. And the participles
are lupiende, which is the present participle, and lufo, which is the past
participle. Now let's turn to the infinitive fremen, to the form. Okay? and
fremede, for the third person. And in the plural, we find fremeden, for all
persons. Okay. Now let's turn to the subjunctive mood, predative tense. We
find the singular form fremede, for all persons, and the plural fremeden,
for all persons. The imperative, freme, the second person singular, and
frema, the second person plural. And the participles, fremende, present
participle, and fremed, past participle. The infinitive vessan, or veon,
which means to be, represents a paradigm, which is a blend. A blend of
birds, which were of distinct Proto-Indo-European origins. Such blending is
not a suppression. A process whereby two older paradigms are blended to
form a new paradigm. So we find in indicative mood present tense, the
singular form eom, or bell, for the first person, eart, best, for the
second person, and ist, best, for the third person. And the plural forms
for all persons. Right, now let's start at the subjunctive mood, present
tense. We find the singular forms si, bell, for all persons, and the
plurals sin, and ben, for all persons. In the indicative mood, treachery
tense, we find the singular forms was, for the first person, were, for the
second person, and was, for the third person. And the plural werem, for all
persons. The subjunctive mood, present tense, singular form is werem, for
all persons, and the plural werem, for all persons. Imperative is formed by
was, for bell, for the second person singular, and wasa, bell, for the
second person plural. And the participles are resende, the present
participle, and hebeon, the preterite. Right. The inflectional endings
listed before are more distinctives than those of present day English, but
were already reduced from the variety of endings to be found in earlier
forms of Germanic, as for instance in Gothic. The old English endings were
derived from a selection of those found in Proto-Germanic. Thus, the
present indicative plural ending for all persons in Old English was derived
from the first person plural ending in Proto-Germanic, while the preterite
indicative plural ending for all persons was derived from the first person
plural ending in Proto-Germanic. Bien, then, can act as the general model
for all strong verbs, since the same inflections appear in all of them.
However, the defining characteristic of the strong verb is ablout variation
in the root, and a series of patterns are traditionally distinguished by
linguists. Compare, for instance, present day English rise, rose, risen,
choose, chose, chosen, drink, drank, drunk, campaign, and shake, shook,
shaking. These different sets, as classes of the strong verbs, of which
there are seven distinguished in the Germanic languages. The range of
possible alternations in the strong verbs is indicated by the forms of the
infinitive, the present singular indicative, the first person preterite
indicative, the preterite plural, and the past participle. These forms are
traditionally known as the principal parts of the strong verb, since from
then, a complete verb paradigm can be generated according to rule. Of these
forms of infinity, the first person preterite indicative and the preterite
plural are derived from Proto-Indo-European ablout variation. The third
person present singular indicative is distinct because it's a later
development, derived through mutation. We will now present some examples of
seven classes of the strong verbs distinguished by the principal parts. The
classes of the strong verbs can generally be recognized by the infinitive
form. For instance, class 1 verbs have e as the stressed vowel followed by
a single consonant, but classes 3 and 7 present special difficulties in
these, and there are, sorry, some exceptions elsewhere in the system. For
instance, in class 1 we find which means shine, and the forms in the second
class we find which means creep, and we find the forms and hecropes. And
the third person singular present form of this verb displays the effects of
mutations, so we find the form which is transformed into the diphthong is
transformed to e and sound changes have obscured the relationship in
protogemanic. The original partner of the infinitive with root vowel in e
followed by two consonants is exemplified by brechtan, which means pool,
and we find the forms brit, brecht, brugden, angebrochten. The word brit is
rare, but demonstrates the effect of mutation. Class 4, on the other hand,
we have an example here which is beren, which means to be here. Bir are the
forms ber, beren, debojen, and beren is typical and this class also
includes verbs such as brekkan, which means break, stelen, which means
steal, and teren, which means heal. Class 5, on the other hand, is
comprised by verbs such as treden, which means tread. We find the forms
trit, tread, treden, and treven. Similar are etten, which means eat,
strechen, which means speak, and brekkan, which means avenge. A few verbs
of this class have different stem vowels in infinitives, such as siten,
which means sit, lichkan, which means lie, and breden, which means pray.
Berb, on the other hand, are otherwise the same. In these cases, the
present tense of the verb has been assimilated to that of weak verbs. Now,
class 6, we have an example with paran, which means go. We have the forms
terf, for, forum, and kaparan. And this is a typical verb, although
conjugated similarly as chekan, sorry, which means shake, and sakkan, which
means quarrel. Standen follows the same pattern, except that it drops en in
the present tense. For instance, stodden, okay? The following have weak
presence, but otherwise follow this pattern. Hebben, which means lift, and
sweren, which means swear. Okay. Now, class 7 contains a very varied group
of verbs, but they have two common characteristics. The same root vowel
appears in the third person preterite singular and in the preterite plural,
and the same root vowel appears in the infinitive and the past participle.
Some common verbs of this class are heolden, which means hold, and its
forms are held, heolden, as I said before, and gehealden. Also, other verbs
are berlen, which means fall, fall, guanen, which means know, slept, which
means sleep, and hatten, which means cold. Okay. Weak verbs in English, on
the other hand, fall into three main classes. Class 1, which conjugates
like fremen, class 2, which conjugates like luthien, and class 3,
consisting of the verb haven, which means have, liven, which means leave,
setgen, sorry, which means say, and lichgen, which means think. The
principal parts are as follows. Haven, have, we have the forms heft, hefte,
hefden, and jeft. Lieven, which means leave, as I said before, has the
forms leofa, leofode, o lipte, and leofode, lipte. Okay? And then, the past
particle heliofo, or helift, so sometimes it's difficult to pronounce a
beat. Then we have the form setgen, which means say, and which consists of
the forms sect, secte, secten, and gexeg. And heggen, which means think,
which consists of the forms loga, sorry, hogga, hogode, hogodon, and
gehogon. Okay? The old English with verbs are in general the real verbs,
which stems sorry, consistence of roots from the lexemes with the following
thing, to which endings may be added. Class one verbs had originally a
theme in e or ya, causing mutation of the stressed vowel in the present
tense. So, class two verbs consisted of a root followed by a thematic o,
sometimes followed by ya, as in class one. All English present tense forms
have ya as the distinction between lufian, sorry, la, infinitive, and lefo,
the third person predicate singular. Thematic o blocked the operation of
mutation, so back vowels can appear in the root. For instance, lufian,
bolean, an ounce, or lofian, praise. Okay? Class three verbs had generally
become a thematic in most West Germanic varieties, though a theme in e is
recorded in Old High German, for instance, habeta, which means hat, the
third person singular predicate, and Old English hefe. Remnants of this
theme appear in variant forms of the second and third person present
singular indicative. For instance, hefe, the sight more regular, hef. Okay?
Failure of mutation, which would produce e in the root vowel, would
indicate a theme distinct from that in class B. Okay? Irregular verbs in
Old English appear in a number of paradigms, but very common in occurrence.
They fall into two groups, present verbs, whose present tense is formal,
from an old strong predicate paradigm, and whose new predicate is formed in
the weak model, and so-called anomalous verbs. Common predicate present
verbs are bitten, to know, agen, to own, prunen, to know, magen, to be able
to, and strunen, to be oblig to, or had to. Also, we have forms such as
molten, be allowed, and wulfan, which means need. Common anomalous verbs,
on the other hand, are besen, beyond besen, that's as we reviewed before,
willen, which means want to, milen, not want to, which means not want to,
and don, which is do. And also gan, which means go. These verbs are very
common in English. And now we will present the principal parts of some
common irregular verbs. Note that no pp in this slide indicates no recorded
past parts. So we have the present verbs written to no, which has the forms
what, viste, visten, and gewitten. Agan, which means own, and it has the
forms ach, achte, achton, and echen. Kunen, which means no, and has the
forms ken, kupe, kuzon, and gekunen. Magen, which means to be able to, and
which has the forms mag, nechte, or nichte, neachten, or nichten, and no
recorded past parts. Also we find schulen, which means have to, and which
has the forms sechel, secholde, secholden, and no past parts. Also we find
moten, which means be allowed, and has the forms mot, moste, mosten, and no
recorded past parts. And the verb fufen, which means need, and has the
forms herf, fofe, fofen, and no past parts. The anomalous verbs on the
other hand, we have here some examples, for instance wielen, one, two, and
which has the forms wiele, volde, voldung, and no past parts. And nilen,
not one, two, as I said before, and has the forms nille, nolde, and
noldung. And dung, which means do, and has the forms beth, bide, bidon, and
hedon. And the verb gan, which means go, and has the forms gat, eode,
eodon, and gede. Predicate present verbs can be classed among the strong
verbs according to the form of the present tense. As written, agen are
class one verbs, kunen, tutan are class three, schulen is class four, and
moten is class six. It's difficult to classify magen in Old English.
However, the traditional classification is with those verbs of class six.
The variation merte, nichte seems to be the result of analogy with the noun
nicht, which means power. The verbs kunen, magen, schulen are the ancestors
of some present-day English moral auxiliaries, although in all English they
seem still to have been lexical verbs. Their unusual paradigms made them
ripe to transfer to the close-class set of grammatical words, that is, they
underwent grammaticalization. The anomalous verbs raise many complexities
and are subject to suppression especially to be, as we said before, which
is in Roy Larsen's description not a single verb, but a collection of
semantically related paradigms like this. Now let's turn to an old English
syntax. I was trying to pass the slide since it's not possible. Okay,
right. So in this section Now, do you hear me well? Yes, okay. We seem to
have a problem with the conference, but let's continue. So as I said
before, let's turn to the revision review of old English syntax. Okay, so
in this section we will follow as made as before, okay, to present the main
characteristics of old English syntax. Okay, so now understanding the
syntax of the old English noun phrase depends on understanding the
generation of four operations, sorry, of four key grammatical categories.
Case, number, gender, and agreement. Okay, a fifth category person is also
important here. These categories are all relevant to present day English as
well as old English, but there are differences in the way in which they
operate in the earlier stage of the language. The notion case is crucial
for understanding the syntax of the old English noun phrase. In old
English, as in present day English, pronouns vary in their form depending
on their function. These various forms are called cases, and as in present
day English, nouns are marked for genitive case. But case inflections are
also found elsewhere in old English. Ascendings of noun stems marking cases
other than the genitive and on the stems of adjectives. Better minors like
pronouns are also marked for case. The extension of case to work classes
other than pronouns and the possessive nouns relates to another category,
agreement. Agreement or concord is demonstrated when a noun along with any
modifiers applying to it is assigned the appropriate case ending required
by the function of the whole case. Cases other than nominative, accusative
and genitive are traditionally identified in all English grammar as dative
and instrumental. A locative case is also sometimes distinguished but for
practical purposes all these three cases may be subsumed under the dative.
The dative case is used to flat and indirect objects. It's also
prototypically used in prepositional phrases with many prepositions
described as taken with dative. It should be noted that some prepositions
cause the other elements in the phrase in which they appear to inflect in
the accusative and a few take the genitive. In present day English
prepositions always appear at the beginning of prepositional phrases. In
Old English they can occasionally appear at the end, especially when the
rest of the phrase consists of a single pronoun, for example Old English
him to which means to him. Sometimes the dative case is used in its own to
signal a meaning which would in present day English require a preposition
and these are relics of a period when prepositions were optional elements
which were originally part of the same word class as adverbs. In Old
English modifiers agree with the nouns to which they apply not only in case
but also in number and gender. Number is a comparatively simple concept. It
refers to whether the word is singular or plural. There are inflections on
noun stamps to indicate plurality and pronouns are also marked for number
however there are also inflections and objectives and marking for number on
determinants in a much more extensive way than in Old English. So gender is
a little more complex to understand since it has no real equivalent in
present day English grammar. Nouns and pronouns belong to one of three
gender classes and this categorization affects the endings they have and in
turn the endings that any of their modifiers have. Traditionally these
three classes are known as masculine, feminine and neuter genders.
Sometimes this grammatical gender corresponds to biological or natural
gender but sometimes it does not. So for example Old English is tan which
means stone is classified as a masculine noun. Old English with which means
woman is neuter and Old English hifu which means gift is feminine. Any
determinants and adjectives modifying or complementing these nouns need to
be inflected through agreement according to this grammatical gender. In
principle an Old English pronoun should also be in the same gender as the
noun to which it refers. However towards the end of the Old English period
this rule began to be ignored and pronoun choice between for example he
hell or hit began to be determined by natural gender. So in present day
English Old English pronouns are categorized by person. First person
pronouns are the equivalent of present day English I we and so on. Second
person pronouns are the equivalent of present day English you and third
person pronouns are the equivalent of present day English he she it they
and so on. The definite pronoun one Old English man is also considered a
third person pronoun. Please remember to the conjugation of verbs as we
have seen in the first part of this session. Numerals on the other hand
form a special category of word and deserve some attention as a part of the
known phrase. In present day English numerals fall into two main groups
cardinal one two and so on and all the known first person first sorry
second present day English and Old English both cardinal and ordinal
numbers could typically function as modifiers within known phrases. The Old
English cardinals one two three that is and twa twel inflect like
adjectives. Cardinal numbers from feuer or onwards are generally underlined
sorry that cause the noun to modify to appear in the genitive case. The
numbers four to twelve can be declined but not immediately before the noun
to modify. Certain other verbs behave in the same way and seem to have been
classified with numerals which causes the noun to appear in the genitive
which means both which is declined in the same way as twa two okay which
means two ordinal numbers forma other trida and so on like adjectives agree
with the nouns that they modify and are always declined in accordance with
the ring and adjective paradigm the exception is other which is always
declined strong okay let's review the old english verb phrase so there are
special grammatical categories associated with verb phrases these are
agreement person number tenetness tense mood aspect voice transitivity and
negation these categories are applicable to both the present day english
and all english the categories of agreement person and number may be taken
together agreement is marked by inflection the choice of inflection depends
on the number and person of the subject the range of inflections marking
agreement in all english is much more extensive than present day english
thus ich lupiche i love geolufa she loves hilufia they love and also
gulofodest you laughed which is the singular and wilufodon we laughed ok
let's turn to the finit verbs ok so finit verbs in both all english in
present day english agree with the subjects known finit verbs are the
infinitive and present and past participle participles the infinitive form
of the verb may be regarded as the base form participles are grammatical
units of somewhere between the verb and the adjective and the deriving
characteristics from both the categories tense and mood affect the pattern
of inflections of finit verbs in both present day english and all english
tense is a category to do with time finit verbs in present day english and
all english have special forms depending on whether they are in the present
or preterite tense future time was generally expressed in all english from
the context of space the ancestors of present day english will shall all
english will and saturn could be used to express futurity as part of the
complex birth race so we will see will and saturn plus an infinitive
however will and saturn are more prototypically used with a lexical meaning
to express volition and obligation respectively mood is a verbal category
to do with different degrees of probability as you already know three moods
are traditionally distinguished we have the indicative the subjunctive and
imperative in all english special forms of infinitive verb are used to
distinguish moods although all english expressed subjunctive mood through
inflections complex phrases were used to express further grammatical
categories notably aspects and voice in present day english spectrum and
voice distinctions are often made using complex verb phrases and these
distinctions it seems could also be so made in all english available
constructions in all english were besan present participle and besan verben
past participle examples of besan present participle were used to express
progressive aspect or non-progressive forms were much commonly used in all
english to such an extent that all english frequently distinguishes aspects
not through the forms of the verb phrase but through the use of for example
adverbs such as oft which means often the construction haban besan versan
participle sorry is much more common and is used to express perfect aspect
and passive voice when the construction consists of besan or verban then
the past participle particularly in early texts prototypically agrees in
case number and gender with the subject of the sentence when the auxiliary
verb is haban the past participle agrees with the direct object the past
participle is declined as a strong adjective thus in old english it is
difficult to determine whether the past participle is a verbal adjective or
an adjectival verb old english seems to have distinguished haban as a past
participle and besan verban plus the past participle on the grounds of
transitivity in old english while haban plus past participle is used
commonly to express perfect aspect of intransitive verb phrases besan plus
past participle is used commonly to express perfect aspect of intransitive
verb phrases inflection and patterns suggest that past participles were
seen as much closer to the adjectival category in earlier old english but
is as part of the object rather than the predicator when accompanied by
haban and as complements when accompanied by besan or verban besan plus
past participle constructions can be used to express passive voice as can
verban must past participle however old english often avoided expressing
the equivalent of present day passive voice with such constructions instead
using the personal pronoun man which means one as we said before indeed
other alternatives to haban besan verban and past participle were common in
old english not only were simple phrases used in their place but adverbs
were frequently employed negation on the other hand in old english is
expressed adverbially as in present day english the most common negator is
near frequently assimilated to the word it precedes such constructions it
appears were particularly common in west saxon dialects double or multiple
negation was entirely accepted in old english multiple negation it seems
was less common in old english poetry than in old english prose let's turn
to the sentence structure and to the analysis of the element order it has
been noted that the old english inflection of sorry system was much more
extensive than that of present day english and in principle all english
element order was much flexible than that of present day english however
the flexibility of all english element order should not be exaggerated
examination of the surviving corpus of all english suggests that there were
prototypical usages from which individual or corpus could depart for
stylistic reasons or purposes these prototypical usages were clearly
necessary when as was common place there were no inflection of means of
distinguishing for example subject from object for instance in the clause
that with bindeth hit which means the woman binds it is not possible to
determine the respective roles of noun phrases that with and hit because
the nominative and accusative form of these words are not differentiated
three tribes or all English element order are usually distinguished we have
subject predicator and the predicator immediately follows the subject and
then predicator where other elements of the clause come between the subject
and the predicator and predicator subject where the subject follows the
predicator okay so subject predicator is the usual order in main clauses
subject and then predicator is most commonly found in subordinate clauses
and predicator subject occurs often in questions and also commonly in main
clauses introduced by certain adverbials okay notably which means which
means okay example as you can see there which means the servant loved the
good lord in which we have a subject predicator in the main clause then we
have another example for them the sonata which means because the servant
loved the good lord he traveled to the hills and here we have a subject and
then predicator in a subordinate clause notice for then there and then
appears look forward okay and the third pattern which means then he
traveled to the hills literally then traveled he to the hills in which we
find predicator and subject in the main clause beginning with that which
means then as I said before however all English writers frequently departed
from these norms of for a stylistic purpose or effects and predicator
subject for instance was commonly used to introduce new information or to
shift emphasis so when the predicator consists of a complex verb phrase in
both main and subordinate clauses the two parts of the predicator may be
separated the auxiliary verb can follow directly after the subject and the
lexical verb may be left to the end of the clause for instance we have an
example here which means when the old man had come to that place he bound
his son and we have another example which means the old man had bound his
son where we have underlined the split of phrases however other patterns
are possible apart from these ones we have base real da vertu dere stove he
come was which means when the old man had come to that place ok right two
kinds of clauses can be distinguished we find main and subordinate clauses
main clauses can stand as sentences of their own while subordinate clauses
function as units within a main clause as phrases do or are subordinate
elements within a phrase like words ok subordinate clauses are generally
classified by grammarians as known clauses adverb clauses related clauses
and comparative clauses similar constructions appear in all english
although there are some interesting differences those clauses can be
coordinated linked by coordinated conjectures for instance and ac which
means but and so on the element order in these are called subordinated
clauses is sometimes in these coordinated clauses is sometimes but more
characteristic sorry of subordinated clauses with a lexical verb in final
position this fact suggests that the agnolos saxons did not draw a clear
distinction between subordinated and coordinated clauses as is the case in
present day english subordinating conjectures in all english include for
them for them for them sorry for them for them they which means because of
that which means until if which means if da which means when that which
means so that there they which means ago air which means before after than
then there which means after by less sorry see yes by less by less the
which means less and comparative conjectures such as boner which means van
and so which means like ok so several of these coordinating conjectures are
composed of a number of words that we have seen but they may be considered
as single units some require the fin of verb to be inflected according to
the subordinate clause involved indicative mood is generally used when the
event in the subordinate clause is complete or certain sub tantric mood is
used when the action in question has not yet happened or is hypothetical
thus after than there which means after indicates the action has by
definition already occurred so it would require the verb in the subordinate
clause to be in indicative mood while other than there which means before
would require the sub tantric ok right so if as I said before meaning means
if or whether and can be used to introduce a known clause but it's
generally used to introduce a conditional other clause with the verb in the
sub adjective a particular kind of known clause is the so called accusative
and infinitive construction where the subject of the subordinate clause is
in the accusative case and the verb of the subordinate clause is in the
infinitive this construction is frequently used after verbs of saying or
thinking an important group of old English clauses equivalent to present
day English advert clauses are those which occur in correlative
constructions whereby two clauses are linked together by correlative words
for instance for them for them or don't it one ok the most common involves
the use of that part and now it's useful to assign two meanings to that in
such constructions namely then and when and to distinguish these meanings
by the element order of the clauses in question thus if the is followed by
the subject of the clause and the clause verb is in final position it may
be integrated as a subordinating conjunction when ok but if the is followed
by the lexical verb and then functioning as a verb meaning then ok so
however in the present day english translation then seems rather redundant
the old english linking for repeating the same word sorry the old english
liking for repeating the same word possibly relates to certain devices of
question favoured in oral delivery ok so related clauses on the other hand
are constructed sorry distinctively in no english the indeclinable relative
particle there which means whom reached that and so on is frequently used
on its sound to introduce a related clause however there are alternative
usages which seem to be constrained by a whole series of factors ok there
is often accompanied by a defining determiner declined according to its
function in the related clause commonly and especially when the noun being
modified by the relative clause is not preceded by a determiner or an
adjective a determined is used in place of that ok right so statisticians
have for many years been interested in the notion of coercion has to do
with the range of linguistic devices or coercive types which are used to
connect words phrases clauses and sentences and a piece of this course
patterns of coercion change also change over time one coercive type in Thai
in Old English is the use of recapitulation and anticipation it has been
argued that this pattern of recapitulation and anticipation with
correlation derives from a feeling of insecurity in the face of the
complicated sentence another characteristic of Old English syntax the
splitting of heavy groups may arise from similar insecurity it is
characteristic of Old English to split long phrases and modifiers which
were apparently regarded clumsy a characteristic feature of Old English
writing more common than in present day English formal usage is the habit
of employing parataxis means the juxtaposition of two or more simple
clauses rather than the subordination of one clause to another which is
called hypertaxis parataxis can be of two kinds syndetic with sorry
coordinating conjections or asyndetic without such conjection parataxis
have been regarded by some scholars as more primitive than hypertaxis and
another example of how anglo-saxon writers avoided the use of complicated
sentences however the use of parataxis in quite sophisticated prose to
start off elfrig suggests otherwise it is perhaps more plausible to see
parataxis as relating to the author-audience relationship since parataxis
places responsibility for the interpretation of a speech or passage on the
listener or reader than on the author whereas hypertaxis characteristically
allows the author rather than the listener to make clausal words to now i
would like to show you a page from the sole surviving manuscript of the
epic pine beewolf written before the tenth century which is preserved at
the british library if you don't have any doubts i present you some
references regarding old english grammar in the next slide and please bear
in mind that i will post these ppt in the virtual forum and remember that
you can post all your doubts in these virtual space so if you don't have
any doubts okay right so i will stop the recording thank you very much for
your attention goodbye