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Morphology of the Noun Phrase (Development of English Morphology (Nouns…
Morphology of the Noun Phrase
Terminology
Morphology
the study of the structure and
formation of words
Diachronic Morphology
identifies major types of change, the mechanisms behind such changes and their causes (external vs. internal)
Morphological Change
changes in the structure of words and the processes underlying word formation
Changes at the phonology-morphology interface
Irregular plural forms as the result of i-mutation
Result: Plural forms like
mouse - mice
goose - geese
foot - feet
Case Syncretism in Nouns
Changes at the morphology-semantics interface
Reanalysis
Example: [hamburger] > [ham][burger] > shrimpburger, veggieburger, cheeseburger
Morphology-internal processes
Analogical levelling in verbal paradigms
the different forms for present-/past- tense become more and more similar
Development of English Morphology
Articles
Definite article "the"
developed from demonstrative pronoun "se" (= ModE that)
Indefinite article "a(n)"
developed from numeral "an" (= ModE one)
Nouns
Inflection of OE Nouns
case, number, gender,
weak/strong
From OE to early ME
Vowels in unstressed syllables (i.e. inflections) weakened to schwas
From ME to EmodE
Analogical levelling of plural forms to –es (resulting in
case syncretism
)
Gradual loss of grammatical gender
gradual convergence towards
masculine a-stems
Pronoun System
Changes from ME to EmodE
use of the 2nd person pronouns
plural pronoun (you) is used to indicate
higher social standing
singular pronoun (thou) is used to indicate
intimate
relationships
Later, the 2nd person singular pronouns are replaced completely
Changes from OE to ME
OE
Ambiguity concerning singular and plural forms across all genders
marked for person, number, case, gender
Loss of dual
in 1st and 2nd person
Replacement of 3rd person feminine
heo
by
she
Replacement of
3rd person plural forms
Adjectives
OE adjectives were inflected (and agree with nouns in
case
,
gender, number, and strong, or weak forms
)
During the
ME
period, inflectional endings were lost
By the
16th
century, adjectives were not inflected anymore
Comparative and Superlative
OE and early ME: only suffixes –
er
and –
est
Late ME: emergence of periphrastic comparison with
more
and
most