Morphology of the Noun Phrase

Terminology

Morphology

Morphological Change

the study of the structure and
formation of words

changes in the structure of words and the processes underlying word formation

Diachronic Morphology

identifies major types of change, the mechanisms behind such changes and their causes (external vs. internal)

Changes at the phonology-morphology interface

Changes at the morphology-semantics interface

Irregular plural forms as the result of i-mutation

Reanalysis

Morphology-internal processes

Analogical levelling in verbal paradigms

Development of English Morphology

Articles

Nouns

Case Syncretism in Nouns


Pronoun System

Changes from ME to EmodE

Changes from OE to ME

Adjectives

Result: Plural forms like

mouse - mice

goose - geese

foot - feet

Example: [hamburger] > [ham][burger] > shrimpburger, veggieburger, cheeseburger

the different forms for present-/past- tense become more and more similar

Definite article "the" developed from demonstrative pronoun "se" (= ModE that)

Indefinite article "a(n)" developed from numeral "an" (= ModE one)

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

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

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

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