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