Old English Morphology and Syntax How Old English

Old English Morphology and Syntax How Old English sounds become meaningful

Old English Morpholgy • Lexical morphemes combine with grammatical morphemes to create words • Noun heofon ‘heaven’ + noun ric ‘kingdom’ + inflectional ending representing the genitive singular es= heofonrices ‘of the heavenly kingdom’ • Lexical morphemes combine together to make compound words • Adjective middan + noun geard = middangeard ‘middleearth’

Nominal Morphology • Word forms of nouns depend upon the case of the noun • This whole discussion relies on your understanding of the parts of speech and the basic terms of syntax. • Case is one part of an inflectional system in a synthetic language – A code that marks the grammatical function of a word in a sentence – Example: “I like him. ” – I is the subject – Him is the direct object – We could express those ideas like this: – {singular first person pronoun morpheme} +subject – {singular third person pronoun morpheme} +object

Old English Cases • Old English had four cases – nominative (the case used for subjects and the complements of subjects) – accusative (the case used for direct objects and the objects of prepositions that have to do with time or space) – genitive (the case used to express possession or partitivity) – dative (the case for indirect objects or for the objects of verbs)

Cases in Sentences • From Burnley, Ch. 3: • OE Wæs hē se mon in weoruldhāde geseted… • Tran. Was he the man in worldly-station settled… • Burnley, p. 33 He was, this man, settled in the worldly estate. • The verb wæs is a “copulative” verb, which means that it acts as if it were an equal sign. • Both hē and the phrase se mon are in their nominative form. – hē is the subject of the sentence and se mon is the “subject complement” – geseted is a past-participle with both the –ed we’re accustomed to from PDE and the prefix ge-, which is part of the “discontinuous” past participle morpheme of OE.

Accusative Case • Used most frequently for direct objects of transitive verbs • p. 32 æfter tēode firum foldan ‘after decorated for men the fields’ – decorated (transitive verb) the fields (direct object) – tēode (transitive verb) foldan (direct object—plural accusative case) • Also used in constructions indicating time or as the object of prepositions indicating movement • p. 32, oð þā tīde ‘until that time’ (singular feminine accusative) • p. 46, Sōðlice sēo sunne gǣð be Godes dihte betwux heofenan and eorðan ‘truly the sun goes by God’s command between the heavens and earth’ [the phrase gǣð betwux triggers use of the accusative here]

Genitive and Dative • Genitive indicates possession or partitivity, or (rarely) the object of verbs of depriving • p. 46, Godes dihte ‘(of) God arrangement’ or ‘God’s arrangement’ • p. 52, mænig guma norþerna ‘many men of the north’ • Dative indicates indirect objects and objects of most prepositions • p. 32, æfter tēode firum foldan ‘after decorated for men the fields • 32, ic for þon of þeossum gebēorscipe ūtēode ‘I because from this beer-ship went out’

Results for Old English Syntax • Old English syntax is comparatively free • You must always ask, “Would the verb that translates the Old English verb be transitive— requiring a direct object to make sense—or intransitive? If it’s intransitive, is it copulative? If it’s a “to be” verb, you will always find two words (the subject and subject complement) in the nominative case. • Old English Aerobics Workout Room