EVOLUTION OF ENGLISH SENTENCE STRUCTURE

By: Jeremy Pagnotti

Old English Sentence Structure

Phonetic language (no silent letters) No particular word order Grammatical function of nouns and verbs

displayed by endings not order (cases, conjugation)

3 genders: masculine, feminine and neuter 2 tenses: present & past Present=modern present and future Past=modern past & pluperfect (with ǣr) 3 Moods: Imperative (orders), indicative (what

is), and subjunctive (hypothetical)

Cases Old English

4 cases for nouns Nominative: Subject Genitive: Possession Dative: Indirect Object Accusative: Direct Object Case endings apply to articles,

adjectives, and pronouns as well as nouns; however, endings differ for each

Verbs Old English

Infinitive typically ends with ‘n’ Endings determine subject of verb for

indicative singular (1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person)

Plural endings for all moods do not reveal person by themselves

Subjunctive does not reveal person in singular & plural

3 types: weak (consonant change between tenses), strong (vowel change between tenses) and irregular (words like ‘to be’)

Modern English

Not phonetic (silent letters) Word order determines meaning Genders only apply to people/animals

and names & are implied by context No cases Verb endings only show number of verb

(see/sees) and tense (look/looked) Pronouns however do follow case system

similar to Old English (he/him/his, she/her/hers, etc)

Bibliography

http://oldenglishteaching.arts.gla.ac.uk/Units/3_Description_of_OE.html