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The 9th PPT presentation on the History of Language. This is for pages 128-133 of the Old English chapter.
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Old English SyntaxDr. Mubarak Alkhatnai
OE syntax has close kinship to Modern English syntax, yet there are differences:
1- Nouns, adjectives and most pronouns had fuller inflections than their modern developments. The inflected forms were used to signal the word’s function in the sentence.
2- Adjectives agreed in case, number, and gender with their nouns.
3- Adjectives were inflected for “definiteness” in what was called strong and weak declensions.
4- Numbers were used (as in ME) to ◦ Modify a noun e.g. pritig rihtwisra “Thirty Shillings”
◦ As nominals in genitive case. e.g. prtigrihtwisra “thirty of rightous men”.
5- OE used the genitive inflection in many circumstances. (of phrase in ME). e.g. “a great deal of the Island”
6- OE had no articles. Anglo-Saxons used se “that” pes “this” for definite article. For indefinite articles an “one” sum “certain”.
7- OE could form verb phrases like ME (Have + be with participles). e.g. has run – is running. ◦ The form has been running was not used
◦ ME he had come = OE he ær com “he earlier come”.
8- OE formed passive like ME but tended to use the infinitive. Heo heht hine læran“she ordered him to be taught”
9- Subjunctive mood (for wishes, emotions ..etc) was more common in OE. e.g. if I were you, I would ….
10- OE has a number of impersonal verbs that were used without a subject. e.g. Me lyst rædan “[it] Pleases me to read”
11- The subject of OE verb could be omitted if it was implied by the context.
12- The subject of OE verb could be mentioned twice.
13- OE negative adverb ne came before the verb. Ic ne dyde “I not did” instead of I did not.
14- OE word order was not fixed as ME. Object pronoun might come before verb instead of after it.
15- OE has different ways of subordinating clauses.
Parataxis (the act of placing side by side).
It is a literary technique that favors short, simple sentences with the use of coordinating (and, or, nor …) rather than subordinating conjunctions (although, as far as …).