Old English word-forming paradigm
OE employed two ways of word-formation: derivation and word-composition.
Word-derivation
Derived words in OE were built with the help of affixes: prefixes and suffixes; in addition to these principal means of derivation, words were distinguished with the help of sound interchanges and word stress.
Sound interchanges
The earliest source of root-vowel interchanges employed in OE word-building was ablaut or vowel gradation inherited from PG and IE. Ablaut was used in OE as a distinctive feature between verbs and nouns and also between verbs derived from a single root. The gradation series were similar to those employed in the strong verbs: rīdan v – rād n [i:~a:], NE ride, raid. Many vowel interchanges arose due to palatal mutation; the element [i/j] in the derivational suffix caused the mutation of the root-vowel; the same root without the suffix retained the original non-mutated vowel, e.g.:
a) nouns and verbs: fōd – fēdan (NE food – feed)
b) adjectives and verbs: full – fyllan (NE full – fill)
c) nouns and adjectives: long – lenзþu (NE long, length).
Word stress
The role of word accentuation in OE word-building was not great. Like sound interchanges, the shifting of word stress helped to differentiate between some parts of speech being used together with other means. The verb had unaccented prefixes while the corresponding nouns had stressed prefixes, so that the position of stress served as an additional distinctive feature between them.
Prefixation
Genetically, some OE prefixes go back to IE prototypes, e.g. OE un-, a negative prefix. Many more prefixes sprang in PG and OE from prepositions and adverbs, e.g. mis-, be-, ofer-. Prefixes were widely used with verbs but were far less productive with other parts of speech. The most frequent and probably the most productive OE prefixes were: ā-, be-, for-, fore-, зe-, ofer-, un-. The prefix modified the lexical meaning of the word, usually without changing its reference to a part of speech, e.g.spēdiз – unspēdiз. Some prefixes, both verbal and nominal, gave a more special sense to the word and changed its meaning very considerably, e.g.: weorðan – for-weorðan v, forwyrð n (become, perish, destruction).
Suffixation
Suffixes not only modified the lexical meaning of the word but could refer it to another part of speech. Suffixes were mostly applied in forming nouns and adjectives, seldom – in forming verbs. Etymologically OE suffixes can be traced to several sources: old stem-suffixes, which had lost their productivity, but could still be distinguished in some words as dead or non-productive suffixes; derivational suffixes proper inherited from PIE and PG; new suffixes which developed from root-morphemes in Late PG and OE in the course of morphological simplification of the word. Weak verbs of Class I were originally derived from nominal or verbal roots with the help of the stem-forming suffix –i/j-, e.g. tæl-i-an, mōt-i-an, OE tellan, mētan – from the roots of OE talu, зe-mot; verbs of Class II were formed with the help of the most productive stem-suffix -ō-, or -ōj-, e.g.: hop-ō-jan, luf-ō-jan, OE hopian, lufian from corresponding nouns hopa, lufu. Suffixes are usually classified according to the part of speech which they can form. In OE there were two large groups of suffixes: suffixes of nouns and suffixes of adjectives.
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Noun suffixes are divided into suffixes of “agent nouns” (“nomina agentis”) and those of abstract nouns. Among the suffixes of “agent nouns” there were some dead, unproductive suffixes, e.g.: -a, as in the Masc. a-stem hunta; -end, originally the suffix of the Present Participle, e.g. OE fīend. Later it was replaced by -ere. OE agent nouns in -ere were derived from nouns and verbs: bōcere, fiscere. The nouns in -ere were Masc.; the corresponding suffix of Fem. nouns -estre was less common:spinnestre. Among suffixes of abstract nouns we can trace a productive suffix –nes/-nis: blindnis, beorhtnes. Another productive suffix, -ung/-ing, was used to build abstract nouns from verbs, e.g.earnian – earnung (NE earn, earning). A most important feature of OE suffixation is the growth of new suffixes from root-morphemes. To this group belong OE -dōm, -hād, -lāc and some others, e.g.frēodōm (NE freedom), cīldhād (NE childhood), wedlāc (NE wedlock). Adjectives were usually derived from nouns, rarely from verb stems or other adjectives. The most productive suffixes were -iз, an -isc, e.g. mōdiз ‘proud’(from mōd NE mood); mennisc ‘human’ (from man with the root-vowel [a]).
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Word-composition
Word-composition was a highly productive way of developing the vocabulary in OE. As in other OG languages, word-composition in OE was more productive in nominal parts of speech than in verbs.
The pattern “noun plus noun” was probably the most efficient type of all: mann-cynn (NE mankind). Compound nouns with adjective-stems as the first components were less productive, e.g. wīd-sǽ ‘ocean’ (wide sea). Compound adjectives were formed by joining a noun-stem to an adjective: dōm-зeorn (“eager for glory”). The most peculiar pattern of compound adjectives was the so-called “bahuvruhi type” – adjective plus noun stem as the second component of an adjective, e.g. mild-heort‘merciful’.
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THE OE NOUN
The OE noun had two grammatical or morphological categories: number and case. In addition, nouns distinguished three genders, but this distinction was not a grammatical category; it was merely a classifying feature accounting, alongside other features, for the division of nouns into morphological classes.
The category of number consisted of two members, singular and plural.
The noun had four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative. In most declensions two, or even three, forms were homonymous, so that the formal distinction of cases was less consistent than that of numbers.
MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION
The most remarkable feature of OE nouns was their elaborate system of declensions, which was a sort of morphological classification. Every morphological class had either its own specific endings or a specific succession of markers.
In the first place, the morphological classification of OE nouns rested upon the most ancient (IE) grouping of nouns according to the stem-suffixes. Stem-suffixes could consist of vowels, of consonants, of sound sequences. Some groups of nouns had no stem-forming suffix or had a “zero-suffix”; they are usually termed “root-stems” and are grouped together with consonantal stems, as their roots ended in consonants, e. g. OE man, boc (NE man, book).
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The loss of stem-suffixes as distinct component parts had led to the formation of different sets of grammatical endings. The merging of the stem-suffix with the original grammatical ending and their phonetic weakening could result in the survival of the former stem-suffix in a new function, as a grammatical ending; thus u-stems had the inflection -u in some forms.
Sometimes both elements — the stem-suffix and the original ending — were shortened or even dropped in a-stems.
Another reason which accounts for the division of nouns into numerous declensions is their grouping according to gender. OE nouns distinguished three genders: Masc., Fem. and Neut. Sometimes a derivational suffix referred a noun to a certain gender and placed it into a certain semantic group. Alongside Masc. and Fem. nouns denoting males and females there were nouns with “unjustified” gender.
Division into genders was in a certain way connected with the division into stems, though there was no direct correspondence between them: some stems were represented by nouns of one particular gender, e. g. о-stems were always Fem., others embraced nouns of two or three genders.
Other reasons accounting for the division into declensions were structural and phonetic: monosyllabic nouns had certain peculiarities as compared to polysyllabic; monosyllables with a long root-syllable differed in some forms from nouns with a short syllable.
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Vocalic sterns |
Consonantal stems | |||||
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Strong declension |
n-stems (weak declension) |
Root- stems |
Other minor stems: r~, s-, nd- | |||
| a-stems and their ja-stems wa-stems | O-stems variants jo-stems wo-stems | i-stems | u-stems | |||
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Division according to gender | ||||||
| MN | F | MNF | MF | MNF | MF | MNF |
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Division according to length of the root-syllable | ||||||
| short long | short long | short long | short long | |||
TYPES OF DECLENSIONS
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· THE STRONG DECLENSION
a-stems may be either masculine or neuter. The difference between the two genders is only seen in the nominative, and accusative plural always had the ending -as. In the neuter substantives, the ending depends on two factors: on the number of syllables and on the quantity (shortness or length) of the root syllable.
Examples of a-stems: (1) masculine: earm ‘arm’, eorl ‘earl’; helm ‘helm’; (2) neuter: dor ‘gate’, hof ‘courtyard’, deor ‘animal’, beam ‘child’, gear syear’.
а-stems correspond to Russian substantives of the types стол, окно and to Latin 2nd declension substantives of the types hortus ‘garden’, oppidum ‘town’.
J a-stems
These substantives are a special type of a-stems. Their root vowel undergoes mutation under the influence of an original -j- in the stem.
Substantives with an originally short root syllable have their final consonant lengthened; in substantives with an originally long root syllable and those with an originally short root syllable ending in -r- the final consonant is not lengthened and the nominative and accusative singular end in -e.
Examples of ja-stems: (1) masculine: bocere ‘scholar’, fiscere ‘fisherman’; (2) neuter: net ‘net’, bed ‘bed’, wite ‘punishment’.
ja-stems correspond to Russian substantives of the types ручей, белье and to Latin substantives of the types gladius ‘sword’, officium ‘office’.
wa-stems are another special type of а-stems. The nominative and accusative singular of the masculine substantives and the nominative and accusative singular and plural of the neuter ones end in -u.
The final -uis sometimes weakened to -o:bearo, bealo.
Examples of wa-stems: (I) masculine: snaw ‘snow’, рёат ‘custom’, (2) neuter: searu ‘armour’, treow ‘tree’.
о-stems are all feminine. The form of the nominative depends on two factors: the number of syllables and the shortness or length of the root syllable. Monosyllabic substantives with a short root syllable take in this case the ending -u; monosyllabic ones with a long root syllable and dissyllabic ones have no ending at all.
Examples of о-stems: caru ‘care’, lufu ‘love’, ides ‘woman’.
о-stems correspond to Russian substantives of the type рука and to Latin 1st declension substantives, as silva ‘wood’.
Among i-stems there are substantives of all three genders. The masculine and neuter i-stems do not much differ in their declension from the а-stems, and the feminine ones do not much differ from the о-stems. The root vowel has undergone mutation. Among the masculine there are also several names of tribes which are only used in the plural: Engle ‘Angles’, Seaxe ‘Saxons’, Mierce ‘Mercians’, Norphymbre ‘Northumbrians’, Dene ‘Danes’, etc. Examples of i-stems: (1) masculine: mere ‘sea’, ‘lake’, mete ‘food’, bite ‘bite’ (2) neuter: spere ‘spear’, (3)feminine cwen ‘woman’.
The i-stems correspond to Russian substantives of the type кость and to Latin ones of the 3rd declension, like finis ‘end’.
Among the u-stems there are masculine and feminine substantives. The form of the nominative and accusative singular of these substantives depends on the length or shortness .of their root syllable. Substantives having a short root syllable have in the nominative and accusative singular the ending -u; those with a long one have no ending at all.
Examples of u-stems: (1) masculine: wudu ‘wood’, medu ‘honey’, ‘mead’, weald ‘forest’, sumor ‘summer’; (2) feminine: nosu ‘nose’, flor ‘floor’.
u-stems correspond to Latin substantives of the 4th declension, such as fructus ‘fruit’.
WEAK DECLENSION
Masculine n-stems end in the nominative singular in -a, feminine and neuter ones in -e; in the neuter substantives the accusative, in accordance with the general rule, is the same as the norni- native. No other difference between the genders is found.
Examples of n-stems: (1) masculine: guma ‘man’, wita ‘wise man’, steorra ‘star’, топа ‘moon’; (2) feminine eorfie ‘earth’, heorte ‘heart’, sunne ‘sun’; (3) neuter eare ‘ear’.
n-stems correspond to Russian substantives like имя and to Latin 3rd declension substantives like nomen ‘name’.
In all Germanic languages there is a type of substantives which differs in its morphological structure from all other types. These are the root stems, i.e. substantives which never had any stem- forming suffix, so the case endings were added on immediately to the root.
This type of stem is represented in various Indo-European languages.
In OE there are a number of substantives of all three genders which wholly or partly belong to the root-stem declension.
In three case forms: in the dative singular and in the nominative and accusative plural there is the result of mutation.
The OE root stems correspond to Latin 3rd declension substantives, as pes, pedis ‘foot’; pax, pads ‘peace’.
r-stems are represented by a few masculine and feminine substantives denoting relationship: fseder ‘father’, bropor ‘brother’, modor ‘mother’, dohtor ‘daughter’, sweostor ‘sister’. The dative singular of these substantives usually has mutation.
r-stems correspond to the Russian substantives мать, дочь and to Latin 3rd declension substantives, as pater and mater.
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