Evolution of the English pronouns

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Реферат

 

по дисциплине:   История английского языка

на тему:    «Evolution of the English pronouns»

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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г. Ростов-на-Дону-2009

Content

 

Introduction

1 Old English personal pronouns

2 Evolution of the English pronouns

2.1 Interrogative pronouns

2.1.1 Masculine/feminine (person)

2.1.2 Neuter (non-person)

2.2 First person personal pronouns

2.2.1 Singular

2.2.2 Plural

2.3 Second person personal pronouns

2.3.1 Old and Middle English singular to the Modern English archaic informal

2.3.2 Old and Middle English plural to the archaic formal to the modern general

2.3.2.1 Formal and informal forms of the second person singular and plural

2.4 Third person personal pronouns

2.4.1 Feminine singular

2.4.2 Masculine singular

2.4.3 Neuter singular

2.4.4 Plural

The list of the used sources

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

The English language once had an extensive declension system similar to Latin, modern German or Icelandic. Old English distinguished between the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases; and for strongly declined adjectives and some pronouns also a separate instrumental case (which otherwise and later completely coincided with the dative). In addition, the dual was distinguished from the more modern singular and plural.^[1] Declension was greatly simplified during the Middle English period, when accusative and dative pronouns merged into a single objective pronoun. Nouns in Modern English no longer decline for case, except in a sense for possessive, and for remnants of the former system in a few pronouns.

"Who" and "whom", "he" and "him", "she" and "her", etc. are remnants of both the old nominative versus accusative and also of nominative versus dative. In other words, "her" (for example) serves as both the dative and accusative version of the nominative pronoun "she". In Old English as well as modern German and Icelandic as further examples, these cases had distinct pronouns.

This collapse of the separate case pronouns into the same word is one of the reasons grammarians consider the dative and accusative cases to be extinct in English — neither is an ideal term for the role played by "whom". Instead, the term objective is often used; that is, "whom" is a generic objective pronoun which can describe either a direct or an indirect object. The nominative case, "who", is called simply the subjective. The information formerly conveyed by having distinct case forms is now mostly provided by prepositions and word order.

Modern English morphologically distinguishes only one case, the possessive case — which some linguists argue is not a case at all, but a clitic (see the entry for genitive case for more information). With only a few pronominal exceptions, the objective and subjective always have the same form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The English language once had an extensive declension system similar to Latin, modern German or Icelandic. Old English distinguished between the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases; and for strongly declined adjectives and some pronouns also a separate instrumental case (which otherwise and later completely coincided with the dative). In addition, the dual was distinguished from the more modern singular and plural.^[1] Declension was greatly simplified during the Middle English period, when accusative and dative pronouns merged into a single objective pronoun. Nouns in Modern English no longer decline for case, except in a sense for possessive, and for remnants of the former system in a few pronouns.

"Who" and "whom", "he" and "him", "she" and "her", etc. are remnants of both the old nominative versus accusative and also of nominative versus dative. In other words, "her" (for example) serves as both the dative and accusative version of the nominative pronoun "she". In Old English as well as modern German and Icelandic as further examples, these cases had distinct pronouns.

This collapse of the separate case pronouns into the same word is one of the reasons grammarians consider the dative and accusative cases to be extinct in English — neither is an ideal term for the role played by "whom". Instead, the term objective is often used; that is, "whom" is a generic objective pronoun which can describe either a direct or an indirect object. The nominative case, "who", is called simply the subjective. The information formerly conveyed by having distinct case forms is now mostly provided by prepositions and word order.

Modern English morphologically distinguishes only one case, the possessive case — which some linguists argue is not a case at all, but a clitic (see the entry for genitive case for more information). With only a few pronominal exceptions, the objective and subjective always have the same form.

1. Old English personal pronouns
			Nominative	pron.	Accusative	Dative	Genitive
1st	Singular		iċ	[ɪç]	me(c)	me	min
	Dual		wit	[wɪt]	unc		uncer
	Plural		wé	[weː]	us		ure
2nd	Singular		þū	[θuː]	þe		þin
	Dual		ġit	[jɪt]	inc		incer
	Plural		ġē	[jeː]	eow		eower
3rd	Singular	Masculine	hē	[heː]	hine	him	his
		Neuter	hit	[hɪt]	hit	him	his
		Feminine	hēo	[heːo]	hie	hire	hire
	Plural		hīe	[hiːə]	hie	him	hira

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Evolution of the English pronouns

 

2.1 Interrogative pronouns

2.1.1 Masculine/feminine (person)

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	hwā	who	who
Accusative	hwone / hwæne	whom	who / whom1
Dative	hwām / hwǣm
Instrumental
Genitive	hwæs	whos	whose

¹ - In some dialects who is used where Formal English only allows whom. Though, of course variation among dialects must be taken into account.

2.1.2 Neuter (non-person)

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	hwæt	what	what
Accusative	hwæt	what / whom
Dative	hwām / hwǣm
Instrumental	hwȳ / hwon	why	why
Genitive	hwæs	whos	whose1

¹ - Usually replaced by of what (postpositioned).

2.2 First person personal pronouns

2.2.1 Singular

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	iċ	I / ich / ik	I
Accusative	mē / meċ	me	me
Dative	mē
Genitive	mīn	min / mi	my, mine

 

2.2.2 Plural

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	wē	we	we
Accusative	ūs / ūsiċ	us	us
Dative	ūs
Genitive	ūser / ūre	ure / our	our, ours

(Old English also had a separate dual, wit ("we two") etcetera; however, no later forms derive from it.)

2.3 Second person personal pronouns

n.b. þ is a letter from Old English, roughly corresponding to th.

2.3.1 Old and Middle English singular to the Modern English archaic informal

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	þū	þu / thou	thou (you)
Accusative	þē / þeċ	þé / thee	thee (you)
Dative	þē
Genitive	þīn	þi / þīn / þīne / thy /thin / thine	thy, thine (your)

 

2.3.2 Old and Middle English plural to the archaic formal to the modern general

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	ġē	ye / ȝe / you	you
Accusative	ēow / ēowiċ	you, ya
Dative	ēow
Genitive	ēower	your	your, yours

Note that the ye/you distinction still existed, at least optionally, in Early Modern English: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" from the King James Bible.

2.3.2.1 Formal and informal forms of the second person singular and plural

Old English

Middle English

Modern English

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Case

Formal

Informal

Formal

Informal

Formal

Informal

Formal

Informal

Formal

Informal

Formal

Informal

Nominative

þū

ġē

you

thou

you

ye

you

Accusative

þē / þeċ

ēow / ēowiċ

thee

you

Dative

þē

ēow

Genitive

þīn

ēower

your, yours

thy, thine

your, yours

your, yours

(Old English also had a separate dual, ȝit ("ye two") etcetera; however, no later forms derive from it.)

 

 

 

 

2.4 Third person personal pronouns

2.4.1 Feminine singular

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	hēo	heo / sche / ho / he / ȝho	she
Accusative	hīe	hire / hure / her / heore	her
Dative	hire
Genitive	hire	hir / hire / heore / her / here	her, hers

 

2.4.2 Masculine singular

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	hē	he	he
Accusative	hine	him	him
Dative	him
Genitive	his	his	his

 

2.4.3 Neuter singular

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	hit	hit / it	it
Accusative	hit	hit / it / him
Dative	him
Genitive	his	his / its	its

 

2.4.4 Plural

Case	Old English	Middle English	Modern English
Nominative	hīe	he / hi / ho / hie / þai / þei	they
Accusative	hīe	hem / ham / heom / þaim / þem / þam	them
Dative	him
Genitive	hira	here / heore / hore / þair / þar	their, theirs

 

(The origin of the modern forms is generally thought to have been a borrowing from Old Norse forms þæir, þæim, þæira. The two different roots co-existed for some time, although currently the only common remnant is the shortened form 'em. Cf. also the demonstrative pronouns.)

 

The list of the used sources

 

1. Питер С. Бейкер (2003). " Pronouns ". The Electronic Introduction to Old English . "Местоимение".

2. Oxford: Blackwell. Http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/inflpron.html.

3. http://wps.ablongman.com/long_hult_nch_3/0,9398,1483953-,00.html (p.669) A brief history of English pronouns.

4. www.native-english.ru /theory/grammar/pronouns.htm.

5. http://esl.about.com/cs/beginner/f/f_pronouns.htm.

6. http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/pronountext.htm.