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OE Demonstrative Pronouns (categories, 2 types, origin of definite article, nominative case of both types, origin of ME these, those, this, that).

Demonstrative pronouns belong to an ancient class of words that goes back to two Indo-European roots – se and to. In OE the sound [Ө] started to dominate over the sound [s] due to the pressure of the system (the forms with the sound [Ө] were more numerous (see the table below)).

Demonstrative pronouns in OE changed in Gender, Number, Case:

Pronoun in ModE

Demonstrative Pronouns in OE

Case

Masculine, Sg

Feminine, Sg

Neuter, Sg

Plural

THAT

Nom

se*

sēo*

þæt*

þa

THIS

Nom

þes

þeos

þis*

þās

Dem pron were frequently used as noun determiners & through agreement with the noun, indicated its number, gender, case. The forms of the pron may help to define the forms of the nouns.

In ME the Case system disappeared due to the fact that there were some homonymous forms (e.g. þǽre – F, Sg, Gen; F, Sg, Dat; F, Sg, Instr; þa – Pl, Nom; Pl, Acc; þisse – F, Sg, Gen; F, Sg, Dat) and due to phonetic reduction.

1)In early ME dem pron se, sēo þæt… lost most of their inflected forms

2) The development of se, sēo þæt led to formation of the def article

In NE the Gender was lost due to the fact that there were some homonymous forms (e.g. þes/þæs – M, Sg, Gen; N, Sg, Gen; þæm – M, Sg, Dat; N, Sg, Dat;þissum – M, Sg, Dat; N, Sg, Dat) and the following changes happened to the pronouns(se*, sēo*, þæt*, þis*, þý*):

  • se (M, Sg, Nom) – turned into the definite article “the” (discussed more particularly in the point “Rise of Articles” below);
  • sēo (F, Sg, Nom) – turned into the personal pronoun “she” (discussed more particularly in the point “Personal Pronouns” (changes in the 3rd person) below);
  • þæt (N, Sg, Nom) – remained as the unchangeable demonstrative pronoun “that”;
  • þis (N, Sg, Nom) – remained as the unchangeable demonstrative pronoun “this”;
  • þý (M, Sg, Instr) – in OE was used in the comparative constructions like “the sooner…the better” but in NE was not distinguished any more phonetically and merged with the unchangeable form of the definite article “the”.

The only category that was left in the demonstrative pronouns was the Number (e.g. ModE this – these, that – those).

The articles have to do with the category of Determination (definiteness/indefiniteness).

Definite Article.As it was mentioned above, the definite article appeared from the OE demonstrative pronoun se (M, Sg, Nom) from the paradigm of the OE demonstrative pronoun “that” because it was often used to indicate a definite object or notion.

Indefinite Article.The indefinite article appeared from the OE numeral ān (one) and had the meaning of “oneness” (it still indicates only nouns in Sg, i.e. nouns indicating one object or notion). In OE ān had 5-case paradigm that was lost in ME and only one form was left – oon/one. Later it was employed in the building of the indefinite article a/an.

 


25.06.2018; 20:44
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