The cat ate the dog. Both sentences are made up of the same words, but they mean totally different things. Because we have used the arrangement of words in the sentence to specify which word is the subject and which is the direct object.
In the first example, we know that "dog" is the subject of the sentence because it comes before the verb. Likewise, we know that "cat" is the object of the sentence it receives the action because it comes after the verb "ate". Old English like Latin, Greek, Russian and many other languages is an inflected language. Instead of relying on word order to indicate relationships, Old English attaches endings to each word to indicate relationships. Different endings mark words as subjects the thing performing an action , direct objects things directly receiving the action , indirect objects things indirectly receiving the action and objects of prepositions , objects of prepositions , and genitives things possessed by other things.
If you aren't sure you completely understand these different word functions, go back to the previous chapter of Grammar Review and look over the explanations. If you haven't already, you can do some practice exercises. Because word endings indicate grammatical relationships, word order is not nearly as important in Old English as it is in Modern English.
Therefore words in a sentence can be arranged in various ways without changing the meaning of a sentence there are of course some limits in this flexibility. The study of these rules and regularities is the field of Old English syntax. In general, syntax in poetry is more flexible than syntax in prose.
You need not panic at this point: we do in fact use endings in Modern English to indicate grammatical function think of "-ing", "-tion", "-ly", "-y" and others. To understand Old English, you do not need to learn very much about word order. You do, however, need to learn your endings and their grammatical functions.
Endings for nouns, pronouns and adjectives in Old English are divided into five categories of grammatical function called cases. A list and brief description is given below. Click on each case for further information. Nominative: The naming case; used for subjects.
Genitive: The possession case; used to indicate ownership. Accusative : The direct object case; used to indicate direct receivers of an action. Also used to indicate things that are being used "instruments". A list of all the possible endings for a word is called a declension. In Old English, nouns, pronouns and adjectives are all declined; that is, they change their endings based upon their grammatical function or the grammatical function of the words they modify in the sentence. The Nominative is the naming case, used for the subject of the sentence.
Alfred is my name. The brothers divided the kingdom. In Old English, nouns, pronouns and adjectives can all take the nominative case. If the main noun is in the nominative, the pronouns and adjectives grammatically related to that noun will also be in the nominative.
This principle is called "Case Agreement" among nouns, demonstratives and adjectives. We will discuss it in more detail below. Log in Forgot your password? Join now Forgot your password? You are registered. Access to your account will be opened after verification and publication of the question. Ok Close. Add photo Send. Question sent to expert. You will receive an answer to the email. No commitments. Cancel anytime. The subscriptoin renews automaticaly until you cancel.
Instant access to the answer in our app. You can only ask a question in the app. Vocative Used to call or address someone or something. For example: O Maria! The vocative case is usually the same as the nominative. For example: O domine! O Georgii! Not all parts of speech have a vocative case. Accusative Used for the object of a verb. For example: domina cartam confirmat — The lady confirms the charter. For example: terra ecclesie — The land of the church.
Literally: the daughters of the widow. Dative Used for nouns that are to or for something. For example: terram ecclesie do — I give land to the church. Ablative Used for nouns that are by , with or from something. For example: papa ecclesiam carta confirmat — The pope confirms the church by a charter.
Case Singular Plural Nominative fili a fili e Vocative fili a fili e Accusative fili am fili as Genitive fili e fili arum Dative fili e fili abus Ablative fili a fili abus There are a few first declension nouns that are masculine.
Thomas These take the same endings as carta.
0コメント