Grammatical Change Flashcards
Capitalisation and Random Capitalisation
> In Early Modern English capital letters were used for starts of sentences and proper names but also randomly for any noun writers considered important - Some of this still occurred in the early 18th century - this idiosyncratic or idiosyncrasies.
By Late Modern English capital letters had begun to be used according to the rules we use today - 18th century grammarians felt that a system was needed.
Early 18th Century Grammar
> Negation: negatives did not use our dummy auxiliary verb ‘do’ eg instead of ‘I don’t know’, ‘I know not’ was used
Syntax: word order was often different eg ‘continues still’, ‘certain it is’
Pronouns: use of ‘one’ instead of ‘I’
Prepositions: choice can seem odd to modern readers eg ‘at London’ instead of ‘in London’
Contractions: modern readers will notice a lack of contractions which seems very formal to us eg ‘while I am starving’
Key features of Early Modern English - Grammar
> The use of an apostrophe in the genitive singular was optional in the sixteenth century; it was frequent in the seventeenth, but only became established around 1700. (possessive)
Syntax and word order – the construction was still found in early modern English but was replaced by the familiar constructions seen in ‘the wife of the king of England’ or ‘the king of England’s wife’.
In standard English, the rule by which –er and –est are preferred in monosyllabic words and more and most are used in polysyllabic
ones, with variation in disyllabic words, was established by the late seventeenth century.
The double comparative was generally used for emphasis (and was praised by the dramatist Ben Jonson). E.g. more stronger
In the second person, by 1600 ye was a rare alternative to you; no case distinction remained (in earlier English, ye was the subjective case and you the objective). The use of you as a ‘polite’ form of address to a single person progressively encroached on thou (originally the singular pronoun) until by 1600 thou (and its objective case thee) was restricted. By the late seventeenth century you had become normal in almost all contexts and thou and thee were limited to the Bible and religious use, the Quakers,
and regional dialects.
plurals—with –selves (replacing –self) after plural pronouns—made their appearance in the early sixteenth century.
The second person singular inflection –est naturally declined
At the start of the period, the normal third person singular ending in standard southern English was –eth. The form -(e)s, originally from Northern dialect, replaced –eth in most kinds of use during the seventeenth century. Doth, hath, continued often to be written, but it seems likely that these were merely graphic conventions.
Regular ‘weak’ verbs in Middle English formed their past tense and past participles in –ed, pronounced as a separate syllable, as it still is in a few fossilized forms such as belovèd, blessèd. During the sixteenth century the vowel was lost in this ending except where the preceding consonant was t or d (e.g. in hated.
Adverbs without the ending –ly were much commoner in this period. In early modern English ‘phonetic’ spellings (’d, d, ’t, t) are quite often found.
The compound adverbs of the form here, there, and where + preposition were in widespread use as equivalents of preposition + this, that (or it), and what,
What should I look out for in grammar change?
1) verb inflections (e.g pleaseth / pleases; gotten /got; think’st / thinks)
2) Formations of the past tense (e.g. My life is run its course / My life as run its course)
3) Use of modal and auxiliary verbs (especially “do”)
4) The personal pronoun system (e.g. thou / thee / ye)
5) The relative pronoun system (e.g. Our father which are in heaven / Our Father who are
in heaven.)
6) Formation of negatives (e.g. I see not / I do not see, I cannot see no longer / I cannot
see any longer)
7) Noun and adjective endings of inflections ( e.g. mankinde / mankind)
8) Formation of plurals (e.g. shoon / shoes)
9) Sentence structure
10) The use of prepositions
