Grammatical Change

Question 1

when happen?

Answer 1

while very different to old english most grammatical change happen before end of middle Ages especially as many prescriptivist attempts in 18thand 19th Cs.

Question 2

Inflections

Answer 2

Indicate grammatical form of a word. (most happen at end of a word).
Many more in Old English but many lost in middle ages. OE very reliant on them.
Loss of inflections one of most significant grammatical changes.

Question 3

inflections
verbs

Answer 3

tense
person
number

Question 4

inflections
nouns

Answer 4

number
gender

Question 5

Inflections
adjectives

Answer 5

comparatives and superlatives

Question 6

Pronouns

Answer 6

largely second person pronouns no longer distinguish number of people. (eg. thee was 2nd Person Singular) (obviously some do now exist outside of Standardised English “y’all”, “youse” etc.

Question 7

Word order

Answer 7

used to be much less important and freer as more of an emphasis on inflections. More rigid nowadays but still allows for variation (“she gave me the apple” and “she gave the apple to me”)

Question 8

Negative Constructions

Answer 8

Multiple negatives nowadays considered ungrammatical by many but before were quite acceptable and used for emphasis.
There is also that informal American negative construction where you just add “not” to the end. (You look great- Not)

Question 9

Who/Whom

Answer 9

Traditionalist Grammar be all like Whom should be used when referring to the object. Let’s be real here at the end of the day who is almost always the better choice if you’re not sure because it’s increasingly the one being used. Whom is increasingly considered as formal. Whom in reasonably regular use when after a preposition (with whom).