SYNTAX
Phrases
Syntactical classification of phrases
When two or more words are connected syntactically their relation may be described as
coordination, subordination and predication. Accordingly, there exist coordinate, subordinate
and predicative phrases.
In a coordinate phrase the components are equal in rank and do not predetermine each
other. The members of a coordinate phrase may be joined syndetically or asyndeticаllу.
Coordination is syndetic when conjunctions are present. It is asyndetic when they are absent.
Asyndetic coordinate phrases:
frætwe, ʒuðsearo “treasures, armour”; ārīs, nim “arise, take”.
OE coordinate phrases whose members are joined syndeticalty are of two main types. In
phrases of the 1st type the components are linked by simple conjunctions and /ond “and”,
oþþe “or”, etc.
Norþhymbre ond Ēastenʒle “Northumbria and East-Anglia”
fif oþþe syx “five or six”
The 2nd type is characterized by the use of correlative conjunctions which occur in pairs:
æʒðer ... ʒе, “both ... and”; ʒе ... ʒe (the same meaning); ne ... ne “neither ... nor”; oþþe …
oþþe “either ... or”.
æʒðer ʒе hiora sibbe ʒе hiora siodo ... “both their peace and their morality ...”
oþþe on dæʒ oþþe on niht “either in the daytime or at night”
ne ʒehādodede regollīce, ne lǣwede lāhlice “neither those in ecclesiastical
orders according to the rule, nor layman according to the law”
The predicative relation unites the subject and the predicate. The components
of a predicative phrase predetermine each other. There are two main types of
predicative phrases:
1. Units of primary predication, that is, those with a finite verb as predicate.
2. Units of secondary predication, that is, whose predicate is not expressed by a
finite verb.
As a rule, in a sentence, units of the 2nd type are subordinate to the predicate
expressed by the finite verb. Both types of predicative phrases are exemplified in
the following ОE sentence:
Hē sende mē þearfun bodian. “He sent me to proclaim to the poor".
Primary
Secondary predication
predication
Joined through subordination, the words are not equal in rank: in a subordinate
phrase 1element (adjunct) is subordinate to the other (head-word). Subordination is
realized through agreement, government, adjoinment and enclosure.
Agreement consists in making the adjunct take a form similar to that of the
head-word. In ОE the adjunct, expressed by an adjective, demonstrative or indefinite
pronoun, agreed with its head-word expressed by a noun in gender, number and case:
adjunct
head-word
Nom sg
Nom sg
spēdiʒ
man “(a) rich man”
Dat pl
Dat pl
ōðrum
monnum “(to) other men”
Government consists in the use of a certain form of the adjunct required bу the
head-word. Government can be (a) verbal; (b) nominal; (c) adjectival; d)
prepositional:
a) head-word
adjunct
Gen
bād
westanwindes “waited for westwind”
adjunct
head-word
Dat
ðē
b) adjunct
Gen
cydan “(to) inform thee”
head-word
lond “land of the English people”
Angelcynnes
head-word
adjunct
Gen
bearn
Ecʒðēōwes “Egtheow’s son”
c) adjunct
head-word
Gen
his
ʒefǣʒene
“glad of it”
ʒеаrо
“ready for it”
Dat
him
Dat
Acc
d) on yðum “on the waves”;
ymb ānne mōnað “about one month”
Adjoinment implies such subordination of the adjunct to the head-word as is
achieved by their position and meaning. In OE adjoinment is practically confined to
the relation between adverb and verb:
head-word
ʒrētan
adjunct
ēadmōdlīce “greet respectfully”
Enclosure consists in putting a component of a phrase between two constituents
of another component. For instance, an adjective may be enclosed between a
demonstrative or a preposition on the left side and a noun on the right:
sē dēada man “this dead man”; on fēawum stōwum “in a few places”
Morphological classification of OE phrases
The main morphological types of OE phrases:
1) A + N
N+A
snotor ʒuma
“wise man”
hāliʒ spell
“holy message”
beorʒas stēape “mountains steep” (a lower frequency of
occurrence than A + N)
2) N + N
Ælfrēd cyninʒ “king Alfred”;
Wǣrferd biscep “bishopWarferd”
The pattern N + N in OE was mainly used in appositive phrases with the first
component expressed by a proper noun, the second noun denoting a tittle or post.
3) a. N Gen + N
N + N Gen
b. Pr Gen + N
N + Pr Gen
Ʒrendles maʒe
“Grendel’s parent"
bearn Ecʒðēōwes “Egtheow’s son”
mīne daʒas
his hūs
“my days”
“his house”
sūnu mīn
“my son“
c. is a variant of 3) a, the noun in the Genitive case being replaced by a pronoun in the
same case form.
4) Pr dem + N
sē man
þæt hūs
eþel þysne
“that man”
“that house“
“this country”
ān bān
twentiʒ scēapa
“one bone”
“twenty sheep”
sūna tweʒen
“two sons”
6) Adv + Adj
7) Adv + Adv
swīþe spēdiʒ
swǣ claǣne
“very rich”
“so completely”
8) a. N Nom + V
Bēowulf maþelode
“Beowulf spoke”
rīcsode Æþelbald
“reigned Athelbald”
N + Pr dem
5) Nom + N
Nom + Num
b. V+ N Nom
c. Pr Nom + V ic ʒeseah
V + Pr Nom
ārās hē
“I saw”
“arose he”
c. is a pronominal variation of 8) a.
9) a. V + N
ymbsǣton ðā ceastre “besieged the city”
N+V
b. V + Pr
Pr + V
bād westanwindes
“waited for westwind”
siʒe nom
“won victory’’
sæʒde him
“said to him”
him cӯþdon
“informed him/them”
c. is a variant of 9) a.
10) a. N Acc + V inf ʒeseah hē in recede rinca maniʒе swefan
“he saw many a warrior sleep in the hall”
b. Pr Acc + V inf Нē sende mē þearfum bodian.
“He sent me to proclaim to the poor”
c. is a variant of 10) a.
11) a. N Acc + Part.I hīʒ ʒesēoð mannes sūne cumende ...
“they shall see the son of man coming
b. Pr Acc + Part.I
hīʒ fundon hine on þam temple sittende ...
“they found him in that temple sitting ..”
c. is a variant of 11) a.
nū оnʒinð
12) V + Adv
13) a. Prep + N
“now begins”
ðǣr bād
“there waited”
mid wīsdōm
“with wisdom”
N + Prep sūð Seaxna lond ūtan
“outside the land of the South Saxons (The pattern N + Prep
occurs very seldom)
b. Prep + Pr
Pr + Prep
tō him “to him”;
mid him “with him”
him wið “against him” h i m ... tō “to ... him”
(It should be noted that the pattern Pr + Prep had a higher frequency of
occurrence than its nominal counterpart N + Prep).
Order of phrase components
In the overwhelming majority of phrase types the order of their components
was not rigid, for instance, A+N / N+A, N Gen+N / N+N Gen, etc. Additional evidence
of the free placing of phrase components in OE can be obtained by analysing noun
phrases with preposed sequences of adjuncts expressed by different parts of speech.
The following types of adjuncts are distinguished by their position in a nounphrase in MnE: predeterminers (such quantifiers as ALL, BOTH, etc.),
determiners (demonstratives, possessives, articles), postdeterminers (numerals),
premodifiers (adjectives and nouns):
predeterminer
all
determiner postdeterminer
the
3
premodifier
long
stories
Unlike MnE, OE adjectives (especially those in -weard) and personal pronouns in the
Genitive case used as possessives often preceded a demonstrative:
of innerwearde his heortan
“from within his heart”
mīn sē lēofa frēond
“my (that) dear friend”
The numeral could also occur before a demonstrative if it was followed by an adjective
in the superlative degree:
twā betstan tyccenu
“the two best kids”
Relatively free word order in OE phrases can be accounted for by the ability of the well
developed system of morphological markers to secure connections between phrase
components..