scholarly journals LINGUOSTYLISTIC MEANS OF CONTEXTUAL SEGMENTATION OF THE OLD ENGLISH POEM THE SEAFARER

2019 ◽  
pp. 115-127
Author(s):  
Sergey V. Mukhin ◽  
◽  
Darya A. Efremova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
English Poem ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Linguistic Means ◽  
Finite Verb

The article is concerned with the analysis of the linguostylistic means used to effect contextual segmentation of the Old English elegy The Seafarer. It is hypothesized that discourse types of the poem including narration with some elements of description, reasoning and implicit dialogue are the key means to convey the author’s main idea. The focus of the study is on the use of the principal lexical and grammatical markers indicating the change of discourse types: personal pronouns of the 1st and 3rd person, finite verb forms and connotationally diversified vocabulary. In the narrative part, the emphasis is made on the extensive use of pronominal and verb forms of the 1st person singular as well as on the prevalence of emotive lexical units with negative meaning. Reasoning was discovered to be characterized by the domination of the 3rd person forms and balanced use of lexical units with negative and positive semantics. Implicit dialogue was found to be notably rich in pronominal forms of the 1st person plural and causative modality expressed by lexical and grammatical means. We conclude that the poem under study features a triform composition built by various linguistic means on the grammatical, lexical and stylistic levels.

scholarly journals A native origin for Present-Day English they, their, them

Diachronica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelle Cole
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
The North ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Pronominal System ◽  
Germanic Languages

Abstract It is commonly held that Present-Day English they, their, them are not descended from Old English but derive from the Old Norse third-person plural pronouns þeir, þeira, þeim. This paper argues that the early northern English orthographic and distributional textual evidence agrees with an internal trajectory for the ‘þ-’ type personal pronouns in the North and indicates an origin in the Old English demonstratives þā, þāra, þām. The Northern Middle English third-person plural pronominal system was the result of the reanalysis from demonstrative to personal pronoun that is common cross-linguistically in Germanic and non-Germanic languages alike.

Reflexive pronouns in the Lindisfarne glosses

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-244
Author(s):  
Elly van Gelderen
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
The Third ◽  
Reflexive Pronouns ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Lindisfarne Gospels ◽  
Pronominal System ◽  
The Third Person

Abstract Old English uses personal pronouns, demonstratives, and limited null subject for reference to previously mentioned nouns. It uses personal pronouns reflexively and pronouns modified by ‘self’ identical in form with an intensive. This use of a pronoun modified by self has been attributed to British Celtic influence. Other changes in the pronominal system have been attributed to Scandinavian influence, e.g. the introduction of the third person plural pronoun they. This paper looks at the use of the specially marked reflexives in the glosses to the Lindisfarne Gospels, a northern text where both British Celtic and Scandinavian influence may be relevant. It provides lists of all of the self-marked forms and shows, for instance, that Matthew and Mark have reflexives based on an accusative/dative pronoun followed by self and they don’t have this form as an intensifier. British Celtic of this period has an intensifier but has no special reflexives and has lost case endings, so the Lindisfarne language is unlike British Celtic. Luke and John have intensives and reflexives, with ‘self’ modifying case-marked pronouns, again unlike British Celtic. In addition to contributing to the debate on external origins, the paper adds to the authorship debate by comparing the use of reflexives in the different gospels.

scholarly journals The Present and Past Participles in the Medieval English Translations of St. John’s Gospel from Latin

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-42
Author(s):  
Lidija Štrmelj ◽  
Milenko Lončar
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Past Participle ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Present Participle ◽  
John's Gospel ◽  
Finite Verb

The present participle and past participle, together with the infinitive, have a long history in English; this is quite contrary to finite verb forms, which mostly developed during the Middle English period. Participles were already in use in the earliest stages of the language and performed functions similar to those of the present active participle and perfect passive participle in Latin. Therefore, one may assume that Latin participles are rendered into Old English and Middle English mostly by means of their English equivalents. It appears, however, that this was not the case. The data provided in our research lead us to the conclusion that the implementation of participles in English was rather difficult and slow, at least when it comes to the Gospel translations. This paper shows what was used instead – for example, various types of clauses; it also shows the reasons for this (such as ambiguity hidden sometimes in participles).

scholarly journals WHO IS THAT MYSTERIOUS WE IN RUSSIAN AND ESTONIAN? (ON THE METAPHORICAL USE OF 1st PERSON PLURAL FORMS)

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-44
Author(s):  
Sirje Kupp-Sazonov
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Verb Forms

The article is devoted to the metaphorical use of 1person plural forms in Russian and Estonian. Personal pronouns is one of the first topics that is introduced to the learner of any language. In Russian and Estonian the systems of personal pronouns are quite similar. The essence of the 1person plural is primarily defined as follows: ‘a speaker refers to himself or herself and somebody else’. That somebody else can be one person, many people, or even people in general. It can sometimes be very difficult to decide to whom we refers. The metaphorical use of 1 person plural forms is not identical in Russian and Estonian. Some metaphorical uses are regular in Russian but are not common in Estonian; it depends on the cultural and linguistic traditions of the language in question. In the paper will be analysed some cases of metaphorical use, such as 'royal we', 'authorial we', plural of modesty, 'doctoral we', ‘sartorial we’, 'mother’s we' etc. It is noticeable that these metaphorical uses can cause some difficulties in learning the language and also in the translation process. It can be claimed that in Russian and with some limitations also in Estonian the 1 person plural can “replace” all the other pronouns and verb forms. It is important to keep in mind these differences between languages when teaching or translating.

Preverbation and narrativity in Lithuanian. The distribution of finite simplex and compound verbs in narrative main clauses

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 167-192
Author(s):  
Lea Sawicki
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Text ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
The Past ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Compound Verbs ◽  
Finite Verb

The article deals with the use of simplex and compound (prefixed) verbs in narrative text. Main clauses comprising finite verb forms in the past and in the past habitual tense are examined in an attempt to establish to what extent simplex and compound verbs exhibit aspect oppositions, and whether a correlation exists between the occurrence of simplex vs. compound verbs and distinct textual units. The investigation shows that although simple and compound verbs in Lithuanian are not in direct aspect opposition to each other, in the background text portions most of the verbs are prefixless past tense forms or habitual forms, whereas in the plot-advancing text portions, the vast majority of verbs are compound verbs in the simple past tense.  

scholarly journals On honorification in Czech: The Czech polite forms: Theory and corpus data

2009 ◽  
pp. 101-108
Author(s):  
Jarmila Panevova
Keyword(s):  
Person Plural ◽  
Single Person ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Semantic Distinction

The author claims that the Czech polite forms (so-called 'vykani') for addressing the 2nd person should be understood as a legitimate part of the Czech conjugation paradigm. If we address a single person in a polite way some Czech analytical verb forms exhibit 'hybrid' agreement (auxiliaries are in plural, while participle form is in singular). However, the paradigm for singular and plural polite forms (addressing a single person, or two or more persons, respectively) is not symmetrical. The question, whether 2nd person plural polite forms are ambiguous (between the polite meaning and 2nd plural non-polite), or whether the semantic distinction 'polite - non-polite' is neutralized in plural, is open for further discussion. Some corpus data illustrating the contexts for the 2nd person polite forms are analyzed here too.

scholarly journals “The Trout Breaks the Ice” by Mikhail Kuzmin: Verse and Grammar

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-116
Author(s):  
Marina Akimova
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Long Poem ◽  
Complex Composition ◽  
The Past ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Astronomical Time ◽  
Mikhail Kuzmin ◽  
Iambic Pentameter ◽  
Finite Verb

The author explores various compositional levels of the Russian modernist author Mikhail Kuzmin’s long poem “The Trout Breaks the Ice”. The levels are: (1) the grammatical tenses vs. the astronomical time (non-finite verb forms (imperative) are also assumed to indicate time); (2) the meters of this polymetric poem; (3) realistic vs. symbolic and (4) static vs. dynamic narrative modes. The analysis is done by the chapter, and the data are summarized in five tables. It turned out that certain features regularly co-occur, thus supporting the complex composition of the poem. In particular, the present tense and time regularly mark the realistic and static chapters written in various meters, whereas the past tense and time are specific to the realistic and dynamic chapters written in iambic pentameter. The article sheds new light on the compositional structure of Kuzmin’s poem and the general principles of poetic composition.

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