History
What events were the starting and ending points of ME?
roughly the start: 1066 - Norman Conquest
roughly the end: 1475 - the first printed book in English and
1476 - the arrival of printing in England
How many diphthongs were there in ME?
6
1) Language Contact (e.g. remember historical events during ME period...)
2) Phonological (e.g. weakening of unstressed syllables at the end of words...)
Name the Word Order (ex: SOV) that was typical in situations when adverbial was in the initial position of the clause.
VOS structure.
VOS order was typical, when adverbial placed in the beginning of the clause. Example:
Thus taughte me my dame
ADV. V. O. S.
Many French stems have been combined with English affixes to produce new words. Provide an example.
Gentleness
Explain these change from OE to ME:
from heorte /heәrtә/ to heorte /heәrt/
Loss of vowels in an unstressed syllable; here, the unstressed syllable is /heәr/ and the unstressed one is /tә/, which is why the last vowel /ә/ was lost
Which determiners survived during ME period?
SG: Þis/Þæt
PL: Þise/Þos
Also indeclinable article "the" that replaced "se," "seo," and "Þæt" in NOMINATIVE case.
Give examples of three conjunctions that were used in ME Subordination sentences.
Yif, forþy, þat time þat
What is The Great Vowel Shift?
During the transition from Middle English to the Early Modern English period, usually dated 1500–1700, the present-day pattern of inflexion emerged, while the sound-system underwent a radical change, most notably with regard to the long vowels of late Middle English: The Great Vowel Shift.
Basically, the long vowels shifted upwards; that is, a vowel that used to be pronounced in one place in the mouth would be pronounced in a different place, higher up in the mouth.
In the last exercise where you read an example of ME text, what exactly have you read? Name the piece of literature, its part and the author
The prologue of "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer
Conjugate the verbs "rise(n)" and "loke(n)" in Infinitive, 1.SG.PRESENT, 1.SG.PAST, and Past Participle. Explain what makes them different from each other?
Infinitive: ris-e(n), lok-e(n)
1.SG.PRESENT: ris-eth, lok-eth
1.SG.PAST: ros, lok-e-de
Past Participle: y-ris-en, y-lok-en.
rise(n) is a strong verb and loke(n) is a weak verb.
Strong verbs change vowels when conjugated, whereas weak verbs do not change vowels when conjugated.
Analyze the syntactic structure in this sentence
(Define the elements)
“Thonked be God that is eterne on lyfe
Husbondes at chirche-doore I have had fyve
For so ofte have y-wedded be”
“Thonked be God that is eterne on lyfe
[ V. ] OBJ[rel. clause. ]
Husbondes at chirche-doore I have had fyve
[OBJ. ]S[ V. ]OBJ
For so ofte have y-wedded be”
[ ADV. ][ V. ]