Middle English

History

100

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

200

Many French stems have been combined with English affixes to produce new words. Provide an example. 

Gentleness

300

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.

Sound

100

How many diphthongs were there in ME?

6

200

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

300

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

Morphology

100

Name two reasons of morphological change of ME? (Provide detailed explanations for the change)

1) Language Contact (e.g. remember historical events during ME period...)

2) Phonological (e.g. weakening of unstressed syllables at the end of words...)

200

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.

300

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.

Syntax

100

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.  

200

Give examples of three conjunctions that were used in ME Subordination sentences. 

Yif, forþy, þat time þat

300

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.                  ]