Final Assessment Questions on “Theoretical phonetics” Card-1 Connection of Phonetics with Other Sciences

2.Old English Grammar. Adjective and Adverb. To recap, Old English adjectives have inflectional endings based on their case, number, gender, and whether they are weak or strong. Adjectives can be either strong or weak, and this depends on whether the adjective follows a demonstrative pronoun or possessive adjective. Examine 'god' in these two sentences: 'Þæt wæs god cyning - That was a good king' and 'se goda cyning onfeng him - the good king received him'.Weak Adjectives are used when they are situated between a demonstrative pronoun or possessive pronoun and the noun they are modifying. For example, in the sentence 'se goda cyning onfeng him - the good king received him', the adjective 'god' is modifying 'cyning' which is modified by the demonstrative 'se'. This means 'god' is weak. Most weak adjective endings are 'an', but the masculine nominative singular can be recognised by the suffix 'a', the feminine and neuter nominative and the neuter accusative end in 'e', the genitive plural ends in 'ra' or 'ena', and the dative plural ends in 'um'. Strong AdjectivesStrong adjectives are used when they modify nouns without any demonstrative or possessive pronoun, or when they follow a linking verb (when they are used as predicative adjectives). For example, in the sentence 'Þæt wæs god cyning - That was a good king', even though the sentence has the demonstrative 'Þæt', 'god' is modifying 'cyning', which is not modified by a demonstrative. Comparatives and Superlatives remain similar to modern English with comparatives containing an 'r' after the stem but before the suffix, and superlatives gaining the suffix '-ost'. For example, 'heardra - harder' and 'heardost - hardest'. There are also four irregular adjectives: 'god - good', 'micel - many/large', 'lytel - little/few' and 'yfel - evil/bad', which should be recognisable from the modern English equivalents.Adverbs are words that modify verbs: 'the dog quickly runs'; adjectives: 'the dog is very big'; or other adverbs: 'the dog barked very loudly'. In Old English, adverbs come in two main types: those that are formed from other words and standalone adverbs. For example, the sentence: 'Se hund gæþ hrædlice forþ to þæm huse - The dog goes quickly forth to the house' has two adverbs modifying the verb: 'hrædlice - quickly' and 'forþ - forwards'. The adverb 'hrædlice' comes from the adjective 'hræd' while 'forþ' is a standalone adverb. The first type of adverb is formed by adding '-e', '-lice', or -unga to the end of an existing noun or adjective. For example, 'wid - wide' becomes 'wide - widely', 'georn - eager' becomes 'geornlice - eagerly', 'eall - all' becomes 'eallunga - entirely/completely', and 'derne - secret' becomes 'dernunga - secretly'.There is no hard rule for which adverbs take which ending, or which adverbs do not take an ending. Simply be aware if you see '-lice' or '-unga' at the end of the word, it is an adverb. Adverbs are generally placed directly before or after the word they are modifying which makes them slightly easier to identify.