MIDDLE ENGLISH

MORPHOLOGY
Lecture 2
The Middle English Verb
Present Indicative Mood
Pr Sg V Sg Pr Pl V Pl
I singe we singen
thou singest ye singen
sche singeth they singen

The phrase she singeth is used for she sings, I singe for I sing, etc. Notice that the plural forms all end in -en.
Infinitives also end in -en, like to singen rather than to sing.
When we talk about the past tense, we distinguish between strong verbs (like singen) and weak verbs
(like bathen). This is because preterite indicative verbs (actions that happened in the past) change their root
vowel and add fewer endings if they're strong, or add -d- or -t- and take more endings if they're weak:
 Strong Verbs in the Past Tense
Past Indicative Mood

Pr Sg V Sg Pr Pl V Pl
I sang/song we songe(n)
thou song(e) ye songe(n)
sche sang/song they songe(n)
Weak Verbs in the Past Tense
Past Indicative Mood

Pr Sg V Sg Pr Pl V Pl
I bathede we bathede(n)
thou bathedest ye bathede(n)
sche bathede they bathede(n)
Strong verbs include seen, knowen see, know, and nearly any other verb
that still changes (through "ablaut") its root vowel in Modern English. Weak
verbs are the majority, but other examples are loven, wende love, went.
1.The imperative mood uses a verb as a command. In the singular,
the bare verb occurs (sing!), while the plural ends in -(e)th
(singeth!).
2. Making conditional statements, or for other moods, modal
verbs are used as auxiliary or helping verbs: I shal singe, thou
mightest come, we sholde goon I will sing, you might come,
we should go.
3. The present participle ends in -ing or -inge (like bathinge). The
past participle of weak verbs ends in -d or -t, while strong verbs
modify their stem's vowel and take -e(n). Both weak and strong
past participles often take the prefix y- (like bathed or y-
sungen bathed, sung).
4. Thesubjunctive mood is found more frequently than in Modern
English. It occurs in contrary-to-fact statements. In the singular, we
find a form with -e (she singe she (may or may not) sing), while the
plural has -en (ye singen all of you (may or may not) sing).
5. Negative sentences use the particle ne before the verb and,
increasingly common in Chaucer's day, nat after the verb: I ne wol, I
wol nat I don't wish (to); he ne wot, he wot nat he didn't
know; tarieth nat! don't wait! It is quite common to
find ne contracted with the verb: nis (ne + is) isn't; not (ne +
wot) didn't know (from the verb witen to know (facts or
information)).
The Middle English Noun

1. Nouns in Middle English do not reflect the complex three-

gender system of Old English. They change to reflect singular
and plural number, typically by adding -s (dayes and
nightes days and nights) or -n (namen, yën names, eyes).
2. The possessive (genitive) case adds -s to nouns in the singular
(nominative day versus possessive daies day's). Some nouns
in -r and -s take no possessive ending (the father sone, Mars
ire the father's son, Mars' anger).
3.The dative case (used with some prepositions) traditionally
added endings to the Anglo Saxon noun. In Middle English,
these are mostly gone or reduced to a neutral shwa (like the "e"
in "angel"). For example, in the dative on myn lif on my life,
the noun looks the same as the plain (nominative case) form of
the noun in myn lif my life. Certain popular "dative
expressions" (fixed idiomatic expressions) retain the old dative
case, such as on lyfe alive or with childe with child.
4. The article the occurs alongside the noun in the same
situations as in Modern English: the father. The article an is
shortened to a, especially before a consonant: an father or a
father.
The Middle English Adjective

Adjectives in Middle English work much the same way

as they do in Modern English. These descriptive words
come before the noun they modify: yong sone young
son. There is a Germanic twist, though. As in German
and Icelandic, Middle English differentiates between
strong and weak adjectives.
Strong adjectives stand on their own before a noun, like
the yong in yong sone. They often do not have a final
-e (schwa sound).
3.Weak adjectives come between the article the, the
demonstratives (this, that, these, those) or a
possessive (his, Annes his, Anne's) and the modified
noun. Such adjectives have a final -e (schwa): the
yonge man and his sweete breeth the young man and
his sweet breath.
4. With plural nouns, it's far easier: adjectives generally
take -e, weak or strong (yonge sones, the yonge
children young sons, the young children).
The Middle English Pronoun

1.The first person singular ("I") is variously spelled i, ich, ih,

and is found capitalized as I from 1250. The objective
(accusative and dative case) form is the same as Modern
English: me. The possessive form myn, min may occur
without the -n, but takes a final -e when used with plural
nouns.
2. The second person singular is thou (older thu). The objective
(accusative and dative case) form is thee. The
possessive thyn is sometimes written without the -n, but
takes a final -e when used with a plural noun.
3. He, him, his appear virtually unchanged. She may also be
spelt sche, but we find hire rather than her and hir instead
of hers. The third person singular neuter (it, also found in the
older form hit) relates to the possessive his (not its!):
 ...Aprille with his shoures soote ...April, with its showers sweet.
4.The first person plural we, us, and oure are easy to understand.
In older texts, expect to find ure instead of oure.
5. The second person plural ("all of you") is ye, but we
find you as an object and possessive case your.
6. The third person plural ("they") has they as a subject,
but hem instead of them and hir for their.
The Middle English Adverb

Productive adverbs in Middle English tend to

end in -e or -ly/-liche. For example, Chaucer
uses brighte brightly and seurely surely.
Middle English Sentence Structure

1.The object and even the "rest of sentence" (adjuncts, prepositional

phrases) may precede the verb: Whan he his papir soghte when he
sought his paper.
2. In helping verb constructions (comparable to will buy or can go), the
helping verb and the main verb may be split by the object and even
the rest of the sentence: His maister shal it in his shoppe abye his
master will buy it in his shop.
3. One of the commonest examples of reversed word order is found
alongside quotations: quod he he said or quod I I said.
4. The famous first lines of the Canterbury Tales have the auxiliary and
main verb after the object but before the adjunct: Whan that
Aprille...the droghte of March hath perced to the roote When
April...has pierced the drought of March to the root.