Middle English

adjective and adverb

 Middle English adjectives
The declension system of adjectives in ME changed
greatly. An adjective is a dependent part of speech. In OE
adjectives were inflected for case, number and gender
agreeing with the noun they modified. In ME the
simplification of the declension system of nouns led to the
simplification of the declension of adjectives. The weak
declension of adjectives lost its characteristic ending « -en
». But almost up to the end of the Middle English period
the adjective kept the ending -e by means of which the
archaic reference to the weak and the category of number
(in the strong declension) was expressed.

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The whole system of declension of adjectives looked in ME as the
following:
strong weak

N, Gen., D., A. gõd - gõde, young - younge (singular)

N., Gen., D., A. gõde - gõde, younge - younge (plural)

But some of the adjectives had the very ending -e as a result of

levelling of the vowels at the end, and so such adjectives as grene
were already unchangeable; in the plural the .strong and the weak
forms also coincided.

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The degrees of comparison
were formed by means of the
suffix «-er» for comparative
degree, «-est» for superlative
degree (instead of the OE «-
ra», «-ost»):
gret - gretter - grettest
glad - gladder – gladdest
Some adjectives retained a
mutated vowel they had had in
Old English:
old - elder - eldest
long - lenger - lengest
strong - stregner -strengest
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Some of the adjectives formed
the degrees of comparison of
different roots:
good - bettre - best
evil (bad) - werse - werst
muchel - more — most,mest
litel - lasse — lest
At the end of the ME period there
appeared the analytical means of
forming the degrees of comparison,
that is, with the help of the words
«more» and «most». It appeared as
manifestation of the general
tendency in the development of the
grammatical structure of the English
language - the tendency to the
development of analytism. The Old
French language in which the
degrees of comparison of adjectives
were built analytically also had
impact on the development.

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 Both the synthetic and the analytic
formation of the degrees of
comparison of adjectives were
used in Middle English with the
monosyllabic as well as with the
polysyllabic stems. Thus, the
adjective fayr ‘fair’ could have
forms fayrer, fayrest or more fayr,
most fayr. Likewise the adjective
beautiful ‘beautiful’ could have
forms beautifuler, beautifulest or
more beautiful, most beautiful.

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In the Middle English language a special
group of words semantically close to
adjectives began to grow - statives. The
words of this group were composed of the
prefix a- (from Old English on-) and a
substantive stem, e.g.: afered ‘afraid’,
alyve ‘alive’, aslepe ‘asleep’. Later the
statives began to be used only in the
predicative function.In the Middle English
language a special group of words
semantically close to adjectives began to
grow - statives. The words of this group
were composed of the prefix a- (from Old
English on-) and a substantive stem, e.g.:
afered ‘afraid’, alyve ‘alive’, aslepe
‘asleep’. Later the statives began to be
used only in the predicative function.

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 Middle English adverbs

In the Middle English language

there remains the way of
forming adverbs from
adjectives by adding the suffix
«-e» or «-ly»:
bright - brighte,
clene - clene,
Fast-faste,
special - specially,
thrifty - thriftily,
newe - newely.

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 The Middle English adverb had
degrees of comparison.
The degrees of comparison of
adverbs were also formed by
means of suffix «-er», «-est»:
gretly - gretter - grettest

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 Adverbs

In a few adverbs mutation is
preserved:
longe - lenger - lengest
A few adverbs preserve suppletive
degrees of comparison:
muchel - much mõ, more - mõst
litel - lasse - lēst
In ME phrases of the type «more,
most + adverb» appear.
Some special degrees of
comparison
little - lasse - lest
well - bet, bettre - best

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