Seminar 6

1.Word structure in PG (in comparison with PIE)

2. The noun in PG and its morphological categories.
2.1 Vocalic stems.
2.2 Consonantal stems.
2.3 Root stems.
Answer
1.Word structure in PG (in comparison with PIE).

Originally, in Early PG the word consisted of three main component parts: the root, the
stem-suffix and the grammatical ending. The stem-suffix was a means of word derivation,
the ending – a marker of the grammatical form. In Late PG the old stem-suffixes lost their
derivational force and merged with other components of the word, usually with the
endings. The word was simplified: the three-morpheme structure was transformed into a
two-morpheme structure. The simplification of the word structure and the loss of stem-
suffixes as distinct components were caused by the heavy Germanic word stress fixed on
the root. Most nouns and adjectives in PG, and also many verbs, had stem-forming
suffixes; according to stem-suffixes they fell into groups, or classes: a-stems, i-stems, o-
stems. This grouping accounts for the formation of different declensions in nouns and
adjectives, and for some differences in the conjugation of verbs.
2. The noun in PG and its morphological categories.

The original reconstructed structure of noun in PG as in other Indo-European languages

included three main morphological components: root, stem-forming suffix (which made
up a stem) and inflection. In addition, the stress was movable. The root rendered lexical
meaning; stem-forming suffix was placed between root and inflection. Later the stem-
suffix merged with other components of the word (inflection) and the three-morpheme
structure was transformed into a two-morpheme structure: stem and Inflexion with fixed
stress on the first root syllable in the stem.
Neither of Indo-European languages preserved words with an ideal three-component
structure.
In Gothic, as in the oldest periods of the other Germanic languages, nouns are divided into
three classes.
On the basis of former stem-building suffixes most scholars distinguish strong and weak
declensions of PG nouns.
1) Strong Declension includes declension of nouns with vocalic stems, namely:-a-,-ō-,-
i-,-u stem nouns.
Consequently, strong declension distinguishes the following types of declension in PG
languages:
a- stems ( with ja- and wa- subtypes);
ō- stems ( with jō- and wō- subtypes);
i- stemsu- stems
(the strong declension includes nouns with stems (-a, -o(long), -i, -u) which are often
called vocalic)
2) Weak Declension comprises only declension of -n- stem nouns.
(the weak declension comprises nouns with the stem originally ending in n-stem only)
3) Minor types of declension include small groups of nouns with consonantal stems,
namely: r- stems, s- stems, nt- stems, as well as a group of so-called root-stem
nouns.
The classification of PG nouns into a- stems, ō- stems, etc, rested upon the ancient.
Indo-European grouping of nouns according to stem-forming suffixes.
Stem-forming suffixes consisted of vowels (a, o, i, etc), or consonants (n, r, etc), or sound
sequences (ja, nd).
Some nouns had no stem-forming suffixes and therefore were termed root-stem nouns.
(the minor declensions (r-stems, s-stem, nd-stems) which called consonantal)
(the root-stem declension in which the ending is added not to be suffix but to the root
immediately)
Word in Indo-European languages consisted of three morphemes, it had a three-morpheme
structure: root + stem-forming suffix + ending.
This word-structure is preserved in two cases of the Gothic language, Dative plural and
Accusative plural.
Above-mentioned can be illustrated by some examples from the Gothic language.

In Old English Indo-European three-morpheme structure was reduced to two: root

+ending.
The former stem-forming suffix merged either with the root, or the ending, or in some
cases it acquired a new grammatical function and developed into a grammatical ending
itself(as is the case with the weak declension of nouns).
Former Indo-European stem-forming suffix has left many traces in modern Indo-European
languages.
Some examples from Russian:
пламя – пламе-н-и (n- stem)
племя – племе-н-и (n- stem)
чудо – чуде-с-а (s- stem)
мать – мате-р-и (r- stem)
дочь – доче-р-и (r- stem)
Another reason which accounts for the division of nouns into numerous declensions is
their grouping according to gender.
OE nouns distinguished three genders: Masc., Fem, and Neut.
Though originally a semantic division, gender in OE was not always associated with the
meaning of nouns.
Sometimes a derivational suffix referred a noun to a certain gender and placed it into a
certain semantic group.
The division into genders was in a certain way connected with the division into stems,
though there was no direct correspondence between them: some stems were represented by
nouns of one particular gender, e. g. o-stems were always Fem, others embraced nouns of
two or three genders.
Other reasons accounting for the division into declensions were structural and phonetic:
monosyllabic nouns had certain peculiarities as compared to polysyllabic; monosyllables
with a long root-syllable (that is, containing a long vowel plus a consonant or a short
vowel plus two consonants – also called “long-stemmed” nouns) differed in some forms
from nouns with a short syllable (short-stemmed nouns).

2.1 Vocalic stems.

Strong Declension includes declension of nouns with vocalic stems, namely: -a-, -ō-, -i-,-
u- stem nouns. Consequently, strong declension dinstinguishes the following types of
declension in Old Germanic languages: a- stems ( with ja- and wa- subtypes);
ō- stems ( with jō- and wō- subtypes); i- stems
and u- stems
a-stems included Masc. and Neut. nouns. About one third of OE nouns were Masc.
a-stems, e. g. cniht (NE knight), ham (NE home); examples of Neut. nouns are: lim
(NElimb), hus (NE house)

Note should be taken of the inflections -es of the Gen. sg. and -as of the Nom. pl. Towards
the end of the OE period they began to be added to an increasing number of nouns, which
originally belonged to other stems. These inflections are the prototypes and sources of the
Mod E ‘s of the Possessive case and -(e)s and -s markers of the plural. Neut. a-stems
differed from Masc. in the plural of the Nom. and Acc. cases. Instead of-as they took -u
for short stems (that is nouns with a short root-syllable) and did not add any inflection in
the long-stemmed variant. This peculiarity of Neut. a-stems goes back to some phonetic
changes in final unaccented syllables which have given rise to an important grammatical
feature: an instance of regular homonymy or neutralisation of number distinctions in the
noun paradigm.

(основи на –ja та –wa відмвнювалися аналогічно)

For this class of nouns, such герм. and іє. ends are reconstructed:
vowel stems -a- in germ. languages are well preserved only in Знахідому and Давальному
plural cases in Gothic. Replacement of the vowel stems -a- with other vowels (o/u) caused
either by the influence of u-stems, or by the influence of the labial -m-, which caused the
labialization of -a- -- its transition to -om / -um.

Називний and Знахідний cases the same. For Називного singular case reconstruct germ.
form * wurda (n); (-an <ie. * -om); and for Називного plural case * wurdo (o <ie. a).
Vocative, nominative and accusative, had identical endings.
Stems on -wa- and -ja- basically coincides with ‘’clear’’ stems on -a-
According to the Sievers' law (Закон Зіверса), after a short syllable the ending included
the indicator -jа, and after a long syllable - -ija.

o-stems were all Fem., so there was no further subdivision according to gender. The
variants with -jo- and -wo- decline like pure o-stems except that -w- appears before some
endings. The difference between short- and long-stemmed o-stems is similar to that
between respective a-stems: after a short syllable the ending -u is retained, after a long
syllable it is dropped
For this class of nouns, such герм. and іє. ends are reconstructed:

The difference between -jo- and -wo- is not significant differed from the cancellation of
-o-. However, Sievers' law also applied. Therefore, in Називному singular in Goth. bandi
«окови» fixed -i, and in banja «рана» -ja (bandi - long-term formation; banja -short).
The other vocalic stems, i-stems and u-stems, include nouns of different genders.
Division into genders breaks up i-stems into three declensions. Comparison of the i-stems
with a-stems reveals many similarities. It appears that Masc. i-stems adopted some forms
from Masc. a-stems, while Neut. i-stems were more likely to follow the pattern of Neut. a-
stems; as for Fem. i-stems, they resembled o-stems
For this class of nouns, such герм. and іє. ends are reconstructed:
For this class of nouns, such герм. and іє. ends are reconstructed:

In case to -u-, there are differences in endings after short-syllable and long-syllable stems.
After the long-syllable stems, the vowel -u- disappeared in nominative and accusative
singular.
In all cases where the endings include the vowel -i- (or -j-), the root vowel is subject to
umlaut (except Gothic)
Thus, in PG languages there is an intense disintegration of nouns stems on -u- and the
transition of these nouns to other morphological classes.
2.2-Consonantal stems
OE pronouns fell roughly under the same main classes as modern pronouns:
personal, demonstrative, interrogative and indefinite. Some scholars (e.g. Boris Ilyish)
distinguish also possessive, definite, negative and relative pronouns in OE. The
grammatical categories of the pronouns were either similar to those of nouns (in "nouns-
pronouns") or corresponded to those of adjectives (in "adjective-pronouns").
a) Personal Pronouns.
In OE, as in Gothic, there were besides singular and plural personal pronouns,
also dual pronouns for the 1st and 2nd persons.
Declension of personal pronouns Table 2
1st person

Case singular dual plural

Nom. ic wit wē
Gen. mīn uncer ūre, ūser
Dat. mē unc ūs
Acc. mec, mē uncit ūsic, ūs
(NE I, me) (≈ NE we both, us (NE we, us)
both)

2nd person

Nom. þū 3it 3ē
Gen. þīn incer ēower
Dat. þē inc ēow
Acc. þēc, þē incit, inc ēowic, ēow
(NE you) (NE you both) (NE you)

3rd person

singular plural

MFN All genders

Nom. hē hēo, hīo hit hīe, hī, hý, hēo

Gen. his hire, hiere his hira, heora, hiera, hyra
Dat. him hire, hiere him him, heom
Acc. hine hīe, hī, hý hit hīe, hī, hý, hēo
(NE he, him) (she, her) (it) (NE they, them)

b) Demonstrative Pronouns.
There were 2 demonstrative pronouns in OE. The first one was the prototype of NE that,
which distinguished 3 genders in the sg ( Nom. M sē, se; N þæt; F sēo) and had 1 form for
all the genders in the pl (þā). The second one was the prototype of this with the same
subdivisions: M. þes, F þēos, N þis and þās pl.
c) Other Classes of Pronouns.
Interrogative pronouns– hwā, Masc. and Fem., and hwæt, Neut., - had a four-case
paradigm (NE who, what).The Instr. Case of hwat was used as a separate interrogative
word hwý (NE why).
Indefinite pronounswere a numerous class embracing several simple pronouns and a
large number of compounds. For instance, ān and its derivatives ǽni3 (NE one, any); nān,
made up of ān and the negative particle ne (NE none); nānþin3, made up of the preceding
the noun þing (NE nothing).
2.3- Root and stem
Words are made up of roots, bases, stems, derivational endings, inflectional endings, and
occasionally clitics. Not everyone agrees on these forms or on the names of them. This
includes Katamba.
If we include base-extenders (stem-extenders_ as some kind of near-morph or submorph,
then a root is that part of a word from which all affixes and stem-extenders have been
removed. A root differs partially from a stem in that a stem must have lexical meaning. A
root has no lexical meaning and the semantic range of the root is vague if there is any at
all. A stem may contain derivational affixes.
Consider the following nouns, adjectives and verbs in English:
car, book, buy, sell, eat, type, run, play, dog, cat, mouse, Ú .
None of these wordforms contains an affix. They are, therefore, roots. Each wordfrom in
the same set is also a stem. Each form has lexical meaning. Here, they are coterminously a
root and a stem.
Roots are also bases. A base may contain affixes, a root cannot:
car, book, buy, etc. are roots and stems.
 
1. pre-fer, in-sip, in-sip-id, chick+en, re-bel, de-lay are bases only.
Consider the verb defer. There is no verb stem *fer. Fer is a verbal root. It is found in
refer, infer, prefer, differ, prefer, offer. The forms to the left of -fer are prefixes which
cannot occur in isolation. Even these prefixes do not have a fixed lexical meaning. In a
tree structured form, these verbs are composed of a prefix and a root. Together this forms a
stem; the category is inherent in the stem:
1. rig-id, rig-our
2. frig-id, re-frig-er-ate
3. splend-our, splend-id
4. cand-our, cand-id
5. val-id, val+our
6. putr-id, putr-ify
7. com-ic, com-edy (cf: rem-edy