Anna Engel & Angela Herrmann

TASK 1

Relate the terms tense, mood, number, person, gender or case to the categories verb and noun. Multiple answers are possible.

TASK 2

What can inflection in the English language indicate?
Noun:

Verb:

TASK 3

Find at least five more uncountable nouns.

Task 4

In the passages below, identify each lexical word which is a noun. Please underline them. Example: Here’s the screw driver.

1) Bring me my tool box.

2) I guess I should put on shoes.

3) We take it as a challenge to integrate in a natural way the newest discoveries of plate tectonics, marine geology, geochemistry and geophysics.

4) You have to take off the light fixture.

5) Just take a screwdriver and take those off.

TASK 5

1. What is the ‘automatic’ tactical adjustment?

2. Please explain the term sonorants.

3. What changes preceded to establish the modern pattern of three way grouping of {s}?

TASK 6

Write down one to three further pronouns of each class.

TASK 7

Please explain the difference in use between T and V at the French court.

TASK 8

Which situations are indicated by you, which ones by thou in the seventeenth century?

Task 9

Relate the verbs to the appropriate attributes strong, weak, transitive, intransitive: to live, to write, to eat, to go, to read, to talk, to smell, to run, to die, to laugh, to think, to believe, to cry, to sing.

Task 10

Conjugate the Old English verb feallan for indicative present and indicative past. Can you imagine the meaning of the verb?

TASK 11

The following text is an extract from Beowulf, the Old English and a modern version. Find out the verb forms in both texts. It is possible that in one version occur more verbs than in the other text. Explain, why this happens.

Swa se ðeodkyning þeawum lyfde. Nealles ic ðam leanum forloren hæfde, mægnes mede, ac he me maðmas geaf, sunu Healfdenes, on minne sylfes dom; ða ic ðe, beorncyning, bringan wylle, estum geywan. Gen is eall æt ðe lissa gelong; ic lyt hafo heafodmaga nefne, Hygelac, ðec."

"SO held this king to the customs old, that I wanted for nought in the wage I gained, the meed of my might; he made me gifts, Healfdene's heir, for my own disposal. Now to thee, my prince, I proffer them all, gladly give them. Thy grace alone can find me favor. Few indeed have I of kinsmen, save, Hygelac, thee!"

Task 12

The Middle English verb hēlen (‘to heal’) is a weak verb whereas helpen (‘to help’) is a strong verb. Both hēlen and helpen are typical examples for the development from Old English to Middle English. Conjugate both verbs in full.

Task 13

The following text is taken from Sir Philip Sidney’s Old Arcadia (1584-86).

1 Write down all 3rd person singular present tense forms, except of to be, and fill in the table below. Write down the number of occurrences of the endings –s and –th and calculate the relative percentage. If there does, for example, no has occur, the percentage for hath as form from have is 100.

In how far does this example support or contradict the preceding comments?