3rd p. pronouns she and they

8/3/2019 3rd p. Pronouns She and They

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Catching upFrom OE to ME:

threefold twofold number distinction: dualpronouns are lost;

Four cases Three cases (syncretismaccusative/dative): dative forms of pronouns tend toassimilate accusative forms;

in the neutral pronoun, the tendency goes in the

opposite direction: the accusative (hit) assimilates thedative (him) to avoid losing the distinction animate-inanimate present in pronouns (amiguity withmasculine)


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In ME the system of personal pronouns for the 1st and 2ndpersons looks like this:

What about 3rd person pronouns?

ME 1st p. 2nd ps.

Sg. S. ich/ik/i/y u/thou

O. me e/thee

Poss. mi(n) i(n)

Pl. S. we e/ye

O. us eu/ou/ou/you

Poss. our(e) oure/youre

Catching up


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Problem solvingAfter the changes undergone in the course of the MEperiod, two oppositions become relevant for pronominalmorphology:

(a) Animate (masc. / fem.) vs. Inanimate (ANIMACY)

(b) Singular vs. Plural (NUMBER)

For this reason, any movement towards lack ofdistinctiveness in these areas had to be remedied.

This is exactly what will happen in the course of theME period with the 3rd p. sg. masc. and fem. andnominative plural forms.


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OE 3rd p. pronounsSg. Masc. Fem. N.

Nom. he heo hit

Gen. his hire his

Acc. hine hie hit

Dat. him hire him

Pl.

Nom. hie

Gen. hira/heora

Acc. hie

Dat. him/heom

3

rd

p. sg. masc. and fem. and 3

rd

p. pl. nom. pronouns were very similar in formi n OE (he, heo, and hie), with the obvious risk of homonymy, especially inreduced-stress contexts, where pronouns are frequently to be found. Homonymic clash The Owl and the Nightingale (13th c. Southern) he mayrepresent either he or she, while hi may be both feminine and plural, nominativeand accusative.

Reaction of the system: systemic regulation adoption of new distinctiveforms for the fem. sg. and 3rd p. pl.


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The ME equivalent of the OE feminine pronoun heo was he in

most dialects. This implies that, in most cases, there was noformal distinction between masculine and feminine, and evenplural (ambiguity). And the other dialectal forms (hy, heo)were not ideal for the purpose either.

Therefore, some kind of systemic regulation is necessary andin this case the language opted for the adoption of a newfeminine form, the ancestor of PDE she.

The origin of the form she is one of the unsolved puzzles ofthe history of English. Many different theories have been putforward in order to account for the origin of this form, butthere is not a general agreement as to where the form comesfrom.


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Origin ofshe so nom.sg.fem. of theOE determiner (se, so, t) According to an early view, she descends from the nom. sg. fem. of the

determiner so, via stress shift and later palatalization.

First, stress shift transforms the falling diphthong into a rising diphthong(Scandinavian influence): [seo] > [seo]

Then non-syllabic/unaccented [e] is reduced to [j], and the vowel [o] islengthened: [seo] > [sjo:]

Finally, the cluster [sj] undergoes palatalisation into [S], giving place to theform [So:], which is found in some ME texts.

So, [seo] > [seo] > [sjo:] > [So:]

This development would yield scho and similar forms, but not she. Theemergence of the vowel /e/ can be explained by analogy with themasculine form he .

PROBLEM:

The formso

seems to have died out before the emergence ofshe.


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Origin ofshe ho 3rd p. sg. fem. pronoun:the Shetland theory A more likely account is the so-called Shetland-theory, since it assumes

for she a development parallel to that found in the placename Shetland [heo] >[hjo:] (from falling to rising diphthong).

EVIDENCE:

The change from a falling to a rising diphthong can be accounted forby means of Scandinavian influence (in OE most diphthongs werefalling, whereas in ON they were rising). This is a case of systemicregulation, because the choice of the rising diphthong was necessaryto distinguish the masculine and the feminine forms.

This development is also present in words like OE cosan > PDEchoose (and not *cheese).


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Origin ofshe ho 3rd p. sg. fem.pronoun: the Shetland theory In the course of time, the cluster [hj- is replaced by [-.

EVIDENCE:

In many ModE dialects have the sound [-] for /hj-/ in words like

hue, human.The existence of an intermediate stage represented by the spellingsheo, ho, he, which are found just for a short period of time. Theseforms did not survive long, probably because [] was a marginalphoneme.

The fricative [ only existed in final position in OE (e.g. niht), so that itwas rather unstable in initial position. For this reason, it was replaced bythe common and acoustically similar [-.

EVIDENCE: This is a very common change in Germanic languagesand is exemplified by Present-day Scots Shug for Hugh, and

placenames like Shap < heap and Shetland< Hjaltland.


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Origin ofshe ho 3rd p. sg. fem.pronoun: the Shetland theory

Therefore, after these changes, the form became [o:.

As in the preceding hypothesis, the vowel /e:/ isaccounted for as an analogical transfer from themasculine.

So, [heo] > [heo] > [hjo:] > [o:] > [So:] > [Se:]

The main advantage of this theory is that there ishistorical evidence for all changes.


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Forms for she in late Middle English


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NORTHERN AREA

Abundance of modern forms: scho, sche, she

Alternation of digraph and trigraph Alternation of vowels /o:/ and /e:/.

/o:/ more abundant in the North

SOUTHERN AREA

Abundance of old forms he(o), hy. The change has achieved this area,but the older forms are still preferred in the 15th c.

Evidence of transitional forms heo, eo, he representing the sound[]. These spellings are transitional forms geographically (diatopically)and chronologically (diachronically), because [] in initial position wasunstable and consequently replaced by [].

The h- spellings also appear in the West-Midlands area, with veryconservative dialects, probably because the scribans

North: complete Sc. paradigm; Midl.: mixed paradigm; South:

native paradigm


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In OE the singular and plural pronouns were easily

distinguishable: he, heo (sg.) and hie (pl.), and verbs were alsomarked for number: -e /eT/(sg.) and a /aT/(pl.).

In ME the distinction between pronouns is lost (rememberhomonymic clash in he) and verbs also lose their inflectionsbecause of the instability of unstressed vowels: -e and -a >/@T/.

With the loss of verbal inflections, pronouns become the onlyway to mark the formal distinction between singular and plural.

The problem was solved by borrowing the Scandinavian set of

plural pronouns (and verb endings were also changed in somedialects Unit7)


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Hie/heora/heom they/their/ them

The replacement of the OE 3rd p. pl. pronouns hie / heora / heomby the Scandinavian pronouns they / their / them constitutesone of the rare cases in the history of any language of theborrowing of a primary grammatical item (Strang, B. 1970. A

History of the English Language. London. Routledge: 266)Why? Because the linguistic situation needs to be very close in

order to borrow part of the so-called CORE VOCABULARY.

In the course of the ME period and part of the eModE period, the

OE 3rd p. pl. pronouns were replaced by Scandinavian forms:they < ON eirtheir < ON eirathem < ON eim


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In the ME period there are three different paradigmsfor the 3rd person plural pronouns were attested:

1) Complete native paradigm (onlyh-forms):

2) Mixed paradigm (both th- and h-forms)

stage 1: Sc. nom.+ native poss. and obl.

stage 2: Sc. nom. and poss. + native obl.

3) Complete Scandinavian paradigm (onlyth-forms)


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The Scandinavian forms were not borrowed all at once: it took at least400 years for the new paradigm to be established in the language.

The replacement of native h-forms by the new Scandinavian formstook place first in areas of dense Scandinavian settlement and thenspread southwards across the country.

Northern dialects show a complete Scandinavian paradigm by the early13th century. E.g. Ormulum (c. 1200, NEMid) shows the whole series,

though in the oblique Scandinavianem coexists with native hemm. In the remaining dialects Scandinavian pronouns spread more slowlywith the following sequence: nominative possessive oblique.

This means that the change was not only gradual in time andgeographically, but also within the paradigm.

In the London dialect, the evolution of the 3rd p. pl. pronouns looks likefollows as shown by evidence from different sources:

14th c. (Chaucer) 15th c. (Caxton) 16th c. (Shakespeare)

they they they

hire their their

hem hem them


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Forms for they in late Middle English


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In the late ME period,

The Scandinavian pronoun is widely spread in theNorth with several variants: they, ey, e, ei, ai

In the southern areas, the prevalent form is the nativeone. The Scandinavian forms have already reached thearea, but they have not displaced the native ones. Thechange will not be completed until the EModE period.

In the area of London, we already find the

Scandinavian brought by immigrants from the Northand the Midlands.

3rd p. pronouns she and they

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