Early Old English Nominal System: Synchronic Declensions in the Vespasian Psalter

Abstract

The study analyzes the Early Old English nominal system from a synchronic perspective, since a diachronic approach is unable to provide an accurate description of the language. The analysis is based on the full text of the Vespasian Psalter interlinear gloss. The nouns were grouped according to their inflectional endings, thus representing the synchronically functioning nominal system of Early Old English, contrary to the traditional, diachronic classification, which uses reconstructed stems to classify nouns. The Vespasian Psalter model is compared and contrasted with the latest 'classical' work on Old English, Hogg and Fulk's A Grammar of Old English. Volume 2: Morphology (2011), which also aims at presenting Old English from a synchronic perspective.

Reduced forms in the nominal morphology of the Lindisfarne Gospel Gloss. A case of accusative/dative syncretism?

“…In fact, Hogg and Fulk (2011) offer both the traditional diachronic and a synchronic classification of the Old English nominal declensional system, although for the latter they also resort to etymology in order to explain the allomorphic variation present in the different paradigms. Similarly, Kolasinska's (2013) study of the nominal system of the gloss to the Vespasian Psalter classifies nouns from a synchronic perspective according to their inflectional endings. 6 Although we agree with Krygier (2002) that etymology is not an adequate criterion for a synchronic analysis of Old English, we prefer to keep the traditional classification, along with Hogg and Fulk (2011), as this is relevant when it comes to identifying the different types of syncretism we are dealing with (intraparadigmatic and interparadigmatic).…”

“…Among the numerous studies on the morphosyntax of the gloss areLea (1894), Füchsel (1901), Carpenter (1910,Ross (1937), and Berndt (1956. More recent studies on the gloss includePons-Sanz (2000, 2004, 2013,Hogg (2004),Cole (2014), Fernández Cuesta andPons- Sanz (2016),Gameson (2017), andRodríguez Ledesma (2018). 2 See alsoBlake (1994: 171).…”