{"id":438,"date":"2021-08-12T22:32:31","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T22:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/?page_id=438"},"modified":"2024-02-06T18:44:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T18:44:52","slug":"adjectives","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/chaucers-language\/adjectives\/","title":{"rendered":"Adjectives and Adverbs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"adjectives\">Adjectives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Middle English inflection of adjectives is much simpler than the system in Old English. The only difference between adjectival forms involve the use of final <em>\u2013<\/em>e. There are two fundamental principles for such use: adjectives in what is known as the \u201cweak\u201d declension add -e after definite articles; genitives; and before nouns in the vocative case (the case used for direct address: \u2018O blinde world, O blinde entencioun!\u2019) (TC 1.211). Adjectives of the \u201cstrong\u201d declension do not add -e (\u2018A yong knight\u2019). All adjectives add -e in the plural (\u2018Two yonge knightes\u2019).\u00a0 The following rules govern these differences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Adjectives are weak:<\/strong> after a determiner (definite article, genitive pronoun, or noun); in direct address<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong><strong>Adjectives are strong:<\/strong> <\/strong>without a determiner; or in the predicate adjective position, i.e., \u201cthe man is old\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"block-5717c4fe-b3dd-47d8-b7c8-4debb44b5629\"><strong>Comparative Adjectives<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-b7d828ab-5152-4c6d-9d5c-f31ede0fcff4\">Comparative and superlative adjectives generally add -er and -est to the stem, as in the first set of examples here. There are also irregular forms which we largely retain in modern English :<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-stripes\"><table class=\"has-black-color has-cool-grey-background-color has-text-color has-background\"><thead><tr><th><\/th><th>Positive<\/th><th><strong>Comparative<\/strong><\/th><th><strong>Superlative<\/strong><\/th><th><strong>Translation<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Regular<\/strong><\/td><td>strong<\/td><td>stronger<\/td><td>strongest<\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td>grete<\/td><td>gretter<\/td><td>grettest<\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Irregular<\/strong><\/td><td>good<\/td><td>bet<\/td><td>best<\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td>muche(l)<\/td><td>mo<\/td><td>meste<\/td><td>(many, more, most)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td>lyte(l)<\/td><td>lasse\/lesse<\/td><td>leeste<\/td><td>(small, smaller, smallest)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:16px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"adverbs\">Adverbs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most Middle English adverbs are formed by adding -e to an adjective (<em>faire, faste, hoote, lowe<\/em>). Words borrowed from the French add -ly, -li (<em>playnly<\/em>); and words of Germanic origins add -liche (<em>rudeliche<\/em>). \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adjectives The Middle English inflection of adjectives is much simpler than the system in Old English. The only difference between adjectival forms involve the use of final \u2013e. There are two fundamental principles for such use: adjectives in what is known as the \u201cweak\u201d declension add -e after definite articles; genitives; and before nouns in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"parent":1034,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/sidebar-left.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-438","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1837,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/438\/revisions\/1837"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}