Nouns, Verbs, and Sentences
98-348: Lecture 2 Nouns, verbs and sentences 98-348: Lecture 2 Any questions about the homework? Everyone read one word
• Þat var snimma í ǫndverða bygð goðanna, þá er goðin hǫfðu sett Miðgarð ok gǫrt Valhǫ́ll, þá kom þar smiðr nǫkkurr ok bauð at gøra þeim borg á þrim misserum svá góða at trú ok ørugg væri fyrir bergrisum ok hrímþursum, þótt þeir kœmi inn um Miðgarð; en hann mælti sér þat til kaups, at hann skyldi eignask Freyju, ok hafa vildi hann sól ok mána. How do we build sentences with words?
• English • The king slays the serpent. • The serpent slays the king. • OI • Konungr vegr orm. king slays serpent (What does this mean?) • Orm vegr konugr. serpent slays king (What does this mean?) How do we build sentences with words?
• English • The king slays the serpent. • The serpent slays the king. They have the • OI same meaning! • Konungr vegr orm. But why? king slays serpent ‘The king slays the serpent.’ • Orm vegr konugr. serpent slays king ‘The king slays the serpent.’ Different strategies to mark subjects/objects
• English uses word order: (whatever noun) slays (whatever noun)
This noun is a subject! This noun is a subject! • OI uses inflection: konung r konung
This noun is a subject! This noun is an object! Inflection
• Words change their forms to encode information. • This happens in a lot of languages! • English: • the kid one kid • the kids more than one kid • We say that English nouns inflect for number, i.e. English nouns change forms based on what number they have. • The suffix –s marks nouns as plural.
• What about other languages? Inflection in OI
• Remember: • konungr with r ”king” as a subject konung no r ”king” as an object
• If we say English nouns inflect for number, what do OI nouns inflect for? Case
Property Property Weight Number
Value Value 60kg Singular konungr Property Property Height Case
Value Value 170cm Nominative Forms of konungr ”king” in all 4 cases of OI
• Nominative case konungr • Dative case konungi • Genitive case konungs • Accusative case konung or konung-∅
• The suffixes r, i, s and the empty suffix (∅) are case-markers • The names of these cases are pretty arbitrary, we could have called them Case 1, Case 2, … What are these cases used for?
• Nominative: for subjects Accusative: for objects • Konungr vegr orm. king[NOM] slays serpent[ACC] ‘The king slays the serpent.’ • Which one is in the nominative? Accusative? • Dative: for indirect objects • Dvergr gefr konungi brand dwarf[NOM] gives king[DAT] sword[ACC] ’The dwarf gives the sword to the king.’ • Translates roughly to English ”to …” What are these cases used for?
• Genitive: indicate possession • konungr noregs king[NOM] Norway[GEN] ‘king of Norway’
• The possessor is in the genitive, not the possessee! The beginner’s vocabulary list
• All of the listed nouns follow the same inflectional paradigm:
• Nominative Stem + r hestr • Genitive Stem + s hests • Dative Stem + i hesti • Accusative Stem hest
• Also contains a few verbs Practice!
Endings álfr “elf” hjálmr “helmet” knífr “knife” Nominative r Genitive s Dative i Accusative Translate!
1. Draugr sér álf. 2. Hest á konungr. 3. Álfr gefr baug dvergi. 4. Ormr Sigurðs vegr hest Óláfs. 5. Hjálm Hauks á Tyrfingr. Translate! a. The horse sees the wolf. b. The king takes the knife. c. The dwarf slays the ghost. d. The dwarf gives the sword to the elf. e. Tyrfing’s hawk kills Olaf’s serpent. Inflection for number
• a king vs. kings Singular Plural Nominative konungr konungar • konungr vs. konungar Genitive konungs konunga Dative konungi konungum • Our inflection paradigm is now a Accusative konung konunga combination of case and number Singular Plural Nominative r ar Genitive s a Dative i um Accusative a Practice!
Endings Singular Plural dvergr “dwarf” Singular Plural Nominative r ar Nominative Genitive s a Genitive Dative i um Dative Accusative a Accusative
úlfr “wolf” Singular Plural haukr “hawk” Singular Plural Nominative Nominative Genitive Genitive Dative Dative Accusative Accusative Translate!
1. brandar Sigurds a. the king’s rings 2. Hesta konunga sér draugr. b. The hawk takes the knife. 3. Tyrfingr gefr úlfum hjálma. c. Hauk gives swords to the dwarves. Inflection for definiteness
• a king vs. the king Singular def Plural def Nominative konungrinn konungarnir • kings vs. the kings Genitive konungsins konungana Dative konunginum konungunum Accusative konunginn konunganna konung-r inn ”king-NOM” ”the[NOM]” Singular def Plural def Nominative rinn arnir Genitive sins ana konung-rinn Dative inum unum ”king-NOM;DEF” Accusative inn anna One note about glosses
• Previously: 1st line = words, 2nd line = word-by-word translation: • Konungrinn vegr orminn. the.king[NOM;DEF] slays the.serpent[ACC;DEF]
• When the word can be clearly broken apart into morphemes, i.e. parts that each contribute a meaning/grammatical function (e.g. case, number, definiteness, etc.): • Konung-rinn vegr orm-inn. 1st line = words separated by king-NOM;DEF slays serpent-ACC;DEF morphemes 2nd line = morpheme-by- morpheme translation Marking definiteness: English vs. OI
• What’s the difference? Marking definiteness: English vs. OI
• What’s the difference? • English uses a separate word that indicates definiteness • OI changes nouns to indicate definiteness
• English uses an analytical approach • OI uses a synthetic approach English is analytic when it comes to…
• Positional/temporal relations • Prepositions: I go to Carnegie Mellon. above the average What did you do during the summer? • Finnish does this synthetically with case marking (talo “house”) • Menen hänen talo-on-sa. go his/her house-ILLATIVE-his/her The illative case is used to ‘I’m going to his/her house.’ indicate towardness. • viime joulu-sta lähtien last Christmas-ELATIVE since The elative case is used to ‘since last Christmas’ indicate fromness. English has an analytic/synthetic split for…
• Tense We’ll avoid the debate about if • Past tense is synthetic: I walked. English future is She thought of something. really a tense • Future tense is analytic: John will be there. per se… The train is going to be late. • Inuktitut (spoken in Nunavut, Canada) is very synthetic • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Inuit_grammar#Modifiers_of_tense English is synthetic when it comes to…
• Plurals! • Mandarin Chinese is analytic: • book → books • ren2 ren2 men • knife → knives person person PLURAL • sheep → sheep ‘a/the person’ ‘(the) people’ • foot → feet • tu4zi tu4zi men rabbit rabbit PLURAL • child → children ‘a/the rabbit’ ‘(the) rabbits’ • formula → formulae • gong1shi4 • scheme → schemata formula • cherub → cherubim ‘a/the formula(e)’ • … No plural if the noun is inanimate One problem
• How do we say: • The king slays the orms. ? • The kings slay the orm. ? One problem
• How do we say: • The king slays the orms. Konugrinn vegr ormarna. • The kings slay the orm. Konungarinn vegr vegum orminn.
• Why? Verbs inflect too!
• English: vega “slay” Singular Plural • I/we/you/they/y’all think 1st person veg vegum • He/she/it thinks 2nd person vegr vegið • OI: 3rd person vegr vega • veg ”(I) slay” • vegr ”(you/he/she/it) slays” • vegum ”(we) slay” • vegið „(y‘all) slay“ • vega „(they) slay“ • Verbs inflect for person and number • Your list has 3sg and 3pl forms Now we can make sentences!
• We just need to build our vocab and we can read anything…
• Really? Not just one declension/conjugation pattern…
• Inflection of nouns is called declension • Inflection of verbs is called conjugation
• These are just one among the many… • There are about 4 declension and 11 conjugation patterns
Sg indef Pl indef Sg def Pl def Sg Pl Nominative r ar rinn arnir 1 um Genitive s a sins ana 2 r ið Dative i um inum unum 3 r a Accusative a inn anna Thank you Any questions?