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The ways of expression adverbial modifier in Old English.

The adverbial modifier in Old English is structural type which is characterized by special connection with verb and by special position in sentence.The way of connection is contiguity. And position in the sentence optional. There are following semantic types of adverbial modifier:the adverbial modifier of place,time,manner, time and frequence, reason. The main way of expressing adverbial modifier in the Old English is adverb.Besides,the noun in objective case with preposition or without was also used as adverbial modifier.

The infinitive and Absolute Nominative Participial Construction were used for expression some semantic types of adverbial modifier .Prepositional form of infinitive can be used as the adverbial modifier of purpose:

Infinitive can be used also as the adverbial modifier of reason. The adverbial modifier of time and frequence and also adverbial modifiers of manner are typical for Absolute Participial Construction(dativus absolutus):

In general , we should notice that the greatest functional meaning had adverbs at that period of time. The adverbs which were adverbials modifiers in the Old English could be of simple or complex morphological structure(adverbs were formed from the adjective with suffix e),and also they could be the cases forms of nouns(nihtes) or pronoun (ealles- ).

The usage of noun case form with preposition is not spread. 2. The distribution of prepositional groups of noun in function of adverbial modifier. The syntactic relations between adverb and verb in the Middle English period isnt changed: the way of connection is contiguity; and the adverbs could be used as adverbial modifiers. The nouns prepositional group usage as adverbial modifier is developing. Morphological changes which were in the Middle English influenced on syntactic bond of parts of the sentence. If in the Old English the connection between predicate and adverbial modifier which was expressed by noun with contiguity , in the Middle English the indicator of grammatical relations between them became the preposition. This is the reason of destruction of nouns case inflection. From this time , noun can be used without preposition as adverbial modifier in some cases and only in the form of common case. As for prepositional groups, they got an important role in the field of expression adverbial modifiers relations. They are used for expression all semantic types of adverbial modifier. The Middle English period is the period of major reconstruction of verbal object relations. The destruction of transitivity and non-transitivity category and crossing to object and non-object system of verbs had the decisive meaning for adverbial modifier relations field. The prepositional group which got the ability of intensive syntactic development in the Middle English period didnt express the grammatical relations differentially enough at the beginning. It could be the means of realization attributive , object and adverbial modifier relations. So, at the beginning of the period , it is difficult to differentiate attributive or adverbial modifiers prepositional groups from one side and objective and adverbial modifiers prepositional group from the other. At this time prepositions didnt develop completely .They werent influenced by the grammatical process. 3.Developing of adverbial modifier in the end of the Middle English and The EarlyModern periods.

Prepositional groups which were used as verbal extension were subjected to the following changes: 1)The meanings of prepositional groups and non prepositional group of noun which express analogous meaning were differentiated:

2)Prepositional groups and isolated case-forms were transformed into adverbs. As the case system was destroyed in the Middle English period, separate forms which were saved as fixed in the Old English were apprehended as adverbs: alweis. In the Middle English the former ending of genitive case was transformed into word-forming suffix, which became productive. Such adverbs were formed: nights. Shifting of prepositional groups into adverbs began from the end of the Old English period. As a result a lot of prepositions were subjected to phonetic reduction and transformed into prefix a-, which was as productive in the Middle English. For example: anight, aback. Prefix a- was used with prepositions on , of. Thereafter, during Middle English and Old English period , there is no liaison between prepositions and nouns , lexicalization of prepositional combination leads to create compound adverbs. 3)From the Middle English period competition between prepositional groups with adverbs of the same root is developing He lutten him frigtilike ;And al he it listnede in frightihed Other factor of syntactic and structural expansion of simple sentence was developing of no-finite verbs construction. At first , the infinitive constructions were developing. Besides the meaning of adverbial modifier of purpose , they began to function in all syntactic functions , which were attributable for infinitive in modern English. Wide diffusion of participial phrase in adverbial function began only in the late Middle English period. During the first half of the Middle English up to 14 cent., participial phrase appeared as adverbial modifier of manner:

We sitten in the prison sorgende al the

In the Old English gerundial phrases were appeared as adverbial modifiers: As thyse auncyent wyse men dyde , the whiche so lytil preysed the world , that alle their tyme they ocupyed in lernyng of phylosophye(adverbial modifier of manner). By the end of the period they began to compete in adverbial modifier function whis infinitive phrase and also with subordinate clause. The developing of new and expension of old constructions with non-finite form of verbs relate to the Early Modern English period. Nominative absolute participial construction was used in the writing: You sleep on peace, the tyrant being slain. But after 16 cent. the usage of nominative absolute participial construction is restricted. In the Earle-Modern English prepositional gerundial and prepositional infinitive constructions were used as adverbial modifier: I thanke James for his having helped me immensely.: I opened the door for her to come in.

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:The historical development of the adverbial modifier

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2012

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