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| en:eebo:competing_forms [2016/11/22 10:48] – [Searching the corpus] veronikapojarova | en:eebo:competing_forms [2018/07/30 14:43] (current) – vaclavcvrcek | ||
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| ====== Lesson 3: Competing forms ====== | ====== Lesson 3: Competing forms ====== | ||
| - | Language change often takes place as a result of one emergent form replacing an already existing one. Variation within language leads to the advent of a new form, which may or may not go on to replace the older one. This process generally takes place over the course of decades or centuries, and therefore is observable in the EEBO corpus. One of the most widespread changes taking place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the adoption of a new third person singular ending < -(e)s>. | + | Language change often takes place as a result of one emergent form replacing an already existing one. Variation within language leads to the advent of a new form, which may or may not go on to replace the older one. This process generally takes place over the course of decades or centuries, and therefore is observable in the [[en: |
| ====== Third person singular endings < -eth> and < -es> ====== | ====== Third person singular endings < -eth> and < -es> ====== | ||
| Early Modern English, the third person singular ending in the present tense had two possible realizations. The older form, the now archaic < -eth> or < -th>, originated from the OE < -eþ> and was still the dominant variant at the beginning of the period. From the Northern dialects of English there came the form < -s> or < -es>, which gradually began to replace. For most of the Early Modern English period the two forms coexisted. Therefore texts written in the sixteenth century may contain both //knows// and // | Early Modern English, the third person singular ending in the present tense had two possible realizations. The older form, the now archaic < -eth> or < -th>, originated from the OE < -eþ> and was still the dominant variant at the beginning of the period. From the Northern dialects of English there came the form < -s> or < -es>, which gradually began to replace. For most of the Early Modern English period the two forms coexisted. Therefore texts written in the sixteenth century may contain both //knows// and // | ||
