Baugh & Cable + Crystal – Shakespearian grammar
Grammatical Features: survival of form/usages, no fundamental developments. Most morphological and syntactical features remained unchanged. Impression
that Shakespearean grammar is very difficult, because of the way it operates within discourse. 3 perspectives to take into account when studying Shakespearian
grammar = forms he uses that we still use; forms he uses that we do not use; forms we use that he does not use.
Noun
-s 3rd pers. plu. → my old bones akes.
Possessive singular: ME genitive = -
es/-is], similar to pronoun his →
MOD: -es/-is begins to be written
separately as it was thought to be a
contraction of his → In characters as
red as Mars his heart.
Countability of some uncountable
nouns → musics, courages,
informations.
Group possessive: from the Duke’s
niece of Glaucester to the Duke of
Glaucester’s niece. The possessive is
added to a group of words that often
appear as a unit.
Adjective
Comparative & Superlative: ending
in -er/-est (inflected form), use of
more/most (periphrastic) [= today], or
inverted, or both combined (double
comparative/superlative) → emphatic
effect, metrical factors.
Pronoun
Alternation between Y-forms and T-
forms: convey different emotions/
moods/attitudes; gradual disuse of T-
forms.
You (objective) as a nominative
instead of ye: become interchangeable,
but you is dominant.
Its as possessive of it: need for gender
distinction in possessive cases (already
present in nominative and objective
cases), desire to avoid the use of his.
Who as a relative: ME: þæt =
universal relative pronoun → later
which alternates with that → 16th
century: who becomes popular, yet
occasionally used after non-human
nouns.
Ethical dative: personal pronoun after
a verb to express to, for, by, with, from
→ Hear me this (= hear this from me)
Verb
Scarce progressive forms (es. present
continuous) and compound participles
(having spoken).
Impersonal use of the verb → it
yearns me not.
-est 2nd pers. sing.
-s 3rd pers. sing: substitutes –(e)th,
which still appears (free variation).
-s 3rd pers. plu: analogy with the
singular, still, less common.
Past tense: development of weak and
strong forms; some regular then
became irregular today (& viceversa);
more latitude in the inflection is
allowed, usually they convey slightly
different nuances.
Idiom
Omission/addition of articles.
Negative before the verb.
Double negative: increases intensity,
emphasizes negativity → nor understood
non neither sir.
Different use of prepositions.
Word order
Bends in construction to suit the
demands of the metre: line breaks
between major points of grammatical
junction (subject – verb, verb – object,
noun – relative clause), yet maintaining
coherence.
Verb-subject reversal: when many word-
order variations occur simultaneously, we
can be in difficulty → He is our subiect so
art thou, Free speech, and fearelesse,I to
thee allow.
[Metrical choices = grammatical, semantic,
pragmatic and dramatic consequences.]
