The history of English provides an example of nounal categories with­ering away. In Old English there were four cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative) plus a vestigial instrumental. The cases in Old English were only weakly differentiated, with more differentiation in the demonstra­tive pronoun than in the noun. The Old English case paradigms were strik­ingly […]

Textological analysis shows that the epic poem of Beowulf (the title itself is an editorial convenience – the manuscript copy of the poem is untitled) probably existed in written form by the middle of the 7th century, so it belongs to the oldest records of the English literature. It is the longest surviving poem in […]

Textological analysis shows that the epic poem of Beowulf (the title itself is an editorial convenience – the manuscript copy of the poem is untitled) probably existed in written form by the middle of the 7th century, so it belongs to the oldest records of the English literature. It is the longest surviving poem in […]