Changes in Inflections (Morphology): Study Notes

Welcome! In this set of study notes, we will explore morphology—specifically how word endings (known as inflections) have evolved from Early Modern English (c. 1550) down to the present day. This topic is directly assessed in Component 1 Section B: Variation over Time of your Pearson Edexcel A Level English Language (9EN0) exam. Don't worry if historical grammar feels slightly daunting at first; we will break down every concept step by step with clear historical examples.

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1. Core Linguistic Concepts: The Foundations

What is Morphology?

Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words and how smaller units of meaning, called morphemes, combine together.

What is an Inflection?

An inflection (or inflectional morpheme) is a bound grammatical ending added to a base or root word. Crucially, an inflection signals a grammatical category—such as tense, person, number, aspect, or case—without changing the core word class.

For example, adding the inflectional suffix -ed to the verb walk creates walked (past tense), but the word remains a verb.

Key Distinction: Inflectional vs. Derivational Morphology
A common trap is confusing inflectional morphemes with derivational morphemes.
• Inflectional: Modifies grammatical function only (e.g., cat \(\rightarrow\) cats [plural noun]; walk \(\rightarrow\) walketh [third-person singular present verb]).
• Derivational: Creates a new word or changes the word class entirely (e.g., happy [adjective] \(\rightarrow\) happiness [noun]; kind \(\rightarrow\) unkind).

The Big Historical Shift: Synthetic to Analytic

To understand why English changed after 1550, it helps to understand this fundamental shift:

  • Synthetic Language (e.g., Old English): Relied heavily on a large web of inflectional endings attached to nouns, verbs, and adjectives to show who was doing what to whom in a sentence.
  • Analytic Language (e.g., Late Modern and Present-Day English): Relies primarily on strict word order (Subject-Verb-Object or SVO) and helper words (prepositions and auxiliary verbs) rather than inflectional word endings.

The historical period covered in your exam (c. 1550 to the present) shows the tail end of this synthetic-to-analytic transition, characterized by the gradual loss, leveling, and regularization of lingering inflections.

Key Takeaway: Over time, English evolved from a synthetic language packed with complex suffixes into an analytic language governed by strict word order and auxiliary words.

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2. Historical Verb Inflections (c. 1550 – Present)

A. Third-Person Singular Present Tense: -eth vs. -s / -es

In Early Modern English texts (c. 1550–1650), verbs with third-person singular subjects (he, she, it) carried distinctive endings:

  • The -eth ending: The standard Southern Early Modern English inflection (e.g., he maketh, she knoweth, it saith).
  • The -s / -es ending: Originally a Northern dialect import that spread southwards into London and standard writing.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, -s gradually replaced -eth. By the 18th century (Late Modern English), -s was fully established as the standard inflection, while -eth became restricted to highly formal, archaic, or religious registers (such as the King James Bible).

Did you know? Language change doesn't happen overnight! In texts from c. 1550 to 1650, you will often find an author using both -eth and -s in the very same paragraph, choosing between them based on personal preference, rhythm, or poetic metre.

B. Second-Person Singular: -st / -est and the Pronoun thou

In Early Modern English, the intimate or informal singular pronoun thou required its own matching verb inflection:

  • The -st / -est suffix: e.g., thou hast, thou wentest, thou dost, thou knowest.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the pronoun you (which was originally plural and formal) expanded to take over all second-person roles (singular, plural, informal, and formal). Because you took standard verb forms (e.g., you have, you went), the bound inflection -st / -est fell out of standard use alongside thou.

C. Past Tense and Participles

  • Archaic Strong Verb Forms: In earlier periods, many irregular (strong) verbs formed past tenses through internal vowel changes (ablaut) that differ from modern forms (e.g., spake instead of spoke, clomb instead of climbed, or writ instead of written).
  • Elided Past Tense Suffixes: In 17th- and 18th-century texts, writers often used contracted orthographic forms like look'd or pass'd instead of looked or passed. This reflected the phonological omission of the unstressed vowel before standard spelling firmly established the uniform regular suffix -ed.

Key Takeaway: Early Modern English retained specific person-marking inflections (-eth and -st) and variant strong past tenses that gradually regularized or leveled out by the 18th century.

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3. Noun Inflections: Plurals and Possession

A. Plural Inflections

In Modern English, nearly all regular noun plurals are formed by adding the alveolar/dental suffix -s or -es. However, historical texts often contain residual plural markers:

  • Residual -en plurals: Relics of Old and Middle English weak noun plurals. While words like oxen and brethren survive today, earlier texts featured forms such as eyne (eyes) and kine (cows).
  • Regularization: Over time, the dominant -s / -es plural suffix expanded to replace irregular and weak plural endings across nearly the entire nominal system.

B. Genitive (Possessive) Inflections and the Apostrophe

The modern possessive marker ('s) originated from the Old/Middle English masculine genitive singular inflection -es (e.g., the kinges crown).

  • Early Modern English Practice: Writers often wrote the genitive simply as an attached letter without punctuation (e.g., the kings crown).
  • The "His-Genitive": A historical misinterpretation where writers assumed the possessive was a contraction of the pronoun his, writing phrases like the King his castle.
  • Standardisation: 17th- and 18th-century grammarians codified the apostrophe to show genitive case: 's for singular nouns (indicating the historic elision of the e in -es) and s' for regular plural possessives.

Key Takeaway: Plurals regularized to -s / -es, while the historic -es genitive ending transformed into our modern punctuated possessive system ('s / s').

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4. Adjective and Adverb Inflections

A. Comparative and Superlative Markers

English has two ways to show comparison: inflectional suffixes (-er / -est) and analytic/periphrastic markers (more / most).

  • Double Marking in Early Modern English: Before standardisation, writers frequently combined both methods for extra emphasis (e.g., Shakespeare's "most unkindest" or phrases like "more braver").
  • 18th-Century Prescriptivism: Prescriptive grammarians such as Robert Lowth (1762) codified strict rules:
    1. Short (monosyllabic and some disyllabic) words take the inflectional suffixes -er and -est (e.g., braver, kindest).
    2. Longer polysyllabic words must use the analytic markers more and most (e.g., more beautiful, most delightful).
    3. "Double comparatives" and "double superlatives" were condemned as grammatically incorrect.

B. Flat Adverbs

A flat adverb is an adverb that shares the same form as its corresponding adjective, lacking the modern adverbial suffix -ly (e.g., "he ran quick" or "write plain").

Flat adverbs were widely accepted in Early and Late Modern English speech and writing until 18th- and 19th-century standardisation established the rule that adverbs of manner require the -ly suffix.

Key Takeaway: Prescriptive 18th-century grammar eliminated double comparison and promoted the regular addition of -ly to adverbs, replacing older, flexible morphological habits.

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5. Exam Skills: Analyzing Inflections in Component 1 Section B

To score high marks across AO1 (linguistic terminology), AO2 (concepts of language variation), AO3 (contextual factors), and AO4 (comparisons across texts), avoid mere "feature spotting." Use the structured approach below:

Step-by-Step Analysis Framework

  1. Identify & Label (AO1): Identify the specific morpheme accurately using proper terminology. Avoid calling loveth an "old spelling"; name it the third-person singular present tense verb inflection -eth.
  2. Explain the Mechanism (AO2): Explain the linguistic shift (e.g., the historical movement from Southern standard -eth to Northern -s, or the synthetic-to-analytic shift).
  3. Contextualize the Text (AO3): Link the usage to the date, genre, audience, and level of formality. Is the author writing in an era before standardisation, or deliberately choosing an archaic register (such as a legal or religious document)?
  4. Compare Across Periods (AO4): Contrast your historical text with the newer text in the exam pair, highlighting the regularization and loss of inflections over time.

Common Student Pitfalls to Avoid

  • Trap 1: Confusing spelling with morphology. Writing "writ is a spelling mistake for written" receives no credit. You must identify it as an archaic strong past participle.
  • Trap 2: Assuming instant extinction. Old inflections did not vanish overnight. Remember that forms like -eth and -s co-existed for decades during the Early Modern period.
  • Trap 3: Misinterpreting -est. Remember that -est can be either a superlative adjective inflection (strongest) or an archaic second-person singular verb inflection attached to thou (thou speakest). Always look at the word class in context!
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6. Quick Review: Chapter Summary Table

Word Class Historical Feature (c. 1550–1700s) Present-Day English Equivalent Linguistic Process
Verb -eth (e.g., sayeth, maketh) -s / -es (e.g., says, makes) Dialect leveling (Northern -s replaced Southern -eth).
Verb -st / -est with thou (e.g., thou knowest) Uninflected base form with you (e.g., you know) Loss of inflection due to generalization of pronoun you.
Verb Elided past tense (e.g., walk'd, look'd) Regular -ed suffix (e.g., walked, looked) Orthographic and morphological standardisation.
Noun Weak -en plurals (e.g., kine, eyne) Regular -s / -es plurals (e.g., cows, eyes) Regularization of noun morphology.
Noun Genitive -es without apostrophe / "His-genitive" Standard genitive apostrophe ('s / s') Prescriptive codification of possessive punctuation.
Adjective Double marking (e.g., more braver, most unkindest) Strict choice: -er/-est OR more/most 18th-century prescriptivist grammar codification (Robert Lowth).
Adverb Flat adverbs without suffix (e.g., run quick) Adverbs marked with -ly suffix (e.g., run quickly) Standardisation of distinct adverbial morphology.