语言学教程Language-change-and-history.pptVIP

2. Loss of affixes Old English had a number of case（格） and gender distinctions which were lost during the Middle English period，which was the most Significant change in English. In Old English,nouns were divided into three gender classes:musculine 阳性 neuter 中性 feminine阴性 E.g. Wīfmann (woman) 阳性 Wīf(woman) 中性 geif(gift) 阴性 3. Change of word order Obviously,the most common order in the Mordern English is the subject-verb-object order,which can also be seen in Old