Let's start: nouns and adjectives!

The Early Modern English involves a series of grammatical changes in four large groups: nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs. This entry will deal with the two first categories.

Regarding nouns, two changes happen: the use of the particle –s in order to form plurals and the appearance of the <<his genitive>>. The objective of his genitive is the union of two nouns based on the contraction of the pronoun “his”. We can find an example in the play King Lear of Shakespeare:

William Shakespeare.

“Why, to put's head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and leave his horns without a case” (to put his head in -> to put’s head in).

Nowadays we still retain the particle –‘s in order to mark the possessive “his”.

In relation to the adjectives, there are set different particles that give the adjective a comparative or superlative degree. Currently monosyllables take -er and -est (inflected forms) while adjectives with two syllables or more take more and most (periphrastic forms). In the following excerpts from works of Shakespeare we can see these changes:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Marry, our play is The most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe.”

Also, it is frequently used the double comparative or the superlative, in which case an inflected form and a periphrastic form appear together to emphasize the meaning of the adjective.

Hamlet: “Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to the doctor.”

Cymbeline: “From this most bravest vessel of the world”

Hamlet representation.

"Doubt thou

the stars are fire;

Doubt that

the sun doth move;

Doubt truth

to be a liar;

But never doubt I love"

   -William Shakespeare