Quirk Randolph, Wrenn C.L. An Old English Grammar

Methuen & Co Ltd, 1960. — 166 pages.This book is designed especially for the literary students of English, and provides a single compact grammar primarily concerned with Classical Old English, rather than the other Old English dialects. The book takes a descriptive approach and avoids assuming a knowledge of Germanic philology. The introduction provides a minimum background of knowledge and indicates the kinds of evidence on which the grammatical description is based.With the aim, then, of presenting a grammar of literary Old English to literary students, the authors have forsaken the historical in favour of a descriptive approach wherever this seemed expedient and practicable, and the authors have tried to avoid assuming a knowledge of— or indeed interest in— Germanic philology as such. The treatment of inflexions, syntax, word-formation, and phonology represents an attempt to describe realistically the forms that occur most prominently in the important literary manuscripts, systematised in a manner that seems most significant for the Classical Old English which they generally present, though this has meant to some considerable extent the replacing of categories, classifications, and even technical terms that were evolved for and suited to the structure of the ‘Germanic dialects’ as a whole. On the other hand, the authors have resisted changes of this kind wherever the traditional framework seemed readily comprehensible to non-specialists and unlikely to mislead the student who has not had a philological training. Moreover, the Introduction aims not only at providing a minimum background of knowledge, but also at indicating the kinds of evidence on which the grammatical description is based.Among the features to which the authors attach importance are the relatively detailed and practical treatment of Syntax and the attempt to make naturally intelligible the actual processes of the sound-changes described in the Phonology. The authors have sought throughout to help the student who has deeper linguistic and mediaeval interests to advance his studies by means of the notes set in small type, where more advanced matters could be touched upon and works of scholarship cited for further reading. In the treatment of Inflexions, these notes have often been used also to deal with the variant and exceptional forms, and by this means the authors have been able to keep the paradigms free from confusing by-forms. Particular care, too, has been taken with the typography throughout, with the aim of achieving clarity and ease of reference.