Development and the Changes of the Grammatical Rules Through Old and Modern English Periods

Abstract

The study aimed to trace the developments and the changes of the grammatical rules through the old and modern English periods. Nobody can argue that language does not undergo changes. The only languages that are not prone to linguistic changes are dead languages. The study adopted comparative analytical method since the study deals with the history of English thus it is documentary/historical study .The data obtained from books and references in addition to some texts from old English compared to their resembles in modern English .The thesis aims to shed some light upon the inflectional modifications of pronouns, verbs, nouns, adjectives and that the English language has undergone during the last thousand years. The results of the study show that the English language has moved from being a highly inflective, synthetic language with many endings and cases, few prepositions and no real articles, to developing into a more analytic language with fewer inflectional markers and cases, the system of grammar was so complicated than today, the study offered some recommendation that encourage more studies in the scope of the language change.