The Reanalysis of Old French Nouns Declension by Taking Classical Latin Nouns Declension as a Pattern

Abstract

In some flexional languages, the nouns declension is a very important and difficult part to study. The nouns root and the flexional endings are the two most essential elements in declension. By these two elements, all forms of nouns in declension can be known. In classical Latin, the singular nominative and the singular genitive of nouns are written together in the dictionary to let the learners know the information about the two elements of declension. Nevertheless, in an old French dictionary, these two elements can not be known. This paper will reanalyse the old French nouns declension by taking the classical Latin nouns declension as a pattern to find out the regularity of declension and these two elements of declension in old French. This research will be helpful to grasp the old French nouns declension and will help the learners understand better old French morphologically. Further, sufficiently understanding the declension of the old French nouns is helpful to read the manuscripts in old French. Moreover, this paper offers a new idea and thinking about compiling the old French dictionary in the part of noun.