1. Speak on the historical development of the Noun plural forms in the English language and find in the text the instances of their usage. - s / -es endings - en endings - Ø endings - narrowing of the root vowel

2. The OE period (450-1066) of history has been described as a period of "full endings", ME (1066-1485) - as a period of "levelled endings" and NE - (1485- 1800) - as a period of "lost endings" H. Sweet)

3. OLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR OE was a synthetic, or inflected type of language In building grammatical forms OE employed: - grammatical endings - sound interchanges in the root - grammatical prefixes - suppletive formation Grammatical endings, or inflections, were the principal form- building means. Sound interchanges were employed on a more limited scale and were often combined with other form-building means, especially endings. Vowel interchanges were more common than interchanges of consonants. The use of prefixes in grammatical forms was rare and was confined to verbs. Suppletive forms were restricted to several pronouns, a few adjectives and a couple of verbs.

4. OE NOUN. GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES Case Number Gender Nouns were differentiated by the stem-forming suffixes on the basis of which they formed declensions

5. Peculiarities of the ME Grammatical System The OE, a synthetic or inflected language, has been transformed into a language of the "analytical type". ME grammar is charateised by simplificftion in the grammatical categories of the nominal parts of speech and development of the grammatical categories of the verb The proportion of synthetic forms in the language has become very small. Analytical form-building was not equally productive in all the parts of speech. The main direction of development for the nominal parts of speech – morphological simplification. Some nominal categories were lost, the number of forms in the surviving categories was reduced..

9. Mod E OE - s / -es endings developed from OE -a-, masculine gender -Ø endings developed from OE -a-, neuter gender, long syllable - en endings developed from OE -n-, masculine, feminine and neuter gender - narrowing developed from OE root stem of the root vowel

10. -a-, neuter gender, long syllable N word G wordes G worda D worde D wordum A word N word G wordes G worde D worde D worden A word N word G word OEME ModE -Ø endings developed from OE-a-, neuter gender, long syllable In XV and early XVI centuries there still remained nouns with the zero ending in the plural form: apple, lamb, sheep, deer,winter, уear, swine During XVI centuries they acquired - es ending. Homonimus forms were preserved in the nouns deer and sheep.

11. Mod E- en endings developed from OE -n children -, masculine, feminine and neuter gender In XV and early XVI centuries there still remained nouns with - en endings in the plural form: horse, foe, knee, eye, tree, shoe, ох, child. During XVI centuries they acquired - es ending. -en endings were preserved in the nouns охen, children, brethren. ModE plural forms with alternation of the root vowel (narrowing)developed from OE root stem goose — geese foot — feet tooth — teeth man — men woman — women Mouse — mice louse — lice

13. В конце XV и в начале XVI века еще продолжали существовать существительные, имевшие во множественном числе форму, омонимичную форме единственного числа, например: apple — яблоко В течение XVI века Сохранили lamb — ягненок приняли суффикс - es омонимичные формы sheep — овца sheep— овца deer — олень winter — зима уear — год swine— свинья In XV and early XVI centuries there still remained nouns with the zero ending in the plural form apple lamb sheep deer winter уear swine During XVI centuries they acquired - es ending. Homonimous forms were preserved in the nouns deer and sheep.

15. В течение ранненовоанглийского периода происходит процесс дальнейшей унификации образования форм множественного числа. horse — лошадь, horsen — лошади foe — враг в течение XV on — враги В течение XVI в knee—колено и начале XVI веков kneen — колени утрачивают суф.-еn eye — глаз продолжали сохранять и обр.множ. число tree — дерево суффикс-еn с помощью суф. -es shoe — башмак во множественном числе ох — бык охen child— ребенок children brethren собратья Mid E- en endings developed from OE -n children -, masculine, feminine and neuter gender In XV and early XVI centuries there still remained nouns with - en endings in the plural form: horse, foe, knee, eye, tree, shoe, ох, child. During XVI centuries they acquired - es ending. -en endings were preserved in the nouns охen children brethren.

16. Несмотря на тенденцию в НА периоде унифицировать систему суффиксов множественного числа, язык сохранил небольшую группу существительных, у которых форма множественного числа образуется при помощи чередования глас­ ного корня. вследствие переднеязычной под влиянием гласного і, входившего в суффикс множественного числа. явление пережиточного порядка, Единственное число Множественное число goose—гусь geese—гуси foot—нога feet—ноги tooth—зуб teeth — зубы man—человек men—люди woman—женщина women—женщины mouse—мышь mice—мыши louse —вошь lice —вши