Adjective, preposition, numeral in Old English

Abstract

This paper surveys the structural properties of adjectives, prepositions, and numerals in Old English (c. 450–1150), focusing on their morphology, syntactic behavior, and diachronic significance. Old English adjectives were inflected for case, number, gender, and displayed strong/weak paradigms depending on definiteness. The prepositional system, while comparatively small and mostly monolexemic, governed case assignment and functioned as a core mechanism for expressing spatial and relational meanings. Old English numerals exhibited hybrid morphology: lower numerals behaved like inflectable adjectives or nouns, whereas higher numerals displayed invariant or partially declined forms. The findings illustrate the synthetic character of Old English and provide a baseline for understanding later morphosyntactic reduction in Middle and Modern English.