18. Strong Verbs.300 in oe.

-The past tense is formed by changing the root vowel. (risan-ras)

-Participle 2 is formed by -en, accompanied in some cases by the change of the root vowel. (takan-taken, beran-boren)

-Strong v referred to Indo-European type. So they built past forms by ablaut (gradation – change of the root vowel)

-They were root words (not derivatives)

-Non-productive

-There were 4 principle parts: infinitive, past sing, past pl, participle2

Strong v were traditionally subdivided into 7 classes, depending on the type of vowel change. But all of them had the same endings: -an for the infinitive, no ending for the Past sing, -on for the Past pl, -en for Participle 2. Some of the strong classes were less regular than the others and consisted of small subclasses. As the time went on, many strong v transformed into weak. (Help, bake, laugh, bark)They began to form Past and Participle with the dental suffix instead of vowel gradation.

In ME the final syllables of the stems were weakened. (OE -an, -on, -en were all reduced to ME -en) In early NE most of them were lost in the infinitive and Past pl, but was sometimes preserved in Participle 2. In ME and ENE the root vowels in the principle forms of all the classes of the stong v underwent the regular changes of stressed vowels. The distinction between Past sing and pl was removed by weakening of the ending -on. Some strong v dropped out of use owing to the changes in the vocabulary.

19. Weak V.There were 900(3/4 of all v). The number of weak v was constantly growing since all new v derived from other stems were conjugated weak. Weak v are often derivatives from nouns, adj, strong v (talu- tellan, full-fullan, sittan-settan). They had 3 principle parts: infinitive,past and participle 2. Weak v refer to the German type. There were 3 classes. But class 2 deserves the special attention as it serves as a pattern for all newly produced or borrowed words starting from OE period. The past tense is formed with the dental suffix d/t (lician – licode, cepan – cepte). Participle 2 is also fomed with the help of this suffix (cepan-cepte, lufian-lofod). The significant element is the suffix o preceding the dental suffix in the past or participle 2. Then o transformed into e. (OE -ode, EME –ede, LME –ed, NE –d/t).

The evolution of weak v in ME and ENE reveals a tendency towards greater regularity and order. ME – 2 classes of weak v.

20. Preterite-present v. Originally their Present tense forms were Past tense forms. Later these forms acquired a present meaning but preserved many formal features of the Past tense. Most of the v had new Past tense forms built with the help of the dental suffix. Some of them also acquired the forms of the verbals: Participles and Infinitives. Most of the verbs didn’t have a full paradigm and were in the sense defective. They were inflected in the Present like the Past tense of strong v: the forms of the 1^st and 3^rd Past pl were identical (had no ending). Yet, unlike strong v they had the same root-vowel in all the persons. In the Past they were inflected like weak v: the dental suffix+the endings -e, -est, -e. Before the shift of meaning and time-reference the would-be preterite-presents were strong v. (The prototype of “can” may be referred to Class 3)

In OE there were 12 pret-present v. 6 of them have survived in Mod E (OE āg> NE owe; cunnan, cann> can; dear(r)> dare; sculan, sceal> shall; magan, mǽg> may; mōt> must). Most didn’t indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb, an Infinitive that followed the preterite-present.