17. The oe verb, its grammatical & morphological categories

The OE V. like the N. & Adj. was a highly changeable part of speech & all its gram categories were expressed with the help of inflexions. All the forms of OE V. were synthetic, as analytical were only beginning to appear. The non-finite forms had little in common with the finite forms but shared many features with the nominal parts of speech.

4 gram. Categories of FINITE V:

V.-predicate agreed with the subject of the sentence in:

-Number: - singular - plur.

-Person: - 1^st- 2^nd - 3^rd

Specifically verbal categories:

-Mood: - indicative-imperative-subjunctive

Tense: - present

- past or past/ non-past

4. morphological types of V. In OE:

1)strong (about 300; are usually divided into 7 classes in OE; corresponding to more than irreg. v.)

2)weak (about 900; usually div. into 3 classes; now – regular v.)

3)preterite-present (past-present) – 12(6 survived in MOD. E. – cunnan, cann, dear, sculan, sceal, magan, mæg, āg, mōt; most of them didn’t indicate actions, but expressed a kind of an attitude to an action expressed by another v., an Infinitive which followed the preterite-present – used like modal verbs )

4)anomalous(with irreg. forms) – bēon(be), willan(will), gān(go), dōn(do)

18. Strong V. In oe & their further development

Made up about ¼ of all verbs.

The strong type was inherited from Indo-European. In IE v. of this type built their Past by an ablaut (a change in the root stressed vowel ←gradation(брал – беру; везу - вёз)). Depending on the type of the vowel change (alternation) Germ. Strong v. are tradit. subdivided Into 7 classes.

The principal forms of all the strong v. have the same endings irrespective of class:

--an for the INFINITIVE

-No ending in the PAST SINGULAR stem (but end is formed by changing a stressed root vowel)

-on in the form of PAST PLURAL

-en for PARTICIPLE 2

Strong v. of the class 7 were less regular than the other classes & consisted of a small subclasses, but the members of class 7 (ā, ēo, ēo, ā) & class 6 (a, ō, ō, a) have identical vowels in Past sing. & past plur. Strong v. were in minority in OE & belonged to a non-productive type. Many of them were in high frequency in speech which could not, but contributed in their stability(to sit, give, come).

1)In ME the final syllables of the stems, like all final syllables were weakened, in the early NE most of them were lost. Thus the OE endings -an, -on, -en (INFINITIVE, PAST PLURAL, PARTICIPLE 2 ) were all reduced to ME –en.

2)Important change - Reduction in the number of stems from 4 to 3, by removing the distinction b/t the 2 past stems –plural & singular. Analogical leveling depended on the dialect & on the class of the v. (ex: in the northern dialects the vowel of the Past sing. Tended to replace that of the Past of plural)

3)The best preserved classes are: - class 1(i, ā, i, i) – rise, ride; -class 3 a(i, a, u, u) – drink, speak; -class 6 (a, ō, ō, a) – take, shake.

4. As time went on more & more some of originally strong v. died or transferred into weak type: to love, hope, bake, climb, help, swallow, wash, grip, bow etc. The opposite transfer was rather exceptional (several former weak v. – NE wear, dig, stick) & 3 borrowings – take, thrive(from O Scand) & strive (from O Fr)