19. Weak V. In oe & their further development

The number of weak v. in OE by far more exceeded that of strong v. in fact, all the v. with the exception of strong, & the minor groups(about 315-320) were weak(about ¾ of all v. ) .

Among them there were many derivatives of OE noun, adj, stems (talu (tale) – tellan; full – fullan (fill)); & derivatives from strong v: fallen – feallan (fell).

It was Germanic type, one of the Germanic innovations in grammar.

Productive type

Weak v. were subdivide into 3 classes(in Gothic there were 4 classes)

3 main Principle forms:

1. INFINITIVE: 1) 1^st class ended in –an/-ian(seldom & occurs after [r] styrian, tellan)

2)2^nd class ended in –ian (lōcian)

3) 3^rd class ended in –an & no vowel before the dental suffix (libban, habban)

2. PAST TENSE: 1^st class ended in –e, -ede, -te( styrede, tealde )

2^nd class ended in –ode([o] before the dental suffix; lōcode)

3^rd class ended in –de (no vowel before the dental suffix; lifde)

3. PARTICIPLE 2: 1^st class ended in –ed, -d(after voiced), -t(after unvoiced) – teald, styred

2^nd class ended in –od ([o] before the dental suffix; lōcod )

3^rd class ended in –d (lifd, hæfd)

Main Changes:

A strong tendency towards greater regularity & order

-The OE v. of class 3 either joined the other classes of weak verbs (libban OE – liven ME(1^st class – live NE)) or became irregular ( OE habban – ME haven – NE have; NE say)

ME verbs of Class 1 took the ending -de in the past without an inter­mediate vowel before the dental suffix - and the ending -ed in the Past Participle. They had descended from OE verbs of Class 1 with a long root syllable (containing a long vowel or a short vowel plus two consonants - OE deman, temman.

The verbs of Class 2, which were marked by -ode, -od in OE, had weakened these endings to -ede, -ed in ME. Since a few verbs of OE Class I had -ede, -ed (the type la styrian), they are included in ME Class II. Consequently, the only difference between the two classes of weak verbs in ME was the presence or absence of the element -p- be­fore the dental suffix in the Past tense stem.

In Late ME the vowel [e] in unstressed medial and final syllables became very unstable and was lost. This change eliminated the differ­ences between the two classes and also the distinctions between the 2nd and 3rd principal forms, thus reducing the number of stems in the weak verbs from three to two. Late ME weak verbs are the immediate source of modern standard (regular) verbs. The reverse process - weak verbs changing into strong ones - was of rare occurrence. Nevertheless a few weak verbs adopted strong forms. These changes account for the forms of NE wear.

20. Preterite-present V. In oe & their further development

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 ). In other words they were used like modal verbs & eventually developed into modern modal verbs.

Changes: -Several Preterite-present V. died out. The surviving v. lost some of their old forms & gram. Distinctions but retained many specific pecularities. They lost the forms of the verbals which had sprung up in OE & the distinctions b/t the forms of number & mood in the Present tense. In NE their paradigms have been reduced to 2 forms or even to 1.

-They also developed new meanings

Ex: can – to know how, to know →expresses supposition; May – supposition, permission