3. Preterite-Present verbs

Historically, Preterite-Present Verbs are strong. PP Verbs are verbs in which Past Sg is reconsidered as Present and the new Past form is built with the help of the dental suffix. )their present corresponds to the Past of Strong Verbs, while their past is derived according to the past of the weak verbs).

	Infinitive	Past Sg	Present Pl	Past	PII	Existing forms
1	witan	wat	witon	wise, wisste	(ʒe)witen	to wit
2	āʒan	āʒ, ah	aʒon	ahte	-	-
3	duʒan	deaʒ	duʒon	dohte	-	-
4	cunnon	cann	cunnon	cuðe	cunnen	can/could
5	unnan	ann	unnon	ūðe	ʒeunnen	-
6	ƀurfan	ƀearf	ƀurfon	ƀorfte	-	-
7	-	dearr	durron	dorste	-	dare
8	sculan	sceall	sculon	sceolde, scolde	-	shall/ should
9	munan	mon, man	munon	munde	ʒemunen	-
10	*mōtan	mōt, most	mōton	mōste	-	must
11	maʒan	mæʒ	maʒon	meahte, mihte	-	may/ might
12	-	ʒeneah	ʒenuʒon	ʒenohte	-	enough

4. Anomalous Verbs

Infinitive	Present Sg Pl	Past Sg Pl
Willan	W ille W ilt Willað Wille PI Willende	W olde W oldest Woldon Wolde
ʒan	ʒ a ʒ æst ʒað ʒæ PI ʒanʒende	E ōde E ōdest Eōdon Eōde PII (ʒe)ʒan
Don	D o D est Doƀ Deƀ PI dōnde	D ude D ydes Dyden Dyde PII (ʒe)don

6. Syncretism & Its Impact on Language Development

In linguistics, syncretism is the identity of form of distinct morphological forms of a word. This phenomenon is typical of fusional languages. Syncretism can arise through either phonological or morphological change. In the case of phonological change, forms that were originally distinct come to be pronounced identically, so that their distinctness is lost. In the case of morphological change, one form simply stops being used and is replaced by the other. As it may have been noticed in the lecture many forms in the system of declension (in nouns, pronouns and adjectives) and conjugation were the same i.e. they are syncretic.

This fact eventually lead to gradual, however not complete, disappearance of those forms which were different.

By the end of the OE period the complex system of inflections started to get simplified. Also due to the specificity of the stress, which was still falling in the first syllable of the root, thus making the endings often misheard and ‘swallowed’.

With the arrival of Danes and Normans to Britain, OE started to get influenced by their languages.

These 3 facts resulted in the end of the OE Period of ‘Full Endings’ and the beginning of the Middle English (ME) Period of so-called ‘Leveled Endings’.

Task:

1. Study lecture material;

2. Decline the following OE nouns(both in Singular and Plural:

• Masculine a-stem: sta̅n;

• Neuter a-stem: de̅or;

• O-stem: giefu;

• N-stem: hunta;

• Root-stem: fo̅t.

3. Think and find plausible answers:

• Where are the possessive –’s and plural –s of modern English descended from?

• Why do we have today such forms for Plural as oxen, children and feet?

• Why are the comparatives declined as strong adjectives and the superlatives as weak today?

4. Decline the following phrases:

• Strong good woman/women: go̅d ides; go̅da idesa;

• Weak the good woman/women: se̅o go̅de ides; ƥa̅ go̅dan idesa.

! ides – o-stem, feminine

• Strong good child/children: go̅d cild; go̅d cildru;

• Weak the good child/children: ƥæt go̅de cild; ƥa̅ go̅dan cildru.

! cild – a-stem, neuter, in Plural note that –r- appears!!!!

5. Watch lectures 1 – 8 (take notes, make summaries)

Related topics for research:

1. Isolative, Agglutinating and Inflecting Languages. Contemporary views on Modern English.

The research has to be done with the reference to at least 5 sources. 10 – 15 pages of printed text, font – 14 Times New Roman.