The Verb

OLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR. Morphology and Syntax.

LECTURE 4

Plan

I. Grammatical categories of the verb:

a) number and person; b) tense; c) mood; d) debatable categories: aspect and voice; e) analytical formations.

2. The classification of verbs:

a) strong verbs; b) weak verbs; c) preterite-present verbs; d)irregular verbs.

3. Non-finite forms.

4. Negation.

5. The Verb system as a whole.

The OE verb is characterized by many peculiar features. Though it had few grammatical categories, its paradigm had a very complicated structure, because verbs were divided into numerous morphological classes and had a variety of form-building means. All the forms were synthetic; analytical forms were only beginning to appear.

I a). Number and person. The verb – predicate agreed with the subject of the sentence in 2 grammatical categories: number and person.

OE Verbs distinguish between 2 numbers: singular and plural. Many conjugated forms are homonymous, but homonymy does not affect the category of number. The category of person is made up of three forms: the 1^st, the 2^nd and the 3^rd persons. Unlike the number, person distinctions are neutralized in many positions.

Findan (to find)	present	past
Number	singular	plural	singular	plural
1^st person	Finde	findaP	Fond	fundon
2^nd person	Fintst	Fonde
3^rd person	Fint	fond

L o cian (to look)	present	past
Number	singular	plural	singular	plural
1^st person	L o cie	l o ciaP	L o code	l o codon
2^nd person	L o cast	L o codest
3^rd person	l o caP	l o code

I. b) Tenses. There are only 2 tenses in OE: the Present and the Past. They are expressed by synthetic means. Present actions are expressed by the Present Tense. Past actions are expressed by the Past Tense. Future actions are expressed by the Present Tense, and lexical means or only the context show their futurity.

I. c) Mood. OE has 3 moods. The Indicative Mood is used to state an action as real. The Imperative Mood expresses order or request to a second person.

SinZ me hwæthwuZu! (Sing something to me!)

The OE Subjunctive Mood differs from its modern usage. It does not only convey the general meaning of unreality and supposition, but is also used in subordinate clauses.

Zif Þ u w æ re h e r n æ re m i n br o Þor d ea d (If you wre here, my brother would not be dead)

The existence of these 4 categories is confirmed by consistent opposition of form and meaning, but there are 2 debatable categories.

1. d) Aspect. Until recently it was believed that in OE there existed the category of aspect expressed by the regular contrast of verbs with or without the prefix Ze - Verbs with the prefix had the perfective meaning, whereas the verbs without it indicated a non-completed action: seah – Zeseah (видел – увидел), l i cian – Ze li cian (нравиться – понравиться). But later it was stated that the prefix could change not only the aspective meaning of the verb, but also its lexical meaning: sittan – Zesittan (to sit – to occupy), beran – Zeberan (to carry – to give birth to a child). Besides, not all the verbs could be used with the prefix: cuman (to come) has never been seen with the prefix. Thus the prefix Ze - should be regarded not as a means of forming the grammatical category of aspect, but as an element of word-building means (as a derivational prefix).

The category of Voice is another debatable issue. Combinations of participle II of transitive verbs and verbs b eo n (to be) or weorÞan (to become) began to be used. The participle agreed with the subject in number, case and gender, that is why we cannot call these formations the Passive Voice. During the OE period these constructions were gradually transformed into the analytical forms of the Passive Voice.

1. e) Analytical formations. So, the construction beon/weorÞan + ParticipleII was beginning to develop into the Passive voice (see 1d) Voice).

He wearÞ ofslæZen (he became killed)

Another formation is habban + ParticipleII. Originally, it denoted that the subject owned a thing having certain feature as a result of an action performed upon it. Later it acquired the meaning of the result of the action.

Hie hæfdon hiera cyninZ aworpenne. (They had deposed their king)

As we know, there was no special morphological form for the future actions, but there existed constructions with the modal verbs sculan (denoting necessity) and willan (denoting wish). These constructions are the source and prototype of the future tense in modern English.

2. The strong verbs are divided into 7 classes according to vowel gradation in the 4 main forms of the verb. (Some verbs have also grammatical alteration of a consonant)

	Infinitive	Past singular	Past plural	ParticipleII
1^st class	writan	wrat	writon	writen
2^nd class	ceosan	ceas	curon	coren
3^rda) class	drincan	dranc	drincon	drincen
3^rd b)class	helpan	healp	hulpon	holpen

The weak verbs have 3 classes and are characterize by 3 main forms. All the weak verbs form their past tense and participle II with the help of a dental suffix (-d/-t)

	Infinitive	Past singular	ParticipleII
1^st class	cepan	cepte	cept/ceped
2^nd class	lufian	lufode	lufod
3^rda) class	libban	lifde	lifd

Preterite-present verbs have a peculiar place in OE. Their present tense form corresponds to the past of the strong verbs, while their past is derived according to the past of weak verbs.

Witan (to know), cunnan (can), dearan (to dare), sculan (shall), maZan (may), etc.

The verb cunnan denoted “ to learn”, “to find out”. Its past tense can meant “ I have learnt, that is, I am able to do this ” and the newly formed past cuPe means “ was able ”, “ could ”.

There were a few irregular verbs, which had suppletive forms: wesan (to be), b eo n (to be), Z a n (to go), d o n (to do), willan (to wish).

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