The Participles

Non-Finite Forms.

In OE there were non-finite forms: infinitive and participles I and II. There was no gerund.

The OE infinitive was a verbal noun by origin. It was declinable and had a reduced case system (Nom. and Dative cases). In the Nominative cases the infinitive was unaffected (-an, ian). In the Dative case it was used with the preposition to and the ending -anne, -enne, in the function of an adverbial modifier of purpose, e.g.:

Nom. -- helpan

Dat. to – helpenne

Like the dative case of nouns the infinitive in this form was associated with the preposition to and could be used to indicate the direction or purpose of an action, and in the impersonal sentences:

ic wilnode weorcffullice tolibanne da hwile cfe ic lifde (when I lived I wanted to live a worthy life (virtuously) hrcedest is to cwzoenne (to say it short, to cut it short)

The uninflected infinitive was used with verbs of person of an action willan, sculan, weorðan to render various grammatical meanings; these combinations served as the basis for analytical verb forms..

The infinitive had no verbs categories but like finite forms, it could take direct objects and be modified by adverbs.

They were verbal adjectives by origin and were characterized by verbal and nominal categories. Participle I was derived from the present stem of the verb by means of the ending –ende and was declined as a weak adjective: macian - maciende – NE making.

Participle I is formed by means of the suffix -ende added to the stem of the infinitive: writan - writende (to write - writing), sprecan - sprecende (to speak - speaking):

cfast scip wss ealne wcj ymende under sejie (the ship was running (going) under sail)

This participle was active in meaning and expressed present time relevance or simultaneous with the tense of the finite verb processes and qualities. Like all nominal parts of speech, it had the categories of number, gender and case and was declined like a strong adjective.

Participle II expressed actions and states resulting from past action and was passive in meaning with transitive verbs, and rendered only temporal meaning of the past with the intransitive. Depending on the class of the verb, it was formed by vowel interchange (gradation) and the suffix -en (strong verbs) or the dental suffix -d/t (weak verbs). Participle II was commonly marked by the prefix Je-, though may be found without it, too, especially when the verb had other word-building prefix - writan - writen, Jewriten (to write - written), findan - founden (to find - found), onynnan -onjunnen (to begin - began); endian - endod, Jeendod (end - ended), tellan - teald (to tell - told), sec Jan - sse^d (to say - said). Participle II might be declined according to the strong and the weak declension, and the forms of the nominative case of all genders are as follows

(Je)numen (take);

strong declension:

M (Je)numen, (Je)teald (sg)

N (Je)numen, (Je)teald (sg)

F (Je)numen(u), (Je)teald (sg)

and weak declension:

M (Je)numena, (Je)tealda (sg)

N (Je)numene, (Je)tealde (sg)

F (Je)numene, (Je)tealde (sg)

(Je)teald (told):

- (Je)numene, (Je)tealde (pi)

- (Je)numen(u), (Je)teald (pi)

- (Je)numena, (Je)teald (pi)

- (Je)numenan, (Je)tealdan (pi)

- (Je)numenan, (Je)tealdan (pi)

- (Je)numenan, (Je)tealdan (pi)

Дата добавления: 2013-12-14