Tense forms in OE

Plural

Dual

The usage of pronouns

The meaning of case forms

Every case in OE has a certain sphere of meanings which can be found in various situations where it is used.

The nominative case is the case of the subject, it is independent of other words in the sentence. It was also used in addresses: ƥã Finnas and ƥa Beormas spræcon nēah ãn 3eƥēode ‘the Finns and the Permians spoke nearly the same language’.

The genitive case was used to express possession: ƥāra cynin3a 3etruman ‘the kings’ armies’. It was also used with some adjective meaning full of something or free from something or worthy of something or guilty of something: full wrætta and wira (full of treasures and ornaments), firenlusta clǣne (free from criminal desires), morðres scyldi3 (guilty of murder). Sometimes the genitive case of nouns sometimes shows the tendency to become an adverbial modifier: 3if ƥēof brece mannes hūs nichtēs (If a thief breaks into a man’s house at night).

The dative case expresses the object towards which the action is directed, and acts as an oblique object. In is often found with verbs meaning ‘say’, ‘send’, ‘give’, etc. Ohthere sǣde his hlāforde, Ælfrēde cynin3e (Ohthere said to his lord, king Alfred).

The dative also combines with adjectives meaning ‘necessary’, ‘close’, ‘peculiar’: ƥæt is mone 3 um cūƥ ‘this is known to many people’.

The accusative case expresses an object immediately affected by the action, e. g. sē here ƥæt lond 3 eēode (войско завоевало землю).

The instrumental case resembles the dative case in its form and is usually characteristic of the personal pronouns. It shows the instrument by means of which the action is performed, sometimes it shows that the action is performed by somebody’s help, in this case the preposition mid is often used: mid ƥȳ folce - with the people.

There are several types of pronouns in OE: personal, possessive, relative. There are besides singular and plural pronouns, also dual pronouns for the 1^st and 2^nd persons.

Personal pronouns are used mainly as subjects and objects of the sentence.

Singular

1^st person 2^nd person 3^rd person

Masc. Fem. Neut.

Nom. ic ƥū hē hēo hit

Gen. mīn ƥīn his hire his

Dat. mē ƥē him hire him

Acc. mē, mec ƥē, ƥec hine hīe hit

1^st person 2^nd person

wit 3it

uncer incer

unc inc

unc, uncit inc, incit

1^st person 2^nd person 3^rd person

Nom. wē 3ē hīe, hī, hȳ, hēo

Gen. ūre ēower hiera, hira, hyra, hiora, heora

Dat. ūs ēow him

Acc. ūs, ūsic ēow, ēowic hīe, hī, hȳ, hēo

For the sake of emphasis of a personal pronoun the pronoun self (seolf, sylf) is used: hē hit sylf ne3eseah (he didn’t see it himself). In many cases the demonstrative pronouns sē, sēo, pæt lose their demonstrative meaning and acquire the function of the definite article sē mann (the man), sēo sæ (the sea), ƥæt lond (the land). In the 10^th century the indefinite article appeared. It developed from the numeral ãn in its unstressed position; ƥā læ 3 ƥǣr ãn micel ēa ūp in-on ƥæt lond ‘there lay a large river up in that land’.

In OE there were only two tenses which had morphological means of expression: they were the present and the past. These two tenses were used to express not only one kind of time relations, but sometimes two or even more. Thus the Present Indefinite tense was used to express both present and future time relations, e. g hwæt dreo3est ƥu? (что ты делаешь?) (present); 3 æƥ eft sē - ƥe mõt tõ medo mõdi 3, siƥƥan more3en - leoht ofer ylda bearn õƥres do3ores, sunne sme3l - wered sūƥan scīneƥ ‘he who can, will go back to the mead, brave, when the rising sun shines, the one clothed with radiance, shines on children, men’.

In the following sentence only the context shows that the future is meant: Of ƥē forƥ 3 æƥ sē hereto 3 a, seƥe recƥ mīn folc ‘from thee shall arise the captain who will save my folk’.

The Past Indefinite tense was used to express past actions: ƥā læ 3 ƥǣr ān micel ēa.

In OE mew analytical tense formations began their development. All of the MnE analytical tense forms developed from the OE free combinations of verbs (in those free combinations all the components retained their own meanings as in Modern Russian «хочу сказать»). The earliest analytical tense form was the form of the MnE Future Indefinite tense. The MnE Future Indefinite developed from the OE free combination of words sceald, wille + Infinitive. The combination of these verbs with the Infinitive expressed modality, besides both verbs entering the combination had their own meaning. Later on nearer to the OE period the verbs sceald and wille began gradually to lose the meaning of modality thus turning into the auxiliary verbs and the whole combination developed into the future indefinite tense form. In the Beowulf sentence nū ic ēower sceal ƒrum - cyn witan ‘now I must find out your origin’ the modal meaning of the verb sculan is clearly preserved, but in the sentence ‘ic ƥæm 3 õdan sceal for his mõd-ƥræce mãðmas bēodan ‘I shall offer this brave man treasures for his bravery.

The verb willan undergoes a similar weakening of meaning. In some sentences its original meaning is clear enough, e. g. hȳde sē-ƥe wylle ‘let him hide who wants to’. But in another context it is reduced to denote the future: wille ic ãsec 3 an ‘I will say’.

Another group of analytical tenses developed from the combination of the verb habban + Past Participle. Originally these formations meant that the subject owned a thing having a certain feature as a result of an action performed upon it. Then they acquired the meaning of result of an action: hīe hæfdon hiera cynin 3 ãworpenne ‘they had their king deposed’. The second participle agrees with the object in gender, number, case. The actual meaning, however, is ‘they had deposed their king’.

When the agreement between the object and Participle is lost the relation between the verb and the Past Participle causes the formation of a Perfect tense: Hæfde cynin 3 -wuldor 3 rendle to3eanes, swã 3uman 3efrun3on, sele-weard ãseted ‘the king of glory had, as people learned, against Grendel a half-keeper as set’, i.g. …had settled a half keeper. If the participle had agreed with the substantive, its form would have been ‘ãsetedne.

With intransitive verbs, the corresponding phrase contains the verb wesan, bēon ‘be’: the phrase expressed a state which the subject acquired as a result of his own action. This is most frequent with verbs expressing motion: is his eafora nū heard hēr cumen ‘his son, the brave one, is now come here’.

Next, we will consider the phrases wesan/bëon + second participle and weorƥan + second participle. Such phrase meant that the subject had a feature or acquired a feature as a result of an action performed on it. Thus, the sentence ƥǣr wǣs sē 3e 3ūƥfana 3enumen would originally mean ‘there was awarbanner seized’ (i. e. ‘it was a seized one’); the sentence hē wearƥ ofslæ3en would originally mean ‘he became (a) killed (one). However, it is more than likely than in actual OE usage both these phrases had become a means of expressing a passive action: ‘the banner was seized’, ‘he was killed’. The difference between the wesan/bēon and the weorƥan phrases would thus tend to disappear.

There are two view points on the origin of the Continuous forms. The supporters of the fist theory consider that Continuous forms developed from the OE free combinations of the verb bēon + Present Participle of some other verb: Hie wǣron blissende. It is typical of the Present Participle to express incomplete actions. But it is also typical of the Present Participle to express attribute. The supporters of the second point of view consider that Continuous tenses developed from OE verb bēon (wesan) + a verbal - noun with the preposition on before it. These combinations also expressed the idea that the action was in progress. Besides they also expressed adverbial relations and namely the relations of adverbial modifier of place: He wæs on huntinge.

In OE the MnE Passive Voice began its development. It was also developed from free combinations of verbs bēon, wesan, weorƥan + Past Participle. The choice of the auxiliary verb depended on the speaker. In free combinations the Past Participle agreed with the subject of the sentence: ƥær was sē 3ūƥfana 3 enumen (там было боевое знамя захвачено).

When the agreement between the subject and the predicate disappeared Passive Voice came into existence.

Past Indefinite:

Indicative Subjunctive

1. wrāt

2. write} write

3. wrāt

Plural: writon writen

Infinitive Participle I ParticipleII

writan writtende (3e)writen

A weak verb of the first class: tellan

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