1.

Grammatical categories of the finite verb

- In what respects was the OE verb system “simpler” than the Mod E system?

OE Verb was characterized by many specific features. Though it had few grammatical
categories its paradigm had a very complicated structure: verbs fell into numerous
morphological classes and used a lot of means of form-building. All these forms were
synthetic with some analytical elements to appear. The non-finite forms had a little in
common with finite verbs, but much – with nominal parts.

Indicative –изъявительное

Subjunctive-согласов

- Describe the grammatical categories of the OE finite verbs.

In Finite Forms they were: mood (3), tense (2), number (2), person(3).

1) There were 3 moods: Ind, Subj, Imp. They had approximately the same meanings
which they have today with the exception of the Subj Mood, which was frequently used
to express a problematic action and was found in indirect speech. It was much more
often than in the Present.

2) The OE verbs had 2 tenses: the Present and the Past. The present form was used to
denote both tenses present and future (..to denote Pr and Future actions as in other
Germanic langeages). There were no analytical forms, only inflexion. Futurity was
shown lexically with the help of adverbial modifiers and the context. It is true that in OE
there were combinations with the verbs: sculan (shall), willan (will), but they had
there own lexical meaning. They were not auxiliary verbs. From these constructions the
future forms (the future tense was) were formed later.

3) The category of person was represented only in the Indicative sg and in the

Imperative in OE. There was no indication of person in the Ind pl or in the Subj forms.
(One form for all persons.) Three persons were distinguished only in the present tense
of the Ind Mood.

4) The Ind and Subj had 2 numbers in both tenses. The Imp Mood also distinguished 2
numbers. No dual number. At that time they were ?homonymous? forms. In the Subj M
the past and the present pl were the same and also in the sg present and past. In the
Indicative they were homonymous forms in the sing and plural. Lōcian (look) wv2 (weak
verb class 2).

Tense Only two tenses are distinguished by inflexion, present and past (sometimes

called preterite in the grammars); both cover a wider range of meanings than they would
in Modern English. So he cymeth (present tense) could mean ‘he comes', ‘he is
coming', or ‘he will come'; he com (past tense) could mean ‘he came', ‘he has come',
‘he was coming', or ‘he had come'. However, the periphrastic tense-forms (i.e. forms
with ‘have', ‘will', ‘be', etc., plus infinitive or participle) illustrated in the translations here
are already beginning to develop in Old English.

Mood  OE verbs, like MnE verbs, have three moods, indicative (for statements and
questions), imperative (for commands), and subjunctive (for wishes, hypothetical
conditions, etc.). The main point of difference here is that in MnE we use the subjunctive
mood much less frequently, and have few distinctive subjunctive forms (see
your Traditional Grammar booklet, 2.6.iii) c), and Mitchell & Robinson, Index of
Subjects, under "Moods"); OE regularly indicates the subjunctive by inflexion, and you
should learn to recognise subjunctive forms.

………………………..

As for the category of aspect, it is disputable problem: if there was aspect in OE?
How was it expressed? There is a view that aspect was expressed by the opposition of
verbs with/without prefix –ze (with perfective or non-perfective meaning accordingly).
But it didn’t always work. Recent researches show that –ze can not be regarded as a
marker of aspect. It could make the verb perfective, but also could change its lexical
meaning (e.g. OE sittan “sit” – zesittan “occupy”, beran “carry” – –zeberan “bear a
child”).

Also the verbs without –ze could express a perfective meaning. So, prefix –ze might be

regarded as a derivational prefix with some shades of aspective meaning. Aspect in OE
also could be expressed through verb-phrases with “habban, bēon, weorðan” and
Participle II.

e) The category of voice also existed in OE in the form of synthetic Mediopassive

(which existed in Proto-Germanic and was well developed in Gothic). But the most
frequent expression of Passive was the combination of Participle II of transitive verbs
plus the verbs “bēon” and” weorðan”.

- Compare the meanings of the Modern and Old English moods. Which
mood differs most of all?

OE verbs, like MnE verbs, have three moods, indicative (for statements and

questions), imperative (for commands), and subjunctive (for wishes, hypothetical
conditions, etc.). The main point of difference here is that in MnE we use the subjunctive
mood much less frequently, and have few distinctive subjunctive forms (see
your Traditional Grammar booklet, 2.6.iii) c), and Mitchell & Robinson, Index of
Subjects, under "Moods"); OE regularly indicates the subjunctive by inflexion, and you
should learn to recognise subjunctive forms.

Speak about OE verb tenses. How were the future tense forms built?

In the OE language there was no form of the future tense. The category of tense
consisted of two members: past and present. The present tense could indicate both
present and future actions, depending on the context. Alongside this form there existed
other ways of presenting future happenings: modal phrases and the infinitive of the
notional verb. In these phrases the meaning of futurity was combined with strong modal
meanings of volition, obligation and possibility.

In ME the use of modal phrases, especially with the verb shall, became increasingly
common. Shall + inf. was now the principal means of indicating future actions in any
context. One of the early instances of shall with a weakened modal meaning is found in
the early ME poem ORMULUM.

In late ME texts shall was used both as a modal verb and as a future tense auxiliary,
though discrimination between them is not always possible. In the age of Shakespeare
the phrases with shall and will, as well as the present tense of notional verbs occurred
in free variation; they can express “pure” futurity and add different shades of modal
meanings.

The development of aspect is linked up with the growth of the continuous forms. In the
OE verb system there was no category of aspect; verbal prefixes especially зe-, which
could express an aspective meaning of perfectivity in the opinion of most scholars, were
primarily word-building prefixes. The growth of continuous forms was slow and uneven.

Verb phrases consisting of bēon (NE be) + Part.I are not infrequently found in OE
prose. They denoted a quality, or a lasting state, characterizing the person or thing
indicated by the subject of the sentence.

In early ME ben + Part.I fell into disuse; it occurs occasionally in some dialectal areas.

In the 15th and 16th c. be + Part.I was often confused with a synonymous phrase – be +
the preposition on + a verbal noun.

It was not until the 18th c. that the cont. forms acquired a specific meaning of their own;
to use modern definitions, that of incomplete concrete process of limited duration. Only
at the stage the cont. and non-cont. made up a new gram. category – aspect.

2. Morphological classification of verbs

- Speak about the main principle of division of the OE verbs into

classes? Enumerate the classes of the OE verbs.

The majority of OE verbs fell into two great divisions: the strong verbs and the weak
verbs. Besides these two main groups there were a few verbs which could be put
together as “minor” groups. The main difference between the strong and weak verbs lay
in the means of forming the principal parts, or “stems” of the verb. The strong verbs
formed their stems by means of ablaut and by adding certain suffixes; in some verbs
ablaut was accompanied by consonant interchanges. The strong verbs had four stems,
as they distinguished two stems in the Past Tense – one for the 1st and 3rd p. sg Ind.
Mood, the other – for the other Past tense forms, Ind. and Subj. the weak verbs derived
their Past tense stem and the stem of Participle II from the Present tense stem with the
help of the dental suffix -d- or -t-; normally they did not interchange their root vowel, but
in some verbs suffixation was accompanied by a vowel interchange. Minor groups of
verbs differed from the weak and strong verbs. Some of them combined certain features
of the strong and weak verbs in a peculiar way (“preterite-present” verbs); others were
suppletive or altogether anomalous.

- Describe the OE strong verbs. Why are they called strong? How do
they build their paradigm?

The strong verbs in OE are usually divided into seven classes. Classes from 1 to

6 use vowel gradation which goes back to the IE ablaut-series modified in different
phonetic conditions in accordance with PG and Early OE sound changes. Class 7
includes reduplicating verbs, which originally built their past forms by means of
repeating the root-morpheme; this doubled root gave rise to a specific kind of root-vowel
interchange. The principal forms of all the strong verbs have the same endings
irrespective of class: -an for the Infinitive, no ending in the Past sg stem, -on in the form
of Past pl, -en for Participle II.

Strong verb indicate tense by a change in the quality of a vowel. They are original(germ.
Europ). Restrictive group of verb. Oe – over 300Sv. 1 class –i class, a. 2 class-u-
classu+root=diphthong,. Root consonant changed(rotasism). 3,4 class- the gradation
was caused by consonant.(breaking), 6- qualitative-quantities ablaut 7 class –
reduplication of the root-morpheme. They use form of conjugation known as ablaut. And
this form of conjugation the stem of the word change to indicate the tense.

- Speak about weak verbs. Why are they called specifically Germanic?
How do they build their paradigm?

Weak verbs are relatively stronger than strong verbs. They reflect a later stage in the
development of the Germ.languages. There were an open class in OE as new verbs
that entered the language generally formed their forms on analogie with the weak verbs.
Whereas, the strong verbs used vowel interchange as means of differentiation among
the principal verb tense, the weak verbs used for that purpose suffixation(suffixes –t,-
d) : cēpan, cepte, cept. The weak verbs had a stem-forming suffix, that followed the root
& the grammatical endings. In accordance of the character of the stem-suffix the weak
verbs are classified into 3 classes: в презентациииии

The stem suffix “i”, the class includes many words from other nouns, adjectives and
verbs. All of them have a front- root vowel – the result of the palatal mutation due to the
“i” element of the stem suffix.( dōn-deman; ful-fyllan). In the cause of time this palatal
suffix was lost. It was preserved only in some participles in the form of “e”: dēman,
demd, demed.
The stem-suffix “oi”.The “o” element of the suffix is preserved in the past tense & in the
Participle II. The root vowel of this class remained unchanged because of the preceding
ō (lufo-ian) in all forms.

Only 3 verbs: -habban –have;-libban-live; seezan-say.

- Why are the preterite-present verbs called so? Speak about

their peculiarities, give examples.
1)Preterite – present verbs.

Originally the Present Tense forms of these verbs were Past tense forms. Later these
forms acquired a present meaning but preserved many formal features of the Past
tense. Most of these verbs had new Past tense forms built with the help of the dental
suffix. Some of them also acquired the forms of the verbals: Participles and infinitives.
Most verbs didn’t have a full paradigm and were in this sense “defective”.

The verbs were inflected in the Present like the Past tense of strong verbs: the forms of
the 1st and 3rd person sing. Unlike strong verbs had the same root-vowel in all the
persons; the plural had a different grade of ablaut similarly with strong verbs. In the Past
the preterite-presents were inflected like weak verbs: the dentak suffix + the endings –e,
-est,-e. In OE there were 12 preterite-present verbs. 6 of them have survived in modern
E. (cunnun, sceal, mazan:ought, may, must). Most of the Preterite-presents did not
indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action, denoted by another verb-
an infinitive which followed the preterit-present. They were used like modal verbs and
eventually developed into modern modal verbs.

Among the verbs of the minor groups:

-anomalous [əˈnɒmələs] verbs with irregular forms(willan – the meaning of volition

and desire, indicated an attitude to an action and was often followed by an infinitive.

"don" (do) and “willan” (will).

e.g. don – dyde – ӡedon

 Suppletive verbs
ӡan, whose Past tense was built from a different root:

e.g. ӡan – eode – NE to go

3. Verbals and their grammatical categories.

- Enumerate the OE verbals. Speak about their grammatical categories.

In OE there were two non-finite forms of the verb: the Infinitive and the Participle. In
many respects they were closer to the nouns and adjectives than to the finite verb; their
nominal features were far more obvious than their verbal features, especially at the
morphological level. The verbal nature of the Infinitive and the Participle was revealed in
some of their functions and in their syntactic "combinability": like finite forms they could
take direct objects and be modified by adverbs.

The forms of the two participles were strictly differentiated. Participle I was formed from
the Present tense stem (the Infinitive without the endings -an, -ian) with the help of the
suffix -ende. P II had a stem of its own — in strong verbs it was marked by a certain
grade of the root-vowel interchange and by the suffix -en; with weak verbs it ended in
-d/-t. P II was commonly marked by the prefix ge-, though it could also occur without it,
especially if the verb had other word-building prefixes.

Infinitive Participle I Participle II (NE bindan bindende gebunden bind)

4. OE adverbs.

- Give a characteristic of OE adverbs.

2 classes: primary (original) adverbs and secondary adverbs.

 PIE pronouns and nouns = the source for primary adverbs.

þa (then), þonne (then), þæ'r (there), þider (thither), nú (now), hér (here), hider (hither),

heonan (hence), sóna (soon), oft (often), eft (again), swá (so), hwílum (sometimes).

 Secondary adverbs = the instrumental singular of the neuter adj of strong declension.

They all add the suffix –e : wide (widely), déope (deeply), fæste (fast), hearde (hard).

the suffixes - lic , -lice : bealdlíce (boldly), freondlíce (in a friendly way).

Adverbs, as well as adjectives, had their degrees of comparison:

 wíde - wídor - wídost  (widely - more widely - most widely) 

 long - leng  (long - longer) 

 feorr  (far) - fierr 

wel (well) - betre - best 

5. OE auxiliary words.

- What words are called auxiliary in OE. Give examples.

These traditionally include prepositions, conjunctions, different particles and

interjections. All Indo-European languages have this system of auxiliary parts of speech.
Most of Old English prepositions are easily recognizable:

Primary: of(of, out of),æt(to),fram(from),tō(to),wiþ(against),in, of,mid(with), on(on,

at), be(by, near, to, because of,
about),þurh(through),under,ofer(over),æfter(after),bufan(above),ūt(out).

Secondary: beforan(before),būtan(without),benorþan(north of), etc.

Mind that ætmeans 'to' andwiþmeans 'against'.

Conjunctions included the following:

Primary: and / ond (and), ac (but), gif (if), or.

Secondary: ægþer ge... ge (both... and..., either ...

or...), hwonne (when), þa (when), þonne (when),  þēāh (though), þætte (that), ær (b
efore), swā... swā... (so... as...).

And a few interjections: iā (yes), wā (woe!, wow!), hwæt (there! what!).

 Build the principal forms of the verbs fēlan (wv. 1) – to feel, folʒian (wv. 2) - follow, bǽrnan
(wv. 1) - burn, ʒieman (wv 1) – to take care of, losian (wv. 2) – to be lost.

Fēlan folʒian
fēlde
folʒe
fēldest
fēlde folʒst
fēldon folʒþ
folʒaþ
bærnan

bærnde
bærndest
bærnde
bærndon

losian
losode
losodest
losode
losodon

Wīciað – verb, weak, class 2, Present,

Plural, see wīcian.

Finnas – noun, a-stem, masculine,

Nominative, Plural, see finn.

ϸâ- – demonstrative pronoun, feminine,

Dative, Singular, see OE sē, sēo.

Beornas – Noun, a-stem, masculine, Plural,

Nominative, see beorn.

Ōhthere – noun, class A.

Hē – personal pronoun, 3rd, masculine,

Singular> he; He: он; cf. OSax. he, hi, Du.
hij, Rus. сей, Lat. cis.

His – personal pronoun, 3rd, masculine,

Singular, Genetive, see hē.

ēaჳan – noun, weak declension, n-stem,

Plural, neuter, Nominative, see ēaჳe.

þỷstrodon – verb, weak, class 2, Past,

Plural, see þỷstrian.

clypode – verb, weak, class 2, Past,

3rd person, Singular, see clypian.

Secჳan – verb, weak, Class 3 > seggen,

seyen, seyn, sayen; Say: OE сказать,
говорить, рассказывать; ME and NE
сказать, говорить; cf. G. sagen, OSc.
segja. Doubling of consonants, i-umlaut.