Verb (5th lecture)

OE: Some people say that Old English was much like modern German, not more. This question is really interesting. In fact she is right, there is much more in common between Old English and German, than between Modern English and German. That happens because different languages have different speed of development. English through history was very progressive and active - the whole revolution happened with it in the 15th and the 16th centuries, not only taking into consideration the Great Vowel Shift, but also the major grammar changes. The result was the Modern, or New, English, which has practically no declension, lost genders, shortened words and forms, simplified the syntax. Modern English makes a distinction between regular and irregular verbs. This distinction goes back to the Old English system of strong and weak verbs: the ones which used the ancient Germanic type of conjugation (the Ablaut), and the ones which just added endings to their past and participle forms. Strong verbs make the clear majority. According to the traditional division, which is taken form Gothic and is accepted by modern linguistics, all strong verbs are distinguished between seven classes, each having its peculiarities in conjugation and in the stem structure.

The system of the verbs was less developed than it is now, it had fewer forms, and its categories were somewhat different from the similar categories in present-day English. All the paradigmatic forms of the verb were synthetic. There were also lexical structures with non-finite forms of the verb rendering some grammatical meaning. The non-finite forms of the verb in OE were the infinitive and two Participles. They had no categories of the finite verb but shared many features with the nominal parts of speech. The infinitive had the suffix –an/ian. It had the grammatical category of case: the nominative and dative, the latter form was made by the suffix –enne/anne: wrītan – to wrītenne. The infinitive in this form was associated with the preposition tō. Participle I is formed by means of the suffix –ende added to the stem of the infinitive: wrītan – wrītende (to write – writing). It was active in meaning and expressed the action simultaneous with the tense of the finite verb. 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. Depending on the class of the verb it was formed by vowel interchange and the suffix –en (strong verbs) or the dental suffix –d/t (weak verbs). Participle II was commonly marked by the prefix Ʒe-, though may be found without it. Wrītan – written, Ʒewriten. Categories: Number is not specifically verbal category. The choice of singular or plural form depends on the number of the noun/pronoun subject of the sentence. The category of person is represented by all the three persons, though this opposition is neutralized in many positions. Present tense singular has all forms, in plural it is not shown. Past tense singular had only one form for the 1 and 3 person, and in the Imperative and Subjunctive mood it was absent. The category of mood was represented by the opposition of 3 moods – Indicative (represents action as a real fact), Subjunctive (expresses condition, desire, supposition), Imperative (expresses order, or request to a second person).

The category of tense was represented by opposition past – non-past (preterit-non-preterit). The current form for the non-preterit. The majority of OE verbs fell into 2 great divisions: weak (derived their past tense stem and that of Participle II by adding dental suffix – d and –t, normally they didn’t change their rot vowels) and strong (formed their stems means of vowel gradation and by adding certain suffixes); in some verbs gradation was accompanied by changes of consonants. There were 4 basic forms of strong verbs: I – the stem with this vowel are used in the infinitive, the present tense indicative and subjunctive, the imperative mood and participle I; II – in the past tense singular, the 1^st and the 3d person; III – past tense plural< 2d person singular and past Subjunctive; IV – in the form of the Participle II).

Strong verbs. There were about three hundred strong verbs in OE. They are derived into 7 classes.

Regular strong verbs were all conjugated roughly the same, with the main differences being in the stem vowel. Thus stelan 'to steal' represents the strong verb conjugation paradigm.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'steal'
Infinitives		stelan
		tō stelanne
Present Indicative
	ic	stele
	þū	stilst
	hē/hit/hēo	stilð
	wē/gē/hīe	stelaþ
Past Indicative	ic	stæl
	þū	stæle
	hē/hit/hēo	stæl
	wē/gē/hīe	stælon
Present Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	stele
	wē/gē/hīe	stelen
Past Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	stǣle
	wē/gē/hīe	stǣlen
Imperative	Singular	stel
	Plural	stelaþ
Present Participle		stelende
Past Participle		stolen

Of course it’s the easiest example. Cause you can find out that the word changed a lot, its root vowels and so on. But this example can show you the main idea of changes in OE strong verb.

Weak verbs. Weak verbs are formed by adding alveolar (t or d) endings to the stem for the past and past-participle tenses. Some examples are love, loved or look, looked.

Originally, the weak ending was used to form the preterite of informal, noun-derived verbs such as often emerge in conversation and which have no established system of stem-change. By nature, these verbs were almost always transitive, and even today, most weak verbs are transitive verbs formed in the same way. However, as English came into contact with non-Germanic languages, it invariably borrowed useful verbs which lacked established stem-change patterns. Rather than invent and standardize new classes or learn foreign conjugations, English speakers simply applied the weak ending to the foreign bases.

The linguistic trends of borrowing foreign verbs and verbalizing nouns have greatly increased the number of weak verbs over the last 1,200 years. Some verbs that were originally strong (for example help, holp, holpen) have become weak by analogy; most foreign verbs are adopted as weak verbs; and when verbs are made from nouns (for example "to scroll" or "to water") the resulting verb is weak. Additionally, conjugation of weak verbs is easier to teach, since there are fewer classes of variation. In combination, these factors have drastically increased the number of weak verbs, so that in modern English weak verbs are the most numerous and productive form (although occasionally a weak verb may turn into a strong verb through the process of analogy, such as sneak (originally only a noun), where snuck is an analogical formation rather than a survival from Old English).

There are three major classes of weak verbs in Old English. The first class displays i-mutation in the root, and the second class none. There is also a third class explained below.

Class-one verbs with short roots exhibit gemination of the final stem consonant in certain forms. With verbs in <r> this appears as <ri> or <rg>, where <i> and <g> are pronounced [j]. Geminated <f> appears as <bb>, and that of <g> appears as <cg>. Class one verbs may receive anepenthetic vowel before endings beginning in a consonant.

Where class-one verbs have gemination, class-two verbs have <i> or <ig>, which is a separate syllable pronounced [i]. All class-two verbs have an epenthetic vowel, which appears as <a> or <o>.

In the following table, three verbs are conjugated. Swebban 'to put to sleep' is a class one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel.Hǣlan 'to heal' is a class-one verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. Sīðian 'to journey' is a class-two verb.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'put to sleep'		'heal'	'journey'
Infinitives			swebban	hǣlan		sīðian
			tō swebbanne	tō hǣlanne		tō sīðianne
Present Indicative
	ic	swebbe		hǣle	sīðie
	þū	swefest		hǣlst	sīðast
	hē/hit/hēo	swefeþ		hǣlþ	sīðað
	wē/gē/hīe	swebbaþ		hǣlaþ	sīðiað
Past Indicative	ic	swefede		hǣlde	sīðode
	þū	swefedest		hǣldest	sīðodest
	hē/hit/hēo	swefede		hǣle	sīðode
	wē/gē/hīe	swefedon		hǣlon	sīðodon
Present Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	swebbe		hǣle	sīðie
	wē/gē/hīe	swebben		hǣlen	sīðien
Past Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	swefede		hǣlde	sīðode
	wē/gē/hīe	swefeden		hǣlden	sīðoden
Imperative	Singular	swefe		hǣl	sīða
	Plural	swebbaþ		hǣlaþ	sīðiað
Present Participle			swefende	hǣlende		sīðiende
Past Participle			swefed	hǣled		sīðod

During the Old English period the third class was significantly reduced; only four verbs belonged to this group: habban 'have', libban 'live', secgan'say', and hycgan 'think'. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though they share some commonalities.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'have'	'live'	'say'	'think'
Infinitive		habban	libban, lifgan	secgan	hycgan
Present Indicative
	ic	hæbbe	libbe, lifge	secge	hycge
	þū	hæfst, hafast	lifast, leofast	segst, sagast	hygst, hogast
	hē/hit/hēo	hæfð, hafað	lifað, leofað	segð, sagað	hyg(e)d, hogað
	wē/gē/hīe	habbaþ	libbað	secgaþ	hycgað
Past Indicative	(all persons)	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
Present Subjunctive	(all persons)	hæbbe	libbe, lifge	secge	hycge
Past Subjunctive	(all persons)	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
Imperative	Singular	hafa	leofa	sæge, saga	hyge, hoga
	Plural	habbaþ	libbaþ, lifgaþ	secgaþ	hycgaþ
Present Participle		hæbbende	libbende, lifgende	secgende	hycgende
Past Participle		gehæfd	gelifd	gesægd	gehogod