26. What categories did the oe verb have?

OE verbs have two tenses (present and past) and three moods (indicative,

subjunctive and imperative). There are also the verbals – the infinitive, the first

(present) and the second (past) participles. The verbs agree with the subject in

person and number.

OE strong verbs are traditionally divided into seven classes, each having a

distinct pattern of the root vowels in its principal parts, different from any other

class. There were four basic forms of strong verbs in OE: the Infinitive, the Past

singular, the Past plural, Participle II.

27. What were the most common syntactical patterns in oe?

OE was a synthetical language, which means that the relations between words

in phrases and sentences were shown via different flections. Due to this, the OE

word order was generally free.

The standard order of subject, object, and verb in a declarative sentence in

Modern English is subject first, followed by verb, followed by object, however,

Old English doesn't always use SVO order in its sentences and clauses.

For instance, in "Cynewulf and Cyneheard" we have examples of the

following orders:

SVO order:

He hæfde þa [i.e. Hamtunscire]oþ he ofslog þone aldormon.

He had it [i.e. Hampshire] until he killed the ealdorman.

He wræc þone aldor mon Cumbran.

He avenged the ealdorman Cumbra.

VSO order:

Þa geascode he þone cyning.

Then he discovered the king.

OSV order:

hiene þa Cynewulf on Andred adræfde.

Cynewulf then drove him into [the forest] Andred.

ær hine þa men onfunden þe mid þam kyninge wærun.

before the men discovered him who were with the king

VOS order:

Ða on morgenne gehierdun þæt þæs cyninges þegnas.

Then in the morning the kings thegns heard that.

The question were usually build with the help of inversion,

gehȝrst Þu Þā word? (Have you heard this word?).

28. Did there exist any analytical forms in oe?

The OE was a synthetical language, though some analytical forms already

started to come into use. There existed the following prototypes of future analytical

formations:

(1) sculan + infinitive, willan + infinitive

These constructions were occasionally used to convey future meaning. As you

remember, there was no special future tense in OE, the hypothetical future

meaning could be expressed by lexical means (context, adverbs etc.) or by

compound modal predicate. Sculon andwillanused to be pure modal verbs,sculan

expressed obligation and willan – volition, for example:

Þonne sculan hīe Þās helle sēcan (they must seek that hell).

By the end of OE period these verbs started to lose their modal meaning.

(2) habban + Participle II (with transitive verbs), bēon + Participle II

(with intransitive verbs)

These combinations mean that the subject had some thing or quality as a

result of some action, for example:

hīe hæfdon hiera cyning āworpenne (they had their king deposed).

The Participle II usually agrees with the object in gender, number and case.

Later such constructions started to convey the meaning of completion and

result of the action, which could be viewed as beginning of analytical perfective

aspect. Occasionally completion of an action was expressed by means of ge-

prefix. It also approaches in a way the meaning of he perfective aspect, dōn –

gedōn.

(3) wesan/ bēon/weorÞan + Participle II.

This construction had a passive meaning and showed, that the subject aquired

a feature as a result of an action performed, for example:

hē wearÞ ofslægen (he became a killed one).

Indo-European had three voices: active, passive and middle (reflexive); Germanic

languages lost inflected passive and middle. The above construction could not be

considered as expressing passive as it exists now, as the verbs wesan/

bēon/weorÞan retained their full meaning yet.