12. Oe minor groups of verbs (preterite-present, anomalous)

Preterite-present verbs build their present tense with the help of ablaut and their past tense — with the help of the dental suffix, because of semantic nature of such verbs. They all denote states of mind that are the result of some past actions. The result is viewed in the present, but the action is connected with the past. There were 12 verbs and 7 of them survived.

They are so called because the present tense of these verbs looks like the past tense of the strong verbs. The original past-tense forms could, might and should, have come to be used mainly as presents with specialized meanings, and two verbs of this class, must and ought, have lost their original present tenses altogether: their old pasts are now used as presents.

Anomalous verbs: irregular (don, willan) and suppletive (beon, gan).

The verbs do, go and will are still anomalous in Modern English, and in much the same way as in Old English: dōn ‘do’ has a past form that is paralleled in no other verb; gān ‘go’ lacks a past form of its own and has apparently borrowed the past of another verb, now disappeared; and willan ‘desire’ has distinctive inflections in the present tense.

13. Oe syntax

In OE there was a free word order. Types of word order:

• direct (SPO),

• indirect (PSO) - was caused by putting the adverbs of time, place and elements of negation at the beginning of the sentence,

• synthetic (SPOP) - existed in subordinate clauses,

• frame (SOP).

Sentences:

• simple (the same parts as today, nominal character of the subject, verbal character of the sentence, impersonal and indefinite personal constructions) consisted of subject (noun, pronoun, numeral in Nom) and predicate (simple [verb in finite form] and compound verbal [pr-pr verb + inf] and nominal [link-verb + n/adj/n pattern]);

• composite (1. The composite sentence developed later than a simple one. 2. A compound sentence appeared earlier than a complex one. 3. The first compound and complex sentences were asyndetical; they could be joined with the help of intonation.)

Syntactic connections:

• agreement (adj in Instr, head noun in Dat);

• government (dependent component is used only in one form);

• joining (independent);

• closure (never used in OE).

The phrase. In OE there are various types of word-combinations: noun patterns; adjective patterns; verb patterns.

Noun patterns — noun as the head-word + pronouns, adj, numerals and other nouns as determiners. Dependent words agree with the head-word in gender, number and case. [on othrum da3um (in other days)] Nouns which are the attributes to other nouns usually have the form of Gen. e.g.: hwaeles ban (wale’s bone).

Adjective patterns — adverbs, nouns or pronouns in the form of one of the oblique cases with or without prepositions. [him waes manna thearf (he was in need of men)].

Verb patterns — nouns/pronouns in oblique cases with or without prepositions, adverbs, infinitives, participles. [he cwaeth to his suna (he told to his son)].

Direct object: nouns or pronouns in Acc.

Indirect object: nouns or pronouns in Gen, Dat, Acc.

Prepositional object: phrase: preposition + noun + pronoun.

Attribute: always agrees with the head-noun in gender, number, case. It can be expressed by participle, numeral, noun in Gen or preposition + noun, can also be placed after the head-noun.

Adverbial modifier: adverbs and noun + adjective or preposition + noun.