IV. Categories of verbs in oe.

In OE the verbs had the category of person, numbers, tense and mood (Imperative, and Indicafive). As for the category of tense, there was only Present and Past, there was no Future Tense. There were no analytical forms in the verb system in OE .

5. Conjugation of Verbs [kon’dzugei ∫ n]

The system of conjugation of verbs was rather developed in OE. Strong verbs as well as weak verbs had practically the same endings in Present Tense.

writan (s. v.) fremman (w.v.) cunnan (prt.-prs.v.)

Sing.1 st.P. writ -e- fremm -e- cunn

2 nd. P writ -st- fremme -st cun - st

3 d. P. writ -eb fremm -eb cann

Plural : writa־b fremm - ab cunn - on

As you see 1^st p. (s) - has ending “e” (exept prt. prs. - cann)

2 nd. p. s. - est (st)

3 d. p.s. - eb (exept prt. pr. - cann)

3 d. p. pl. - ab (prt. pr. - on)

Conjugation of Verbs in Past was not the same for strong, weak and preterite - present verbs.

Writan (s.v.) fremman (w.v.) cannon (p.p.v.)

Singular 1^st p. wra־t fremed-e cub - e

2^nd p. write fremed - est cub - est

3d p. wrat fremed - e cub - e

Plural writon fremed - on cub - on

All verbs had ending -on- in Plural (Past).

The predominant part of the OE verbs was weak verbs. All the new verbs followed this pattern. All other groups of verbs included strong verbs constituted 300 items. They were reduced to 160 items. Now a little more than 60 verbs go back to OE strong verbs. Some of them past to weak verbs. Some of them died out.

VI. Me Verbs.

Conjugation underwent considerable changes in the ME period.

As a result of leveling of unstressed vowels the difference between the endings an, on, -en was lost. The final -n, which characterized many verb forms was lost. It proved stable only in second participles, where it has been preserved down to the MnE period.

First instances of a continuous aspect appeared in ME. They consisted of the verb be(n) and the first participle. They were very rare. Thus in Chaucer’s works only six examples of such forms have been found. Here is one of them:

“Singynge he was, or floytinge, al the day”- “he was singing or playing the flute, all day long”. Aspecial future form becomes a regular part of the tense system in ME. The auxiliaries “shal” and “wil” are deprived of their original modal meanings.

The passive voice was widely developed in ME. As the verb “weorban” disappeared the only auxiliary for the passive was “ben”.

NE period. Since the ending - “e” of the 1st person singular, and of the infinitive was lost, these forms had no endings at all. Another change affected the 3 rd person singular present indicative. The ending - eth was replaced by “s”, which in ME period had been a characteristic of the Northern dialect. In the 15^th century the “s” - form gradually penetrated, through the medium of Midland dialects into the literary language.

The classes of strong verbs disintegrated and only formed some groups. The number of the groups of the verbs that had changing of vowels because of gradation decreased. Some of these verbs transformed into the standard (regular) group of verbs. But most of the strong verbs constitute the so-called irregular verbs. This group of verbs is rather stable, but it is not productive. The productive type is regular verbs which were formed from the second class of weak verbs.

Seminar 7 Morphology of the OE verbs

Contents

1. Morphological categories of the verb.

2. Strong verbs.

3. Weak verbs.

4. Miner group of OE verbs: a) preterite - present verbs

b) suppletive verbs

c) mixed verbs

5. Conjugation of OE verbs.

6. ME and NE verbs.

Lecture 8

EVOLUTION OF THE PRONOUNS AND ADJECTIVES IN OLD ENGLISH, MIDDLE ENGLISH AND NEW ENGLISH PERIODS.

Contents:

I. OE pronouns:a) personal pronouns;

b)demonstrative pronouns;

c) possessive pronouns d)interrogative pronouns.

II. ME pronouns :a) personal pronouns;

b) possessive pronouns.

3. OE adjectives. Declenison of OE adjectives.

4. Degrees of Comparison of OE adjectives.