Preterite-Present Verbs

Preterite-Present Verbs are a small group of common verbs, originally unreduplicated perfects, which have acquired a present meaning. Thus for instance ic wāt is in form a preterite, parallel with ić wrāt ‘I wrote’, but its meaning is ‘I know’ (Present). They differ in inflexion from ordinary strong verbs in 2 Sg., where the ending is –t or –st, not –e. Their preterite tenses are new weak formations, inflected like other weak preterites (hence they may be also called mixed verbs, being partly strong and partly weak).

The group of preterite-presents includes 12 verbs: witan(know), cunnan (can; know), dugan(be fit for, be of use to), magan(may, be able), munan (remember), sculan(shall), āgan(have), ðurfan(need), etc.

Some of these verbs did not have a full paradigm and were in this sense “defective” (dear(r), mōt, geneah). Most of them did not indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb. In other words, they were used like modal verbs. Six of them have survived in Modern English (owe/ought; can; dare; shall; may; must).

Paradigms of four of them will be given here: those of witan,magan,āgan,cunnan. But it must be remembered that even these are incompletely recorded.

a) witan ‘know’

The contracted negative forms are nāt (= ne wāt) nāst (= ne wāst), nyton (= ne witon), nyte (= ne wite), etc.

b) magan ‘be able’

c) āgan ‘have’

The contracted negative forms are nāh (= ne āh), nāhte (= ne āhte), nāge (= āge), etc.

d) cunnan ‘can; know’

Date: 2014-12-22; view: 1849