Categories of the Verb in ME.

The Non-Finite forms of the Verb in OE and their further development.

In OE there were two non-finite forms of the verb: the Infini­tive and the Participle. The verbal nature of the Infinitive and the Participle was revealed in some of their functions and in their syntactic "combinability": they could take direct objects and be modified by ad­verbs.

The Infinitive had no verbal grammatical categories.

It had a reduced case-system: two forms which corresponded to the Nom. and the Dat. cases of nouns —

beran — uninfected Infinitive ("Nom." case)

to berenne or to beranne — inflected Infinitive ("Dat." case)

The uninflected Infinitive was used in verb phrases with modal verbs or other verbs of incomplete predication.

The Participle was verbal adjective which was characterised not only by nominal but also by certain verbal features. Par­ticiple I (Present Participle) was opposed to Participle II (Past Parti­ciple) through voice and tense distinctions: it was active and expressed present or simultaneous processes and qualities, while Participle II ex­pressed states and qualities resulting from past action and was contrast­ed to Participle I as passive to active, if the verb was transitive.

The forms of the two participles were strictly differentiated. Participle I was formed from the Present tense stem (the Infinitive without the endings -an, -ian) with the help of the suffix -ende. Participle II had a stem of its own — in strong verbs it was marked by a certain grade of the root-vowel interchange and by the suffix -en; with weak verbs it ended in -dl-t. Participle II was commonly marked by the prefix 5e-, though it could also occur without it, especially if the verb had other word-building prefixes, e. g.

Infinitive Participle I Participle II

bindan bindende зe-bunden (NE bind)

a-drencan a-drencende ɛɛd-drenced ('drown')

In MEthe grammatical categories of the finite form of the verbs are: person, number, tense, mood, voice and aspect. The ME non-finite forms of the verb were characterized by relative tense and voice distinctions.

Categories of the Verb in ME.

NON - FINITE FORMS.In OE there were only 4 grammatical categories. They are the Tense (Present & Preterit), the Mood, Person and Number. All of them were synthetic. But during the MEP some other categories which were mainly analytical appeared.

Participle 2 In ME the weak verbs built Participle II with the help of the dental suffix -(e)d, -t, the strong verbs — with the help of vowel gradation and the suffix -en.Strong v -4 grades(1-the form of the inf, 2-Preterit Sg, 3-Pret. Pl, 4-Partic2),Weak v -3 grades (1-inf, 2-Pret, 3-P2).

Participle I- suffix -ende (ex. OE berende, ME bering. NE bearing) PII - suffix -en{strong verbs), and -t,-d according to the type of verb (weak verbs) and commonly marked by prefix -3e. in OE: active voice (ex. segan)and passive voice (ex.seboren). PI and PII were used predicatively and attributively (like adj.) and agreed with noun in number, Gender, case. PI and PII lost number, Gender, case in ME.

Inf. loss of dative case (ME) (ex. OE Nomin.: writan, Dative: to writanne; ME: to written, NE: to write, ("to” is a formal sign). The preposition to, which was placed In OE to show direction or purpose, lost Its prepositional force and changed into a formal sign of,the Infinitive. In ME the Infinitive with to does not necessarily express purpose. In order to reinforce the meaning of purpose another preposition, for.

FINITE FORMS.The classes (4 classes in OE) of verbs were in the main preserved. The speakers still distinguished the classes. But there were certain very important developments.

The number of strong verbs was reduced from 300 in OE to 200 in ME. At the same time some strong verbs became weak, they lost their vowel gradation and took on the dental suffix: to help, to climb, to walk and some others.

At the same time there was a mixture of classes: strong verbs remained strong, but they changed their class, their gradation (4^th <>5^th - more often): to speak (5 в 4). As to the weak verbs the 3^rd class stop existing: two classes. The suffixes were -du and -ed.

The most regular was the second weak class - it later gave us the standard suffix -ed for standard or regular verbs. The MEP witnessed the development of weak verbs which then turned into regular verbs. A great number of verbs joined the class of regular verbs. The new formations which joined the group of regular verbs were French (and some other languages).

As to the preterit-present verbs they preserved their modal meaning, but their paradime had changed greatly. Towards the end of the MEP they lost their infinitive and participles and turned into defective verbs. Some of their old forms were dropped or gave rise to other words: cunning < can (cunnan); own (owe) < ought (aзan). As to the suppletives they have always been the same: to be, to go.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1325