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Non-finite forms of the verb. Grammatical categories of the Verbals

In OE there were two non-finite forms of the verb: the Infinitive and the two Participles.

The Infinitive had no verbal grammatical categories. It had the suffix –an/ian Being a verbal noun by origin, it had the grammatical category of case: the nominative and the dative.

The Participle was a kind of verbal adjective which was characterized not only by nominal but also by certain verbal features. Participle I (Present Participle) is formed by means of the suffixendeadded to the stem of the infinitive. It was opposed to Participle II (Past Participle) through voice and tense distinctions: Participle I was active and expressed present or simultaneous processes and qualities, like all nominal parts of speech, it had the categories off number, gender and case and was declined like a strong adjective.

Participle II expressed states and qualities resulting from past action and was passive in meaning with transitive verbs. Depending on the class of the verb, it was formed by vowel interchange (gradation) and the suffix –en (strong verbs) or the dental suffix –d/t (weak verbs). Participle II might be declined according to the strong and the weak declension, and the forms of the nominative case of all genders are.

 

The majority of OE verbs fell into two great divisions: the strong verbs and the weak verbs. Besides these two main groups there were a few verbs which could be put together as “minor” groups. The main difference between these groups lays in the way they form the principal forms; besides there were a few other differences in conjugation.

Accordingly, the verbs may be divided into the following groups:

- Strong

- Weak

- Preterite-present

- Supplletive

The main difference between the strong and weak verbs lay in the way they form the principal parts, or “stems” of the verb; The strong verbs formed their stems by means of ablaut (vowel gradation) and by adding certain inflections and suffixes.

There are four basic forms (stems) of the strong verbs, and… pg. 72

1. Infinitive – this stem is used to form the present indicative, the present subjunctive, imperative and participle I

2. Past singular– this stem occurs only in the 1st and 3rd person singular past indicative (past tense singular 1st and 3rd persons)

3. Past plural– used to from the 2nd person singular past indicative and the past subjunctive

Participle II

The strong verbs in OE are usually divided into 7 classes. Classes from 1 to 6 use vowel gradation which goes back to the IE ablaut-series modified in different phonetic conditions in accordance with PG and Early OE sound changes. Class 7 includes reduplicating verbs, which originally built their past forms by means of repeating the root-morpheme;

 

OE Weak verbs

OE weak verbs had three basic forms (principal parts) infinitive, past, Participle II. Their past tense and participle II were made by adding the dental suffix –t- or –d- to the root morpheme. They are divided into three classes depending on the ending of the infinitive, the sonority of the suffix and the sounds preceding the suffix. New verbs derived from nouns, adjectives and partly adverbs were conjugated weak…;



Another group of weak verbs causative (transitive) verbs derived from strong intransitive verbs…;

Borrowed verbs were also weak….

The first class –the verbs of this class ended in –an.Originally they had had a stem-forming suffix -i-that caused the mutation of the root vowel. This class of verbs is subdivided into regular and irregular. Regular class I verbs have mutation of their root vowel, and the three basic forms of the verb end in

-in/-ian - -de/ede/te – ed/-t-d

Irregular verbs of the 1st class of the weak verbs had mutated vowel only in the infinitive, while in the past tense and in participle II it remained unchanged.

The verbs of Class II originally had the suffix -oia- in the infinitive; they were built with the help of the stem-suffix -ō, or -ōj and are known as ō-stems. the pattern of the three basic forms has the following endings:

-ian – ode – od

Class III – the class is not numerous( there are about eight verbs) and a closed system. Some verbs of this class have doubled consonants in the infinitive and the mutated vowels. Class III was made up of a few survivals of the PG third and fourth classes of weak verbs, mostly -ǽj-stems.The pattern of the most frequent calls III verbs forms is

-an – de – d

 


Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1793


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