The history of Old English and its development (стр. 4 из 4)

Class II
macian (to make), macode, macod
lufian (to love), lufode, lufod
hopian (to hope), hopode, hopod

Tis class makes quite a small group of verbs, all of them having -o- before the past endings. Other samples: lofian (praise), stician (pierce), eardian (dwell), scéawian (look), weorþian (honour), wundrian (wonder), fæstnian (fasten), mærsian (glorify).

Class III
habban (to have), hæfde, hæfd
libban (to live), lifde, lifd
secgan (to say), sægde, sægd
hycgan (to think), hogde, hogod
þréagan (to threaten), þréade, þréad
sméagan (to think), sméade, sméad
fréogan (to free), fréode, fréod
féogan (to hate), féode, féod

Old English verbs are conjugated having two tenses - the Present tense and the Past tense, and three moods - indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. Of these, only the subjunctive mood has disappeared in the English language, acquiring an analytic construction instead of inflections; and the imperative mood has coincided with the infinitive form (to write - write!). In the Old English period they all looked different.

The common table of the verb conjugation is given below. Here you should notice that the Present tense has the conjugation for all three moods, while the Past tense - for only two moods (no imperative in the Past tense, naturally). Some more explanation should be given about the stem types.

In fact all verbal forms were generated in Old English from three verb stems, and each verb had its own three ones: the Infinitive stem, the Past Singular stem, the Past Plural stem. For the verb wrítan, for example, those three stems are: wrít- (infinitive without the ending -an), wrát- (the Past singular), writ- (the Past plural without the ending -on). The table below explains where to use this or that stem.

Additionally, the participles (Participle I and Participle II) are formed by the suffix -ende to the Infinitive stem (participle I), or the prefix ge- + the Past Plural stem + the ending -en (Participle II).

Tired of the theory? Here is the preactice. We give several examples of the typical verbs - first strong, then weak, then irregular.

Class I strong - wrítan (to write)
Pres. Past
Ind. Subj. Imper. ¦ Ind. Subj.
Sg. 1 wríte - ¦ wrát
2 wrítest wríte wrít ¦ write } wríte
3 wríteþ - ¦ wrát
Pl. wrítaþ wríten 2 wrítaþ ¦ writon writen

Infinitive Participle
wrítan I wrítende II gewriten

Class II weak - lufian (to love)
Pres. Past
Ind. Subj. Imp. Ind. Subj.
Sg. 1 lufie - lufode
2 lufast }lufie lufa lufodest } lufode
3 lufaþ - lufode
Pl. lufiaþ lufien 2 lufiaþ lufodon lufoden
Part.
I lufiende II gelufod

Class III strong - bindan (to bind)
Pres. Past
Ind. Subj. Imp. Ind. Subj.
Sg. 1 binde - ¦ band, bond
2 bindest } binde bind ¦ bunde } bunde
3 bindeþ - ¦ band, bond
Pl. bindaþ binden bindaþ ¦ bundon bunden

Inf. Part.
bindan I bindende II gebunden

Class V strong - séon (to see)
Pres. Past
Ind. Subj. Imp. Ind. Subj.
Sg.1 séo - seah
2 síehst } séo seoh sáwe } sáwe,
3 síehþ - seah sæge
Pl. séoþ séon 2 séoþ sawon sáwen
Participle
I séonde II gesewen, gesegen

Class VII strong - fón (to catch)
Pres. Past
Ind. Subj. Imp. Ind. Subj.
Sg. 1 fó - feng
2 féhst } fó fóh fenge } fenge
3 féhþ - feng
Pl. fóþ fón 2 fóþ fengon fengen
Participle
I fónde II gefangen, gefongen

Class III weak - secgan (to say)
Pres. Past
Ind. Subj. Imp. Ind. Subj.
Sg.1 secge - sægde
2 sægst }secge sæge sægdest }sægde
3 sægþ - sægde
Pl. secgaþ secgen 2 secgaþ sægdon sægden
Part.
I secgende II gesægd

Class III weak - libban (to live)
Pres. Past
Ind. Subj. Imp. Ind. Subj.
Sg.1 libbe - lifde
2 liofast }libbe liofa lifdest } lifde
3 liofaþ - lifde
Pl. libbaþ libben 2 libbaþ lifdon lifden
Part.
I libbende II gelifd

A special group is made by the so-called Present-Preterite verbs, which are conjugated combining two varieties of the usual verb conjugation: strong and weak. These verbs, at all not more than seven, are nowadays called modal verbs in English.

Present-Preterite verbs have their Present tense forms generated from the Strong Past, and the Past tense, instead, looks like the Present Tense of the Weak verbs. The verbs we present here are the following: witan (to know), cunnan (can), þurfan (to need), dearan (to dare), munan (to remember), sculan (shall), magan (may).

Present of witan (= strong Past)
Ind. Subj. Imp.
Sg. 1 wát -
2 wast } wite wite
3 wát -
Pl. witon 2 witen witaþ
Past (= Weak)
Ind. Subj.
Sg.1 wisse, wiste
2 wissest, wistest } wisse, wiste
3 wisse, wiste
Pl. wisson, wiston wissen, wisten
Participles: I witende, II witen, gewiten

cunnan (can)
Pres. Past
Ind. Subj. Ind. Subj.
Sg. 1 cann cúþe
2 canst } cunne cúþest } cúþe
3 cann cúþe
Pl. cunnon cunnen cúþon cúþen

þurfan (need)
Sg. 1 þearf þorfte
2 þearft } þurfe þorftest } þorfte
3 þearf þorfte
Pl. þurfon þurfen þorfton þorften

magan (may)
Sg. 1 mæg meahte mihte, mihten
2 meaht } mæge meahtest
3 mæg meahte
Pl. magon mægen meahton

The main difference of verbs of this type in modern English is their expressing modality, i.e. possibility, obligation, necessity. They do not require the particle to before the infinitive which follows them. In Old English in general no verb requires this particle before the infinitive. In fact, this to before the infinitive form meant the preposition of direction.

And now finally a few irregular verbs, which used several different stems for their tenses. These verbs are very important in Old English and are met very often in the texts: wesan (to be), béon (to be), gán (to go), dón (to do), willan (will). Mind that there was no Future tense in the Old English language, and the future action was expressed by the Present forms, just sometimes using verbs of modality, willan (lit. "to wish to do") or sculan (lit. "to have to do").

wesan (to be) - has got only the Present tense forms, uses the verb béon in the Past
Present
Ind. Subj. Imp.
Sg.1 eom -
2 eart } síe, sý wes
3 is -
Pl. sind síen, sýn 2 wesaþ

béon (to be)
Present
Ind. Subj. Imp.
Sg. 1 béo -
2 bist }béo béo
3 biþ -
Pl. béoþ béon 2 béoþ
Past
Ind. Subj.
Sg. 1 wæs
2 wære } wære
3 wæs
Pl. wæron wæren
Participle I is béonde (being).

gán (to go)
Pres. Past
Ind. Subj. Imp. Ind. Subj.
Sg.1 gá - éode
2 gæ'st } gá gá éodest } éode
3 gæ'þ - éode
Pl. gáþ 2 gán gáþ éodon éoden
Participles:
I gánde, gangende II gegán

So there were in fact two verbs meaning 'to be', and both were colloquial. In Middle English, however, the verb wesan replaced fully the forms of béon, and the words béo (I am), bist (thou art) fell out of use. The Past tense forms was and were are also derivatives from wesan.

Syntactically, the language had only two main tenses - the Present and the Past. No progressive (or Continuous) tenses were used, they were invented only in the Early Middle English period. Such complex tenses as modern Future in the Past, Future Perfect Continuous did not exist either. However, some analytic construction were in use, and first of all the perfective constructions. The example Hie geweorc geworhten hæfdon 'they have build a fortress' shows the exact Perfect tense, but at that time it was not the tense really, just a participle construction showing that the action has been done. Seldom you can also find such Past constructions, which later became the Past Perfect Tense.

Verb syntax includes a number of suffices and prefixes which can be met in Old English texts and especially in poetry:

Suffices:
1. -s- (from substantive or adjective stems) - mæ'rsian (to announce; from mæ're - famous)
2. -læc- - néálæcan (to approach)
3. -ett- - bliccettan (to sparkle)

Prefixes
1. á- = out of, from - árísan (arise), áwakan (awake), áberan (sustain)
2. be- = over, around, by - begán (go around), beþencan (think over), behéafdian (behead)
3. for- = destruction or loss - fordón (destroy), forweorþan (perish)
4. mis- = negation or bad quality - mislícian (displease)
5. of- = reinfors - ofsléan (kill), oftéon (take away)
6. on- = change or separation - onbindan (unbind), onlúcan (unlock)
7. tó- = destruction - tóbrecan (break)

The Old English Auxiliary Words.

These traditionally include prepositions, conjunctions, different particles and

interjections. All Indo-European languages have this system of auxiliary parts of speech, though there are languages which lack some of them. Japanese, for example, has no prepositions, and the service function in the sentence belongs to postpositive words which have cases, the same as nouns. Korean does not use any conjunctions, replacing them by about 50 different kinds of verbal adverbs. As for Chinese, it simply does not make any distinction in the sentence between basic and auxiliary words.

Most of Old English prepositions are easily recognizable:

Primary: of (of, out of), æt (to), fram (from), tó (to), wiþ (against), in, of, mid (with), on (on, at), be (by, near, to, because of, about), þurh (through), under, ofer (over), æfter (after), bufan (above), út (out).

Secondary: beforan (before), bútan (without), benorþan (north of), etc.

æt means 'to' and wiþ means 'against'. In Germanic all prepositions divided into those who used nouns in dative, accusative or genitive. But in the Old English period this distinction begins to disappear, and only some of the prepositions use dative (mid, bútan, sometimes on, in) or genitive (fram, út, æfter).

Conjunctions included the following:

Primary: and / ond (and) , ac (but), gif (if), or.
Secondary: ægþer ge... ge (both... and..., either ... or...), hwonne (when), þa (when), þonne (when), þéáh (though), þætte (that), ær (before), swá... swá... (so... as...).

And a few interjections: iá (yes), wá (woe!, wow!), hwæt (there! what!).