- •Contents
- •List of abbreviations
- •Preface
- •Introduction
- •Germanic languages
- •Classification of germanic languages
- •Ancient germanic tribes and their classification
- •Germanic alphabets
- •Some phonetic peculiarities of germanic languages
- •Consonants
- •The First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law)
- •Ііі. Act The ie aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh changed in Gc to corresponding unaspirated plosives b, d, g, e.G.
- •Verner`s Law
- •Word – Stress
- •Stressed vowels
- •Germanic Fracture (Breaking)
- •Gradation or Ablaut
- •Unstressed Vowels
- •Grammatical peculiarities of germanic languages
- •The Noun
- •The Adjective
- •The Verb
- •Gothic Strong Verbs
- •Vocabulary
- •Old english
- •2.1. Periods in the History of English
- •2.2. Historical Background
- •2.2.1. The Roman Conquest of Britain
- •2.2.2. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
- •2.3. Alphabet and Pronunciation
- •Old English Alphabet
- •2.4. Old English Dialects and Written Records
- •2.5. Some Phonetic Changes of the Old English Period
- •2.5.1. Vowels
- •2.5.2. Old English Breaking
- •2.5.3. Palatal Mutation (I-mutation)
- •Monophthongs
- •Diphthongs
- •2.5.4. Back or Velar Mutation (Velarization)
- •2.5.5. Diphthongization of Vowels after Palatal Consonants
- •2.5.6. Lengthening of Short Vowels
- •2.5.7. Unstressed Vowels
- •2.5.8. Consonants
- •2.5.9. Palatalization of Velar Consonants
- •2.5.10. Assimilation, Metathesis, Doubling of Consonants, Loss of Consonants
- •2.6. Old English Morphology
- •2.6.1. Old English Noun: General Characteristics
- •Vowel Stems
- •Consonant Stems
- •2.6.2. Vowel Stems Strong Declension
- •2.6.3. Consonant Stems: Weak Declension, Minor Declensions
- •2.6.4. Root-Stems
- •2.6.5. Pronouns
- •2.6.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •2.6.5.2. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •Declension of the Demonstrative Pronoun þes
- •2.6.6. Adjectives
- •2.6.6.1. Strong Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.2. Weak Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.3. Degrees of Comparison
- •2.6.7. Adverbs
- •2.6.7.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •2.6.7.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •2.6.8. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of verbs
- •2.6.8.1. Strong Verbs
- •2.6.8.2. Weak Verbs
- •Conjugation of Weak Verbs
- •2.6.8.3. Preterite-Present Verbs
- •Conjugation of Preterite - Present verbs
- •2.6.8.4. Anomalous verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb dōn
- •Indicative mood
- •2.6.8.5. Suppletive Verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon
- •Indicative mood
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān
- •Indicative mood
- •2.7. Old English Syntax
- •2.8. The Old English Vocabulary
- •2.8.1. Word-Building
- •Suffixation
- •Prefixation
- •Composition
- •2.8.2. Borrowings
- •Latin borrowings
- •Celtic Borrowings
- •Middle english
- •3.1. Historical Background
- •3.1.1. Scandinavian Invasions
- •3.1.2. The Norman Conquest
- •3.2. Middle English Dialects Rise of the London Dialect
- •3.3. Early Middle English Written Records
- •3.4. Word Stress
- •3.5. Vowels
- •3.5.1. Unstressed Vowels
- •3.5.2. Stressed vowels
- •3.5.2.1. Quantitative Vowel Changes
- •3.5.2.2. Qualitative Vowel Changes
- •Monophthongs
- •3.5.2.3. Monophthongization of Old English Diphthongs
- •3.5.2.4. Rise of New Diphthongs
- •3.6. Evolution of Consonants in Middle English
- •3.7. Spelling Changes in Middle English
- •3.7.1. Changes in the Designation of Vowels
- •3.7.2. Changes in the designation of Consonants
- •3.8. Changes in the Grammatical System
- •3.8.1. Preliminary Remarks
- •3.8.2. The Noun
- •3.8.2.1. Gender
- •3.8.2.2. Number
- •3.8.2.3. Decay of Noun Declensions
- •3.8.3. The Adjective
- •3.8.3.1. Declension of Adjectives in Late Middle English
- •3.8.3.2. Degrees of Comparison
- •3.8.4. Adverbs
- •3.8.4.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •3.8.4.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •3.8.5. The Pronoun
- •3.8.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •3.8.5.2. Possessive pronouns
- •3.8.5.3. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •3.8.5.4. Rise of the Articles
- •3.8.6. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of Verbs
- •Conjugation of Verbs Past Indicative
- •3.8.5.1. Changes in the Morphological Classes of Verbs in Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.1. Strong Verbs
- •3.8.6.2. Weak Verbs
- •3.8.6.3. Preterite-present Verbs
- •3.8.6.4. Suppletive verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.5. Rise of Analytical Forms
- •Future Forms
- •Perfect Forms
- •Passive Forms
- •Continuous Forms
- •3.8.7. Development of the Syntactic System
- •3.9. Middle English Vocabulary Changes
- •3.9.1. Native Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.2. French Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.3. Scandinavian Borrowings
- •3.9.4. French Borrowings
- •New english
- •4.1. The formation of the English National Language
- •4.2. Changes in Pronunciation
- •4.2.1. Development of Unstressed Vowels
- •4.2.1.1. Loss of unstressed –e [ə]
- •4.2.1.2. Loss of Vowels in Intermediate Syllables
- •4.2.2. Stressed Vowels
- •4.2.2.1. The Great Vowel Shift
- •4.2.2.2. Shortening of Long Vowels
- •4.2.2.3. Development of Short Vowels
- •4.2.2.4. The Development of the New Short [л]
- •4.2.2.5. Changes in Diphthongs
- •4.2.2.6. Vowel Changes under the Influence of Consonants
- •4.2.3. Consonants
- •4.2.3.1. Voicing of Voiceless Consonants
- •4.2.3.2. Loss of Consonants Development of [X]
- •Simplification of Consonant Clusters
- •4.2.3.3. Change of [d] to [ð] when Close to [r]
- •4.2.3.4. Development of Sibilants and Affricates in Early New English
- •4.3. Changes in Spelling
- •4.4. Local Dialects in New English
- •4.4.1. Scottish Dialect
- •4.4.2. Northern Dialects
- •4.4.3. Western, Central and Southern Dialects
- •4.5. Some Essential Grammatical Changes of the New English Period: Morphology
- •4.5.1. The Noun
- •4.5.1.1. Number
- •4.5.1.2. Cases
- •4.5.2. The Pronoun
- •4.5.2.1. Personal Pronouns
- •4.5.2.2. Possessive Pronouns
- •4.5.3. The Adjective
- •4.5.4. The Adverb
- •4.5.5. The Verb
- •4.5.5.1. Personal Endings
- •4.5.5.2. Changes in Strong Verbs
- •4.5.5.3. Changes in Weak Verbs
- •4.5.5.4. Rise of Invariable Verbs
- •4.5.5.5. Changes in Preterite-Present Verbs
- •4.5.5.6. Irregular Verbs
- •4.6. New English Syntax
- •4.7. New English Vocabulary Changes
- •4.7.1. Latin Loanwords
- •4.7.2. Latinization of French Loanwords
- •4.7.3. Greek loanwords
- •4.7.4. French Loanwords
- •4.7.5. Mixed vocabulary of New English
- •4.7.6. Italian and Spanish Loanwords
- •4.7.7. Russian Loanwords
- •4.8. The Expansion of English
- •4.9. The English Language in the usa
- •4.9.1. Some peculiarities of American Pronunciation
- •4.9.2. American Spelling
- •4.9.3. Some peculiarities of American Grammar
- •4.9.4. Vocabulary of American English
- •Conclusion
- •Bibliography
Conjugation of Weak Verbs
The Indicative mood
cēpan (keep), tellan (tell), lufian (love), libban (live)
|
|
Class 1 |
Class 2 |
Class 3 |
|||
Number |
Person |
Present |
Past |
Present |
Past |
Present |
Past |
Singular |
1 |
ic cēpe, telle |
ic cēpte, tealde |
ic lufie |
lufode |
ic libbe |
lifde |
2 |
Þū cēpest, tellest |
þū cēptest, tealdest |
þū lufast |
lufodest |
þū liofast |
lifdest |
|
3 |
hē cēpeþ telleþ |
hē cēpte, tealde |
hē lufaþ |
lufode |
hē liofaþ |
lifde |
|
Plural |
1,2,3 |
wē, ʒe, hīe cēpaþ, tellaþ |
wē, ʒe, hīe cēpton, tealdon |
wē, ʒe, hīe lufiaþ |
wē, ʒe, hīe lufodon |
wē, ʒe, hīe libbaþ |
wē, ʒe, hīe lifdon |
2.6.8.3. Preterite-Present Verbs
Besides strong and weak verbs, there was a small yet important group of verbs in OE, which shared some of the characteristics of both strong and weak verbs. Out of 12 verbs of the group, six have survived in Modern English: can, may, must, ought, shall and dare.
They are termed preterite-presents because their present tenses are derived from old preterites (the past of strong verbs), whereas their past is built on the pattern of the past of weak verbs.
Originally they were strong verbs whose past tense forms gained a «present» meaning and ousted the present tense forms. It is noteworthy, that in modern English the present tense of the verb can is similar in form to the past tense of the verb to run - ran, and may resembles lay, the past tense of the verb to lie. To fill the deficiency left in the preterite (past) these verbs developed new past tense forms of the weak pattern. Most verbs did not have a full paradigm and were in this sense «defective».
The origin of the present tense forms of preterite-presents from the past of strong verbs, which had no inflexion, explains the absense of the ending - (e) ð in the 3-rd person singular present
Conjugation of Preterite - Present verbs
Present tense
cunnan (verb of the 3-rd class)
Person |
Singular number |
Plural number |
1 |
ic cann |
wē ʒē cunnon hīe |
2 |
þū canst |
|
3 |
hē cann |
Most of the preterite – presents did not indicate actions but expressed a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb or an infinitive which followed the preterite-present, but some of them could also be used as notional verbs. Eventually preterite–presents developed into modal verbs.
Basic Forms of Preterite-Present Verbs
Class |
Infinitive |
Present sg |
Present pl |
Past |
Past Participle |
Meaning |
1 |
witan |
wāt |
witon |
wiste |
ʒewiten |
know |
1 |
āʒan |
āʒ, āh |
āʒon |
āhte |
āʒen |
possess |
2 |
duʒan |
dēaʒ |
duʒon |
dohte |
-– |
worthy |
3 |
cunnan |
cann |
cunnon |
cūðe |
cūð, cunnon |
be able |
3 |
unnan |
ann |
unnon |
ūþe |
ʒeunnen |
give, grant |
3 |
þurfan |
þearf |
þurfon |
þorfte |
– |
need, want |
3 |
durran |
dearr |
durron |
dorste |
– |
dare |
4 |
sculan |
sceall |
sculon |
scēolde/scolde |
– |
be bound |
4 |
munan |
mon,man |
munon |
munde |
munde/ emunnen |
remember |
5 |
– |
mōt |
mōton |
mōste |
– |
be able |
|
maʒan |
mæʒ |
maʒon |
meahte |
– |
be able |
|
– |
ʒeneah |
ʒenuʒon |
ʒenuʒon |
– |
sufficient |
It will be noted that in modern English must and ought another shifting of meaning from«past» to «present» has taken place: the secondary weak preterites have acquired a «present» meaning thus making the former strong preterites with the «present» meaning superfluous. This accounts for the fact that the verbs must and ought to have only one form each.