20. The sources of Modern English verb groups
The proportion of strong and weak verbs in the language has considerably altered in the course of history. The OE strong verbs reduced by over two thirds, constitute a small group of verbs in present day English: they belong to non-standard verbs, which include nowadays many more verbs coming from various sources. Several groups of modern non-standard verbs have developed from the weak verbs class 1. Nowadays they employ various form-building devices: the dental suffix, vowel and consonant interchanges. These are verbs like sellan – salde/ sellen-solde. Another group of weak verbs became irregular in Early ME as a result of quantitative vowel changes. In verbs like OE cepan, the long vowel in the root was shortened before two consonants in the Past and Participle 2. The long vowel in the Present tense stem was preserved and was altered during the GVS, keep-kept. 3 Verbs like OE settan, with the root ending in a dental consonant, added the dental suffix without the intervening vowel [e] – OE sette. When the inflections were reduced and dropped, the three stems of the verbs – Present, Past and Part. 2 fell together set-set-set; put-put-put, cast-cast, cast. The final – t of the root had absorbed the dental suffix.
21. Changes in the verb conjugation in ME and NE
Many markers of the grammatical forms of the verb were reduced, leveled and lost in ME and Early NE: the reduction, leveling and loss of endings resulted in the increased neutralization of formal oppositions and the growth of homonymy. Infinitive – OE-findan – ME finden – early NE find; Present tense ind. M. s. 1st – finde – finde – find, 2nd fintst-findest-findest, 3rd fint – findeth-findest; plural findaD – finden-find; Subjunctive – sin – finde-finde-find; pl. finden-finden-find; imperative OE-sg find, pl findaD; ME finde – early NE find; Participle 1 – findende – finding – finding, Past tense ind, sin 1st fond – fand, found, 2nd funde-founde-found, 3rd fond – fand – found, pl fundon – founden – found|| subj OE s, pl funde\funden – ME founde – early NE – found|| Participle 2 (Ze) fundon – founden – found. ME forms of the verb are represented by numerous variants, which reflect dialectal differences and tendencies of potential changes. The intermixture of dialectal features in the speech of London and in the literary language of the Renaissance played an important role in the formation of the verb paradigm.
22. The history of the verbal grammatical categories in English
In OE there were two non-finite forms of the verb: the Infinitive and the Participle. In many respects they were closer to the nouns and adjectives than to the finite verb: their nominal features were far more obvious than their verbal features, especially at the morphological level. Like finite forms they could take direct objects and be modified by adverbs. Infinitive had no verbal grammatical categories. Being a verbal noun by origin, it had a sort of reduced case-system: two forms which roughly corresponded to the Nom. And the Dat. Cases of nouns. Like the Dat. Case of nouns the inflected Infinitive with the preposition to could be used to indicate the direction or purpose of an action. The uninflected Infinitive was used in verb phrases with modal verbs or other verbs of incomplete predication. The Participle was a kind of verbal adjective which was characterized not only by nominal nut also by certain verbal features. Participle 1 was opposed to Participle 2 through voice and tense distinctions: it was active and expressed present or simultaneous processes and qualities, while
P2 expressed states and qualities resulting from past action and was contrasted to P1 as passive to active, if the verb was transitive. P2 of intransitive had an active meaning. Participles were employed predicatively and attributively like adjectives and shared their grammatical categories: they were declined as weak and strong and agreed with nouns in number, gender and case. ME. The development of analytical forms and new grammatical categories has transformed the verbals. Compound forms of the Infinitive appeared (passive Inf, perfect Inf, cont and perf cont). Part 1 perf, non-perf, pass and active. Compound forms of the ing form used in the functions of a noun, that is the Gerund, were the last to appear.
23. The rise of analytical forms in the verbal system in ME
The development of analytical forms and new grammatical categories has transformed not only the finite verb but also the verbals.
24. The infinitive in the history of English
In many respects it was closer to the nouns and adjectives than to the finite verb: its nominal features were far more obvious than their verbal features, especially at the morphological level. Like finite forms it could take direct objects and be modified by adverbs. Infinitive had no verbal grammatical categories. Being a verbal noun by origin, it had a sort of reduced case-system: two forms which roughly corresponded to the Nom. And the Dat. Cases of nouns. Like the Dat. Case of nouns the inflected Infinitive with the preposition to could be used to indicate the direction or purpose of an action. The uninflected Infinitive was used in verb phrases with modal verbs or other verbs of incomplete predication. The development of analytical forms and new grammatical categories has transformed the verbals. In ME texts we find different types of compound Inf: the Pass Inf, the Perf Inf in the Active and Pass forms. Evidently in the 17th c the Inf had the same set of forms as it has in present-day English.
25. The Participle in OE and its further development
In OE there were two non-finite forms of the verb: the Infinitive and the Participle. In many respects it was closer to the nouns and adjectives than to the finite verb: its nominal features were far more obvious than their verbal features, especially at the morphological level. Like finite forms it could take direct objects and be modified by adverbs. The Participle was a kind of verbal adjective which was characterized not only by nominal nut also by certain verbal features. Participle 1 was opposed to Participle 2 through voice and tense distinctions: it was active and expressed present or simultaneous processes and qualities, while
P2 expressed states and qualities resulting from past action and was contrasted to P1 as passive to active, if the verb was transitive. P2 of intransitive had an active meaning; it indicate a past action and was opposed to P1 only through tense. P! was fprmed from the Present tense stem with the help of the suffix – ende. P2 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 the weak verbs it ended in d/t. P2 was commonly marked by the suffix – Ze. Participles were employed predicatively and attributively like adjectives and shared their grammatical categories: they were declined as weak and strong and agreed with nouns in number, gender and case. ME Part 1 perf, non-perf, pass and active.
26. The rise of the Gerund in English
The Late ME period witnessed the growth of a new verbal known in modern grammars as the Gerund. The Gerund can be traced to three sources: the OE verbal noun in – unZ and inZ, thePresent Participle and the Infinitive. In ME the Present Participle and the verbal noun became identical: they both ended in – ing. This led to the confusion of some of their features: verbal nouns began to take direct objects, like participles and Infinitives. This verbal feature – a direct object – as well as the frequent absence of article before the – ing form functioning as a noun – transformed the verbal noun into a Gerund in the modern understanding of the term. The dissappearence of the inflected infinitive contributed to the change, as some of its functions were taken over by the Gerund. The earliest instances of a verbal noun resembling a Gerund date from 12th c. Chaucer uses the – ing – form in substantival functions in object. In Early NE the – ing form in the function of a noun is commonly used with an adverbial modifier and with a direct object – in case of transitive verbs. The nominal features, retained from the verbal noun, were its syntactic functions and the ability to be modified by a possessive pronoun or a noun in the G.case. In the course of time the sphere of the usage of the Gerund grew: it replaced the Infinitive and the Participle in many adverbial functions; its great advantage was that it could be used with various prepositions.
27. Causes of changes in the morphological system in ME and NE
The main direction of development for the nominal parts of speech in all the periods of history can be defined as morphological simplification. Simplifying changes began in prehistoric, PG times. They continued at a slow rate during the OE period and were intensified in Early ME. The period between c. 1000 and 1300 has been called an age of Great changes, for it witnessed one of the greatest events in the History of English grammar: the decline and transformation of the nominal morphological system. Some nominal categories were lost – Gender and Case in adjectives, Gender in nouns; the number of forms distinguished in the surviving categorie was reduced – cases in nouns and noun-pronouns, numbers in personal pronouns. Morphological division into types of Declension practically disappeared. In Late ME the adjective lost the last vestigates of the old paradigm: the distinction of number and the distinction of weak and strong forms.
28. Agreement in the History of English
In Old E we find a variety of word phrases. A noun pattern consisted of a noun as the head word and pronouns, adjectives (including verbal adjectives, or participles), numerals and other nouns as determiners and attributes. Most noun modifiers agreed with the noun in gender, number and case. Nouns which served as attributes to other nouns usually had the form of the Gen. case: hwales ban (whale’s bone). Some numerals governed the nouns they modified so that formally the relations were reversed. An adjective pattern could include adverbs, nouns or pronouns in one of the oblique cases with or without prepositions. Verb patterns included a great variety of dependant components: nouns and pronouns in oblique cases with or without prepositions, adverbs, infinitives and participles. Infinitives and participles were often used in verb phrases with verbs of incomplete predication. By Late ME agreement in noun patterns had practically disappeared, except for some instances of agreement in number. Formal markers of number had been preserved in nouns, demonstrative pronouns and some survivals of the strong declension of adjectives. The last traces of agreement in adjectives were lost in the 15th c. when the inflection – e was dropped; only the demonstrative pronouns, the indefinite article and nouns in apposition indicated the number of the head word, like in Mod E. When the adjective had lost its forms of agreement, its relationship with the noun were shown by its position.