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1. Non-Finite forms (verbals)

A comparison of the verbals in Old English and in Middle English and New English shows that the number of verbals in Old English was less than that in Middle and New English. At the end of the Middle English period a new verbal developed – the Gerund, in addition to the Infinitive and the Participle existing already in old English. The gerund appeared as a result of a blend between the Old English present Participle ending “-ende” and the Old English verbal noun ending in “-inge”. From the verbal noun the Gerund acquired the form (the ending “-inge”), but under the influence of the Participle it became more “verbal” in meaning.

In the process of English history the Verbals are gradually shifting from the system of declension into the system of conjugation thus in old English the verbals existing at the same time: the infinitive and the participle could be declined. In the course of language history (already at the end of the Old English period) and the participle (in Middle English) lost their declension. And at the end of the Middle and New English they acquired elements of conjugation – the grammatical categories of order, voice, and aspect (the infinitive) and the grammatical categories of order and voice (the participle and the gerund). The Old English preposition tō preceding the Dative case of the infinitive loses its independent meaning and functions simply as a grammatical particle showing that the Verbal is the Infinitive.

But even in Modern English we can find such contexts where the form of the verbal is active, though the meaning is passive.

The book is worth reading

The coats needs ironing

or the non-perfect form expresses order, i.e. is used to express events that took place prior to the action of the finite form of the verbs:

I remember doing

I thanked him for brining the happy tidings.

Such phenomena reflect the previous stage of the development of the English language, when the given verbals were indifferent to voice and order.

2. Morphological classification of verbs in Middle English and New English

2.0. The subdivision of Old English verbs into strong and weak is preserved with modifications in Middle English.

2.1. Strong verbs

2.1.1. Classes of the strong verbs

In New English, however, the original regularity that was observed in the group of strong verbs in Old English and partly in Middle English is no longer felt due to the following:

1. Splitting of original classes into subclasses, for example:

Old English New English

rise – rose – risen

First class rīsan – rās – rison – risen

Bītan – bāt – biton – bitten

bite – bit – bitten

2. Some strong verbs of one class entering another class. Thus, the Old English verb of the 5^th class:

Sprecan – spræcon – sprǽcon – sprecen

passed into the 5^th class in Middle English with the forms:

speken – spak – speken – spoken

on analogy with such verbs as:

stelen – stal – stelen – stolen

3. Passing of some strong verbs into the group of weak verbs and (rarely) vice versa. For example:

Old English New English

I class gripan to grip

glidan to glide

II class crēopan to creep

Lēoзan to lie

III class climban to climb

Helpan to help

IV class bacan to bake

wæcnan to wake

The contrary process, as we have already said, is quite rare:

Old English New English

hŷdan to hide

wærian to wear

4. But some weak verbs acquired only some features of the strong verbs, like the Old English weak verb scēawian – Modern English show, showed, but shown.

2.1.2. Principal forms of the strong verbs

The strong verbs in Old English had four principal forms, for example:

writan – wrāt – writon – written (to write)

bindan – band – bundon – bunden (to shake)

In Middle English, however, they exhibited a marked tendency to have the same vowel in both the forms of the past tense, thus gradually reducing the number of the principal forms to three. In New English we have only three principal forms in verbs originally belonging to the group of strong verbs:

write – wrote – written

The vowel that is preserved in the past tense is generally traced back to the vowel of Old English past tense singular. For example:

Old English Middle English New English

I class wrāt wrōt wrote (to write)

II class scōc shōk shook (to shake)

But sometimes it is the vowel of the original past tense plural:

Old English bitan – bāt – biton – bitten

Middle English bitten – bot – bitten – bitten

New English bite – bit – bitten

with the past tense form deriving its vowel from the past tense plural form of the verb.

Sometimes the vowel of the past tense form was borrowed from the form of the past participle:

Old English stelan – stæl - stǽlon –stolen

Middle English stelen – stal – stelen – stolen

New English steal – stolen – stolen

2.2. Weak verbs

As we have said above the number of strong verbs was diminishing in Middle English and New English mainly due to the passing of some strong verbs into the weak conjugation. Weak verbs, however, were becoming more and more numerous, as they not only preserved in Middle and New English almost all the verbs that were typical of the group in Old English, but also added to their group the majority of borrowed verbs and about seventy originally strong, and also such verbs as:

to call

to want Scandinavian borrowings

to guess

to pierce

to punish French borrowings

to finish

to contribute

to create Latin borrowings

to distribute

Alike strong verbs many weak verbs became irregular in the course of history, especially weak verbs of the first class. This irregularity was mainly conditioned by qualitative and quantitative changes that many weak verbs underwent in Middle and new English. For example:

Old English cēpan – cēpte – cēpte – cēpt

Middle English kēpen – kepte – kept

New English keep – kept – kept

As we see the Old English weak verb of the first class became irregular due to the quantitative change – shortening of the vowel in the second and third forms in Middle English (before two consonants – for example, pt), thus acquiring quantitative vowel interchange. This quantitative interchange was followed by qualitative in New English after the Great Vowel Shift, which only the vowel of the first form, being long underwent, the short vowel of the second and third forms retaining their quality.

2.2.1. Classes of the weak verbs

In Old English there were two principal classes of the weak verbs. In Middle English some verbs that did not become irregular lost the class difference and we have but one class of verbs going back mainly to the weak verbs of the second class.

For instance:

Old English II class lufian – lufode – lufod (to love)

Middle English loven – lovede – luved

2.2.2. Principal forms of the weak verbs

In Old English there were three principal forms of the weak verbs, for instance:

cēpan – cēpte – cēpt (to keep)

lufian – lufode – lufod (to love)

In Late Middle English – Early New English, with the loss of the final -e in the second form the second and the third form became homonymous, thus we speak of three principal forms of such verbs as to love or to keep mainly on analogy with original strong verbs, and also because of the existing tradition as no Modern English regular verb, originally belonging to the weak conjugation, shows any trace of difference between the second and the third forms.

Thus in New English due to different phonetic process and changes on analogy the two principal groups of verbs that existed in Old English, strong and weak, gave us two principal groups of Modern verbs: regular and irregular, neither of which is directly derived from either of the Old English groups of strong and weak verbs.

2.3. Origin of modern irregular verbs

In Old English most verbs were regular, although there were a number of irregular ones. In Middle English not only the few Old English irregular verbs were preserved, but also new irregular verbs appeared. This was due, first of all, to the disappearance of the division of verbs into strong and weak, most strong verbs losing their regular pattern of conjugation and thus becoming irregular.

Another source of irregular verbs was the 1^st class of weak verbs the irregularity of which was due to several reasons. In addition to the examples given above we can show three groups of verbs originally belonging to the 1^st class of weak verbs, which later became irregular:

1. verbs with a long root vowel, the root ending in -t or -d:

Old English mētan – mētte – mētt

Middle English meten – mette – mett

New English meet – met – met

In Middle English the root vowel of the second and the third forms is shortened due to the rhythmic tendency of the language requiring the shortening of all vowels if followed by two consonants. The vowel interchange in Middle English is quantitative only.

In New English the long root vowel in the first form due to the Great Vowel Shift is changed qualitatively, so now we have both quantitative and qualitative vowel interchange in the verb.

2. verbs with a long root vowel, the root ending in a consonant other than -t or -d:

Old English cēpan – cēpte – cēpt

Middle English kepen – kepte – kept

New English keep – kept – kept

In Middle English the dental suffixation of the 2^nd and 3^rd forms is supplemented with a quantitative vowel interchange similar to that explained above, and in New English we have both vowel interchange (quantitative and qualitative) and suffixation as form-building means.

3. verbs with a short vowel, the root ending in -t or -d:

Old English settan – sette – sett

Middle English setten – sette – sett

New English set – set – set

No changes took place in the root vowel, the ending disappeared due to the final reduction of unstressed vowels, and now the verb forms its forms without any material manifestation.

Even in the 2^nd class of weak verb examples of irregularity can be found. One of them is the verb to make.

Old English macian – macode – macod

Middle English maken – makede – maked

New English made – made – made

The middle syllable of the 2^nd and the 3^rd forms was lost, making the verb irregular.

Still another source of irregular verbs may be found in some loan words borrowed into the language in Middle and New English. Although most borrowed verbs formed their forms in accordance with the weak verbs of the 2^nd class, some of them are irregular. Here it is possible to mention Scandinavian strong verb borrowings which preserve their original vowel interchange and thus are nowadays irregular, as:

give – gave – given

take – took – taken

get – got – gotten

Another irregular loan word is the French borrowing to catch (caught, caught) which is irregular, forming its forms on analogy with the verb to teach (taught, taught).

Thus, among New English regular verbs there may be encountered either native words (almost all Old English weak verbs of the 2^nd class and some Old English strong verbs having lost their irregularity and forming their forms on analogy with the weak verbs of the 2^nd class, such as to help, to bake, etc.) or borrowings (almost all loan verbs).

3. Grammatical categories of the English verb

In Old English the verb had four categories: person, number, tense and mood.

In Middle English and New English there gradually developed three more grammatical categories – order, voice and aspect.

These grammatical categories used a new grammatical means for the formation, namely, analytical forms. These analytical forms developed from free word combinations of the Old English verbs habban, beon/wesan + an infinitive (or participle). The way of the formation of those analytical forms was the following:

In the free word combination habban, beon/wesan + an infinitive (or participle) the first element was gradually losing its lexical meaning, and the second – its grammatical one, thus tending to become notionally and grammatically inseparable, idiomatic.

The category of order was the oldest, formed already in Middle English from the Old English free combination habban + past participle.

Hīe hæfdon hīera cyninз āworþēnne

(They had already overthrown their king)

The younge sonne hath in the Ram his halve course y-runne

(the young sun has run its half-course in the Ram)

The same idea of order is sometimes still expressed with the help of the combination to be + participle II, going back to the Old English bēon + past participle:

This gentleman is happily arrived.

Now he is gone.

The category of voice appeared out of free combination of weorþan (beon) + past participle:

Old English hē wēarþ ofslæзen

(He was slain)

Middle English engendered is the flour

(The flower is generated [born])

The category of aspect was formed in Middle English on the basis of the free combination of bēn (beon) + present participle:

Singinge hē was … al the dai

(he was singing all the day)

The grammatical categories of tense and mood which existed in Old English acquired new categorical forms.

The Old English present and past tense forms were supplemented with a special form for the future tense which appeared in Middle English out of the free combination of Old English modal verbs “sculan” and “willan” with the infinitive. This free combination of words was split into two groups: in the first, remaining free, the modal meaning is preserved:

You shall do it – necessity

I will do it – volition

The category of mood in Old English was represented by three mood forms, one for each of the moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative). The subjunctive in Old English did not show whether the events were probable or contrary to fact, but it had two tense forms – past and present, which in the course of language history developed into two subjunctive moods:

• I/he be present – out of the Old English present tense form of the subjunctive mood

• I/he were present – out of the Old English past tense form of the subjunctive mood.

The difference between these two subjunctive moods now is in the shade of probability, and not in the tense, the second one denoting events which are contrary to fact.

In addition to that at the end of Middle English and the beginning New English two more subjunctive mood forms appeared making use of the analytical form building means:

• I/he should be present – to show events which are probable, though problematic

• I should be present

} – to show imaginary events, contrary to fact

I would be present

Here should and would are the subjunctive mood forms of the Old English sculan and willan.

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Summary

Thus the system of conjugation in Middle English and New English is becoming more and more complicated:

1. New non-finite forms appeared (the gerund).

2. Conjugation of verbals and disappearance of their nominal categories.

3. New grammatical forms are formed.

4. The already existing grammatical categories acquire new forms.

5. the predominant regularity of the verbs and their conjugation in Old English gives way to many diverse irregularities.

LECTURE 9

ENGLISH VOCABULARY

List of principal questions:

1. Old English

1. General characteristics

2. Means of enriching vocabulary

   1. Internal means

   2. External means

2. Middle English

2.1. General characteristics

2.2 Means of enriching vocabulary

2.2.1. Internal means

2. External means

3. New English

3.1. General characteristics

3.2 Means of enriching vocabulary

3.2.1. Internal means

2. External means

Literature

1. R.V. Reznik, T.C. Sorokina, I.V. Reznik A History of the English language. M., 2003.

2. T.A. Rastorguyeva History of English. M., 1983.

3. А.И. Смирницкий Лекции по истории английского языка. М., 2000.

4. К. Бруннер История английского языка. Т.2 М., 2001.

5. И. Чахоян, Л. Иванова, Т. Беляева. История английского языка. СПб., 1998.

6. А.И. Смирницкий Древнеанглийский язык. М., 1955.