Old English verbal system: strong verbs.
built their principal forms with the help of root vowel interchange (they made use of IE ablaut with certain modifications due to phonetic changes and environment)
Strong verbs had 4 stems which were formed by means of vowel gradation (vowel interchange, grammatical ablaut) in the stems and by adding certain suffixes characteristic of each stem:
The suffix -an was used for the Inf., no ending for the Past sg., -on for the Past pl., -en for Part.2.
Strong verbs are usually divided into 7 classes, differing in the root vowel.
The vowel gradation was of 2 kinds: qualitative (1-5 class) and quantitative (6 class). In some verbs vowel gradation was accompanied by consonant interchange
Ablaut– an independent vowel interchange unconnected with any phonetic conditions (the earliest set of vowel interchange, which dates from Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European)
| Strong verbs are: | very old group of words (characterized as core vocabulary) |
| in general more basic to everyday communication | |
| closed class (the irregularity of the strong verbs is due to the fact that verbs of this type are much less numerous than weak verbs. In Old English there only over 300 of them) | |
| restricted, meaning that few new verbs in the language will be taken into this group. |
The strong verbs in OE are usually divided into seven 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; this doubled root gave rise to a specific kind of root-vowel interchange.
The principal forms of all the strong verbs have the same endings irrespective of class: -an for the Infinitive, no ending in the Past sg stem, -on in the form of Past pl, -en for Participle II.
In the verbs of Class 6 the original IE gradation was purely quantitative; in PG it was transformed into a quantitative-qualitative series.
Old English minor groups of verbs.
The most important group of these verbs were the so-called “preterite-presents” or “past-present” verbs. Originally the Present tense forms of these verbs were Past tense forms. Later these forms acquired a present meaning but preserved many formal features of the Past tense. Most of these verbs had new Past Tense forms built with the help of the dental suffix. Some of them also acquired the forms of the verbals: Participles and Infinitives. In OE there were twelve preterite-present verbs. Six of them have survived in Mod E: OE āз; cunnan; cann; dear(r), sculan, sceal; maзan, mæз; mōt (NE owe, ought; can; dare; shall; may; must). Most preterite-presents did not indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb, an Infinitive which followed the preterite-present. In other words they were used like modal verbs, and eventually developed into modern modal verbs.
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Among the verbs of the minor groups there were several anomalous verbs with irregular forms. OE willan was an irregular verb with the meaning of volition and desire; it resembled the preterite-presents in meaning and function, as it indicated an attitude to an action and was often followed by an Infinitive.
– Suppletive verbs:
refer to the introduction of phonologically unrelated forms within an inflectional paradigm, as in go/went.In other words suppletive verbs build up different forms from different roots.
Supplition is one of the oldest means of form-building. All IE languages have suppletive verbs. Two OE verbs were suppletive
bēon (to be) – wæs / wære – (Participle I: bēonde (being)
gān (to go) – ēode – gegān (Participles: gānde, gangende)
– Anomalous verbs:
dōn (to do) – dyde – gedōn
willan (will) – wolde (Participle I willende)
. Anomalous verbs are verbs with irregular forms: They have some individual peculiarities. .
Willan with the meaning of volition, desire resembles the preterite-present verbs in meaning and function as it indicates an attitude to an action and it was often followed by an Inf. The form of the Past T. wolde is similar to the Past T scolde of the prêt.-pres. verb sculan. Eventually, on analogy with prêt.-pres. verbs it developed into a modal verb and later together with scullan – into an auxiliary verb.
The verb dōn combined the features of weak and strong verbs.
Like weak verbs it formed its Past tense with the help of a dental suffix (d) and had a vowel interchange (ō–y) and -n in Part 2 which is characteristic of strong verbs.
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Peterite-Present verbs.
a type of Germanic verb whose present system is historically (and formally) a strong verb past tense. In Modern English grammars some of such verbs are called modals.
In OE there were 12 preterite-present verbs. These verbs have a peculiar formation of basic stems and forms. Their Present Tense corresponds to the Past of strong verbs while their Past is derived from the Past weak verbs.
| Preterite-present verbs: | are the mixture of the strong and weak groups |
| have a peculiar place within the system of Old English | |
| are the most basic in the language | |
| are the most archaic type of verb that still exists | |
| are completely closed, which means that no new verbs will be added to it, although verbs can be lost from its ranks |
In the Pre-Old Germanic languages there used to be 3 aspects: the continuous, momentaneous & resultative.
The Continuousaspect presents actions as developing in time, without reference to any completion.
The Momentaneous aspect presents the action as heading towardscomplition.
The Resultative aspect presents the action as completed and having brought about a new stage of things
The Preterite-Present verbs originated from the so-called resultative aspect.
Preterite-present verbs signify the present result of a past action. Most of the preterite-present verbs did not indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb in the Infinitive. In other words, they were used like modal verbs, and 6 of them eventually developed into modern modal verbs: NE ought, dare, shall, can, may, must
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