KYIV NATIONAL LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY

SYSTEM.

Strong verbs
1.2. Weak verbs
1.3. Preterite-Present verbs
1.4. Irregular verbs
2. Development of

verbal grammatical categories.

С. 241-274.
Ильиш Б.А. История английского языка. – Л.: Просвещение, 1972.

– С. 189-204, 280-290.
Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П. История английского языка. – М.: Высшая школа, 1976. – С.156-190.
Студенець Г.І. Історія англійської мови в таблицях. - К.: КДЛУ, 1998. – Tables 78-81, 99-101

the morphology of the noun and adjective, which have become

much simpler.
The morphology of the verb displayed 2 tendencies:
Simplifying changes
(affected the synthetic forms);
The growth of new analytical forms +
new grammatical categories.

reduced, leveled and lost in ME, ENE.
The reduction, leveling

and loss of endings resulted in the neutralization of formal opposition and the growth of homonymy. ME forms of the verb
are represented
by numerous variants
which reflect
dialectal differences
and tendencies
of potential changes.

basic forms of the verb transformed the morphological classification of

the verbs. The OE division into classes of strong/weak verbs was completely rearranged and broken.
Most verbs adopted the way of form-building used by the weak verbs (the dental suffix). The strict classification of the strong verbs with their regular system of form building deteriorated.

Past and PII forms with the help of dental suffixes.

Therefore the number of strong verbs decreased and the number of weak verbs increased.
There were about 300 strong verbs in OE. Some of them dropped out of use because of the changes in vocabulary, most of the remaining verbs became weak. Out of 195 verbs (OE strong verbs) preserved in the language, only 67 have retained strong verbs with root vowel interchanges.
strong > weak : lock, grip, help, wash
weak > strong : wear, thrive, ring
(Comp. Modern German helfen – half - geholfen)

lost some of their old forms and grammatical distinctions.
CAN (OE

cunnan – cann – cunnon –cuðe - cunnen). The Past Tense Indefinite form appears in ME in two variants couthe – coulde, the only form coude was preserved in NE. The insertion of in spelling (could) was due to the analogy (should, would). In ME the verb CAN was still used in the original meaning “to know”.

Its infinitive and Participle I went out

of use. Some of its functions (indication of physical / mental ability) passed to the verb CAN.
SHALL (OE sceal) lost many old forms, retained only 2 forms shall, should. It was no longer used in ME as a notional verb, but as a modal verb (necessity, obligation).
ME MOT (the same meaning as CAN in NE)
(OE *motan – mōt – mōton - mōste) MOST
(the Past Tense form) has acquired the meaning of the present.
OUGHT developed from the OE āʒan (ah, aʒon, ahte, -) with the original meaning “to possess”

great syntactic importance (most of them function as auxiliaries).

ME BE(N). This was not really “a verb” in OE,
but a collection of semantically related paradigms of various historical origins. There are 3 major stems.

dialects. The Present Tense forms were derived from different roots

and displayed a great dialectal diversity. ME am, are came from the Midland and replaced the West Southern eom, sint.
OE willan was used in ME as a modal verb to express volition. Later it formed a system with SHALL (shall, will – should, would), began to weaken their lexical meaning and became auxiliaries.

a different root and had a weak ending – ēode.

In ME the verb got a new Past Tense form wente (came from a different verb - OE wendan
– ME wenden – NE wend).
In Late OE it entered the paradigm ME goon.

and Past Tense). It was possible to express future not

only with the Present Tense form + special time indicators, but also with modal phrases (sculan, willan, magan, cunnan + infinitive).
In these phrases the meaning of future was combined with modal meaning of volition, obligation, possibility. In ME the use of modal phrases, especially with SHALL became common. SHALL + infinitive developed into the principal means of indicating future actions. Shall could retain its modal meaning of necessity, but often weakened it and expressed Future Tense. In the age of Shakespeare phrases with SHALL/WILL outnumbered all other ways of indicating future.

other forms of the verb, were very synthetic. In ME/NE

a few analytical forms of the Subjunctive mood appeared.
In ME the formal distinctions between the Subjunctive and Indicative Moods were almost neutralized. OE Ind. Ic finde, hie findað – Subj. finde, finden
ME Ind. I finde, they finden – Subj. finde, finden.

more extensive use of modal verbs. Later sholde / wolde

outnumbered the other verbs.
ME sholde / wolde could weaken or lose their lexical meanings and turn into auxiliaries.
By the age of Shakespeare the change was complete the forms should/would (originally Past Subjunctive of shall/will) had become formal markers of the new, analytical forms of the Subjunctive mood.
A new function – to indicate Present and Future actions as imaginary or unreal.

But there were some traces of the Germanic Medio-Passive restricted

to the verb hatan (to call). There was no regular opposition of forms in the verb paradigm.
In Late OE the constructions beon, wearthan + PII of transitive verbs were finally transformed into analytical forms of the Passive Voice.
In ME ben + PII could express not only a state but also an action.
The new Passive forms had a regular means of indicating the doer of the action/ instrument with the help of which the action was performed
OE mid, wi, bi - ME by, with

the OE “possessive” construction habban + direct object + PII

of a transitive verb, which served as an attribute to the object E.g. hie hine ofslæʒene hæfdon (they had them killed).
PII (like other attributes) agreed with noun objects in Number, Gender, Case in Early OE the verb habban was used only with PII of transitive and later with intransitive verbs.

the PII agreed with the Subject
OE nu is se

dæʒ cumen (Now is the day come = Now has the day come)
In Late OE the 2 phrases developed into analytical forms and made up a set of forms termed Perfect
The PII had lost its agreement with the noun (the Subject in the construction with ben, the object – haven)
The places of the object and the PII in the construction changed
In the Perfect form the auxiliary HAVE had lost the meaning of possession

prefixes, which could express an aspective meaning of perfectivity were

word building prefixes.
OE beon + PI -ende denoted a quality or a lasting state characterizing the person/thing indicated by the subject. It was often confused with a preposition phrase be + on + verbal noun -inʒ
OE He is on huntinʒe (he is hunting > he’s hunting)
The preposition ON became weakened and developed into a, later it was dropped the verbal noun developed into a Participle huntinge
By that time the PI (-ende) and the verbal noun
(-unʒ) had lost their formal differences.