Basic Changes in the Development of the English Verb System

OE verb:

The verb system of OE had the following categories: the category of number (sing. and plural), the category of person (1^st, 2^nd, 3d), the category of mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive); of tense (present, past; present tense together with adverbs of future sometimes performed the function of future tense); 3 verbals (infinitive, participle 1 and participle 2).

The OE verb system was characterized by another feature: all verbs were divided into 2 groups according to the use of different grammatical means to form past verb forms, into strong verbs and weak verbs.

Strong verbs are those which derive their past tense and second participle by means of gradation. And weak verbs are those which derive their forms by means of the suffix –d/t. Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by a vowel interchange. Besides these 2 groups, there are also preterite-pesent verbs and a few irregular verbs.

Strong verbs have 4 basic forms: the infinitive, the past singular, the past plural, and the second participle. All strong verbs fall into seven classes according to the type of gradation. E.g. 1s class: writan, wrat, writon, writen (infinitive, past sing. past plural, part. 2).

Weak verbs fall into 3 classes and each verb is characterized by 3 forms: infinitive, past tense and second participle. The past plural can be formed by replacing the ending – e of the singular by the –on ending of the plural: tellan, tealde, teald; habban- haefde-hafd. Conjugation: 1. Write, 2 writest, 3 writeth/writ,Past: wrat, write, wrat; Plural writen, writon.

Preterite-present (past-present) verbs: their present tense corresponds to the past of strong verbs, while their past is derived according to the past of weak verbs: witan – wat (sing. pr.) – witon (pl. Present) – wisse/wiste (past). There are also some irregular verbs whose forms are derived from different roots, that is their system is based on suppletivity; e.g. wesan – to be, gan, don, willan etc. For example, the verb wesan (beon): 1 eom, beo 2. eart, bist 3 is, bith; Pl. sind(on), beoth / Past: waes, waere, waes, waeron.

Analytical formations: during the OE period the system of the verb acquires some analytical formations. For example, of the pattern ‘habban + second participle. Originally these formations meant that the subject owned a thing having a certain feature as a result of an action performed upon it. Then they acquired the meaning of result of an action. With intransitive verbs this formation has the verb ‘ beon, wesan (to be). Another type of analytical formations arises from the phrases ‘ sceal + infinitive’ and wille + infinitive’ The original model meaning of these verbs may be weakened and the phrase may approach the meaning of a future tense. One more type acquires a modal meaning’ sceolde + infinitive’ and ‘ wold + infinitive’ which could express supposition.

ME verb:

All types of verbs existing in OE were preserved in ME. In each of these types we can find changes due to phonetic phenomena of the ME period and changes due to analogy.

Strong verbs: In some classes, both the infinitive ending – an and the past plural ending –on were weakened to –en (n): (writen wrot writen writen); in others the past singular form began to penetrate into the past plural and the second participle to the past plural, thus preparing the reduction of the 4 main parts of a strong verb to three. Several classes of verbs influenced each other which resulted in different phonetic changes.

Weak verbs. The 3 classes of weak verbs had a different development in different dialects. The main changes were as follows: 1) verbs with an –i in the infinitive lost it: macian – maken (Northern/Midland dialects); the infinitive ending –ian/ien appears as – i: lufian – loven – lovi – Southern dialect; 2) in some weak verbs with a stem ending in –l, -n, -f, -v, the past suffix –d changed into – t; verbs with a stem in –rd, -nd, -ld formed their past in – rte, - nte, - lte, and their second particple in –rt, -nt, - t.

Irregular verbs: sellan – solde – sold; tellan – tolde – told;

Preterite-present verbs: were preserved, their forms underwent changes due to the general tendencies of the period

Conjugation: uderwent considerable changes: as a result of levelling of unstressed vowels the difference between the endings –an, -on- and –en was lost. The final – n, which characterized many verb forms, was lost. It proved stable only in some second participles, where it has been preserved down to the MnE period. But there were dialectal varieties in the verb endings. An example of conjugation (weak verb haven) 1 have, 2 hast 3 hath Pl. Han Past 1 hadde 2 haddest 3 hadde pl. hadden); to be (ben) 1 am 2 art 3 is pl.: ben Past: was, were, was; pl.: weren.

The Perfect: Perfect forms, which arose in OE, are widely used in ME. In Chaucer’s works there are many sentences with the Present Perfect and the Past Perfect forms of intransitive verbs were derived by means of the verb (ben) be.

The Continuous: In ME there appeared first instances of a continuous aspect, consisting of the verb be and the first particple. They were very rare. The origin is not quite clear. Ilyish gives the following explanation: he is on huntinge: the preposition ‘on’ became weakened and turned into a prefix ‘a-‘: he is a-hunting: then the prefix was dropped and the verbal substantive ‘huntinge’ became a participle. Perfect continuous forms are quite rare in ME.

Future Tense: A special future form, which started in OE, became in ME a regular part of the tense system. Chaucer uses this form in many cases. Occasionally, however, the future meaning may be accompanied by some modal shade.

Moods: The Subjunctive mood preserved in ME many features it had in OE. An unreal condition referring to the present is expressed by the phrase ‘wolde + infinitive; if the action refers to the past the phrase ‘wolde + perfect infinitive is used.

The Passive voice: was very widely developed in ME: the phrase ‘ben + second participle could express both a state and an action. Only the context would show which of the two was meant in each particular case.

MnE verb:

Conjugation: important changes took place here: 1) the first person sing. ending – e was lost; the 3d person singular –eth was replaced by –s (the Northern dialect). In Shakespeare’s works both ending are used. In the 17^th century it was fully superseded by – s, and –eth was preserved in elevated style. The second person ending – st connected with the personal pronoun ‘thou’ was gradually superseded during the 17^th century.

Strong verbs: The 4 forms were reduced to 3: infinitive, past tense, second participle.

The Second participle: The – en ending of the second participle proved strong enough in many verbs to withstand the general tendency to drop unstressed endings. Sometimes 2 forms coexist: with –en and without it: the verb ‘to bite’ – the 2^nd participle – bitten or bit. Compare British ‘got’ and American ‘gotten’.

Weak verbs: in weak verbs the distinction between classes disappears. The unstressed – e disappeared in all cases, and is only preserved in words ending in – t/d: end- ended; some strong verbs become weak and some weak verbs become strong. A few irregular verbs became regular.

Invariable verbs: In MnE a group of invariable verbs came into existence. Most of them stemmed from weak verbs with a root ending in –d/t; a few came from strong verbs of different classes: for example, cutten – cutte –cutt – became invariable as a result of disappearance of unstressed endings

The Perfect: the system of perfect forms goes on unfolding in the MnE period. Perfeect forms of intransive verbs derived by means of the verb ‘be ‘are coming out of use, but still are rarely found.

Continuous forms occur more frequently, sometimes present simple is used for an action taking place at the moment of speech. Sometimes ‘always’ is used with a continuous form, with an emotional coloring. Sometimes the present and past perfect continuous forms are used. In the 19^th century passive continuous forms arise, though they were limited to the present and the past. The mood system developed in MnE towards creating more precise means of expressing modal meanings.

Use of Auxiliary ‘ do’. In Early MnE the verb ‘do’ was widely used as an axilliary in affirmative sentences devoid of any emphatic character. ‘Do’ is also found in negative and interrogative sentences. However, forms without ‘do’ are also used.

The Gerund: The gerund which came into being in ME, developed further in MnE, gradually separated from the verbal substantive in – ing. The gerund is followed by a noun indicating the object of the action, sometimes it is followed by an of-phrase. In MnE analytical gerund forms appear: the perfect and the passive gerund.

Morphological Classification of Old English Verbs

II. Strong verbs in OE

III. Weak verbs

IV. Preterite-Present Verbs

Irregular verbs: tellan – tealde – teald;

Conjugation:

Infinitive: wri:tan Particple I Particple II

Dat: to: wri:tenne wri:tende (ge) written

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