An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press

.
eal ‘shall’ have the
meaning of futurity as they do in present-day English, except in the
occasional, and rather literal, translation of a Latin future. The following
example from Ælfric is not strictly a translation, but it certainly reflects
the Latin original:
(40)
T
a¯ de¯adan sc
.
eolon arı¯san
the dead shall arise again
Of course this example can also express, just as the present-day modal
does, necessity with future implication.
Yet in reported speech we find examples which do not look as if they
are a copy of Latin and in which sc
.
eolde ‘should’ represents a future in the
past:
(41) Hı¯e ne we¯ndon
e
ætte æ¯fre menn sc
.
eolden swæ¯ reccele¯ase
weor
e
an
They did not think that ever men would so reckless become
NOUN PHRASES AND VERB PHRASES
77
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6.5 Aspect
As well as expressing time relationships by means of tense, Old English
also expressed such relationships by means of aspect, a grammatical
feature which in English is used to present, not the time of an action, but
rather how the action took place. In present-day English there are
usually said to be two aspects, one realised by have + past participle, e.g.
I have seen, one realised by be + present participle, e.g. I was dreaming. There
is often much argument about the appropriate labels to attach to these
constructions; here I shall refer to the former as perfective aspect, but I
shall refer to the latter merely as be+ing, since there is no ready equiv-
alence between Old English and present-day English constructions.
Although there are significant differences of both form and meaning
between perfective aspect in Old English and present-day English, the
construction we find today is clearly a development of that pertaining in
Old English. Thus the following sentence parallels its modern counter-