Lecture 1 Introduction

Period	Infinitive	Past
Participle 2
OE	ζān	ēode (suppletivism + weak verb feature (dental suffix -d))	ζeζān (strong verb feature (suffix -n and prefix ζe-)
ME	goon	wente (suppletivism (from OE wendan) + weak verb feature (dental suffix -t)	goon (strong verb feature (suffix -n))

Bēon
This verb was highly suppletive and in OE employed two separate words/roots (Infinitives):

Present		OE		ME	NE
Numb.	Pers.	wesan	bēon	been	been
Sg	1^st	eom	bēo	am	am
	2^nd	eart	bist	art	are
	3^rd	is	biþ	is	is
Pl	-	sint	bēoþ	are/arn	are
Past		wesan		been	be
Sg	1^st	wæs		was	was
	2^nd	wǽre		wēre	were
	3^rd	wæs		was	was
Pl	-	wǽron		wēren	were

Analytical Forms
In OE there were no analytical forms. They appeared later:

• 
  ME – Future Tense, Perfect, Passive and Subjunctive forms;
  
• 
  NE – Continuous and Do-forms;
  

and had the following characteristics:

• 
  They consisted of 2 elements:
  
  • 
    a verb of broad semantics and high frequency (an auxiliary);
    
  • 
    a non-finite form (Infinitive, Participle 1, 2).
    

Future-Tense Forms
In OE there was no Future Tense. Future actions were expressed by Present-Tense forms and modal phrases with sculan (shall), willan (will), maζan (may), cunnan (can), etc.

1. 
   Formation
   

sculan/willan + Infinitive
Willan had more strong modal meaning (volition) that was later weakened and almost lost.

2. 
   13^th – 14^th c. – these forms were very common and sculan (shall) and willan (will) were completely interchangeable.
   
3. 
   17^th c. – John Wallis introduced the rule “shall – 1^st person, will – 2^nd and 3^rd person”.
   
4. 
   In ModE there is a tendency to use will + 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd person without any distinction (earlier will + 1^st person had the modal meaning of volition).
   

Perfect Forms

1. 
   Formation
   

habban/bēon + Participle 2
↓ ↓
with transitive with intransitive (this distinction is still left in German)
verbs verbs

2. 
   In ME and NE only the auxiliary habban was left while bēon ceased to be used in the Perfect forms not to confuse them with the Passive forms (though some of these forms are still left, e.g. He is gone).
   

Passive Forms

1. 
   Formation
   

bēon/werthen + Participle 2

2. 
   Werthen died out in late ME.
   
3. 
   Passive constructions were often marked with prepositions “by/with” (to show the doer of the action or the instrument of the action).
   

Subjunctive-Mood Forms

1. 
   These forms were not always analytical in OE but were widely used in:
   

• 
  independent clauses – to express wish, command, hypothetical condition, concession, purpose (e.g. Sīēn hira ēāζan āþistrode. – Be their eyes darkened!);
  
• 
  dependent clauses – temporal clauses (related to future) (e.g. Bring me þæt ic ēte. – Bring me that, I would eat), etc.;
  
• 
  impersonal sentences (e.g. Methinks – I think (мне думается), me lycige – I like (мне нравится)) – went out of use in NE.
  

2. 
   In ME and NE analytical forms of the Subjunctive Mood appeared.
   

Formation:
biden (bid)/leten (let)/neden (need)/sholde (should)/wolde (would) + Infinitive
These were the modal phrases that were used to express problematic or imaginary actions. The forms with sholde/wolde outnumbered all other forms, soon they weakened their modal meaning and became auxiliaries: should – 1^st person, would – 2^nd, 3^rd person.

3. 
   Meaning of the Subjunctive forms:
   
   • 
     in the Past – present or future imaginary or unreal actions (e.g. He thought he would cope with the task);
     
   • 
     in the Present – future probable or problematic actions (e.g. She thinks he would still come).
     

4. 
   Peculiarities:
   

• 
  should/would + Infinitive  simultaneous actions (e.g. If I was young I would be the happiest person in the world);
  
• 
  should/would + Perfect Infinitive  past or preceding actions (e.g. If I had known all this I would have left that house immediately).
  

Continuous Forms
Sometimes they were found in OE:

1. 
   Formation
   

bēon + Participle 1

2. 
   In OE it denoted a “quality” or a “lasting state” and was characterising a person or a thing indicated by the Subject of the sentence. The continuance was not limited in time (as it is in the ModE Continuous forms) and resembled more present-day Indefinite Tense forms, e.g.:
   

Sēō eorðe is berende missenlīcra fuζela – This land bears many birds.

3. 
   In ME Continuous forms fell into disuse.
   
4. 
   In NE these forms reappeared together with a synonymous form:
   

be + Participle 1 = be + on/in + Gerund (indicated a process of limited duration)
e.g.:
He was on huntinge – He was hunting (literally, He was on hunting).

5. 
   18^th c. – Continuous forms became well-established.
   
6. 
   19^th c. – Continuous forms in the Passive were accepted as a norm (e.g. The house is being built – previously such forms were considered clumsy and non-grammatical).
   

Do-Forms

1. 
   In NE “do-periphrasis” was used in the Past and Present of the Indicative Mood.
   
2. 
   16^th c. – “Do” was used in negative, affirmative and interrogative sentences and was freely interchangeable with the simple forms (without “do”), e.g.:
   

Heard you all this? = Did you hear all this?
I know not why he cries. = I don’t know why he cries.
He knew it. = He did know it (without any meaning of emphasis).

3. 
   17^th c. – “do” was left only in negative and interrogative sentences to keep the word-order S + P + O (e.g. I (S) pity (P) him (O). Do you (S) pity (P) him (O)?). In affirmative sentences “do” acquired an emphatic meaning (e.g. Did you really see him? – I did see him, I swear!).
   

H/w:
1. After reading the material of the lecture, use the glossary of “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука and analyse the following verbs: clypode, þystrodon, mihte, ζeseon, cwæd, ζesihst. Plan of analysis:

• 
  initial form;
  
• 
  type of conjugation/type of the verb;
  
• 
  class of the verb;
  
• 
  a non-finite form (Infinitive, Participle 1, 2, Gerund) or a finite form (Tense, Number, Person if there are);
  
• 
  Modern English equivalent;
  
• 
  translation.
  

2. Find all the verbs in the abstract from “Beowulf” on p. 8 in “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука and analyse them according to the plan given above.
3. Find the Perfect, Passive and Infinitive forms in the abstract from the “Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer (lines 1-14) on p. 33-34 in “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука and analyse them.
Lecture 19
The Development of the Syntactic System

OE
Old English was a synthetic language, i.e. there were a lot of inflections that showed the relations between the words in a sentence.

Syntactic Connections between the Words

1. 
   Agreement – a correspondence between 2 or more words in Gender, Number, Case, Person:
   
   • 
     relation – correspondence between the Subject and the Predicate in Number and Person;
     
   • 
     correlation – agreement of an adjective, a demonstrative pronoun, a possessive pronoun, Participle 1, 2 with noun in Gender, Number, Case.
     
2. 
   Government – a type of correspondence when one word (mainly a verb, less frequently – an adjective, a pronoun or a numeral) determines the Case of another word:
   

e.g.: OE niman (to take)  noun in Acc;
OE secζan (to say)  noun in Dat (to whom?), noun in Acc (what?);
OE hlusten (to listen)  noun in Gen.