The evolution of the verbal system in the Middle English and New English.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 779.

ME. The 7 classes of OE strong verbs underwent multiple grammatical and phonetic changes. In ME the final syllables of the stems like all final syllables were weakened in Early NE most of them were lost. Thus the OE endings an, on and en (of the 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th principal forms) were all reduced to ME -en; consequently in classes 6 and 7 where the infinitive and the participle had the same gradation vowel, these forms fell together; in classes 1 and 3a it led to the coincidence of the 3^rd and 4^th principal forms. The finial -n was lost in the infinitive and the past tense plural, but was sometimes preserved in Participle II. Due to phonetic changes vowel gradation in Early ME was considerably modified. Lengthening of vowels before some consonant sequences split the verbs of class 3 into 2 subgroups: verbs like ‘findan' had now long root-vowels in all the forms; while in verbs like ‘drinken' the root-vowel remained short. At the same time there was a strong tendency to make the system of forms more regular. The strong verbs were easily influenced by analogy. It was due to analogy that they lost practically all consonant interchanges in ME and early NE. the most important change in the system of strong verbs was the reduction in the number of stems from 4 to 3 by removing the distinction between the 2 past stems. The tendency to reduce the number of stems continued in Early NE. At this stage it affected the distinction between the new Past tense stem and Participle II. One of the most important events in the history of the strong verbs was their transition into weak. In ME and Early NE many strong verbs began to form their Past and Participle II with the help of the dental suffixes instead of vowel gradation. The number of strong verb decreased. 128 verbs acquired weak forms; most of these verbs belong nowadays to ‘regular' or ‘standard' verbs. NE. Important changes occurred. Since the ‘-e' of the 1^st p. singular, plural and the infinitive form was lost, these forms have no endings. ME ‘-eth' was replaced in NE by ‘-s'. The form of the 2^nd person in ME had ‘-est/-st' and this form was closely connected with the pronoun ‘thou'. But then this form was gradually replaced. In NE all the 4 types of verb existed but were used in different ways. The number of principle forms of the strong verbs was limited to 3 (the infinitive, the Past tense, Participle II). The ME forms of the Past singular and past plural merged into 1 form in NE period. It led to the loss of distinction between them. As a result of their development in late NE strong verb seized to exist as a group. ME. The evolution of the weak verbs in ME and in Early NE reveals a strong tendency towards greater regularity and order. In ME we can distinguish 2 classes of weak verbs with some rearrangement between the classes as compared with OE. ME verbs of class I took the ending ‘-de' in the past without an intermediate vowel before the dental suffix – and the ending ‘-ed' in the Past Participle. The verbs of the 2^nd class which were marked by ‘-ode/-od' in OE had weakened these endings to ‘-ede/-ed' in ME. The only difference between the 2 classes of weak verbs in ME was the presence or absence of the element ‘-e-' before the dental suffix in the Past tense stem. The marker of the Past tense and Participle II employed by the weak verbs – the dental ‘-d/-t' proved to be very productive in all historical periods. Few weak verbs adopted strong forms during this period. NE. The classification of ME weak verbs is no longer applicable to NE verbs. In ME it was still possible to draw a distinction between 2 classes. The distinction was ‘-e' or there was no of it before the dental element of the suffix. In NE when the ‘-e' disappeared the distinction was no longer upheld. e.g.: ME (I class) demen – demde – demed; ME (II class) hopen – hopede – hoped. NE (I class) deem – deemed – deemed; hope – hoped – hoped. ME. The verbs included in the minor groups underwent multiple changes in ME and Early NE: phonetic and analogical changes, which affected their forms and semantic changes which affected their functions. Several preterite-present verbs died out. The surviving verbs lost some of their old forms and grammatical distinctions but retained many specific peculiarities. They lost the forms of the verbals which had sprung up in OE and the distinctions between the forms of number and mood in the Present tense. In NE their paradigms have been reduced to 2 forms or even one. ME ‘can' was used not only in the singular but also in the plural by the side of ‘cunnen' which died out by the end of the ME period. The Past tense Ind. And Subj. appears in ME in 2 variants: ‘couth(e)' and ‘coud(e)'. ME ‘may' was used as the main of the Present tense alongside with ‘mowen/mowe'. As compared with OE ‘may' has narrowed its meaning for some of its functions namely indication of physical and mental ability, have passed to the verb ‘can'. ME ‘shall' has lost many of its old forms and has retained only 2 forms ‘shall' and ‘should'. It was no longer used as a notional verb, but was widely used in both forms as a modal verb to express necessity or obligation. The OE verb ‘willan' which belonged to the group of anomalous verbs has acquired many features of the preterite-present group. In ME it was commonly used as a modal verb expressing volition. The OE verb ‘3an' in ME acquired a new Past tense ‘wente' which came from an entirely different verb – OE ‘wendan'. Its OE Past form ‘wente' had entered the paradigm of ‘goon' while ‘wend' acquired a new past form ‘wenden'. ME ‘ben' inherited its suppletive forms from the OE and more remote periods of history. It owes its variety of forms not only to suppletion but also to the dialectal divergence in OE and ME. NE. Preterite-present verbs. 1) ‘wit' was still found in Shakespeare. Later it disappeared from the literary speech and was only preserved in dialects and in poetic style. 2) ‘owe' is found in the meaning of ‘posess' and modern meaning is ‘to have/to pay money'. 3) ME ‘can' has been preserved. In NE the form ‘coud' has also been preserved, then ‘l' was inserted due to the law of analogy and appeared ‘could'. 4) ME ‘dar/durren' has been preserved in NE in the form ‘dare' (Past – ‘durst'). Alongside with ‘durst' a regular past form has been derived – ‘dared'. 5) ME ‘shall' – NE ‘shall'. Mainly it is used as an auxiliary verb of the futuretense. 6) ME ‘may' – NE ‘may'. Past form – ‘might', which become a separate verb with the exception of indirect speech. 7) ME ‘mot'. This verb is used in NE only as an archaism. In NE it becomes ‘must'. This form is used only in present. Anomalous verbs. 1) ‘be' has not changed much. The main change – the penetration of the northern form ‘are' into the Present plural indicative. 2) ‘do' has undergone changes common to all weak verbs. There were some changes in the pronunciation. ME [o:] – NE [u:], then it was shortened and [‘a] appeared. ‘did' is no longer divided into morphemes. 3) ‘go'. Past – ‘went' has been preserved while ME ‘yede' disappeared. 4) ‘will/would' have been preserved mostly as auxiliary verbs. It is also acts as a separate verb. ME. The development of analytical forms and new grammatical categories has transformed not only the finite verb but also the verbals. Compound forms of the infinitive appeared at a very early date: the Passive Infinitive consisting of ‘beon' + Participle II, is found in OE texts, though its semantic contrast to the simple form is not consistent, since the OE Active Infinitive, despite its form, could sometimes have a passive meaning. In ME texts we find different types of compound Infinitive: the Passive inf., the Perfect inf., in the Active and Passive forms. e.g.: they beth to ben blamed eft thafore (they are to be blamed for that again). In the 17^th century the Infinitive had the same set of forms as it has in present-day English. The formal distinctions which had developed in the system of the verbals towards the 17^th and 18^th centuries are practically the same as in Modern English. The forms of the Infinitive and the ing-form (gerund) make up grammatical categories similar to those of the finite verb: Voice, Time-correlation and Aspect. NE. The Infinitive. In early NE texts there are the same compound forms of the Infinitive and also continuous and perfective forms. Participle. Early NE Participle can be considered as a special part of speech sufficiently distinctive form verbals. In the 17^th century Participle I is already used in all 4 forms which are used today. Gerund (ing-form). It came into being in ME. It was gradually separated from nouns on ‘-ing'. Gerund of the transitive verb was followed by an adjective (of-phrase).