OE Verb (end)
OE preterite-present verbs
Classes
Infinitive
I
witan
Present
Pres
Past
sg
pl
sg
wāt
witon
wiste
dēaʒ
duʒon
dohte
cann
cunnon
cūðу
ann
unnon
ūðe
dear
duron
dorste
þearf
þurfon
þorfte
sceal
sculon
sceolde
man
munon
munde
mæʒ
maʒon
meahte
ʒeneah
ʒenuʒon
ʒenohte
mōt
mōton
moste
āʒe
āʒon
āhte
Part.II
“know”
II
duʒan
“avail”
III
cunnan
сūð
“can”
unnan
“grant”
durran
“dare”
Þurfan
“need”
IV
sculan
“shall”
munan
“remember”
V
maʒan
“may”
ʒenuʒan
“suffice”
VI
motan
“must”
āʒan
VII
“have”
Anomalous verbs
Т. Расторгуева pp.123-124
Verb conjugation
Like other Gmc languages, OE had the following verb forms: present and past,
which appeared in two moods: indicative and subjunctive; and the two imperative mood
forms were distinguished as sg and pl. There were also four verbals - present part., past
part., uninflected infinitive, and inflected infinitive (used with the preposition tō). Of the
medio-passive voice, which was retained in Gth, only a single fossilized form survived HATTON.
They distinguished sg and pl numbers and three persons in the sg. The conjugation
system of OE verbs was rather complicated. It comprised two subsystems: the strong verb
and the weak verb conjugations and specific paradigms of preterite-present verbs and
athematic verbs.
The present indicative sg forms of strong verbs had the following endings: 1st p. -E,
2nd p. -EST, 3rd p. -Eþ; the present indicative pl had one ending -Aþ. In the 2nd and 3rd p. sg
the root vowel was mutated, as there was a thematic vowel -i- in their earliest forms:
HELPAN “help” - 2nd p. HILPEST, 3rd p. HILPþ. The -E in the 2nd and 3rd p. ending
tended to disappear. If what remained was difficult to pronounce it came to be simplified:
BIDEþ > BIDþ > BITT.
There was great coincidence of forms in the verb paradigm. The plural imperative was
homonymous with the 3rd p. pl indicative. The present subjunctive sg -E and pl -EN also
occurred in the past subjunctive. The subjunctive present sg was the same as the 1st p. present
indicative.
In the past tense the so-called past sg (the form registered in the gradation series) occurred
only in the indicative with the 1 and 3 p. subjects: HEALP. The vowel of the past pl occurred in
all other cases of the past, indicative and subjunctive: HULPE, Part.I ended in -ENDE;
HELPENDE.
Ind
Subj
Imp
Ind
Subj
Sg
1 p. helpe
healp
2 p. hilpst
helpe
helpe
hulpe
3 p. hilpþ
hulpe
healp
Pl helpat» 1
Inf.
helpan
helpen
helpaþ
hulpon
hulpen
Part.
I
II
helpende holpen
The present tense paradigm of weak verbs did not differ from that of strong verbs: 1st
p. sg -E, 2nd p. sg -EST, 3rd p. -Eþ, pl -Aþ; after a long root syllable the /е/ could be dropped.
T.Rastorguyeva p. 110
Tenses
OE had only two tenses: present and past, which were distinguished in all indicative and
subjunctive mood forms of the verb. The meanings of the tenses were very general as compared
with later ages and with present-day English. The forms of the present were used to indicate
present and future actions. With verbs of perfective meaning or in cases with a future time
adverbial the present acquired the meaning of futurity: þonne þū þā in brinʒst hē ytt “When you
bring them, he will eat”; ac hit ne bið пā swā on antecristes timan “but it will not be so in
Antichrist’s time”.
The present tense might also indicate a process in the present, which is now expressed by a
continuous form: þū ʒesihst þæt ic ealdiʒe “You see that I am getting old”.
Future events could be also expressed by verb phrases with SCULAN “shall” and
WILLAN “will”: Nū sculon heriʒean heofon-rīces weard “Now shall we praise the Guardian of
heaven’s kingdom”; būton sē biscep hīe mid him habban wille “unless the bishop want to have it
with him” (WILLE is prs subj sg of WILLAN, whose modality is rendered by subj I in modem
translation).
The past tense was used to indicate various events in the past (including those which are
nowadays expressed by the forms of the past continuous, past perfect, present perfect, and other
analytical forms). Additional shades of meaning could be attached to it in different contexts: ...
Sæʒde him, hwylce ʒiefe hē onfēnʒ “he told him what gift he had received” (the past tense form
ONFENƷ indicated a completed action which preceded another past action – in modern
translation it is rendered by a past perfect form of the verb).
The problem of aspect
The problem of aspect in OE presents some difficulty. Originally OE, as well as other
Old Gmc languages, had aspect forms, which eventually developed into tenses. Thus the
category of aspect did not exist in OE verbs.
In some OE grammars aspect forms are identified with ʒе-forms, which sometimes
expressed completion of an action and in this way approached the meaning of a perfective
aspect. But ʒe-forms cannot be treated as aspect forms of the verb since not all verbs had them:
CUMAN never appeared with the prefix ʒе- (Cf. ðæt(te) ealra dōme ʒecoren wǣre, hwaet оððе
hwonan dæt(te) cumen wǣre “so that a decision of all of them might be made what or from
where that had come”). The same with SECƷAN: CŌM (пришёл) & SÆƷDE (сказал). Þā cōm
hē on morʒеnne tō þǣm tūnʒerēfan “тогда пришел он на утро к правителю города”; Ohthere
sǣde his hlāforde, Ælfrēde суninʒе, þæt hē ealra Norþmonna norþmest būde “Охтере сказал
своему господину, королю Альфреду, что он живет севернее всех норманнов”. The ʒeprefix was not regularly found even with those verbs that did use it, in cases denoting an
accomplished action: þā ārās hē from þǣm slǣpe ond eal þā þē hē slǣpende sonʒ fæste in
ʒemynde hæfde “Then he arose from the sleep and everything that he in his sleep had sung kept
fast in his mind”.
Verbals
The Infinitive
In OE: 2 infinitives
infinitive
an uninflected infinitive
cēosan, cēpan
& an inflected
cēosenne, cēpenne
The uninflected infinitive was the Nom/Acc of a verbal substantive neuter formed with the
suffix -ONO, which did not as a rule enter into the verbal system of other ancient languages.
There seemed to be no regular PIE infinitive as the languages which developed from it differ
considerably in the base form of verbs (cf. OE weorðan “become” with its cognate in Skt
vartanam “turning’’).
The inflected infinitive was a sort of gerund, used after prepositions, chiefly after TO. It
represented a Dat case of the ja- stem, and was a purely West Gmc form. The older type was
with the mutated ending -ENNE, later the A of the normal infmitive intruded, and later still
forms with E became more frequent again. In LOE there was often some confusion with the
participle in -ENDE, to which the modern convergence of the -ING forms is probably due.
The uninflected infinitive could function as a secondary predicate in the objective
construction in translations from Latin (hē ʒeseah þa hearpan him nēalēcan “he saw the harp
approach him”) as well as in original OE texts (...ðā līðende land ʒesāwon, brimclifu blīcan,
beorʒas stēaþe “the travellers saw land, the cliffs shine, steep mountains”).
The inflected infinitive, used with the preposition TŌ, generally indicated the direction or
purpose of an action: Маniʒе сōmоn tō bycʒenne þā þinʒ “Many (people) came to buy those
things”. It could also occur as part of a compound nominal predicate: ... sumnae bēс, ðā ðe
nīedbeðearfosta sīen eallum mannum tō wiotonne
“…certain books which are most
necessary for all men to know”.
The Participle
The present participle was formed from the present tense stem with the help of the suffix ENDE: WRITENDE “writing”, MACENDE “making”.
When used attributively it declined as an adjective. In predicative use an uninflected form
in -E was employed in the Nom and Acc of all genders.
The past participle was the 4th form of strong verbs and the third form of weak
verbs. Apart from the ablauting vowel its marker for strong verbs was the suffix -EN
(WRTTEN “written”). Participle II of weak verbs had the dental suffix -ED, -OD, -D, T (HYRED “heard”, MACOD “made”, LIFD “lived” SŌHT “sought”). The past
participles declined like adjectives. When used predicatively, the forms were mostly
uninflected.