Comparison of Adjectives in Old English

 

Means of form-build­ing	Positive	Comparative	Superlative	NE
Sufftxation	soft wēriз	softra wēri3ra	softost wēri3ost	soft weary
Suffixation plus vowel inter­change	3læd 1оnз eald (also:	3lædra 1еnзга ieldra ealdra	3lædost len3est ieldest ealdost, ealdest)	glad long old
Suppletion	3ōd lýtel micel	bettra lǽssa māга	bet(e)st lǽst mǽst	good little much

4.Numerals. Cardinal and ordinal numerals.

Cardinal numerals. The first three nnumerals – ān, twēзen, þrēo_ have the forms of gender and case. Ăn is declenedis declined like strong adjectives.

The declension of twēзen:

 

	M	N	F
Nom.	twēзen	tū, twā	twā
Gen.	twēзra
Dat.	twǽm, twām
Acc.	twēзen	tū, twā	twā

The declension of þrēo:

 

	M	N	F
Nom.	Þrīe, þrī, þrý	þrīo þrēo	þrīo þrēo
Gen.	Þrīora, þrēora
	þrim
	Þrīe, þrī, þrý	Þrīo, þrēo	þrīo þrēo

 

The numerals from 4 to 19 do not decline.

 

4- fēower 5-fīf 6-syx, siex 7-seofon 8-eahte

9-ni3on 10-tīen, týn 11-endleofan 12- twelf 13- þrēotīne

 

The numerals fromn13 to 19 are build adding –tine, -tiene:. Starting from 20, the numerals are build adding –ti3: þrīti3, fēowerti3, etc. Starting from 70 to 100, hund- is added:

70- hundseofonti3, 100-hundteonti3, 110- hundendlæfti3, 1000- þūsend.

Ordinal numerals.

 

1st- forma, firmesta, fyrest, ǽrest 2nd-ōþer, æftera. 3d-þridda 4th-fēowera 5th-fifta

6th-siexta 7th-seofoþa 8th-eahtoþa 9th-ni3oþa 10th-tēoþa 11th-endlefta 12th-twelfta

 

The numerals from the 14^th to the 19^th are buil with the help of the suffix –teoþa? From the 20^th to the 12o – with the suffix -ti3oþa.

 

The verb

Grammatical categories of the finite verbs.

The verb-predicate agreed with the noun in two grammatical categories: number and person. The category of Mood was costituted by Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive. The category of Tense consisted of Present and Past categorial forms.

 

Conjugation of verbs in Old English

	Strong	Weak
Infinitive Present tense Indicative	findan (NE find)	beran bear	dēman deem	lōcian look
Singular 1st 2nd 3rd Plural	finde fintst fint findaþ	bere bir(e)st bir(e)þ beraþ	dēme dēmst dēmp dēmaþ	lōcie lōcast lōcaþ lōciaþ
Subjunctive Singular Plural	finde finden	bere beren	dēme dēmen	lōcie lōcien
Imperative Singular Plural Participle I Past tense Indicative	find findaþ findende	ber beraþ berende	dēm dēmaþ dēmende	lōca lōciaþ lōciende
Singular 1st 2nd 3rd Plural	fond funde fond fundon	bær bǽre bær bǽron	dēmde dēmdest dēmde dēmdon	lōcode lōcodest lōcode lōcodon
Subjunctive Singular Plural Participle II	funde bǽre funden bǽren (3e)fundon (зе)boren	dēmde lōcode dēmden lōcoden (3e)dēmed (3e)lōcod

 

Grammatical categories of the verbals.In Oe there were two non-finite forms of the verb: the Infinitive and the Participle. Their nominal features were more obvious than verbal. The latter was revealed only in their syntactic combinability: they could take diect objects and be modified by adverbs.

The Infinitive had a reduced case-system: two forms which roughly correspond to the Nom. and Dat. cases of Nouns.

Nom. beran

Dat. to beranne

Participles.Part I was opposed to Part.II through Voice and Tense distinction. Part.I was active and expressed present or simultaneous processes, while Part.Iiexpressed states andqualities resulting from past action, was passive, if the verb was transitive.

Participles in Old English

Voice Tense	Active	Passive	NE
Present	berende	—	bearing
	secзende	—	saying
	зanзende	—	going
	farende	—	‘travelling’
Past	зезān	зеboren	gone, born
	зefaren	зesǽdd	‘who has depar­ted, said’

 

Morphological classifications of verbs.

Strong verbs. There were about three hundred strong verbs in OE. They formed their stems by means of vowel gradation (ablaut) and by adding certain suffixes.

The classes of strong verbs.

Strong Verbs in Old English

Principal forms   Classes	Infinitive	Past Singular^1	Past Plural	Partici­ple II	NE
	wrītan	wrāt	writon	writen	write
	(a) cēosan (b) būзan	cēas bēaз	curon buзon	coren bозеn	choose bow
	(a) findan (b) helpan (c) feohtan	fand healp feaht	fundon hulpon fuhton	funden holpen fohten	find help fight
	beran	bær	bǽron	boren	bear
	(a) cweðan   (b) sittan	cwæð   sæt	cwǽdon   sǽton	cweden   seten	‘say’ (obs. quoth) sit
	scacan	scōc	scōcon	scacen	shake
	(a) hātan (b) зrōwan	hēt (heht) зrēow	hēton (hehton) зrēowon	hāten зrōwen	‘call’, ‘name’ grow

Weak verbs. The weak verbs derived their Past Tense stem and the stem of Participle II from the Present Tense stem with the help of the dental suffix.

The classes of weak verbs.

Weak Verbs In Old English

Principal forms   Classes	Infinitive	Past Tense	Participle II	NE
I	-an/-ian	-de/-ede/-te	-ed/-d/-t
	(a) styrian (b) temman (c) dēman (d) cēpan (e) tellan (f) þyncan	styrede teraede dēmde cēpte tealde þūhte	styred temed dēmed cēped teald þūht	stir tame deem keep tell thin
II	-ian	-ode	-od
	lōcian	lōcode	lōcod	look
III	-an	-de	-d
	libban habban	lifde hæfde	lifd hæfd	live have

 

Class 1: includes regular and irregular verbs.The verbs of the Class I, being i-stems, originally contained the element [-i/-j] between the root and the endings. This caused palatal mutation of the root vowel, and the lengthening of consonants. [-i/-j] was lost in all verbs before the age of writing.

Two groups of verbs in Class I – types (e) and (f) had an interchange of root-vowels: the Infinitive had a mutated vowel like all the verbs of ClassI, while the other two forms retained the original non-mutated vowel. These verbs are called irregular in Class1

Minor groups of verbs.

Preterite-present or past-present verbs. Originally the Present tense forms of these verbs were Past tense forms (or, more precisely, IE perfect forms, denoting past actions for the present). Later these forms acquired a present meaning but preserved many formal features of the Past tense. Mos of these verbs had new forms of the Past tense built with the help of the dental suffix. Some of them also acquired the forms of the verbals: Participles and Infinitives; mos of the verbs dfid not have a full paradigm and were in this sense “defective”