Conjugation of Preterite-Presents in Old English

Infinitive	cunnan (NE can)	sculan (NE shall, should)
Present tense
Indicative
Singular 1st	cann	sceal(l)
2nd	canst	scealt
3rd	cann	sceal(l)
Plural	cunnon	sculon
Subjunctive
Singular	cunne	scule, scyle
Plural	cunnen	sculen, scylen
Participle I	—	—
Past tense
Indicative
Singular 1st	cūðe	sceolde
2nd	cūðest	sceoldest
3rd	cūðe	sceolde
Plural	сūðоn	sceoldon
Subjunctive
Singular	сūðе	sceolde
Plural	cūðen	sceolden
Participle II	cunnen, cūð	—

 

These verbs had noParticiple I; some preterite-presents built Participle I from the Present Tense stem, e. g. OE maзon, mæз, Participle I — maзende (NE may).

In OE there were twelve preterite-present verbs. Most of them did not indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb, an Infinitive of which followed the preterie-present, eventually preterite-present verbs developed into modal verbs.

Anomalous verbs had irregular forms. The verb willan had a past tense form wolde. Some verbs combined the features of strong and weak verbs. OE dōn had a week Past tense form with a vowel interchange and a Participle in – n like strong verbs n: dōn – dyde – зedōn.Būan-būde-зebūn.

Suppletive verbs.Two verbs were suppletive. OE зān whose Past tense was built from a different root: зān – eōde – зeзān and wesan,bēon. The verb bēon is an ancient IE suppletive verb. N nmany languages its paradigm is made up oif several roots (R. Быть, есть). In Oe the Present tense forms were the modifications of the roots * wes- and * bhu-. The Past tense was built from the root * wesan on the pattern of the strong verbs of the Class 5.

 

Conjugation of OE bēon, NE be

	OE	NE
Infinitive	wesan	bēon	be
Pres. Indicative
1st p. sg	eom/am	bēo/biom	am
2nd p. sg	eart	bist/bis	-
3rd p. sg	is	biþ	is
Pl	sint/sindon	bēoþ	are
	earon/aron
Pres. Subjunctive
Sg	sīe, sý	bēo	be
Pl	sīen, sýn	bēon
Imperative
Sg	wes	bēo	be
Pl	wesaþ	bēoþ
Part.1	wesende	bēonde	being
Past Indicative
1st p. sg	wæs	was
2nd p. sg	wǽre
3rd p. sg	wæs	was
PI	wǽron	were
Past Subjunctive		-
Sg	wǽre	were
Pl	wǽren
Part. II	-	been

 

Syntax

Ways of expressing syntactical relations: agreement, government, joining.

The sentence. The simple sentence. The main parts, the secondary parts. Word order. Multiple negation. Compound and complex sentences. Connectives.

 

Lecture 6

Old English Vocabulary

Plan

1. Etymological survey of the OE vocabulary.

2. Foreign element in the Old English vocabulary.

3. Word formation in OE.

 

Literature

Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. M.,1983; M.,2005. - p.131-.147

Ilyish B. History of the English language. Л. 1972. – p 56-63.

Reznik R.V., Sorokina T.S., Reznik I.V. A History of the English Language. M., 2001. – p. 173-178,190-202.

Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. М., 1985. – c.92-101.

Бруннер К. История английского языка. М., 2003. – Т.1, 108-175. 355-386.

Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Т.М. История английского языка. СПб., 1998. с. 15-18.

Смирницкий А.И. Древнеанглийский язык. М., 1998. – с. 155-206.

 

Etymological survey of the Old English Vocabulary.

Native words. Common Indo-European words, common Germanic words, specifically English words.

Foreign element in the Old English vocabulary. Borrowings from Celtic. Latin loan-words.

 

Lecture 7

MIDDLE AND NEW ENGLISH PERIODS

Historical Background from the 11^th to 15^th century,

16^th-19^th c.

Hours

Plan

1. Economic and social conditions in the 11^th – 12^th c.

2. The Scandinavian invasions.

3. The Norman conquest.

4. Early and Late Middle English dialects.

5. Development of the natinal literary english language (16^th-19^th c.)

6. Spelling changes and the rules of reading.

 

Literature

Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. M.,1983; M.,2005. - p.1149-188

Ilyish B. History of the English language. Л. 1972. – p 134-160.

Reznik R.V., Sorokina T.S., Reznik I.V. A History of the English Language. M., 2001. – p. 48-77.

Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. М., 1985. – c. 103-110, 177-186.

Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Т.М. История английского языка. СПб., 1998. с. 19-22, 28-31, 35-39.

Смирницкий А.И. Лекции по истории английского языка (средний и новый период). М., 1998. – 14-51, 140-153.

Economic and social conditions. Period of established feudalism. Natural economy. Tools, local feuds, travel restrictions.

Effect of the Scandinavian invasions. “Danelaw”. Political annexation of England by Denmark under Canute. The impact of the Scandinavian element on the linguistic situation. The increased regional differences.

The Norman conquest. The battle of Hastings (1066). Effect of the Norman conquest on the linguistic situation. The origin of the Normans. Norman domination in Britain. The decline of the written form of English. Official recognition of English. Early Middle English dialects. Southern (Kentish and South-Western), Central (West Midland ahd East Midland) and Northern. Extension of the English territory.

Early Middle English written records. Peterborough Chronicles.

 

Late Middle English. Reestablishment of English as the language of state and literature. Dialects in Late Middle English. London dialect. The inhabitants of London throughout its history. The Age of Chaucer.

Development of the national literary language in the 16^th – 19^th centuries. Economic and political unification. Development of the capitalist mode of production. The end of the Hundred Year’s War. The War of Roses. Establishment of the absolute monarchy of Tudors. Conditions for linguistic unity. Consolidation of the English nation, formation of the national language. Progress of culture. Introduction of printing. W. Caxton and his spelling.

 

 

 

Expansion of English over the British Isles. Flourishing of literature in Early New English (Literary Renaissance). The age of Shakespeare. Establishment of the Written Standard. Normalising tendencies. Growing of the Spoken Standard. Varieties of English in Britain. Geographical Expansion of English outside the British Isles.

Spelling changes in Middle English. Rules of reading.