Examples of strong verbs (British English)

· sing - sang - sung

· break - broke - broken

· run - ran - run

· hit - hit - hit

· bite - bit - bitten

· grow - grew - grown

· come - came - come

· write - wrote - written

· arise-arose-arisen

· beget-begot-begotten

· by sadhana.s 6th std

· sea international school

The verbal system in Old English (morphological classification) Ranez.Ru > Помощь в учебе абитуриентам и студентам > Студенту > Английский язык > История языка >
	The majority of OE verbs fell into two great divisions: the strong verbs and the weak verbs. Besides these two main groups there were a few verbs which could be put together as “minor” groups. The main difference between the strong and weak verbs lay in the means of forming the principal parts, or “stems” of the verb. The strong verbs formed their stems by means of ablaut and by adding certain suffixes; in some verbs ablaut was accompanied by consonant interchanges. The strong verbs had four stems, as they distinguished two stems in the Past Tense – one for the 1^st and 3^rd p. sg Ind. Mood, the other – for the other Past tense forms, Ind. and Subj. 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 -d- or -t-; normally they did not interchange their root vowel, but in some verbs suffixation was accompanied by a vowel interchange. Minor groups of verbs differed from the weak and strong verbs. Some of them combined certain features of the strong and weak verbs in a peculiar way (“preterite-present” verbs); others were suppletive or altogether anomalous. Strong Verbs The strong verbs in OE are usually divided into seven classes. Classes from 1 to 6 use vowel gradation which goes back to the IE ablaut-series modified in different phonetic conditions in accordance with PG and Early OE sound changes. Class 7 includes reduplicating verbs, which originally built their past forms by means of repeating the root-morpheme; this doubled root gave rise to a specific kind of root-vowel interchange. The principal forms of all the strong verbs have the same endings irrespective of class: -an for the Infinitive, no ending in the Past sg stem, -on in the form of Past pl, -en for Participle II. Weak Verbs The number of weak verbs in OE by far exceeded that of strong verbs. The verbs of Class I usually were i -stems, originally contained the element [-i/-j] between the root and the endings. The verbs of Class II were built with the help of the stem-suffix -ō, or - ōj and are known as ō -stems. Class III was made up of a few survivals of the PG third and fourth classes of weak verbs, mostly -ǽj -stems. Minor groups of Verbs The most important group of these verbs were the so-called “preterite-presents” or “past-present” verbs. Originally the Present tense forms of these verbs were Past tense forms. Later these forms acquired a present meaning but preserved many formal features of the Past tense. Most of these verbs had new Past Tense forms built with the help of the dental suffix. Some of them also acquired the forms of the verbals: Participles and Infinitives. In OE there were twelve preterite-present verbs. Six of them have survived in Mod E: OE ā з; cunnan; cann; dear(r), sculan, sceal; ma з an, mæ з; mōt (NE owe, ought; can; dare; shall; may; must). Most preterite-presents did not indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb, an Infinitive which followed the preterite-present. In other words they were used like modal verbs, and eventually developed into modern modal verbs.

Syntax. Word order. Questions. Prepositions and postpositions. Ranez.Ru > Помощь в учебе абитуриентам и студентам > Студенту > History of English - Old English >
	OE was largely a synthetic language; it possessed a system of grammatical forms, which could indicate the connection between words; consequently, the functional load of syntactic ways of word connection was relatively small. It was primarily a spoken language, therefore the written forms of the language resembled oral speech - unless the texts were literal translations from Latin or poems with stereotyped constructions. Consequently, the syntax of the sentence was relatively simple; coordination of clauses prevailed over subordination; complicated syntactical constructions were rare. The syntactic structure of a language can be described at the level of the phrase and at the level of the sentence. In OE texts we find a variety of word phrases (also: word groups or patterns). The connection between the parts of the sentence was shown by the form of the words as they had formal markers for gender, case, number and person. The presence of formal markers made it possible to miss out some parts of the sentence which would be obligatory in an English sentence now. The formal subject was lacking in many impersonal sentences (though it was present in others). There was multiple negation within a single sentence or clause. The most common negative particle was "ne", which was placed before the verb; it was often accompanied by other negative words, mostly "naht" or "noht", these words reinforced the meaning of negation. Compound and complex sentences existed in the English language since the earliest times. Even in the oldest texts we find numerous instances of coordination and subordination and a large inventory of subordinate clauses, subject clauses, object clauses, attributive clauses adverbial clauses. Repetition of connectives at the head of each clause (correlation) was common in complex sentences. The Phrase. Noun, Adjective and Verb Patterns. A noun pattern consisted of a noun as the head word and pronouns, adjectives, numerals and other nouns as determiners and attributes. Most noun modifiers agreed with the noun in gender, number and case. on ðǽm ōðrum ðrīm daзum ‘in those other three days’ – Dat. pl Masc. An adjective pattern could include adverbs, nouns or pronouns in one of the oblique cases with or without prepositions, and infinitives. him wæs manna ðearf ‘he was in need of man’. Verb patterns included a great variety of dependant components: nouns and pronouns in oblique cases with or without prepositions, adverbs, infinitives and participles brinз ðā ðīnз ‘bring those things’. Word order. The word order of Old English was not important because of the aforementioned morphology of the language. As long as declension was correct, it did not matter whether you said, "My name is..." as "Mīn nama is..." or "Nama mīn is..." Questions. Because of its similarity with Old Norse, it is believed that the word order of Old English changed when asking a question, from subject-verb-object to verb-subject-object. I am... becomes Am I...? Ic eom... becomes Eom ic...? Prepositions and postpositions. Old English prepositions often come after their object; that is, an Old English prepositional phrase can consist of a noun or noun phrase followed by a preposition. E.g: God cwæð him ðus to(God said thus to him). In the example the object of the preposition is a personal pronoun. Prepositions usually precede their objects when the object is a noun, but they often follow the object if the object is a pronoun.

SEMINAR 5

Linguistic situation of the Middle English period
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The Scandinavian invasions, the Norman Conquest & the way they influenced English Ranez.Ru > Помощь в учебе абитуриентам и студентам > Студенту > Английский язык > История языка >
	Scandinavian invasions Since the 8^th c. the British Isles were ravaged by sea rovers from Scandinavia, first by Danes, later – by Norwegians. By the end of the 9^th c. the Danes had succeeded in obtaining a permanent footing in England; more than half of England was yielded to the invaders and recognized as Danish territory – “Danelaw”. The new settlers and the English intermarried and intermixed; they lived close together and did not differ either in social rank or in the level of culture and customs. In the areas of the heaviest settlement the Scandinavians outnumbered the Anglo-Saxon population, which is attested by geographical names. Altogether more than 1,400 English villages and towns bear names of Scandinavian origin (with the element thorp meaning ‘village’, e.g. Woodthorp). Eventually the Scandinavians were absorbed into the local population both ethnically and linguistically. They merged with the society around them, but the impact on the linguistic situation and on the further development of the English language was quite profound. The increased regional differences of English in the 11^th and 12^th c. must partly be attributed to the Scandinavian influence. Due to the contacts and mixture with O Scand, the Northern dialects had acquired lasting and sometimes indelible Scandinavian features. In later ages the Scandinavian element passed into other regions. The incorporation of the Scandinavian element in the London dialect and Standard English was brought about by the changing linguistic situation in England: the mixture of the dialects and the growing linguistic unification. The Norman Conquest The new English king, Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) brought over many Norman advisors and favorites; he distributed among them English lands and wealth to the considerable resentment of the Anglo-Saxon nobility and appointed them to important positions in the government and church hierarchy. He not only spoke French himself but insisted on it being spoken by the nobles at his court. William, Duke of Normandy, visited his court and it was rumored that Edward appointed him his successor. However, the government of the country was still in the hands of Anglo-Saxon feudal lords, headed by the powerful Earl Godwin of Wessex. In 1066, upon Edward’s death, the Elders of England proclaimed Harold Godwin king of England. As soon as the news reached William of Normandy, he mustered (gathered) a big army by promise of land and, with the support of the Pope, landed in Britain. In the battle of Hastings, fought in October 1066, Harold was killed and the English were defeated. This date is commonly known as the date of the Norman Conquest. After the victory at Hastings, William by-passed London cutting it off from the North and made the Witan of London (the Elders of England) and the bishops at Westminster Abbey crown him king. William and his barons laid waste many lands in England, burning down villages and estates. Most of the lands of the Anglo-Saxon lords passed into the hands of the Norman barons, William’s own possessions comprising about one third of the country. Normans occupied all the important posts in the church, in the government and in the army. Following the conquest hundreds of people from France crossed the Channel to make their home in Britain. French monks, tradesmen and craftsmen flooded the south-western towns, so that not only the higher nobility but also much if the middle class was French. Effect of the Norman Conquest on the linguistic situation The Norman Conquest was not only a great event in British political history but also the greatest single event in the history of the English language. The Norman Conquerors of England had originally come from Scandinavia. First they had seized the valley of the Seine and settled in what is known as Normandy. They were swiftly assimilated by the French and in the 11^th c. came to Britain as French speakers. Their tongue in Britain is often referred to as “Anglo-French” or “Anglo-Norman”, but may just as well be called French. The most important consequence of Norman domination in Britain is to be seen in the wide use of the French language in many spheres of life. For almost three hundred years French was the official language of administration: it was the language of the king’s court, the church, the army and others. The intellectual life, literature and education were in the hands of French-speaking people. For all that, England never stopped being an English-speaking country. The bulk of the population spoke their own tongue and looked upon French as foreign and hostile. At first two languages existed side by side without mingling. Then, slowly and quietly, they began to penetrate each other. The three hundred years of the domination of French affected English more than any other foreign influence before or after. The early French borrowings reflect accurately the spheres of Norman influence upon English life; later borrowings can be attributed to the continued cultural, economic and political contacts between the countries.