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Questions and Answers
What were some of the form-building devices employed by the Old English verb?
What were some of the form-building devices employed by the Old English verb?
Which of the following best describes the categories of the Old English verb compared to present-day English?
Which of the following best describes the categories of the Old English verb compared to present-day English?
What was the grammatical nature of some categories of the Old English verb according to scholars?
What was the grammatical nature of some categories of the Old English verb according to scholars?
What suffix did the infinitive in Old English typically end with?
What suffix did the infinitive in Old English typically end with?
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How were the paradigmatic forms of verbs in Old English described?
How were the paradigmatic forms of verbs in Old English described?
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What were the non-finite forms of the verb in Old English?
What were the non-finite forms of the verb in Old English?
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How is Participle I formed in Old English?
How is Participle I formed in Old English?
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What is the function of the infinitive in Old English when associated with the preposition 'to'?
What is the function of the infinitive in Old English when associated with the preposition 'to'?
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What tense does Participle I express in Old English?
What tense does Participle I express in Old English?
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How is Participle II formed in Old English for weak verbs?
How is Participle II formed in Old English for weak verbs?
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What categories does the verb in Old English have?
What categories does the verb in Old English have?
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In Old English, what does Number represent as a category of the verb?
In Old English, what does Number represent as a category of the verb?
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Study Notes
The Old English Verb System
- The Old English verb system was less developed than it is today, with fewer forms and different categories.
- The system was complex, with verbs falling into numerous morphological classes and employing various form-building means.
Form-Building Devices
- Gradation (vowel interchange) was used to build verb forms.
- Suffixes, inflections, and suppletion were also used to form verbs.
- Inflections were often combined with vowel interchange or suppletion to form paradigmatic forms.
Non-Finite Forms of the Verb
- The non-finite forms of the verb in Old English were the infinitive and two participles.
- The infinitive had a suffix -an/ian and had the grammatical category of case (nominative and dative).
- The infinitive was often used with verbs like willan, sculan, and weordan to render various grammatical meanings.
Participles
- Participles had the categories of number, gender, and case, and were declined like strong adjectives.
- Participles were active in meaning and expressed present time relevance or simultaneity with the tense of the finite verb.
Participle I
- Formed by adding the suffix -ende to the stem of the infinitive.
- Expressed actions and states happening at the same time as the main verb.
- Had categories of number, gender, and case, and was declined like a strong adjective.
Participle II
- Expressed actions and states resulting from past action.
- Was passive in meaning with transitive verbs, and rendered only temporal meaning of the past with intransitive verbs.
- Formed by vowel interchange (gradation) and the suffix -cn (strong verbs) or the dental suffix -d/t (weak verbs).
- Often marked by the prefix je-, but sometimes found without it.
Categories of the Old English Verb
- The Old English verb had the categories of person, number, tense, and mood.
- Number was not a specifically verbal category, but rather a way of agreement of the predicate with the subject.
- The dual number was very seldom used in Old English.
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Description
Explore the less developed system of the Old English verb, which had fewer forms and different categories compared to present-day English. Learn about the ambiguity of some categories and the complexity of the paradigm with various morphological classes and form-building means.
