Germanic Verb
Investigating verbs • Descriptive (synchronic) analysis. • Historical (diachronic) comparative analysis.
The main features of Germanic verbs • Simplification to 2 tenses: present (also conveying future meaning) and past (sometimes called "preterite" and conveying the meaning of all English forms: "I did, I have done, I had done, I was doing, I have been doing, I had been doing"). • Development of a new way of indicating the preterite and past participle, using a dental suffix (-D; -T).
Strength and weakness Strong (vocalic) verbs • They are true descendants of PIE. Strong verbs display a vowel gradation or an ablaut. • Strong verbs have their own endings not only in Present but in Past tense as well. The majority of irregular verbs derived from strong verbs (they changed their root rather than ending in Past tense). Sing – sang – sung
Weak (consonantal) verbs • These are the verbs that use a dental suffix ( -D; -T) in the past (or preterite) form. • Weak verbs had NO ablaut. So, all forms of the verb were formed using the same (undistorted) stem. • Weak verbs proved to be more productive than strong. Almost all new Germanic verbs were weak.
Preterite-presents (anomalous verbs) This is a class of verbs which had the form of the Past tense and the meaning of the Present. They were declined as weak.
Examples • Modal verbs: can; may, must; shell. • Such words as: dare (durran), remember (gemunan), need (þurfan), know (witan).
Suppletive verbs As small number of words in Germanic language was formed from more than 1 stem. • To be unites 4 roots: *es-, *er-, *bhu-, *wes-. • A phenomenon of a verb forms composed of different verbs are clear in the word to go. Its Past tense eode was replaced by a new Past tense went (which is the Past form of the word to wend).
Past = Perfect was used in late PIE to signify an action completed in the past. In a couple daughter languages (Latin, Germanic) it became a simple past time. The point is that stative verbs were perceived as actions to which prior inception had been implied. Woida – I know
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