The verb categories in Old Germanic languages.
In PG there were 2 forms of verbs: finite (особові) and non-finite. Finite verbs are marked by inflection and indicate person, number, tense. Non-finite verbs do NOT indicate them. The finite verbs in Old Germ l-ges had a verbal grammatical categories of tense and mood. Later, according to Modern English: mood, tense, number, person, voice. All these grammatical categories were expressed synthetically by means of inflexions.
- voice(active, passive or media-passive (only in Goth))
- mood: indicative (denotes a statement), imperative (commands, was used only in present of active voice), subjunctive or optitative (2 functions – grammatical & semantic)
- tense (present, preterite)
- number (singular, plural, dual)
- person(1, 2, 3)
There are two voices in Germanic, active and passive or media-passive (only in Goth).
For example, the Gothic verb bairan “to carry”. When it is inflected actively, as in bairiþ “(he) carries”, the subject is seen as carrying something. When it is inflected passively, as in bairada “(he) is carried”.
The older Germanic languages really have only two tenses, namely present and preterite (past action or condition). The Future actions are expressed by means of synthatical combination of verbs or by Present tense ( just like in Modern English). The Preterite is also used to express past participle, as in Modern English “I had run”.
Number in the Germanic verb is governed by the subject. Thus, when the subject is singular, the verb is inflected for the singular; when the subject is in the plural, the verb is also.
Person, too, is a verbal category governed by the subject.
17. The verbals in Old Germanic languages. Infinitive and participle: their origin and morphological categories.
There are three non-finite forms of verbs. The first is the infinitive proper, which is essentially a noun formed from the present tense verbal stem; consider PDE “to run”. The second is the present participle 1, which is an adjective formed from the present stem, analogous to forms like PDE ‘running’. The third is the preterite participle 2, an adjective sometimes but not always based on the preterite stem of the verb, and etymologically identical with forms like ‘driven’ in ‘I have driven’ or ‘a driven man’.
INFINITIVE is not only an indefinite form of a verb. Originally infinitives were verbal agent nouns. (Nomina Agentis) – віддієслівні іменники. Germ. inf. derives from the noun with the suffix –no-. in old Germ. lang-es analogical forms could be declined. They later developed into verbal form, and prepositions – into a particle that goes with the verb.
Participles are verbal agent adjectives. It can be declined by case, and in Latin, Russian by tense and mood.We distinguish ParticipleI (active) and Part.II (passive). Participle I is formed from strong and weak verbs by adding suffix –nd-. Participle II: strong verb + n weak verb + þ/d/t. In England Participle I is –ing form.
25. The vocabulary of Proto-Germanic. (p 101-103)
The sources of information about the oldest vocabulary of Germ. Lang-es were: runic inscriptions, toponymy, texts of literary monuments and modern vocabulary of Germ. Languages, which are examined with the help of the comparative-historical method.
Common IE vocabulary includes terms of relationship, numerals and names of some plants and animals. The vocabulary of unknown origin forms 30% of the vocabulary of PG. the oldest borrowings were from Celtic and Latin. We also distinguish prattle words borrowed from childish lang., so called traveling words borrowed from unknown lang. and attested in many Germ. lang-es, folk words used in everyday speech and having special semantic meanings.
According to lexical meanings of the words (semantic field) we distinguish a) natural phenomena; b) industrial terms; c) cultural terms, d) animals, e) plants, f) actions
According to stylistics we distinguish neutral, common used and stylistically coloured (poetic, official, bookish and professional vocabulary) vocabulary. Common used words are the names of things which surround us. They are used in everyday speech and are stylistically neutral: OHG ackar (поле), leban (жити), OE bringan (приносити), wind (вітер).
Bookish lang. appeared in Late CG and is connected with the development of science and culture. A lot of such words were borrowed from Latin and Greek: L credo> OE creda; L regula> OE regol.
……W======3. Word stress in Proto-Germanic and its morphological consequences.
· In PIE there were two ways of word accentuation:
b. musical pitch(tone)
c. force(dynamic) stress
The position of stress was free & moveable. It could fall on any syllable of a word: on a root morpheme, on an affix, or even on the ending. It could be shifted . Both these properties of stress were changed in common Germanic.
· In PG force stress( dynamic or breath) became the only type of stress used. In early PG the stress was still moveable, but in late PG the position of stress was fixed on the first syllable (either root or prefix), all the other syllables were unstressed.. The fixed words stress has played an important role in phonetic and morphological development.
Consequences: the vowels of non-initial syllables became unstressed & therefore they were weakened & could be lost.(Verrners law) The 1st syllable of a word was given a special prominence.