GRAMMATICAL

CATEGORIES OF
VERBS
 1. Grammatical categories of verbs in
Proto-Indo-European.
 2. Grammatical categories of verbs in Old
Germanic and Old English.
 3. The rise and the development of
analytical forms
 a) the passive voice
 b) perfect forms
 c) future tense
 d) future-in-the past-forms
 e) continuous aspect
 Grammatical categories of
verbs in Proto-Indo-
European
 1. Aspect: Presence, Aorist, Perfect;
 2. Mood: the Indicative, Imperative,
Optative and Conditional;
 3. Voice: Active and Middle
(Medium);
 4. Number: Singular, Plural, Dual;
 5. Person: first, second, third.
 Greek
 λειπο I am leaving” (Praesens –
Modern English equivalent– the
Present Continuous Tense),
 ελιπον ‘I left’ (Aorist – Modern
English equivalent – the Past Simple
Tense).
 Mood.
 Indicative,
 Imperative,
 Optative
 Conditional (Conjunctive) Mood
Grammatical categories of
verbs in Old Germanic
Languages and Old English
 person,
 number,
 tense,
 voice
 mood.
 The Present tense had
several functions, it
indicated:
 1) the action that coincides with the moment of
speaking (Present Progressive): E.g. ic cweþe on
wordum. – “I am saying with words”.
 2) permanent action: E.g. Sume gað on twam
fotum sume on feower fotum. Sume fleoð mid
fyðerum sume on flodum. – “Some go on two
feet, some on four, some fly with wigs
(feathers), and some swim in water”.
 3) indicated a future action: E.g. Ic lufige tō dæǯ
oððe tō merǯen. – I will love today or tomorrow.
 Mood
 indicative,
 optative
 imperative
 Gothic examples: hait-am ‘we name’,
hait-a-i-ma ‘we would name’.
 Voice.
 active
 medio-passive
 e.g. the verb ‘hātan’ ‘to be named’,
which literary meant ‘to name itself’.
 Passive voice
 bēōn (wesan)
 weorþan +PII of transitive verbs
 Þǣr wearþ Ordhēh cyninǯes þeǯn
ofslæǯen – There was Ordheh, the
king’s servant, murdered.
 Þæt ǯeweorc ǯeworct wæs – This
fortress was built.
 bēōn (wesan)+PII
 weorþan +PII (10-13% in the
records of the VIII cen. and 35-40%
forms were recorded at the end of
OE period)
 The analytical passive forms of the verbs
were formed in ME, which connected
with the process of grammaticalization
(the loss of lexical meaning by the
auxiliary verbs wurthen and ben
(wesen)).
 Along with this process the was also a
process of loosing agreement between
the nominative predicate and the subject.
 Therefore PII loses its case forms in ME
and turns into an unchangeable form.
 and that was sayd in forme and
reverence – and this was said
politely and respectably.
 EModern English
 He knew wel that Troye sholde
destroyed be.
 Perfect forms.
 bēōn (to be), habban (to have) +
Participle II
 Hēo hæfþ hine gefundene. – “She
has found him = She has him
found”.
 nū is sē dæg cumen. – “Now the day
has come = Now the day is come”.
 Grammaticalization of Perfect
constructions haban+PII and
ben+PII took place during Middle
English period. Thus, in contrast to
Old English Participle II stopped
correlating with habban and ben in
person and number. Another peculiar
feature was the contact position
between the auxiliary and PII.
 but ye han lerned art… – “but you
have learnt art…”.
 Haban+PII was mostly used with
transitive verbs, whereas ben+PII
was recorded with the verbs of state
and motion.
 he was late ycome from his viage – “…
he has come late from the voyage”.
 Perfect Continuous
forms
 Heere in the temple of the goddesse
Clemence | We han ben waitynge al
this fourtenyght. –
 “Here in the temple of goddess
Clemence, we have been waiting for
a fortnight”.
 Early Modern English
 I have grieved the Spirit, and he is
gone; I tempted the devil, and he is
come to me.

 There also you shall meet with

thousands and ten thousands that
have gone before us to that place.
 Future Tense.
 The dominant form of expressing
future in Old English was presence.
 It could be also expressed by the
optative or
 by means of combinations of preterite-
present verbs sculan or willan +
infinitive (synthetic forms, which
preserved their modal meaning).
 Ic đæs wine Deniga …frīnan wille… –
“I will ask the king of Danes ….=I
want to ask the king of Danes”.
(volition)
 Fela sceal gebīdan lēofes and lādes,
se ðe longe … worolde brūceð. –
“Who lives in this world for a long
time, will learn a lot of good and
evil”. (obligation)
 The other preterite-present forms in
combination with the infinitive could
also render the future meaning
(cunnan, durran, mōtan, magan).
 ME - Present form
 Although it be soure to suffer Þere
cometh swere after –
 Although it is unpleasant to suffer,
but the joy will come after.
 Shall could retain its modal meaning of
necessity, but often weakened it to such
an extent that the phrase denoted “pure”
futurity. A process of transition from
Modal Verbal predicate to the analytical
verb form is connected with a semantic
shift: from the modal (subjective) way
expressing the future to the form of
rendering the objective future.
 ther-as the knightes weren in
prisoun, of whiche I tolde you, and
tellen shal – where the knights were
in prison, of which I told you and
shall tell
 However, B.A. Ilyish states that the
future meaning occasionally may be
accompanied by some modal tinge
as in:
 the cherl shal have his thrall; this I
awarde ‘the man shall have his
servant; I promise this’.
 Will and the infinitive used to express the
future in ME still has the meaning of
modality, stating willingness to perform the
action:
 and I wol love hire maugree al they might
‘and I will love her in spite of all your
might’;
 What? Trowe ye, the whyles I may preche,
and winne gold and silver for I teche, that I
wol live in povert wilfully? ‘What? Do you
think that while I may preach and earn gold
and silver, I shall willingly live in poverty?’
 Thus, the lexical (modal) meaning of
the verb shall disappears earlier
than that of will. Therefore, a
complete grammaticalization of will
did not occur in ME as it was the
case with shall. This explains more
frequent usage of shall as a future
auxiliary than will.
 Hence, when translating Boethius
Chaucer uses mainly shall to render
Latin forms of the future.
 ME: Heer shal ben the reste of your
labours;
 Lat. Haec erit vobis requies laborum;
 Mod E: You will rest here from your
labour.
the modal verb shall is used
in all persons conveying the
future
 She shal have need to wasshe away
the rede. (Chaucer)
 She will have to wash away the red
(blood).
 I. Ivanova points out that in ME
there were registered combinations
of the verb wurthen with the
infinitive to express the future.

 grete waters worthen gut red of

mannes blode
 big waters will become man’s blood
 The Development of the
Category of Future in NE
 . in the age of Shakespeare the
ration of Future to Present in
expressing futurity is c. 10:1
 As fast as thou shall wane, so fast thou
grow’st;
 If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
 When other petty griefs have done their
spite;..
 The earth can yield me but a common
grave,
 When you entombed in men’s eyes shall
lie.
 In the age of Shakespeare the
phrases with shall and will can
denote “pure” future, (i.e. stating
the objective future) and
simultaneously have different modal
meaning tinges.
 Then hate me when thou wilt (desire)
 When forty winters shall besiege thy
brow,
 And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s
field,
 Thy youth’s proud livery, so gaz’d on
now,
 Will be a tater’d weed of small worth
held. (pure future)
 I will sooner have a beard grow in
the palm of my hand, than he shall
get one on his cheek.; You are now
out of your text: but we will draw the
curtain, and show you the picture.
The Development of Analytical
Forms of a Relative Future
(Future-in-the-Past)
 The relative future in OE was rendered as
follows:
 1. by means of the past tense of the
conjunctive mood: and sædon Þæt his sunu
wære gesundful – and it was said that his son
would be healthy
 2. using the compound verbal predicate with
modal verbs sculan and willan in the past: hē
seolfa onget Þæt hine mon ofslean sceolde –
he understood himself that he would be killed.
 Combinations of sceolde and wolde
with the infinitive of the notional
verbs were not grammaticalized
 Hē seolfa onget hine mon ofslean
sceolde – he understood himself that
he would be killed.
 At the beginning of the Middle English
period the combinations of
scolde(wolde) and the infinitive
become the main means of rendering
the relative future
 The intense grammaticalization of the
forms described begins starting with
the second half of the XIII century
 Valerian gan faste unto hir swere that
for no cas … he sholde never-mo
biwreyen here – Valerian started swore
to her that he would never betray her.
 The grammaticalization of the form
wolde occurs in the Early New
English period.
 Did not I say he would work it out?
 Till the end of Middle English a
simple future form can be used
alongside the Future-in-the-Past
form.
 E.g. Men seyde eek, that Arcite shal
nat dye, He shal ben helped of his
maladye. – I was also told, that Arcite
would not die, he would be cured of
his disease.
 Early New English
 Future-in-the-Past Indefinite Passive Tense
 E.g. Jack hoped tha Lel and Moose would
be gone for good by the time they got back
to the cabin.

 Future-in-the-Past Perfect Tense

 E.g. It caused her, at his behest, to wait a
while longer, the while … he would not
only have saved up the money, but devised
some plan.
 Early New English
 The last form, which appeared already
in the New English, period was
Future-in-the-Past Continuous Tense
(XVIII).

 E.g. thinking of the moment when he

would be standing before the Judge,
Varney began to stir restlessly in his
bunk.
 Continuous Aspect
 The aspectual meaning in OE did not
have special forms. The continuous
aspect could be seen out of context
 In many cases this meaning could be
rendered by means of the syntactic
form bēōn (wesan) + PI
 Sēō eorðe is berende missenlīcra
fuǯela – this earth is bringing up
different fowls.
 In Early ME the usage of forms ben (wesen)
+PI was reduced in Southern and Eastern
dialects. In ME continuous forms started
rendering the meaning of the action related
to a certain moment. ME is characterized by
the opposition of continuous and non-
continuous forms, which is characteristic of
ModE. Therefore, there was a need of
qualitative new form of rendering a
continuous action.
 Thus, in the XIV cen. one may notice
the quantitative rise of such forms in
texts. There existed two forms of
rendering a continuous action:
 ben (wesen)+ PI
 ben (wesen) + on/in+gerund
 he was on huntinge – he was on
hunting
 The constructions with weorthan
rendered passive meaning only,
unlike the constructions with beon
beside the passive meaning also
expressed the meaning of state.
 Þǣr wǣron bollan stēape boren –
Here were high vessels brought.
 In the XV cen. the preposition was
reduced to the element a-, added to
gerund. So, the were very similar forms
that represented continous aspect which
led to their blending in the XVI cen. The
meaning rendered by gerund was
preserved (the action limited in time).
The element a- was used till the XVII cen,
however already in the XVIII cen. these
forms have their present day look.