Preterite-present Verbs Research Articles

Десквамаційний механізм походження готських претерито-презентних дієслів

The article describes the attempt to process reconstruction which caused the formation of the preterite-present verb subgroup in the Gothic language. The reconstruction was based on the primary supposition of relationship and correlation of the preterite-present subgroup and the group of the strong verbs. That relationship is understood as the reconstruction of ablaut fragments belonging to the strong verbs, preterite with the further reflection of ablaut fragments in the preterite-present verbs, presence. The preterite-present verbs were separated into the individual subgroup involving the mechanism of desquamation. It is recognized as a gradual, multi-stage exfoliation, come off in layers of preterite-present verbs-to-be from the strong verb corpus. The desquamation was understood as an integrated phenomenon which got definite outlines owing to the fact that the quality parameters were introduced. They gave the opportunity of desquamation describing using the quantitative indices. They permitted to describe desquamation in an objective way. The manifestation of desquamation features is associated with the degree of feature displayed. The quantitative parameter is recognized as penetrance. The opposite parameter is understood as a degree of feature lack. It is recognized as expressiveness. Both of them (penetrance and expressiveness) outline borders within which desquamation features exist and function; they act as self correlates. The desquamation descriptive precision becomes higher after the introduction of supplementary quantitative parameters. Mutual relations between strong and preterite-present verbs can be calculated with the number of ligaments. They form the notion of ligamentation. From another point of view, the number of calculated ligaments helps to describe ligamentation as menodentated or bidentated. In particular, a bidentated ligamentation may be classified as homogeneous of heterogeneous, taking into consideration nature of ligaments. The system of quantitative parameter usage enables to subdivide Gothic preterite-present verbs into two quasi-groups. The first quasi-group contains verbs have definite correlations with the strong verbs of certain ablaut classes. The second one grasps verbs having obscure correlations with the certain ablaut classes. Obscure correlations demonstrate very indefinite connection with two ablaut classes simultaneously. It indicates the intermediate location of three preterite-present verbs (the second quasi-group) between two ablaut classes. That oscillation between two ablaut classes complicated the process of desquamation. The desquamation is connected with translocation, which designates the process when the verb desquamated from the corpus of strong verbs is shifted into the system of preterite-present verb parameters. Tendencies fixed in the system of quantitative parameters are connected with the Gothic language, and may be used for further Common-Germanic generalization. It looks promising to research the preterite-present verbs in the North-Germanic and West-Germanic areas with finding out their difference, similarity, and individual specification.

The Status of English Modals Prior to Their Recategorization as T and the Trigger for Their Recategorization

This is an account of English modals that invokes their exceptional morpho-syntactic tense properties as original preterite-present verbs in order to explain their becoming T elements. Within the framework of minimalist theory, I argue that modal verbs in OE and ME (up to approx. 1470) have an exceptional syntactic status that con- sists in that they merge directly under v, whereas strong verbs merge as a stem-by-default prior to v, and weak verbs merge as a root with a vowel-by-default also prior to v. Modals necessarily differ from both strong verbs and weak verbs in their τ–licensing, whereas they share with the latter (with both strong verbs and weak verbs) φ–licensing. A specific Probe of T is in charge of the latter for all verbs in the language. Modals pass on to merge directly under T when v ceases to be a locus of interpretable τ–features. A symptom that v loses such a capacity is the loss of the Pret.1/Pret.2 ablaut distinction.

ВІДОБРАЖЕННЯ ПРОЦЕСУ АНАПЛАЗІЇ ПРИ ФОРМУВАННІ МАЙБУТНЬОГО ЧАСУ ГЕРМАНСЬКИХ МОВ

The purpose of this article is to separate grammatical structures that demonstrate the development of the future tense forms in the Germanic languages. The first step of research includes the identification of word forms for temporal description. Gradual identification of primitive analytical forms gives the possibility of tracing the gradual analytisation of the corresponding word combinations and their further transformation into stable analytical verb structures. Finding out latent features helps to recognize differentiated grammatical forms that are used to create and build the set of the formal Germanic future tense structures. The subject of the research is the components used to form temporal verb forms that project the action into the future. The Gothic language, which is understood as the initial, primary stage for the research, used forms of the present tense to describe the future action involving a phrase or an upper phrase context. Within the present tense forms a prefixal word-formation model was found. The Gothic optative was involved to render the future tense. The weak models of Gothic analytisation are connected with the infinitive phrase and auxiliary verb haban. Combination of auxiliary verbs with verbals (infinitive or participle I) were found in the North and West Germanic languages. These verb combinations involved a very restricted set of notional verbs used in two verbal forms. The first element of the phrase that falls under the process of future grammaticalization was preterite-present verbs, inchoative and some durative verbs. Stability of primary analytical temporal forms was created by using only two variants of verbals (infinitive or participle I). The first component of analytical temporal forms gradually lost its primary lexical meaning through its transformation into the auxiliary element. In the process of further differentiation of the Germanic languages some peculiarities were traced. The German language did not develop individual analytical forms with preterite-present (modal) verbs. Other West Germanic and Scandinavian languages used preterite-present (modal) verbs as a leading mechanism for temporal analytisation. Creation of analytical temporal forms happened within twofold formats.

INNER MUTUAL SEMANTIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL CORRELATION OF THE GERMANIC PRETERITE-PRESENT VERBS

Being the remarkable feature of all Germanic languages, the preterite-present group of verbs played a significant role in forming morphological units of analytical type. The process of analytisation caused the introduction of some verb forms, which appeared as a result of gradual grammaticalisation when a preterite-present verb fused with a verbal form (participle or infinitive) creating a new morphological category of finite verb (future tense, oblique mood). During the process of their development, transformation and coexistence, the preterite-present verbs were separated into a stable morpho-semantic group which generated the field of modality and made some verbs follow the same way of development and transformation. As a result, a new morpho-semantic sub-group of analogous verbs was formed when the group of preterite-present verbs received its stability and potentiality in the Germanic verb corpus. The inductive force of the preterite-present verbs was so powerful that even an individual verb was involved into the process of grammaticalisation following the patterns of analogous and preterite present verbs, too. The verbs of preterite-present group, analogous subgroup and the individual verb functioned and coexisted within the East, West and North (Scandinavian) Germanic languages. As a result of that historical coexistence all these verbs got not only the common features in morphological and semantic aspects, they simultaneously gained a set of individual features differing semantically. Only after a detailed comparison of morphological and semantic individual features of related (according to the Proto-Germanic nature of origin) verbs, is it possible to explain their specific involvement into the process of grammaticalisation or their further disappearance from usage on the edge of Old and Middle or Middle and New periods of language transformation and development. Remarks on the paradigm of preterite-present verbs help to reveal the specifics of the verb functions and trace the way of the analytical form creation in some separate Germanic languages. Paradigmatic rows demonstrate either close or distant relations between the Germanic languages in their geographical groups or even intergroup relations. These relations are really essential for further investigation. Only the East Germanic group with its main representative of the Gothic language disappeared without leaving any close relatives in the Middle and New Germanic periods. The Scandinavian languages where the reflection of Old Norse. The West Germanic languages had a really entangled way of development. Old High German and Old Saxon were reflected in the German language. Anglo-Saxon, Old Saxon and Old Frisian were reflected in the English language. Old Frisian and Old Saxon were reflected in the Dutch and Frisian languages. Inner mutual semantic and morphological correlations of the Germanic preterite-present verbs help to indicate leading verbs which were involved into the process of the Germanic language analytisation.

МОДЕЛЮВАННЯ АНАЛІТИЧНОГО РОЗВИТКУ ФОРМ ГОТСЬКОГО МАЙБУТНЬОГО ЧАСУ

The purpose of this article is to give the model, which demonstrates the development of the Future tense forms in the Gothic language. The initial stage of modelling the Future tense development includes the description of components according to their constituent features. It gives the possibility of tracing the gradual analytisation of corresponding grammatical form, and finding out latent features, which are characteristic for differentiated grammatical forms creating and building the set of Germanic future tense formal structures. The subject of the investigation are peculiarities of formation mechanism of temporal verb forms for projecting the action into the future. To describe the future action the Gothic language used forms of the Present tense involving phrase or upper phrase context. Within the Present tense forms a prefixal word formation model was found. The Greek future tense was translated involving prefixal and present forms in the Gothic language. The Gothic optative was involved to render the future tense. The present tense forms gain future meaning under the influence of aspect-tense specificity, which is recognized as futurelizing factor. Functions of the aspect-tense specificity may be performed with phrase or upper phrase context and syntactical structures with definitely represented semantics. Distinguished present tense constructions create the primary pivot, which is a basis for further development of the Gothic future tense forms. Gothic analytical structures with participle or infinitive were formed involving inchoative, strong, preterite present verbs. These structures are recognized as compound verbal predicates. Analytical structures cover the pivot creating coaxial cylinders. The whole model may be recognized as divergent-rotational because representing the Gothic future tense forms model itself "moves" along the temporal axis. Multilevel model structure demonstrates the fact that analytical forms are changeable in the gravitation. The comparison of divergent-rotational model components and peculiarities of their arrangement indicates and the caudal development of the Future tense forms in the Gothic language. Tendencies found and distinguished as initial, primary in the Gothic language happen in the process of development of the Old Germanic languages. These tendencies are reflected in the Modern Germanic languages, too.

ТРАНС-ГЕРМАНСЬКІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПРЕТЕРИТО-ПРЕЗЕНТНИХ ДІЄСЛІВ

This article contains systematic and detailed analysis of morphological and semantic parameters of Germanic preterite-present verbs, dividing them into major and minor subgroups. The development of both preterite-present subgroups and their steady transformation into the modal verbs is a specific feature of all Germanic languages. Since the modal verbs of the Modern Germanic languages are morphologically defective, it is commonly assumed that preterite-present verbs of the old Germanic languages lost some of their morphological features in the process of turning into modal verbs. The semantic aspects of this process are rather obscure. All Germanic languages were losing some preterite-present verbs in the process of transformation from the Gothic language, which had fourteen preterite-present verbs. In OE there were twelve preterite-present verbs. Six of them survived in NE. The morphological description focuses on the finite and non-finite forms of the preterite-present verbs, which belong to the minor subgroup. The detailed description helps to see the origin and development of the minor subgroup in the new light. The description encompasses the data of classical Indo-European languages and Old Germanic languages. The authors emphasize the expediency of turning to the theory of preterite/strong verb origin, the verbs in question may be regarded as inter-group, hybrid units. In order to gain insight into the origin of the Germanic languages it is necessary to look into the history of the Gothic and West Germanic and North Germanic languages. The authors find it useful to compare common and different phenomena, highlighting individual specific processes taking place in the process of development of the Germanic languages. These languages are analyzed on different stages of their development, but inline with the view that the languages co-operated and coexisted in the same area. The data given in the article are used to analyze the problem implementing comparative grammar tools. The authors were particularly careful to take all grammatical forms into consideration while working with the lexical units from the ancient sources. Some additional information was taken from Greek, Latin and Sanskrit to produce reliable and consistent comparison of the German language with the rest of Indo-European languages.

РОЗВИТОК ГЕРМАНСЬКИХ АНАЛІТИЧНИХ ФУТУРАЛЬНИХ ЧАСІВ

The stages that encompass the future tense development are singled out as discrete phenomena within the process of the Germanic language development. The Gothic verb system can serve as the background for the investigation of the tense transformations in question. The difficulties of tense examination in the Old Germanic languages were connected with some conceptions about the Indo-Iranian and Greek languages that used to dominate in the scientific circles for a long time. Those conceptions were based on Latin and Greek patterns and postulated the use of present, past and future tenses in all Indo-European languages. The above conceptions were ruined when the study of Tokharian and Hittite demonstrated the use of the present tense for the description of future actions. The idea of losing “the protolanguage inheritance” was proved wrong, and it was incorrect to transfer the complex tense system of Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin to other Proto-Indo-European languages. The examination of the tense differentiation in Gothic (as the main source of the Old Germanic language) demonstrates that the Gothic infinitive functioned as a no-particular-time unit, while personal verb forms were involved in performing tense functions. The Gothic present tense verbs represented present and future tenses and no-particular-time phenomena. Some periphrastic forms containing preterite-present verbs with the infinitive occurred sporadically. The periphrastic forms correlated with Greek and Latin patterns of the same future tense meaning. The periphrastic future forms in Gothic often contained some modal shades of meaning. The Gothic present tense functioned as a colony-forming archi-unit and a pluripotential (temporal) precursor. The periphrastic Gothic future forms are recognised as a monopotential (temporal) precursor with some modal meaning. The key research method used in the present article is the comparative historical method. The authors viewed it as the most reliable and appropriate for the study of tense forms.

Morphological Change Through Phonological Analogy: 2nd Person Singular -s→ -stand Related Developments in Germanic

Almost all existing accounts of the change of the 2nd person singular verbal agreement ending -sto -stin Old English and Old High German attribute the development to some combination of reanalysis of forms with enclitic subject pronouns ending in -stuand analogy based on a handful of mainly preterite-present verbs that already had 2nd person singular -stin the present indicative in Proto-(West)-Germanic. These factors retain a role in the analysis presented here, but I argue that the operative mechanisms are essentially phonological in nature, licensed ultimately by certain neutralizing processes such as degemination, rather than involving the spread of an existing -stmorpheme, grammaticalization of an enclitic subject pronoun, or relocation of a morphological boundary. This analysis also sheds light on the relationship of the 2nd person singular change to the more general phenomenon of word-finaltaccretion seen in dozens of words such as GermanAxt‘ax’ < Middle High Germanackesor Englishagainst< earlieragains.*

ГЕРМАНСЬКІ ПРЕТЕРИТО-ПРЕЗЕНТНІ ДІЄСЛОВА ТА ЇХ МОРФОЛОГО-СЕМАНТИЧНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ

The purpose of this article is to give detailed description to all possible semantic and morphological features of Germanic preterite-present verbs. Some research has dealt with the problem of preterite-present present verbs; however, semantic and morphological functions of these verbs were studied only by singling out verb characteristics, peculiarities, potential possibilities in different Germanic languages without any alignment of the obtained results. There is little information available on preterite-present verbs within the west Germanic and North Germanic (Scandinavian) subgroups. Semantic aspect of these verbs was analysed by some scholars, but it is still unknown how these verbs were formed in other Indo-European languages (Baltic, Slavonic, Romantic). The contradicting point of the available research is how those verbs are reflected in Latin and Greek. In spite of the fact that preterite-present verbs were studied in detail in terms of phonological characteristics, their morphological and semantic peculiarities were not taken into account and compared. Special attention should be given to the functioning and correlation of phonological and morphological peculiarities of those verbs. This paper offers the results of a detailed and consistent analysis of phonological and morphological peculiarities of preterite-present verbs. The paper aims at determining the morphological characteristics of preterite-present verbs, which were formed under the influence of phonological processes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the connection of Germanic preterite-present verbs with possible sources in other Indo-European languages. The authors define a set of characteristics peculiar of preterite-present verbs semantics. The functions of these verbs are analysed in detail. The authors attempt to analyse the nature of these verbs. The attention is paid to the functions of preterite- present verbs not only in the Germanic languages, but in other Indo-European languages, too. The comparative historical method is used here as the main one. The authors see this valid way of investigation as reliable and appropriate for the preterite-present verb analysis.

Еволюція непрямого способу в нідерландській мові

The article is connected with evolution investigation of the grammatical category which is recognized as the Oblique Mood in the Dutch language. The evolution of that grammatical phenomenon is reconstructed involving authentic texts of different periods, starting with very restricted material of early middle Dutch period and finishing with numerous and different texts of modern Dutch period. The transformation of morphological structure of the Dutch Oblique Mood moves into the direction of growing analytical structures with the parallel degradation of synthetical forms with traditional flexion markers. Taking into consideration the fact that the Oblique Mood is very well reflected on the syntactical (sentence) level, the attention is focused not only on the simple sentences but on the developed system of subordinate clauses. All the steps of transformation are reflected in the stages of diachronical analysis too. For the better definite differentiation of the Oblique Mood Construction and finding differences in the constructions, all the variants of the Oblique Mood are compared with the variants of the Indicative Mood. It helps to provide the comparison in the dichotomy of the Indicative – Oblique Moods. The special attention is given to the description of periphrastic constructions which were formed combining preterite-present verbs with infinitives I, II and further grammaticalisation of two-component verb combination. The ruining of the synthetical paradigm was caused by the reduction of corresponding suffix reflection. There was the attempt to restore the synthetical forms in translation of the Bible from Latin and Greek into Dutch, it was the marker of the literature language but not the colloquial one. The influence of the French and German languages was definite but sporadical. The analytical forms were created in the conditional clauses and were recognized as the Conditional Mood I, II. This type of mood had some meaning of supposition forming the corresponding subgroup of the Suppositional Mood. If the preterite-present verb zullen was a productive form but willen was not involved into the Oblique Mood analytical form creation, remaining outside of that grammatical category. There is some resemblance between the Dutch and English Oblique Mood, in particular the structure of analytical forms.

On Morphological Differences between Class IV and V Strong and Preterite-present Verbs in Germanic: A Critical Examination of Schumacher’s (2005) Treatise and a New Proposal Based on Morphological Conflation

On Morphological Differences between Class IV and V Strong and Preterite-present Verbs in Germanic: A Critical Examination of Schumacher’s (2005) Treatise and a New Proposal Based on Morphological Conflation

On Degrammaticalization Proсess in Gothic: Tendency of its Development and Occurrence Mechanism

This article describes the starting process of transferring the functions of expressing the internal modality from the category of mood (from the forms of the optative and the imperative) to the units of the lexical level – the preterite-present verbs, which were transforming into modal verbs in the Gothic language. To explain this degrammaticalization process the conditions and the peculiarities of the transformations in the semantics of the preterite-present verbs were analyzed, which allowed to determine the prospects in the development of the category of modality in German.

Peculiarities of the Development of the Modal System in German

The article is devoted to the development of the modal system in German. The comparative analysis of the changes in the semantics of the moods and of the preterite-present verbs expressing modality is based on Gothic, Old and Middle High German texts. On the basis of this analysis was shown as in the process of decategorization – transition of the functions of expression of the internal modality from moods to the being in process of formation modal verbs – the meanings expressed in morphological category on the grammatical level pass to lexical-grammatical means, that allow to express the internal modality more differentially.

On the Auxiliary Status of Dare in Old English

Abstract OE *durran ‘dare’ belongs to a group of the so-called preterite-present verbs which developed weak past tense forms replacing the originally strong forms throughout the paradigm. The present study hypothesizes that the potential sources of this development are related to the decay of the subjunctive mood in Old English. Further, this corpus-based study analyses the status of DARE in Old English, with the findings showing that the verb displayed both lexical and auxiliary verb characteristics. These results are juxtaposed and compared with the verb's developments in Middle English. The databases examined are the corpus of The Dictionary of Old English in Electronic Form (A-G) and the Innsbruck Computer Archive of Machine-Readable English Texts. In both cases, a search of potential forms was performed on all the files of the corpora, the raw results were then analysed in order to eliminate irrelevant instances (adjectives, nouns, foreign words, etc.). The relevant forms were examined with the aim to check the properties of DARE as a lexical and an auxiliary verb, and compare the findings with Molencki’s (2002, 2005) observations.

TANAKA, TOSHIYA: A Morphological Conflation Approach to the Historical Development of Preterite-Present Verbs: Old English, Proto-Germanic, and Proto-Indo-European.

Tanaka, Toshiya: A Morphological Conflation Approach to the Historical Development of Preterite-Present Verbs: Old English, Proto-Germanic, and Proto-Indo-European. The Faculty of Languages and Cultures Library, Kyushu University 2. Fukuoka, Hana-Shoin, 2011. xiii, 320 Seiten. Broschiert, 4.700 YPY = ca. 40,00 EUR. ISBN:978-4-903554-91-4.

A core morphology for Old English verbs

A characterization of the morphology of ‘regular’ Old English verbs is offered on the basis of a ‘word-and-paradigm’ approach to morphological structure. Thus rules of expression are formulated providing for the phonological realization(s) of (combinations of) morphosyntactic categories of tense, mood, person, number etc. However, it is argued that the organization of categories (in terms of compatibility and presupposition) differs with respect to the syntax–morphology interface and the morphology–phonology interface (the rules of expression). There is therefore proposed a set of rules of category realignment which relate the function-oriented system of categories to the expression-oriented system, which (among other things) minimize syncretism in the elements introduced by the rules of expression. Analysis of the preterite-present and weak-present verbs provides further support for this distinction in systems of category organization. The expression rules themselves do not introduce or realize ‘zeros’ and ‘mutations’ are interpreted as correspondences between base and derived/inflected form. An appendix offers a description of Present-day English verb inflexions for comparison.

The Paradigm of Germanic *aih/aig-u- and Notes on Some Preterite-Present Verbs

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The Preterite-Present Verbs of Present-Day English

The Preterite-Present Verbs of Present-Day English

Two Problems of the German Preterite-Present Verbs

Jacob Grimm (Deutsche Grammatik, I, p. 964), without attempting an explanation, described the mutated vowels 'which caused the plural forms of indicative and subjunctive to fall together' as 'missbriuchlich.' For a long time the view was generally held that the umlaut in the plural forms of the indicative was due to analogy with the corresponding forms of the subjunctive. This view was definitely stated, among others, by K. Weinhold in his Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik (21883), ? 409 ff., and H. Osthoff in P.B.B., xv, 1891, p, 212. It was challenged by 0. Brenner ('Der umlaut der praeteritopraesentia,' P.B.B., xx, 1895, p. 84), who at the same time suggested that the mutated forms, in the first instance, were due to phonetic change caused by the pronouns wir, ir, si, whenever they followed the verb, and were then also used when the pronouns preceded the verb. His theory, though meeting with approval in many quarters, was by no means generally accepted. V. Michels in the first edition (1900) of his Mittelhochdeutsches Elementarbuch gave the older theory (? 222) and has kept to it down to the last edition (? 279) published in 1921. Similarly W. Wilmanns in his Deutsche Grammatik (1906), II, ? 53, 5, explained the mutated indicative forms by levelling with the corresponding sub-