3. Passive constructions development

OE:

There were no any special analytical passive forms in OE. The passive meaning was expressed by the constructions beon / wesan (to be) and weaðan + P. II

to be was become

These phrases meant that the subject had a feature or aquired a feature as a result of an action performed on it.

● fær wæs se ƺuððana ƺenumen = it was a seised one.

M.E:

The development of the passive forms as analytical formations was completed in ME. The verb “weorðan” dissappeared and the only auxiliary for the passive was the verb “ben” (to be). The structure “ben + P. II” could express a state and an action according to the context.

In ME the Participle lost its case endings and became an uncheangable form. The first part of the structure (ben) completely lost its lexical meaning.

E Md E

The period is characterized by the changes in the P.V. performing. They were formed not only from transitive & intransitive verbs.

In comparison to OE, the agent in P.V. was indicated with the help of the preposition “of, from, by, mid, through, with”.

● he was taught of a Clerke.

The preposition “of” was the most widely used. From the 14^th century it was replaced by the preposition “by”.

4. Perfect constructions.

OE

Beginning with the OE period “Perfect” and “Past Perfect” appeared in the language. They were used as the analytical structures: “beon + P. II; habban + Part II”.

The verb “beon” was used with intransitive verbs; the verb “habban” – with transitive verbs.

In the OE & there existed two parallel Perfect constructions. They could denote 1) the completed action and also; 2) the meaning of the state. These constructions couldn’t consider analytical form because they were not uniformed in the form and in the meaning.

ME

In the ME period the verb “habban” lost its lexical meaning & became an ausiliary verb. It couldn’t have a direct object as in OE and so it could agree with intransitive verbs. To the end of this period it could agree with almost all verbs except for the verbs of movement. There appeared all “Perfect” forms: Present, Past, Future. The similar meaning of a Perfect: action was given by the verb “to be” agreed with the verbs of movement.

But these two constructions were not analytical forms because their grammatical meaning wasn’t constant.

E Md E

In this period the verb “to be” was limited to be used as a perfect form. It was more widely used to denote the state not the action.

5. Continuous forms development

In the OE period an action to be in process was formed by two ways:

1. by the context and simple forms of the verb;

2. the syntactical structure beon (wesan) + Part I.

But the last structure didn’t denote the process, it was used to show imperfection. This structure also had the meaning of the action beginning & intensity and also denoted the state.

In E ME there appeared one more structure with the meaning corresponding to the modern Continuous forms: beon (wesan) + adverbial modifier in the form of Gerund.

● he was on huntinge. – “he was hunting”.

Later (14^th century) preposition was turned into the element -a- and there existed two structures expressing continuous forms: is speaking; is a-coming.

A single Continuous form as an analytical construction appeared only in E Md E.

The Perfect Continuous forms were first used at the end of the 14^th century. Their meaning was similar to the modern one.