28. Grammaticalization of the Progressive in Early Modern English

The Early Modern English period is particularly important to the development of the progressive, because it was at this time that the progressive began to be grammaticalized (required), and no longer merely an expression of style. Rissanen (210) declares that it was in early Modern English that the be + ing progressive forms were solidified. Barbara Strang asserts that “the rules for use of the progressive had already been established … in the seventeenth century” (“Aspects” 429), although even in the 1800s, Denison notes many examples that do not conform to the present practice.

Nonetheless, a major trend grammaticalizing the progressive is visible in the eighteenth century. Strang explains that, during the first half of the eighteenth century, the progressive verb occurred mainly in subordinate clauses; however, while use of the progressive grew in general in the second half of the century, it grew most rapidly in main clauses. The general growth continued in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but even greater was this growth in main clauses as the progressive gained grammatical consistency (Strang “Aspects” 441-2, Denison "Syntax" 144). Denison, referring to Dennis and Arnaud, estimates that the use of the progressive has roughly doubled every century since 1500, with a slow-down in the 18th century, but a “three-fold increase” in the 1900s (“Syntax” 143). It is likely then, from the rates of increase of use of the progressive, as well as the pattern of decline of confusion between the simple and progressive tenses, that grammaticalization of the progressive verb was largely complete by the end of the nineteenth century, with some residual effects of confusion running over into the very early twentieth century.

Билет №12

12. Strong and weak verbs. Vowel gradation with special reference to verb.

The bulk of the verbs fall into 2 large groups called strong and weak. These terms were proposed by Jacob Grimm. Strong verbs have preserved the richness of form since the age of the parent language. Weak verbs let such variety of forms. The main differentiation between these groups lies in the means of building the principal forms: the Present Indefinite, the Past Indefinite, the Participle 2.

The strong verbs built their principal forms with the help of root vowel interchanges + certain grammatical endings. In accordance with vowel changes, which distinguished Germanic from non-germanic, the gradation series were modified.

Gradation vowels were combined with other sounds in different classes of verbs thus yielded several new gradation series.

The weak verbs are Germanic innovation for the device used in the building their principle forms which are not found outside the Germanic group. They built the Past Tense and Participle 2 by inserting a special suffix between the root and the ending.

Vowel gradation.

The earliest set of vowel interchanges which dates from protogermanic and protoindoeuropean is called vowel gradation or ablaut. Ablaut is an independent vowel interchange unсonnected with any phonetic conditions. Different vowels appear in the same environment surrounded by the same sounds. Vowel gradation didn’t reflect any phonetic changes but was used as a special independent device to differentiate between words and grammatical forms built from the same root. Ablaut was inherited by Germanic from ancient indo-european.

There are 2 types of ablaut:

1. qualitative

2. quantitative

Qualitative ablaut. The principal gradation series, used in the indo-european languages, can be shown is Russian examples: нЕсти- нОша.

This kind of ablaut is called qualitative as the vowels differ only in quality.

Quantitative ablaut.

Quantitative ablaut is alteration of short and long vowels and also alteration with zero: бЕру- сбОр- брал.

Germanic languages employed both types of ablaut: qualitative and quantitative and their combinations. In Germanic ablaut was most constantly used in building the principle forms of the verbs called strong. Some modern place-names testify to this social structure of the Germans. The whole tribe had the name of the Chief.