13. Basic Grammatical Features of Germanic Languages.

The Substantive. The morphological system of substantives in Germanic languages, as well as in IE languages, is based on a common principle. The principle is not equally evident in all cases. The Gothic language (the Gothic texts of the 4^th century) shows this principle more clearly than other texts in any other Old Germanic languages. The original structure of a substantive in Germanic: a substantive consists of three elements: 1) a root, 2) a stem-building suffix, 3) a case inflection. The meaning of the stem-building suffix can only be a hypothesis. It is supported by some reasons. It would appear that originally stem-building suffixes were a means of classifying substantives according to their meanings. There is only one type of substantive in Gothic, which is characterized by a distinct semantic feature. These are substantives denoting relationship. They are derived by means of the stem-building suffix – R: fadar (father), broþar (brother), swistar (sister). For all other types, no common feature of meaning has been discovered. The originally three-part structure is changed into a two-part structure in the earliest documents of Germanic languages. The stem-building suffix lost its own meaning, joined with the case inflection and can no lon ger be identified. The stem of the substantive now consists of the root alone.

14. Types of Substantive Stems.

In Old Germanic languages there are the following types of substantive stems: a) vocalic stems: -a-, -o-, -i-, -u-(declension of these substantives is called strong declension); b) -n-stems -(declension of these substantives is called weak declension); c) stems in other consonants: -s- and –r- stems; d) root-stems (this is a peculiar type: these substantives never had a stem-building suffix, so that their stem had always coincided with their root). Between these types of noun stems in Germanic and types of stems in other IE languages, such as Latin, Ukrainian, Russian, there are definite correspondences.

15. The Adjective.

Declension of adjectives in Old Germanic languages is complicated. It finds no parallel in other IE languages. In ancient system, there was no difference between the declension of substantive and adjective. In Latin declensions of adjectives does not differ from that of substantives: bonus (good) is declined according to the first and second declensions: the masculine bonus as the second declension substantive hortus (garden); the neuter bonum as the second declension substantive vallum (rampart) the feminine bona as the first declension substantive silva (forest).

In Germanic languages, declensions of adjectives differ from that of substantives in two ways:

1. every adjective is declined both according to the strong declension (with a vocalic stem) and to the weak declension (with an – n- stem).

2. strong declension of adjectives does not completely coincide with strong declension of substantives, as a whole it is a combination of substantial and pronominal forms.

16. The Verb.

The verb system of Old Germanic languages consists of different elements.

Strong verbs derive their past tense and second participle by means of gradation. Weak verbs derive their past tense and second participle by means of a suffix –d-(-t);

Preterite-present verbs have a peculiar system of forms and include a few irregular verbs.

The Old Germanic languages have a system of two tenses - present and past. Originally, the distinction was not between tenses, but between aspects, that is, between forms, characterizing the way the action is developing. There appear to have been three aspects: the continuous the momentaneous, and the resultative. The continuous aspect presents the action developing in time, without reference to any completion). The momentaneous aspect presents the action as heading toward completion. The resultative aspect presents the action as completed and having brought about a new state of things). The tenses of Germanic strong verbs were developing from these original three aspects. The continuous aspect yielded the present tense. The momentaneous aspect yielded the past tense. The fate of the resultative aspect was twofold. In the system of strong verbs, it joined the resultative aspect to form the past tense. In the system of preterite-present verbs, it became a present tense.

There were four basic forms of strong verbs: 1) the infinitive; 2) the past singular; 3) the past plural; 4) the second participle. All strong verbs fall into seven classes, according to the type of gradation.

Weak verbs derive their past tense and second participle by means of a dental suffix. They are peculiar to Germanic languages and are not found outside theGermanic sphere. There are two views concerning the origin of the dental suffix:

1) the suffix –d- originated from a verb, meaning do (OE dōn, German tun) For example: Gothic hausjan (hear): past tense hausida, past plural hausidēdum.

Gothic-dēdum corresponds to German –taten. (see Second Consonant Shift).

2. the origin of the suffix –d- is to be sought in the –t- of such Latin participles as amatus, dēlētus, lectus or Russian бритый, тертый, колотый (IE –t- → Germanic -d-: see Verner's Law).

In all Germanic languages except Gothic, there were three classes of weak verbs distinguished by their stem-building suffixes. In Gothic there were four classes.