2. Weak verbs in Middle English

Changes in the Middle English system of weak verbs went along the general trend of levelling. The 1 class verbs which had had ‘-i-’ in the suffix lost it as well as corresponding verbs of the 2 class. The ‘-an’ ending reduced to ‘-en’: e.g. 1 class stiren “stir”; 2 class hopen “hope”.

Verbs of the 2 class had ‘-o-’ in the suffix of preterite forms reduced to ‘-e-’: e.g. naked, loved, hoped, which meant that no marked distinction was any more present in the verbs of the 1 and 2 classes, counting out the cases where there was no vowel in the suffix of the preterite. The reduced unstressed vowel in the suffix was kept till the end of Middle English when unstressed vowels in flexions disappeared altogether, the only exception being after dental plosives. Cf. NE ‘hoped’, ‘loved’ but ‘glided’, ‘lighted’.

NOTE: dropping of unstressed suffix vowels did not take place in some adjectivised participles: e.g. beloved, learned, blessed, aged; and participle-derived adverbs: e.g. fixedly, markedly.

In the 3 class doubling of the root-constant in the infinitive disappeared resulting from analogy to other forms: e.g. habben – haven, libben – liven, seggen – seyen.

The dental suffix ‘-d’ became voiceless ‘-t’ after voiceless consonant in the end of Middle English. In some cases ‘d’ changed into ‘t’ in spelling after l, n, f -: e.g. lernen - learnt, felen - felt, leven - left.

Weak verbs with stem ending in ‘-rd’, ‘-nd’, ‘-ld’ formed the preterite in ‘-rte’, ‘-nte’ and ‘-lte’ and Participle II in ‘-rt’, ‘-nt’, and ‘-lt’; e.g. senden – sente – sent, gilden –- gilte – gilt, girden – girte –- girt.

A certain number of weak verbs retained irregularities that had come from OE. They were former OE verbs with the stem consonants ‘g/k’ or ‘l’: e.g.

techen taughte taught

seken soughte sought

byen boughte bought

sellen solde sold

tellen tolde told

In Middle English a great number of Scandinavian and Norman French verbs were borrowed into English. Almost all of them entered the weak type: e.g.

callen callede called

wanten wantede wanted

dwellen dwelte dwelt

percen percede perced

engendren engendrede engendred

spoilen spoilte spoilt

3. Conjugation

Middle English conjugation represented a much altered and simplified system as compared to Old English. As a result of general phonetic levelling OE endings ‘-an’, ‘-en’, ‘-on’ were reduced to ‘-en’; ‘-ath’ and ‘-eth’ were reduced to ‘-eth’. The final ‘-n’ weakened and disappeared in Midland dialects. No more difference was traced in root vowels of the second and third persons Indicative Singular and other present forms. The conjugation endings became differentiated to dialects.

Table 12

The Conjugation of the Weak Verbs in Middle English

	Present							Preterite
	Indicative		Subjunctive		Imperative			Indicative		Subjunctive
I	kepe	telle			______			kepte	tolde
thou	kepest	tellest			kep	tell		keptest	told	kepte	tolde
he, she, it	kepeth, kepes,	telleth telles	kepe	telle	______			kepte,	tolde
we, you, they	kepen,	tellen	kepen,	tellen	kepeth,		telleth	kepten,	tolden	kepten	tolden
Participle I: kepinge, tellinge							Participle II: kept, told
		Infinitive: kepen, tellen

Table 13

The Conjugation of the Strong Verbs in Middle English

Present					Preterite
Indicative		Subjunctive	Imperative		Indicative	Subjunctive
I	binde		______		bond /a/	- || -
thou	bindest	binde	bind		bounde	bounde
he, she, it	bindeth or binde		______		bond /a/	- || -
we, you they	binden	binden	bindeth binde		bounden	bounden
Participle I bindinge				Participle II (y-) bounden
Infinitive binden

Northern ‘-es’ penetrates into Modern English: ‘he binds’. Modern zero ending “we bind” comes from the reduced Midland form ‘-en’.

E.g.			North. Dialect	Midl. Dialect	South. Dialect
	3d pers.	Singular	-es	-eth	-eth
		Plural	-es	-en	-eth

4. Non-finite Forms

The ending of participle I in Northern dialects ‘-ende’ changed into ‘-ande’, influenced by Scandinavian dialects. In Midland dialects ‘-ende’ was replaced by ‘-inge’ from the verbal noun. Participle II retained its ‘-en’ ending in the North and lost in the South.

In Middle English the participle lost its capacity of agreement with the noun, lost its categories of case, gender and number and developed verbal forms. The evolution of the participle went along a very definite path: in 15 and 16 c.c. passive participial forms spread to existence: 16 c. witnessed sporadic cases of perfect participial forms, while in 17 c. they functioned very widely. In Early New English we find a great increase in all kinds of complex participial constructions: e.g. the Objective Participial constructions, etc. As to the infinitive its OE dative forms coincided with nominative forms due to reduction of endings. The preposition ‘to’ which in Old English had been used with the dative infinitive began to be used indiscriminately whenever the infinitive was in the sentence. The ‘-en’ ending having been reduced, ‘to’ became the indispensable particle of the infinitive. ‘To’ was not necessary when the infinitive was a part of a modal verbal predicate, for the presence of a modal verb itself was a sure sign that it was the infinitive. The combination ‘ought to (infinitive)’, “to have to (infinitive)” appeared later. In Middle English the infinitive was used as an adverbial modifier of purpose after the preposition ‘for’: e.g. for to seke – “in order to seek”. In the end of ME such combinations dropped out of use.

The infinitive developed perfect and passive forms in late Middle English; Early New English was the time when complex infinitive constructions began to appear: e.g. the Objective with the Infinitive, etc. The For - to Infinitive construction arose in 16 c. Syntactic functions of the infinitive were the same as they are in Modern English, counting out the attributive function which appeared in 14 c.: e.g. a star to come.

The gerund as an independent non-finite verbal form appeared in Middle English. It originated from OE verbal noun which had had the endings ‘-inge’, ‘-unge’ in OE. In OE there were combinations of a noun and a verbal noun: e.g. boc redinZe – “book reading”, cyrce halZunZe – “church hallowing”. In Middle English the two former component parts changed places: reading book, hallowing church, due to a new tendency of the word order which was a first step in making the gerund out of the verbal noun because the gerund obtained a verbal feature, governing a direct object. The difference between the gerund and the verbal noun was not sharply marked. In Early New English the subsequent development of the gerund went along the same line of participle I; it involved adding verbal categories to these of the noun. The gerund could not be used with an article and was modified by an adverb.

In the late 16 and 17 c.c. the perfect and passive forms of the gerund came to be used: e.g.

To let him spend his time no more at home,

which would be great impeachment to

his age in having known no travel in his youth.

(Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona).

Still Shakespeare more often used an active form to express a passive meaning: e.g. Shall we excuse... his throwing into the water (‘Merry Wives’). While we should say: “being thrown” or “having been thrown”.

Gerundial constructions and the so-called half-gerund appeared later in New English.

Preterite-present verbs in Middle English continued to form a special group undergoing due phonetic changes. The only verb that came out of usage was ‘Zeneah’.

Table 14

Infinitive	Present			Preterite		Participle II
	Singular		Plural	Singular	Plural
	1 pers.	2 pers.
cunnen	can		cunnen/can	couthe/coude	couthen/couden	couth
mowen	may mot	most	mowen moten	mighte moste	mighten mosten
shulen	shal		shulen	sholde	sholden
durren	dar		durren	dorste	dorsten
	ouh	owest	owen	oughte	oughten	owen

Suppletive verbs in Middle English constituted the same system they had had in OE which underwent regular phonetic changes.

Table 15

Present				Preterite
Indicative		Subjunctive	Imperative	Indicative	Subjunctive
Sing.		be	be		were
1.	am			was
2.	art			wer (e)
3.	is			was
Plur.
1. 2. 3.	ben or arn in the North	ben	beth	weren	weren
Participle I: beinge			Participle II: ben
		Infinitive: ben

The suppletive verb ‘gon’, from OE ‘Zān’ took the new preterite form ‘wente/wenten’, from the weak verb ‘wenden’, which functioned together with ‘yede/yeden’, from OE ‘eode’.

OE irregular verbs ‘dōn’ and ‘willan’ were changed phonetically in Middle English along the general trend.

Table 16

Present		Preterite		Participle I	Participle II
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st person do wil/wol	don willen	dide wolde	diden wolden	don wold	doinge willinge