1. The first Germanic consonant shift. Grimm's Law. Verner's Law. The shift of stress

5.Preterit-present and anomalous verbs.

Preterite-present verbs occupy a specific place within the verbal system of Old English verbs. They combine the qualities of the strong verbs as well as the weak ones. Their present tense is formed according to the rules of formation of the past tense of the strong verbs, that is by gradation (vowel interchange) whereas their past tense has all the peculiarities of the weak verbs, e.g. witan - wat, but wisse, wiste; participle II meanwhile retains the suffix -en of the strong verbs. It is just this peculiarity that makes them preterite (in form) - present (in the meaning).

The origin of these verbs will be clearer if we consider the peculiarity of their semantics. In general, past tense has a strong tinge of result in its meaning; especially the verbs containing the зe- prefix, though as already mentioned, some of the forms with resultative meaning had no such prefix.

A certain group of verbs preserves this strong meaning of result, and it turns into their dominant feature; they begin to render the present result of the past action. E.g. witan - wat; cunnan - cann; munan- man - what I have got to know, I know; what I have learned to do I know how to do it; if I have memorized your name, I remember it. So the past tense in structures meant and was perceived as the present state of mind of the speaker, and in linguistic com­petence of the speakers turned to be considered the present tense. However, there were situations in which the past tense was still required. One might want to know that once there was a man who knew the way, who could swim or who remembered that brother but he is dead, or gone, and the form of the past tense no longer could refer that action to the present. By that time the only productive pattern of making verb forms was that of weak verbs, the one with the dental suffix. And it was naturally used in this case. Participle II, however, had the necessary meaning of result, and some verbs preserved it. It was formed by gradation and the suffix -en, while with some other the pattern of the weak verbs was used. The verbs of this group, with overburdened system of forms, started losing certain parts of their paradigm (or, probably, some forms were not necessary and therefore not used - at least in the texts that came down to our times).

Analogous development may be found in other languages; there are eral Latin verbs whose past tense acquired present meaning – memini (

(1 have remembered —>I remember); novi (I have come to know —> 1 know); odi (I have come to hate you —> I hate). The same is found in Greek, too: oida ( I came to know —» I know), pepoitha (I have come to trust you —> I trust you).

Most preterite-present verbs are classified according to the classes of gradation to which their present tense belongs. However, some of these do not fit into this system, as their vowels do not correspond to the gradation system of strong verbs.

The table of the main forms of Preterite-Present verbs found in Old English texts is as follows:

Class Infinitive Present Present Past Participle II

Singular Plural

I witan wat witon wissen witen know

II duзan deaз duзоn - - be useful

III unnan ann unnon ude unnen pre’sent

IV sculan sceal sculon sceolde - shall

V maзan mxз maзon meahte - may

VI - mot moton moste - may