The initial stage of the loss of affixal past participle marking and its relation to ablaut (original) (raw)

Morphophonemic Behaviour of the Past Tense and Past Participle Morphemes of English

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2019

It can be observed that in the teaching of English grammar verbs are always in focus. The English pedagogue, while dealing with verbs, usually concentrates on the tenses and the verb forms. Subsequently the morphology of verbs is highlighted. The pedagogue is concerned mostly with verbs that undergo irregular morphological changes. The phonological part of the verb inflection, it seems, is not highlighted as intensely as the morphological is done. And hence, the morphophonemic behaviour of the verb inflections, it can be observed, has not been enough or duly emphasized in the teaching of English verb forms. This paper intends to bring the morphophonemic behaviour of the past tense and past participle forms of English verbs under focus.

Ablaut or Transfixation? On the Old English Strong Verbs.

In: More than Words: English Lexicography and Lexicology Past and present. Edited by Renate Bauer & Ulrike Krischke. Texte und Untersuchungen zur Englischen Philologie 36. Frankfurt/M et al.: Lang. 123-39., 2011

The traditional classification of the Old English strong verbs is crucially influenced by historical considerations. This is obvious; it is less obvious that the description is thereby distorted. 1

Geminate Reduction and High Vowel Syncope In West Saxon Weak Past Participles

Transactions of the Philological Society, 2014

High vowel syncope, when applying in Old English past participles, is expected only to affect those that (a) contain a heavy root syllable, and (b) are inflected. However, numerous exceptions are noted in traditional handbooks (e.g. Campbell 1959). In particular, West Saxon displays a process by which high vowel syncope over-applies in weak Class 1 past participles with roots ending in t/d, with deletion occurring after light syllables, as in settan 'set' set+ed+um(Past.Part.Dat.) ➝ settum, and also in uninflected participles: seted ➝ sett. The root-final dental and the stem-forming-ed come together following deletion to form a geminate: lǣded+e 'led' ➝ lǣdde. However, phonological pressures cause the geminates to be simplified in certain environments. This paper focuses on the interaction of high vowel syncope and degemination, and aims to provide a synchronic account of both processes, arguing that deletion in dental-final forms is in fact not merely the extension of high vowel syncope. The paper also challenges the view that final geminates are merely orthographic in Old English. The analysis, which is formed within Optimality Theory (OT), is supported by newly collected data for the West Saxon past participles, which are taken from Cosijn's Altwests€ achsische Grammatik glossary (1888).

The Single Morpheme –ed/-en of the English Past/ Passive

In: Acta Linguistica Hungarica, 59 (1-2), 1-26. , 2012

Abstract: All English regular verbs and about half its irregular verbs have the same form for the finite past tense and the past participle. The finite past tense is different from the participle only for a closed class of about 100 irregular verbs. These latter can be analyzed by a lexical device of wide-ranging applicability called Alternative Realization. All other Past forms of Vs, finite and non-finite, can then be derived from a single morpheme -ed which appears in two contexts: one when V is finite and one when it is selected by a semantically empty stative verb, have or be. There is also a third use of -ed to form passive participles, in both verbal and adjectival passives. The paper presents a formalized system of selection features for lexical items including but going beyond classical subcategorization. This system permits formulating a single full lexical entry for the suffix -ed that covers all its uses. The final version of this entry exemplifies how to specify Alternative Realization, uninterpretability of categories and disjunctive contexts, and independently justifies each of these notations. Keywords: English passive participle, English past tense, grammatical lexicon, PF insertion, lexical entry, perfect tense

The Morphological Status of Old English ge

American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures, 1995

OE ge- functions synchronically as a proclitic, contrary to widely held views. This morphological status is an integral part of a broader diachronic pattern in Germanic, namely grammaticalization of an old particle to a prefix. OE g e- provides a clear example of grammaticalization. Following its path from Proto-Indo-European adverbial to Old English proclitic, and from its near grammaticalization as a past participle marker and subsequent loss, one can see easily the cline of grammaticalization.

Grammaticalization and deflexion in progress. The past participle in the Old English passive

Studia Neophilologica, 2018

This article deals with the Old English adjectival construction that consists of the copulative verb bēon 'to be' and the past participle. Grammaticalization is gauged as to the agreement between the subject noun phrase and the past participle and from the perspective of deflexion, which is considered the final stage of grammaticalization. The highest rates of agreement are found in AElfrician texts and translations from Latin, while other texts like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle not only evince remarkably lower figures of agreement, but also show a decrease over time. The conclusion is reached that, although the grammaticalization of the past participle in passive constructions is not complete on the basis of deflexion, the process is well underway in Old English.