Preterite-Present Verbs and the Germanic Weak Preterite

The present monograph is an outcome of the research into Germanic preterite-present verbs (which was my PhD project at the University of Warsaw), and into the Germanic weak preterite, which resulted from the former study. The mentioned linguistic issues have attracted considerable scholarly interest, but many points are still open to debate and encourage new approaches. I modestly hope that this contribution belongs to the category.

The present study relies on secondary data and earlier work of other scholars, whom I would like to thank here. At the same time, I would like to express regret for not being able to incorporate into my study a few older classics, which, however, resonate in more contemporary publications.

Alongside the authors whom I know through their academic publications, I wish to thank the scholars whom I know in person and who have been an inspiration and support at various stages of the present project. I would like to thank my colleagues at the University of Siedlce, especially Dr Magdalena Wieczorek for sharing her experience with me, and providing me with books from her private library that were otherwise unavailable to me. I owe gratitude to Dr Hab. Sławomir Sobieraj for employing me in the Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Siedlce, where I found home for my research. Many thanks go to the Team at Peter Lang, especially Łukasz Gałecki for his patience in extending the deadline again and again and again, and Padmavathy Subramanian for leading me through the process of book making with unwavering kindness. I am thankful for the opportunity to cooperate with such a professional Team. Finally, I owe gratitude to my family and friends for priceless support and encouragement.

In the process of writing, I have learned a lot about various issues related to morphology, syntax and semantics, and tried to express my thoughts clearly. However, due to space limits, it was not possible to present some issues related to preterite-present verbs and the Germanic weak preterite more exhaustively, and hence, despite sincere intentions, the findings of other authors might be under-represented. Perhaps other conclusions could be drawn on the basis of the presented data. If it is the case, any comments, criticism and suggestions for improvement are welcome. They can be sent to magdalena.tomaszewska@uws.edu.pl.

Germanic languages have undergone substantial changes when compared with the reconstructed parent language. Their development is a story of gains and losses, both of which affected Germanic verbs. On the one hand, morphological innovations concerning the verbal system constitute the defining hallmarks that justify classifying Germanic languages as a separate branch of Indo-European. On the other hand, some morphological distinctions in verbs were lost. Despite massive reorganisation which resulted in general morphological simplifications, verbal lexemes in English have more inflections than any other types of lexemes. Another diachronically important development in the recorded history of English are auxiliaries such as be, do, have, and modals.

The aim of the present monograph is to illustrate the history of six preterite-present verbs that developed into Present-Day English modal auxiliaries. Their fates are discussed against a broader background. Unlike the prevailing sources, which usually provide a more general picture and discuss them jointly, here they are treated separately. Before a holistic summary is offered, each of the verbs is presented individually. The material illustrating their development is organised chronologically.

Chapter 1 introduces the basic linguistic concepts and terms associated with ‘verb’. Verbs are discussed and exemplified in a broader diachronic and geographical perspective. The approach is aimed at drawing attention to the fact that ‘verb’ is an umbrella term for various phenomena. The interpretation of what a verb is may differ from language to language, from century to century, etc. The concepts discussed in the chapter, especially the ones concerning membership fuzziness, internal and external patterns, different functional markers conveying the same notion, and reanalysis, recur in the following parts of the text.

Chapter 2 is about Germanic verbs, especially their preterite forms. It shows the interplay between strong and weak verbs in the history of English and presents arguments in favour of PIE *-t as the origin of the Germanic weak preterite. It also presents paradigms and characteristics / evolution of Germanic preterite-present verbs in a broader perspective.

Chapter 3 focuses on main semantic and morphosyntactic properties, and synchronic and diachronic tendencies in the evolution of six preterite-present verbs (from Old English to Modern English). Most of them developed into core modal auxiliaries, e.g. can, could, may, might, must, shall, should. Marginal modal auxiliaries, e.g. ought and dare, are also discussed in the chapter.