THE WEAK TENSES.
§ 304. The præterite tense of the weak verbs is formed by the addition of
-d or -t.
If necessary, the syllable -ed is substituted for -d.
The current statement that the syllable -ed, rather than the letter -d is
the sign of the præterite tense, is true only in regard to the written
language. In _stabbed_, _moved_, _bragged_, _whizzed_, _judged_, _filled_,
_slurred_, _slammed_, _shunned_, _barred_, _strewed_, the e is a point of
spelling only. In _language_, except in declamation, there is no second
vowel sound. The -d comes in immediate contact with the final letter of the
original word, and the number of syllables remains the same as it was
before. We say _stabd_, _môved_, _bragd_, &c.
§ 305. When, however, the original word ends in -d or -t, as _slight_ or
_brand_, then, and then only is there the real addition of the syllable
-ed; as in _slighted_, _branded_.
This is necessary, since the combinations _slightt_ and _brandd_ are
unpronounceable.
Whether the addition be -d or -t depends upon the flatness or sharpness of
the preceding letter.
After b, v, th (as in _clothe_), g, or z, the addition is -d. This is a
matter of necessity. We say _stabd_, _môvd_, _clôthd_, _braggd_, _whizzd_,
because _stabt_, _môvt_, _clotht_, _braggt_, _whizzt_, are unpronounceable.
After l, m, n, r, w, y, or a vowel, the addition is also -d. This is the
_habit_ of the English language. _Filt_, _slurt_, _strayt_, &c., are as
pronounceable as _filld_, _slurrd_, _strayd_, &c. It is the habit, however,
of the English language to prefer the latter forms.
All this, as the reader has probably observed, is merely the reasoning
concerning the s, in words like _father's_, &c., applied to another letter
and to another part of speech.
§ 306. The verbs of the weak conjugation fall into three classes.
I. In the first there is the simple addition of -d, -t, or -ed.
Serve, served. | Dip, dipped (_dipt_).
Cry, cried. | Slip, slipped (_slipt_).
Betray, betrayed. | Step, stepped (_stept_).
Expell, expelled. | Look, looked (_lookt_).
Accuse, accused. | Pluck, plucked (_pluckt_).
Instruct, instructed. | Toss, tossed (_tost_).
Invite, invited. | Push, pushed (_pusht_).
Waste, wasted. | Confess, confessed (_confest_).
To this class belong the greater part of the weak verbs and all verbs of
foreign origin.
§ 307. II. In the second class, besides the addition of -t or -d, the vowel
is _shortened_,
_Present._ _Præterite._
Creep Crept.
Keep Kept.
Sleep Slept.
Sweep Swept.
Weep Wept.
Lose Lost.
Mean [57]Meant.
Here the final consonant is -t.
_Present_ _Præterite_
Flee Fled.
Hear [58]Heard.
Shoe Shod.
Say [59]Said.
Here the final consonant is -d.
§ 308. III. In the second class the vowel of the present tense was
_shortened_ in the præterite. In the third class it is _changed_.
Tell, told.
Will, would.
Sell, sold.
Shall, should.
To this class belong the remarkable præterites of the verbs _seek_,
_beseech_, _catch_, _teach_, _bring_, _think_, and _buy_, viz., _sought_,
_besought_, _caught_, _taught_, _brought_, _thought_, and _bought_. In all
these, the final consonant is either g or k, or else a sound allied to
those mutes. When the tendency of these sounds to become h and y, as well
as to undergo farther changes, is remembered, the forms in point cease to
seem anomalous. In _wrought_, from _work_, there is a transposition. In
_laid_ and _said_ the present forms make a show of regularity which they
have not. The true original forms should be _legde_ and _sægde_, the
infinitives being _lecgan_, _secgan_. In these words the i represents the
semivowel y, into which the original g was changed. The Anglo-Saxon forms
of the other words are as follows:--
Bycan, bóhte.
Sêcan, sóhte.
Bringan, bróhte.
Þencan, þóhte.
Wyrcan, wórhte.
§ 309. Out of the three classes into which the weak verbs in Anglo-Saxon
are divided, only one takes a vowel before the d or t. The other two add
the syllables -te or -de, to the last letter of the original word. The
vowel that, in one out of the three Anglo-Saxon classes, precedes d is o.
Thus we have _lufian_, _lufode_; _clypian_, _clypode_. In the other two
classes the forms are respectively _bærnan_, _bærnde_; and _tellan_,
_tealde_, no vowel being found. The _participle_, however, as stated above,
ended, not in -de or -te, but in -d or -t; and in two out of the three
classes it was preceded by a vowel; the vowel being e,--_gelufod_,
_bærned_, _geteald_. Now in those conjugations where no vowel preceded the
d of the præterite, and where the original word ended in -d or -t, a
difficulty, which has already been indicated, arose. To add the sign of the
præterite to a word like _eard-ian_ (_to dwell_) was an easy matter,
inasmuch as _eardian_ was a word belonging to the first class, and in the
first class the præterite was formed in -ode. Here the vowel o kept the two
d's from coming in contact. With words, however, like _métan_ and _sendan_,
this was not the case. Here no vowel intervened; so that the natural
præterite forms were _met-te_, _send-de_, combinations wherein one of the
letters ran every chance of being dropped in the pronunciation. Hence, with
the exception of the verbs in the first class, words ending in -d or -t in
the root admitted no additional d or t in the præterite. This difficulty,
existing in the present English as it existed in the Anglo-Saxon, modifies
the præterites of most words ending in -t or -d.
§ 310. In several words there is the actual addition of the syllable -ed;
in other words d is separated from the last letter of the original word by
the addition of a vowel; as _ended_, _instructed_, &c.
§ 311. In several words the final -d is changed into -t, as _bend_, _bent_;
_rend_, _rent_; _send_, _sent_; _gild_, _gilt_; _build_, _built_; _spend_,
_spent_, &c.
§ 312. In several words the vowel of the root is changed; as _feed_, _fed_;
_bleed_, _bled_; _breed_, _bred_; _meet_, _met_; _speed_, _sped_;
_r[=e]ad_, _r[)e]ad_, &c. Words of this last-named class cause occasional
difficulty to the grammarian. No addition is made to the root, and, in this
circumstance, they agree with the strong verbs. Moreover, there is a change
of the vowel. In this circumstance also they agree with the strong verbs.
Hence with forms like _fed_ and _led_ we are in doubt as to the
conjugation. This doubt we have three means of settling, as may be shown by
the word _beat_.
a. _By the form of the participle._--The -en in _beaten_ shows that the
word _beat_ is strong.
b. _By the nature of the vowel._--The weak form of _to beat_ would be
_bet_, or _be[)a]t_, after the analogy of _feed_ and _read_. By some
persons the word is pronounced _bet_, and with those who do so the word is
weak.
c. _By a knowledge of the older forms._--The Anglo-Saxon form is _beáte_,
_beot_. There is no such a weak form as _beáte_, _bætte_. The præterite of
_sendan_ is _sende_ weak. There is in Anglo-Saxon no such form as _sand_,
strong.
In all this we see a series of expedients for distinguishing the præterite
form from the present, when the root ends with the same sound with which
the affix begins.
The change from a long vowel to a short one, as in _feed_, _fed_, &c., can
only take place where there is a long vowel to be changed.
Where the vowels are short, and, at the same time, the word ends in -d, the
-d of the present may become -t in the præterite. Such is the case with
_bend_, _bent_.
When there is no long vowel to shorten, and no -d to change into -t, the
two tenses, of necessity, remain alike; such is the case with _cut_,
_cost_, &c.
§ 313. The following verbs form their præterite in -t:--
_Present._ _Præterite._
Leave [60]Lef_t_ not [61]Leav_ed_.
Cleave Clef_t_ -- Cleav_ed_.
Bereave Beref_t_ -- Bereav_ed_.
Deal [62]Deal_t_ -- Deal_ed_.
Feel Fel_t_ -- Feel_ed_.
Dream [60]Drem_t_ -- Dream_ed_.
Learn [60]Lern_t_ -- Learn_ed_.
§ 314. Certain _so-called_ irregularities may now be noticed.--_Made_,
_had_.--In these words there is nothing remarkable but the ejection of a
consonant. The Anglo-Saxon forms are _macode_ and _hæfde_, respectively.
The words, however, in regard to the amount of change, are not upon a
_par_. The f in _hæfde_ was probably sounded as v. Now v is a letter
excessively liable to be ejected, which k is not. K, before it is ejected,
is generally changed into either g or y.
_Would_, _should_, _could_.--It must not be imagined that _could_ is in the
same predicament with these words. In _will_ and _shall_ the -l is part of
the original word. This is not the case with _can_. For the form _could_,
see § 331.
§ 315. _Aught_.--In Anglo-Saxon _áhte_, the præterite of the present form
_áh_, plural _ágon_.--As late as the time of Elizabeth we find _owe_ used
for _own_. The present form _own_ seems to have arisen from the plural
_ágon_. _Aught_ is the præterite of the Anglo-Saxon _áh_; _owed_ of the
English _owe_ = _debeo_; _owned_ of the English _own_ = _possideo_. The
word _own_, in the expression _to own to a thing_, has a totally different
origin. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon _an_ (plural, _unnon_) = _I give_, or
_grant_ = _concedo_.
§ 316. _Durst_.--The verb _dare_ is both transitive and intransitive. We
can say either _I dare do such a thing_, or _I dare (challenge) such a man
to do it_. This, in the present tense, is unequivocally correct. In the
past the double power of the word _dare_ is ambiguous; still it is, to my
mind at least, allowable. We can certainly say _I dared him to accept my
challenge_; and we can, perhaps, say _I dared venture on the expedition_.
In this last sentence, however, _durst_ is the preferable expression.
Now, although _dare_ is both transitive and intransitive, _durst_ is only
intransitive. It never agrees with the Latin word _provoco_; only with the
Latin word _audeo_. Moreover, the word _durst_ has both a present and a
past sense. The difficulty which it presents consists in the presence of
the -st, letters characteristic of the second person singular, but here
found in all the persons alike; as _I durst_, _they durst_, &c.
This has still to be satisfactorily accounted for.
_Must_.--A form common to all persons, numbers, and tenses. That neither
the -s nor the -t are part of the original root, is indicated by the
Scandinavian form _maae_ (Danish), pronounced _moh_; præterite _maatt_.
This form has still to be satisfactorily accounted for.
_Wist_.--In its present form a regular præterite from _wiss_ = _know_. The
difficulties of this word arise from the parallel forms _wit_ (as in _to
wit_), and _wot_ = _knew_. The following are the forms of this peculiar
word:--
In Moeso-Gothic, 1 sing. pres. ind. _váit_; 2. do., _váist_; 1 pl. _vitum_;
præterite 1 s. _vissa_; 2 _vissêss_; 1 pl. _vissêdum_. From the form
_váist_ we see that the second singular is formed after the manner of
_must_; that is, _váist_ stands instead of _váit-t_. From the form
_vissêdum_ we see that the præterite is not strong, but weak; therefore
that _vissa_ is euphonic for _vista_.
In Anglo-Saxon.--_Wât_, _wást_, _witon_, _wiste_, and _wisse_,
_wiston_.--Hence the double forms, _wiste_, and _wisse_, verify the
statement concerning the Moeso-Gothic _vissa_.
In Icelandic.--_Veit_, _veizt_, _vitum_, _vissi_. Danish _ved_, _vide_,
_vidste_. Observe the form _vidste_; since, in it, the d of the root (in
spelling, at least) is preserved. The t of the Anglo-Saxon _wiste_ is the
t, not of the root, but of the inflection.
In respect to the four forms in question, viz., _wit_, _wot_, _wiss_,
_wisst_, the first seems to be the root; the second a strong præterite
regularly formed, but used (like [Greek: oida] in Greek) with a present
sense; the third a weak præterite, of which the -t has been ejected by a
euphonic process, used also with a present sense; the fourth is a second
singular from _wiss_ after the manner of _wert_ from _were_, a second
singular from _wit_ after the manner of _must_, a secondary præterite from
_wiss_, or finally, the form _wisse_, anterior to the operation of the
euphonic process that ejected the -t.
§ 317. In the phrase _this will do_ = _this will answer the purpose_, the
word _do_ is wholly different from the word _do_, meaning _to act_. In the
first case it is equivalent to the Latin _valere_; in the second to the
Latin _facere_. Of the first the Anglo-Saxon inflection is _deáh_, _dugon_,
_dohte_, _dohtest_, &c. Of the second it is _dó_, _doð_, _dyde_, &c. I
doubt whether the præterite _did_, as equivalent to _valebat_ = _was good
for_, is correct. In the phrase _it did for him_ = _it finished him_,
either meaning may be allowed.
In the present Danish they write _duger_, but say _duer_: as _duger et
noget?_ = _Is it worth anything?_ pronounced _dooer deh note?_ This
accounts for the ejection of the g. The Anglo-Saxon form _deáh_ does the
same.
§ 318. _Mind--mind and do so and so_.--In this sentence the word _mind_ is
wholly different from the noun _mind_. The Anglo-Saxon forms are _geman_,
_gemanst_, _gemunon_, without the -d; this letter occurring only in the
præterite tense (_gemunde_, _gemundon_), of which it is the sign. _Mind_
is, then, a præterite form with a present sense; whilst _minded_ (as in _he
minded his business_) is an instance of excess of inflection; in other
words, it is a præterite formed from a præterite.
§ 319. _Yode_.--The obsolete præterite of _go_, now replaced by _went_, the
præterite of _wend_. Regular, except that the initial g has become y.
§ 320. _Did_.--See § 317.
_Did_, from _do_ = _facio_, is a _strong_ verb. This we infer from the form
of its participle _done_.
If so the final -d is not the same as the -d in _moved_. What is it? There
are good grounds for believing that in the word _did_ we have a single
instance of the old _reduplicate præterite_. If so, it is the latter d
which is radical, and the former which is inflectional.
* * * * *