Grammatical categories of verbs in Proto-Indo-European

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF VERBS

OUTLINE

1. Grammatical categories of verbs in Proto-Indo-European.

2. Grammatical categories of verbs in Old Germanic and Old English.

3. The rise and the development of analytical forms

a) the passive voice

b) perfect forms

c) future tense

d) future-in-the past-forms

e) continuous aspect

 

Grammatical categories of verbs in Proto-Indo-European

1. Aspect: Presence, Aorist, Perfect;

2. Mood: the Indicative, Imperative, Optative and Conditional;

3. Voice: Active and Middle (Medium);

4. Number: Singular, Plural, Dual;

5. Person: first, second, third.

 

It is assumed that tense forms of the verbs emerged on the basis of aspectual meanings. Thus, peculiar for Indo-European verbal forms was the representation of action in a certain aspect. Therefore, there existed the opposition of durative action (presence) and non-durative action (aorist). Presence indicated a durative action, which coincides with the moment of speaking, aorist represented non-durative action and perfect indicated a completed action or state (it referred either to the present or past). The examples from Old Greek illustrate the category of aspect: λειπο I am leaving” (Presence – Modern English equivalent– the Present Continuous Tense), ελιπον ‘I left’ (Aorist – Modern English equivalent – the Past Simple Tense).

Mood. The category of mood is represented by the Indicative, Imperative, Optative and Conditional (Conjunctive) Mood. The indicative mood represents a real action that happened, happens, or will happen. The imperative mood represents speaker’s request or order. The Conditional mood indicates conditions and circumstances under which the action took or will take place. The Optative mood shows the speaker’s volition, as well as, the circumstances and options of performing the action.

Voice. The meaning of active voice in Proto-Indo-European coincides with its meaning in Modern English. Medium rendered reflexive or possessive.

Person and Number. The verb had three persons (1^st – the speaker, 2^nd – the hearer, 3^rd – a person or this which is talked about), as well as, three numbers: singular, plural and dual.