The Verb Forms of the South English Legendary

88 Pages·1964·5.624 MB·English

by  Eichi Kobayashi

THE VERB FORMS OF THE SOUTH ENGLISH LEGENDARY
JANUA LINGUARUM
STUDIA MEMORIAE
NICOLAI VAN WIJK DEDICATA
edenda curai
CORNELIS H. VAN SCHOONEYELD
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
SERIES PRACTICA
XV
1964
MOUTON & CO.
LONDON • THE HAGUE • PARIS
THE VERB FORMS OF THE
SOUTH ENGLISH
LEGENDARY
by
EICHI KOBAYASHI
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
Ü
1964
MOUTON & CO.
LONDON • THE HAGUE • PARIS
© Copyright 1964 Mouton & Co., Publishers, The Hague, The Netherlands.
No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm,
or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.
Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., Printers, The Hague.
PREFACE
Dr. Eichi Kobayashi's monograph on the morphology of the verb in the South
English Legendary (MS. Harley 2277, British Museum) is a valuable contribution to
our knowledge of Middle English Grammar. This rather uniform Southwest Midland
text of ca. 1300, running to approximately 4000 lines, yields rather full evidence for
nearly all of the more common verbs current in this dialect of Middle English.
In order to be in a position to separate instances of analogical remodeling within
the paradigm of each verb and to deal with cross influences between the different
classes of ablaut verbs, the author very wisely first establishes the system of vowel
phonemes and its history on the basis of etymologically clear nouns and adjectives.
This enables him to deal safely with the vocalism of the verb forms by distinguishing
the normal phonemic reflexes from analogical deviations from the phonemic norm.
Every single verb form occurring in the 4000 lines is carefully inspected and dealt
with. Scholarly opinion is regularly considered and critically evaluated.
Before a comprehensive treatment of the forms of Middle English verbs in the
several regional dialects can be undertaken and the lines of development adequately
traced, we shall need a whole series of investigations of this type. The author is to be
congratulated on making such an excellent contribution to this rather neglected field.
University of Michigan HANS KURATH
August 12, 1963

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I am especially grateful to Professors Hans Kurath and Sherman M. Kuhn without
whose devoted help and encouragement it would not have been possible to complete
this work. I am also deeply indebted to Professor John Reidy for his kind advice
and pertinent comments.
This monograph is a somewhat revised version of a doctoral dissertation submitted
to the Department of English of the University of Michigan in 1961.
Division of Languages, EICHI KOBAYASHI
International Christian University,
Tokyo
September 29, 1963

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE by Hans Kurath 5
ACKNOWLEDGMENT 7
1. INTRODUCTION 11
1.1. The Purpose of the Study 11
1.2. The Source Material 11
1.3. The Method of Study and Presentation 11
2. PHONOLOGY 13
2.1. A Phonemic System for the Dialect of British Museum MS. Harley
2277 13
2.2. Phonemic Symbols 13
2.3. The Vowel Phonemes 13
2.4. The Consonant Phonemes 17
3. THE VERBS OF THE ABLAUT CLASSES 20
3.1. Verbs of the First Ablaut Class 20
3.2. Verbs of the Second Ablaut Class 22
3.3. Verbs of the Third Ablaut Class 24
3.4. Verbs of the Fourth Ablaut Class 32
3.5. Verbs of the Fifth Ablaut Class 34
3.6. Verbs of the Sixth Ablaut Class 40
3.7. Verbs of the Seventh Ablaut Class 45
4. THE WEAK VERBS 53
4.0. Introductory Remarks 53
4.1. The First Group 53
4.2. The Second Group 63
5. THE VERBS OF MINOR GROUPS 74
5.1. Preteritive-Present Verbs 74
5.2. Anomalous Verbs 77
5.3. Verb forms with -inge 81
6. CONCLUSIONS 82
BIBLIOGRAPHY 86