Lecture Word Stock of Middle English Period. Phonetic peculiarities of Middle English

Grammatical Categories of the Finite Verb 
The verb-predicate agreed with the subject of the sentence in two grammatical 
categories: number and person. Its specifically verbal categories were mood and tense. Thus in 
OE he bindeð 'he binds' the verb is in the 3rd p. Pres. Tense Ind. Mood; in the sentence Bringaþ 
me hider þa 'Bring me those (loaves)' bringaþ is in the Imper. Mood pl. 
Finite forms regularly distinguished between two numbers: sg and pl. The homonymy of forms 
in the verb paradigm did not affect number distinctions: opposition through number was never 
neutralised. 
The category of Person was made up of three forms: the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd. Unlike 
number, person distinctions were neutralised in many positions. Person was consistently shown 
only in the Pres. Tense of the Ind. Mood 'In the Past Tense sg of the Ind. Mood the forms of the 
1st and 3rd p. coincided and only the 2nd p. had a distinct form. Person was not distinguished in 
the pl; nor was it shown in the Subj. Mood. 

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The category of Mood was constituted by the Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive. 
There were a few homonymous forms, which eliminated the distinction between the moods: 
Subj. did not differ from the Ind. in the 1st p. sg Pres. Tense — here, deme — and in the 1st and 
3rd p. in the Past. The coincidence of the Imper. and Ind. Moods is seen in the pl — lociaþ, 
demaþ. 
The category of Tense in OE consisted of two categorial forms, Pres. and Past. The tenses were 
formally distinguished by all the verbs in the Ind. and Subj. Moods, there being practically no 
instances of neutralisation of the tense opposition. 
The use of the Subj. Mood in OE was in many respects different from its use in later 
ages. Subj. forms conveyed a very general meaning of unreality or supposition. In addition to its 
use in conditional sentences and other volitional, conjectural and hypothetical contexts Subj. was 
common in other types of construction: in clauses of time, clauses of result and in clauses 
presenting reported speech, e.g.: 
þa giet he ascode hwæt heora cyning haten wære, and him man andswarode and cwæð þæt he 
Ælle haten wære. 'and yet he asked what their king was called, and they answered and said that 
he was called Ælle'. In presenting indirect speech usage was variable: Ind. forms occurred by the 
side of Subj.