A Non-Brugmannian Approach to the Genesis of the Germanic Verbal System

本研究从分析古英语现在动词入手，尝试了一种新的历史和比较的方法来探讨日耳曼动词系统的起源。过去式动词表现出形态上的特点：它们的现在时单数典型地表现出o级基本发声，以符合强动词的过去式单数，而它们的过去式加了一个牙齿后缀，这与弱动词的过去式构成相一致。传统研究经常将这些特征解释为源于原始的o级完成体被重新解释为新的现在，以及原始的e级现在被压制，以及新采用的日耳曼牙齿或弱的原元古代构造。目前的工作将重点放在这一传统方法固有的困难上，从而对这一观点提出质疑。为了更令人信服和自然地解释古现在动词的历史发展，本研究采用了近年来一些比较语言学研究中提出的原始-印欧重建模式，偶尔被称为非布鲁格曼模式或活跃的假说。这一模型或假设认为，印欧母语没有希腊雅利安语类型的动词系统，即基于时态区分的丰富的词形变化系统，而是在活跃或分裂的S语言中可观察到的简单得多的动词系统。通过一系列的实证分析，目前的工作声称，过去现在动词不是原始日耳曼语中零星的创造，而是古老的、非施事的、静态的动词的化石残留物，这些动词曾经在语言系统中相当多产。这一观点也为日耳曼语言系统本身的起源提供了一种可信的新解释。

The present Study attempts a new historical and comparative approach to the genesis of the Germanic verbal system, beginning with analysis of Old English preterite-present verbs. Preterite-present verbs show morphological peculiarities : their present singular typically exhibits the o-grade base vocalism, to conform with the preterite singular of a strong verb, whilst their preterite is augmented with a dental suffix, which accords with the preterite formation of a weak verb. Traditional studies have frequently construed these characteristics as stemming from the original o-grade perfect having been reinterpreted as the new present, along with the suppression of the original e-grade present, and from the Germanic dental or weak preterite having been newly adopted for the preterite formation. The present work calls this view into question by focusing on the difficulties inherent in this conventional approach. In order to give a more convincing and natural account of the historical development of preterite-present verbs, this investigation adopts a Proto-Indo-European reconstruction model proposed in some recent comparative linguistic studies and occasionally labelled as a Non-Brugmannian model or an Active hypothesis. This model or hypothesis takes the position that the Indo-European parent-language did not have a verbal system of the Greco-Aryan type, that is, a rich conjugation system based on the tense distinction, but a far simpler verbal system observable in active or split-S languages. Through a series of empirical analyses, the current work claims that preterite-present verbs are not sporadic creations in Proto-Germanic but rather fossilised remnants of archaic, non-agentive, stative verbs which were once quite productive in the verbal system. It is also demonstrated that this perspective leads to a plausible new explanation of the genesis of the Germanic verbal system itself.