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

本研究从古英语的一般现在时动词开始，尝试用一种新的历史和比较方法来研究日耳曼语动词系统的起源。一般现在时动词表现出形态上的特殊性：它们的一般现在时单数表现为0级的基本元音，与强动词的一般现在时单数相一致，而它们的一般现在时则加一个齿状后缀，与弱动词的一般现在时形式相一致。传统研究经常将这些特征解释为源于原来的o级完成时被重新解释为新的现在，同时抑制了原来的e级现在，以及源于日耳曼语的牙齿或弱的优先级被新采用为优先级形成。目前的工作通过关注这种传统方法固有的困难，对这种观点提出了质疑。为了给一般现时动词的历史发展提供一个更有说服力和自然的解释，本研究采用了最近一些比较语言学研究中提出的原始印欧语重建模型，偶尔被称为非布鲁曼模型或主动假设。这个模型或假设的立场是，印欧语系的母语没有希腊-雅利安类型的语言系统，也就是说，没有基于时态区分的丰富的变位系统，而是在主动语言或分裂语言中可以观察到的简单得多的语言系统。通过一系列的实证分析，目前的工作声称，一般现在时动词并不是原始日耳曼语中零星的创造，而是古老的、非代理的、静态动词的化石遗迹，这些动词曾经在言语系统中相当多产。这一观点也为日耳曼语言系统本身的起源提供了一个合理的新解释。

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.