The Conditional in German. 59 



ward ( ''she bei^an to wt^^p bitterly" ); even in the lOtli cen- 

 tury it retained this sii^nification, (\ g., und als er schneiden 

 solt iind die scher nit enfand, icard er ueber sich sehcn und 

 uff die bueni Idopffon mit den henden ob er die scher nit 

 hoerte; do er sich weret und schri/rn ward, schluoi^en sie, etc. 

 Vernalaken, I. 29 if., has any number of examples all of which 

 show that this verb then denoted the be,a:inning of an action, 

 as may be seen from those already given. 



For a complete understanding of these periphrastic forms 

 we must carefully consider the predication, or predicate, whefe 

 it will l)e necessary to distinguish beginning, middle, end, 

 duration and repetition of the action and for all three tenses. 

 The inception or beginning of an action always has the ac- 

 cessory idea of irill, of intpufion. and is frequently denoted in 

 language by periphrasis ( cf. Grinnn, Gr., 4. 182), especially by 

 sollcii, icollcu and trcrdcn. Compare for instance the Latin 

 liovfatKriis stiiii. cram. era. French cdlcr with the infinitive. 

 English (joi)i(j to denote the future, etc. Naturally these peri- 

 phrases acquire certain other accessory ideas which are more 

 or less independently developed in each language. Other 

 periphrases of this nature will readily occur to all. Let us 

 now examine more closely the exact shade of thought that 

 these auxiliaries were and still are, to a certain degree, in- 

 tended to express. For besides ivill and inicntion they also 

 expressed duty, and language is constantly enriching itself 

 with expressions that convey to the mind those various shades 

 of thought relating to the future. What peculiar shade of 

 meaning is there, then, in these auxiliaries that led tcj their 

 use for expressing future time? 



The Gothic, Isidor (8th cent.), Otfrid ( Uth cent.), and 

 Notker ( lOth cent.) did not employ HY'?v/r'n as future aux- 

 iliary. Tlu^y in common use the present as future, or wlien 

 they wish to distinguish the future they use the auxiliary 

 sollcn ( Ulf. Mc.8th, HI: jah dugann lais jan ins thatei skal 

 sunns mans tilu winnan; hva skuli tliata l)arn wairthan? Sei- 

 mon, skal thus hva qithan, ith is cjath: laisari, (pth. Otf. I, 2H: 

 Thu scalt beran einan, etc.: 17,4: seal ih iz mit uuillen.etc). 

 The A.S. also uses tlie present as future, hut when the addi- 



