STUDIES IN" COMPAKATIVE GRAMMAR. 121 



this construction I found in Professor Whitney's German Grammar, 

 p. 109, the following note: "This is a simple grammatical anomaly, 

 an original blunder of construction, though now sanctioned by 

 universal use; it was apparently caused by the influence of the 

 other neighboring infinitive, which attracted the auxiliary into a 

 correspondence of form with itself." It will appear from the fol- 

 lowing remarks, that the injinitive is not an "original blunder of 

 construction," but represents the ancient preterite participle. 



1. The prefix ge was originally not a necessary element in the 

 formation of the Germanic preterite participle. Afterwards some 

 dialects used or omitted it as special prefix to the pret. part. It is 

 a characteristic feature of the German and English languages, that 

 Middle German developed the tendency to adopt this prefix, and 

 Middle English (1100 to about 1250) to drop it, after it had been 

 weakened to i (y); yet it continued to hold its ground for some 

 time; cf. Corson's Note to "The Legende of Goode Women," Prol. 

 V. 6. In the Nibelungenlied the participles brdht, komen, laszen 

 (Idn) never take qe, so that in M. H. German the context decides, 

 whether komen, etc., stand in the infinitive or in the pret. parti- 

 ciple. 



2. The verbs durfen., konnen, mogen, miiszen, sollen, tcoUen are 

 originally strong preterites, but later used as presents, after their 

 own present had been lost (praeterito-praesentia). The strong pret. 

 participle took the place of the infinitive and was replaced by the 

 formation of a weak participle. It is probable, that the dialects, 

 those faithful wardens of ancient forms of speech, retained the 

 original participle with the former freedom to omit the prefix ge, 

 as often as an infinitive preceded it, so that in the sentence, "ich habe 

 es tun konnen," konnen is not the infinitive, but the old participle. 

 Cf. Grimm, D. W, vol. v., p. 74. 



3. Owing to a false analogy the verbs horen, leJiren, lernen, laszen, 

 heiszen, selien, employ the infinitive instead of the participle, when 

 preceded by another infinitive. The last three verbs could easily 

 be "attracted" by the neighboring infinitive, because their partici- 

 ple, the prefix ge being omitted, is identical with the infinitive. It 

 is, however, a better usage, to employ the participle of the verbs 

 lehren and lernen in such a construction. 



