The aim of this paper is to take a position in an ongoing debate over the direction of the derivation in the causative alternation. Since the solutions offered by synchronic linguistics carry with them certain problems, the research presented here accounts for the issue from the diachronic perspective, thus combining methods of corpus and theoretical linguistics. The results obtained from the quantitative analysis of the frequency of occurence of two Old English ‘change of state’ verbs in transitive and intransitive structures seem to support the detransitivization claim for at least one of the verbs. The qualitative study of the nature of the Old English causative alternation, in turn, indicates two different patterns according to which ‘change of state’ verbs may have alternated in the past. On the basis of this observation, the paper suggests a hypothesis about the temporal and directional diversification among the members of the group of ‘change of state’ verbs. This initial hypothesis offers solutions to certain problems for synchronic approaches to the direction of the derivation in the causative alternation.
In Old English, negative adjectives, i.e. incorporating the negative prefix -un, are said to generally come in postposition to nouns (e.g. Fischer, 2001; Sampson, 2010). This paper investigates to what extent this general rule is followed in Aelfric’s Catholic Homilies, the texts of this author being a typical choice for the study of Old English syntax (cf. Davis 2006; Reszkiewcz, 1966; Kohonen, 1978). The data have been obtained from the York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose (YCOE). The following research questions have been formulated: Do strong negative adjectives outnumber nonnegated adjectives in postposition? Do strong negative adjectives have a tendency to appear in postposition? Do strong negated adjectives occur in preposition? The results indicated that for the sample analyzed, strong adjectives in postposition are not predominantly negated. Additionally, the postposition of most of those which are may potentially be explained by other factors, such as modification by a prepositional phrase, co-occurrence with a weak preposed adjective (both mentioned by Fischer), or indirect Latin influence in a formulaic phrase. Also, the data does not appear to support the observation that negated adjectives tend to appear in post- rather than preposition.
Solutions are presented, most involving Celtic influences in West Germanic (WG) dur- ing the ancient period, for some long-standing problems involving nominal forms. The M N-SG forms of /n/-stems in WG may be seen as due to loss of /-n/ (in analogical /-ͻͻn/) having happened after shortening. Apparent replacement of the F G-SG by the D-SG in WG may be seen as due to the D-SG of the F personal pronoun being employed, in “external possession”, as a kind of indirect reflexive, after /siin-/ became limited (for reasons connected with Celtic influence) to M SG meaning. This case has analogues in Romance. Final /-s/ in the A-PL of M /a/-stems may be seen as due to Celtic influence causing /-nz/ to be replaced by /-ns/.
Since the earliest grammars, Old English has been analysed as having a length contrast in diphthongs, containing both regular, bimoraic ones, side by side with cross-linguistically unique monomoraic ones. The supposedly monomoraic diphthongs [io eo æɑ] arose through back umlaut and breaking. Unsurprisingly, they have become the source of possibly the greatest controversy in OE phonology, which still remains unresolved. The present paper refutes the main arguments for a length contrast in OE diphthongs. Instead, it argues for a generative phonological analysis, where the diphthongs constitute monomoraic monophthongs in the underlying representation, and bimoraic diphthongs in the surface representation.
This paper aims to provide an account of Old English similes of equality marked by the superlative degree of the adjective gelic. It deals with the structure and semantics of similes marked by the (ge)/(on)licost component, which, unlike in Modern English, being subjected to gradation, can show the highest degree of similarity between referents. The article presents the criteria for structural classification of the simile in question describing two major structural types, that employ nouns in the dative or nominative case, as well as its semantic interpretation from macro and micro levels of perspective. The paper examines every simile with the (ge)/(on)licost component found in Old English manuscripts belonging to various textual genres.
This paper aims to provide an account of Old English similes of equality marked by the superlative degree of the adjective gelic. It deals with the structure and semantics of similes marked by the (ge)/(on)licost component, which, unlike in Modern English, being subjected to gradation, can show the highest degree of similarity between referents. The article presents the criteria for structural classification of the simile in question describing two major structural types, that employ nouns in the dative or nominative case, as well as its semantic interpretation from macro and micro levels of perspective. The paper examines every simile with the (ge)/(on)licost component found in Old English manuscripts belonging to various textual genres.
The Lord’s Prayer played an important role in the formation of early Anglo-Saxon Church. The significance of Oratio Dominica was raised in ecclesiastical correspondence and reflected in state charts and laws issued at the time. Prose translations and poetical paraphrases formed part of contemporary literature. Their authors continued the long- standing Cædmonian tradition and used the ancient Germanic poetic diction to express Christian values. These texts, therefore, indirectly open the way to our understanding of the intricate relations existing in the Latin-Germanic world. Conveying these peculiar artefacts of the Anglo-Saxon Christian culture in another language imposes special duties on a translator. Above all, the extant manuscripts must be studied with meticulous care and compared with reliable editions. The selection of a dependable critical edition is the prerequisite to the esthetically satisfying and adequate translation. This prior condition is especially important when liturgical poetry is introduced into a distant culture to which the subtle beauty of the Anglo-Saxon literary world is virtually unknown
A series o f well-known histories and bibliographies o f technical writings in English begin from the premise that start with A Treatise on the Astrolabe by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Nevertheless, it can be shown that there is a notable tradition o f practical technical writings - translations and adaptations o f Latin and Arabic sources - both in Old and Middle English, which pre-date or are contemporary with Chaucer’s. A number o f their characteristics, especially structural, seem to anticipate similar traits o f contemporary scientific and technical discourse.
This paper is essentially a state-of-the-art overview of the three most current and influential publications on the history of English reflexives, selected for their contrasting methodologies, i.e. Elly van Gelderen’s [2000], Edward L. Keenan’s [2002], Ekkehad König and Peter Siemund’s [2000]. A broad view of some well established insights into the historical development of self allows us to detail some factors that are significant in its distribution patterns. In the analytical section we relate these factors to the occurrences of self in Manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
The traditional interpretation of Old English (OE) spelling is problematic in (1) positing short diphthongs, not otherwise known to exist, and (2) not resolving various coincidences involving the spelling/writing of Old Irish (OI ): that OI uses spellings that appear to represent short diphthongs (gaib) but do not, and that OE is written in the Irish hand. Both problems can be solved by positing that the spelling/writing system of OE was developed by Irish missionary linguists who perceived OE as being like OI in having front and back consonants, and spelt OE in the manner of OI : using front or back vowels as diacritics for front or back consonants.
This paper takes issue with the lexicon of Old English and, more specifically, with the existence of closing suffixes in word-formation. Closing suffixes are defined as base suffixes that prevent further suffixation by word-forming suffixes (Aronoff & Furhop 2002: 455). This is tantamount to saying that this is a study in recursivity, or the formation of derivatives from derived bases, as in anti-establish-ment, which requires the attachment of the prefix anti- to the derived input establishment. The present analysis comprises all major lexical categories, that is, nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs and concentrates on suffixes because they represent the newest and the most productive process in Old English word-formation (Kastovsky 1992, 2006), as well as the set of morphemes that has survived into Present-day English without undergoing radical changes. Given this aim, the data retrieved from the lexical database of Old English Nerthus (www.nerthusproject.com) comprise 6,073 affixed (prefixed and suffixed) derivatives, including 3,008 nouns, 1,961 adjectives, 974 adverbs and 130 verbs. All of them have been analysed in order to isolate recursive formations.
The consonantal spellings of Old English (OE) were significantly influenced by the
consonantal spellings of Old Irish (OI). 1)
vs. (post-vocalic) : though OE
did not have a distinction between /θ/ and /ð/, OI did, spelling this as
vs. (postvocalic)
. 2) vs. : though OE did not have a distinction between /h/ and
/x/, OI did, spelling the latter as . 3) and
: both spellings appear to be
from Irish. 4) : spellings of the “mixed voice” type, including “cg”, occur in OI,
where they can spell either single or geminate voiced plosives. 5) (and ):
almost certainly in final position in OE represent singles, not geminates, as
they can in OI. 6) Spelling rules referring to post-vocalic position: all cases show
OE spelling having had, like OI spelling, rules referring to post-vocalic position,
which appear to be additionally evidenced by “illogical doubling” in Northumbrian.
7) The meaning of before front Vs: in OE spelling as in OI spelling, but not as in
Roman Latin spelling, before front Vs spells a palatal approximant rather than a palatal
affricate. The overall conclusion is that the OE spelling system was developed by Irish
missionary linguists.
This paper presents the main Old English ‘music’ nouns used before the Norman Conquest. By ‘‘main” music nouns is meant those which bear the core sense of music as an acoustic activity produced by and for people, including basic theoretical facets pertaining to music. As a result, many terms bearing peripheral, partitive, qualitative, or otherwise specific reading(s) like ‘harmony’, ’sound’, ‘psalm singing’, etc., are excluded from the present study (cf. Simpson – Weiner 1991: 126–127). Culturally, the paper tackles both secular and ecclesiastic types of music with regard to their artistic and/or entertaining values. The short introduction dealing with the cultural aspect of the problem will facilitate a linguistic examination of the terms in question.
As there are serious questions about whether short diphthongs are possible phonemes, the question arises as to what the prehistory of Old English would be without short diphthongs. The most important question is what breaking was, and the answer given is that breaking was a conditioned change of /xʲ to /xˠ/ in noble dialect, in reaction against /xʲ/ in peasant dialect, itself motivated by the phonology of Brittonic. Such a scenario involves violating some of the foundational assumptions of the field, and the violations in question are noted. Examination reveals other cases of Brittonic influence, which apply not only to Old English but to Anglo-Frisian generally, supporting the idea that the Frisians originated as Angles who were driven back the continent. Fundamentally, the idea is to show that a prehistory of Old English without short diphthongs is possible.
The present article is an empirical, data-oriented study which focuses on the problem of morphological conversion and the way this mechanism was employed in Old English as a way of deriving new lexemes. The article briefly discusses the quantitative characteristics of the attested types, presents patterns of directionality and estimates the degree of availability of conversion in Old English grammar. The main part and purpose of the study, however, concerns the semantic characteristics of conversions sampled in the corpus. Drawing on the framework of semantic categories formulated by Clark and Clark (1979) and Plag (2003), the study aims to demonstrate semantic effects of the so-called zero-affix in Old English by looking into the relation that holds between the motivating base and the resultant derivative. Despite the fact that the availability of conversion was still quite limited in the Old English period, possibly due to numerous inflections that may have inhibited the transparency of this process, the study allows us to see how this process emerged and subsequently developed into one of the most productive word-formational techniques in the English language.
The paper aims at presenting the contemporary usage of the verb shall in Modern English. The traditional principles governing the usage of shall constitute a complex paradigm in which the implications of different forms change according to the person of the subject. The statistics show that the verb shall experienced a dramatic fall in frequency of use between the early 1960s and 1990s. The author is aiming at presenting the evolution of the verb shall throughout the centuries, its reorganization and the way it has altered. The Old English shall expressed obligation/necessity whereas the Middle English usage indicated to the predicative element of the verb in question. Furthermore, the author explores the difference in application between will and shall. The semantic shift of 'shall' appears to be a natural consequence of the competition it lost to will. Moreover, in 'shall' seems to be retracting to the narrow niche of seldom usage. The article also indicates to the use of shall in present-day English both in American and British varieties. In American English, which is commonly assumed to be more advanced and open to change than British English, 'shall' seems to survive in the contexts where it expresses deontic meaning.
This article is a review of a Gedenkschrift intended to memorise Jacek Fisiak, a well-known Polish professor of English who died in 2019. It presents an overview of the contributions to this volume, which is divided into six “Parts,” each of which focuses on a particular aspect connected to his person or academic work. The articles in this book cover a large number of fields, ranging from individual recollections through topics on historical English up to the modern day. It is concluded that this publication is a suitable way to posthumously honour a particularly productive and beloved scholar.
The article attempts to provide an explanation why the English legal language is so complex and so difficult to understand especially for the lay people. Also mentioned are the attempts that have been made to simplify it. The paper also describes its development throughout history. It maintains that legal English is the result of history and political and social processes ongoing in the given historical period. This language is basically the reflection of the social and political conditions of the given historical period, and each period has left its mark on the current form of the language at issue. It reflects the influence of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, Latinspeaking missionaries, Scandinavian and Norman war tribes. As it is highlighted further in the text, English has been used in various types of legal documents at different times. Last wills and testaments started to be drafted in English around 1400. Laws were written in Latin until around 1300, in French until about 1485, in English and French for a few more years and exclusively in English since 1489. The paper contains a number of the words and expressions related to law which are used even today and provides their etymology, at least as far the language of its origin is concerned. Also provided are expressions that were replaced with new ones, simpler, more understandable legal terms within reforms.
The aim of this article is to carry out a structural-functional analysis of the formation of Old English adjectives by means of affixation. By analysing the rules and operations that produce the 3,356 adjectives which the lexical database of Old English Nerthus (www.nerthusproject.com) turns out as affixal derivatives, a total of fourteen derivational functions have been identified. Additionally, the analysis yields conclusions concerning the relationship between affixes and derivational functions, the patterns of recategorization present in adjective formation and recursive word-formation.
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