The history of nominative -er in Danish and Swedish
-
Eva Skafte Jensen
Abstract
A much cited example of exaptation is the development whereby the old case marker of the nominative in the masculine singular -er evolves into a derivative suffix changing adjectives into nouns in Swedish (Norde 2001, 2002, 2009; Heine 2003: 168; Narrog 2007). Recent studies based on Old and Middle Danish sources uncover how the developments of the old nominative took place (Jensen 2011); this paper presents an outline of these developments. The outline serves as the foundation for a discussion of whether the development of -er in Swedish and Danish should be taken as an example of exaptation, and if we really need the concept in historical linguistics at all, given that the developments depicted in this paper are easily and adequately covered by other well established concept of change, especially the notion of reanalysis.
Abstract
A much cited example of exaptation is the development whereby the old case marker of the nominative in the masculine singular -er evolves into a derivative suffix changing adjectives into nouns in Swedish (Norde 2001, 2002, 2009; Heine 2003: 168; Narrog 2007). Recent studies based on Old and Middle Danish sources uncover how the developments of the old nominative took place (Jensen 2011); this paper presents an outline of these developments. The outline serves as the foundation for a discussion of whether the development of -er in Swedish and Danish should be taken as an example of exaptation, and if we really need the concept in historical linguistics at all, given that the developments depicted in this paper are easily and adequately covered by other well established concept of change, especially the notion of reanalysis.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Exaptation 1
- Being exacting about exapting 37
- Co-opting exaptation in a theory of language change 57
- Exaptation in Japanese and beyond 93
- Functional changes and (meta-)linguistic evolution 121
- Exaptation from the perspective of construction morphology 163
- Exaptation and degrammaticalization within an acquisition-based model of abductive reanalysis 197
- Allogenous exaptation 227
- How functionless is junk and how useful is exaptation? 261
- The history of nominative -er in Danish and Swedish 287
- Is the development of linking elements in German a case of exaptation? 317
- Exploring and recycling 341
- Exaptation and adaptation 377
- Language index 403
- Subject index 407
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Exaptation 1
- Being exacting about exapting 37
- Co-opting exaptation in a theory of language change 57
- Exaptation in Japanese and beyond 93
- Functional changes and (meta-)linguistic evolution 121
- Exaptation from the perspective of construction morphology 163
- Exaptation and degrammaticalization within an acquisition-based model of abductive reanalysis 197
- Allogenous exaptation 227
- How functionless is junk and how useful is exaptation? 261
- The history of nominative -er in Danish and Swedish 287
- Is the development of linking elements in German a case of exaptation? 317
- Exploring and recycling 341
- Exaptation and adaptation 377
- Language index 403
- Subject index 407
