The lexicalisation of syncope
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Penelope Thompson
Abstract
Syncope is a prosodically motivated process removing medial vowels in longstemmed disyllabic Old English adjectives e.g. hālig ‘holy’ when inflected: nom/acc.pl.neut. hālgu *hāligu. Syncope should not affect short-stemmed forms such as hefig ‘heavy’ e.g. nom/acc.pl.neut. hefig *hefgu (Campbell 1959). However, forms such as hālig include derivational -ig, and produce surprising results. in relation to syncope, showing both over- and underapplication not attested in morphologically simple words. Two historical -ig suffixes exist: ig¹ (vulnerable to syncope) and -ig² (immune to syncope). I will show how this interaction of syncope with ig¹ results in a case of lexicalisation. I argue that cases of overapplication of syncope in forms containing -ig¹ e.g. short-stemmed hefgu indicate the lexicalisation of syncope in forms exhibiting -ig¹. Syncope becomes associated with -ig¹ to the extent that the affix itself becomes reanalysed as /j/ from /ij/ underlyingly. The original phonological conditions for syncope therefore cease to apply (Anderson 1989).
Abstract
Syncope is a prosodically motivated process removing medial vowels in longstemmed disyllabic Old English adjectives e.g. hālig ‘holy’ when inflected: nom/acc.pl.neut. hālgu *hāligu. Syncope should not affect short-stemmed forms such as hefig ‘heavy’ e.g. nom/acc.pl.neut. hefig *hefgu (Campbell 1959). However, forms such as hālig include derivational -ig, and produce surprising results. in relation to syncope, showing both over- and underapplication not attested in morphologically simple words. Two historical -ig suffixes exist: ig¹ (vulnerable to syncope) and -ig² (immune to syncope). I will show how this interaction of syncope with ig¹ results in a case of lexicalisation. I argue that cases of overapplication of syncope in forms containing -ig¹ e.g. short-stemmed hefgu indicate the lexicalisation of syncope in forms exhibiting -ig¹. Syncope becomes associated with -ig¹ to the extent that the affix itself becomes reanalysed as /j/ from /ij/ underlyingly. The original phonological conditions for syncope therefore cease to apply (Anderson 1989).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
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Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
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Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
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Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
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Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
-
Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
-
Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
-
Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
-
Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
