Grammaticalisation, contact and corpora
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Matti Rissanen✝
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to outline the diachronic development of English adverbial connectives, mainly subordinators and prepositions, from Old to Present-day English. In Old English, the use of the subordination markers þe and þæt forming part of the adverbial subordinator and the gradual increase of þe is of interest. The most important developments in the Middle English period are the simplification and grammaticalisation of phrasal adverbial subordinators and the emergence of new connectives, mainly borrowed from French or Latin. In Early Modern English, many of these new items are established in the language and their use is spread from formal to less formal genres of text. In Late Modern English new, mainly genre- and registerbased variation in the frequencies of near-synonymous connectives can be traced. The survey is based on a number of English historical corpora.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to outline the diachronic development of English adverbial connectives, mainly subordinators and prepositions, from Old to Present-day English. In Old English, the use of the subordination markers þe and þæt forming part of the adverbial subordinator and the gradual increase of þe is of interest. The most important developments in the Middle English period are the simplification and grammaticalisation of phrasal adverbial subordinators and the emergence of new connectives, mainly borrowed from French or Latin. In Early Modern English, many of these new items are established in the language and their use is spread from formal to less formal genres of text. In Late Modern English new, mainly genre- and registerbased variation in the frequencies of near-synonymous connectives can be traced. The survey is based on a number of English historical corpora.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Norse influence on English in the light of general contact linguistics 15
- The Germanic roots of the Old English sound system 43
- Monetary policy and Old English dialects 73
- The order and schedule of nominal plural formation transfer in three Southern dialects of Early Middle English 95
- The temporal and regional contexts of the numeral ‘two’ in Middle English 115
- Grammaticalisation, contact and corpora 131
- Discourse organization and the rise of final then in the history of English 153
- The origins of how come and what…for 177
- “Providing/provided that” 197
- Prefer 215
- The 400 million word Corpus of Historical American English (1810–2009) 231
- Gender change from Old to Middle English 263
- “Please tilt me-ward by return of post” 289
- Multilingualism in the vocabulary of dress and textiles in late medieval Britain 313
- “No man entreth in or out” 327
- Beyond questions and answers 349
- The demise of gog and cock and their phraseologies in dramatic discourse 369
- Index 383
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Norse influence on English in the light of general contact linguistics 15
- The Germanic roots of the Old English sound system 43
- Monetary policy and Old English dialects 73
- The order and schedule of nominal plural formation transfer in three Southern dialects of Early Middle English 95
- The temporal and regional contexts of the numeral ‘two’ in Middle English 115
- Grammaticalisation, contact and corpora 131
- Discourse organization and the rise of final then in the history of English 153
- The origins of how come and what…for 177
- “Providing/provided that” 197
- Prefer 215
- The 400 million word Corpus of Historical American English (1810–2009) 231
- Gender change from Old to Middle English 263
- “Please tilt me-ward by return of post” 289
- Multilingualism in the vocabulary of dress and textiles in late medieval Britain 313
- “No man entreth in or out” 327
- Beyond questions and answers 349
- The demise of gog and cock and their phraseologies in dramatic discourse 369
- Index 383
