The anticausative and related categories in the Old Germanic languages
-
Kjartan G. Ottósson✝
Abstract
The verbs of the fourth class of weak verbs in Gothic, the nan-class, have traditionally been labelled as inchoative, referring to the characteristic aspectual content of transition to a state. This semantically and formally defined class of verbs is rather well represented also in Old Nordic. In the West Germanic languages, on the other hand, these verbs are so poorly attested that it is doubtful that this class existed in Proto-Germanic in any more than an embryonic state. In more recent times, the valency-changing, essentially anticausative, property of these verbs has been stressed. The most basic explanation for the inchoative interpretation is then that change of state is such a wide-spread element of verbs in general. Extending insights by Hermodsson (1952), one may see the emergence of these verbs as one expression of a drift-like tendency in the history of the Germanic languages towards systematising the distinction between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs of the unaccusative (or anticausative) type. This may be seen as part of a typological transition from a verb system where aspect plays a fundamental role to one where valency is more highly valued. The emergence of the middle categories in Nordic and Old High German, constructed with the reflexive pronoun, may be seen as another effect of this tendency. The middle is overtly marked like the nan-verbs, but the form is more flexible than that of the former, which involved synchronically rather opaque ablaut alternations. Yet another effect of this drift-like tendency is the extension of the class of verbs with both a transitive and an intransitive-unaccusative version, but without a morphological distinction (“double-function” or labile verbs). This development is most pronounced in languages without the two overt expressions of this distinction (the anticausative middle and nan-verbs), such as English. In this paper, these three lines of development will be put into the context of other means of distinguishing transitives and intransitives, most importantly the so-called ja-causatives and “impersonal” constructions where the case of the object of the transitive verb is retained in the monovalent verb.
Abstract
The verbs of the fourth class of weak verbs in Gothic, the nan-class, have traditionally been labelled as inchoative, referring to the characteristic aspectual content of transition to a state. This semantically and formally defined class of verbs is rather well represented also in Old Nordic. In the West Germanic languages, on the other hand, these verbs are so poorly attested that it is doubtful that this class existed in Proto-Germanic in any more than an embryonic state. In more recent times, the valency-changing, essentially anticausative, property of these verbs has been stressed. The most basic explanation for the inchoative interpretation is then that change of state is such a wide-spread element of verbs in general. Extending insights by Hermodsson (1952), one may see the emergence of these verbs as one expression of a drift-like tendency in the history of the Germanic languages towards systematising the distinction between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs of the unaccusative (or anticausative) type. This may be seen as part of a typological transition from a verb system where aspect plays a fundamental role to one where valency is more highly valued. The emergence of the middle categories in Nordic and Old High German, constructed with the reflexive pronoun, may be seen as another effect of this tendency. The middle is overtly marked like the nan-verbs, but the form is more flexible than that of the former, which involved synchronically rather opaque ablaut alternations. Yet another effect of this drift-like tendency is the extension of the class of verbs with both a transitive and an intransitive-unaccusative version, but without a morphological distinction (“double-function” or labile verbs). This development is most pronounced in languages without the two overt expressions of this distinction (the anticausative middle and nan-verbs), such as English. In this paper, these three lines of development will be put into the context of other means of distinguishing transitives and intransitives, most importantly the so-called ja-causatives and “impersonal” constructions where the case of the object of the transitive verb is retained in the monovalent verb.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
- On tense and mood in conditional clauses from Early to Late Latin 13
- The fate of the subjunctive in late Middle Persian 57
- The negated imperative in Russian and other Slavic languages 79
- Grammaticalisation of verbs into temporal and modal markers in Australian languages 107
- Aspect and tense in counterfactual main clauses 133
- On non-canonical modal clause junction in Turkic 159
- Reference, aspectuality and modality in ante-preterit (pluperfect) in Romance languages 173
- Subjects and objects with Latin habere and some of its Romance descendants 211
- Diachrony and typology in the history of Cree (Algonquian, Algic) 223
- Typological change in Vedic 261
- On the evolution of verbal aspect in insular Celtic 299
- The anticausative and related categories in the Old Germanic languages 329
- Directionality, case and actionality in Hittite 383
- The case of unaccusatives in Classical Portuguese 411
- Some historical developments of the verb in Neo-Aramaic 425
- Contributors 435
- Index 437
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
- On tense and mood in conditional clauses from Early to Late Latin 13
- The fate of the subjunctive in late Middle Persian 57
- The negated imperative in Russian and other Slavic languages 79
- Grammaticalisation of verbs into temporal and modal markers in Australian languages 107
- Aspect and tense in counterfactual main clauses 133
- On non-canonical modal clause junction in Turkic 159
- Reference, aspectuality and modality in ante-preterit (pluperfect) in Romance languages 173
- Subjects and objects with Latin habere and some of its Romance descendants 211
- Diachrony and typology in the history of Cree (Algonquian, Algic) 223
- Typological change in Vedic 261
- On the evolution of verbal aspect in insular Celtic 299
- The anticausative and related categories in the Old Germanic languages 329
- Directionality, case and actionality in Hittite 383
- The case of unaccusatives in Classical Portuguese 411
- Some historical developments of the verb in Neo-Aramaic 425
- Contributors 435
- Index 437
