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Chapter 13. Language contact and competition in the periphrastic perfect in Early English

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Abstract

Based on data drawn from the computerised Helsinki Corpus, the paper investigates the extent to which the use of competing English perfective auxiliaries was influenced by language contact with Old Norse in the Late Old English period. It is shown that as in the Danelaw areas the have-perfect with mutative intransitive verbs was used to a statistically significantly higher extent, Scandinavian influence is probable. We argue that this influence is likely to have been of inductive nature. In addition, it is revealed that the Scandinavian trigger must have been working gradually, as predicted by the S-curve model for linguistic change. The dispersion of the have-perfect presented with exponential increases, decreases and minor drops, suggesting no apparent catastrophic reorganisation. A near-deterministic association between the number of Scandinavian features within the Norsification Package and the use of the have-perfect with mutative intransitives also points to the important role of Scandinavian interference.

Abstract

Based on data drawn from the computerised Helsinki Corpus, the paper investigates the extent to which the use of competing English perfective auxiliaries was influenced by language contact with Old Norse in the Late Old English period. It is shown that as in the Danelaw areas the have-perfect with mutative intransitive verbs was used to a statistically significantly higher extent, Scandinavian influence is probable. We argue that this influence is likely to have been of inductive nature. In addition, it is revealed that the Scandinavian trigger must have been working gradually, as predicted by the S-curve model for linguistic change. The dispersion of the have-perfect presented with exponential increases, decreases and minor drops, suggesting no apparent catastrophic reorganisation. A near-deterministic association between the number of Scandinavian features within the Norsification Package and the use of the have-perfect with mutative intransitives also points to the important role of Scandinavian interference.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. The perfect volume 1
  4. Part I. Perfects and their relatives
  5. Chapter 2. “Universal” readings of perfects and iamitives in typological perspective 43
  6. Chapter 3. Perfect and its relatives in Atayal 65
  7. Chapter 4. Structural and functional variations of the perfect in the Lezgic languages 87
  8. Chapter 5. Cross-linguistic parallels and contrasts in a contact language perfect construction 117
  9. Chapter 6. Perfect and negation 137
  10. Chapter 7. The diachrony of the perfect in Zapotec 163
  11. Part II. Perfect extensions, hodiernality and aoristic drift
  12. Chapter 8. More on hodiernality 181
  13. Chapter 9. The impact of the simultaneity vector on the temporal-aspectual development of the perfect tense in Romance languages 213
  14. Chapter 10. Gauging expansion in synchrony 241
  15. Part III. Morphology of perfects
  16. Chapter 11. The rise of the periphrastic perfect tense in the continental West Germanic languages 261
  17. Chapter 12. On the emergence of auxiliary selection in Germanic 291
  18. Chapter 13. Language contact and competition in the periphrastic perfect in Early English 319
  19. Chapter 14. The Swedish perfect and periphrasis 343
  20. Chapter 15. “ Have -less perfects” in Norwegian 365
  21. Chapter 16. From have -omission to supercompounds 397
  22. Chapter 17. Auxiliary reduction in secondary grammaticalization 439
  23. Chapter 18. The functions of the auxiliary ‘have’ in Australian English vivid narratives 461
  24. Index 479
The Perfect Volume
This chapter is in the book The Perfect Volume
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.217.13eit

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. The perfect volume 1
  4. Part I. Perfects and their relatives
  5. Chapter 2. “Universal” readings of perfects and iamitives in typological perspective 43
  6. Chapter 3. Perfect and its relatives in Atayal 65
  7. Chapter 4. Structural and functional variations of the perfect in the Lezgic languages 87
  8. Chapter 5. Cross-linguistic parallels and contrasts in a contact language perfect construction 117
  9. Chapter 6. Perfect and negation 137
  10. Chapter 7. The diachrony of the perfect in Zapotec 163
  11. Part II. Perfect extensions, hodiernality and aoristic drift
  12. Chapter 8. More on hodiernality 181
  13. Chapter 9. The impact of the simultaneity vector on the temporal-aspectual development of the perfect tense in Romance languages 213
  14. Chapter 10. Gauging expansion in synchrony 241
  15. Part III. Morphology of perfects
  16. Chapter 11. The rise of the periphrastic perfect tense in the continental West Germanic languages 261
  17. Chapter 12. On the emergence of auxiliary selection in Germanic 291
  18. Chapter 13. Language contact and competition in the periphrastic perfect in Early English 319
  19. Chapter 14. The Swedish perfect and periphrasis 343
  20. Chapter 15. “ Have -less perfects” in Norwegian 365
  21. Chapter 16. From have -omission to supercompounds 397
  22. Chapter 17. Auxiliary reduction in secondary grammaticalization 439
  23. Chapter 18. The functions of the auxiliary ‘have’ in Australian English vivid narratives 461
  24. Index 479
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