Lability in Old English Verbs: Chronological and Textual Distribution
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Luisa García García
und
Esaúl Ruiz Narbona
Abstract
Present-Day English has an unusually high number of labile verbs, such as melt or burn, both cross-linguistically and with respect to genetically related languages. Comparison among early Germanic languages has allowed researchers to detect an incipient favouring of labile coding already in Old English, where it is more frequent than in any other language of this group (Hermodsson 1952) and replaces causative coding in a considerable proportion of former causative verb pairs (van Gelderen 2011; García García 2020). This article attempts to map the chronological and textual distribution of labile verbs between the seventh and the eleventh centuries CE in order to explore how lability develops throughout the Old English period. Old English labile verbs coming from Germanic causative oppositions are the sample on which we base our study. The choice ensures that the verbs in question were originally not labile and underwent a process of labilization in (pre-)Old English. Some of the questions addressed in the study are: Can a tendency towards labilization in Old English be confirmed by internal evidence, as it arguably can by external comparison with other Germanic languages? Can an increase in lability be detected in English before French influence was effective? Does it show any restrictions by genre or individual text?
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© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Lability in Old English Verbs: Chronological and Textual Distribution
- Multilingualism and Language Contact in the Cely Letters
- The Old English Glosses in Cambridge, Trinity College, B.10.5 + London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius C.viii: A Reappraisal with Some New Glosses
- The Old English Life of Saint Mary of Egypt and London, British Library, Cotton Julius E.vii: A Textual Study
- The Text of the ABC of Aristotle in the ‘Winchester Anthology’
- Review
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- Peter Petré, Hubert Cuyckens and Frauke D’hoedt (eds.). 2018. Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 343. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins, viii + 258 pp., € 99.00/$ 149.00.
- Robert McColl Millar. 2020. A Sociolinguistic History of Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, xiii + 252 pp., 6 maps, £ 75.00.
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- Jordan Carson. 2020. American Exceptionalism as Religion: Postmodern Discontent. Literature, Religion, and Postsecular Studies. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, xii + 220 pp., $ 89.95.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Lability in Old English Verbs: Chronological and Textual Distribution
- Multilingualism and Language Contact in the Cely Letters
- The Old English Glosses in Cambridge, Trinity College, B.10.5 + London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius C.viii: A Reappraisal with Some New Glosses
- The Old English Life of Saint Mary of Egypt and London, British Library, Cotton Julius E.vii: A Textual Study
- The Text of the ABC of Aristotle in the ‘Winchester Anthology’
- Review
- Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, Emma Moore, Linda van Bergen and Willem B. Hollmann (eds.). 2019. Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax. Studies in English Language. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, xix + 403 pp., 38 figures, 45 tables, £ 95.00.
- Peter Petré, Hubert Cuyckens and Frauke D’hoedt (eds.). 2018. Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 343. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins, viii + 258 pp., € 99.00/$ 149.00.
- Robert McColl Millar. 2020. A Sociolinguistic History of Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, xiii + 252 pp., 6 maps, £ 75.00.
- Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson (eds.). 2020. Arthurian Literature XXXV. Cambridge: Brewer, x + 217 pp., 5 illustr., £ 60.00/$ 99.00
- David George with Thomas Clayton, Niels Herold, Megan-Marie Johnson and Ashley Spriggs (eds.). 2019. Coriolanus: A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. 2 vols. Morrisville, NC: Lulu Press, 654 pp. and 532 pp., $ 60.00 each.
- David Collings. 2019. Disastrous Subjectivities: Romanticism, Modernity, and the Real. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 248 pp., $ 82.00.
- Shonagh Hill. 2019. Women and Embodied Mythmaking in Irish Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, x + 257 pp., £ 75.00.
- William C. Boles (ed.). 2020. After In-Yer-Face Theatre: Remnants of a Theatrical Revolution. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, xvi + 251 pp., € 96.29.
- Jordan Carson. 2020. American Exceptionalism as Religion: Postmodern Discontent. Literature, Religion, and Postsecular Studies. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, xii + 220 pp., $ 89.95.
- Susheila Nasta and Mark U. Stein (eds.). 2020. The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xxiv + 732 pp., £ 99.99.
- David Kerler and Timo Müller (eds.). 2019. Poem Unlimited: New Perspectives on Poetry and Genre. Anglia Book Series 63. Berlin: De Gruyter, vi + 282 pp., € 99.95.
- Ingo Berensmeyer, Gert Buelens and Marysa Demoor (eds.). 2019. The Cambridge Handbook of Literary Authorship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xii + 491 pp., 5 figures, £ 115.00.
