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Developments in English Historical Morpho-Syntax
Edited by Claudia Claridge and Birte Bös
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 346] 2019
► pp. 77–110

Leveraging grammaticalization

The origins of Old Frisian and Old English

For a long time, the striking similarities between OFris (Old Frisian) and Old English (OE) were attributed to an exclusive shared ancestor (Anglo-Frisian), but in the late 20th century that view was ousted in favor of a dialect continuum model. Recent developments in genetics, textual analysis, and archaeology, however, suggest that the earlier model is more accurate. This paper explores a series of diagnostics to distinguish between shared grammaticalizations caused by linguistic relatedness and those caused by geographical proximity. Those diagnostics are then applied to two developments exclusive to OFris and OE: the grammaticalization of aga(n) ‘have’ into auxiliary ‘have to’, and the development of a verb complement based on the OE/OFris present participle. In both cases, the diagnostics indicate that the changes occurred due to a shared ancestor, supporting the Anglo-Frisian hypothesis.

Keywords: Anglo-Frisian hypothesis, inheritance, contact, drift, grammaticalization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Grammaticalization as a diagnostic tool
    • 2.1Comparing Old Frisian and Old English
    • 2.2Mechanisms of language change in contact and inheritance scenarios
    • 2.3Additional complications for related languages
    • 2.4Demystifying drift
    • 2.5Grammaticalization as a diagnostic tool
  • 3.Test case 1: aga(n)
    • 3.1 The grammaticalization of OE agan
    • 3.2Semantic layering: Intermediate stages and a semantic GSG
    • 3.3Another marker of intermediate stages: to
    • 3.4Infinitive inflections in aga’s complement
  • 4.Test case 2: The participle-based complement
    • 4.1The participle-as-verb-complement: A potential GSG
    • 4.2Erosion in Old Frisian infinitive and participle endings
    • 4.3The distribution of Old Frisian infinitives
      • 4.3.1Verbs of motion and rest
      • 4.3.2Accusativus cum Infinitivo (AcI) verbs: Perception and true causatives
      • 4.3.3 Ditransitive object control: biada ‘order’.
      • 4.3.4A control group for modals: skela ‘shall’
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 May 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.346.05col
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