Chapter 11
The Old English verbal prefixes for- and ge-
Their effects on the transitivity of morphological causative pairs
This article investigates the transitivising effects of the verbal prefixes for- and ge- on a group of derived causative verbs and their corresponding bases (myltan ‘to melt’ (tr.) and meltan ‘to melt’ (intr.)) in Old English, showing a labile valency. It is argued that clauses containing verbs with these prefixes show a higher morphosyntactic transitivity than their unprefixed counterparts, reflecting the telicity of the predicate and/or the affectedness of the object. I show that the two prefixes differ in their effects on transitivity: while for- verbs correlate with telicity and high degree of affectedness of O, ge- verbs are closer to unprefixed verbs as far as their transitivity status is concerned.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Theoretical background
- 2.1Valency
- 2.2Causatives as a valency-changing operation
- 2.3Historical overview of Old English morphological causatives
- 2.4Cardinal transitivity
- 2.5Lexicalization
- 2.6Old English prefixes
- 3.Methodology
- 4.Results of the analysis
- 4.1
For-verbs
- 4.1.1
Byrnan-bǣrnan and meltan-myltan
- 4.1.2
Būgan-bīgan and hweorfan-hwyrfan
- 4.2
Ge-
- 4.2.1Atelicity
- 4.2.2Adverbial evidence
- 4.2.3
Ge-/Ø
- 5.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgments
-
Abbreviations
-
References
-
Appendix
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Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Klein, Thomas
2022.
Does preverbal Old English ge- have semantic or aspectual force?: evidence from the Dictionary of Old English.
Studia Neophilologica 94:1
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