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Part of
The Perfect Volume: Papers on the perfect
Edited by Kristin Melum Eide and Marc Fryd
[Studies in Language Companion Series 217] 2021
► pp. 319–342

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

| Eötvös Loránd University
| Eötvös Loránd University

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.

Keywords: Middlle English, Old English, perfect, Old Norse, language contact
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
  • 3.Research design and data
  • 4.Results and discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Abbreviations
  • Acknowledgements
  • Primary sources
  • References
Published online: 9 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.217.13eit
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