Some peculiar forms of Old English verbs
Loading...
Date
2016
Authors
Advisor
Editor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Adam Mickiewicz University
Title alternative
Abstract
In late Old English it became common to find strange verb forms of which had less frequently
appeared in earlier texts. It is clear that Old English paradigms started to modify their shapes,
though their structure had never been completely established in the first place due to limited data.
This article discusses some examples of Old English verbs which show a morphological merger
in addition to phonetic, syntactic, or semantic resemblance, e.g., between wendan and gewendan,
þyncan and þencan, læran and leornian, (ge)witan and (ge)wītan, blissian and bletsian, and
biddan, (be)beodan, and forbeodan, so as to show the natural selection of Old English verbs in the
process of lexical conflict.
Description
Sponsor
Keywords
Old English, Middle English, verbs, morphology, synonyms
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 51.2(2016), pp. 31-43