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Analogy, reanalysis and exaptation in Early Middle English: the emergence of a new inflectional system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2019

RAFFAELA BAECHLER
RAFFAELA BAECHLER*
Affiliation:
Linguistics and English Language, University of Edinburgh, Dugald Stewart Building, 3 Charles Street, EdinburghEH8 9AD, UKraffaela.baechler@ed.ac.uk
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Abstract

From Old English to Middle English inflection is gradually lost. It is assumed that this is mainly due to phonological and syntactic changes. This article, however, argues that the loss of inflection is not a linear process but new systems can emerge, and that morphological changes play an important role. The nominal inflection of the Lambeth Homilies – an Early Middle English manuscript from the southwest Midlands and dated around 1200 – is investigated in detail. It will be shown that analogical changes within and across inflection classes do not simply lead towards a reduction of inflection. The increase in syncretism and decrease in allomorphy result in a new inflectional system. This new system distinguishes singular from plural, feminine from non-feminine (in the singular and plural), and possessive from non-possessive (in the singular and plural). Additionally, the original inflection classes related to different stems are almost lost, except the weak inflection classes. The inflection classes are instead related to gender; that is, gender is the information that best predicts how a noun is inflected.

Keywords

Early Middle Englishnominal inflectionlanguage changeanalogyreanalysis
Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 123 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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Footnotes

The findings of this article are part of the project ‘Exaptation in the nominal inflection of Early Middle English dialects’, funded by the DFG (Forschungsstipendium, BA 6096/1-1). I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments, as well as Nathan Tyson for proofreading the article.

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