ing/Vnde-merger Iris Gemeinbck Outline forms: present participle, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ing/Vnde-merger

Iris Gemeinböck

Outline

forms: present participle, deverbal noun why is there a problem? distribution of endings for participle, noun an additional player: the infinitive gerund?

• utlook

Nonfinite forms in OE

infinitive writ -an past participle (ge-)writ -en present participle writ -ende, -inde, -and (de-)verbal noun writ -ing

The problem

present participle

inde (ing), and, ende

deverbal noun

(ung), ing

‘ing-forms’ (infinitive?)

Present participle forms

and(e) end(e) ind(e), ing(e)

Present participle distribution

M1 M2 M3 M34 M4 125 250 375 500

end(e) and(i,e) ind(e) ing(e), yng(e)

(De-)verbal nouns

M1 M2 M3 M34 M4 375 750 1125 1500

ing(e), yng(e) participle ing(e), yng(e), ung(e) nouns

Additional form: infinitive

• rigin: neuter noun, lost most inflection

OE: inflected for dative -enne (later -anne) southern, southwestern, south midlands ME

• enne
• ende, inde : to flende
• inge: to doiinge, to menyinge

until 14th century (Lass 1992: 145)

Confusion of ing-forms

infinitive: neuter noun? present participle: verbal adjective verbal noun: derived noun infinitive lost suffix (noun-like)

ing suffix

adjectives lexical nouns complement to auxiliaries (progressive) verbal nouns (gerunds)

• riginally

today

Why did ing spread?

and(e) end(e) ind(e), ing(e)

Gerund

taking a sabbatical

surprised us.

position of noun phrase: John’s anger surprised us. internal verb phrase structure: John takes a sabbatical.

John’s

Gerund in ME?

late development unambiguous gerundial constructions:

mainly in Reginald Pecock (philosophical texts translation from Latin more from 15th century onwards (Donner 1986)

• ther linguistis: gerund did exist (Tajima 1996, Bauer

1993)

Gerunds?

“ bakbytyng_VAG me_PRO ,_, for_P +tat_C ich_PRO folwed_VBD godene” (cmearlps.m2, Earliest Prose Psalter) “+tat_C it_PRO may_MD lufe_VB hym_PRO verraly_ADV ,_, feland_VAG comforth_N and_CONJ delyte_N in_P hym_PRO ,_, owtkastyng_VAG worldes_N$ thoghtes_NS” (cmrollep.m24, Richard Rolle’s Epistles) “in_P wirkyng_VAG profitabel_ADJ thynges_NS” (cmrollep.m24, Richard Rolle’s Epistles)

My view

It’s a mess. some claims not substantiated separate forms from functions ‘constructions’, patterns

Outlook

find texts with different forms? qualitative analysis of ing-forms: function, gerundial? any other interesting research questions?

Bibliography

Bauer, Brigitte L.M. 1993. “The coalescence of the participle and the gerund/gerundive: an integrated change”. In Aertsen, Henk; Jeffers, Robert J. (ed). Historical linguistics 1989 : papers from the 9th international conference on historical linguistics, Rutgers University, 14-18 August 1989. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 59-71. Blake, Norman (ed). 1996. The Cambridge history of the English language: 1066-1476. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Donner, Morton. 1986. “The gerund in Middle English”. English studies: a journal of English language and literature 67(5), 394-400. Gelderen, Elly van. 2006. A history of the English language. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Grzega, Joachim. 1999. “A new view on why, how and how far ing prevailed over ind”. VIEWS: Vienna English Working Papers 8(1), 34-43. Irwin, Betty J. 1967. The development of the -ing ending of the verbal noun and the present participle from c. 700 to c. 1400. PhD thesis, The University of Wisconsin. Tajima, Matsuji. 1996. “The common/objective-case subject of the gerund in Middle English”. NOWELE 28-29, 569-577.