Edited by Richard Dury, Maurizio Gotti and Marina Dossena
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 296] 2008
► pp. 159–184
Based on an analysis of the Innsbruck Prose Corpus, this paper gives evidence of the West Germanic heritage in Middle English fixed expressions. The samples include the non-French and non-modern use of prepositions and of the zeroarticle in prepositional phrases with adjectives (with loud word), moreover some seemingly German but in fact West Germanic idioms in Middle English, twin formulas with and marked by concatenating formal features, such as rhyme, alliteration and repetition, and the special syntagms Adj + N, N + N and a few comparisons with as. A final chapter deals with complex predicates headed byto do, to get, to work and to make. To make + N, as the youngest of the patterns investigated, shows that predicates with the same head may have different ages:to make haste is a relative oldtimer, to make war is an evergreen, and to make love a fairly recent coining.