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Historical Linguistics 2015: Selected papers from the 22nd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Naples, 27-31 July 2015
Edited by Michela Cennamo and Claudia Fabrizio
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 348] 2019
► pp. 217–242

Chapter 11
The Old English verbal prefixes for- and ge-

Their effects on the transitivity of morphological causative pairs

This article investigates the transitivising effects of the verbal prefixes for- and ge- on a group of derived causative verbs and their corresponding bases (myltan ‘to melt’ (tr.) and meltan ‘to melt’ (intr.)) in Old English, showing a labile valency. It is argued that clauses containing verbs with these prefixes show a higher morphosyntactic transitivity than their unprefixed counterparts, reflecting the telicity of the predicate and/or the affectedness of the object. I show that the two prefixes differ in their effects on transitivity: while for- verbs correlate with telicity and high degree of affectedness of O, ge- verbs are closer to unprefixed verbs as far as their transitivity status is concerned.
Keywords: morphological causative, transitivity, verbal prefixes, valency, labile, Old English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Valency
    • 2.2Causatives as a valency-changing operation
    • 2.3Historical overview of Old English morphological causatives
    • 2.4Cardinal transitivity
    • 2.5Lexicalization
    • 2.6Old English prefixes
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Results of the analysis
    • 4.1 For-verbs
      • 4.1.1 Byrnan-bǣrnan and meltan-myltan
      • 4.1.2 Būgan-bīgan and hweorfan-hwyrfan
    • 4.2 Ge-
      • 4.2.1Atelicity
      • 4.2.2Adverbial evidence
      • 4.2.3 Ge-/Ø
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Abbreviations
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 10 September 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.348.11nar
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Klein, Thomas
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