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Part of
Keys to the History of English: Diachronic linguistic change, morpho-syntax and lexicography
Edited by Thijs Porck, Moragh S. Gordon and Luisella Caon
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 363] 2024
► pp. 191–211

Loss of wiþer-words in English

| University of Warsaw
| University of Warsaw

The element wiþer is documented in Old English as a separate lexeme and a prefix. Altogether, Bosworth-Toller’s An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary records 69 wiþer-lexemes, which implies that wiþer- was relatively productive and flexible. Generally, wiþer- was added to words with the sense of ‘against’; in rare cases, it denoted ‘in return or compensation’ and ‘in the opposite direction’ (OED). Curiously, the majority of wiþer-lexemes are not recorded in Middle English: merely 24 words occur in MED. The aim of this study is to account for the loss of wiþer-lexemes. Potential causes are linguistic, such as low frequency and the similarity of the prefix wiþer- to wiþ-, and extra-linguistic, including competition with foreign items and changes in pragmatic associations of the words.

Keywords: Old and Middle English lexis, wiþer, loss of words, corpus study, causes of demise
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Aims
  • 3.Data
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Old English lexemes
  • 6.Middle English
  • 7.Causes of the loss of wiþer-words
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 April 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.363.09syl
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