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Article published In:
Historical Germanic morphosyntax
Edited by Stephen Laker and John Ole Askedal
[NOWELE 74:2] 2021
► pp. 172–198

Verb-final conjunct clauses in Old English prose

The role of Latin in translated texts

ORCID logo | University of Lodz

The aim of this study is to analyse intertextual differences in the use of V-final order in Old English conjunct clauses and to determine to what extent the source of these differences may be Latin influence. The analysis reveals that the frequency of V-final order in OE conjuncts is rather limited in most texts, and Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica surfaces as the text in which the frequency of V-final conjunct clauses is exceptionally high. The study shows that the regular use of V-final order in Bede may be interpreted as a translation effect, with Latin inflating the frequency of the pattern in conjunct clauses, which means that the frequency of V-final conjunct clauses in early OE translations may not reflect native tendencies.

Article outline
  • 1.Conjunct clauses and the verb-final order
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Intertextual differences
  • 4.Bede and translation effects
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 18 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/nowele.00056.cic
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Cited by (1)

Cited by 1 other publications

CICHOSZ, ANNA
2023. The syntactic status of V-final conjunct clauses in Old English: the role of priming. English Language and Linguistics ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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