Cover not available
Article In:
NOWELE
Vol. 77:2 (2024) ► pp.110–144

Old and Middle English adverbs of degree in their wider West Germanic context

ORCID logo | University of Groningen
Research on adverbs of degree in Old and Middle English has been largely self-contained and has paid little attention to developments that were happening in the neighbouring West Germanic languages. While research on these other languages is less extensive, “Middle” Germanic has been identified as a period of convergence for the usage of adverbs of degree (Visser 2023). The present study analyses the usage patterns of seven adverbs in both Old and Middle English using data from different corpora: swīðe/swīthe, ful, miċle/muchel, sāre/sǭre, ġearwe/yāre, fela/fę̄le, and hearde/harde. It is found that their development differs strikingly from their Continental West Germanic counterparts, and they appear to preserve more primary usage patterns.
Keywords: Intensifier, degree modification, English linguistics, Germanic linguistics, corpus linguistics, historical linguistics, comparative linguistics, historical syntax, historical semantics, debonding
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Adverbs of degree
    • 2.2English adverbs in their West Germanic context
    • 2.3Degree prefixes
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Materials
    • 3.2Method
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1 Swīðe/swīthe
    • 4.2 Ful
    • 4.3 Miċle/muchel
    • 4.4 Sāre/sǭre
    • 4.5 Ġearwe/yāre, fela/fę̄le, and hearde/harde
  • 5.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (74)
References
d’Ardenne, S. R. T. O. 1936. An edition of Þe Liflade ant te Passiun of Seinte Iuliene. Liège: Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosphie et Lettres de l’Université de Liége Fasc. LXIV1.Google Scholar
Bacovcin, H. A. 2017. lemmatised-parsed-corpora-historical-english. [URL]. (14 February, 2021.)
Bolinger, D. 1972. Degree words. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bosworth, J., T. Northcote Toller, S. Crist, & O. Tichy. 2014. An Anglo-Saxon dictionary online. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University. [URL]. (25 January, 2024.)
Braune, W. 2018. Althochdeutsche Grammatik I, 16th edn. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Breban, T. & K. Davidse. 2016. The history of very: The directionality of functional shift and (inter)subjectification. English Language and Linguistics 20(2). 221–249. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Calle-Martín, J. 2014. On the history of the intensifier wonder in English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 34(3). 399–419. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Campbell, A. 1991. Old English grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, C. 1970. The Peterborough Chronicle: 1070–1154, 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Claudi, U. 2006. Intensifiers of adjectives in German. Language Typology and Universals 59(4). 350–369. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dobson, E. J. 1976. The origins of the Ancrene Wisse. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Donhauser, K., J. Gippert, & R. Lühr. 2018. Deutsch Diachron Digital — Referenzkorpus Altdeutsch (version 1.1). [URL]. (25 January, 2024.)
Faulkner, A. 2019. Seeking within the self in The Metres of Boethius . Anglo-Saxon England 481. 43–62. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fettig, A. 1934. Die Gradadverbien im Mittelenglischen. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Google Scholar
Freeman, A. 2018. Patterns of retention of the instrumental case in Old English. NOWELE 71(1). 35–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fritz, G. 2006. Historische Semantik, 2nd edn. Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fulk, R. D. 1992. A history of Old English meter. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
2009. Anglian dialect features in Old English anonymous homiletic literature: A survey, with preliminary findings. In S. M. Fitzmaurice & D. Minkova (eds.), Studies in the history of the English language IV: empirical and analytical advances in the study of English language change, 81–100. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
2018. A comparative grammar of the Early Germanic languages. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fulk, R. D., R. E. Bjork, & J. D. Niles. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, 4th edn. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Geeraerts, D. & C. Gevaert. 2008. Hearts and (angry) minds in Old English. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, N. Yu, & S. Niemeier (eds.), Culture, body, and language: Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages, 319–347. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gneuss, H. 1972. The origin of Standard Old English and Æthelwold’s school at Winchester. Anglo-Saxon England 11. 63–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
González-Díaz, V. 2008. English adjective comparison: A historical perspective. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gretsch, M. 2001. Winchester vocabulary and Standard Old English: The vernacular in late Anglo-Saxon England. Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 831. 41–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006. A key to Ælfric’s Standard Old English. Leeds Studies in English 371. 161–177.Google Scholar
Healey, A. diPaolo, J. P. Wilkin, & X. Xiang. 2009. Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus. [URL]. (25 September, 2023.)
Hicks, F. C. 1902. Strengthening modifiers of adjectives and adverbs in Middle High German. The Journal of Germanic Philology 4(3). 267–347.Google Scholar
Hoeksema, J. 2002. Rapid change among expletive polarity items. In L. J. Brinton (ed.), Historical linguistics 1999: Selected papers from the 14th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Vancouver, 9–13 August 1999, 175–186. Amsterdam: Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ingersoll, S. M. 1978. Intensive and restrictive modification in Old English. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Google Scholar
Johnson, B. E. 2009. Using the Levenshtein algorithm for automatic lemmatization in Old English. Athens, GA: University of Georgia MA thesis.
Kennedy, C. & L. McNally. 2005. Scale structure, degree modification, and the semantics of gradable predicates. Language 81(2). 345–381. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klein, H. 1998. Adverbs of degree in Dutch and related languages. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kroch, A., A. Taylor, & B. Santorini. 2016. The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English (release 4). 2nd edn. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Laing, M. 2013. A linguistic atlas of early Middle English 1150 to 1325 (version 3.2). [URL]. (25 January, 2024.)
Lehmann, W. P. 1973. The alliteration of Old Saxon poetry. In J. Eichhoff & I. Rauch (eds.), Der Heliand, 144–176. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgeseltschaft.Google Scholar
Lenker, U. 2008. Booster prefixes in Old English: An alternative view of the roots of ME forsooth . English Language and Linguistics 12(2). 245–265. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Löbner, S. 1990. Wahr neben Falsch: Duale Operatoren als die Quantoren natürlicher Sprache. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Méndez-Naya, B. 2003. On intensifiers and grammaticalisation: The case of swīþe . English Studies 84(4). 372–391. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008. The which is most and right harde to answere: Intensifying right and most in earlier English. In R. Dury, M. Gotti, & M. Dossena (eds.), English Historical Linguistics 2006: Selected papers from the fourteenth International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL14), Bergamo, 21–25 August 2006, vol. II: Lexical and semantic change, 31–51. Amsterdam: Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017. Co-occurrence and iteration of intensifiers in Early English. English Text Construction 10(2). 249–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019. The intensifier system of the Ormulum and the interplay of microlevel and macro-level contexts in linguistic change. In K. Bech & R. Möhlig-Falke (eds.), Grammar — discourse — context: Grammar and usage in language variation and change, 93–124. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2021. Synthetic intensification devices in Old English. Journal of English Linguistics 49(2). 208–227. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Middle English Dictionary (MED). 2001. H. Kurath, S. M. Kuhn, & R. E. Lewis (eds.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. [URL]. (25 January, 2024.)
Miller, D. G. 2012. External influences on English: From its beginnings to the Renaissance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, B. 1985. Old English syntax, vol. 2: Subordination, independent elements, and element order. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mossé, Fernand. 1952. A handbook of Middle English, trans. by James A. Walker. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mustanoja, T. F. 2016 [1960]. A Middle English syntax: Parts of speech. Amsterdam: Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norde, M. 2009. Degrammaticalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parkes, M. B. 1983. On the presumed date and possible origin of the manuscript of the ‘Ormulum’. In E. G. Stanley & D. Gray (eds.), Five hundred years of words and sound: A festschrift for Eric Dobson, 115–127. Cambridge: Brewer.Google Scholar
Paul, H. 2007. Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, 25th edn. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Peltola, N. 1971. Observations on intensification in Old English poetry. Neuphilologsiche Mitteilungen 72(4). 649–690.Google Scholar
Peters, H. 1993. Die englischen Gradadverbien der Kategorie booster. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Peters, R. 2000. Soziokulturelle Voraussetzungen und Sprachraum des Mittelniederdeutschen. In W. Besch, A. Betten, O. Reichmann, & S. Sonderegger (eds.), Sprachgeschichte: Ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und ihrer Erforschung, 1409–1422. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Pintzuk, S., & L. Plug. 2001. The York-Helsinki parsed corpus of Old English poetry. York: University of York. [URL]. (10 February, 2021.)
R Core Team. 2023. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R foundation for statistical computing (version 4.3.2). [URL]. (October 31, 2023.)
Randall, B. 2009. CorpusSearch 2: A tool for linguistics research. [URL]. (10 February, 2021.)
Rauer, C. 2003. The sources of the Old English Martyrology . Anglo-Saxon England 321. 89–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013. The Old English martyrology: Edition, translation and commentary. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sisam, K. 1962. Studies in the history of Old English literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stockwell, R. P. 1961. The Middle English “long close” and “long open” mid vowels. Texas Studies in Literature and Language 2(4). 529–538.Google Scholar
Stoffel, C. 1901. Intensives and down-toners: A study in English adverbs. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Stratton, J. M. 2020a. A diachronic analysis of the adjective intensifier well from Early Modern English to Present Day English. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 65(2). 216–245. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020b. Adjective intensifiers in German. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 32(2). 183–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020c. Corpora and diachronic analysis of English. In E. Friginal & J. A. Hardy (eds.), The Routledge handbook of corpus approaches to discourse analysis, 202–218. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2022. Old English intensifiers: The beginnings of the English intensifier system. Journal of Historical Linguistics 12(1). 31–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Suzuki, S. 2004. The metre of Old Saxon poetry: The remaking of alliterative tradition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, A., A. Warner, S. Pintzuk, & F. Beths. 2003. The York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose. York: University of York. [URL]. (10 February, 2021.)
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1929. Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad. Essays and Studies by members of the English Association 141. 104–126.Google Scholar
Truswell, R., R. Alcorn, J. Donaldson, & J. Wallenberg. 2019. A parsed linguistic atlas of Early Middle English. In R. Alcorn, J. Kopaczyk, B. Los, & B. Molineaux (eds.), Historical dialectology in the digital age, 17–38. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Visser, L. 2023. Old Saxon and Middle Low German adverbs of degree: A case of diachronic discontinuity?. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 35(3). 266–306. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2024. The position of the Old Frisian system of adverbs of degree within early West Germanic. Taal en Tongval 76(1). 102–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Visser, L., & J. Hoeksema. 2022. Adverbs of degree in Early Middle Dutch: Documentation and development. Nederlandse Taalkunde 271. 198–228. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zimmermann, R. 2021. Parsed corpus of Middle English poetry (May 2021 version). [URL]. (6 September, 2021.)