Cover not available
Part of
Corpus Interrogation and Grammatical Patterns
Edited by Kristin Davidse, Caroline Gentens, Lobke Ghesquière and Lieven Vandelanotte
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 63] 2014
► pp. 35–55

What happened to the English prefix, and could it stage a comeback?

| Saarland University, Germany
This paper revisits the historical shift in English verb-particle combinations from prefixed to prepositional and adverbial forms based on qualitative and quantitative examples from the Helsinki and Wycliffe corpora collected during a study on the history of verb-particle combinations (Diemer 2008). It is argued that the reasons for the disappearance of the English prefix are more complex than previously thought. The paper proposes a combination of competition-based and systemic reasons while allowing for additional influence by other developments, such as verb frequency and spelling habits. Excerpts from corpus-based studies (Diemer 2009, 2013) show that the development is not irreversible, since due to the influence of computer-mediated communication there may be a revival of prefix verbs modelled after Old English templates.
Published online: 14 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.63.06die
References (19)
References
Adams, V. 2001. Complex Words in English. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Brinton, L.J. 1988. The Development of English Aspectual Systems. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Brinton, L.J. & Traugott, E.C. 2005. Lexicalization and Language Change. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crystal, D. 2008. Txtng: the Gr8 Db8. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Curme, G.O. 1914. The development of verbal compounds in Germanic. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 39: 320–361.Google Scholar
de la Cruz, J.M.F. 1975. Old English pure prefixes: structure and function. Linguistics 145: 47–81.Google Scholar
Diemer, S. 1998. John Wycliffe und seine Rolle bei der Entwicklung der englischen Schriftsprache [Sprachwelten 21]. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
. 2008. Die Entwicklung des englischen Verbverbandes – eine korpusbasierte Untersuchung. Professorial qualification thesis, Technical University Berlin.Google Scholar
. 2009. It’s all a bit upmessing. Non-standard verb-particle combinations in blogs. Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics 3: 35–56.Google Scholar
. 2013. The return of the prefix? New verb-particle combinations in blogs. In Corpus Perspectives on Patterns of Lexis [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 57], H. Hasselgård, J. Ebeling & S. Oksefjell Ebeling (eds), Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hiltunen, R. 1983. The Decline of the Prefixes and the Beginnings of the English Phrasal Verb: The Evidence from some Old and Early Middle English Texts [Annales Universitatis Turkuensis 160]. Turku: Turun Yliopisto.Google Scholar
Kennedy, A.G. 1920. The Modern English Verb-Adverb Combination [Stanford University Publications in Language and Literature 1]. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Kiffer, T.E. 1965. A Diachronic and Synchronic Analysis and Description of English Phrasal verbs. Phd dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Kurylowicz, J. 1964. The Inflectional Categories of Indo-European. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Leinen, R. 1891. Über Wesen und Entstehung der trennbaren Zusammensetzung des deutschen Zeitwortes: Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Gotischen und Althochdeutschen. PhD dissertation, University of Strassburg.Google Scholar
Los, B., Blom, C., Booij, G., Elenbaas, M. & van Kemenade, A. 2012. Morphosyntactic Change. A Comparative Study of Particles and Prefixes. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marchand, H. 1969. The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation. München: Beck.Google Scholar
Mitchell, B. 1978. Prepositions, adverbs, prepositional adverbs, postpositions, separable prefixes, or inseparable prefixes, in Old English? Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 79: 340–357.Google Scholar
Plag, I. 2003. Word Formation in English. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar