The Middle English prepositional dative
Contact with French
The to-PP form of the dative alternation is
argued to have arisen from contact with French rather than being linked to
the loss of the Old English Dative case. It is shown to have been extended
in ME to the experiencer argument of psych verbs, and to the recipient
argument of some verbs of communication, but only to those whose French
counterparts took the à-dative, regardless of OE case
assignment. Where French equivalents of verbs in these classes did not take
an indirect object, the Middle English verb took only a nominal object.
Selectivity in to-PP use in ME, going beyond verbs of
possession transfer yet showing a verb-specific restriction to source item
argument realisation patterns, indicates that French provided a replication
source for the to-PP form of the dative alternation.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The spread of the to-PP to dative contexts
- 3.Explaining the change
- 4.Contact with (Anglo-)French in later medieval England
- 5.Design of the study
- 6.Verb profiles
- 6.1Psych verbs
- 6.2Verbs of communication
- 7.Implications
- 8.Conclusion
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Notes
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Data sources
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References