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West Midland and Southwestern adjectival systems in early Middle English: a reanalysis.

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ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to present the process of functional reanalysis that took place in the adjectival systems of West Midland and Southwestern dialects. The process is manifested in the interplay between case and gender marking, which is regarded as an intermediate stage in the process of adjectival disintegration in Early Middle English. It is demonstrated that the formerly gender specific inflectional endings were reanalyzed to serve new functions as case markers in the aforementioned dialectal areas. An investigation into the dialectal distribution of the process reveals that prior to the loss of case and gender marking in West Midland and Southwestern dialects gender specific endings were reinterpreted to serve case functions.

1. Aims of the study

The aim of this paper is to present the process of functional reanalysis that took place in the adjectival systems of West Midland and Southwestern dialects. This process is manifested in the interplay between case and gender marking, which will be regarded as an intermediate stage in the process of adjectival disintegration in Early Middle English. It will be demonstrated that the formerly gender specific inflectional endings were reanalyzed to serve new functions as case markers in the aforementioned dialectal areas. The stimulus for the present study stems from the oversimplified presentation of the adjectival disintegration process in previous literature. It is generally acknowledged that the relatively sophisticated inflectional system of Old English adjectives was drastically simplified in transition to the Middle English period. For instance, Welna (1996), among others, points to the fact that in Middle English "as a consequence of changes shared with nouns, first of all the reduction of unaccented syl lables and analogical leveling, the five-case system of adjectives became extensively simplified" (Welna 1996: 93). Another standard observation regarding the disintegration of the adjectival system is the retention of a few relic inflections in the dialects of the South and Midlands. For instance, Fisiak (1968 [1996]: 78) remarks that:

At the start of Middle English some traces of older adjectival inflection can be found in the Southern and Midland dialects, as {-ne} in ale-ne acc. 'each', {-re} in age-re gen.-dat. 'own', {-re} in al-re gen.pl. 'all', and {-en} for all cases and genders except the nominative singular, as in halech-en...