Del i serien Oxford Studies in the History of English

Middle English Verbs of Emotion and Impersonal Constructions

Verb Meaning and Syntax in Diachrony

Inbunden, Engelska, 2015

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Impersonal constructions in the history of English form a puzzling category, in that there has been uncertainty as to why some verbs are attested in such constructions while others are not, even though they look almost synonymous. In this book, Ayumi Miura tackles this under-discussed question with special reference to verbs of emotion in Middle English. Through a careful study of the behaviour of impersonal and near-synonymous non-impersonal verbs, she identifies the factors that determined the presence, absence, and spread of impersonal usage with the verbs concerned. Miura utilizes modern linguistic approaches, including theories and methodologies adopted in the study of psych-verbs in modern languages, which bear close relevance to impersonal verbs of emotion but have traditionally been researched separately. She also draws on categorizations in the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary and harnesses the online Middle English Dictionary in a novel way, demonstrating that dictionary materials are in fact a valuable tool in the study of early English syntax and semantics. Miura concludes that a range of factors - such as causation, transitivity, animacy of the target of emotion, and duration of the emotion - influenced the choice of impersonal constructions with Middle English verbs of emotion. We can therefore make reasonable generalizations about when impersonal usage was licensed in these verbs. This careful analysis of the correlation between Middle English verbs of emotion and use or non-use in impersonal constructions represents a new empirical and theoretical contribution to the busy research area of impersonal constructions in the history of English.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2015-01-15
Mått157 x 236 x 27 mm
Vikt544 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieOxford Studies in the History of English
Antal sidor312
FörlagOUP USA
ISBN9780199947157

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Acknowledgements ; Abbreviations ; List of tables ; 1 Introduction ; 1.1 Aims of the book ; 1.2 Definitions of 'impersonals' in previous studies ; 1.3 Issues to be addressed ; 1.4 Outline of the book ; 2 Theoretical and methodological considerations ; 2.1 Positive and negative evidence for studying the syntax of a historical language ; 2.2 Case studies of near-synonymous verbs in early English ; 2.3 Semantic roles: Descriptive adequacy ; 2.4 Event structure of psych-verbs in modern languages ; 2.5 Summary: Organisational framework of the main data analysis ; 3 Verbs of emotion and the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary ; 3.1 Limiting the field of investigation ; 3.2 The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (HTOED) ; 3.3 Problems with using the HTOED ; 4 Old and Middle English impersonal verbs of emotion: Analysis from dictionary meanings ; 4.1 Initial processes of list-compiling ; 4.2 Pleasure/enjoyment ; 4.3 Mental pain/suffering ; 4.4 Anger ; 4.5 Hatred/enmity ; 4.6 Pity/compassion ; 4.7 Humility ; 4.8 Fear ; 4.9 Summary: Regularities across semantic categories? ; 5 Semantic distinctions between impersonal and non-impersonal verbs of emotion: Evidence from entries in the Middle English Dictionary ; 5.1 Choice of corpora: Using the MED entries as a database ; 5.2 Factors to examine revisited ; 5.3 Verbs of Fear ; 5.4 Verbs of Anger ; 5.5 Verbs of Pity/compassion ; 5.6 Verbs of Humility ; 5.7 Verbs of Hatred/enmity ; 5.8 Verbs of Pleasure/enjoyment ; 5.9 Verbs of Mental pain/suffering ; 5.10 Other verbs of emotion ; 5.11 Summing up ; 6 Concluding remarks ; 6.1 Transitivity of impersonal verbs of emotion revisited ; 6.2 Constellations of properties in diachrony ; 6.3 Correlation with psychological definitions and classifications of 'emotion' ; 6.4 Topics for further research ; References