The Development from Case-Forms to Prepositional Constructions in Old English Prose (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9783039117635)

The development from a synthetic to an analytic language is one of the most important topics in English historical syntax. This development is reflected in the gradual decrease of case-forms and the replacement of their functions with equivalent prepositional constructions. Focussing on the Old English period, when case-forms and prepositional constructions overlapped in various functions, this book aims to answer an unresolved question: was there a significant change in the use of case-forms and, alternatively, in the use of prepositions plus case-forms in contexts where both types were possible? The author makes a statistical comparison between prose texts written in the early Old English period and texts of the later Old English period; she also takes into account stylistic features of individual texts. Thus, this book addresses this Old English syntactic issue both from a historical and a stylistic perspective and shows the stages of development during the Old English period.

Author: Maurizio Gotti,Kiriko Sato
ISBN-10: 3039117637
ISBN-13: 9783039117635
Publisher: Peter Lang Group Ag, International Academic P
Language: English
Published: 02/10/2009
Pages: 231
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.51d