Causative and adhortative expressions in Medieval English

KAITA, Kousuke

海田, 皓介

[ABSTRACT]In Modern English (MnE, dating 1500 onwards), causative and adhortative expressions are represented by LET and MAKE: (1) He let her go (meaning ‘he permitted her to go’); (2) He made her go (‘he forced her to go’); and (3) Let’s go. In the history of English language, there are several other lexemes used for these notions. For causative expressions, Old English (OE, dating 700-1100) attested HATAN ‘to command’ and DO besides LET, while MAKE came into use since the Middle English (ME) period (1100- 1500). Before the rise of LET (with US) for the adhortative usage in ME, OE had another auxiliary UTON (sometimes followed by WE) placed at the initial position of a declarative sentence. Prior research has focused on the use of these auxiliaries individually, and their systematic alternation is suitable for comprehensive discussion. This paper examines how causative and adhortative expressions were interrelated in OE and ME. Were there semantic differences among LET, HATAN, DO, and MAKE as in MnE examples (1) and (2)? Why was UTON (WE) replaced by LET (US) for the adhortative case as in (3)? This paper will provide the following insights. For causative auxiliaries, OE LET is chiefly used in the permissive sense while HATAN, DO, and MAKE convey an obligative sense. In the lexical alternation of the adhortative, UTON falls into disuse along with the decline of the word order, with its finite verb in the initial position, and LET in the imperative mood takes over the adhortative function.

https://opac.ll.chiba-u.jp/da/curator/107907/

https://opac.ll.chiba-u.jp/da/curator/107907/ceresIntlSympo-24-P769.pdf

Chiba University. Center for Environmental Remote Sensing

千葉大学環境リモートセンシング研究センター

Presentation

Proceedings of the CEReS international symposium = CEReS国際シンポジウム資料集

24

769

778

2016-11-21

eng

publisher

Proceedings of the symposium on environmental remote sensing