Book contents
- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax
- Studies in English Language
- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Analysing English Syntax Past and Present
- Part I Approaches to Grammatical Categories and Categorial Change
- Chapter 1 What Is Special about Pronouns?
- Chapter 2 What For?
- Chapter 3 Whatever Happened to Whatever?
- Chapter 4 Are Comparative Modals Converging or Diverging in English? Different Answers from the Perspectives of Grammaticalisation and Constructionalisation
- Chapter 5 The Definite Article in Old English: Evidence from Ælfric’s Grammar
- Part II Approaches to Constructions and Constructional Change
- Part III Comparative and Typological Approaches
- References
- Index
Chapter 5 - The Definite Article in Old English: Evidence from Ælfric’s Grammar
from Part I - Approaches to Grammatical Categories and Categorial Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2019
- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax
- Studies in English Language
- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Analysing English Syntax Past and Present
- Part I Approaches to Grammatical Categories and Categorial Change
- Chapter 1 What Is Special about Pronouns?
- Chapter 2 What For?
- Chapter 3 Whatever Happened to Whatever?
- Chapter 4 Are Comparative Modals Converging or Diverging in English? Different Answers from the Perspectives of Grammaticalisation and Constructionalisation
- Chapter 5 The Definite Article in Old English: Evidence from Ælfric’s Grammar
- Part II Approaches to Constructions and Constructional Change
- Part III Comparative and Typological Approaches
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter provides evidence bearing on the question of whether Old English (OE) had what can be called a ‘definite article’. The status of se, the cover term I use for the lexeme that includes se, seo, and þæt as well as the other forms in this paradigm, remains a matter of lively debate. Studies that take the point of view that OE had no definite article, or at least that definiteness marking was not obligatory, include Ackles (1997), Watanabe (2009), and Sommerer (2015), among others.
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- Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax , pp. 130 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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