Changes in argument structureimpersonal constructions in Middle and Early Modern English, with special reference to verbs of Desire: a corpus-based study

  1. Castro Chao, Noelia
Dirixida por:
  1. Teresa Fanego Director
  2. Nuria Yáñez Bouza Co-director

Universidade de defensa: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Fecha de defensa: 12 de maio de 2020

Tribunal:
  1. David Denison Presidente/a
  2. Belén Méndez Naya Secretaria
  3. Paula Rodríguez Puente Vogal
Departamento:
  1. Departamento de Filoloxía Inglesa e Alemá

Tipo: Tese

Teseo: 627258 DIALNET lock_openMINERVA editor

Resumo

The class of verbs of Desire (Levin 1993) comprises verbs whose syntax and semantics have undergone important changes in the course of their histories. In earlier English, they could be used impersonally in constructions characterised by the lack of a subject marked for the nominative case (e.g. OE, hine langode ‘he longed’). This thesis explores the development of the verbs of Desire long (< OE langian), lust (< ME lusten) and thirst (< OE þyrstan), based on a comprehensive survey of the entries in the Oxford English Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary and on corpus data retrieved from EEBOCorp 1.0 (1470s–1690s). The results obtained reveal the loss of impersonal uses with these verbs and their gradual replacement by personal patterns, in particular a pattern where the verb governs a prepositional complement representing the Desired as a metaphorical Goal (e.g. 1517, ye longe for euerlastynge lyfe).