Cover not available

In:Corpus Interrogation and Grammatical Patterns
Edited by Kristin Davidse, Caroline Gentens, Lobke Ghesquière and Lieven Vandelanotte
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 63] 2014
► pp. 15–34

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Light verb constructions in the history 
of English

 | Université de Lausanne
Published online: 14 November 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.63.05ron
This study investigates light verb constructions in sample corpora from Old- Middle- and Early Modern English. The use of one coherent definition of light verb constructions throughout these periods allows direct comparison of the overall structures and of the light verbs used. The comparison shows that frequencies are highest in the Middle English texts and decrease in the Early Modern data. While the Old English counts are significantly lower than Middle English ones, their frequencies are far from negligible. It is argued that where previous assessments consider Old English light verb constructions to be rare or non-existent, this is partly due to having used the perspective of the most frequent Modern English light verbs rather than working from the perspective of which light verbs were frequent at the period in question.
References (31)
References
Akimoto, M. & Brinton, L. 1999. The origin of the composite predicate in Old English. In Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English, Brinton & Akimoto (eds), 21–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Algeo, J. 1995. Having a look at the expanded predicate. In The Verb in Contemporary English. Theory and Description, B. Aarts & C.F. Meyer (eds), 203–217. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allerton, D. 2002. Stretched Verb Constructions in English. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brinton, L. 1996. Attitudes to increasing segmentalization. Complex and phrasal verbs in English. Journal of English Linguistics 24: 186–205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brinton, L. & M. Akimoto. (eds). 1999. Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English. [Studies in Language Companion Series 47]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Claridge, C. 2000. Multi-word Verbs in Early Modern English. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Danchev, A. 1992. The evidence for analytic and synthetic developments in English. In History of Englishes: New Methods and Interpretations in Historical Linguistics, M. Rissanen, O. Ihalainen, T. Nevalainen & I. Taavitsainen (eds), 25–41. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Denison, D. 1981. Aspects of the History of English Group-Verbs: With particular Attention to the Syntax of the Ormulum. PhD dissertation, University of Oxford.
diPaulo Healy, A., D. Haines, J. Holland, D. McDougall, I. McDougall & X. Xiang (eds). 2004. The Dictionary of Old English Corpus in Electronic Form. TEI-P3 conformant and TEI-P4 conformant version. Toronto: DOE Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
eChaucer: NeCastro, G. 2007. eChaucer.[URL] (29 May 2012)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, A. & Jackendoff, R. 2004. The English resultative as a family of constructions. Language 80: 532–568. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hiltunen, R. 1983. The Decline of the Prefixes and the Beginnings of the English Phrasal Verb [Annales Universitatis Turkuensis Series B, Vol. 160]. Turku: University of Turku Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Verbal phrases in Early Modern English. In Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English, Brinton & Akimoto (eds), 133–166. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hock, H.H. & Joseph, B. 1996. Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship: An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoffmann, A. 1972. Die verbo-nominal Konstruktion – eine spezifische Form der nominalen Ausdrucksweise im modernen Englisch. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 20: 158–183.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kytö, M. (ed.) [1991]1996. Manual to the Diachronic Part of the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts. Coding Conventions and Lists of Source Texts, 3rd edn. Helsinki: Department of English, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Collocational and idiomatic aspects of verbs in Early Modern English. In Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English, Brinton & Akimoto (eds), 167–206. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matsumoto, M. 1999. Composite predicates in Middle English. In Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English, Brinton & Akimoto (eds), 59–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. From Simple Verbs to Periphrastic Expressions. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nickel, G. 1968. Complex verbal structures in English. IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 6: 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nurmi, A. 1999. A Social History of Periphrastic DO. Helsinki: Société Néophilologique.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orchard, A. 2003. A Critical Companion to Bēowulf. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poussa, P. 1990. A contact-universals origin for periphrastic do, with special consideration of OE-Celtic contact. In Papers from the 5th Internatioanl Conference on English Historical Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 65], S. Adamson, V.A. Law, N. Vincent & S. Wright (eds), 407–434. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rissanen, M. 1991. Spoken language and the history of do-periphrasis. In Historical English Syntax, D. Kastovsky (ed.), 321–342. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ronan, P. 2012a. Make peace and take victory. Support Verb Constructions in Old English in Comparison with Old Irish. NOWELE Supplement Series 24. Odense: University of Southern Denmark Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012b. Mobilizing linguistic concepts: support verb structures in Early English. In English on the move: Mobilities in literature and language [SPELL 27], D. Britain & A. Kern-Staehler (eds), 183–99. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tanabe,H. 1999. Composite predicates and phrasal verbs in the Paston Letters. In Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English, Brinton & Akimoto (eds), 97–132. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tieken Boon van Ostade, I. 1990. The origin and development of periphrastic auxiliary do: A case of destigmatisation. North-Western European Language Evolution (NOWELE): 16: 3–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, E.C. 1999. A historical overview of complex predicate types. In Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English, Brinton & Akimoto (eds), 239–260. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. 1982. Why can you have a drink when you can’t *have an eat? Language 58: 753–99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Ronan, Patricia
2019. Simple versus Light Verb Constructions in Late Modern Irish English Correspondence: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis. Studia Neophilologica 91:1 ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Sundquist, John D.
2018. A Diachronic Analysis of Light Verb Constructions in Old Swedish. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 30:3 ► pp. 260 ff. DOI logo
Sundquist, John D.
2020. Productivity, richness, and diversity of light verb constructions in the history of American English. Journal of Historical Linguistics 10:3 ► pp. 349 ff. DOI logo
Sundquist, John D.
2020. The rich get richer. In Historical Linguistics 2017 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 350], ► pp. 343 ff. DOI logo
Ronan, Patricia & Gerold Schneider
2015. Determining light verb constructions in contemporary British and Irish English. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 20:3 ► pp. 326 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue