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
Supervised by:
  1. Teresa Fanego Director
  2. Nuria Yáñez Bouza Co-director

Defence university: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Fecha de defensa: 12 May 2020

Committee:
  1. David Denison Chair
  2. Belén Méndez Naya Secretary
  3. Paula Rodríguez Puente Committee member
Department:
  1. Department of English and German Philology

Type: Thesis

Teseo: 627258 DIALNET lock_openMINERVA editor

Abstract

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).