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COPYRIGHT 2002 Adam Mickiewicz University Press
ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to look at the development of the ME -lich(e) > -ly. Although the /t[integral]/-deletion in this adjectival/adverbial suffix has been noted by scholars for a long time, as it was functioning for several centuries, its geographical and chronological spread have not been given proper attention. Only a few attempts have been made to account for the evolution of the suffix. The mechanism that prompted /t[integral]/-deletion was according to most scholars (Jespersen 1954: 406; Marchand 1962: 329; Onions 1976: 542 and QED Online; see also below) due to the Scandinavian influence (OSc -lig- > ME -ly).
We hope that we have demonstrated that the above sources seem not to be right. Quite contrary to their claims the evidence shows that the aforementioned change must have originated in the West Midlands. Moreover, it is argued that the factors prompting the <ch> deletion in -lich(e) are both the simplification taking place in allegro speech and the phonotactic constraints.
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The ME -lich was an adjectival suffix going back to the OE -lic, which was used to form adjectives from nouns or other adjectives, e.g., cynelic 'royal', deofollic 'diabolic', etc. (Quirk and Wrenn 1956: 111). The ME period witnessed further expansion of -lic. The phonological aspect of the affricate deletion in the ME suffix -lich(e) has not been widely discussed. Only some authors in their Middle English grammars mention the phenomenon. Fisiak (1965) and Marchand (1969) who are morphologically oriented discuss briefly the emergence of -ly. As for dictionaries, both the QED Online and ODEE (Onions 1976) list the -ly suffix and give short comments on the rise of the affricate-less forms pointing to the Scandinavian influence. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (LALME) includes -ly among other linguistic items presented therein and provides a map with the localization of particular tokens of the suffix (see Vol. I: 455-457). Laing (1989) includes some essays which although devoted to problems connect ed with ME dialects, refer to -ly. More recently, dual-form adverbs (adj./adv. -ly) became of particular interest to several scholars. Donner (1991) investigates their development in the Middle English period. Nevalainen (1994 and 1997) examines Late Middle and Early Modem English. Opdahl (2000) discusses dual-form adverbs in present-day English. Yet, none of these works gives a deeper insight into the phonological development of the -lich(e) suffix in Middle English.
The ME -lich, -liche was also an adverbial suffix, going back to the OE -lice. According to The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (ODEE) "[its] general sense is in a manner characteristic to one who or a thing that is so-and-so called' (as defined by the simplex), hence, 'in so-and-so fashion', 'to so-and-so degree"' (Onions 1976: 541). Primarily, it was only -e which served as an adverb formative. An example such as the OE deope 'deeply' illustrates its use, where deop was an OE adjective. By the same virtue, at the beginning it was a whole adjective ending in -lic, such as cildelic, which was treated as a derivative base for the adverb cildelice. It must have been at the time when adding -lic was regarded as compounding not suffixation. Only later did a reanalysis take place by means of which the base for adverbial derivation was the same as for the adjectival one and a new adverbial suffix -lice arose. Later it was appended also to adjectives which did not end in -lic, i.e. blindlice, blodlice (Kastov sky 1992: 396). The scheme underneath presents the pattern of adverb formation. "Base" stands in for an adjective.
Scheme 1. The pattern of adverb formation in OE
a)Base + -e > Adverb -- PARALLELISM [right arrow]
b)Base + -lic > Base + -e> Adverb -- REANALYSIS [right arrow]
c)Base - -lic > Base + -lice > Adverb.
Table 1 below gives a summary of the frequency, and hence productivity of -LIC and -LICE types in OE.
The ME -ly was both an adjectival and adverbial suffix, which came into existence by means of the final affricate deletion in -lich(e) as early as c. 1200. This change was parallel to the conversion of the OE ich into I, which took place at more or less the same time. Since EME -ly has enjoyed growing productivity and is one of the most prolific formatives.
The basic assumption of this paper is that the prototypes of the ME -LICH(E)/-LY suffixes will exhibit a variety of token forms which will be dialectally conditioned. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the deletion of /t[integral]/ will progress from the North to the South at a faster pace in Late Middle English. Moreover, due to the involvement of possible other text internal features, it is assumed that specific texts will reveal different tendencies towards /t[integral]/-deletion in -lich(e).
Some statistics pertaining to the occurrence of the suffix in question will be presented on the basis of the data extracted from the diachronic part of the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts (henceforth the Helsinki Corpus or the HC; for its structure see Kyto (1996) and Nevanlinna et al. (1993)). This data will provide the set of existing tokens of the -LICH(E) prototype. Several tables will also highlight the geographical distribution of both the prototype and the specific tokens.
The Middle English period in HC ranges from 1150 to 1500 and is further subdivided into four subperiods, i.e., 1150-1250 (henceforth ME1), 1250-1350 (ME2), 1350-1420 (ME3) and 1420-1500 (ME4). Such a division is not random but historically motivated (Nevanlinna et al. 1993: 34-41). The subperiods differ in respect to the number of words they contain: ME1 and ME2 are about twice as short as the Late Middle English subperiods. Both verse and prose are represented and samples from different genres are included. However, it has to be remembered that a corpus, although extremely useful, is not a perfect source of material. As Miller (1997: 252) quite accurately noticed, text samples in corpora are not always representative enough to give a broad and objective insight into the analysed issue. Therefore, it is necessary to use complete and extensive texts as a supplement for a corpus. The texts which I have examined apart from HC are Twelfth-Century Homilies in MS. Bodley 343 (S), Seinte Katerine, Seinte Marherete, Sawles warde, Ancrene wisse, Lazamon's Brut and pe wohunge of ure Lauerd (WM), Ormulum (NEM) and The Peterborough Chronicle 1017-1154 and Vices and virtues (EM) for Early Middle English (ME1 and ME2), and Chaucer's translation of Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae (EM) and The Brut (WM) for the time when the suffixes achieve the highest rate of their phonological change (ME3). Finally, the completion of the process of the affricate <ch> deletion is illustrated on the basis of The cyrurgie of Guy de Chauliac (EM).
The data from the Middle English part of the Helsinki Corpus will now be introduced to make the discussed issue clear and provide a solid background for the study. In order to avoid any misunderstanding, the suffixes -lich, -liche and -ly will be discussed and referred to in terms of prototypes. These will be indicated by the use of upper case and italics: -LICH, -LICHE and -LY. These forms will be realized in different regional and scribal spelling variants which will be rendered here by the use of lower case and italics. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (henceforth LALME) has also been used as a source of reference. After rejecting all variants which do not appear in the analyzed corpus, the representative list of suffixes, subject to further examination, is the following:
-LICH: -lic, -lich, -lik, -liz, -lych.
-LICHE: -leche, -lice, -liche, -like, -lyche, -lyke.
-LY: -ley, -li, -ly.
Among the variants mentioned above only -lich, -liche and -li will be present in all four subperiods. However, each of the tokens, with the exception of -ley, has been recorded in at least two investigated ME subsections. Different spelling variants related to particular dialect areas will also be analysed in more detail below.
Table 2 presents the results of the total absolute and relative frequencies of the suffixes in question throughout the whole ME period (1150-1500) in the Helsinki Corpus.
It is clear that the number of words in particular subsections differs considerably. Both ME 1 and ME2 are approximately half as abundant in words than ME3 and ME4. Thus, to make the data representative and comparable in the analysis, they have to be relativized to a reference number of 100,000. The statistics from...
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