Elizabeth Closs Traugott
characteristics usually associated with Middle English syntax were
incipiently present in OE, for example the use of prepositions, auxiliary
verbs,
verb-non-final word order
and of a
subject-position filler.
However, they were for the most part not predominant, and all were in
variation with other structures (specifically, case inflections, tense and
mood inflections, verb-final order
and
'impersonal' constructions
without subject-slot filler). The changes that led to the predominance in
Middle English of the structures that were largely incipient in OE will
be discussed in volume
II
of this History.
FURTHER READING
Extensive bibliographical references
are
provided
in
Mitchell (1985).
The
references below are intended
to
identify major works already cited
in
Mitchell
as well
as

McLaughlin (1963), Mitchell
&
Robinson (1986), Mosse,
vol.
I
(1950),
Quirk
&
Wrenn (1957), Traugott (1972)
and
Kemenade (1987).
The syntactic approach
is
relatively informal; my aim
has
been
to
answer
questions about
OE
syntax that might
be
raised
in
syntactic traditions such
as
are
developed
in
Quirk

and Wyss (1983).
4.3
For
further discussion
of the
imperative,
see
Millward (1971);
for the
progressive, Nickel (1966)
and Dal
(1952).
The pre-modals
are
discussed
in
Standop (1957), Lightfoot (1979)
and
Plank (1984).
A so far
unresolved question
is the
extent
to
which epistemic
meanings
of
the pre-modals
can be
identified

is any evidence that, even
if
there were auxiliary verbs
in Old
English, they
286
Syntax
had such unique syntactic properties that they can be considered to be
members of the category AUX. In PDE, this category is postulated on
largely distributional grounds, including the fact that the modals (will,
would,
must,
etc.), the perfect
(have-en),
the progressive
(be-ing),
and the passive
(be-en),
do not co-occur with do (cf. I might
not go,
*I might do/did
not go
vs. /
didn't go), and furthermore, may occur in tag-questions (cf. She could
leave,
couldn't
she?;
**She left, leftn't
she?;
She left, didn't

of English, and does not require a 'catastrophic' change from non-AUX to
AUX such as Lightfoot postulates.
4.4 The analysis presented here of NP-roles depends largely on Jackendoff
(1983,
1987).
Kemenade (1987) is an important study of syntactic and morphological
case in OE. Generalisations about the semantics of case assignment in OE
are proposed in Plank (1983), Anderson (1986) and Fischer & van der Leek
(1983,
1987).
For detailed studies of impersonal constructions, see Mitchell
(1985
:§§
1025-51); also van der Gaaf (1904), Wahlen (1925), Elmer (1981),
Fischer & van der Leek
(1983,
1987), Anderson (1986), Ogura (1986),
Denison (1987, 1990a, 1990b); and further Lightfoot (1979) and Allen
(1986a). Allen (1986b) discusses the status of dummy subject hit.
The non-existence of verb-particle passives in OE is discussed in Denison
(1985).
4.5 OE Relative clause structures are discussed in Andrew (1940), Allen
(1980),
Simons (1987) and Dekeyser (1987).
For non-finite complements in general, see Callaway (1913) and Fischer
(1990).
287
Elizabeth Closs Traugott
For causal clauses see Van Dam (1957), Liggins (1955) and Wiegand
(1987).

construction in Late Latin. In Latin the
resultant states were mental states, not actions, see Benveniste (1968).
3 Another possible example is (129) below. However, pst may be playing a
double role here as both object of
geboden
and either nominative subject of
lician
or accusative oblique NP.
4 Occasionally, in OE as well as PDE the relative clause modifies a whole
antecedent clause, as in She
threatened
to
leave,
which would
be
a disaster. This
kind of relative will not be discussed here.
5 Comrie (1981). The only relative head role not permitted in OE and PDE
is the object of comparison:
**The
man who
John
is
taller
than.
6 MS
ponne
is presumably a scribal error for
pone.
7 Mitchell writes the ' attracted' relativiser as

didn't
think
he would
come,
see Kroch (1981).
10 There is a certain similarity here to the switches in gender-agreement:
greater distance from the head permits freer use of the ' unmarked' or less
specialised form.
11 The Venezky & Healey (1980) concordance has
peet to
towearp.
This seems
to be a mistake.
12 In Orosius,
wseron
can be used for both indicative and subjunctive, see
chapter 3.
13 In his translation of the
Cura
pastoralis,
Sweet renders this as 'When we
judged ourselves, God judged us not' (Sweet 1871:414), but the conditional
reading seems preferable since the context is an explanation in indirect
quotation form of Christ's proclamations about how he would treat those
who repented and confessed in life.
14 Muxin (1958: a Russian work cited in Mitchell 1985:§2739) has suggested
that the indicative signals that two events are in immediate (chained)
sequence in a narrative, while the subjunctive is used when there is no
immediate link between the events.
15 There appear to be no examples of negative definite constructions of the

for a similar chart for
the poetry.
289
5 SEMANTICS AND VOCABULARY
Dieter Kastovsky
5.1 Introduction
5.1.1 One linguistic concept, although fundamental and constantly
referred to, is often taken for granted: the concept of' word'. The word
is the domain of many phonological statements; it is the implicit
ordering principle in morphology; and the word is a central, though
again implicit concept of syntax in so far as the latter describes the
patterns or rules according to which words are combined into larger
linguistic structures. It is therefore necessary to be somewhat more
explicit about this linguistic category, not only because words - more
precisely, the aggregate of words making up the vocabulary
(
=
dictionary = lexicon) of a language - are the topic of this chapter, but
also because the term is familiar from non-technical, everyday language,
where it is often employed in a variety of senses, while as a technical
term it ought to be unambiguous. Thus, when talking about inflectional
paradigms, the term 'word' might be used to refer both to each
individual member of the paradigm, and to the global entity each
member of the paradigm is a form of, as well as to the entity that is
bounded by spaces to its left and right in a text. This, then, might lead
to a seemingly contradictory statement such as
(1) The word
heah steap
is written as two words.
In actual fact, there is a sequence

texts
The form used to refer to the lexical item as such, its 'citation form', is
by convention the nominative singular with nouns and adjectives, and
the infinitive with verbs. Thus, it may be a form with or without an
inflectional ending, cf.
dem-an
vs.
stan.
As we shall see in the section on
word-formation below (§5.4.7), this duality, absent in present-day
English, where all quotation forms are at the same time uninflected base
forms,
is the cause of the typologically mixed status of Old English
inflexion and word-formation.
5.1.2 It is the basic function of lexemes to serve as labels for segments
of extralinguistic reality that for some reason or another a speech
community finds nameworthy. Therefore it is no surprise that even
closely related languages will differ considerably as to the overall
structure of their vocabulary, and the same holds for different historical
stages of
one
and the same language. Looked at from this point of view,
the vocabulary of a language is as much a reflection of deep-seated
cultural, intellectual and emotional interests, perhaps even of the whole
Weltbild
of
a
speech community as the texts that have been produced by
its members. The systematic study of the overall vocabulary of a
language is thus an important contribution to the understanding of the

Regional differences are usually equated with the notion of (regional)
dialect, e.g. Scots, Midland or Cockney, which is normally contrasted
with a supraregional standard. But in present-day English, we might
also want to recognise regionally definable standards, e.g. British
English (e.g. lorry, bumper,
bonnet,
railway,
luggage)
vs. General American
{truck, fender,
hood,
railroad,
baggage),
which do not really conform to the
traditional notion of dialect. Social differences basically result from the
affiliation to specific socio-economic groups, the kind of education one
has received, one's age and sex, and they frequently interact with
regional variation: certain socio-economically definable groups are
more prone to use regionally restricted varieties (dialects) than others.
Varieties according to the field of discourse reflect'
the
type of activity
engaged in through language' (Quirk et al. 1985:23) and manifest
themselves in labels such as 'technical', 'legal', 'religious', 'literary',
'bureaucratic', etc., i.e. they are intimately connected with the subject
matter of the discourse. Varieties according to medium are mainly
related to the difference between spoken and written language, while
varieties according to attitude refer to the degree of formality reflected
by the utterance in question.
Obviously, these five dimensions are to a certain extent inter-

authors are only partly known, follow a stylised diction that may throw
some light on the social situation of the period in which this art form
came into being, but do not tell us too much about the later OE period.
Moreover, they again only reflect the usage of the social elite. Nor
would we expect much variation as to medium, because practically all
texts reflect the written usage of
the
period. Some authors have tried to
establish Old English colloquialisms (Magoun 1937; von Lindheim
1951),
but the results are rather meagre and problematic (see §5.3.3
below). The same holds for the dimension of attitude; all texts, with the
exception of iElfric's
Colloquy,
are formal, and even in the latter, the
language is stylised rather than genuinely informal.
Thus,
what we have in the way of OE vocabulary - according to
some rough counts between 23,000 and 24,000 lexical items (Scheler
1977:14, 74n.45) - represents a fairly restricted spectrum of the overall
vocabulary, and any general conclusions as to its overall structure and
organisation will have to be drawn with due care. On the other hand,
this sample will still contain a substantial number of items that belong
to what Quirk et
al.
(1985:161) have called the 'common core of the
language', so that general conclusions as to certain structural properties
of the vocabulary, e.g. within the domain of word-formation, the
structure of semantic fields, the attitude towards borrowing, etc., are
not without a sufficiently large empirical basis.

=
foresetnys'
preposition',
interiectio
=
betwuxalegednys
'interjection',
significatio
=
getacnung
'signification';
all are derivatives from corresponding OE verbs
{forsettan
'put before',
alecgan
' put down' +
betwux '
between',
tacnian
' mark, indicate, signify'
<
tacen
'sign').
The OE vocabulary thus is 'associative', the present-day English
vocabulary is 'dissociated', because very often besides a Germanic
lexical item there are semantically related non-Germanic derivatives, as
in
mouth:
oral,
father

oxangang
'hide, eighth of a plough-land',
sulhgang
'plough-gang
294
Semantics and vocabulary
= as much land as can properly be tilled by one plough in one
day';
gangern,
gangpytt,
gangsetl,
gangstol,
gangtun,
all ' privy'
(b)
genge
n., sb. ' troops, company'
(c)
-genge
f., sb. in
nightgenge
'hyena, i.e. an animal that prowls at
night'
(d)
-genga
m., sb. in
angenga
'a solitary, lone goer', xftergenga 'one
who follows',
hindergenga

(4) gengan wk. vb. 'to go' <
*gang-j-an:
xftergengness 'succession,
posterity'
(5) prefixations ofgan/gangan:
(a)
agan
' go, go by, pass, pass into possession, occur, befall, come
forth'
(b) began I begangan 'go over, go to, visit; cultivate; surround;
honour, worship' with derivatives begdng/bigang 'practice,
exercise, worship, cultivation';
begdnga/'bigenga
'inhabitant,
cultivator' and numerous compounds of both;
begenge
n.
'practice, worship',
bigengere
'worker, worshipper';
bigengestre
'hand maiden, attendant, worshipper';
begangness
'calendae,
celebration'
(c) foregan 'go before, precede' with derivatives
foregenga
'fore-
runner, predecessor\foregengel 'predecessor'
(d) /organ ' pass over, abstain from'

'go away, escape'
(1)
togan
'go to, go into; happen; separate, depart' with
togang
' approach, attack'
(m)
purhgan
' go through'
(n)
undergan
' undermine, undergo'
(o)
upgan'
go up; raise' with
upgang'
rising,
sunrise, ascent',
upgange
' landing'
(p)
utgan
'go out' with
utgang
'exit, departure; privy; excrement;
anus';
?utgenge '
exit'
(q)
wipgan

we get the
following derivatives:
(a) normal grade:
sebrecp
f. 'sacrilege',
xwbreca
'adulterer',
brecness
f. ' breach',
brecpa
m. ' broken condition'
(b) IE o-grade (Gmc a-grade):
(ge-)brsc
n. 'noise, sound'
(c) lengthened grade: brie f. 'breaking, destruction',
sewbrice
adj.
'adulterous, despising the law'
(d)
["zero
grade 1
[ ± umlaut J :
xbrucol
' sacrilegious',
broc
m. ' breach, frag-
ment ',
bryce
m.
'

choice,
election, goodness',
gecorenscipe '
election,
excellence',
gecorenlic
' elegant'
zero grade "I
+ Verner's Law :
eyre
m. 'choice, free will'
+ Umlaut J
'zero grade "I
—
Verner's Law :
cyst
f., m. ( <
*kus + ti-)
'free will,
+ Umlaut J choice, election; the choicest'
zero grade
—
Verner's Law
—
Umlaut
:
cost
m. 'option, choice';
cost
adj. 'tried,

druncennis
f.
'drunkenness',
druncnian
wk.vb. d.2 'be, get drunk',
druncning
'drinking',
drync
m. 'drink, potion, drinking'.
As these examples show, strong verbs, or, rather, the various stem
allomorphs of strong verbs with their different ablaut grades form the
basis for both suffixal and suffixless derivatives, which in turn may act
as the starting-point for further derivational series, as in
drincan drunc{en)
->-drunc
+
n
+
ian->-drunc
+
n
+
ing,
or faran 'travel'->for f. 'journey'
-+fer + an
( < */or+j
+ an-)
'go on a journey, travel, set out'-*fer
+ end
m. 'sailor\jer+nessi. 'passage, transition, passing away'. Hinderling's

i%,
gremman)
or palatalisation/assibilation
{ceosan
~
eyre,
spreean
~ sprwc 'speech').
One striking property of the OE vocabulary is thus the widespread
stem-variability present both in inflexion and word-formation, a
variability which obviously originated in the combination of inherited
ablaut alternations and morphophonemic alternations newly emerging
as relics of certain sound-changes in the Germanic and early OE period.
One of the most noteworthy changes at the end of the OE period and
throughout ME, therefore, was the almost total loss of this stem-
variability, or at least its loss as a system-defining property, and its
replacement by stem-invariancy as a new morphological principle. This
change was brought about by the complete collapse of the OE
morphophonemic system because of its rapidly growing opacity
(Kastovsky 1988a,b, 1990a), and the ensuing phonological, morpho-
phonemic and morphological restructuring at the end of the OE and
the beginning of the ME period, whose details still await a systematic
investigation. It is perhaps not unimportant to add that the present-day
English alternations of the type
sincere
~
sincerity,
divine
~
divinity,

beadu;
wig), or 'heart,
mind'
(sefa,ferbf>,
hyg;
mod), where the lexical items before the semicolon
are predominantly or exclusively used in poetry, while those after the
semicolon are of general currency (cf. also ch. 8 below). This kind of
synonymy, based on the inherent denotative meaning of the lexical
items involved, should be kept apart from another, equally striking
phenomenon, the widespread metaphorical use of simple or complex
lexical items with different meanings as coreferential designations, i.e.
the so-called
kenningar.
Thus, a lord or king will not only be referred to
by frea 'ruler, lord' or
cyning
'king', but also by epithets such as burh-
agend'city-owner',
beag-gifa
'ring-giver',
epel-weard
'lord of the realm',
etc.
And the sea is not just called
sse,geofon,
heafu,
mere,
lagu
or just water,

299
Dieter Kastovsky
however, cf., for example, the non-integrated OE loans
circul
^pdiacus,
bissextus,
firmamentum,
terminus
from iElfric's version of Bede's De
temporibus
quoted in Funke (1914:171), or the terms for liturgical books
sacramentor(i)um,
antiphonaria,
pistelari,
collectaneum,
capitularia,
martir-
logium
(Gneuss 1985:121ff.), as against integrated
antefnere
'gradual',
tropere 'troper', {p)salter(e) 'psalter', or cyse 'cheese' < L caseus,
pytt 'hole, well' < Lat. puteus, turnian 'turn' < Lat.
turnare,
fersian
' versify' < L
versus
etc.
(2) Only the meaning of a lexical item of the donor language is
transferred to the receptor language, when either: (a) the meaning of

pronomen
=
pses naman
spelynd 'substitute for the name', or fahwyrm 'variegated reptile'
rendering Lat.
basiliscus.
Loan words are of course much easier to establish than semantic
loans,
loan translations or loan creations, but these latter are perhaps
even more important for OE, where native means for extending the
vocabulary were clearly preferred to borrowing. Unfortunately, with
the exception of Gneuss (1955) there is no comprehensive study for the
whole of the OE period.
5.2.0.2
The largest number of loans, whether direct or indirect
(semantic loans, loan translations), in OE is due to the influence of
Latin, which had already started at the time when the ancestors of the
Anglo-Saxons were still on the Continent. At this stage Latin may also
have acted as an intermediary for the adoption of some loans from
Greek, although direct borrowing, perhaps via Gothic, is perhaps
phonologically more likely in the following cases: OE
deofol'
devil', Gk
300
Semantics and vocabulary
8iaj3oAoy, Lat. diabolus with [v] rendering the Greek bilabial fricative,
whereas Latin has [b]; OE Crecas ' Greeks' cf. Goth. Krekos for Gk
FpaiKoi with substitution of Gmc [k] for [g], because at this stage [g] in
the Germanic dialects only occurred as a geminate or as [7]; OE
engel

criteria, e.g. sound changes, so that such a division seems justified.
5.2.1.2
Contacts between the Germanic and the Latin peoples existed
from the days of Julius Caesar, and although these contacts were not
always peaceful in the beginning, they gradually developed into peaceful
co-existence, and more and more members of Germanic tribes joined
the Roman army, even forming cohorts of their own. These soldiers and
their families thus became familiar with Latin military terminology,
with the names of everyday objects in use in camp and town, and of
plants and animals they had not seen before or had no name for, and thus
Dieter Kastovsky
gradually several hundred Latin words penetrated into the various
Germanic dialects. Some were adopted in only one dialect, others in
several or even all. The army was followed by the Roman merchant,
who came into the pacified regions and sold his superior goods, e.g.
household vessels, plant products, dresses, ornaments and jewels from
the south, and gradually also settlers stayed, introducing building terms.
Borrowing was of course heavier in the southern provinces, but in
principle the northern Germanic tribes that were eventually to migrate
to England were affected in the same way. It is estimated that about 170
lexical items were borrowed during this continental period (Williams
1975:57; Serjeantson 1935:271-7), of which roughly 30 per cent denote
plants and animals, 20 per cent food, vessels, household items, 12 per
cent buildings, building material, settlements, 12 per cent dress, 9 per
cent military and legal institutions, 9 per cent commercial activities,
3 per cent miscellaneous other phenomena (Williams 1975:57).
Examples for these various groups are: box ' box-tree' < buxum, -s,
cipe ' onion' <
cepe,
cesten-beam,

fifele ' buckle' < fibula,
fxcele ' torch' < facula, mise ' table' < VLat. mesa < L
mensa;
pipe ' pipe'
< VLat.pipa, scamol'bench, stool' <
scamellum,
mylen 'mill' < molinus,
-a.; belt' belt' <
balteus,
cemes' shirt' < camisia, fullere' fuller of cloth' <
fullo (with adaptation of the suffix), pxll 'rich robe, purple robe' <
pallium, pihten 'reed' <pecten 'comb', pilece 'robe of skin' < VLat.
pellicea,
purpur ' purple garment' < purpura; pyl{w)e ' pillow' < pulvinus,
sacc
'sack, bag' <
saccus,
ssecc
'sack, bag' < VLat.
*saccium,
side
'silk' <
VLat.
seda
< Lat. seta,
sutere
'shoemaker' < sutor; cruft(e) 'vault, crypt'
< crupta/crypta, cylen ' kiln' < culina, pile ' mortar' < pila, pinn ' pin,
peg', port ' gate, door' < porta, regol ' wooden ruler' <
regula,

shriven),
sinod 'council,
synod' <
synodus,
street ' road' < {via) strata; ceap ' goods, price,
market', ceapian/ciepan 'buy' <
caupo
'innkeeper, wine-seller',
mangere
' merchant, trader', mangian ' to trade' <
mango
' dealer in slaves and
other goods'; mil' mile' < mille
(passuum),
mydd'
bushel' <
modius,
pund
' pound' <
pondo,
toll ' toll' < teloneum; predician ' preach' <
praedicare,
mynster' minster' < monasterium;
msesse
' mass' < missa,
abbud'
abbot' <
abbat-em; munuc ' monk' <
monachus;
scol' school' <

fairly safe criteria according to which tyrnan 'turn, revolve' < tor-
nareIturnare, ciepan 'buy' <
caupo
'innkeeper, wine-seller', mydd
' bushel' < modius, mynet ' coin, money' < moneta, cemes ' shirt' <
camisia,
celc'
cup' <
calicem,
cyse'
cheese' <
caseus
are old loans, while
calic
' cup' <
calicem,
tunece
' tunic' <
tunica,
pic ' pike' < picus, castel' village,
small town' are much later. Of particular interest are doublets such
as celc I calic 'cup' <
calicem,
cliroc/cleric 'clerk, clergyman '<
clericus,
cellendreIcoryandre '
coriander' <
coriandrum,
leahtric/lactuca ' lettuce' <
lactuca, spynge/sponge ' sponge' <

English would have had to come in through Celtic transmission'
(Baugh & Cable 1978:80). But since the Celtic influence on the OE
vocabulary has been very slight, (see below §5.2.2), Baugh & Cable
conclude that the number of Latin loans transmitted by the Britons also
was very small. As relatively certain candidates they only mention
ceaster
<
castra
as a frequent place-name element, cf. Chester,
Colchester,
Manchester,
Winchester,
etc., port 'harbour, town' and 'gate' <por-
tus/porta, tvic '
village'
<
vicus
(all three are classified as continental
borrowings by Serjeantson 1935:271fl\), munt ' mountain '<
mont-em
and ton 'tower, rock' <
turris.
Strang (1970:390), on the other hand,
following Jackson
(1953
:ch. 3), assumes that Latin was still the official
language of Britain in the first half of the fifth century, although for
everyday purposes British was used, and that it even survived among
the upper classes and rulers of the Highland zone during the sixth
century, i.e. during the settlement period. She then claims that 'very

ceaster)
< castra,
cerfelle
' chervil' <
cerefolium,
coccel'
corn-
cockle ' < VLat.
cocculus,
petersilie
'
parsley' (the modern form is from F
persil) <
petroselinium,
farm ' winnowing fan' <
vannum,
forca ' fork' <
furca, catt(e)' cat' < VLat. cattus, -a,
cocc
' cock' <
coccus,
truht' trout' <
tructa,
muscelle
'mussel' <
musculus,
Ixden 'Latin; a language' < VLat.
Ladinus < Latinus, munuc ' monk' <
monachus,
mjnster ' monastery,

'vinegar' < ace
turn,
mur 'wall' <
murus, mbs' fir-tree' <
abies,
humele,' hop-plant' < VLat.
humulus,
leahtric
' lettuce' <
lactuca,
lent ' lentil' < lent-em, lufestic ' lovage' < VLat.
luvestica
<
Hgusticum,
sxppe 'spruce fir' < sappinus, senap 'mustard' <
sinapis (cf. earlier sinop),
solsece
'heliotrope' <
solsequia,
renge
'spider' <
aranea,
lafian ' to bathe, wash' <
lavare,
trifulian ' to grind to powder' <
tribulare,
dilegian
' to cancel, blot out, destroy' <
delere,
grsef'

Anglo-Saxons found themselves, for which see the remarks in chapter
1.
Latin played a central role in these developments, because it was the
language of the church and of learning and scholarship. On the other
hand, the new faith had to be propagated in the vernacular, which thus
had to be adapted to the task of expressing many new concepts. Had
English then behaved with regard to borrowing in the same way as it
did under similar circumstances in later centuries, the number of loans
would have been tremendous. But, although it is higher than in the
previous periods, it is much lower than one would expect, because other
means of extending the vocabulary - semantic loans, loan translation
and loan creations
—
were preferred (cf.
5.2.1.5
below).
Loans in the religious sphere predominantly refer to church
organization, ranks and functions, less to the central notions of the faith,
e.g.
abbod
'abbot'< VLat.
abbad-em
<
abbat-em,
abudesse
'abbess'<
VLat.
abbadissa,
alter 'altar'<
altar,

' monk' <
nonnus,
offrian
' sacrifice, offer' <
offerre,
oflxte ' oblation' <
oblata,
papa
' pope' <
papa,
predician '
preach' <
praedkare,
sacerd'
priest' <
sacerdos,
regol ' rule of religious life' <
regula.
There are also several loans
referring to books and learning, e.g.
canon
'canon of scripture' <
canon,
calend '
month' <
calendae,
fers ' verse' <
versus,
crank
'

spoken language. This is confirmed by the fact that quite a few show the
phonological changes characteristic of Vulgar Latin or had not been
part of the Classical Latin vocabulary. Thus they reflect, to a certain
extent, the kind of Latin apparently spoken at the monasteries, which
obviously was not the pure Classical variety. Things became radically
different in the subsequent centuries, when Classical Latin was more or
less the exclusive source of the loans and the borrowing process
primarily involved the written language. The reasons for this are again
closely related to the external history of the country between 800 and
1050,
notably the invasions and settlements of the Vikings, Alfred's
educational reforms and, above all, the Benedictine monastic revival,
see chapter 1 for further details. It is in the period of the Benedictine
reforms, when learning and scholarship were re-established, that once
more a considerable number of loans were introduced into English,
according to Strang (1970:314) roughly 150. But their character was
different now. They were all drawn from Classical Latin, reflect the
scholarly interests of the writers, and were not really integrated into the
native linguistic system. Very often, they are technical terms, and more
often than not they would even keep their Latin ending rather than
adopt the appropriate West Saxon one, as had been the case earlier. This
is the period where often an older, integrated loan was duplicated by a
new, learned loan, cf. the examples at the end of §5.2.1.2, or
corona
besides earlier
coren
'crown',
tabele/tablu
'table, tablet' besides earlier
tafl,

'
clerk,
clergyman' <
clericus, creda 'creed, belief <
credo,
crisma 'chrism' < chrisma, cruc
' cross' <
cruc-em,
demon ' demon' <
daemon,
discipul ' disciple' < dis-
cipulus, paradis 'paradise' <paradisus, prior 'prior' <prior, sabbat
' sabbath' <
sabbatum,
and certain terms for liturgical books, see
Gneuss (1985), e.g. sacramentor(i)um,
antiphonaria,
collectaneum,passionate,
martyr Una.
Loans of this period are also found pertaining to scholarship,
learning, culture and recreation, and science. Amongst some of the
more interesting examples are:
bibliopece '
library' <
bibliotheca,
capitol(a)
' chapter' < capitolum, declinian ' decline' <
declinare,
grammatk(-crzff)
' grammar' < {ars) grammatka, mechanise ' mechanical' <

rosmarinus,
salfie ' sage' <
salvia,
ysope ' hyssop' <
hyssopum,
aspide '
asp,
viper' <
aspid-,
basilisca
' basilisk' <
basiliscus
(also glossed as fahwyrm),
cancer
' crab' <
cancer,
delfin 'dolphin'<
delphinus,
leo 'lion'</w, lopust 'locust' <
locusta
(influenced by OE loppestre 'lobster'),pard 'leopard' <pardus, mamma
' breast' < mamma, plaster, ' plaster' < emplastrum, rabbian ' be mad,
rage'
< rabiare, scrofel' scrofula' < scrofula.
As in the previous periods, the overwhelming majority of these loans
are nouns. Borrowed adjectives and verbs are rare, but very often we
find that denominal adjectives and verbs are coined according to the OE
word-formation patterns. Many of the loans had thus been integrated
fairly well into the OE linguistic system. At the same time, this tendency
once again illustrates the resourcefulness of indigenous means for

of misunderstanding: the translator may have intended the word to be
understood in a non-usual sense, taken over from the Latin model, but
the reader, not knowing this, might still interpret the word in its
original, native sense. Thus, as Gneuss (1955:21) has pointed out, it is
difficult to know whether
synn
as a semantic loan for
peccatum
really had
adopted all its semantic features for all members of the speech
community in view of its use in Beowulf
{Beo
2472) pa
ivses synn ond sacu
Sweona ond Geota
' there was feud and strife between Swedes and Geats',
where
synn
can hardly be interpreted in the Christian sense as ' violation
of God's law'. Bosworth & Toller's translation (s.v. synn I. 'with
reference to human law or obligation:
misdeed,
fault,
crime,
wrong')
as
'then there was wrongdoing and strife between Swedes and Geats'
seems to have been influenced by such a misunderstanding.
Semantic borrowing is an instance of semantic change, since no
matter whether the old meaning is preserved or not, there is a change of

the soul'
~
hierde '
shepherd'
(<
heord
'
flock') ->' pastor';
getimbran
' build, construct, erect'
(<
timber ' building material, structure, building') ->' edify (spiritually)'
from
aedificare
and
'instruct' from
instruere;
msegen
'bodily strength,
might, valour, power; troops, army'->'miracle, good deed'
and
'heavenly host' from
virtus/virtutes
with these additional meanings.
(2)
The
foreign meaning
is
transferred without
a

is
particularly
frequent
in the
religious vocabulary, since
in
using
a
native (' heathen')
word
for a
Christian concept,
the
pagan interpretation
had to be
replaced
by the
Christian concept
and all its
theological associations.
A
good example
is the
word
God as
used
for
Deus
(cf.
Strang 1970:368).

or One
of the Persons
of
the Trinity. Instead
of
adopting
the
lexical item Deus,
its meaning
was
substituted
for the old
meaning of
god,
which,
in
this
case,
even produced
a
grammatical change: God
as a
singular noun
became masculine;
if it
occurred
in the
plural,
it
only referred

steward',
gladiator
~
cempa
'
fighter',
dictator
~
aldur '
chief,
leader', res
publica
~
cynedom
in
glosses,
or
consul
~
heretoga '
commander, chieftain'
~
ladteowa
'leader, general'
~
cyning
'king'
in
Boethius,
prxfectus