Old English Syntax and Its Relation to German : A Comparative Study
(2021) In Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English p.54-74- Abstract
- At first glance, the syntax of ancient Old English appears reminiscent of the syntax of the Present-Day German language. A number of shared syntactic traits such as Subject Object Verb constituent order, Verb Second, and a complicated inflectional system have caused the two languages to be compared by scholars, who often have referred to German as simply a present-day version of the now far-gone Old English. Exploring both similarities and dissimilarities of the two languages, this article examines the relationship between the two languages’ syntax to show that although structurally similar once, modern-day English has lost most of the syntactic traits linking it to the German language and their common Proto-Germanic roots. These... (More)
- At first glance, the syntax of ancient Old English appears reminiscent of the syntax of the Present-Day German language. A number of shared syntactic traits such as Subject Object Verb constituent order, Verb Second, and a complicated inflectional system have caused the two languages to be compared by scholars, who often have referred to German as simply a present-day version of the now far-gone Old English. Exploring both similarities and dissimilarities of the two languages, this article examines the relationship between the two languages’ syntax to show that although structurally similar once, modern-day English has lost most of the syntactic traits linking it to the German language and their common Proto-Germanic roots. These syntactical differences not only show that Old English was never just a modern-day variant of German but also show that the two languages are developing in separate directions – or at least in separate paces. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5d41cae8-70f7-4532-b961-af57e17caa62
- author
- Bang Lauridsen, Freja LU
- publishing date
- 2021-03-12
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Syntax, Germanic, Diachronic change, Comparative, German, English, Old English, Old High German, Morphology
- in
- Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English
- issue
- 7
- pages
- 21 pages
- publisher
- Aarhus University
- ISSN
- 2446-3981
- DOI
- 10.7146/lev.v0i7.125185
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 5d41cae8-70f7-4532-b961-af57e17caa62
- date added to LUP
- 2023-10-26 18:27:21
- date last changed
- 2023-10-30 14:33:08
@article{5d41cae8-70f7-4532-b961-af57e17caa62, abstract = {{At first glance, the syntax of ancient Old English appears reminiscent of the syntax of the Present-Day German language. A number of shared syntactic traits such as Subject Object Verb constituent order, Verb Second, and a complicated inflectional system have caused the two languages to be compared by scholars, who often have referred to German as simply a present-day version of the now far-gone Old English. Exploring both similarities and dissimilarities of the two languages, this article examines the relationship between the two languages’ syntax to show that although structurally similar once, modern-day English has lost most of the syntactic traits linking it to the German language and their common Proto-Germanic roots. These syntactical differences not only show that Old English was never just a modern-day variant of German but also show that the two languages are developing in separate directions – or at least in separate paces.}}, author = {{Bang Lauridsen, Freja}}, issn = {{2446-3981}}, keywords = {{Syntax; Germanic; Diachronic change; Comparative; German; English; Old English; Old High German; Morphology}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{03}}, number = {{7}}, pages = {{54--74}}, publisher = {{Aarhus University}}, series = {{Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English}}, title = {{Old English Syntax and Its Relation to German : A Comparative Study}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/lev.v0i7.125185}}, doi = {{10.7146/lev.v0i7.125185}}, year = {{2021}}, }