Old English (ge)munan and the emergence of modal mun
Lauridsen, Freja LU
(2026)
8th Old English Student Conference
p.16-16
- Abstract
- The preterite-present verb (ge)munan, meaning ‘to remember’ or ‘to be mentally active’, is attested throughout the Old English period (450-1150). Deriving from the Proto-Germanic preterite-present lexical verb munan, it belongs to a class of verbs many of which grammaticalised into modal auxiliaries during Old and Middle English. (Ge)munan itself appears to have undergone grammaticalisation, as suggested by numerous attestations of modal mun in Middle English and Early Modern English, before ultimately being displaced by the dominant English modals: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, and must.
A central question is whether the development of modal mun can be traced directly back to the Old English verb (ge)munan,... (More) - The preterite-present verb (ge)munan, meaning ‘to remember’ or ‘to be mentally active’, is attested throughout the Old English period (450-1150). Deriving from the Proto-Germanic preterite-present lexical verb munan, it belongs to a class of verbs many of which grammaticalised into modal auxiliaries during Old and Middle English. (Ge)munan itself appears to have undergone grammaticalisation, as suggested by numerous attestations of modal mun in Middle English and Early Modern English, before ultimately being displaced by the dominant English modals: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, and must.
A central question is whether the development of modal mun can be traced directly back to the Old English verb (ge)munan, or whether (ge)munan fell out of use during the Old English period, with modal mun subsequently entering English through contact with Old Scandinavian – a view commonly assumed, yet largely unexamined, in the literature (Visser 1969, 1441; Eitelmann 2013, 134; OED, s.v. mun).
This paper addresses this issue by examining whether (ge)munan consistently exhibited strictly lexical behaviour throughout the Old English period, or whether it displays early signs of grammaticalisation that might indicate the onset of modalisation. To address this question, the study presents a corpus-based analysis of (ge)munan, focusing on its distribution, syntactic properties, and frequency in the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, which comprises the surviving body of Old English prose and poetry.
This analysis lays the groundwork for further investigation into the diachronic relationship between (ge)munan and the modal mun, and contribute to the broader question of whether the modal mun arose through internal grammaticalisation or via contact-induced borrowing. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/cfadfa95-886e-4342-b5f7-61b26ce788c0
- author
- Lauridsen, Freja
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-04-25
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- historical linguistics, language contact, grammaticalisation, language development, modal auxiliary verbs, morpho-syntax, diachronic linguistics
- pages
- 1 pages
- conference name
- 8th Old English Student Conference
- conference location
- Kraków, Poland
- conference dates
- 2026-05-14 - 2026-05-16
- project
- The parallel development of modal auxiliary verbs in Danish and English
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- cfadfa95-886e-4342-b5f7-61b26ce788c0
- date added to LUP
- 2026-05-18 11:11:11
- date last changed
- 2026-05-28 10:48:25
@misc{cfadfa95-886e-4342-b5f7-61b26ce788c0,
abstract = {{The preterite-present verb (ge)munan, meaning ‘to remember’ or ‘to be mentally active’, is attested throughout the Old English period (450-1150). Deriving from the Proto-Germanic preterite-present lexical verb munan, it belongs to a class of verbs many of which grammaticalised into modal auxiliaries during Old and Middle English. (Ge)munan itself appears to have undergone grammaticalisation, as suggested by numerous attestations of modal mun in Middle English and Early Modern English, before ultimately being displaced by the dominant English modals: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, and must.<br/><br/>A central question is whether the development of modal mun can be traced directly back to the Old English verb (ge)munan, or whether (ge)munan fell out of use during the Old English period, with modal mun subsequently entering English through contact with Old Scandinavian – a view commonly assumed, yet largely unexamined, in the literature (Visser 1969, 1441; Eitelmann 2013, 134; OED, s.v. mun).<br/><br/>This paper addresses this issue by examining whether (ge)munan consistently exhibited strictly lexical behaviour throughout the Old English period, or whether it displays early signs of grammaticalisation that might indicate the onset of modalisation. To address this question, the study presents a corpus-based analysis of (ge)munan, focusing on its distribution, syntactic properties, and frequency in the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, which comprises the surviving body of Old English prose and poetry.<br/><br/>This analysis lays the groundwork for further investigation into the diachronic relationship between (ge)munan and the modal mun, and contribute to the broader question of whether the modal mun arose through internal grammaticalisation or via contact-induced borrowing.}},
author = {{Lauridsen, Freja}},
keywords = {{historical linguistics; language contact; grammaticalisation; language development; modal auxiliary verbs; morpho-syntax; diachronic linguistics}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
pages = {{16--16}},
title = {{Old English (ge)munan and the emergence of modal mun}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/250395112/8OESC_Book_of_Abstracts.pdf}},
year = {{2026}},
}