This book examines prefixes expressing aspectuality in early English, such as ge- in the Old English verb gegladian «cheer up» or a- in the verb astreccan «stretch out», providing an analysis of the three most frequent prefixes (ge-, a- and for-). These prefixes show many inflectional properties, as well as typical features of grammaticalization.

This book primarily examines verbal prefixes expressing aspectuality in the Old and Middle English periods, but it also takes a look at the post-verbal particles in the subsequent periods of English. Verbal prefixes are also known as preverbs such as ge- in the Old English verb gegladian «cheer up» or - in the Old English verb streccan «stretch out». Prefixed verbs in Old English are said to be the functional equivalents and predecessors of phrasal verbs in Modern English. One of the aims of the research presented in this book was to consider how no longer productive Old English verbal prefixes such as ge-, - and for- were used in the past to express verbal aspect. In this study two avenues of research converge, one covering aspect, the other covering verbal prefixes and particles.

Autorentext

Vlatko Broz is Assistant Lecturer at the Department of English at the University of Zagreb (Croatia). He received his PhD in a joint research programme (cotutelle) with the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). He studied Old English and Middle English as a Chevening scholar at the University of Oxford.

Inhalt

Contents: How did Old and Middle English express verbal aspect by means of prefixes? - Aspects of aspect: aspect vs. Aktionsart - Aspect in Germanic and Slavic - Aspectual categories - Prefixed verbs and phrasal verbs - Preverb a- - Preverb ge- - preverb for- - Perfectivizers - Lexicalization - Grammaticalization.