Diploma Thesis Ocislovana

8/11/2019 Diploma Thesis Ocislovana

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Masaryk UniversityFaculty of Arts

Department of Englishand American Studies

English Language and Literature

David Weber

English Prepositions: A HistoricalSurvey

Masters Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: prof. Dr. Vlav !la"e#$ %s.

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I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

..&uthors signature

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This thesis could not have been written without the help of my supervisor, prof. Dr.

Vclav Blaek, whom would like to e!press my indebtedness here. would also like to

mention my "ratitude to #$ech "rant%"ivin" bodies whose financial help has made part of

my research and writin" possible at the &niversity of 'reibur". (y "ratefulness "oes

especially to prof. Dr. Bernd )ortmann for his kind acceptance in the Department of

*n"lish of the above mentioned university. also wish to thank here to +rof. Dr. (atti

issanen for sendin" me a photocopy of one of his articles which was not able to access

in Brno neither in 'reibur".

TABLE OFCONTENTS

-


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. ntroduction................................................................................................................. /

2. Data collection and research methodolo"y ................................................................. 0

-. 1in"uistic characteristics of *n"lish prepositions ...................................................

-. +repositions and (orpholo"y ............................................................................

-.2 +repositions and 3ynta! .....................................................................................

-.- +repositions and 1e!icon .................................................................................. -

-.4 +repositions and 3emantics ................................................................................ 4

4. *n"lish prepositions in the history of *n"lish "rammar writin" .............................. 5

4. The situation before 50/ ..................................................................................... 5

4. 2 Bullokar and after ................................................................................................. /

4.- The 6th century ..................................................................................................... 2

4. 4 The 2th century .................................................................................................... 2-

4.5 #onclusion ............................................................................................................. 20

5. 7ld *n"lish prepositions ............................................................................................. 26

5. ndo%*uropean stratum .......................................................................................... 26

5.2 8ermanic stratum ................................................................................................. 4

5.- 7ld *n"lish word%formation ................................................................................. 56

/. (iddle *n"lish prepositions ....................................................................................... /-

/. 7ld *n"lish stratum .............................................................................................. /4

/.2 (iddle *n"lish word%formation ........................................................................... 00

/.- 'orei"n influences ................................................................................................ 6-

9. 'rom (iddle *n"lish to (odern *n"lish ..................................................................

0. #onclusion ................................................................................................................. 2

4


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Biblio"raphy ...................................................................................................................... 5

1. INTRODUCTION

5


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:hen it comes to the diachronic study of *n"lish prepositions, it must be conceded

that, until recently, historical lin"uists have ne"lected their study. :ith an e!ception of a

chapter in (itchell;s two volume Old English Syntaxa;sMiddle English Syntaxa, 6/=, there is no comprehensive survey

of prepositions in 7ld nor in (iddle *n"lish. ?s a syntactic work, (itchell;s book has a

stron" formal bias, dealin" predominantly with the preposition%case relation. (ustano>a, on

the other hand, focuses predominantly on semantics. The ma>ority of other handbooks and

"rammars of 7ld and (iddle *n"lish restrict themselves to enumeratin" only a selected

number of prepositions, addin" their basic meanin"s or the case they "overned, if they

actually do at least this. (ore recently, two diachronically oriented studies devotin"

themselves somehow more thorou"ly to the study of prepositions occured, namely,1undsk@r%Aielsen;s Prepositions in Old and Middle English


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development between (iddle *n"lish and (odern *n"lish is added. t must be clear from

the title of the present thesis, however, that our survey is historical and, therefore, it would

be out of its scope to focus on (odern *n"lish prepositions as well. ?s for the division into

7ld *n"lish, (iddle *n"lish and (odern *n"lish, one must stress here, that any division

into historical sta"es is necessarily to a hi"h de"ree arbitrary. 3ince the empirical study is

based on the diachronic part of the Eelsinki #orpus, the borderline between 7ld and

(iddle *n"lish periods is drawn in correspondence with the division made by the corpus

compilers. n "eneral terms, data spannin" the time from the ei"ht to the fifteenth century

will be e!plored. The main focus will be laid on the ortho"raphic variants and uantitative

development. Because of the low freuency of occurence of most of the prepositions, the

rate will be indicated by per mil


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The methodolo"y employed for the empirical investi"ation is essentially

uantitative and is based on the diachronic part of the Eelsinki #orpus. Eelsinki corpus is

the result of a pro>ect compiled under the supervision of +rofs. (atti issanen and 7ssi

halainen at the &niversity of Eelsinki. The diachronic part of the corpus includes te!ts

from 7ld *n"lish, (iddle *n"lish and *arly (odern *n"lish, coverin" period of more than

thousand years. n the corpus, the periods are divided as followsH 7ld *n"lish


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prepositions, one must inevitably raise the uestion of their definition. :hat is the scope of

the notion of prepositionI ? deeper theoretical insi"hts are out of the scope of the present

thesis, however, it must be stressed here, that in my survey, a considerably broader notion

of preposition is employed than in traditional "rammars. #onsider the followin" three

sentences containin" different versions of (odern *n"lish since H


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of their different complementation. This new approach is adopted from Euddleston and

+ullum;s Cambridge rammar of the English !ang"age


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word%formative processes. These include 7ld *n"lish and (iddle *n"lish prefi!es %fter%,

%t%, bet$eon%, bi%,for%,foran%,for%,fram%,gegn%, in%, mid%, neah%, nier%, of%, ofer%, on%,

o%,"rh%, "nder%, $i%, $ier% andymb%. ?s for their morpholo"ical structure, 7ld *n"lish

and (iddle *n"lish prepositions can be classified into simple and compound. 3imple

prepositions are reali$ed by a sin"le morpheme unction


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before a noun. The noun does not necessarily come immediately after the preposition, since

determiners ectives could intervene. 7ther possible complements were pronoun, adverb ective phrase

c. postmodifier of another prepositional phrase

d. ad>unct

e. complement of a verb

(oreover, in (iddle *n"lish verse, prepositions may follow the noun or pronounH

The byschop come to Ke burynes, him barones besyde,

Ne maire with mony ma ti men and macers before hym.


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+repositions are hi"h freuency items belon"in" to one of the nine word classes into

which *n"lish le!icon can be divided. They can be defined as a relatively closed class that

is not prone to uick chan"es. (ost of the formal chan"es in their system are a result of

internal word%formative processes and "rammaticali$ation and not borrowin"s from

e!ternal sources. To put it more directly, have counted only fourteen loan prepositions that

appeared in the course of the history of *n"lish until the end of the *arly (odern *n"lish

period and out of these, three were dropped meanwhile. n this respect, ma>ority of the most

freuently used prepositions are of ?n"lo%3a!on ori"in. ?s any word class, prepositions

can be broadly defined as a set of vocabulary items sharin" certain common properties.

These "enerally include varyin" number of morpholo"ical, syntactic and semantic

phenomena. ?ccordin" to the de"ree of common properties, we speak about the centre and

the periphery of a "iven word class. There are actually two kinds of central items and twokinds of peripheral items in every lan"ua"e, namely, those of the whole le!icon and those

of particular parts of speech. ? le!ical item is central to the le!icon because of a relatively

hi"h rate of its occurence in discourse, while a le!ical item is central to the word class due

to a relatively hi"h de"ree of common properties with other central items. The difference

between these two kinds of centre and periphery can be defined as a difference between

uantity and uality. ?lthou"h the boundary between central and peripheral items of

a le!icon is not clearcut, one can definitely claim that prepositions, throu"hout the history

of their development, have always been central to the *n"lish le!icon. ?ccordin" to the

corpus data, the followin" prepositions occur amon" the fifty most freuently used *n"lish

wordsH

2 - 4 5 / 9 0 6 7ld *n"lish on to mid in for of at be after ofer (iddle *n"lish of to in for be on by with at*arly (odern *n"lish of to in for with by at from on(odern *n"lish of in to for with on by at from

3.* Prepositios !" Se#!ti)s

+repositions and their relation to semantics have always been problematic. They are

often considered to have too little semantic content or, vice versa, to be too polysemous to

The data for 7ld *n"lish, (iddle *n"lish and *arly (odern *n"lish are drawn from the diachronic part ofthe Eelsinki #orpus. (odern *n"lish data are adopted from a survey of British Aational #orpus by 1eech etal.


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warrant a proper semantic description. (ost lin"uists consent that nouns, ad>ectives and

main verbs are items with a full le!ical meanin". :hen it comes to prepositions, uestion

mi"ht arise, whether they should also be re"arded as le!ical elements with their own le!ical

meanin" or rather as semantically empty "rammatical elements. The answer than varies

accordin" to the lin"uistic framework within which prepositions are studied. n the early

version of 'unctional 8rammar


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?fter havin" described *n"lish prepositions lin"uistically, in the present chapter, we

will aim to e!amine the development of different lin"uistic definitions and treatments of

prepositions in selected reference "rammars of *n"lish. ?lthou"h one of the first

"rammarians to introduce the term preposition was Dionysius Thra!, who lived in

?le!andria some time around the second and first century B.#.*., in the present chapter, we

shall limit ourselves strictly to the *n"lish "rammatical tradition, whose roots date back to

the second half of the si!teenth century. ? demarcation of the ob>ect of our research in

these terms, however, is not sufficient enou"h. The reason is that in the very be"innin"s of

*n"lish "rammatical tradition, the term *n"lish "rammar mi"ht have referred to

a "rammar of 1atin written in *n"lish, a "rammar of *n"lish written in 1atin, as well as

a "rammar of *n"lish written in *n"lish. t must be stressed, therefore, that in the present

survey, we will only deal with reference "rammars of *n"lish written in *n"lish. ?nd yet,this still includes vast amount of works by various authors. ?ccordin"ly, the scope of the

present chapter is hi"hly selective in what it covers and the ma>ority of "rammars were

simply not included. Aevertheless, the author of these lines focused on, in his opinion, the

most representative ones and believes that these will provide the reader with a sufficient

insi"ht into the research topic.

*. 1 T$e sit,!tio -eore 1/0

?lthou"h the year 50/ marks the be"innin" of *n"lish "rammar writin", the definition of

prepositions can already be found in 7ld *n"lish literatureH

Q+r@positio is foresetnyss, se byJ "eJeod naman and worde and stent @fra on foreweardanH

ab illohomineRfram Jam manSH her is se abpr@positio.


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indicates the class of nouns. The ?n"lo%3a!on calue, nevertheless, did not "ain much

popularity and the 1atin ori"inal penetrated into the *n"lish le!ical system in the late 4th

century


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sometime postpositively used, that is, when it "overneth the relative, that, or which, comin"

before a verb, whose "overnin" preposition is set after such verbH as, this is the man whom

we spoke of, or whome we spokeC and is some time used in composition after a verb, but

bein" severed from the verb by the adverb, not, or by an accusative case, may be said to be

set in apposition adverbially


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concerned, Bullokar notices that prepositions compounded before a verb commonly chan"e

the meanin" of a respective verb while prepositions compounded after a verb retain its

proper si"nification. To sum up, as is clear from the above mentioned data, the first *n"lish

"rammar provides a relatively thorou"h treatment of prepositions, studyin" them on

morpholo"ical, syntactic and semantic level. The followin" decades, and the "rammars they

produced, devoted considerably less space to the study of prepositions and most of them, as

we have already mentioned, were stron"ly influenced by the definitions from 1atin

"rammars.

n The *n"lish ?ccidence , prepositions are defined simply as a part of speech

"ndeclined most commonly set before the $ords $hich they go)ern


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adverbial use. n ?ickin;s "rammar, no chapter is dedicated specifically to prepositions,

and their definition is also uite simpleH Q? +reposition is a part of 3peech, which is

commonly set before other parts of 3peech, either in ?pposition, as of me, to 8odH or else

in #omposition as, toward, upward, forward


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synsemantic particles that only contribute to the meanin"s of the word they "overn. n this

way, he introduces to his definition semantic aspect. ?mon" other "rammars from this

period, let us mention the followin" definitions of prepositionsH

Qt is a :ord set before another, either separate from it, or, >oined to it oyned with other :ords in

#ompositionC or such as bein" put betwi!t other :ords, oined in #omposition W...X 7r bein" put between :ords they shew the relation they stand in

to each other, usually called #ase


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Terminations or *ndin"s thereof


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two sorts of prepositions % separable, which can stand alone, and, inseparable, which are

used only in connection with other words and Qcommonly "ive a new meanin" to the word

ects to a preposition. ? special cate"ory distin"uished in his

"rammar are disg"ised prepositions which can be illustrated on an e!ample of the

22


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preposition ofthat can be chan"ed into dis"uised preposition o, as info"r o/cloc(, 1ac( o

/laternetc., or the preposition onbein" chan"ed into ain2o"r sells at tenpence a po"nd,

which, as Aesfield states, can sometimes be falsely identified as an indefinite article. n the

Qidiom and construction section, Aesfield provides the reader with e!amples of nouns,

ad>ectives, participles, verbs and adverbs which are followed by prepositions on a purely

idiomatic "rounds. n addition to simpler prepositions, he also distin"uishes participial

prepositions that are of participial or ad>ectival ori"in.

*. * T$e 24t$ )et,r'

?s phonolo"y became a full%fled"ed field, scholars started to write a phonolo"ically

focused "rammars. n his ? 8rammar of 3poken *n"lish , +almer includes a description

of intonation patterns of *n"lish with all the e!ample words and sentences "iven inphonemic transcription. ?s for prepositions, he firstly focuses attention on the fact that

certain prepositions have both their stron" and weak formsH

stron" form weak form

@t [t

bai b[

f [ f[

fr m fr[m

v [v, v, [, [f, f

tuH t[, tu

intuH int[, intu

ect or "enerally when followed by an unstressed pronoun. Ee also

delineates a cate"ory of "roup%prepositions which comprise of ?dverbM+reposition, ?dverb

M Aoun M +reposition or +reposition M Aoun M +reposition constructions. The followin"

seuence is dedicated to the function of *n"lish +repositions which is to form


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various kinds. ?s for synta!, +almer states that the normal position of the preposition Qis in

front of the ob>ect that it "overns. :hen the ob>ect "overned by a preposition is an

interro"ative, or connective words, and is conseuently shifted to the be"innin" of the

sentence, the preposition does not "enerally accompany it, but retains the place it would

occupy if the ob>ect were not so shifted ect. +repositional unit can be of two

kinds. :here the ob>ect of the preposition is a sin"le word, the prepositional unit is

a prepositional phrase. :here the ob>ect of the preposition is a clause, the prepositional unitis a prepositional clause. 3yntactically, #urme states that the prepositional unit can be

employed as an adverbial, as an ob>ect, or as an ad>ective element in the predicative and the

attributive relation. #urme also mentions a special class of prepositions which he calls

inflectional prepositions. ?s he puts it, inflectional prepositions Qhave often lost a "ood deal

of their ori"inal concrete meanin" and are no lon"er felt as prepositions, for they have

developed into inflectional particles which indicate definite "rammatical relations, often

takin" the place of old inflectional endin"s ectives lost their old inflectional endin"s, we often employ the preposition to

to indicate the dative relation and the preposition of to indicate the "enitive relation. n case

of verbs, inflectional preposition standin" behind a "iven verb serves to convert intransitive

verbs into transitive.

There are several "rammars of the most recent decades which did not devote

a sin"le chapter to the study of prepositions, and do not provide us with their definitions

neither. These include Pandvoort;s Eandbook of *n"lish 8rammar or Oespersen;s seven

volume (odern *n"lish 8rammar on Eistorical +rinciples , )ruisin"a and *rades;s two

volume *n"lish 8rammar as well as +outsma;s 8rammar of 1ate (odern *n"lish .

(oreover, Oespersen in his +hilosophy of 8rammar refuses to acknowled"e prepositions

as a separate word class su""estin" to treat them alon"side with adverbs and con>unctions

as a sin"le word class of particles instead


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3chibsbye;s Q(odern *n"lish 8rammar with an ?ppendi! on 3emantically elated

+repositions, ori"inally published in Danish in 659, devotes ninety pa"es to the study of

prepositions, with a special focus on their semantics.

The renewed attention to prepositions stems from an endeavour to write

a comprehensive synchronic description of *n"lish "rammar, which resulted in the

publication of The #omprehensive 8rammar of *n"lish 1an"ua"e by Luirk, 8reenbaum,

1eech and 3vartvik. 7ne of the most authoritative 2th century "rammars, it was preceded

and followed by certain less comprehensive volumes, however, for the sake of puttin"

limits to the present chapter, we will restrict our attention only to the main volume.2

+repositions are here "enerally defined as items e!pressin" Qa relation between two entities,

one bein" that represented by the prepositional complement, the other by another part of the

sentence ective%case form of

a personal pronoun. (ar"inal are those which behave in many ways like prepositions,

althou"h they have affinities with other word classes such as verbs or ad>ectives, e.". bar,

barring, excepting, excl"ding,sa)e, concerningetc.

(orpholo"ically, they make a differentiation between simple and comple!

prepositions. 3imple prepositions consist of one word only and are most freuent. They are

further subdivided accordin" to phonolo"ical criteria into monosyllabic and polysyllabic.

#omple! prepositions are subdivided into two% and three%word seuences. 3yntactically, the

structure of prepositional phrase is defined as a seuence of preposition M prepositional

complement. The prepositional complement is most often reali$ed by a noun phrase,

a nominal wh%clause, or a nominal %in" clause. ?mon" the syntactic functions of

prepositional phrases, the followin" are mentionedH

a. postmodifier in a noun phrase

b. adverbial

c. complementation of a verb

d. complementation of an ad>ective

2This is also the case of Euddleston and +ullum;s "rammars.

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?s far as the meanin" of prepositions in concerned, the authors make a note that Qso varied

are prepositional meanin"s that no more than a presentation of the most notable semantic

similarities and contrasts can be attempted


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headed by verbs, nouns, ad>ectives, and adverbs, and containin" dependents of many

different sorts +s, A+s and V+s, the prepositional phrase can also be premodifiedH

3he died Wtwo years after their divorceX.


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7n the other hand, in non%"rammaticised use, prepositions have an identifiable meanin" on

their ownH

left the parcel by the back%door.

This is of little importance.

Ee;s with ?n"ela.


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prepositions can be seen as one of relative sta"nation, e!ceptionally interrupted by authors

like Bullokar, (ie"e, (aittaire, Bri"htland, 8reenwood or 1owth. The relative ne"li"ence

of prepositions culminated in the first half of the twentieth century, when most of the

"rammarians completely omitted sections on prepositions in their works. t was only in the

second half of the twentieth century, that the situation radically chan"ed and since then,

"rammarians like 3chibsbye, Luirk, 8reenbaum, 1eech, 3vartvik, Euddleston, +ullum or

?arts introduced scientifically precise definitions and developed detailed and elaborate

frameworks for their description, which in most cases reflect contemporary developments

in theoretical lin"uistics.

/. OLD ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS

/.1 INDO5EUROPEAN STRATUM

n chapter - of this thesis, we have already dealt with prepositions from a broader lin"uistic

perspective. n the succeedin" pa"es, individual prepositions will be studied under closer

scrutiny, with special reference to their etymolo"ical back"round and corpus findin"s.

:ith respect to the "enetic classification of lan"ua"es, *n"lish belon"s to the family of

ndo%*uropean lan"ua"es. The common ancestor of lan"ua"es belon"in" to this "roup is

+roto%ndo%*uropean. :e have no written record of this common ancestor, however, by

a comparison of its descandant lan"ua"es, lin"uists can reconstruct its hypothetical form.

The datin" and location of +roto%ndo%*uropean is in many respects controversial, but the

most widely held opinion dates the protolan"ua"e between -5 and 25 B#* with the

centre in the area north of the Black and #aspian seas from which it be"an to spread and

diversify


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6ter

The prepositions comes from the ndo%*uropean root ]apoter%oi. The co"nates include 7ld

ndian apataram, 7ld +ersian apataram, ?rmenian vayr, 8reek ^_``, #ornish ater,

8othic aftaro, 7ld unic after, 7ld Ei"h 8erman after, 7ld 3a!on aftar, 7ld 'risian efter,

7ld celandic eptiror 7ld Aorse eptir. The primary meanin" of this preposition overlaps

with the primary meanin" of +resent%day *n"lish after and 1atin post. The preposition

"overned dative and accusativeH

DativeH

onne Ky ylcan d@"e Ke hi hine to K@m ade beran wyllaJ Konne tod@laJ hi his feoh K@t

K@r to lafe biJ @fter K@m "edrynce and K@m ple an on fif oJJe sy! hwylum on ma swa

swa K@s feos andefn biJ.


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Ais nan winter swa stearc K@t ic dyrre @t ham lutian for e"e hlafordes mines.


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The rate of occurence of this preposition durin" the 7ld *n"lish period was relatively

stable. The prototypical meanin" of this preposition overlaps with that of +resent%day

*n"lish byand 1atin ab.

7ld *n"lish


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7ld *n"lish


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o

The preposition comes from the +roto%ndo%*uropean root ]apo. #o"nates in other

lan"ua"es include 7ld ndian =pa, 7ld +ersian apa, )hotanese pa8paiya, +ashto ba8,

Eittite appaappan, 1uwian appa&n', Eiero"lyphic 1uwian apa


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ts rate of occurence has sli"htly increased after 5 what is a direct conseuence of a drift

towards an analytic sta"e of *n"lish lin"uistic system. ?s a result, tostarted to be used as

an euivalent for dative case. ts prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of +resent%Day

*n"lish toand 1atin ad.

7ld *n"lish


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?ccusativeH

3eo ylce rod siJJan Ke 7swold K@r ar@rde on wurJmynte K@r stod, and wurdon fela

"eh@lde untrumra manna and eac swilce nytena Kurh Ja ylcan rode, swa swa us rehte Beda.


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'#-

The preposition comes from the +roto%ndo%*uropean root ]amb i ]mb i. The co"nates

include 7ld ndian abh5ta%, ?rmenian ambo H , 8reek ^, ?lbanian mbimbR, 1atin

ambi%am%an%, 7ld 1atin am, &mbrian amb%a%an%, 7scan ampt, 8aulish ambi%, :elsh,

#ornish and Breton am%em%, 7ld rish imb%imm%, 7ld celandic "mb, 7ld 3a!on "mbi, 7ld

Ei"h 8erman "mbi, 7ld Aorse "mb"m, Tocharian ? ;mpi, Tocharian B antapi. t "overned

dative and accusativeH

DativeH

'orJon we sittaJ ymb Kam we"e w@dli"ende mid Timeus sunu, uton biddan K@s @Jelan

Dauides sunu K@t he "eopeni"e ure "esyhJe, K@t we butan "edwylde K@t weorc ma"onbe"an, Ke we on"unnen habbaJ.


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8ermanic and :est 8ermanic. 7ld *n"lish, alon" with 7ld 3a!on, 7ld 1ow 'ranconian

and 7ld 'risian belon"ed to the :est 8ermanic branch. The followin" alphabetical list of

7ld *n"lish prepositions includes those, which does not stem directly from the +roto%ndo%

*uropean roots. nstead, they developed mainly by word%formative processes in the period

from the +roto%8ermanic up to the pre%historic era of 7ld *n"lish.

6r

The co"nates include 7ld 3a!on Gr, 7ld 'risian Gr, 7ld Ei"h 8erman Gr, 8othic air, and

7ld Aorse ;r. The preposition "overned dativeH

DativeH

Eeo hire andwyrde and cw@JH @r J@m d@"e minra brid"ifta ic eom mid manfulre scilde

besmiten.


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The ortho"raphic variants of this preposition found in the corpus include andlang and

ondlongne. ts rate of occurence was very low and relatively stable. The prototypical

meanin" of this preposition overlaps with that of +resent%day *n"lish alongand 1atinper.

7ld *n"lish


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DativeH

Nonne be eastan #arendran londe, be"eondan K@m westenne, is +ul"ra landC ond be eastan

K@m is #reca land.


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7ld *n"lish


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Na "yt ne com se E@lend binnan Ka ceastre ac w@s Ja "yt on J@re stowe Kar (artha hin

on"ean com.


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(orpholo"ically, it is a compound of be by M t$eon"m two each . The preposition

"overned dative and accusativeH

DativeH

Na "eseah he betwu! Kam warum cype%cnihtas "esette, Ka w@ron hwites lichaman and

f@"eres andwlitan menn, and @Kellice "efe!ode.


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*adsi"e arcebiscop hine hal"ode. Z foran eallum folce hine well l@rde.

ority, speakers of 7ld *n"lish preferred the freuent be%derivation also in the case of

theforan%"roup. n this way, the form beforewas fostered while the other forms were

constantly decreasin". 7f these, onforandisappeared by 25, %tforanby -5 and toforan

a century later.

7ld *n"lish


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?nd"yt and "eKoht menniscre heortan syndon forKhealde to yfele fram iu oKe.


50/114

Ei me on di"le deorce stowe settan sarlice samed anlice, swa Ku worulddeade wri"e mid

foldanC is me @n"e "ast innan hreKres, and me is heorte on hearde "edrefed.


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The ortho"raphic variant of this preposition found in the corpus is neah. ts rate of

occurence durin" the 7ld *n"lish period was relatively stable and its prototypical meanin"

overlaps with that of +resent%day *n"lish nearand 1atinprope.

7ld *n"lish


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is w@s swiJe "eswincfull "ear Z byrstfull on eorJw@stman. Nurh Ka orm@te reinas Ke

coman sona onforan ?u"ust.


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o,pp!

t is a compound of on on M uppan up . t "overned dativeH

1oth for ut of 3odoman to 3e"or, Z Jeah ne com he nauht hraJe onuppan J@m muntum.


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te!ts and which became homophonous with oth until after havin" lost its unstressed final

W[X in *arly (iddle *n"lish pronunciation. The other form was the weak oe on the which

must have been common in alle"ro speech and appears even in writin"


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t is a compound of to to M eacan lar"e . The preposition "overned dativeH

Z of Jam timan, Je man @rest ereJ, oJ (artinus m@ssan he sceal @lcre wucan erian @cer

Z r@can sylf K@t s@d on hlafordes berneC toeacan Jam @ceras to bene Z to "@rsyrJeC

"yf he maran "@rses beJyrfe, Jonne earni"e J@s, swa him man Jafi"e.


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Aumber of words 6 2ate . F .- F .26 F

to&e!

#o"nate with 7ld 3a!on tegegnes. t is a compound of to to M gean strai"ht . The preposition "overned dativeH

Z forKi Ke he to"eanes rihte Z to"eanes Kam arcestole on #antwarabyri".


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58/114

#o"nate with 7ld Aorse )i, 7ld 3a!on $i, 7ld 'risian $ithand 8othic $i. The

preposition "overned "enitive, dative and accusativeH

8enitiveH

N@t biK stran" sealf Z "od wiJ swelcre ablawun"e Z bruneKan Z wiK Kara ceacna "eswelle

oJJe asmorun"e.


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Na 3odomitiscan men w@ron forcuJostan and swyJe synfulle @tforan 8ode.


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3oKlice Ka Ja tun"el%wite"an Kone steorran "esawon f@"enodon swyJe myclum "efean and

"an"ende into Kam huse hi "emetton K@t cild mid (arian hys meder and hi aJenedon hi

and hi to him "eb@don.


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Na het ic sona Ka hors "erwan Z eoredmen hleapan up, Z het "eniman swina micelne wr@d

Z drifan on horsum on"ean K@m elpendum, forKon ic wiste K@t swin w@ron J@m deorum

laJe, Z hiora ryin" hie meahte afyrhton.


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ymb"on" is hundseofonti" mila Z seofeJa d@l anre mile, Z he is "eworht of ti"elan Z of

eorJtyrewan, Z ymbutan Kone weall is se m@sta dic, on K@m is iernende se un"efo"lecesta

streamC Z wiJutan K@m dice is "eworht twe"ea elna heah weall, Z bufan J@m maran

wealle ofer ealne Kone ymb"on" he is mid st@nenum wi"husum beworht.


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to neutrali$ation of different inflectional endin"s. The process, however, did not stop here

and durin" the (iddle *n"lish period, schwa was "radually lost as well, leadin" to a drastic

reduction of the remnants of inflectional endin"s. But phonolo"ical factors did not have to

be the sole stimulus for the levellin" of these sounds. ?fter 909, when the 3candinavian

tribes started to settle in much of eastern and northern *n"land, they, as well as the native

?n"lo%3a!on population, had to ad>ust their speech in order to communicate effectively.

7ld *n"lish and 7ld Aorse were similar lan"ua"es with many identical words and

"rammatical patterns. mportantly, the inflectional endin"s were often a bit different.

Therefore, for a smoother communication, in their interactions, the ?n"lo%3a!on speakers

mi"ht have started to pronounce endin"s of their lan"ua"e a bit less clearly and in this way

contributed to the mer"in" of the final vowels into [. :hat is clear, however, is that

because of this morpholo"ical impoverishment, "rammar had to read>ust. The standardtheory then claims, that the prepositions filled the functional "ap left by the disappearance

of case inflections. Eowever, there is also a competin" theory which holds that it was uite

the opposite. The old case%forms be"an to disappear because more widespread use of

prepositions "radually made them redundant. n a word, it was not a dra"%chain but a push%

chain mechanism. This view is also supported by (itchell


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The preposition comes from 7ld *n"lish onb"tanand is the predecessor of (odern *n"lish

abo"t. The ortho"raphic variants of this preposition found in the corpus include onb"tan,

ab"tan, onb"ton, ab"t%n, ab"tan, ab"te, ab"ten, ab"tenn, ab"ton, onb"ten, abo"te,

abo"ten, abo"t, abo$te, abo)te, abo)tand obo"t. ts rate of occurence was relatively stable

throu"hout the (iddle *n"lish period. ts prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of

+resent%day *n"lish abo"tand 1atin de.

(iddle *n"lish


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ohan of +lessei$, *orl on :arewik, ohan 8effrees sune, +erres of (untfort, ichard of

8rey, o"er of (ortemer, ames of ?ldithele, and @tforen oKre ino e.


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wordsate % % % ./ F

!ter

Ka com Eenri abbot and wreide Ke muneces of Burch to Ke kin" forKi Jat he woldeunderKeden Jat mynstre to #lunie, swa Jat te kin" was wel neh bepaht and sende efter Ke

muneces.


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a enes , agaist, agains, agayns, ogaines, ogainsand ogayne. ts rate of occurence was very

low and the prototypical meanin" of this preposition overlaps with that of +resent%day

*n"lish againstand 1atin contra.

(iddle *n"lish


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The preposition comes from 7ld *n"lish ongemang and is a predecessor of (odern

*n"lish among. The ortho"raphic variants of this preposition found in the corpus include

amang, among, enmang, amanges, amonge, amonges, amongs, among"s, omang, omanges,

amange and amongis. The rate of its occurence was relatively stable and low and its

prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of +resent%day *n"lish amongand beforeand 1atin

inter. t has to be stressed that even in the (iddle *n"lish period, there was not semantic

distinction between bet$ixt and amongas these were more or less interchan"eable. Their

meanin"s differentiated only in (odern *n"lish.

(iddle *n"lish


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wordsate .00 F 2.5 F 2./ F -.02 F

-eorea he to *n"leland com, Ka was he underfan"en mid micel wurtscipe, Z to kin" bletc@d in

undene on e 3unnend@i beforen (idwintre D@i, Z held K@re micel curt.


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preposition par a a,

6/H-9=. ts prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of +resent%day *n"lish byand 1atin

ab.

(iddle *n"lish


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The preposition comes from 7ld *n"lish bet$eonanand is a direct predecessor of (odern

*n"lish bet$een. The ortho"raphic variants of this preposition found in the corpus include

bet"yx, bet$en, bet$eon%n, bet$eonan, bet$eonon, bet$eox, bet$eoxan, bet$ex, bet$oex,

bet$onen, bet$yx, bit"he, bit"hen, bit"hhe, bit"hhen, bit"nd, bit"nde, bit"non, bit$enen,

bit$enenn, bit$eon%n, bit$eone, bit$eonen, bit$eonon, bet"ene, bit"ene, bit$eies, bit$en,

bit$ene, bit$ex, bit$exe, bit$ixen, bet"en, bet$e, bet$ene, bet$ix, bit"ene, bit"ix,

bit"ixand, bit$ix, bit$ixe, bit$yxe, byt$ene, bet"yx, bet$ene, bet$ixe, bet$ixt, bet$yne,

bet$yx, bet$yxen, bet$yxte, bit$ene and byt$ene. ts rate of occurence was relatively

stable durin" the (iddle *n"lish period and its prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of

+resent%day *n"lish bet$eenand amongand 1atin inter. t has to be stressed that even in

(iddle *n"lish period, there was not semantic distinction between bet$ixt and among as

these were more or less interchan"eable. Their meanin"s differentiated only in (odern*n"lish.

(iddle *n"lish


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bi eonde , bi ende , bi onde , bi ondis and beyond. t was a mar"inal preposition with very

low freuency of occurence. ts prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of +resent%day

*n"lish beyondand 1atin "ltra.

(iddle *n"lish


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The preposition comesfrom 7ld *n"lish binnan and has no successor in (odern *n"lish.

The ortho"raphic variants of this preposition found in the corpus include binnen, binnon

and binne. t was a mar"inal preposition with very low rate of occurence which died out

before -5. ts prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of +resent%day *n"lish $ithinand

1atin intra.

(iddle *n"lish


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The preposition comes from 7ld *n"lishframand is a predecessor of (odern *n"lish

from. The ortho"raphic variants of this preposition found in the corpus includeframand

from. There was also compound formfrom$ard


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Aumber of

words

50- 9-/ -9 49--

ate 5.5 F 9.0 F 2.0 F 22.- F

ie

But wo is me Kou art so nakedH

7f mi seyl \ wolde Ke were maked

? cloth Kou mithest inne "on"en,

3one, no cold Kat Ku ne fon"e.


76/114

F before 5 to .-9 F after 5 and then started to increase a"ain. ts prototypical

meanin" overlaps with that of +resent%day *n"lish intoand 1atin in.

(iddle *n"lish


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wordsate 5.0- F .40 F % %

i&$

?nd aftur Kat we hadde wonne our sayd toun of 1ouiers, we cam afore pount%de%larche, andbisie"ed it on Kat oon syde of Ke riuer of seyne, and vpon munday Ke iii> day of Ke moneK

of Ouill we "ate vpon our enemys Ke passa"e ouer the sayd riuer, and "od of his mercy

shewed so for vs and for our ri"ht that it was withouten Ke deK of any mannes persone of

oures, albehit that our enemys, with "rete power, assembled ni"h the same riuer, for to haue

let and defended vs the same passa"e.


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The preposition comes from 7ld *n"lish ofand is a direct predecessor of (odern *n"lish

of. The ortho"raphic variants of this preposition found in the corpus include of, offand offe.

The form off was used as na ortho"raphic variant for of until / a,

6/H-65= when its meanin"s became differentiated. The form offe was an emphatic form

analo"ous to invs. inne. ?ccordin" to :illiams a, the interchan"eability of ofand on, in particular, may have beenfurthered by the rather common reduction of both prepositions to oand a. 'rom the late 7ld

*n"lish period to /, when bybecomes more common, ofis by far the most freuently

used preposition to indicate the a"ent of a passive action


79/114

?nd be ay full of enmyte

To al mankynde on ilke a side,

?nd erthe it shalle thy sustynaunce be

To ete and drynke.


80/114

ate .44 F .5 F .44 F .59 F

sit$e

?lso the forsaide 3ir ichard toke obert atte (ere, +etre atte (ere, and enprisoned hem

and stokkid hem withinne the forsaid lordship, forto haue had hem his bonde men, there Katthei and alle tenant of the same lordship aren fre, and euere haue be, and all hire auncestrie

sithen tyme oute of mynde.


81/114

marker in (iddle *n"lish period. The prototypical meanin" of this preposition overlaps

with that of +resent%day *n"lish toand 1atin in.

(iddle *n"lish


82/114

The preposition comes from 7ld *n"lish to$eardand is a predecessor of (odern *n"lish

to$ard and to$ards. The ortho"raphic variants of this preposition found in the corpus

include to"$ard, to$ard, to$ardan, to$arrd, to$art, to$eard, to$earden, to$arde,

to$ardes andto$ardis. The %s of to$ardescomes from the "enitive sin"ular endin" %es. ?s

noted by (ustano>a a, 6/H4-=, since 7ld *n"lish period, the elements of the

preposition have not infreuently been separated by a nounH toM no"nM $ard. ts rate of

occurence was relatively low and was constantly decreasin" durin" the (iddle *n"lish

period. The prototypical meanin" of this preposition overlaps with that of +resent%day

*n"lish to$ardand 1atin erga.

(iddle *n"lish


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:itt shulenn tredenn unnderr fot annd all Kwerrtut forrwerrpenn Ke dom off all Katt laKe

flocc Katt niK forrblendedd, Katt t@leKK Katt to lofenn iss Kurrh niKfull modi nesse.


84/114

Natt upponn all Kiss boc ne be nan word n #ristess lare,

Aan word tatt swiKe wel ne be to trowwenn annd to foll henn.


85/114

midand the fact that another preposition, i.e. ongean, was available to take over. 3econdly,

as noted by Dekeyser, one could ar"ue that it was due to the pressure of unambi"uous

ongeanthat $ilost its oppositional salience. 1ast but not least, an influence of 7ld Aorse

)i, whose prototypical meanin" was identical with (odern%*n"lish $ith, mi"ht have been

influential. 3ome lin"uists ar"ue also for the influence of 1atin c"m a,

6/H46=. Eowever, as stressed by Dekeyser


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8i7,te

?waym #laris, uaK Blauncheflur,

Eo Kat luveK paramur,

?nd haK Kerof >oye mai luve fluresC

?c ich libbe in sore e in Kis tures,

'or ich wene, wiKute "abbe,

NatKe ?dmiral me wile habbe.


87/114


88/114

The preposition is a compound of 7ld *n"lish bi sidan. The ortho"raphic variants of this

preposition found in the corpus include bisiden, bisides, biside, bysyde, bisidand bisidis. ts

rate of occurence was relatively stable and its prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of

+resent%day *n"lish besideand 1atin ap"d.

(iddle *n"lish

a a,

6/H-04=, its occurence in (iddle *n"lish may owe somethin" to forei"n, probably 7ld

Aorse influence. The only ortho"raphic variant of this preposition found in the corpus is

forby. The preposition was mar"inal and did not occur before 25. The prototypical

meanin" of this preposition overlaps with that of +resent%day *n"lish past and 1atin

praeter.

(iddle *n"lish


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-5. ts prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of +resent%day *n"lish $ithand 1atin

c"m.

(iddle *n"lish


90/114

Aumber of

words

/ 4/ 56

ate % ./2 F .24 F .29 F

i8it$

'or which this Oanuarie, of whom tolde,

#onsidered hath, inwith his dayes olde,

The lusty lyf, the vertuous uyete,

That is in maria"e hony%sweete,

?nd for his freendes on a day he sente,

To tellen hem thxeffect of his entente.

a a, 6/H-62=, this preposition occurs

from the -th century down to the /th century. n our corpus, have found only one

occurence in (iddle *n"lish period. ts prototypical meanin" overlaps with that of

+resent%day *n"lish $ithinand 1atin intra.

(iddle *n"lish


91/114

honde as it is ful knowen, and thorou"h debate and stren"er partye ayeins the pees bifore

purveyde was chosen mair, in destruccion of many ry"ht.


92/114

#ateryn and Eue 'enne recomaund them unto you, and they praye fore you as they can.


93/114

*n"lish also from another lan"ua"e, namely, 7ld Aorse. The speakers of this lan"ua"e

occupied part of *n"land already durin" the late 7ld *n"lish period, nevertheless, people

outside the Dane 1aw mi"ht have been reluctant to use the words that they associated with

their 3candinavian a"ressor. ?s a result, 3candinavian lan"ua"e had had very low presti"e

in areas outside the Dane 1aw. 3till, after the Vikin"s relinuished power, these ne"ative

connotations mi"ht have "radually disappeared. This made it possible for words of

3candinavian derivation to spread to all dialects of *n"lish. #onseuently, there is an

increase in the use of the preposition tiland formation of another compound preposition

"ntilwhich are both of 3candinavian ori"in. The list of loan prepositions which entered the

(iddle *n"lish prepositional system includes-H

)osi"eri&The whiche by reasons holde torne theyr face from the worlde, consideryn" the ende of

theyr lyfe


94/114

a


95/114

?nd hevenblys me helps to wyn.


96/114


97/114

version of #@dmon;s Eymn, one from the uthwell #ross inscription and two from the

!indisfarne ospels= are crucial for the ?n"lo%3a!on interpretation of the preposition as the

others may be easily e!plained as 3candinavian borrowin"s due to the time of their

attestation. Eowever, )ry"ier points out that the early two instances of til from the 0th

century should be seen as the only survivals of an otherwise unattested poetic 7ld *n"lish

til, since it is not possible to show any functional continuity between the early and the late

e!amples of til. The early e!amples are used as an e!pression of purpose in #@dmon;s

Eymn and in local sense in uthwell #ross while in the 1indisfarne 8ospels, tilintroduces

an inflected infinitive in the first instance or follows a verb of speakin" in a uasi%phrasal

construction in the second instance. (oreover, at the time of writin" the respective

passa"es of the 1indisfarne 8ospels, the Danes had been livin" in Aorthumbria for

appro!imately a century. The prototypical meanin" of this preposition overlaps with that of+resent%day *n"lish "ntiland 1atin "s^"e ad

(iddle *n"lish


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to"chyngge. The seventeen instances found in the corpus all come from the (iddle *n"lish

period.

(iddle *n"lish


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took place durin" this period. 3tandard lan"ua"es are often the by%products of burreaucracy

and arise from practical administrative needs. *n"lish was not a e!ception. t became

standardi$ed firstly due to the need of the central "overnment for re"ular procedures by

which to conduct its business, to keep its records, and to communicate with the citi$ens of

the land. ?mon" other influences that stron"ly fostered the standardi$ation process was the

invetion of the printin" press. ? few decades after the invention, in 494, :illiam #a!ton

printed the first *n"lish book in Bel"ium. Two years later, #a!ton brou"ht the printin"

press into *n"land where he published about ei"hty other titles. n doin" so, #a!ton

contributed to the stabili$ation of the new standard based on 1ondon dialect, since he

concentrated on makin" the lan"ua"e understandable to the broad masses of population that

read his books. n the si!teenth and the seventeenth century, there were other spellin"

reformers like Oohn #heke, Thoms 3mith, Oohn Eart, :illiam Bullokar. ?le!ander 8il or#harles Butler, but the proposals of none of them met success. 'inally, it was not until the

ei"hteenth century that *n"lish had reached the sta"e with a fully standardi$ed spellin". ?s

far as the standardi$ation of prepositions is concerned, usually the short forms became

standardi$ed


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$ithregard toand $ith respect to. The third "roup contains those items, which were added

within the last three centuriesH byreference to, in accordance $ith, in addition to, in charge

of, in connection $ith, in contrast to, inexcess of, in front of, in line $ith, in response to, in

ret"rn for, in s"pport of, in terms of and in )ie$ of. These became the lar"est "roup of

prepositions durin" the (odern *n"lish period and contributed si"nificantly to the

e!pansion of the word class.

0. CONCLUSION

The present thesis aimed to shed some li"ht on *n"lish prepositions from

a historical perspective. t tried to do so on both theoretical and empirical level. 7n

theoretical level, e!amined four hundred years of the history of *n"lish "rammar writin"

with special reference to *n"lish prepositions. 3ome of the most influential definitions and

treatements of prepositions were e!amined. :e have seen that especially in the first

decades of *n"lish "rammar writin", there was a minority of "rammarias like Eume,

Oonson, or 'isher, who did not acknowled"e in their works that prepositions constitute

a word class in its own ri"ht. 7ther "rammarians acknowled"ed the traditional status of

a preposition as a separate word class, althou"h not everyone considered them important

enou"h to deal with them in their "rammars. 8enerally, the history of *n"lish "rammar

writin" with re"ard to prepositions can be seen as one of relative sta"nation, e!ceptionally


101/114

interrupted by authors like Bullokar, (ie"e, (aittaire, Bri"htland, 8reenwood or 1owth.

The relative ne"li"ence of prepositions culminated in the first half of the twentieth century,

when most of the "rammarians completely omitted sections on prepositions in their works.

t was only in the second half of the twentieth century, that the situation radically chan"ed

and since then, "rammarians like 3chibsbye, Luirk, 8reenbaum, 1eech, 3vartvik,

Euddleston, +ullum or ?arts introduced scientifically precise definitions and developed

detailed and elaborate frameworks for their description, which, in most cases, reflect

contemporary developments in theoretical lin"uistics.

:hen it comes to the results of my empirical research, these are scattered

throu"hout the thesis. ? chart with fi"ures e!pressin" rate of occurence of each preposition

is provided, as well as the list of all ortho"raphic variants found in the corpus. The primary

meanin" of each preposition is always illustrated on +resent%day *n"lish as well as 1atin.Besides these findin"s, the corpus allows us for the followin", more "eneral, conclusions.

+repositions have always been hi"h freuency words in *n"lish. 7ut of fifty most freuent

words, at least nine have always been prepositions. n the 7ld *n"lish period, prepositional

system was entirely ndo%*uropean or 8ermanic in its ori"in. (orpholo"ically, it consisted

of simple and compound prepositions. Ao comple! prepositions occured durin" the 7ld

*n"lish period. The corpus has shown that the number of prepositions was constantly

increasin". t was increasin" already durin" the 7ld *n"lish period due to word%formative

processes. This trend continued in the (iddle *n"lish period. The prepositions increased as

both tokens and types. The increase in preposition tokens was part of the movement of the

lan"ua"e from a more synthetic to a more analytic stateH as the old case%systems decayed,

their function was often taken over by prepositions. The increase of prepositions as types is

a direct conseuence of further word%formative processes and new loans. (ost of the new

prepositions came from 'rench. n fact, the ma>ority of forei"n prepositions that penetrated

into *n"lish lin"uistic system throu"hout its 5 years history are of 'rench ori"in.

Besides, two prepositions are of 7ld Aorse ori"in. The history of loan prepositions

therefore mirrors the lon" lastin" intimate relation between ?n"lo%3a!ons and

3candinavians and ?n"lo%3a!ons and Aormans. The relation of the *n"lish people with

other nations durin" the (odern *n"lish period was never close and lon" enou"h to affect

the prepositional system of *n"lish. n other words, *n"lish simple prepositions never saw


102/114

"reater influ! of forei"n items than in the (iddle *n"lish period. (iddle *n"lish period

can be therefore classified as a period of borrowin"s, whereas (odern *n"lish period can

be classified as a period of the "rammaticali$ation of comple! prepositions. Their number

has increased considerably durin" (odern *n"lish period and the whole class was therefore

a"ain substantially e!tended. 8enerally, then, we can claim that the number of prepositions

is constantly risin". +repositions can be therefore defined as a relatively open and

e!pandin" class althou"h, when studied from a short%term perspective, it appears to be a

closed class which is not prone to uick chan"es. ?nother conclusion may be made on

semantic level.

:hen comparin" the uantitative development of those 7ld and (iddle *n"lish

prepositions, whose primary, prototypical meanin"s overlapped, there was a "eneral

tendency of one preposition to oust the other


103/114

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pri#!r' so,r)es

Eelsinki #orpus of *n"lish Te!ts


104/114

Assistance of !atin` Composed for the "se of all English-Schools_ ,y 1oseph Aic(in

M_A_ and lately one of the Masters of the 2ree-School of !ondon-Derry. 1ondon

?nonym


105/114

Bau"h, ?lbert #. and #able, Thomas ect.

#obbett, :illiam k


106/114

#urme, 8eor"e 7.


107/114

the eni"s and at"re of the English *ong"e` i)ing !i(e$ise a ational and Plain

Acco"nt of rammar in eneral $ith a 2amiliar Explanation of its *erms_ ,y

1ames reen$ood. 1ondon

Eall, Oohn . #lark


108/114

1eech, 8eoffrey, +aul ayson and ?ndrew :ilson amins

+ublishin" #ompany.

(iY"e, 8uy


109/114


110/114

more speedy attaining to the !atine tong"e by the help of English_ Set o"t 2or the

"se and profit of yo"ng Children j framed so as they may bee exercised in it as

soon as they can b"t indiferrently read English_ ,y 1osh"a Poole_ 1ondon.

+riestley, Ooseph


111/114

3ykes, '. E.


112/114

tonat"ral lang"age processing. BerlinH (outon de 8ruyter.

S,##!r'

The present thesis studies *n"lish prepositions from a historical perspective. t

intends to do so on both, theoretical and empirical level. ?fter a "eneral introduction,

chapter two deals with basic methodolo"ical problems. t briefly describes the Eelsinki

#orpus which is the source of the analysed data and e!plains that the author adopts a new,

broader notion of preposition than the one which can be found in traditional "rammars.

3ubseuently, chapter three analyses the relation of prepositions to morpholo"ical,

syntactic, le!ical and semantic plane of *n"lish lin"uistic system. #hapter four intends to

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trace the four hundred year history of *n"lish "rammar writin" with special reference to

*n"lish prepositions. t provides the reader with some of the most influential definitions of

prepositions and scrutini$es the approaches to their study adopted in these "rammars.

#hapter five is the first chapter of the empirical part of the thesis. The empirical part is

essentially uantitative and is based on the diachronic part of the Eelsinki #orpus. t firstly

introduces those 7ld *n"lish prepositions, which come directly from the +roto%ndo%

*uropean lan"ua"e. 3ubseuently, prepositions of "ermanic ori"in are listed and finally,

new 7ld *n"lish prepositions which arose in the course of the 7ld *n"lish period. #hapter

si! continues in the (iddle *n"lish period. ?"ain, prepositions are listed historically.

'irstly, the prepositions which come directly from 7ld *n"lish are analysed, subseuently

those which arose durin" the (iddle *n"lish period by word%formative processes and

finally new loan prepositions are e!amined. *very preposition is decribed in terms of itsortho"raphic variants found in the corpus and its uantitative development throu"hout the

respective period. The final chapter deals with the main chan"es that influenced *n"lish

prepositions in (odern *n"lish period.

RESUM>

Diplomov prce se $abv studiem an"lickch pzedloek $ historickho hlediska.

+zedloky >sou analy$ovny na rovin{ teoretick i empirick. +o obecnm |vodu nsledu>e

kapitola 2, kter po>ednv o $kladn}ch metodolo"ickch problmech. Oe v n} stru~n{

charakteri$ovn Eelsinsk korpus, >en >e $dro>em pro autorovu anal$u, >akoto tak $cela

nov, pon{kud ir} po>et} po>mu pzedloky ne to, kter meme na>}t ve tradi~n}ch

mluvnic}ch. )apitola - p}e o v$tahu pzedloek k ostatn}m rovinm >a$ykovho systmu,

$e>mna k rovin{ morfolo"ick, syntaktick, le!ikln} a smantick. tvrt kapitola se

sna} sledovat an"lick pzedloky v$hledem k ~tyzi sta let trva>}c} historii psn} an"lickch

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mluvnic. tenzi nab}$} ne>v$namn{>} definice pzedloek, pzi~em tak pe~liv{ analy$u>e

r$n pz}stupy t{chto mluvnic k >e>ich studiu. +t kapitola >e prvn} v rmci empirick ~sti

diplomov prce. Ta >e $am{zena pzevn{ kvantitativn{ a soustzeu>e se na korpusovou

anal$u >ednotlivch pzedloek. Ae>dz}v{ uvd} ty staroan"lick pzedloky, kter poch$}

pz}mo $ protoindoevropskho >a$yka. Asledn{ >sou >menovny pzedloky "ermnskho

pvodu, a kone~n{ nov, staroan"lick pzedloky, kter v$nikly v prb{hu doby

staroan"lick. est kapitola pokra~u>e v dob{ stzedoan"lick. +zedloky >sou op{t za$eny

historicky. Ae>dz}v{ >sou uvedeny ty, kter pokra~u>} pz}mo $e star an"li~tiny. Asledu>}

pzedloky v$nikl v prb{hu doby stzedoan"lick b{hem slovotvorn}ch proces a na $v{r

>sou uvedeny pzedloky ci$}ho pvodu. )ad pzedloka >e analy$ovna v$hledem k >e>}m

orto"rafickm variantm, >e >e mon nal$t v korpusu a taky v$hledem k >e>}mu

kvantitativn}mu vvo>i v rmci pz}slunch obdob} staroan"lickch a stzedoan"lickch.Pv{re~n kapitola se soustzedu>e na hlavn} $m{ny, ke kterm dolo od doby stzedn}

an"li~tiny po modern} an"li~tinu.

Diploma Thesis Ocislovana

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