Motion and the English Verb

A Diachronic Study

Judith Huber

Oxford Studies in the History of English

Offers the first comprehensive account of motion encoding in early English
Provides a diachronic contribution to the typology of motion encoding with a focus on intertypological language contact of Middle English and Anglo-French
Analyzes the process of borrowing and integration of French path verbs in Middle English

Motion and the English Verb

A Diachronic Study

Judith Huber

Oxford Studies in the History of English

Description

In Motion and the English Verb, a study of the expression of motion in medieval English, Judith Huber provides extensive inventories of verbs used in intransitive motion meanings in Old and Middle English, and discusses these in terms of the manner-salience of early English. Huber demonstrates how several non-motion verbs receive contextual motion meanings through their use in the intransitive motion construction. In addition, she analyzes which verbs and structures are employed most frequently in talking about motion in select Old and Middle English texts, demonstrating that while satellite-framing is stable, the extent of manner-conflation is influenced by text type and style.

Huber further investigates how in the intertypological contact with medieval French, a range of French path verbs (entrer, issir, descendre, etc.) were incorporated into Middle English, in whose system of motion encoding they are semantically unusual. Their integration into Middle English is studied in an innovative approach which analyzes their usage contexts in autonomous Middle English texts as opposed to translations from French and Latin. Huber explains how these verbs were initially borrowed not for expressing general literal motion, but in more specific, often metaphorical and abstract contexts. Her study is a diachronic contribution to the typology of motion encoding, and advances research on the process of borrowing and loanword integration.

Motion and the English Verb

A Diachronic Study

Judith Huber

Oxford Studies in the History of English

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Theoretical framework
Chapter 3. Problems with historical data
Chapter 4. Talking about motion in medieval English: aims, material, and method
Chapter 5. Talking about MOTION in Old English
Chapter 6. Talking about motion in Middle English
Chapter 7. Latin and medieval French in the motion verb typology
Chapter 8. Borrowed PATH verbs in Middle English: preliminary considerations
Chapter 9. Borrowed PATH verbs in Middle English
Chapter 10. General Conclusion
Appendix C
References

Motion and the English Verb

A Diachronic Study

Judith Huber

Oxford Studies in the History of English

Author Information

Judith Huber, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-NÃ¼rnberg

Judith Huber is assistant professor in English linguistics at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-NÃ¼rnberg (FAU). She studied English and Romance linguistics and literature in Hamburg and Munich, and was previously lecturer in English linguistics at the Catholic University of EichstÃtt-Ingolstadt and at LMU Munich. Her main fields of interest are processes of language change and language contact, in particular with respect to English historical lexicology and syntax.

Motion and the English Verb

A Diachronic Study

Judith Huber

Oxford Studies in the History of English

Reviews and Awards

"Huber's monograph is a welcome addition to the literature... Overall, the volume is a fine achievement and should stand as required reading for future studies" - Richard Ingham, Anglia

"readers will find it informative and helpful in many respects. Huber distinguishes her research with a systematic examination of various Old English dictionaries and reference books ... serves well as a useful resource for postgraduate students and researchers of general linguistics, linguistic typology, first and second language acquisition, cognitive linguistics and corpus linguistics." - Xinhua Yuan, Journal of Linguistics

"The merit of this excellent book lies not only in the detailed analysis of which verbs and which structures are typically used to express motion in Medieval English, but also, and especially, in the identification of the processes underlying the integration of uncommon strategies with the prevailing ones of a language ... an important reference point for subsequent studies on the phenomena of contact and variation in the research field of motion-event typology." - Claudio Iacobini, Language

"The volume [...] should stand as required reading for future studies of historical semantics, not least thanks to the clarity and thoroughness with which its methodology is set out" - Richard Ingham, Journal of English Philology