Integration of cognate loan verbs in contact bClosely related languages effecting valency changes

DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38778-4_12
URL:	https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-03...
Document Type:	Conference or workshop publication
Year of publication:	2023
Book title:	Language in educational and cultural perspectives
Page range:	237-258
Conference title:	C&C 2021: Interlingual and Intercultural Contacts and Contrasts – Approaches and Practices
Location of the conference venue:	Konin, Poland
Date of the conference:	18.-20.10.2021
Publisher:	Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Barbara ; Trojszczak, Marcin
Place of publication:	Cham, Switzerland
Publishing house:	Springer
ISBN:	978-3-031-38777-7 , 978-3-031-38778-4
Related URLs:	https://cc.pwsz.konin.edu.pl/wp-content/...
Publication language:	English
Institution:	School of Humanities > Anglistik IV - Anglistische Linguistik/Diachronie (Trips 2006-)
Subject:	400 Language, linguistics
Individual keywords (German):	Altnordisch , Mittelenglisch , Lehnwort , Verb , Valenz
Keywords (English):	argument structure , valency , loan , verb , Old Norse
Abstract:	In contact between closely related languages like Old Norse (ON) and Old English (OE), higher similarity between units of the languages in contact can favour integration of loans as selective copies (Johanson, 2002). This can result in the copying of cognates like Middle English (ME) reisen ‘to raise’ (<ON reisa) which shows intransitive rísan as a formally similar cognate in OE. A mixed-methods analysis of ME corpus data shows that the argument realisation patterns used with forms representing either cognate verb show semantic and combinational features of both verbs. It is argued that ambiguity between cognate phonological forms of OE rísan, ON causative reisa and ON anticausative rísa during contact served as the source for structural ambiguity between valency constructions later available to both ME verbs rísen and reisen. Thus, this work proposes that formal ambiguity between identifiable cognates in contact can disguise existing meaningful structural and semantic contrasts and lead to argument structural changes like the labilisation of historically contrasting, non-labile verbs. This work provides evidence that copying of cognates can serve as a source for argument structural change because, not despite, of linguistic closeness.