Conjunctive Formations in Old English and Modern English

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the formation and ordering principles of constituents in reduplicative and conjunctive formations in both Old English (OE) and Modern English (ME). By comparing the conjunctive relations in these two language eras, we seek to identify the main similarities and differences. Various patterns of conjunctive formations are observed in both OE and ME. While Haeberli (2002) and Baker (2012) argue that conjunctive relations in OE affect sentence word order, Ringe and Taylor (2015) propose similarities between OE and ME in the formation of conjunctive relations. To shed light on this topic, the paper examines corresponding OE prose (with translations into ME) and samples from contemporary ME texts. The study draws upon the extensive statistical research of Cichosz (2021) for OE data and collects news pieces from prominent English online newspapers for ME data. Preliminary findings suggest that cultural, social, and linguistic factors significantly influence conjunctive formations in both OE and ME.

Keywords

• Keywords: Conjunctive Relations, Old English Word Order, Comparative Linguistics