Contextualizing Old English noun phrases

Abstract

This three-part study considers adjectival modification in Old English noun phrases from a micro-level perspective. In the first part, I outline and discuss Fischer’s (2000, 2001, 2006, 2012) and Haumann’s (2003, 2010) academic exchange on the topic. Fischer’s proposal is that there is a relation between adjective position on the one hand, and definiteness, declension and linear iconicity on the other, while Haumann proposes that pre- or postnominal position follows from interpretive contrasts, such as attribution vs. predication, individual-level vs. stage-level reading, given vs. new information, and restrictive vs. non-restrictive modification. In the second part, I carry out a close reading of noun phrases taken from two Old English texts, Cura Pastoralis and the West-Saxon Gospels, focusing on constructions with conjoined adjectival modification. I show that neither Fischer’s nor Haumann’s generalizations can account for the distribution. Finally, in the third part of the study, I turn to noun phrases containing prenominal or postnominal adjectival present participles in Cura Pastoralis. Here the focus is on the intertextual relation between the original Latin text and the translation into Old English, which sheds light on noun phrase structure.