A prefix–particle verb cycle for Germanic?

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses the evolution of preverbs in Germanic languages from a model of prefixation to the systematic use of verb–particle combinations. Both prefixes and particles are originally free adverbs which cliticize to verbs, modifying their meaning and generating new verbal lexemes. Their original directional sense is weakened and lost, and new directional adverbs are drawn into first free, then fixed combinations as phrasal, prepositional, and particle verbs. These processes share elements of both lexicalization and grammaticalization and together form a predictable cycle of changes illustrated with data from both Gothic and Old Saxon. The latter is on a trajectory which will produce separable prefixes in later Middle Low German, whereas the route which the former might have taken cannot be confirmed because Gothic lacks an ulterior history.