Multiple Adjectival Modification in Old and Middle English: A Reconfiguration of a Constructional Network

Abstract

The present article looks at patterns of Old and Middle English multiple adjectival modification (asyndetic and conjoined) and interprets their interrelations in the framework of Construction Grammar. This study contributes to previous research by offering a systematic, corpus-based comparison of formally related adjectival structures, which are analyzed from a usage-based perspective and then mapped onto the language network organized according to domain-general cognitive principles. The results indicate constructional change between Old and Middle English, which can be accounted for in terms of the reconfiguration of horizontal-relatedness links (which are based on contrast and alternation) and the resulting change in the vertical-inheritance structure. More broadly, the study confirms that any violations of the well-established Principle of No Synonymy in language may be explained in a diachronic perspective and with reference to general principles of language processing.