The morphological and semantic types of lost old English adjectives. (2024)

1. Aims and Scope

While there is agreement among scholars on the fact that most OldEnglish words have disappeared from the lexicon (85% according toKastovsky 1992 and 60% according to Trask 1996) the characteristics ofthe lexical items that have not survived in the lexical stock have drawnless attention. For this reason, the aim of this journal article is todeal with lexical loss by focusing on the category of the adjective.More specifically, this research addresses two main questions: first,how to quantify the lexical losses of Old English adjectives and,second, how to classify such losses. While the former question is moredescriptive, the latter can be explanatory if considered from twoperspectives, namely the morphological aspect of word-formation and theconcept of semantic fields and dimensions. Ultimately, the discussionthat follows is geared towards finding points of contact betweensemantic taxonomy and derivational morphology on the one hand, andlexical loss on the other. (1)

Put in these terms, this piece of research is a contribution to thefields of Old English word-formation and lexical semantics, which, withthe exception of Wang (2009), reviewed in more detail in the followingsection, have not raised the question of the nature of lexical losses,in spite of its relevance to the structure of the lexicon. With regardto word-formation, Kastovsky (1986, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2005, 2006) dealswith the typological shift from variable bases to invariable bases ofinflection and derivation, while Martin Arista (2011a, 2011b, 2012a,2012b, 2012c, 2013, fc.) explains the derivational processes of OldEnglish within the framework of structural-functional morphology, bymeans of morphological templates displaying word positions andfunctions. Martin Arista and Cortes Rodriguez (fc.) also adopt astructural-functional perspective to explain the grammaticalisation ofdirectionals in the complex verbs of a number of languages including OldEnglish. Haselow (2011), in the wake of Kastovsky (2006), takes issuewith the change from stem-formation to word-formation in English anddescribes the rise of some analytic tendencies. Finally, Trips (2009) isconcerned with the productivity of word-formation processes and itsimpact on the overall structure of the lexicon. With regard to lexicalsemantics, Weman (1933) and Ogura (2002) focus their analysis on verbsof motion while Strite (1989) offers a simplified version of the type oflexical organisation based on fields and dimensions found in theHistorical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. Other works, of amore semantic orientation, carry out an analysis of Old English semanticprimes. Martin Arista and Martin de la Rosa (2006), de la CruzCabanillas (2007) and Guarddon Anelo (2009a, 2009b) belong in thisgroup.

The relevance of the topic of lexical loss is related to the layoutof the Old English lexicon, which is consistently Germanic in tworespects. In the first place, it is comprised almost completely ofGermanic lexical items, the number of loanwords representing, accordingto Kastovsky (1992: 294), about 3% only. In the second place,word-formation, which is preferred over borrowing for lexical expansion,inputs native bases to the processes of derivational morphology.Regarding this question, Kastovsky (1992: 308) finds the main reason forthe small number of loanwords in Old English in "the astonishingversatility with which the native vocabulary could be used in order torender a foreign concept". A far-reaching consequence of theimportance of word-formation in Old English is that the lexicon ischaracterized by the existence of large morphologically-related wordfamilies which hold formally-analysable and semantically-transparentrelations (Kastovsky 1992; Lass 1994; Mugglestone 2006), as is the casewith the set of derivatives of (ge)springan 'to jump, leap, spring,burst forth, rise; spread, be diffused, grow; want, lack', whichincludes aspringan 'to spring up or forth, break forth, spread;arise, originate, be born; dwindle, diminish, fail, cease',Upaspringan 'to spring up, arise', Upspringan 'to riseup', tospringan 'to spring apart', onspringan 'tospring forth', oetspringan 'to rush forth', etc. Theseanalysable and transparent morphological relationships, along with thelexical items that bear them, disappear to a large extent as aconsequence of the massive lexical borrowing brought about by the NormanConquest (Burnley 1992: 211), which eventually resulted in a dissociatedlexicon (Kastovsky 1992: 293). In a dissociated lexicon, morphologicalrelationships are replaced by lexical relationships among words ofdifferent historical origin, as in hand (Germanic) manual (Romance).Leaving aside the survival of a small part of the Old English lexicalstock, the dissociation of the lexicon of Present-day English cannot beattributed to lexical borrowing only. It is also a consequence oflexical loss. Thus, in a pair like father paternal, it is important torecognise that the presence of the Romance form paternal is mirrored bythe absence of the Germanic foederen 'paternal'.

Once the discussion has been set in its background, the article canbe outlined as follows. Section 2 explains the methodology adopted inthe remainder of the article, sections 3 and 4 describe the results ofthe morphological and semantic analyses respectively, and section 5draws the conclusions of this research.

2. Research Methodology

In the previous section the point has been made that, in spite ofthe relevance of the phenomenon of lexical loss, the question of themorphological and semantic nature of lost lexical items remains largelyuntouched. A remarkable exception in this respect is the work by Wang(2009), who has identified a number of relationships between the old andthe modern tongue: (i) an Old English compound disappears, although itscomponents remain, as is the case with winberige 'grape'('wine-berry') and heafod-ban 'skull'('head-bone'); (ii) a Modern English compound contains acomponent that is no longer used independently, as in werewolf, the onlyword where Old English wer 'man' survives; (iii) an OldEnglish word no longer survives, but either its derivative or base does,as is the case with winsome, derived from the Old English base wynn'joy', or wedding, derived from wedd 'pledge'; (iv)an Old English word survives in form, but no longer in conjunction witha meaning it had during the Old English period, as can be seen in theform gewoede, 'clothing, raiment, dress, apparel' which,survives as weeds but with the more specific meaning 'mourningclothes'; (v) an Old English word survives only in a limited speechcommunity like Scottish English, which keeps forms like eith'easy' (Old English Sade) and nesh 'soft' (OldEnglish hnesce); and (vi) the process of reanalysis has brought an OldEnglish word into Modern English in an unpredictable altered form, as isthe case with guma 'man', which was reanalyzed as groom inbridegroom.

Since Wang (2009) does not focus on absolute losses, this journalarticle aims at analyzing lexical items that no longer remain in thelexicon. As Wang's methodology demonstrates, semantic analysis goeshand in hand with morphological analysis. Lost Old English adjectivesare considered from two perspectives. On the morphological side, thecategory and inflectional class of the base of derivation as well as theaffixes and the type of derivational process are taken into account,while the semantic analysis yields a classification of these Old Englishadjectives.

For the reasons given above, the methodological steps of thisresearch include the gathering of the inventory of lost adjectives andtheir morphological and semantic analysis. In order to identify lexicallosses, two lexicographical sources are used: a lexical loss isidentified whenever an adjective appears in the Old Englishlexicographical source but not in the Present-day English one. The OldEnglish data has been retrieved from the lexical database of Old EnglishNerthus (www. nerthusproject.com), which is based mainly on A ConciseAnglo-Saxon Dictionary and, to a lesser extent, on An Anglo-SaxonDictionary and The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon. (2) Thisonline database provides meaning definitions and morphologicalinformation of a total of 29,992 Old English words, including 16,694nouns, 5,788 adjectives, 5,618 verbs and 1,892 members of grammaticalclasses. (3)

The comparison of the two lexicographical sources yields a figureof 4,825 Old English adjectives listed by Nerthus that are not includedin the The Oxford English Dictionary. Some instances of lost Old Englishadjectives follow in (1):

(1) acoeglod 'studded with pegs; locked with a key',agimmed 'set with precious stones', anhyrned 'having onehorn', oehtboren 'born in bondage', feowertynenihte'fourteen nights old', gesperod 'armed with aspear', mylenscearp 'sharpened on a grindstone',symbelwlonc 'elated with feasting', toefle 'given todice-playing', twihynde 1 'having wergild of 200shillings'.

The comparison of these lexicographical sources has also attestedthe survival of 963 out of the 5,788 Old English adjectives provided bythe lexical database Nerthus. That is, 16.63% of Old English adjectiveshave survived without much change, in spite of the foreign influencesand generalized lexical loss on which I have commented above.Conversely, a remarkable 83.36% (4,825) have been lost.

Several types of semantic relationship between Old English andPresent-day English adjectives have been established, including (a) nomeaning change, (b) addition of new senses, (c) loss of some senses, (d)simultaneous addition and loss of senses and (e) meaning change. Thesecategories are illustrated in (2a)-(2e) below:

(2)

a. No meaning change: oferfoet 'too fat', unloered,'unlearned', hyrnen 'of horn', gelastful'helpful, serviceable'.

b. Some senses added: gesweordod 'provided with a sword'(added senses: 'having some part resembling a sword'),behoflic 'necessary' (added senses: 'ofuse; useful,profitable; needful'), loetsum 'backward' (added senses:'slow, sluggish; late'), iolebyrde 'patient' (addedsenses: 'bearing patiently; forbearing, submissive').

c. Some senses lost: unforgifen 'unforgiven; not given inmarriage' (lost sense: 'not given in marriage'), crumb'crooked, bent, stooping' (lost senses: 'bent,stooping'), floescen 'of flesh, like flesh' (lost sense:'like flesh'),glidder 'slippery; lustful' (lostsense: 'lustful').

d. Some senses added and other senses lost: dreorig 'bloody,blood-stained; cruel, grievous; sad, sorrowful; headlong?' (addedsenses: 'full of sadness or melancholy; doleful, melancholy;dismal, gloomy; repulsively dull or uninteresting'; lost senses:'bloody, blood-stained; cruel, grievous; sorrowful; headlong?),hldfordleas 'without a lord, leaderless' (added sense:'of a woman: husbandless'; lost sense:'leaderless'), fere 'able to go, fit for (military)service' (added senses: 'in health; able, strong; sound,whole'; lost sense: 'fit for military service').

e. Meaning change: cnihtlic 'boyish, childish' (newmeaning: 'having the rank or qualities of a knight; noble,chivalrous; of things, actions, etc.: of, belonging to, suitable, orappropriate to a knight; consisting or composed of knights'),earmsceapen 'unfortunate, miserable' (new meaning:'having a shape of the kind specified by the qualifying word;furnished with a definite shape; fashioned, shaped'), oferranc'too luxurious' (new meaning: 'too rank or vigorous ingrowth; too gross').

Table 1 provides a quantitative overview of the kinds of semanticrelationship just distinguished. (4)

Table 1 shows that the most frequent semantic relationship insurviving Old English adjectives is the simultaneous addition of newsenses and loss of other senses, followed by the one in which only newsenses are added. Additionally, the instances of absolute stability arescarce, but the instances of loss of senses are even harder to find.Although more research is needed, these data indicate that the additionof new senses has contributed to the survival of the adjective inquestion

and that linguistic evolution entails meaning expansion. Regardingradical meaning changes, they are often the result of changes in thebases of derivation of the adjectives that convey new meanings, as incnihtlic 'boyish, childish' and its Present-day Englishtranslation knightly (< knight).

Among all the possible relationships between Old English andPresentday English adjectives, this article concentrates on instances ofabsolute loss of adjectives and aims at providing a morphological andsemantic analysis of such adjectives. On the morphological side, thecategory and inflectional class of the base of derivation as well as theaffixes and the type of derivational process are taken into account,while the semantic analysis yields a classification of these Old Englishadjectives in terms of the categories of the Historical Thesaurus of theOxford English Dictionary and the additional ones discussed in section4.

3. Morphological Analysis

By morphological process, lost adjectives can be broken down asfollows in Table 2, which compares the figure of lost adjectives to thetotal of adjectives formed by means of each process of word-formationthat applies in Old English, namely prefixation, suffixation,compounding and zero derivation. The result is called rate of loss andis based on the information provided by Nerthus. The term basic refersto adjectives without derivatives, while primitive types are thoseprimary adjectives around which a derivational paradigm can be gathered.An instance of a primitive adjective would be biter 'bitter, sharp,cutting; stinging; exasperated, angry, embittered; painful, disastrous,virulent, cruel', with its derivatives (ge)biterian 'to be orbecome bitter; make bitter', biternes 'bitterness,grief', biterlic 'sad, bitter', bitertlce'bitterly', bitre 'bitterly, sharply, painfully,severely; very', bitrum 'bitterly', oferbiternes'excessive bitterness'.

While all the other rates of loss in Table 2 are over 80%,primitive adjectives turn out a remarkably lower figure, for which twocomplementary explanations can be proposed. The first reason whyprimitive adjectives survive in the lexicon more than the other classesdistinguished in Table 2 is to be found in the derivatives of theseadjectives: the presence of derivatives anchors the primitive lexicalitem from which they derive. This is the case with the primitiveadjective great 'great', which has been preserved togetherwith its derivative greatnes 'greatness', even though othermembers of the derivational paradigm like gryto 'greatness',greatian 'to become great' andgrytan 'to flourish'have been lost. However, it can also be the case that the primitiveadjective is preserved despite all its derivatives disappearing. A casein point is atol 'dire, terrible, ugly, deformed, repulsive,unchaste', which is found in the OED, although it is marked asobsolete, but all its derivatives, including atol 'terror, horror;evil, wretchedness' and atolian 'to deform, disfigure',have disappeared. It is interesting to note, at this stage, the affixedadjective oemelle 'insipid' which has disappeared togetherwith its derivatives: oemelnes 'slackness, slackness, sloth,weariness, disgust', oemellian 'to become insipid and oemellad'emptied out, brought to naught'. The second reason for thelower rate of loss of primitive adjectives is related to the nature ofthese adjectives and, more specifically, to their degree of atomicityand analysability and their formal and semantic contribution to hyponymyas shown by derivational paradigms. As regards analysability, primitiveadjectives, such as boer 'bare' or beald 'bold',cannot be decomposed morphologically, which reflects their unanalysablemeaning. An outstanding consequence of morphological and semanticatomicity is that the form and meaning of a primitive adjective arecentral to lexical organisation because they are kept, with themodifications resulting from subsequent wordformation processes,throughout the derivation. For example, consider the traits of formaland semantic inheritance in the derivational paradigm of deop 1'deep, profound; awful, mysterious; heinous; serious, solemn,earnest', which includes bedlpan 'to dip, immerse', deop2 'depth, abyss; the sea', deope 'deeply, thoroughly,entirely, earnestly, solemnly, deoplic 'deep, profound, thorough,fundamental; grievous', deopUce 'deeply; ingeniously',deopnes 'depth, abyss; profundity, mystery; subtlety,cunning', dypan 'to make deeper', (ge)deopian 'todeepen', (ge)dypan 'to dip; baptize', indlpan 'todip in, immerse' and undeop 'shallow, low'. The existenceof derivatives reinforces the primitive term, because its form andmeaning are present, to different degrees, in all derivatives of theparadigm, with which the primitive is likely to survive in the lexiconeven though some or all of its derivatives have been lost, as is thecase with deop 1.5

Turning to the relationship between affixation and lexical loss,Table 3 offers the rates of loss by affix. The most type-frequentaffixes, according to the data provided by Nerthus, have been selected.

As is shown in Table 3, the rates of loss by affix range from 73.1%(-ig) to 100% (-boere). In general, rates of loss under 85% are shown byaffixes still used in Present-day English, including un-, ofer-, -ful,-ig and -leas. However, the fact that an unproductive suffix like -endisplays a low loss rate of 75% indicates that there is not a directrelationship between affix productivity and adjective survival.Regarding frequency, rates of loss over 90% occur with less frequentaffixes such as the prefix twi-, and the suffixes -foest and -iht.Again, the generalization cannot be pushed too far because the prefixge-, with a low frequency of 36 derivatives has a rate of loss lowerthan that of the prefix un-, which stands out as the most type-frequent.Apart from the two exceptions just mentioned, a clear tendency can beidentified in the relationship between lexical loss and affixationpattern: Old English affixation patterns surviving into Present-dayEnglish and type-frequent affixation patterns show lower rates oflexical loss than less type-frequent and lost affixation patterns.

To continue with the morphological part of the analysis, lostadjectives are analyzed with respect to their derivational paradigm.Most of them belong to strong verb paradigms: 2,115 lost Old Englishadjectives have strong verbs as direct or indirect bases of derivation,43.8% of the total number lost. Table 4 displays the ten derivationalparadigms of verbs with the highest rates of adjective loss (all of thembelong to the strong class, although witan and cunnan are traditionallylabelled preterite-present):

TABLE 4: Rate of loss by derivational paradigm (strong verbs).Verb Losses Adjectives Rate of loss in paradigmBERAN 102 123 82.9%CUNNAN 28 28 100.0%EADAN 26 35 74.2%GANGAN 27 27 100.0%HEALDAN 31 34 91.1%*LEOSAN 84 143 58.7%METAN 27 34 79.4%WEORDAN 55 101 54.5%WINDAN 28 86 32.5%WITAN 50 65 83.3%

2,526 lost Old English adjectives derive from categories other thanthe strong verb. That is, 52.35% of lost Old English adjectives select anon-verbal base of derivation. The ten derivational paradigms with thehighest number of lost adjectives appear in Table 5, together with thecorresponding rates of loss.

Two aspects of Table 4 and Table 5 deserve some comment. In thefirst place, the derivative of a strong verb is less likely to be lostthan one of another morphological class or lexical category. This factcan be explained in terms of the central role played by the strong verbin the derivational morphology of Old English, not only because it isthe starting point of derivation (Hinderling 1967; Kastovsky 1992) butalso because it gives rise to larger derivational paradigms (Novo Urracafc.), which eventually results in a higher rate of survival of paradigmsbased on strong verbs. In the second place, the average rates of lossshown by Table 4 and Table 5 are similar (76.2% in strong verbs and75.6% in other classes). By paradigm, the only instances of total losscorrespond to strong verb derivatives (although there are also rates ofloss in the region of 90% in Table 4). That is to say, the rate of lossin the class of the adjective depends on the category of the base of theparadigm, but also has a strong idiosyncratic component as even theparadigms based on strong verbs can display rates of 100%.

4. Semantic Analysis

The semantic classification of adjectives follows basically that ofA Thesaurus of Old English and the Historical Thesaurus of the OxfordEnglish Dictionary, which distinguishes the following semanticcategories and subcategories:

FIGURE 1: Semantic categories and subcategories from the HistoricalThesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary.The external worldThe world 01.01 The Earth 01.02 Life 01.03 Physical sensibility 01.04 Matter 01.05 Existence in time and space 01.06 Relative properties 01.07 The supernaturalThe mental worldThe mind 02.01 Mental capacity 02.02 Emotion 02.03 Philosophy 02.04 Aesthetics 02.05 Will/ faculty of will 02.06 Refusal/ denial 02.07 Having/ possession 02.08 LanguageThe social worldSociety 03.01 Society/ the community 03.02 Inhabiting/ dwelling 03.03 Armed hostility 03.04 Authority 03.05 Morality 03.06 Education 03.07 Faith 03.08 Communication 03.09 Travel/travelling 03.10 Occupation/work 03.11 Leisure

To the categories given in Figure 1, the following have been addedfrom the taxonomy of semantic categories of A Thesaurus of Old English:

FIGURE 2: Additional semantic categories from A Thesaurus of OldEnglish.11. Action and utility 11. Action, operation 11.09 Peril, danger 11.10 Safety, safeness12. Social interaction 12. Power, might 12.06 A province, country, territory13. Peace and war14. Law and order16. Religion

The inventory of semantic categories resulting from Figure 1 andFigure 2 has been adapted to the semantic characteristics of the classof the adjective by adding the categories Size, Auditory qualities,Shape, Tactile, Evaluative, States of living (Givon 1993) and Similarity(Dixon 2006). The category of States and conditions draws onGivon's (1993: 63) Transitory states. Finally, it has also beennecessary, in order to be able to account for all shades of meaninginvolved by the inventory of adjectives of the corpus, to add thefollowing categories: Accession and access, Blood, Cookery, Externalappearance, Opposition and concord, Pardon and condemnation, Payment andprice, Production, Reward and compensation, Variation and change, Truthand falsehood, and Weapons.

Lost Old English adjectives can be classified semantically as shownin (3). The number of lost lexical items follows each class, withinparentheses. In those instances in which the semantic categorycorresponds to that of the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford EnglishDictionary, the relevant category code is given after the figure oflosses. For illustration, one or more lost adjectives are provided byclass:6

A province, country, territory (66)

Africanisc 'African', Alexandrinesc'Alexandrian', Arabisc 'Arabian' Accession, access(14)

earfobfere 'difficult to pass through', gefere 3'accessible', brihlidede 'having three openings

Blood (11)

bloden 'bloody', blodfa*g 'blood-stained,bloody', blodgeotende 'bloody' Colour (126) 01 The world:01.04 Matter: 01.04.09 Colour

Colour. Brightness (57)

oebloece 'lustreless, pale, pallid', oehlwe 'pallid;deformed', slfsaene 'bright as

an elf or fairy, beautiful, radiant' Colour. Colour (69)

oescgroeg 'ashy-gray', assedun 'dun-coloured like anass', basu 'purple' Cookery (26)

afigen 'fried', ascbacen 'baked on ashes',elebacen 'cooked in oil' Direction (37) 01 The world: 01.01The earth: 01.01.03 Direction

awegeade 'went away', awegweard 'coming to aclose', andelbsr 'reversed' Evaluative (610)

abrotsum 'irksome', abwyrbe 'worthy of credit',aberendlic 'bearable' External appearance (57)

ascoere 'unshorn, untrimmed', oescoere 'unshorn,untrimmed', andfeax 'bald' Festivity (6)

bodigendlic 'to be celebrated', freols 2 'free,festive', freolslic 1 'festive, festival'Having/possession (48) 02 The mind: 02.07 Having/possession agenlic'own; owed, due', oetgenumen 'taken away', berofon'despoiled'

Hearing, noise and auditory qualities (41) 01 The world: 01.03Physical sensibility: 01.03.08 Hearing/noise

beorhtword 'clear-voiced', clipol 'sounding, vocal;vocalic, vowel', healfclypigende 'semi-vowel'

Inhabiting/ dwelling (27) 03 Society: 03.02 Inhabiting/ dwellingaburod 'not inhabited', oeloete 2 'desert; empty',oeloeten 'desert, empty' Language, literature andcommunication (153) 02 The mind: 02.08 Language & 03 Society: 03.08Communication

ahyldendlic 'encl*tic', ansproece 'speaking asone', asciendlic 'interrogative' Law and order (116)

aliefedlic 'lawful, permissible', asecendlic 'to besought', aworpenlic 'worthy of condemnation'

Leisure (3) 03 Society: 03.11 Leisure

flaniht 'relating to darts', plegende'playing', toefle 'given to dice-playing' Matter(155) 01 The world: 01.04 Matter Divisibility and indivisibility (19)

betwuxgangende 'separating', feborbyrste 'split intofour', fiberdoeled

'quadripartite, quartered' Dryness and wetness (14)

ban 1 'moist, irrigated', deawigfebera'dewy-feathered', drygsceod 'dry-shod'

Fixation (11)

acoeglod 'studded with pegs; locked with a key', anoegled'nailed down',

borhfoest 'fast bound', gebwinglod 'bound up (ofhair)' Freshness and staleness (18)

forworen 'decrepit, decayed', geoecnosliende'degenerating', gescrence

'withered, dry' Material (64)

oecen 2 'oaken', oeren 1 'made of brass, brazen;twinkling', boenen 'made of bone'

Purity and impurity (11)

fullcloene 'very pure', heahhlutor 'very pure',merelhwlt 'pure, white, sterling (of silver)'

States of matter (11)

amolten 'molten', geotenlic 'molten, fluid',gebyllic 'densus'

Weight (7)

gehefed 'weighed down', pis 'heavy', plslic'heavy'

Measurement, determination of quantity and amount (99) 01 Theworld: 01.06: Relative properties: 01.06.05 Measurement & 01.06.06Quantity/amount

flede 'in flood, full, overflowing', fullmannod'fully peopled', gelhwoede 'slight, scanty, small,young'

Navigation (23) 03 Society: 03.09 Travel/ travelling: 03.09.04Navigation

anbyme 'made of one trunk, dug-out (ship)', oeren 2'oar-propelled', brandstoefn 'high-prowed'

Number (6) 01 The world: 01.06 Relative properties: 01.06.04 Number

oefterlic 'second', endebyrdlic 'ordinal',(ge)toelsum 'in numbers, rhythmic'

Opposition and concord (46)

bls&c 'contested, disputed', ceaslunger'contentious', ceastful 'contentious' Pardon andcondemnation (14)

beladiendlic 'apologetic, that can be excused', botwyrbe'pardonable, that can be atoned for by', gellefen'excused' Payment/ price (14)

gafolfreo 'tax-free', gafollic 'fiscal',gildfreo 'free of tax' Peace and war (64)

oescrof 'brave in battle', beaducaf 'bold inbattle', beaducroeftig 'warlike'

Peril/ danger (12)

bealu 2 'baleful, deadly, dangerous, wicked, evil',cwildboere 'deadly, dangerous, pestiferous; stormy', cwildrof'deadly, savage'

Production (6)

croeftlic 'artificial; skilful', forbboere'productive', handworht 'made with hands'

Religion (160)

oebrucol 'sacrilegious', oefremmende 'pious,religious', oeswic 2 'apostate'

Reward and compensation (8)

angilde 2 'to be compensated for', oegilde'receiving no wergild as compensation', andergilde 'inrepayment, in compensation'

Safety/ safeness (9)

borhleas 'without a pledge, without security', gefribsum'safe, fortified', gehealdfast 'safe'

Shape (65)

agrafenlic 'sculptured', anecge 'having oneedge', anhlwe 'of one form or colour' Sight (27) 01 Theworld: 01.03 Physical sensibility: 01.03.07 Sight

aneage 'one-eyed, blind in one eye', aneagede'one-eyed, blind in one eye', anslene 'visible'

Similarity (52)

ancorlic 'like a hermit', allefne 1 'quiteequal', besibb 'related'

Size (53)

aclungen 'contracted', agrowen 'overgrown',efenbrad 'as broad as long'

Smell/odour (11) 01 The world: 01.03 Physical sensibility: 01.03.06Smell/

odour

fulstincende 'foul-stinking', gestence'odoriferous', runl 'foul? running?; foul,stinking?'

Social interaction (106)

Friendship and other social relations, conditions and states (29)

cnihtleas 'without an attendant', freondllbe 'kindto one's friends', gadrigendlic 'collective'

Kinship, family relationship (23)

anboren 'only-begotten', bearnleas 'childless',broborleas 'brotherless' Marriage, state of marriage (19)

anlegere 'consorting with one man', beweddendlic'relating to marriage', ceorloes 'unmarried (ofwomen)'

Sexual relations, sexuality (35)

cloengeorn 'yearning after purity, celibate; cleanly',dyrneforlegen 'adulterous', dyrneleger 'adulterous'

Space, order, arrangement and disposition (75) 01 The world: 01. 05Existence in time and space: 01.05.07 Space & 01.06. Relativeproperties: 01.06.03 Order

asynderlic 'remote', oeftanweard 'behind, in therear, following', oelsyndrig 'quite apart, single'

States and conditions (1,228)

External activity (54)

allesendlic 'loosing, liberating', asolcen'sluggish, idle, indifferent, dissolute', oeswind 'idle,slothful'

External condition (129)

ablered 'bare, uncovered, bald', adeliht'filthy', agimmed 'set with precious stones'

Mental-internal (942)

abegen 'distended (with food)', aberd 'crafty,cunning', acol 'affrighted, dismayed'

Motion (54)

arodlic 'quick', cwiccliende 'moving rapidly?,tottering?', duniendlic 'falling down, tottering'

Temperature (25)

oelceald 'altogether cold, very cold', brandhat'burning hot, ardent', brimceald 'ocean-cold'

Weather (24)

blawende 'blowing hard (wind)', gewinde'blowing', ho*rfestlic 'autumnal; of harvest'

States of living (767)

Age (90)

anhundwintre 'a hundred years old', annihte 'one dayold', anwintre 'one year old, yearling'

Animals (46)

anhyrnende 'having one horn', byccen 'of a goat,goat's', calcrond 'shod (of horses)'

Body (39)

anfete 'one-footed', sthyd 'evicerata, deprived ofits sinews', belcedsweora 'having an inflated neck'

Death (44)

asprungen 'dead', oefterboren 'afterborn,posthumous', beliden 'departed, dead' Existence (7)

oefweard 'absent', edwistlic 'existing,substantive', framwesende 'absent' Fertility (39)

bearneaca 'pregnant', berende 'fruitful',cildfedende 'nursing'

Health (151)

ablegned 'ulcerated', adlberende'disease-bearing', adlig 'sick, diseased' Humankind,people (9)

mennisclic 'human; humane', nathwa 'someone',unmennisclic 'inhuman'

Life (27)

oerboren 'earlier born, first born', betstboren'best-born, eldest', burbyrde 'of pleasant birth'

Plants (54)

anstelede 'one-stalked, having one stem', asprindlad'ripped up', oelren 'of an alder tree'

Status, rank and power (180)

arcroeftig 'respected, honourable', arful'respected, venerable; favourable, kind, merciful;respectful', arleas 'dishonourable, base, impious, wicked;cruel'

Strength (29)

byrbenstrang 'strong at carrying burdens', ceorlstrang'strong as a man', earmstrang 'strong of arm,muscular'

Wealth (52)

oehtspedig 'rich', oehtwelig 'wealthy, rich',slmeslic 'charitable; depending on alms, poor'

Tactile (114)

Firmness (22)

bldfoest 'firm, forced to stand out', cope l'unsteady, rocking?', eorbfoest 'earthfast, firm in theearth' Inclination (19)

clifig 'steep', forbheald 'bent forward, stooping;inclined, steep', geandele 'steep'

Pointedness (14)

ecged 'edged', ecghwoes 'keen-edged',fsowergoerede 'four-pointed' Pressure (5)

gebered 'crushed, kneaded; harassed, oppressed',onaslagen 'beaten (of metal)', abygendlic 'bending,flexible ' Resistance (25)

ahierding 'hardening', astrenged '(made strong)malleable', brSab 'brittle' Texture (14)

anhealfruh 'having one side rough', anbrucol'rugged', byrstig 'broken, rugged'

Taste and flavour (15) 01 The world: 01. 03 Physical sensibility:01.03.05

Taste/flavour

afor 'bitter, acid, sour, sharp; dire', oemelle'insipid', oetlic 'eatable'

Textiles (14) 01 The world: 01.02 Life: 01.02.09 Textiles

gegierelic 'of clothes', geglofed 'gloved',goldgewefen 'woven with gold'

The earth (105) 01 The world: 01.01 The earth

Air surrounding earth, atmosphere (8)

brosmig 'vaporous, smoky', lyften 'of the air,aerial', lyftgeswenced 'driven by the wind'

Fire (28)

abloest 'inspired, furious; blowing fiercely (of flame)',brynig 'fiery, burning', fyrboere 'fire-bearing,fiery'

Firmament (14)

astyrred 'starry', eahtanihte 'eight days' old(moon)', gelsomod 'having rays of light'

Planet (3)

eorblic 'earthly, worldly', middangearden'worldly', middangeardlic 'earthly' Surface of theearth (24)

beorhtte 'mountainous', dunlendisc'mountainous', dunlic 'of a mountain,mountain-dwelling'

Water (28)

cwicwelle 'living (of water)', dsawigendlic'dewy', Salic 1 'or a river' The supernatural (15)01 The world: 01.07 The supernatural

cicropisc 'cyclopean?; Cecropean', drycroeftig'skilled in magic', drylic 'magic, magical'

Time (123) 01 The world: 01.05 Existence in time and space:01.05.06 Time

andsge 'for one day, lasting a day', atsorigendlic'transitory, perishable; failing; defective', awunigende'continual'

Transport (2) 03 Society: 03. 09 Travel/travelling: 03.09.01Transport

fsowerhwSolod 'four-wheeled', twihwSole'two-wheeled'

Travel/ travelling (11) 03 Society: 03.09 Travel/travelling

Sabfsre 'easy for travelling over', ellorfus 'readyto depart', felageonge 'much-travelled'

Truth and falsehood (11)

lsasferhb 'false', lsaslic 'false, deceitful, sham,empty', lygen 2 'lying, false '

Use of drugs, poison (8) 01 The world: 01.03 Physical sensibility:01.03.03

Use of drugs, poison

atorboere 'poisonous', beweled 'poisoned,polluted', geolstrig 'secreting poison, purulent'

Variation and change (27)

awendedlic 1 'that can be changed, changeable',awendendlic 'that can be changed, changeable', fssthydig'constant, steadfast'

Weapons (37)

oerglsd 'bright in armour', beaduscearp 'keen inbattle (sword)', bordhsbbende 'shield-bearing'

Work (5) 03 Society: 03.10 Occupation/ work: 03.10.01 Work

esnecund 'of a labourer', (ge)swincleas 'withouttoil', geweorclic 'pertaining to work'

As can be seen in (3), categories leak. For example, heofonheah'reaching to heaven' could have been included within Directionor Firmament and oemyrce 'excellent' within Evaluative orStatus, rank and power. It seems to be the case that even well definedsemantic categories are surrounded by areas of indeterminacy in such away that overlapping and continuity among such categories are to acertain extent inevitable. Another issue arising from this semanticanalysis has to do with the different senses conveyed by adjectives. Forinstance, swlb means 'strong, mighty, powerful', but also'active', 'severe' and 'violent'. Aspecial case of this phenomenon arises when literal and figurativemeanings overlap in the definition of a lexical item. For example,freorig conveys the literal meaning of 'freezing, frozen, cold,chilly' and the figurative meaning 'blanched with fear, sad,mournful', thus being classifiable under Temperature as well asPeril and danger. The general solution that has been adopted is toclassify adjectives under a single category according to the meaningthat prevails above any other specific sense.

In spite of the limits of the semantic analysis that has beencarried out, some generalizations can be made. If we concentrate onthose categories with one hundred or more adjectives, it turns out thatlexical losses of the adjectival class often consist of adjectivesdenoting abstract qualities, thus: Mental-internal (942), Evaluative(610), Status, rank and power (180), Religion (160), Language,literature and communication (153), Time (123), Law and order (116),Social interaction (106). The importance of categories like States ofliving (587), Colour (126) and The Earth (105) notwithstanding, lostadjectives express abstract qualities rather than concrete ones. Inother words, we are dealing with nonprototypical adjectives codingnon-permanent, abstract properties such as bedul 'suppliant',edlesendlic 'relative, reciprocal', ferhtlic 'just,honest', gecorenlic 'elegant', hllfend'threatening', of gangende 'derivative', unwitod'uncertain', and the like. The higher rate of loss of abstractadjectives may have several causes. The first is to be found in textualfrequency. Abstract adjectives are used less frequently than concreteones and, consequently, they are less resistant to replacement thanconcrete adjectives. Secondly, abstract adjectives seldom convey nuclearmeanings, by means of which their evolution can be traced back to themore nuclear lexical items to which they are linked through relations ofinheritance. This is the case with edlesendlic 'relative,reciprocal' with respect to the strong verb lesan 'to collect,pick, select', which has disappeared along with the strong verb.Thirdly, abstract adjectives are, as a general rule, more analysablethan concrete adjectives, which often convey meanings that cannot bedecomposed lexically. Adjectives of colour represent a paramount exampleof this aspect, but even in sets like reod 1/ wyrmbaso/wroeteread'red' the unanalysable reod 1 has been preserved while theanalysable wyrmbaso and wroeteread count as losses.

Apart from the relevance of the type of adjective (concrete vs.abstract) for the rate of lexical loss, this analysis sheds new light onthe evolution of the English lexicon. Histories of the English languagelink lexical loss to language contact and consider it as either randomor based to a certain extent on textual frequency. The semantic analysisof adjectives shows that, at least in this lexical class, adjective typeplays a role in survival or loss. Moreover, a point of contact has beenfound with morphological analysis, namely analysability. In aparadigmatic analysis of form and meaning that seeks paths of formal andsemantic inheritance in lexical paradigms, nuclear meanings andunanalysable forms converge in adjectives more resistant to loss thansemantically derived and formally analysable ones.

5. Conclusion

This article has analyzed 4,825 instances of lexical loss in theclass of the adjective. Such lexical losses have been characterized froma morphological and semantic point of view in order to find points ofcontact between this phenomenon and derivational morphology as well assemantic taxonomy.

The data examined throughout the morphological analysisdemonstrates that the presence of derivatives in the lexicon anchors theprimitive lexical item from which they derive in such a way that theprimitive lexical item often survives even though its derivatives donot. It has also been found that affixation patterns surviving intoPresent-day English and more type-frequent affixation patterns showlower rates of lexical loss than less type-frequent and lost affixationpatterns.

The semantic analysis carried out has shown that lexical loss takesplace mainly in the area of less prototypical adjectives with evaluativefunction or referring to transitory mental states. In general, moreabstract adjectives than concrete ones are counted among the losses.Groups of abstract adjectives relating to time, language andcommunication, law and order and religion are the ones that havesuffered more than one hundred losses. However, significant groups ofconcrete adjectives have also suffered loss: those of colour, tactileproperties and states of matter.

Finally, this research has insisted on the importance of lexicalprimitives and semantic nuclei when it comes to accounting for lowerrates of loss in the English lexicon. Moreover, it has been shown thatinheritance, as reflected by wordformation and semantic organisation,can be linked to lexical loss and survival. Throughout linguisticevolution, more analysable forms (and therefore those resulting frommore steps of formal inheritance) are more likely to be lost than lessanalysable forms. Conversely, adjectives with less nuclear meanings(those therefore resulting from more steps of semantic inheritance) arelost more easily than those with more nuclear meanings. All in all,analysability stands out as a fundamental notion for finding points ofcontact between the inheritance of form and meaning.

To conclude, it remains for future research to determine the extentto which the addition of new senses contributes to the survival of agiven adjective.

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Received: 27 March 2013

Accepted: 15 July 2013

LUISA FIDALGO ALLO

Universidad de La Rioja

<[emailprotected]>

Notes

(1.) This research has been funded through the projectFFI2011-29532.

(2.) This article follows the convention of numbered predicatesadopted by Nerthus in order to distinguish hom*onymous lexical entries.Thus, regarding lexical category, abutan 1 'on, about, around, onthe outside, round about' may be considered an adposition andabutan 2 'about, nearly', an adverb. As for morphologicalclass, beseon 1 'to see, look, look round', for example, is aClass V strong verb, whereas beseon 2 'to suffuse' qualifiesas a Class I strong verb. Turning to the question of variants, two ormore predicates are also numbered if they have different spellings, asIs the case with fodder 1 'fodder, food; darnel, tares' withvariants foddor 1, foddur 1, foter and fodor fodder 2 'case,sheath' with variants foddor 2 and foddur 2; and fodder 3'hatchet', with variants foddor 3 and foddur 3.

(3.) Consulted on May 25, 2010.

(4.) The quantitative data exclude sets involving two or morePresent-day English adjectives that can be traced back to the same OldEnglish adjective. There are 76 instances of such sets.

(5.) It is hard to find instances of the loss of a lexical primewhose derivatives have been preserved. This has happened to enge 1'narrow, close, straitened, constrained; vexed, troubled, anxious;oppressive, severe, painful, cruel', which has been lost togetherwith its derivatives enge 2 'sadly, anxiously', geencgd'anxious, careful', engu 'narrowness, confinement',etc., even though the OED has the obsolete geng (geengan 'toconstrain, distress, vex, trouble').

(6.) Although the figure is nearly negligible, 12 out of the 4,825lost Old English adjectives have not been classified because the onlytranslation available is into Latin or because no translation isavailable in the major lexicographical sources. This is the case withsereldo, ut 2, and eftdroegend.

TABLE 1: Semantic relationshipsbetween Old English and Present-dayEnglish adjectives.Semantic relationship Number of adjectivesNo meaning change 75Some senses added 225Some senses lost 58Some senses added and 359 other senses lostMeaning change 170Total 887TABLE 2: Rate of loss by morphological process.Status Losses Total (type- Rate of frequency) lossBasic 172 197 87.3%Primitive 12 276 4.3%Prefixed 1,154 1,305 88.4%Suffixed 1,711 2,081 82.2%Compound 1,365 1,424 95.8%Zero derived 411 479 85.8%TABLE 3: Rate of loss by affix.Affix Losses Total of derivatives Rate of (type-frequency) lossge- 31 37 83.7%ofer- 31 40 77.5%twi- 35 36 97.2%un- 691 819 84.3%-boere 34 34 100.0%-ed 43 48 89.5%-en 99 132 75.0%-foest 56 62 90.3%-ful 85 112 75.8%-ig 169 231 73.1%-iht 32 34 94.1%-leas 90 122 73.7%-lie 782 884 88.4%-ol 48 56 85.7%TABLE 5: Rate of loss by derivational paradigm(base different from strong verb).Other classes Losses Adjectives Rate of loss in paradigmCYNN 1 18 23 78.2%EFEN 1 19 23 82.6%REST 1 39 55 70.9%FULL 1 77 99 77.7%GOLD 15 24 62.5%HYGE 27 58 46.5%LlC 581 640 90.7%MOD 54 59 91.5%SWID 18 27 66.6%WORD 1 16 18 88.8%