Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang

Old English weorðan and its replacement in Middle English 9
as becuman, and trying to copy the Alfredian model of ‘good’ Anglo-Saxon (see
Milroy 996: 67 & McWhorter 2002). Apparently, the one genre which seems less
resistant to new function words is that of poetry, from which two of the three examples
above derive. In this respect, therefore, OE poetry seems the genre closest
to the constructional potential of spoken language of that time, a finding which is
in sharp contrast to the lexical archaisms found in it.
Having described the establishment of becuman in late OE and early ME, the
question remains how becuman spread to the ap and np copula-constructions. We
would like to argue that the basic mechanism underlying this spread is a process
of analogical extension of becuman on the basis of the similarity of its functional
and semantic range with that of the verb weorðan. This ‘copying’ of constructions
of weorðan by becuman was likely enabled by the prior existence of a firm distributional
(and semantic) overlap between these two verbs. While beon and wesan, by
the time of OE, were already grammaticalized to such an extent that their original
semantic content was hardly retained, weorðan, besides its abstract function as a
copula denoting the aspect of sudden change, still preserved its original spatial
sense in a considerable number of occurrences. It is precisely in these spatial uses
that a strong parallelism is revealed between weorðan and becuman. The similarity
between weorðan and becuman in this respect is illustrated in (27)–(30).
(27) a. Þa wæs geworden to him sweg, se wæs of heofenum sended on windes
onlicnesse. (c970. HomS 47 [BlHom 2]: 33.4 )
b.
“Then a sound had come to him, which was sent from heaven on a
resemblance of wind.”
Swylce eac ær þam becwom hlisa to him þære cristenan æfestnesse, forþon he
Cristen wif hæfde. (c900. Bede : 4.58. )
“For (earlier) rumour had come to him of the Christian religion, because
he had a Christian wife.”
(28) a. And cwædon hwæt þæt tacen beon myhte þæt on Ysrahela lande
geworden wæs. (c 00. Nic [A]: 4.3. )
b.
“And [they] said what that sign might be that had arrived in the land of Israel.”
Ða becwoman we on þa londgemæro Medo & Persa. (c 000. Alex: 23.7)
“Then we arrived at the territories of the Medes and the Persians.”
(29) a. Swa doð wudufuglas; þeah hi wel sien, tela atemede, gif hi on treowum
weorðað holte tomiddes, hræðe bioð forsewene heora lareowas, þe hi lange ær
tydon and temedon. (c970. MetBo 3: 72.35)
b.
“They act like wild fowl; even if they are good, well tamed, if they get/come
in the trees amidst the forest, promptly their teachers are neglected, who
taught and tamed them long before.”
And þa he on þa ceastre becom Libie, he þa sona axode hwæt hyt soðes wære,
for hwig hym man swa færlice æfter asende. (c 075. VSal [Cross]: .2)