The development of causation in Old English and its interaction with lexical and syntactic diachronic processes

Abstract

In this paper I will try to determine some of the different ways the lexically-realized grammatical parameter of causation finds a systematic correspondence on the syntax of Old English verbs, acting as a filter that accepts certain syntactic complementation patterns but blocks others. Furthermore, I will try to show that the strategies used in Old English for the expression of causation can vary from one lexical domain to another. Things being so, the predicates included in the different causative subdomains of a given lexical field will respond to the same lines of lexical development and will show the same syntactic patterns, whereas highly significative differences can be seen between causative predicates from different domains. This way, I want to prove the existence of different "grammars of causation" in Old English