COMPOUND NOUNS IN OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH
COMPOUND NOUNS IN OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH

Summary/Abstract: This work deals with the diachronic study of compound nouns found in the Old and Middle English texts of the Helsinki Corpus. The compound nouns of both periods are analysed, and further classified into types. The classification is based on the word class of constituent elements. The basic theoretical background on compounding is provided, with the emphasis on the difficulties of defining and classifying compounds in a straightforward way. The types of the two periods are compared and the development courses described: types which were no longer used in Middle English; types which survived, and the new ones introduced in Middle English.

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