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The very productive suffix -isc˙ ‘being like, having the character of’ forms denominal adjectives with and without i-umlaut, e.g. ceorlis˙c˙ ‘of a churl, common’, cildis˙c˙ ‘childish’, denisc˙ ‘Danish’, englisc˙ ‘English’, scyttis˙c˙ ‘Scottish’.
The negative counterpart of -ful is -leas¯ ‘lack of’, e.g. bismerleas¯ ‘blameless’, blodl¯ eas¯ ‘bloodless’, bro¯þorleas¯ ‘brotherless’, etc.
The suffix -l¯ıc˙ ‘being, characterised by, having’ (= Modern English -ly) is a rival of -ig˙. Denominal formations are ælmesl¯¯ıc˙ ‘charitable, depending on alms’, cildl˙¯ıc˙ ‘childish’; deadjectival formations are æ¯þell¯ıc˙ ‘noble’, deopl¯ ¯ıc˙ ‘deep’; deverbal formations are c˙¯ıepl¯ıc˙ ‘for sale’, (ge˙-)cweml¯ ¯ıc˙ ‘pleasing, satisfying’.
The suffix -sum ‘being, characterised by’ derives denominal (friþsum ‘peaceful’, gel˙eafsum¯ ‘believing’, gedeorfsum˙ ‘troublesome’), deadjectival (ansum¯ ‘whole’, fremsum ‘beneficial’, genyhtsum˙ ‘abundant’) and deverbal ((ge˙-)h¯ıersum ‘obedient’, healdsum ‘careful’) adjectives.
The suffix -weard ‘-wards’ occurs in æfterweard ‘following’, heononweard ‘going hence’, norþ(e)weard ‘northwards’ and similar formations.
4.2.4.6Verbal suffixes
Verbal derivation is typically affixless. The four overt suffixes -ett(an), -læ¯c(an),˙ -n(ian) and -s(ian) were not very productive and not always fully semantically transparent. The only one surviving into Modern English with increased productivity in Middle English is -n(ian).
-ett(an) seems to have frequentative or intensifying meaning, and occurs with nominal (botettan¯ ‘repair’, sarettan¯ ‘lament’), and adjectival (agnettan¯ ‘appropriate, usurp’, halettan¯ ‘greet’), but primarily with verbal bases (blicettan˙ ‘glitter, quiver’, dropettan ‘drop, drip’, hleapettan¯ ‘leap up’).
-læ¯c(an)˙ forms deadjectival verbs with the meanings ‘be, become’ (dyrstlæ¯can˙ ‘dare’, ge˙-anl¯ æ¯can˙ ‘make one, join’, rihtlæ¯can˙ ‘put right’) and denominal verbs meaning ‘produce, become’ (æfenl¯æ¯can˙ ‘become evening’, loflæ¯can˙ ‘promise’, sumorlæ¯can˙ ‘become summer’).
The suffix -n(ian), according to Marchand (1969: 271), resulted from a reanalysis of zero-derived verbs such as fægen-ian > fæge-n-ian, open-ian > ope-n-ian, but it might also be assumed that it continues Germanic class 4 weak verbs, which had an -n-formative, e.g. Gothic full-n-an. Old English formations are beorhtnian ‘glorify’, lacnian¯ ‘heal’, þreatnian¯ ‘threaten’.
The suffix -s(ian) derives deadjectival and denominal verbs, e.g. cildsian˙ ‘be childish’, metsian¯ ‘feed’, bl¯ıþsian ‘make glad’, clænsian¯ ‘make clean, cleanse’.
4.2.4.7Zero derivation
The bases for the assumption of zero or affixless derivation are the distinction between inflectional and derivational morphology and expansion and derivation (see Section 4.1.5). Until the earliest Old English period, inflection and derivation had not been separated completely, because the verbal and nominal stem formatives had a function in both domains. But with their loss or integration into the stem or the inflectional endings, the respective patterns changed to
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affixless (zero) derivation. It should also be pointed out that ablaut alternations had no derivational function. Moreover, although the lexical items involved in these ablaut patterns belong to the core vocabulary, the patterns themselves were probably no longer productive. The distinction between expansion and derivation mentioned above is responsible for treating bahuvrihis like an¯ -horn as zero derivatives.
4.2.4.8Nominal derivatives
Deverbal nouns exhibit the full semantic range typical of this category, although Action and Agent nouns dominate. All genders are represented, and most inflectional classes within them. A considerable number of derivatives are affected by i-umlaut. There is no strict correlation between semantic category, gender, inflectional class and ablaut grade, but some preferences reflecting earlier regularities are discernible. Thus agent nouns tend to be masculine and to have reduced grade and masculine action nouns frequently have a full-grade base, while neuter ones often go with the reduced grade. Derivation is made both from strong and weak verbs. Derivatives related to strong verbs seem to have originally been root-based like the strong verbs themselves, developing their stem-based status in the Germanic period. Weak verbs, on the other hand, originally were typically denominal, deadjectival and deverbal. But in the course of time, in many instances the direction of derivation came to be reversed in analogy with other patterns, which happened throughout the history of English. Thus, from a semantic point of view, it is more natural for an Action or Agent noun to be derived from a verb (e.g. gnorn ‘affliction, sorrow’ < gnornian ‘grieve, be sad’, peddle > peddler ModE) than for a verb to be derived from a primary Action or Agent noun (e.g. gnorn > gnornian, pedlar/peddler > peddle eModE). Consequently, the ‘unnatural’ direction of derivation was replaced by the more ‘natural’ one (see also Kastovsky, 1968: 93ff.).
Strong masculine action nouns from strong and weak verbs are drepe ‘slaying’, cyme ‘coming’, bælc˙ ‘belch’, drenc˙ ‘drowning’; weak masculines are steorfa ‘mortality’, scea˙þa ‘harm’, hopa ‘hope’; strong feminines are faru ‘journey, going’, giefu/˙giefe˙ ‘gift, favour’, lufu ‘love’; weak feminines are birce˙ ‘barking’, feohte ‘fight’, gi˙c˙ce˙ ‘itch’; strong neuters are beorc ‘barking’, berst ‘eruption’, gebir˙g˙ ‘tasting’, ge˙c˙¯ıd ‘strife’.
Strong masculine agent nouns are gang, geng˙ ‘a company, gang’, wæter-gyte˙ ‘Aquarius’, ge˙-neat¯ ‘one who enjoys with another’; weak masculines are aga¯ ‘owner’, cuma ‘comer, guest’, hunta ‘hunter’. For a fairly complete listing of these zero derivatives, see Kastovsky (1968).
Deadjectival nouns are typically strong feminines with the meanings ‘quality, fact, state of being’, usually having i-umlaut, e.g. bieldu ‘boldness’, birhtu ‘brightness’, cieldu˙ ‘cold’.
Denominal nouns are bahuvrihi compounds with the meaning ‘someone, something having N’, e.g. an¯ -horn/Ø ‘animal having one horn = unicorn’. In Old English, this nominal type was much weaker than the adjectival type, which (with
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the exception of barefoot) was lost, with the nominal type taking over. Many formations are loan translations from Latin, often denoting plants or animals. The most frequent patterns are Adj + N, Num + N. Sometimes the overt second part changes its morphological behaviour in the combination, e.g. leaf¯ ‘leaf’ (strong neuter) vs f¯ıf-leafe¯ ‘quinquefolium’ (weak feminine), besides f¯ıf-leaf¯ (with the preservation of the morphological properties of the second part). Further examples are an¯ -horn/an¯ -horn-a/an¯ -hyrn-e ‘unicorn’, belced-sweora¯ ‘one having a swollen neck’, bunden-stefn-a ‘ship with an ornamented prow’, hyrned-nebb-a ‘horny-beaked bird, eagle’.
4.2.4.9Adjectival derivatives
Affixless deverbal adjectives related to strong verbs are in the majority; they may or may not have i-umlaut and they very often occur as second members of compounds. Their meaning is usually ‘prone to do, doing, being V-ed’, e.g. swice˙ ‘deceitful’, ea¯ þ-fynde ‘easy to find’, cweme¯ ‘pleasant, agreeable’.
The numerous simple and complex zero-derived denominal adjectives meaning ‘having, being like’ either have a masculine nominative singular ending in -e (e.g. fielde ‘fieldlike’, an¯ -b¯ıeme ‘made of one trunk’, an¯ -eage¯ ‘one-eyed’) or have no ending (e.g. bær¯-fot¯ ‘barefoot’, lang-mod¯ ‘patient’, blanden-feax ‘grey-haired’). Many of these have affixal doublets, and it is this latter formative type which survives into Modern English.
4.2.4.10Verbal derivation
Affixless derivation was the major source of new verbs in Old English. The results are weak verbs, but only the derivation of class 2 weak verbs from nouns, adjectives and adverbs (type beorht > beorhtian ‘be, make bright’, wuldor > wuldrian ‘glorify’) was fully productive in Old English, whereas the derivation of class 1 weak verbs involving i-umlaut (type full > fyllan ‘fill’, scr˙ud¯ > scryd˙ ‘clothe’) was certainly productive as long as i-umlaut was fully transparent, but it must have lost its productivity in early Old English. As a consequence, many class 1 verbs joined class 2, so there are numerous doublets. Most of the semantic types found in Modern English (see Marchand, 1969: 365–71) are already attested in Old English.
Typical denominal verbs denote ‘be, act like, become’ (ambehtan ‘minister, serve’, dagian ‘dawn’), ‘provide with, add’ (arian¯ ‘give honour to’, frefran¯ ‘comfort’), but also the opposite, i.e. ‘remove’ (heafdian¯ ‘behead’), ‘produce’ (bledan¯ ‘bleed’, blostmian¯ ‘blossom’), ‘make into’ (heapian¯ ‘heap’, munucian ‘make into a monk’), ‘perform’ (cræftan ‘perform a craft’, cossian ‘kiss’), ‘put into, go to’ (gryndan ‘come to the ground, set’, hæftan ‘imprison’, husian¯ ‘house’).
Deadjectival verbs have two possible meanings, viz. ‘be, become’ and ‘make’. Many derivatives have both meanings, e.g. byldan ‘make bold’, blodi¯ gian˙ ‘make bloody’, brædan¯ ‘broaden’, deopian¯ ‘become, make deep’.
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4.2.4.11Adverbs
The formation of adverbs is a borderline case between word formation and inflection. Since adverbs are regarded as a separate part of speech, their derivation from adjectives and nouns involves a change of word class, which is by definition a derivational process. But this process does not add any additional semantic feature, which is typically the case in derivation proper.
The most frequent deadjectival suffix is -e (e.g. deope¯ ‘deeply’, georne˙ ‘eagerly’). If the adjective itself ends in -e, adjective and adverb are homonymous, e.g. bl¯ıþe ‘joyful(ly)’, milde ‘mild(ly)’. From the many adjectives ending in -l¯ıc˙ and their adverbial form -l¯ıce˙ (e.g. modi¯ gl˙¯ıce˙ ‘proudly’, sarl¯ ¯ıce˙ ‘grievously’) a new complex suffix -l¯ıce˙ was created and used to directly form adverbs not only from adjectives not ending in -l¯ıce˙ (e.g. blindl¯ıce˙ ‘blindly’, holdl¯ıce˙ ‘graciously’), but also from nouns (e.g. fr¯ıondl¯ıce˙ ‘in a friendly manner’, eornostl¯ıce˙ ‘earnestly’). After the loss of final -e in late Old English and early Middle English, this suffix develops into the standard means of forming adverbs, i.e. it is the antecedent of Modern English -ly.
Other adverb-forming suffixes are -inga/-linga/-unga/-lunga (edn¯ıwunga ‘anew’, grundlinga/grundlunga ‘to the ground, completely’, nead(l)inga/n¯ ead¯ - lunga ‘by force’). Furthermore, denominal adverbs can also be formed by using an inflectional form of the noun, e.g. the masculine genitive singular in -es (e.g. dæges˙ ‘daily’, selfwilles ‘voluntarily’) or the dative plural (dægt˙¯ıdum ‘by day’, g˙eardagum¯ ‘formerly’, dropmælum¯ ‘drop by drop’, etc).
4.2.4.12The typological status of Old English word formation
This typological characterisation is based on several intersecting parameters, such as the morphological status of the input to and the output of the word-formation processes, the order of the dt and dm, the frequency, regulating, conditioning and functioning of morphophonemic/allomorphic alternations, and the number of derivational levels.
Old English is in a stage of transition from stem-based to word-based inflection and derivation. The verb system is stem-based, and it is only towards the end of the Old English period and during the Middle English period that with the loss of the infinitive ending the verb develops an unmarked base form, which can function as a word, i.e. shifts from stem-based to word-based inflection and derivation. The nominal system is heterogeneous in this respect. Weak nouns (gum+a, tung+e) as well as strong feminines (luf+u) are stem-based, whereas strong masculines (cyning) and neuters (word) as well as adjectives (god¯ ) have an unmarked nominative/accusative singular, i.e. they have word-based inflection and derivation. Again, with the progressive loss of inflectional endings this type will eventually prevail.
Major changes took place in the morphophonemic system. The Indo-European ablaut system had gradually become more and more opaque during the Germanic and pre-Old English period, due to a number of sound changes, leading to the progressive breaking-up of the ablaut classes of the strong verbs. This