Old English verbs of teaching and learning within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar

Resumen

This paper aims at analyzing the syntax and semantics of Old English verbs of teaching andlearning from a synchronic point of view. The theoretical basis is provided by Role andReference Grammar (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997; Van Valin 2005, 2014), more specifically,internal aspect, lexical representation, logical structures, and the syntax-semantics interfaceas put forward by this theory of grammar. The lexicological data for the selection of verbshave been gathered from the dictionaries of Bosworth-Toller, Clark Hall-Meritt, Sweet, andthe Dictionary of Old English as well as the Thesaurus of Old English, the Historical Thesaurus of theOxford English Dictionary, and the lexical database of Old English Nerthus. The inflectionalforms of the resulting verbs of teaching (ālǣran, ātrahtnian, (ge)intimbrian, (ge)lǣran, (ge)tǣcan,(ge)tȳn, ontimbran, and sēpan), and verbs of learning (ge)cneordlǣcan, gefrāgian, (ge)fricgan, (ge)frignan,(ge)leornian, ofācsian, and onfindan) have been searched in the Dictionary of Old English Corpus tocompile a sub corpus for the analysis. The main conclusions drawn from this research arethat Old English verbs of teaching correspond to Causative Accomplishments and CausativeAchievements. Additionally, the states of affairs depicted by Old English verbs of learningcorrespond to Accomplishments, Achievements, and the causative versions of theseAktionsarten. Finally, the fact that both verbs of teaching and verbs of learning may representCausative Accomplishments or Causative Achievements allows Role and ReferenceGrammar to analyse these two types of verbs in a similar way.