Noun phrase modifiers in early Germanic : A comparative corpus study of Old English, Old High German, Old Icelandic, and Old Saxon

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of modifier position in noun phrases in the early Germanic languages Old English, Old High German, Old Icelandic, and Old Saxon. We first present data for the relative position of adjectives, cardinal numerals, possessives, participles, and quantifiers in relation to the head noun. Then we compare aspects of the different languages and discuss factors that might account for the distribution, such as texts and genres, weight, and lexical factors. We show that the default position for modifiers in early Germanic languages is prenominal, and that instances of postnominal modification in most cases can be explained with reference to specific factors. Because the evidence for default prenominal modification is so clear in these languages, we question whether noun phrase modification was ever by default, or even mostly, postnominal in Proto-Germanic, despite the evidence from Runic data and early Gothic, which shows adjectives in postnominal position.