Are there cases in fifteenth-century Dutch? a ‘case study’ of an Utrecht manuscript (1464)

TY - CHAP

T1 - Are there cases in fifteenth-century Dutch?

T2 - a ‘case study’ of an Utrecht manuscript (1464)

AU - Robbe, Joost Roger

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - This article examines the case system in a fifteenth-century Utrecht manuscript. It demonstrates that there is a functional case system in the manuscript. However, it also identifies a relatively small number of mistakes – grammatical errors as well as hypercorrections – in how this case system is used. It argues that these mistakes indicate that the case system had lost its support in the underlying spoken dialect. The mistakes concern both the use of cases in the nominative and the accusative, and the use of gender markers in the genitive and the dative. By examining the mistakes in the use of cases (accusative and nominative), it is possible to determine the conditions for syncretic n-deletion in the underlying spoken dialect; and, by examining the mistakes in the use of gender markers (in the genitive and dative), it is possible to determine the expansion of masculine flexion in the genitive and dative in the underlying spoken dialect.

AB - This article examines the case system in a fifteenth-century Utrecht manuscript. It demonstrates that there is a functional case system in the manuscript. However, it also identifies a relatively small number of mistakes – grammatical errors as well as hypercorrections – in how this case system is used. It argues that these mistakes indicate that the case system had lost its support in the underlying spoken dialect. The mistakes concern both the use of cases in the nominative and the accusative, and the use of gender markers in the genitive and the dative. By examining the mistakes in the use of cases (accusative and nominative), it is possible to determine the conditions for syncretic n-deletion in the underlying spoken dialect; and, by examining the mistakes in the use of gender markers (in the genitive and dative), it is possible to determine the expansion of masculine flexion in the genitive and dative in the underlying spoken dialect.

U2 - 10.7146/aul.119.107

DO - 10.7146/aul.119.107

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-87-91134-03-6

SP - 397

EP - 419

BT - Let us have articles betwixt us

A2 - Vikner, Sten

A2 - Jørgensen, Henrik

A2 - van Gelderen, Elly

PB - Department of English – School of Communication and Culture – Aarhus University

CY - Aarhus

ER -