The Origin Of The 'to Be' + Preterite Participle Perfect Periphrase In Germanic.

This dissertation is concerned with the development of the periphrastic perfect tense formed in Old High German with a form of the verb 'to be' and a preterite participle (henceforth 'to be' + PP periphrase). The development of the verb 'to be' is traced from Indo-European (*es-) into Germanic (Gothic ist/wisan). The copula function that 'to be' developed allowed the expansion of predicate nominative syntax in Gothic. A periphrastic passive structure was formed when the preterite participles of transitive verbs were used predicatively with the verbs 'to be' (gabaurans ist), or 'to become' (gabaurans warp). A precursor of the active perfect periphrase later developed when preterite participles of intransitive verbs having active meaning came to occur in this predicate nominative syntax as well (garunnana was). Under certain circumstances, passive periphrases using 'to be' as an auxiliary could also develop into an active periphrase. The earliest Old High German documents mirror the situation found in Gothic, but this combination of 'to be' + PP continued to develop in Old High German into a true active tense structure. The relationship between 'to be' and 'to have' as verbs of possession is explored. It is concluded that 'to have' developed as a verb of possession only after the breakup of Indo-European. It is a pseudo-transitive variant of the verb 'to be'. Through comparison of data from various languages, it is determined that the frequent use of 'to have' as an auxiliary in the perfect tense in many languages is also based on an earlier perfect structure using the verb 'to be' as auxiliary (e.g. the Latin dativus auctoris mihi factum est 'for, by me is done'). It is suggested that the Germanic periphrastic perfect using 'to have' as an auxiliary may have developed in similar fashion. Intransitive imperfective verbs in Old High German came to form their perfect with 'to have' rather than 'to be', a fact that has perplexed many researchers. It is concluded that this was a natural development since 'to have' is merely a pseudo-transitive variant of 'to be'.PhDLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsLinguisticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127953/2/8702718.pd