English phrases, French verbs: The interaction between loan word accommodation and grammatical change in Middle English

French heavily influenced the English lexicon, mainly during the Middle English period (1100-1500). However, it does not seem to have affected the grammar of English. This is because in Middle English society French functioned as a high-prestige but essentially second language. In such situations, transfer tends to mainly involve lexical borrowing. However, the effects of contact may go beyond direct transfer. Loan words need to be accommodated in the grammar of the recipient language. Because accommodation strategies may be biased, a substantial enough influx of loan words can in turn lead to grammatical change or interfere with ongoing developments. In this project, the focus is on the accommodation of French loan verbs. It is hypothesized that French loan verbs in Middle English favoured non-finite verb forms and dominant inflectional variants. Therefore, their entrance into the language boosted the use of non-finite forms and strengthened dominant inflectional patterns. This way, the influx of French loan verbs would have interacted with and contributed to some of the long-standing trends in the history of English, namely the rise of non-finite constructions, and inflectional loss. Demonstrating these effects will change our understanding of the history of English and the role of French in it. It will also improve our insight into the indirect effects of language contact and into the strategies for loan word accommodation.