Middle English Don and Maken
Some Observations on Semantic Patterns
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8730587 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sherman M Kuhn (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1977 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 1/2 |
| Pages | 5-5 |
| Publication date | 1977-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1283 • E-ISSN: 1527-2133 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/454715 |
| OpenAlex | W2330621142 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
ERBS IN ENGLISH, as in most languages--especially old and frequently used verbs--often overlap one another and develop identical, or very similar, meanings.1 An interesting example of this process is furnished by Middle English don 'to do' and maken 'to make.' I shall confine my discussion to the following seven broad senses of the two verbs: (1) to perform (an action), engage in (an activity), do (something); (2) to make (something), construct or manufacture, build, found, create, bring forth or produce; (3) to put or place (something or someone), bring, take; (4) to give (a gift), do (alms), make (a sacrifice), pay (costs), grant (satisfaction); (5) to exhibit (an emotion or a quality), show (feeling to or for someone); (6) to cause (someone or something to do, have, or undergo something), cause (something to be done or to happen), cause (someone to be or become or turn into something); and (7) in passive only: to happen, occur, take place, come to pass. These are the meanings in which the most significant semantic overlap occurs. Both verbs are of respectable West Germanic ancestry: they have cognates in Old Frisian, Old Saxon,2 and Old High German. In Old English, however, macian and the prefixed gemacian are very rare, while d5n (occasionally gedon) is common. The latter appears in all of the dialects in which texts survive from the Old English period: Mercian, Northumbrian, West Saxon, Kentish. It shows all of the senses listed above, except perhaps the last one (7), plus a number of other meanings which are excluded from this discussion. Macian and gemacian, on the other hand, are hardly to be found outside West Saxon; and in West Saxon, I can find no example of either before the time of King Alfred. In his translations, Alfred used gemacian once in the sense of 'make (something)' and once in the sense of 'cause (something to take place)'; he used macian three times in the sense of
Linguistics · Middle English · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies · History · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,07 |
| Citation span | 1986 - 2022 (37) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |