Semantic Conditions on Prefix Order in Old English

In Old English, prefixation can occur recursively, producing a variety of double prefixes (e.g., blinn > a+blinn > un+a+blin 'irrepressible state'). Despite the frequent occurrences of the recursive formation of prefixes, the issues concerning their formation, frequency, and semantic features have not been intensively examined yet and its research history is patchy at best (cf. Minkova 2008). This article investigates various combinations of double prefixes and attempts to offer an account of their morphological and semantic patterns. Overall, 67 combinations of double prefixes and 843 words beginning with double prefixes have been identified and their linguistic patterns have been analyzed. The results of this study reveal that there are significant tendencies involving double prefixation, which are closely related with the semantic change (fading) of prefixes in grammaticalization: double prefixation favors two prefixes standing at both ends of the continuum of semantic fading; the more a prefix has been semantically faded, the more frequent it is in the right position of double prefixes. Therefore, it can be seen that prefix combinations in Old English are constrained by semantic factors.