Divergence of Old English Demonstratives

This study aims to illuminate the diachronic divergence of the Old English simple demonstratives and its implications on grammaticalization, on the basis of the relevant data drawn from Old English texts and Peterborough Orronicle. In Old Fnglish, evidence against prototypical demonstratives can be confinned in the Poss-Dem construction and their usage as a mere definiteness marker, both of which involved the XP > X⁰ reanalysis representing the transition stage. Early Middle English saw the completion of their shift into the definite article and further reduction into a clitic. A series of those changes constitute a classic example of unidirectional progression towards grammaticalization. In contrast, prototypical demonstratives continued to preserve deictic meaning in Old English, appearing in the SpecDP via movement. In Early Middle English, they took various forms as a process of renewal against the emergence of the definite article but converged into a single form in the end. At the same time, breakdown in morphology made them lose the uF activating movement and triggered the move > merge reanalysis.