Particularizing Focus Markers in Old English: Just a Case of Adverb Polysemy?

Abstract

The paper investigates the status of the focusing particularizer adverb efne in Old English, which has a polysemous character and can also be used as a manner, time, locative, and as an intensifying adverb. The automated analysis of the lexeme based on the Corpus of Dictionary of Old English is realized through #LancsBox software, the tools of which (KWIC, Words, GraphColl) assist in reconstructing a hypothetical pattern of the adverb emergence in the language and possible grammaticalization pathways.