The development from a synthetic to an analytic language is one of the most important topics in English historical syntax. This development is reflected in the gradual decrease of case-forms and the replacement of their functions with equivalent prepositional constructions. Focussing on the Old English period, when case-forms and prepositional constructions overlapped in various functions, this book aims to answer an unresolved question: was there a significant change in the use of case-forms and, alternatively, in the use of prepositions plus case-forms in contexts where both types were possible? The author makes a statistical comparison between prose texts written in the early Old English period and texts of the later Old English period; she also takes into account stylistic features of individual texts. Thus, this book addresses this Old English syntactic issue both from a historical and a stylistic perspective and shows the stages of development during the Old English period.

The Author: Kiriko Sato, born in 1975 in Japan, graduated from Tokyo Gakugei University in 1998. She specialized in the History of the English Language at the University of Tokyo, where she received her M.A. in 2000 and her Ph.D. in 2006. She was awarded the Matsunami Prize by the Japan Society for Medieval English Studies in 2006. Since 2008, she has been Lecturer in the Department of English, Kumamoto Gakuen University, Kumamoto, Japan.

Contents: Instrumentality - Manner - Accompaniment - Point of Time - Duration of Time - Origin - Specification - Dative Absolute - The Parker Chronicle - Boethius - Bede - Ælfric's Catholic Homilies - Ælfric's Lives of Saints - Wulfstan's Homilies.