West Midland and Southwestern Adjectival Systems in Early Middle English: A Reanalysis‪.‬

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to present the process of functional reanalysis that took place in the adjectival systems of West Midland and Southwestern dialects. The process is manifested in the interplay between case and gender marking, which is regarded as an intermediate stage in the process of adjectival disintegration in Early Middle English. It is demonstrated that the formerly gender specific inflectional endings were reanalyzed to serve new functions as case markers in the aforementioned dialectal areas. An investigation into the dialectal distribution of the process reveals that prior to the loss of case and gender marking in West Midland and Southwestern dialects gender specific endings were reinterpreted to serve case functions.