Periphrases in Medieval English, Michiko Ogura

This monograph is one of the studies on English verb syntax, especially focusing on its changes in Old and Middle English periods. Investigations have been made so far by the author on ‘impersonal’ verbs, reflexive constructions, verbs of motion, verbs of emotion, and other verbs in various semantic fields. In this study the author explains all the periphrastic expressions found in the early history of English, some of which survived up to Modern English, by using dictionary data and her own findings. She tries to show the devices of periphrastic expressions with modal and other auxiliaries, which have supplied simple verb forms in writings and translations in the process of the language change.