External possessors in Early Middle English

Abstract

This chapter documents the use of dative external possessors in Middle English with possessa referring to the body and the mind. This construction was infrequent but still productive with body subject and object possessa in the earliest period of Middle English, similar to the latest stage of Old English, but by about 1250 had pretty well disappeared. With possessa playing the role of object of preposition, the construction experienced a dramatic drop in frequency early in Middle English, a finding that runs contrary to the assumption that expressions like ‘look me in the eyes’ are relics of the Old English construction. Dative external possessors were never very common with mind possessa and disappeared early in Middle English outside of some idioms.