Early changes in English

This chapter presents statistical evidence that dative external possessors declined within the Old English period. A more informal comparison with Gothic and Old Saxon suggests that the use of such possessors had declined in English compared with the Common Germanic period. Specifically, the use of dative external possessors with beneficially affected possessors had all but disappeared with subject and object possessa arguments of lexical verbs by the earliest written Old English, but such possessors are found in both Gothic and Old Saxon. In the Late West Saxon texts, dative external possessors were restricted to severely adversely affected body parts with such possessa, although they were still used frequently with object of preposition possessa, especially in idioms.