Summary :
We assume a syntactic position for the preterite-presents in Old English and show that they are raising verbs. We underline the grammaticalization of (epistemic) modals in late Old English : they have two syntactic positions Mode (epistemic) and vModal (root). Our hypotheses are based on the analysis of infinitival structures (particularly the parallelism between the syntax of causatives and preterite-presents), negation (negative concord, Neg criterion, polarity), adverbs, elliptic structures and the TO particle.
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