This paper discusses the evolution of
Ngen+N compounds (e.g. nan regnes dropa ‘no rain’s drop’) into N+N
compounds (i.e. the equivalent of ‘no rain drop’) between the Old and the
Middle English period. The contribution
first describes various types of pre-nominal genitive constructions found
in Old English, then illustrates the extension of genitive –es to all
declensions and plurals in pre-nominal genitive constructions – where it
was re-analysed as clitic or phrasal suffix-- and finally explains how
the loss of genitive marking confined to Ngen+N compounds was prompted by
the re-organization of the inflectional morphology, whereby, among other
things, genitive –es was unselectively attached to all nominal roots.
