‘Busked hem redy boun’: Integrating Norse‑derived busken into the class of ‘prepare’ verbs in medieval English

This paper advances a recent line of inquiry investigating how loan verbs are assigned argument structure in the replica language and whether lexical copying may effect changes in argument structure. It delineates how Middle English busken ‘prepare’ (< Old Norse reflexivised búa-sk ) is assigned argument structure in the replica language both by copying from the model language and by assignment from near-synonyms in the replica language as a mixed copy. A comparative qualitative corpus study of the structural integration of busken and the diachronic development of its native near-synonyms in Old and Middle English shows how cognacy of linguistic units and structures, and mutual intelligibility between the languages in contact influence the lexical and, more importantly, structural outcomes of contact.