The diachrony of iterativity: Evidence from Germanic r -verbs

This article examines the diachrony of Germanic iterative “ (V)r-verbs” (e.g., German flattern, English flutter) and related deverbal suffixes (as in, e.g., German folgern ‘to infer’). While these verbs form a distinct class in North-West Germanic—evidenced by cognates like Old High German flogarōn and Old Norse flǫgra—their origin and the development of their iterative semantics remain poorly understood. To clarify the origin of this class, we present a systematic corpus study of four early Germanic languages: Gothic, Old High German, Old English, and Old Norse. We analyze the derivational bases, Aktionsart, and argument structures of early Germanic (V)r-verbs, identifying distinct denominal, deadjectival, and deverbative subclasses. Building on the insight that verbalizers diachronically often emerge from nominal or adjectival material through reanalysis in cross-categorial derivation ( Grestenberger 2023 ), we argue that iterative meaning originated in deadjectival verbs derived from eventive roots. In these cases, the (V)r-suffix was reanalyzed first as a root modifier and subsequently as a verbalizer expressing event-internal pluractionality. We contrast this class with deadjectival verbs derived from Property Concept roots, which typically yield degree achievement/fientive-factitive alternation verbs expressing a change of state. Our findings underscore the necessity of integrating morphological theory with empirical, corpus-based analysis to decode morphosemantic change in the diachrony of verbal morphology.