The Verb <i>Blîven</i> in Middle Low German: A Corpus-Based Analysis of its Semantics in Combination with Present Participles and Infinitives

Abstract This study presents a corpus-based analysis of the verb blîven in combination with the present participle and the infinitive in Middle Low German (thirteenth–seventeenth century), with the goal of identifying the aspectual and semantic properties of these constructions. In contrast to previous research, which focused primarily on the verbs wērden and wēsen or relied on limited textual material, the present study draws on a broader corpus, allowing for a more comprehensive assessment of usage patterns across different periods and genres. The analysis shows that blîven in combination with a present participle or an infinitive can express both mutative and nonmutative meanings, with the nonmutative interpretation clearly predominating regardless of form. The study further explores how the aspectual interaction between blîven and the nonfinite verb influences the overall interpretation of the construction. The semantic patterns observed for blîven are compared with those found in wērden and wēsen + present participle constructions, revealing significant semantic convergence among Middle Low German predicative structures. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the development and aspectual behavior of periphrastic constructions in the historical Germanic languages.*