FUNCTIONAL TRANSPOSITION OF ‘SINCE’ IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

The paper is aimed at tracing the evolution of the preposition, adverb, and conjunction SINCE as the initial and transposed categories. The research proves that the adverb SINCE was formed due to grammaticalization of the construction SIÐ ÐAN/SIÞ ÞAN in 850-950 and has undergone functional transposition into the conjunction and the preposition. The adverb SINCE has been constantly decreasing and reached the lowest point in the early Present-day English. The functional transposition of the adverb SINCE into the conjunction in 850-950 was characterized by its immediate institutionalization and its statistics have been growing steadily with an upsurge in 1350-1420 and a constantly fluctuating growth after that. The transposed category of the preposition was formed in 1250-1350 and was institutionalized in the next stage of Middle English and since then, its usage frequency has been fluctuating from 18.2% to 24.1%, depending on the period.