On the limits of contact in inducing change: A corpus-based study of manner expression strategies in the emergence period of Modern Hebrew

The emergence period of Modern Hebrew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was characterized by extensive expansion and standardization processes aimed at modernizing the language, which had previously been used productively only in writing and within restricted domains. The expression of manner posed a particular challenge for the revivers. In the European contact languages (both the revivers’ native tongues and languages of cultural activity) the expression of manner was fully developed. In contrast, Hebrew-despite being considered a morphologically rich language from a typological viewpoint-had never developed specific morphological means associated with manner expression. This study focuses on trends in manner expression throughout the seminal period of emergence, based on the analysis of textual data from a large morphologically-parsed corpus representing language use in the early Hebrew press (1870s to 1930s). The findings reveal that, despite pressure from the contact languages-explicitly referred to by contemporary writers, who commented on the perceived need for Hebrew equivalents to the morphological marking of manner in Indo-European languages-manner expression strategies remained remarkably stable throughout the emergence period. Attempts to introduce morphological means to express manner did not take root, and the expression of manner in Hebrew has remained highly varied, relying primarily on syntactic means, alongside lexical and mor­phological means used in lower distribution. The study surveys the various strategies used in the corpus for forming manner adverbs and adverbials, and by com­paring their distribution in the early 1870s and early 1930s, it highlights the mar­ginality of change in this area of the language during the emergence period. Particular attention is given to strategies that differentiate the linguistic habits reflected in the corpus from present-day usage. This analysis indicates that the main changes in the field of manner expression did not occur during 224the emergence period under the influence of contact languages. Instead, these changes took place at a later stage in the evolution of Modern Hebrew, after native practices had become dominant in shaping the standard register on which journalistic style is based.