96
Middle English Whilom
predicatively or take adjectival affi xes); moreover, it is unclear that the shift
from adverb > adjective is really an “upgrading,” since adjective and adverb
are indeterminate between open and closed classes. Alternative explanations
were explored, including whether this change can be seen as lexicalization or
as conversion (zero derivation). Both alternative explanations are found want-
ing, and this change is perhaps best understood as a case of gradience or “fuzzy
boundaries” between categories (Aarts 2004; Denison 2001 , 2010 ).