WORD ORDER IN OLD ENGLISH EMBEDDED CLAUSES: SYNTACTIC INSTANTIATION AND PRAGMATIC FACTORS
Main Article Content
Abstract
In this paper we address the major word order patterns in Old English (OE) embedded clauses and examine to what extent it is possible to capture the motivation behind the variation observed in purely syntactic terms. As a representative of the syntacticocentric approach, we take the account by Biberauer and Roberts (2005) and critically evaluate it against the larger empirical background, while also pointing out certain theoretical challenges it faces. We then attempt to characterize the various information-structural inferences (focus, topicality, givenness, pragmatic presupposition) that arise for different word order patterns, and that must be taken into consideration in any successful analysis. We leave it open whether the IS/pragmatic effects we describe arise because notions like [+Focus] are represented in the syntax, or because languages exploit the contrasts that are independently generated by the syntax for discourse-pragmatic purposes.
Downloads
Metrics
No metrics found.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
Bergen, L. van. (2000). Pronouns and word order in Old English, with particular reference to the indefinite pronoun man. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Manchester.
Biberauer, T.– Roberts, I. (2005). Changing EPP-parameters in the history of English: accounting for variation and change. English Language and Linguistics, 9 (1), 5–46.
Biberauer, T., – Holmberg, A. & Roberts, I. (2014). A syntactic universal and its consequences. Linguistic Inquiry, 45, 169–225.
Chomsky, N. (2001). Derivation by phase. In: Kenstowicz, M. (ed.) (2001). Ken Hale: a Life in Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 1–52.
Kayne, R. (1994). The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge, Ms.: MIT Press.
Kemenade, A. van. (1987). Syntactic case and morphological case in the history of English. Dordrecht: Foris.
Kemenade, A. van. (1999). Sentential negation and clause structure in Old English. In: Tieken-Boon van Ostade, I.–Tottie, G. & Wurff, W. van der (eds.) (1999). Negation in the History of English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 147-165.
Kemenade, A. van. (2000). Jespersen’s cycle revisited: formal properties of grammaticalization. In: Pintzuk, S.–Tsoulas, G. & Warner, A. (eds.) (2000). Diachronic Syntax: Models and Mechanisms. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. 51-74.
Kemenade, A. van.–Milićev, T. (2012). Syntax and discourse in Old and Middle English word order. In: Jonas, D.–Whitman, J. & Garret, A. (eds.) (2012). Grammatical change: Origins, nature, outcomes., 239–255. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Koopman, W. (1990). Word Order in Old English, with Special Reference to the Verb Phrase. Doctoral dissertation, University of Amsterdam.
Kroch, A. S. (1989). Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change, 1,199-244.
Milićev, T. (2016). The syntax and information structure in the Old English verb phrase. Doctoral dissertation. University of Novi Sad.
Milićev, T. (2023). Fronted vs. Non-Fronted Complement Orders in Old English. Novi Sad: Faculty of Philosophy.
Nunes, J. (2002). VO or OV? That’s the underlying question: commentary on Pintzuk. In: Lightfoot D. W. (ed.) (2002). Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 300–306.
Perlmutter, D. M. (1970). The two verbs ‘begin’. In: R. Jacobs, R. –Rosenbaum, P. (eds.) (1970). Readings in English Transformational Grammar. Waltham, MA: Ginn-Blaisdell. 107–119.
Pintzuk, S. (1991). Phrase Structures in Competition: Variation and Change in Old English Word Order. Doctoral dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.
Pintzuk, S. (1999). Phrase Structures in Competition: Variation and Change in Old English word order. New York: Garland.
Pintzuk, S. (2002). Verb-object order in Old English: variation as grammatical competition. In: Lightfoot D. W. (ed.) (2002). Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 276–299.
Pintzuk, S. (2005). Arguments against a universal base: evidence from Old English. English Language and Linguistics, 9/1, 115–138.
Roberts, I. (1997). Directionality and word order change in the history of English. In: Kemenade, A. van–Vincent, N. (eds.) (1997). Parameters of Morphosyntactic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 397–426.
Struik, T. –Kemenade, A. van. (2020). On the givenness of OV word order: A (re)examination of OV/VO variation in Old English. English Language and Linguistics, 24 (1), 1–22.
Struik, T.–Kemenade, A. van. (2022). Information structure and OV word order in Old and Middle English: A phase-based approach. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 25(1) https://doi.org/10.1007/s10828-022-09131-1.
Zimmermann, Malte. 2008. Contrastive focus and emphasis. Acta Linguistica Hungarica, 55/3-4, 347–360.
Zwart. J-W. (2001). Syntactic and phonological verb movement. Syntax, 4, 34–62.