Subject positions and information-structural diversification in the history of english

The aim of this paper is to integrate Information Structure/IS-related insights of past work on the subject system of Old English with a particular formal account of word-order variation and change in earlier English that did not take IS considerations into account. We offer a first detailed formal account of how the IS-sensitive Old English subject positions can be understood in the context of an OV system which was becoming increasingly VO, and thereafter outline subject-related developments during Middle English and Early Modern English, leading us to the present day. Against the background of these diachronic developments, our contention is that English has, in one way or another, exhibited IS-sensitive subject positions throughout its history and that, as argued by Kiss (1996), it continues to do so today.L'objectiu d'aquest article és integrar idees relacionades amb l'Estructura Informativa (EI) de treballs anteriors sobre el subjecte oracional de l'anglès antic amb una explicació formal concreta de la variació i el canvi en l'ordre de mots en l'anglès primerenc que no tenia en compte l'EI. Presentem una primera explicació formal detallada de com les posicions de subjecte de l'anglès antic que són sensibles a l'EI es poden explicar en el context d'un sistema OV que començava a ser progressivament VO, i a continuació esbossem els desenvolupaments en la sintaxi del subjecte durant l'anglès mitjà i el principi de l'anglès modern, que ens porten fins a l'anglès actual. Amb el rerefons d'aquests desenvolupaments diacrònics, defensem que l'anglès ha presentat, d'una manera o altra, posicions de subjecte sensibles a l'EI al llarg de tota la història i que, com defensa Kiss (1996), encara ho fa

Word order change, architecture and interfaces: Evidence from the development of V to C movement in the history of English

We present a novel analysis of the development of one type of Verb Second (V2) word order over the Middle English period and its loss over the early Modern English period. The analysis is based on a fine-grained and novel corpus study, which shows that multiple factors play a role in this development, and that it involves interaction between syntax, information structure/pragmatics and prosody. We focus on subject-finite inversion of pronominal subjects, following an adverb (þa, þonne in Old English, extending to other adverbs over the Middle English periods), isolating those contexts for which it is generally accepted that they involve finite verb movement to the highest functional head in the C-domain (ForceP) of the main clause. Middle English first sees the extension of this type of V2 to inversion following other short originally English adverbs that are discourse-linking: here, there, yet and thus. This extension primarily involves short finite verbs such as auxiliaries and monosyllabic lexical verbs. V2 following adverbs is lost over the early Modern period. We present novel data and arguments to show that this loss largely coincides with the grammaticalization of modals and other auxiliaries, and that it is triggered by metrical changes in the definition of the English prosodic word: as long as the mostly unstressed adverb could co-occur with a stressed monosyllabic finite verb and the postverbal subject pronoun could be integrated into the prosodic word of the auxiliary, inversion was fine. Primary stress on the auxiliary was lost in the final stages of the auxiliation process, yielding an unheaded foot, violating prosodic requirements. In contrast, this type of V2 could be maintained in questions and focal initial negatives such as Never would I do such a thing! because the initial constituent carries primary stress in these contexts, heading the metrical foot

Information structure and OV word order in Old and Middle English: a phase-based approach

This article re-examines the evidence for OV and VO variation and the loss of OV order in historical English, and presents a novel and unified analysis of Old and Middle English word order based on a uniform VO grammar, with leftward scrambling of specific types of objects. This analysis provides an insightful framework for a precise analysis of how OV word orders differ from VO word orders. We show in detail that OV with referential objects involves discourse-given objects. We then present a phase-based analysis from a VO base in which objects undergo feature-driven movement to spec,vP triggered by the information structure of the object. We propose that this analysis also yields a syntactic framework for analysing the derivation of preverbal quantified and negated objects, as well as a natural explanation for the stepwise loss of OV word order

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I: Syntax inside the grammar

This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions on the relation of syntax to other aspects of grammar and linguistics more generally, including studies on language acquisition, variation and change, and syntactic interfaces. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in synchronic and diachronic comparative syntax ranging from the core verbal domain to higher, propositional domains. This book is complemented by volume II available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/276 and volume III available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/277

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I: Syntax inside the grammar

This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions on the relation of syntax to other aspects of grammar and linguistics more generally, including studies on language acquisition, variation and change, and syntactic interfaces. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in synchronic and diachronic comparative syntax ranging from the core verbal domain to higher, propositional domains. This book is complemented by volume II available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/276 and volume III available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/277

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I: Syntax inside the grammar

This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions on the relation of syntax to other aspects of grammar and linguistics more generally, including studies on language acquisition, variation and change, and syntactic interfaces. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in synchronic and diachronic comparative syntax ranging from the core verbal domain to higher, propositional domains. This book is complemented by volume II available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/276 and volume III available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/277

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I: Syntax inside the grammar

This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions on the relation of syntax to other aspects of grammar and linguistics more generally, including studies on language acquisition, variation and change, and syntactic interfaces. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in synchronic and diachronic comparative syntax ranging from the core verbal domain to higher, propositional domains. This book is complemented by volume II available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/276 and volume III available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/277

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I: Syntax inside the grammar

This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions on the relation of syntax to other aspects of grammar and linguistics more generally, including studies on language acquisition, variation and change, and syntactic interfaces. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in synchronic and diachronic comparative syntax ranging from the core verbal domain to higher, propositional domains. This book is complemented by volume II available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/276 and volume III available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/277