A Middle English Syntax: Part I (Parts of Speech)

English syntax used to have a version of the verb-second rule, by which the finite verb moves to second position in main clauses. This rule was lost in Middle English, and this article argues that its loss had serious consequences for the information structure of the clause. In the new, rigid subject-verb-object syntax, the function of preposed constituents changed, and the function of encoding ‘old’ or ‘given’ information in a pragmatically neutral way was increasingly reserved for subjects. Pressure from information structure to repair this situation subsequently led to the rise of new passive constructions in order to satisfy the need for more subjects; the change in the informational status of preposed constituents triggered the rise of clefts. If information structure can be compromised by syntactic change in this way, this suggests that it represents a separate linguistic level outside the syntax.

Download Full-text

He forbead þæt hi ne weopon: A negative element in the þæt-clause introduced by a verb of prohibition

SELIM. Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature. ◽

10.17811/selim.25.2020.21-36 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 21-36

Author(s):

Michiko Ogura

Keyword(s):

Middle English ◽

Old English ◽

Historical Change ◽

Negative Element ◽

University Of Edinburgh ◽

English Syntax ◽

The University ◽

Stylistic Device

In ICEHL 20 at the University of Edinburgh, I made a report of my research on this theme. The present paper gives additional facts on the construction of a verb of negation followed by a þæt-clause with a negative element. What I try to exemplify is not a historical change from expletive negative to affirmative clause, but the facts that (i) the expletive negative was one of the correlative constructions based on Old English syntax and (ii) the affirmative clause was already found in early Old English together with the negative clause, even though the negative clause was frequent in late Old English to early Middle English and then decreased after late Middle English. The verb with negative import with a negated þæt-clause is, therefore, not an illogical expression but a stylistic device of combining the negation of the governing verb with the content of the governed, negated þæt-clause.

Download Full-text

A Parsed Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English

Historical Dialectology in the Digital Age ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474430531.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 19-38

Author(s):

Robert Truswell ◽

Rhona Alcorn ◽

James Donaldson ◽

Joel Wallenberg

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Middle English ◽

Relative Clauses ◽

Detailed Account ◽

Important Data ◽

Dative Alternation ◽

Sentential Negation ◽

Data Gap ◽

English Syntax

This chapter reports on the construction of a new resource, the Parsed Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English (PLAEME). Prose is underrepresented in the period 1250-1350, which is why this period is also underrepresented in the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English (PPCHE). This data gap is unfortunate, as we know that the period is important for morphosyntactic change. PLAEME addresses that data gap by transforming material from the Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English (LAEME) into the same format as the PPCHE. The chapter present a detailed account of its construction, as well as three case studies replicating three recent studies of Middle English syntax: the establishment of not as the expression of sentential negation (Ecay and Tamminga 2017), the fixing of the syntax of the dative alternation (Bacovcin 2017), and the introduction of argumental headed wh-relative clauses (Gisborne and Truswell 2017). These case studies show that PLAEME allows these changes to be charted in much greater detail, and hence demonstrates how PLAEME fills an important data gap.

Download Full-text