Regular syntactic change and syntactic reconstruction

The widespread adoption of the Chomsky-Borer Hypothesis, with its assumption of a crosslinguistically (and thus diachronically stable) syntactic computational system, removes an explanation for syntactic change the once widely-invoked concept of a ‘syntactic parameter’. This chapter explores some of the implications of this conceptual shift for an acquisition-driven model of syntactic change. It then leverages that discussion to explore some central issues surrounding syntactic reconstruction –especially the so-called ‘correspondence problem’, attempting to bring to light some previously underdiscussed aspects of what it means to stand ‘in correspondence.’

Investigating the past of the futurate present

Using a corpus of 1118 future-referring clauses from each of five versions of the Christian Gospels, this paper explores the effect that the development of English modals as a distinct class had on the range of meanings expressed by the simple present tense. It is shown that in Old English, the simple present tense was the primary form used to express future meanings, while by Early Modern English modals were obligatory in such clauses. In late Middle English, modals were very frequently used, but are shown not to be obligatory. The change is attributed to the advent, in the late 1500s, of a contrastive interpretable feature modality, spelled out by the modals. Thereafter, a clause lacking this contrastive feature could not be interpreted as future-referring except in planned or scheduled contexts. The featural implications of the present-day decline of the true modals are then briefly considered.

Featural dynamics in morphosyntactic change

This chapter examines Icelandic Dative Substitution (DS) and argues that two of its diachronic side effects, referred to as Person-Specific Retention and an Elsewhere Condition Death Rattle, are explained by the way in which formal features constrain the trajectory of morphosyntactic change. The study is based on naturally occurring data and a recent language acquisition experiment and the analysis draws on weighted grammatical rules as well as Yang’s Tolerance Principle. It is argued that DS does not necessarily involve a change in the syntax, but should rather be viewed as a change in the interpretation of syntactic information at the interface with morphology, resulting in variability on the surface. The results are analyzed in the context of recent theories on specialization in linguistic change and the dynamics of variation in individuals.

Feature reanalysis and the Latin origin of Romance Negative Concord

This chapter investigates the sequence of changes leading from the Latin system of negation to the various Romance outcomes. While Classical Latin is a Double Negation language, the earliest Romance varieties show a Negative Concord grammar. In the proposed analysis, this seemingly paradoxical development is explained by situating the prerequisites for Negative Concord already at the Late Latin stage. In Late Latin, a featural and structural reanalysis of the negative marker entails the activation of a projection in the clause where sentential negation has to be identified. This, in turn, triggers the grammaticalization of new negatively marked indefinites licensed in the scope of negation. These indefinites establish a syntactic relation first with the Focus Phrase (as negation strengtheners) and subsequently with the Negation Phrase, yielding a Negative Concord system. This study highlights the importance of generative research on the nature and format of syntactic features for our understanding of diachrony.

Null subjects in Middle Low German

Middle Low German (MLG) syntax is still relatively underresearched. One blank spot on the map is whether MLG allowed null arguments, in particular null subjects, and if so, of what kind. As recent research (Volodina 2009, 2011, Volodina & Weiß 2016, Walkden 2014, Kinn 2015) demonstrates that languages closely related to MLG did have null subjects in a form that no longer exists in Modern Germanic languages (Rosenkvist 2009), the current paper positions MLG in this respect. Updating Farasyn & Breitbarth (2016), we present novel data showing that MLG distinguished two different kinds of referential null subjects (RNS). We argue that MLG, while preserving the null-subject property from Old North-West Germanic to a high degree, was already in the transition to a topic-drop language of the modern V2-Germanic type. This paper provides an analysis of the licensing of RNS in MLG and of the factors influencing their occurrence.

The nature and origin of syntactic ergativity in Austronesian languages

In syntactically ergative languages, generally only the nominal with nominative (absolutive) case can undergo A’-extraction operations. Drawing evidence from Austronesian languages, this paper argues that this restriction is a consequence of the nature of nominative case valuation, which forces this feature to be retained on the phase head C rather than being inherited by T. Consequently, only the DP needing to value nominative case can move to [Spec, CP]. This paper also explores the diachronic origin of the extraction restriction in Austronesian languages and proposes that it must be reconstructed to Proto-Austronesian (PAn). But because PAn was an accusative language, objects could not be extracted directly in transitive root clauses, since the subject always valued nominative case in root clauses. Rather, the clause had to be nominalized and genitive case assigned to the subject in order to make [Spec, CP] available as a landing site for another argument.

Degrammaticalization of pronominal clitics in Slavic

This paper examines the reanalysis of pronominal clitics as weak pronouns in the Slavic languages. It demonstrates that the change occurred historically in Old Polish and Old Russian, and that currently it is also taking place in Macedonian. We interpret the reanalysis as a case of degrammaticalization. We assume that in syntactic terms degrammaticalization involves the reinterpretation of heads as phrasal elements. Furthermore, the paper identifies the trigger of the process, which is the weakening of the tense system in the respective languages, evidenced through the loss of the aorist and imperfect tense forms. On the theoretical side, the paper shows that grammaticalization is clearly reversible and that it can be disturbed by general syntactic principles.

From lexical to dependent

In this paper, we discuss the diachronic change in the internal structure of direct and indirect objects in Greek. We do so by comparing the properties of dative and genitive objects in Classical vs. (Standard and Northern) Modern Greek. We argue that there are two distinct modes of dative and genitive objective case assignment: they are either prepositional or dependent (structural) cases, as proposed by Baker & Vinokurova (2010), and Baker (2015). In other words, the change from Classical to Standard Modern Greek must be analyzed as a development from a grammatical system where dative and genitive were lexical/inherent cases, PPs, to a system where genitive is a DP that receives dependent case in the sense of Marantz (1991). By reviewing the diachronic paths of morphological dative, prepositions and prefixes, we propose that the morphological loss of dative from the history of Greek is only indirectly relevant to the diachrony of argumental datives, while change in the case-assigning properties of prepositions played a central role.

(In)vulnerable inflected infinitives as complements to modals

The paper presents data from Galician and Romeyka which show that inflected infinitives do appear as non-attitude complements contra most existing accounts, more specifically as complements to modal and (some) volitional predicates that induce obligatory semantic control. Based on Landau’s (2015) argument that [+Agr] is irrelevant for non-attitude complements, it is argued that the phi-features on the inflected infinitives in non-attitude complements are redundant; in more technical terms, affixes expressing these features are dissociated morphemes, which are not interpreted at LF but are inserted at PF instead. For this reason, they crucially appear in monoclausal contexts, i.e., in complements to modals: in this context, in which the complement has no external argument (via lexical restructuring), these morphemes express a copy of a relevant subject Agr on the modal that is valued in syntax. From this also follows why they are vulnerable to change, essentially, because they contribute nothing.

Diachronic change and feature instability

This chapter focuses on diachronic changes of obligatory control (OC) constructions in Romanian. We argue that the setting for the OC parameter has remained constant since the 16th century, but that the values of the features associated with the C/T/Agr system show systematic change. Specifically, Romanian OC follows the Balkan paradigm (i.e., truncated/FinP clause) which is under tension to accommodate the Romance morphology with Force features that it employs. This pressure results in a continuous cycle, from syncretic to split and, again, to remerged C. This process affects Fin, the only C head available to Romanian OC, alongside constant flux of the T/Agr specifications (i.e., inflected versus uninflected). These findings support the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture (BCC) that sees variation as being restricted to formal features of functional heads (Baker 2008), namely, [+/- Agr] of C/T, while aligning with Biberauer and Walkden’s (2015) observation that diachronic syntax has shifted from the “macro” to the “micro” level.