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237 Pages·2010·4.54 MB·English

i
ii
ISBN 82-497-0005-8
Bergen, Norway 2001
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To
my friends
(they know who they are)

Nec quisquam melior medicus
quam fidus amicus
(Cato)

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[E]all sio gioguð ðe nu is on Angelcynne friora monna, ðara ðe ða speda hæbben ðæt hie ðæm
befeolan mægen, sien to liornunga oðfæste, ða hwile ðe hi to nanre oðerre note ne mægen, oð
ðone first ðe hie wel cunnen Englisc gewrit arædan.
All the youth now in England of free men, who are rich enough to be able to devote themselves to it, should be set
to learn as long as they are not fit for any other occupation, until they are well able to read English writing.

(King Alfred in the preface to the translation of Cura Pastoralis)

The first of the vii sciences is gramaire ... wythout whiche science sikerly alle other sciences in
especial ben of lytil recommendacion, by cause without gramaire ther may none prouffyte ...
This is the scyence to forme the speche, be it in latyn, ffrenshe or englisshe, or in any other
langage that men speke with. And who that coude alle gramaire, he coude make and construe
euery worde and pronounce it by example. God made the world by worde, and the worde is to
the world sentence.

(From Caxton's Mirrour of the World)

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Forþon hit is god godne to herianne...

Acknowledgments

First of all I would like to thank the Norwegian Research Council (Norges
Forskningsråd) for granting me the stipend which allowed me to carry out this work.
I am indeed grateful that I was given the chance to lead such a challenging and
stimulating life for four years. I would also like to thank my advisor, Leiv Egil
Breivik, for leading me onto the path of word order studies in the first place, and for
subsequently guiding me through the process with patience and unfailing optimism.
Thanks are also due to Bjørg Bækken and Kari Haugland for interesting and
inspiring discussions, to Kirsti Koch Christensen, Kari Haugland and Torodd Kinn
for reading and commenting on various parts of the dissertation, and, last but not
least, to Kevin McCafferty for reading it in its entirety, and for doing so with interest
and nerve-steadying competence. The errors and shortcomings that remain do so
through no fault of theirs.

A number of people have contributed to this dissertation in a more indirect way, and
foremost among them are my linguistically inclined friends: Gisle Andersen, Øivin
Andersen, Kjersti Breivega, Helge Dyvik, Kjetil Henjum, Benedicte Irgens, Torodd
Kinn, Marit Helene Kløve, Eivind Kolflaath, Rune Kyrkjebø, Magnhild Selås, Birger
Solheim (who is not a linguist, but nice anyway), Martha Thunes and Karit Elise
Valen have brought pleasure to the dreariest of days, and I would like to thank them
for the many lunch hours and social events we have spent in the utmost hilarity;
reveling in unorthodox uses of prepositions, taking full advantage of inflectional
endings, and laughing impudently, yet affectionately, at each other's phonetic quirks
(et al.). Helge 'Wordwicca' Dyvik deserves special thanks for having answered
innumerable questions, of every conceivable kind ('What's the etymology of
navnkundig?', 'Why is the stress on the first syllable in carmina?', 'How do you make
French dressing?', etc.), with grace, patience, and an unparalleled sense of humor.

As for the rest, family and friends, whose main contribution has consisted in
efficiently taking my mind off the dissertation (not, if the truth be known, a very
difficult task) – to them as well I extend my thanks, for demonstrating very clearly
that there is more to life than dead languages.

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Contents

1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................1
1.1 Aim and hypothesis.............................................................................................1
1.2 Background............................................................................................................2
1.2.1 Word order typology............................................................................................2
1.2.2 The inconsistent V2 nature of Old English........................................................4
1.2.3 The loss of V2.........................................................................................................5
1.3 The corpus..............................................................................................................6
1.3.1 Early Old English texts.........................................................................................7
1.3.2 Late Old English texts...........................................................................................8
1.3.3 Early Middle English texts.................................................................................10
1.3.4 Late Middle English texts...................................................................................11
1.4 Organization of the dissertation......................................................................12

2 PREVIOUS RESEARCH...................................................................................13
2.1 Introduction.........................................................................................................13
2.2 Word order and word order typology in the
history of English...............................................................................................13
2.2.1 Pre-typological and non-typological studies..................................................13
2.2.2 Word order typology and the V2 status of
Old English...........................................................................................................17
2.2.2.1 Background..........................................................................................17
2.2.2.2 Non-generative approaches..............................................................19
2.2.2.2.1 Strang...............................................................................19
2.2.2.2.2 Vennemann.....................................................................20
2.2.2.2.3 Stockwell..........................................................................21
2.2.2.2.4 Haiman.............................................................................22
2.2.2.2.5 Breivik..............................................................................23
2.2.2.2.6 Bean..................................................................................24
2.2.2.2.7 Others...............................................................................25
2.2.2.3 Generative studies..............................................................................26
2.2.2.3.1 van Kemenade................................................................26
2.2.2.3.2 Pintzuk.............................................................................28
2.2.2.3.3 Lightfoot..........................................................................29
2.2.2.3.4 Kroch & Taylor...............................................................30
2.2.2.3.5 Others...............................................................................31
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2.3 Old and Middle English word order from a
pragmatic perspective........................................................................................32
2.3.1 Firbas.....................................................................................................................32
2.3.2 Kohonen................................................................................................................33
2.3.3 Schmidt.................................................................................................................36
2.3.4 Historical pragmatics..........................................................................................37
2.4 Conclusion...........................................................................................................38

3 WORD ORDER PATTERNS IN OLD AND
MIDDLE ENGLISH...........................................................................................39
3.1 Introduction.........................................................................................................39
3.2 Problems of analysis..........................................................................................39
3.2.1 'Transitive' and 'intransitive' verbs...................................................................40
3.2.2 Ne + verb...............................................................................................................40
3.2.3 Subjunctives.........................................................................................................42
3.2.4 Direct speech........................................................................................................43
3.2.5 Present participles: verbal or adverbial?..........................................................44
3.2.6 beon/wesan/weorþan + participle.........................................................................46
3.2.7 Left-dislocation....................................................................................................47
3.2.8 'Impersonal' constructions and anticipatory hit..............................................48
3.2.9 Existential constructions.....................................................................................49
3.2.10 Clauses introduced by forþon.............................................................................50
3.3 Description of the word order patterns..........................................................51
3.3.1 SVX........................................................................................................................51
3.3.2 XVS........................................................................................................................53
3.3.3 XSV........................................................................................................................55
3.3.4 SXV........................................................................................................................57
3.3.5 SXVX......................................................................................................................59
3.3.6 SV1XV2..................................................................................................................61
3.3.7 Verb-initial............................................................................................................62
3.3.8 XXVS......................................................................................................................64
3.3.9 XXSV......................................................................................................................65
3.3.10 Miscellaneous.......................................................................................................67
3.4 Conclusion...........................................................................................................70

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4 WORD ORDER DISTRIBUTION IN OLD AND
MIDDLE ENGLISH...........................................................................................71
4.1 Introduction.........................................................................................................71
4.2 Word order distribution....................................................................................71
4.2.1 Distribution of word order patterns in general..............................................71
4.2.2 Distribution of word order patterns in the individual texts.........................74
4.2.2.1 Early Old English................................................................................74
4.2.2.2 Late Old English.................................................................................75
4.2.2.3 Early Middle English..........................................................................76
4.2.2.4 Late Middle English...........................................................................78
4.2.3 Word order and the clitic hypothesis...............................................................79
4.2.4 The word order of conjunct clauses..................................................................86
4.2.5 Word order distribution under the clitic and conjunct
clause hypotheses................................................................................................93
4.2.6 Word order distribution: summary..................................................................94
4.3 Constituent types in the word order patterns...............................................95
4.3.1 Types of subject....................................................................................................95
4.3.2 Types of verb......................................................................................................100
4.3.3 Types of X element............................................................................................119
4.3.3.1 The XVS and XSV patterns..............................................................119
4.3.3.2 The SXV pattern................................................................................127
4.3.3.3 The SXVX pattern.............................................................................132
4.3.3.4 The SVX, SV1XV2, verb-initial, XXVS
and XXSV patterns: general comments.........................................138
4.4 Conclusion.........................................................................................................141

5 WORD ORDER AND INFORMATION STRUCTURE...........................144
5.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................144
5.2 Methodological considerations.....................................................................146
5.2.1 Firbas...................................................................................................................146
5.2.2 Chafe....................................................................................................................148
5.2.3 Discussion...........................................................................................................149
5.2.3.1 Context...............................................................................................149
5.2.3.2 Semantics...........................................................................................151

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5.2.3.2.1 Verbs...............................................................................152
5.2.3.2.2 Adverbials.....................................................................153
5.2.3.3 Linear modification..........................................................................155
5.2.4 Summary.............................................................................................................156
5.3 Word order from a pragmatic perspective:
the information value of clause elements....................................................159
5.3.1 The XVS and XSV patterns...............................................................................159
5.3.2 The SXV pattern.................................................................................................170
5.3.3 The SXVX pattern..............................................................................................176
5.3.4 The SVX, SV1XV2, verb-initial, XXVS and
XXSV patterns: general comments..................................................................182
5.3.5 Summary and conclusion.................................................................................183
5.4 Conjunct clauses revisited..............................................................................184
5.4.1 Conjunct clauses and SXV order.....................................................................185
5.4.2 Conjunct clauses and XVS order.....................................................................188
5.4.3 Conjunct clauses and XSV order.....................................................................190
5.5 Summary and conclusion................................................................................192

6 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................196

REFERENCES..................................................................................................................201

Appendix I Abbreviations....................................................................................216
Appendix II List of tables.......................................................................................218
Appendix III FileMaker record..............................................................................221
Appendix IV Chi-square statistics.........................................................................222
Appendix V Manuscript sample: The Old English Orosius................................227

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