Corpus based studies of Middle English adverb largely: syntax and information-structure (original) (raw)

EXCLUSIVE ADVERBIALS IN MIDDLE ENGLISH

Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference «Topical Issues of Science and Education», 2017

Abstract. Middle English (ME) is termed as a transitory stage in the development of the English syntax. While in the earlier stages of language evolution, word-order and temporal adverbials were considered the main information structural markers, ME with its more rigid morphology requires new means to express newness of sentence constituents. From this perspective, the paper deals with the rise and advancement of new exclusive adverbials (ane/onli¸ mereli, simpli, holli, outerli and plainly) within 1150-1500. Analysis based on Prince’s taxonomy allows to elicit evolutionary pattern for exclusives in different stages, determining the ratio of marking different Focus types, as well as, discourse status representation. Key-words: adverbial, Focus, Topic, information structure, discourse/hearer old/new information, Middle English period.

The Landscape of Middle English Focusing on the Adverb Even

Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies / Litera: Dil, Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2022

The study is aimed at exploring adverb even as the information structural component, viz., a Focus marker in Middle English records based on the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. Functioning as an adverb already in Old English (OE), Middle English (ME) provides evidence to gradual transformation of even into an additive marker according to the following pattern: OE degree/manner adverb→ME restrictive particularizer→ME restrictive exclusive→ME scalar additive. The latter meaning in Present-Day English can be singled out on the ground of such semantic criteria of the Focus phrase as [+likelihood], [+additivity], [+scalar], [+givenness] and [+surprise]. The three types of focusing even registered in Middle English texts are analyzed in terms of information novelty and various Foci types marked by the adverb, as well as, syntactic arrangement of sentence constituents. Corpus studies revealed that depending on the sense, even pertains to a specific Focus type and may cause word order to change. Specifically, when the adverb is used in its Present-Day English meaning, it highlights predominantly mirative Focus, and the analysis of word order patterns indicates the fronting of X-element in the clause, which may be put down to the fact that this scalar additive stresses surprising or unusual context for the reader. Therefore, inverted arrangement of elements may be used for stylistic purposes. Keywords: Focusing adverbs, scalar additive, information structure, Focus, Topic, word-order

Information-structure impact on adverbial only evolution in the Middle English language

The article, dedicated to adverbial only rise and the advancement in Middle English, develops an information-structural hypothesis as the key factor of its evolution. The research focuses on two adverbialials ane and only investigated in various historical periods (XII cen., XIII cen. (1st, 2nd half), XIV cen. (1st, 2nd half) and X cen.), undergoing significant changes over time. It proves the aforesaid adverbials to be Focus marking components, reanalyzing from numeral ane into adverbial only in the XIII cen. The data analysis based on Rizzi’s formula and Prince’s taxonomy allows to elicit adverbial only evolutionary pattern, determine ratio of different Focus type marking, as well as, discourse status representation. Key-words: adverbial, Focus, Topic, information structure, discourse/hearer old/new information, Middle English period.

Discourse Adverbs and Clausal Syntax in Old and Middle English

The Handbook of the History of English, 2006

In this chapter, we discuss the syntactic and discourse properties of a number of adverbs in Old and Middle English, concentrating on þa and þonne, which both have 'then' as their literal meaning. This may seem like a small topic, but in fact, we will show that the syntactic and discourse properties of these adverbs reveal a good deal about the changing organisation of clause structure and discourse during the Old English period and the transition to Middle English. Building our argument around the properties of these adverbs, we will address a

Focus movement and focus interpretation in Old English

2011

Addressing the current debate on the mapping between focus marking and focus interpretation, the paper presents evidence suggesting that different types of focus correlate with different types of movement of DP-objects in Old English. The analysis of the contexts in which these movement operations occur reveals that if we assume a double base scenario allowing for both movement to the left and to the right of the IP, we obtain orders in which the objects firmly correlate with a particular information-structural property. While movement to the left takes place in those cases in which the referent of the object is in a contrastive relation to another entity in the context, rightward movement clearly relates to novelty in the discourse.

Archaic and Innovative Word Order Patterns in Late Middle English Prose

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, as a specimen of field work it seeks, by close syntactic analysis, to discover more about the language of a late medieval text in which few recent scholars have furrowed. Secondly I wish to relate – in a very tentative manner – the data from this study with current theories of word order as they relate to Middle English. The subject of my analysis is Mandeville’s Travels. Following examination of this fourteenth century text, a corpus consisting of 8,115 full clauses, my findings are as follows: 1. Despite its high percentage of SVX patterns, Mandeville’s Travels exhibits a very high percentage of inversions, something Bean’s early SVX hypothesis could not have predicted. This seems to lend support to Kenade’s OE V2 hypothesis, and to her scenario of V2 to SVX reanalysis at about 1400. 2. The equally surprising discovery in this text of brace clauses, OVS, and SOV word orders, though few, further suggests that some other principle besides V3 was at work in Old and Early Middle English. 3. Dependent clauses in Mandeville, as in Bean’s study of ASC, show a much higher percentage of modern word order than independent clauses. As we will see later, this has its own set of theoretical consequences. Conclusion: Given the many archaic word orders in Mandeville which occur alongside the modern ones, the entire idea that either “early” or “late” Middle English could be syntactically “identical” to Modern English must be abandoned. Instead, the data of this study reinforces Mitchell’s insistence on the original meaning of the term “Middle English,” namely: a transitional period in the history of English.