scholarly journals Grammar Competition and Word Order in a Northern Early Middle English Text

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Robert Truswell
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
English Text ◽  
Formal Description ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Cursor Mundi ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Matrix Verb ◽  
Regular Verb

The Edinburgh Royal College of Physicians manuscript of Cursor Mundi and the Northern Homilies, a northern Middle English text from the early 14th century, contains unprecedentedly high frequencies of matrix verb-third and embedded verb-second word orders with subject–verb inversion. I give a theoretical account of these word orders in terms of a grammar, the ‘CM grammar’, which differs minimally in its formal description from regular verb-second grammars, but captures these unusual word orders through addition of a second preverbal A′-projection. Despite its flexibility, the CM grammar did not spread through the English-speaking population. I discuss the theoretical consequences of this failure to spread for models of grammar competition where fitness is tied to parsing success, and discuss prospects for refining such models.

scholarly journals Diagnosing embedded V2 in Old English and Old French

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Meklenborg Salvesen ◽  
George Walkden
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Old French ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Matrix Verb ◽  
Finite Verb

Old English (OE) and Old French (OF) both display verb-second (V2) word order in main declarative clauses. Different models may account for V2: (a) the finite verb must move to a head in the CP field; (b) it must remain in the IP field; or (c) it moves to the left periphery only when the preceding XP is not a subject. While the IP-model should allow free embedded V2, the two others would either exclude completely or strongly limit the possibilty of having embedded V2. We select embedded that-clauses and analyse the word order with respect to the matrix verb: embedded V2 is possible in both OE and OF, although the availability of this structure is restricted. OE has very few occurrences of embedded V2, whereas OF seems to permit this construction more freely. We link this difference to the site of first Merge of complementizers in the two languages.

scholarly journals Usage-based vs. rule-based learning: the acquisition of word order in wh-questions in English and Norwegian

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 1023-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIT WESTERGAARD
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Major Parameter ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
English Speaking

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses different approaches to language acquisition in relation to children's acquisition of word order in wh-questions in English and Norwegian. While generative models assert that children set major word order parameters and thus acquire a rule of subject–auxiliary inversion or generalized verb second (V2) at an early stage, some constructivist work argues that English-speaking children are simply reproducing frequent wh-word+auxiliary combinations in the input. The paper questions both approaches, re-evaluates some previous work, and provides some further data, concluding that the acquisition of wh-questions must be the result of a rule-based process. Based on variation in adult grammars, a cue-based model to language acquisition is presented, according to which children are sensitive to minor cues in the input, called micro-cues. V2 is not considered to be one major parameter, but several smaller-scale cues, which are responsible for children's lack of syntactic (over-)generalization in the acquisition process.

scholarly journals Syntactic effects of contact in translations: evidence from object pronoun placement in Middle English

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIC HAEBERLI
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Source Text ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
English Prose ◽  
Main Verb ◽  
Object Pronouns

Whereas object pronouns regularly occurred before the main verb in Old and early Middle English, such word orders were to a large extent lost in Middle English prose by the end of the thirteenth century. Nevertheless, some isolated later texts still show regular preverbal occurrences of object pronouns. Such word orders are most frequent with three texts that are translations of French sources. This article closely examines one of these texts, the Middle English prose Brut, and its source, and argues that contact influence is the most plausible explanation for its distinct behaviour with respect to object pronoun placement. It is also shown that the translator does not slavishly follow his source and that the contact effects are mainly of the statistical type in that word orders occurring very marginally in other texts appear with high frequencies in the Brut while such a contrast is not found for a word order that is unattested elsewhere. These observations are compatible with the equally exceptional but slightly different distribution of object pronouns in another translation from French, the Ayenbite of Inwyt. The findings of this article show that translation-induced contact and, possibly, contact in bilingual language use more generally can have important quantitative effects and that these have to be seriously considered in any syntactic analysis of historical texts based on a foreign source text.

Transforming the Vulgate: Comestor and the Middle English Genesis and Exodus

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-152
Author(s):  
Brian S. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Cursor Mundi

The article studies the literary or rhetorical effects of the transformation into plain narrative of biblical material originally compiled from different and often incomplete sources. Avoiding allegorical interpretations of the Bible’s theocentric history, Comestor in his “Historia Scholastica” and the Middle English poems based upon it, “Genesis and Exodus” and “Cursor Mundi,” sought to clarify difficult passages for the instruction and entertainment, rather than moral exhortation, of their for the most part unlearned, or illiterate, audiences. One result of their work was to fill or paper over lacunae and ambiguities that pique the curiosity of readers wanting to know more of the human stories implicit in the incidents described. Key passages in these texts will be examined.

Clause Structure and Word Order in the History of German

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Right ◽  
Theoretical Analyses

Over roughly the last decade, there has been a notable rise in new research on historical German syntax in a generative perspective. This volume presents a state-of-the-art survey of this thriving new line of research by leading scholars in the field, combining it with new insights into the syntax of historical German. It is the first comprehensive and concise generative historical syntax of German covering numerous central aspects of clause structure and word order, tracing them throughout various historical stages. Each chapter combines a solid empirical basis and valid descriptive generalizations with reference also to the more traditional topological model of the German clause with a detailed discussion of theoretical analyses couched in the generative framework. The volume is divided into three parts according to the main parts of the clause: the left periphery dealing with verbal placement and the filling of the prefield (verb second, verb first, verb third orders) as well as adverbial connectives; the middle field including discussion of pronominal syntax, order of full NPs and the history of negation; and the right periphery with chapters on basic word order (OV/VO), prosodic and information-structural factors, and the verbal complex including the development of periphrastic verb forms and the phenomena of IPP (infinitivus pro participio) and ACI (accusativus cum infinitivo). This book thus provides a convenient overview of current research on the major issues concerning historical German clause structure both for scholars interested in more traditional description and for those interested in formal accounts of diachronic syntax.

Word-order change in progress: the case of Slovene and Serbo-Croat and its relevance for Germanic

1987 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Slavonic Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
Order Change ◽  
The One ◽  
Word Order Change ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Fresh Insight

It will be suggested in this article that Slovene, a South Slavonic language, is on the way to acquiring verb-second (V2) word order. In providing evidence in support of this view I shall compare Slovene, on the one hand, with the closely related language Serbo-Croat and, on the other hand, with relevant details from the history of the Germanic languages. The point of comparing it with Serbo-Croat is to discover the respects in which the word order of these two languages has diverged. Taken together with what is known about the word order of Common Slavonic, the facts emerging from this comparison allow us to identify one major respect in which Slovene has changed and two respects in which it is still changing. At the same time, they reveal a major respect in which Serbo-Croat word order is also changing. The point of comparing Slovene with the Germanic languages is twofold. First, since all the present-day Germanic languages either have or have had V2 word order (Haiman, 1974), it is possible that their history can help us to understand the changes currently taking place in Slovene and to predict how Slovene might change in the future. Secondly, where details of the history of the Germanic languages are poorly understood, the possibility exists of gaining fresh insight into them in the light of the changes that have taken place more recently, or indeed are still taking place, in Slovene. In this connection we shall assess the plausibility of two theories concerning the adoption of V2 word order by the Germanic languages, those of Vennemann (1975) and Wackernagel (1892).

Word Order in Old and Middle English

Diachronica ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Extended Version ◽  
Major Parameter ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mixed Systems

In the history of English one finds a mixture of V2 and non-V2 word order in declaratives for several hundred years, with frequencies suggesting a relatively gradual development in the direction of non-V2. Within an extended version of a cue-based approach to acquisition and change, this paper argues that there are many possible V2 grammars, differing from each other with respect to clause types, information structure, and the behavior of specific lexical elements. This variation may be formulated in terms of micro-cues. Child language data from present-day mixed systems show that such grammars are acquired early. The apparent optionality of V2 in the history of English may thus be considered to represent several different V2 grammars in succession, and it is not necessary to refer to competition between two major parameter settings. Diachronic language development can thus be argued to occur in small steps, reflecting the loss of micro-cues, and giving the impression that change is gradual.

scholarly journals THE USE OF BIMANESE VOWEL IN ENGLISH SPEAKING

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Muhayyah Muhayyah
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Negative Transfer ◽  
Positive Transfer ◽  
Research Subject ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
English Speaking

This research was aimed at finding how Bimanese vowels interfere Bimanese students in speaking English. The techniques of collecting data were observation and video. The data was collected during the research subject did the presentation in the class. The data analysis used qualitative descriptive. Based on the finding, it’s found there were positive and negative transfers. In positive transfer the Bimanese vowels had similar sound in English so the students from Bima were easy to pronounce the words for example, in vowel /a/ in a word argument, associate, after, discuss, /i/ in a word this, into, is, mean, /u/ in a word opportunity, role, argument, /e/ in a word recognize, based, object, /o/ in a word order, of, associate. In negative transfer because of Bimanese have a strong accent, stress and intonation so in some words like /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/ and /o/ when they speak some words in English they keep making a mistake for example the word  “recognize” (rɛkɔgnɑīz) was pronounce “rɛkɔgnɑīsɛd” by a Bimanese student, the word “procedure” (prәʃīdɛr) was pronounce “prɔʃɛdɛrʊl” by Bimanese student, the word “different” (dīfrәnt) was pronounce “difɛrɛn” by Bimanese student, and the word “family” (fӕmәlī) was pronounce “fɛmili” by Bimanese student. The Bimanese vowel could give interference to the Bimanese students during learning process because they still familiar with their language so in some words they keep make a mistake.

scholarly journals On the Acquisition of Word Order in WH-Questions in theTromsø Dialect

Nordlyd ◽  
10.7557/12.48 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Richardsen Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Syntactic Form ◽  
Wh Questions

This article reports on a study of three children acquiring a dialect of Norwegian which allows two different word orders in certain types of WH-questions, verb second (V2) and and verb third (V3). The latter is only allowed after monosyllabic WH-words, while the former, which is the result of verb movement, is the word order found in all other main clauses in the language. It is shown that both V2 and V3 are acquired extremely early by the children in the study (before the age of two), and that subtle distinctions between the two orders with respect to information structure are attested from the beginning. However, it is argued that V3 word order, which should be ìsimplerî than the V2 structure as it does not involve verb movement, is nevertheless acquired slightly later in its full syntactic form. This is taken as an indication that the V3 structure is syntactically more complex, and possibly also more marked.

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