E-Book Overview
This monograph answers the question of why English changed from an OV to a VO language on the assumption that this change is due to intensive language contact with Scandinavian. It shows for the first time that the English language was much more heavily influenced by Scandinavian than assumed before, i.e., northern Early Middle English texts clearly show Scandinavian syntactic patterns like stylistic fronting that can only be found today in the Modern Scandinavian languages. Thus, it sheds new light on the force of language contact in that it shows that a language can be heavily influenced through contact with another language in such a way that it affects deeper levels of language. It further gives an introduction to working with the Penn-Helsinki-Parsed Corpus of Middle English II (PPCMEII). It discusses the texts included in the corpus, it describes the format of the texts, and it explains how to search the corpus with the tool called Corpus Search. The book targets researchers in diachronic syntax, comparative syntax and in general linguists working in the field of generative syntax. It can further be used as an introduction to working with the PPCMEII.
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From OV to VO in Early Middle English
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA) provides a platform for original monograph studies into synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Studies in LA confront empirical and theoretical problems as these are currently discussed in syntax, semantics, morphology, phonology, and systematic pragmatics with the aim to establish robust empirical generalizations within a universalistic perspective.
Series Editor Werner Abraham University of Vienna
Advisory Editorial Board Guglielmo Cinque (University of Venice) Günther Grewendorf (J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt) Liliane Haegeman (University of Lille, France) Hubert Haider (University of Salzburg) Christer Platzack (University of Lund) Ian Roberts (Cambridge University) Ken Safir (Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ) Lisa deMena Travis (McGill University) Sten Vikner (University of Aarhus) C. Jan-Wouter Zwart (University of Groningen)
Volume 60 From OV to VO in Early Middle English by Carola Trips
From OV to VO in Early Middle English
Carola Trips University of Stuttgart
John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Carola Trips From OV to VO in Early Middle English / Carola Trips. p. cm. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, issn 0166–0829 ; v. 60) A revision of the author’s doctoral dissertation, submitted to the University of Stuttgart, 2001. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. 1. English language--Middle English, 1100-1500--Word order. I. Title. II. Linguistik aktuell; Bd. 60. PE621 T75 2002 427’.02-dc21 isbn 9027227810 (Eur.) / 1588113116 (US) (Hb; alk. paper)
2002034218
© 2002 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
Language abbreviations xi Acknowledgments
xiii
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The dialects of Middle English 2.1 Introduction 7 2.2 From Old English to Middle English 8 2.2.1 Scandinavian influence 10 2.3 The dialects of Middle English 14 2.3.1 The Northern dialect 18 2.3.2 The East Midla