Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang

On the post-finite misagreement
phenomenon in Late Middle English
Richard Ingham
UCE Birmingham
Kleanthes K. Grohmann
University of Cyprus
Early Modern English shows some incidence of misagreement between a singular
verb and a plural subject. A corpus of 15th century London chronicles was searched
in order to investigate the origins of this phenomenon, and whether it should be
handled in structural terms. It was found that misagreement almost always arose
with a postfinite subject, and co-occurred in texts allowing null impersonal subjects.
It is analysed as agreement with a singular expletive subject, overt or null, existing
as an option alongside the option of regular number agreement. A preverbal
subject contained no expletive element, hence number agreement was regular. The
structural position of the postverbal subject was found to be irrelevant: three postfinite
subject configurations were identified, in all of which agreement was optional.
It is further noted that an increase in the phenomenon occurred during the 15th
century for which a dialect contact explanation is proposed.
1. Introduction
This study considers the status of singular finite verbs with post-finite subjects in
Late Middle and Early Modern English, focussing on cases of misagreement between
the finite verb and a following subject. Examples from mid-15th to early 17th century
sources (Ingham 2006a) are given below, first with expletive there-subjects (1), and
then without (2):
(1) a. Ther is labouryd many menys to intytill the Kyng in his good.
Paston (1459)
b. Ther is grete spies layd here. Paston (?1463)
c. Ther is lately comyn hider twoo ambassadours from themprour out of spayn.
Cromwell 58, 17 (1537)
(2) a. In like wyse standyth Sir TT’s neybours to himward. Paston (1450)
b. The xiiij day of May was the sam men cared [carried] to Westmynster hall.
Machyn, Diary 234:19 (1560)
c. Down goes the pots. Beaumont-Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas IV, 2