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

132 Richard Ingham & Kleanthes K. Grohmann
adapted to 15th century PFM. In (5), an interrogative clause, the verb precedes a
pronominal subject. In generative syntactic analyses this is taken to indicate that
the verb has moved to a higher position than the one it occupies in the corresponding
declarative clause structure. That higher domain is normally designated
Complementizer Phrase (CP) in accounts of Middle English syntax (e.g., Fischer
et al. 2000). But PFM does not seem to involve movement of the inflected verb into
the CP domain. Clauses with impersonal there-subjects preceding the finite verb
also show PFM, e.g.:
(13) a. This yere after alhalontyde there was proclamacions made in london by the
kingis commanndement. Gough 163 (1469)
b. And ther was new grotes and pensse made. Lamb. 80 (1465)
Now, existential there in Middle English occupied the normal Spec TP subject
position of a declarative clause (Williams 2000 & Ingham 2001), so the finite verb
remains in T. Therefore passive clauses with inverted subjects, including PFM cases,
must have a different structure from the Old English examples of van Gelderen
(1997), e.g., (5), in which the postposed subject indicates that the verb has moved
out of TP. Consequently, we do not believe that the PFM phenomenon can be seen
as relatable to a structural property of Old English.
Still in terms of prior factors that might have shaped the PFM phenomenon,
it is worth considering the possibility of French contact influence. This is a plausible
direction in which to seek an explanation of the findings reported here,
because French had been a language of record prior to English, and several French
chronicles dating from the 14th century are extant in which events are recorded
in terms that could well have served as a model for the London chroniclers, cf.
(14a) and (14b).
(14) a. Et le lundi proschain apres la tiffanie sistrent justic. a le guildhall pur faire
la deliveraunce. French Chron. Lond. 15, 22
b. And on the Monday next after the Epithanie the justyces setene at the
Yeldhalle to make deliveraunce. Chron. Lond. Ms Harley 28, 19
In this particular case, admittedly, the Late Middle English example has used the
plural verb form setene ‘sit’ corresponding to the plural verb form sistrent ‘sit’ in
French. Still, it is known that in Old French verbs could appear in the singular
form when followed by a co-ordinate plural subject (Legge & Holdsworth 1934).
This pattern could conceivably have favoured a singular verb with a post-finite
plural subject, the PFM phenomenon of our investigation. Accordingly, following
an earlier investigation of Anglo-French chronicles conducted by one of the present
authors (Ingham 2006b), we examined all plural subjects standing after a finite
verb in the 14th century French Chronicles of London (Aungier 1844). However, of