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

On the post-finite misagreement phenomenon 135
exhibiting the PFM phenomenon that should be considered an archaism: the persistence
of the possibility of a null expletive subject with passive and unaccusative
clauses having an initial adverbial. The alternation between a null expletive and
an overt expletive there-subject had been a feature of the language long before the
15th century.
The Old English example (18a) and its re-working in an Early Middle
English transliteration (18b) together show an alternation between a null and a
there-expletive: 4
(18) a. Þa wæron gegaderode binnan ðære byrig Hierusalem eawfeste weras of
ælcere ðeode. Ælfr Hom I (Thorpe 314, 11)
b. Þa weren þer igedered widhinne þere buruh of ierusalem trowfeste men of
elchere þeode. Lamb Hom IX 89, 28
‘Then there were gathered within the city of Jerusalem true men of every
nation.’
The there-expletive in (18b) was not an innovation of Early Middle English.
Already in Old English we find existential sentences with expletive there (19a) and
without (19b):
(19) a. Þonne synd þær þry porticas emb þa ciricean utan geworht. BHom 125
‘Then there are three gates around the church.’
b. Þonne syndon on þyssum Simone twa speda. BHom 179
‘Then there are in this Simon two powers.’
Existential clauses with an initial adverbial PP tended not to have an overt expletive
in Old English and Early Middle English, as can be seen in the following data:
(20) a. On þam æfteran dæge biþ gehyred mycel stefn on heofenum fyrdweorodes
getrymnesse. BHom 91, 34
‘On the next day there shall be heard in the heavens a great sound of the
arraying of armies.’
b. On þære tide wæs sum oðer witega on Iudea-lande.
Ælfr I Thorpe 570, 32
‘At this time there was another prophet in the land of Judah.’
c. On þis niht beð fowuer niht weaches. Trin Hom 39, 33
‘In this night there are four watches.’
The obligatory insertion of an overt expletive subject took a long time to be adopted.
There is a 14th century revision of Ancrene Riwle (AR), known as Ancrene
4. We take it that þer is not a locative expression in (18b), given the specification of place in
the post-verbal PP wiðinne þere buruh of ierusalem. Note that this phrase is not in apposition to
þer, so an interpretation ‘there within the city of Jerusalem’ is unlikely.