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

136 Richard Ingham & Kleanthes K. Grohmann
Wisse (AW), and probably executed in the third quarter of the 14th century, which
provides interesting evidence of the gradual nature of the change. After an initial
quantified nominal, expletive subjects now tended to become overt where they
were left unexpressed (‘null expletive subject’) in the original:
(21) a. And vi enchesuns beoþ. AR (M) 232
b. Sex enchesuns þer beþ. AW (M) 232
‘There are six reasons.’
(22) a. Moni cunne riwle boeð. AR (M) 232
b. Many dyvers reules þere ben. AW (M) 232
‘There are many different rules.’
However, existential clauses with initial PP adjuncts remain without an overt
expletive in AW, as shown with three examples in (23)–(25):
(23) a. To þe inre is neod wisdome AR (M) 180
‘To the inner there is a need for wisdom.’
b. To þe utter temptaciouns is need patience AW (M) 180
‘To the outer there is a need for patience.’
(24) a. & in everichon beoð vif ver. AR (M) 36
b. In vchone of þise psalmes ben fyve verses. AW (M) 36
‘(and) in each one there are five verses.’
(25) a. Vor iðisse wildernesse beoð monie vuele bestes. AR (M) 198
‘For in this desert there are many evil beasts.’
b. In þis waie … ben yuel bestes many. AW (M) 198
‘In this way … there are many evil beasts.’
The absence of an expletive after an adverbial PP remains noticeable in Trevisa’s
Polychronicon, written in the 1380s, from which the following two instances
are taken:
(26) a. Aboute þat tyme in Gasquen was a woman departed and todeled vram the
nauel opward. Trevisa, Polychronicon MET 52, 4
‘About that time in Gascony a woman was cut apart from the navel up.’
b. In þes Henry hys time was so gret strif in þe cherche of Rome.
Trevisa, Polychronicon MET 136, 104
‘In this Henry’s time there was such great conflict in the church of Rome.’
Thus the context in which we are arguing that a null expletive remained in Late
Middle English – certainly as concerns the London Chronicles – is the one which
exhibits a clear lag in developing an obligatory use of an overt expletive in the 14th
century. The London Chronicles show that the null expletive subject option with
initial adverbials continued into the late 15th century.