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

138 Richard Ingham & Kleanthes K. Grohmann
of the position of the passive subject, we would expect that pre-modern and early
modern English varieties in which PFM is not found would exhibit the same range
of passive subject possibilities as we found in the London chronicles. However,
this, as well as other aspects of the topic, must be left for further research.
5. Conclusion
The goal of this paper was to present findings from an investigation of subject-verb
misagreement we have identified in Late Middle English, namely a finite singular
auxiliary form with a plural post-finite subject found in expletive passive constructions
in Late Middle English (mid to late 15th century). It occurs not only in clauses
containing an overt expletive subject (there), but also in those with no overt expletive.
We then sought to understand why the PFM phenomenon arose when it did,
and what level of linguistic analysis seems most appropriate. The notion of was as
a morphological default form of were was rejected as constituting no more than a
re-description of the phenomenon in question, rather than offering an explanatory
account. Our conclusion is that both the sociolinguistic dimension, in particular
the presence of vernacular influence, and also a structural analysis of clauses having
post-finite subjects need to be covered. We have therefore made the assumption
that PFM reflected a formal property of the grammar of speakers represented by the
authors of the London chronicles, but was sensitive to the sociolinguistic context in
which they operated. It has been proposed here that an increase in the use of was
for were by London speakers in the 15th century – possibly as a result of the dialectal
mix known to have been a feature of the capital in that period – became analysed by
learners of this grammar as a structural cue. A structure was posited in which not
only the overt expletive there, but also the by now archaic null expletive, was variably
assigned a singular number feature. PFM consisted of agreement between the finite
verb form and that element. To that extent London chronicle writers, even when
using an archaism, nevertheless reflected the vernacular that they witnessed.
Sources
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‘AR’: Ancren Riwle, ed. and tr. by James Morton from Ms. Nero A. xiv, Vol, 57. London: Camden
Soc., 1852 (De la More Press reprint, 1905).
‘AW’: Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle, ed. by Arne Zettersten from Magd.
Coll. Cambs Ms. Pepys 2498, EETS OS 274. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976.