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

Ans van Kemenade, Tanja Milicev & R. Harald Baayen
discourse flexibility. In this article, we concentrate on one of these extended
‘positions’. We claim that a particular class of high adverbs and particles, including
elements such as þa “then”; þonne “then”, nu “now”, eac “also”, la “lo” define on their
left an area in which discourse-(linked) elements occur: These include a range of
pronouns, but also definite nominal subjects. We will show that definite nominal
subjects may occur here because the Old English weak demonstrative pronouns
that serve to mark definiteness also allow specific anaphoric reference
to a discourse antecedent.
In the second part of the paper, we develop a model of quantitative analysis
which is capable of bringing out the relationship between the narrowly circumscribed
syntactic system and the relative diffuseness of the discourse referential
facts. The interesting thing then is that what in formal syntactic treatments often
counts as a class of ‘problems’ or ‘counterexamples’, falls into place in a principled
manner without having to include further syntactic claims, at the same time
broadening the approach to include discourse strategies.
1. A problem in Old English
Let us first outline the descriptive problem that we wish to analyse. At the heart
of the dataset are subjects and pronominal objects that occur in a relatively high
position in the clause.
A well-known feature of Old English word order is that personal pronouns may
occur in positions higher than their nominal counterparts, and this is true almost
categorically for subject pronouns, and optionally for object pronouns, as exemplified
by the following examples, (1) for main clauses, (2) for subclauses:
(1) a. Be ðæm we magon suiðe swutule oncnawan ðæt …
By that, we may very clearly perceive that …
“By that, we may perceive very clearly that …” (cocura,CP: 26.181.16.1202)
b. þa axodon hine Pharisei & þa boceras
and then asked him Pharisees and the learned men,
hwi ne gað þine leorningcnihtas æfter ure yldrena
why not go your disciples after our forefathers’
gesetnysse. ac besmitenum handum hyra half þicgað?
law, but with.defiled.hands their bread eat?
“Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples
according to the tradition of their elders, but eat bread with unwashed
hands?” (cowsgosp,Mk_[WSCp]: 7.5.2678)
c. Hwæt tacnað us ðonne Saul buton yfle hlafurdas?
What betokens us then Saul except evil lords?
“What is signified to us by Saul but bad masters?”
(cocura,CP: 28.197.22.1328)