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

Ans van Kemenade, Tanja Milicev & R. Harald Baayen
elements in the higher part of the clause. This is true for a number of other adverbs
as well, and is illustrated here for ðonne:
(6) a. Hu mæg he ðonne ðæt lof & ðone gilp fleon
how may he then the praise and the vainglory avoid
“How can he avoid praise and vainglory…?” (cocura,CP: 9.57.18.364)
b. Hu gerades mæg ðonne se biscep brucan ðære
how properly may then the bishop enjoy the
hirdelican are
pastoral dignity
“How, then, can the bishop properly enjoy the pastoral dignity?”
(cocura,CP: 18.133.3.898)
By way of example, findings for root clause questions in one text, Cura Pastoralis,
are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Relative position of adverb ðonne and various types of subject in Cura Pastoralis
Personal pronoun
Nominal subject subject or object
subject precedes ðonne 0 10
subject follows ðonne 17 0
This yields a clear picture for main clauses. However, the picture is considerably
more complex in subclauses (see also Haeberli & Ingham 2007 for early Middle
English). Examination of all the subclauses containing þa/þonne shows the distribution
for subjects in Table 2 (based on an exhaustive search of the York Corpus of
Old English (YCOE), Taylor et al. 2003):
Table 2. Relative position of adverb ðonne and various types of subject in YCOE
Old English subclauses Pronominal subjects Nominal subjects
subject precedes þa/þonne 1250 221
subject follows þa/þonne 5 129
Table 2 shows that subject pronouns almost categorically occur on the left of the
adverb. An example of this, also including object pronouns, is (7).
(7) on Salomonnes bocum, hit is awrieten ðæt mon ne
in Solomon’s books, it is written that that.one not
scyle cweðan to his frind: Ga, cum to morgen, ðonne
shall say to one’s friend: Go, come tomorrow, then