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

The balance between syntax and discourse in Old English
selle ic ðe hwæthwugu, gif he hit him ðonne sellan mæge.
give I you something, if he it him then give may.
“in the books of Solomon, it is written that we are not to say to our friend: “Go,
and come tomorrow, then I will give you something,” if we can give it him then.”
(cocura, CP.44.323.24)
However, the figures for nominal subjects in Table 2 show that we are not dealing
merely with a position reserved for personal pronouns. The relatively high
frequency of nominal subjects preceding the adverb renders this particularly problematic,
and there is no ready generalization with respect to the choice of nominal
subject on the left or right of the adverb; higher and lower nominal subjects, for
instance, include definite NPs, as the representative examples (8) and (9) show.
(8) Forðæm bið se sige micle mara ðe man mid
therefore is the victory much greater which one with
geðylde gewinð, forðæm sio gesceadwisnes ðonne hæfð
patience wins, because this wisdom then has
ofercumen ðæt mod & gewielð, swelce he self
overcome the.mind and subdued, as.if he self
hæbbe hiene selfne gewildne, & sio geðyld hæbbe ðæt
have himself conquered, and the patience have the
mod geðreatod & gecafstrod.
mind intimidated and curbed.
“Therefore the victory which is won with patience is much greater, because this
wisdom (patience) has overcome and subdued the mind, as if he himself had
conquered himself, and patience had intimidated and curbed the mind.”
(cocuraC,CP_[Cotton]: 33.218.19.42)
(9) Gif ðonne se sacred bið ungerad ðæs lareowdomes, hwæt
If then the teacher is unskilled the.instruction, what
forstent ðonne his gehlyd?
avails then his cry?
“then if the teacher is unskilled in instruction, what avails his cry?”
(cocura, CP, 15,91,25)
Thus, we cannot say that the position preceding the adverb is reserved exclusively
for pronouns. And because the diagnostic value of the position of the adverb is so
strong (as shown by Rissanen 1999; van Kemenade 2000 for a diachronic picture
spanning the entire history of English), we should hesitate to give up on the generalization
concerning the nature of the position preceding the adverb. Since pronouns
are well-known to have discourse-referential properties, we have therefore
pursued an approach in which we take into account the discourse properties of the
elements preceding the adverb.