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

Ans van Kemenade, Tanja Milicev & R. Harald Baayen
2. Discourse domains and discourse reference
In this section, we outline an approach, following up van Kemenade & Milicev
(to appear), van Kemenade & Los (2006), in which clause structure incorporates
and encodes information structural considerations in such a way that, subject to
certain syntactic restrictions, presupposed, old material is separated from focused,
new material by an adverb functioning as a discourse particle. This is what we take
to be the function of high adverbs like þa and þonne. This is further discussed
in 2.1. A further claim, discussed in 2.2, is that Old English has a wider range of
discourse-referential expressions: simple demonstratives, used as definiteness
markers in a NP, allow a specific presuppositional reading for that NP. In section 2.3,
we will flesh out our analysis of Old English from this perspective.
2.1 Adverbs/particles as discourse partitioners
Adverbs are often used as word order diagnostics. This is well-known from the
word order literature cross-linguistically, and more particularly from the literature
on (West)-Germanic syntax. Our hypothesis is that Old English has a set of high
adverbs, or perhaps more properly particles, that act as discourse partitioners, and
that their function is to separate anaphoric/presupposed and discourse-linked elements,
occurring on the left of the adverb, from discourse-new elements on the
right of the particle. From this perspective, let us look at two prime candidates for
such particle status.
The adverbs þa and þonne may occur as clause introducers of various kinds, or
they may occur in clause-internal position. As clause introducers, they subsume a
variety of subtly different functions. Although these uses are not the main focus of
this article, we discuss them briefly, in order to clarify the distinction with clauseinternal
uses.
(10) illustrates an extremely frequent use of the adverbs þa and þonne. The
first þonne seems to act as a subordinating conjunction and this subordinate clause
sets out the condition from which the next clause, a main clause with a finite verb
of movement, may follow. The second þonne introduces this main clause as an
adverb. This construction also occurs in (11): the preceding conditional clause sets
the condition for the second clause introduced by þonne.
(10) þonne se unclæna gast gæþ ut of ðam men, þonne færð
when the uncleaned ghost goes out of the man, then travels
he worigende on unwæterigum stowum secende him reste
he wandering on desert places seeking him rest
“When the unclean ghost goes out of the man, he travels then wandering
in desert places, seeking rest” (coaelhom,ÆHom_4: 41.540)