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

12 Ans van Kemenade, Tanja Milicev & R. Harald Baayen
the discourse context. This account, we claim, does justice to both the diffuseness
and the systematicity of Old English word order, without giving up on the insights
achieved so far in the syntactic literature on Old English word order.
The proposal then is that the area to the left of þa/þonne is indeed presuppositional.
This is supported by the fact that it is the default position for pronominal
subjects and the preferred position for pronominal objects.
With a few exceptions, subject pronouns are always to the left of the adverbs.
Even though the exceptions are sometimes presented so as to question the fixed
position for subject pronouns (van Bergen 2000), a careful study of the exceptional
cases shows that they are also subject to certain regularities. Pronominal subjects
following þa/þonne are either instances of the so-called Proposition-in-Focus,
when the entire clause is given as new information focus (cf. van Kemenade &
Milićev to appear) or involve internal (object-like) nominative arguments, and
essentially behave like object pronouns taking a lower object pronoun position
(cf. Milićev in preparation).
Object pronouns also regularly appear there, following the subject pronoun.
(18) forþæm he wenð þæt he hi þonne ealle hæbbe
because he knows that he them then all have
“because he knows that he then had them all” (coboeth,Bo: 24.56.16.1031)
It is often taken for granted that object pronouns appear in the high position
optionally, since they can also be separated from the subject pronoun and occur
to the right of þa/þonne. This notion of optionality holds only if object pronouns
in different positions are assumed to be of the same type. Upon a closer look,
however, it becomes clear that the distribution of pronouns is conditioned by
both structural and pragmatic factors. In order to be found in the high position,
adjacent to the subject pronoun to the left of þa/þonne, an object pronoun needs
to be a clitic (i.e., have reduced syntactic form) and needs to have a discourse
prominent antecedent. The prominence of an antecedent can be reduced in various
ways, most of them involving narrow/contrastive focus, and when these conditions
interfere, an object pronoun occurs in a lower position (see Milićev, in
preparation).
(19) a. Þa he þa ne mihte hi mid his
when he then [not could]-narrow focus her with his
wordum oncerran, þa het he hi ahon be hire locum
words turn, then ordered he her hang by her locks
ond hi þreagean mid missenlicum witum
and her punish with various tortures
“When he could not avert her with his words, he ordered that she be hung
by her hair and tortured in various ways”
(comart3,Mart_5_[Kotzor]: Ap27,A.9.641)