Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
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Old English weorðan and its replacement in Middle English 4<br />
of intransitive predication. This new semantics of <strong>the</strong> subject enabled using<br />
<strong>the</strong> passive construction as a way to topicalize <strong>the</strong> patient of a transitive event.<br />
While topic function of a transitive patient could still be signalled by OSV word<br />
order in OE, this order was no longer available in ME, during which period <strong>the</strong><br />
SVO order typical of PDE was established. The new SVO order, <strong>the</strong>n, required<br />
a new topicalizing strategy, and using <strong>the</strong> passive (or formerly, Copula + pple)<br />
construction for this purpose was <strong>the</strong> easiest way out. As such, <strong>the</strong> new function<br />
of <strong>the</strong> passive implied a definite split-off <strong>from</strong> construction (D), which, being a<br />
one-participant construction without any (implicit) agent, had never been used<br />
in this way.<br />
While it is generally assumed that this new function only developed in late<br />
ME, <strong>the</strong>re is evidence that it already came into being in early ME, precisely <strong>the</strong><br />
period in which weorðan started to disappear. Restricting ourselves to a single<br />
piece of evidence for this earlier date (for a more detailed account, see Petré 2006),<br />
let us consider <strong>the</strong> emergence of prepositional passives. Contrary to what is often<br />
assumed, <strong>the</strong> first attestation of this passive type, given in (37) already dates <strong>from</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> thirteenth century.<br />
(37) Þer wes sorhe te seon hire leoflich lich faren so reowliche wið.<br />
(c 225. St.Juliana (Roy):22. 95)<br />
“It was painful to see her lovely body dealt so cruelly with.”<br />
(Taken <strong>from</strong> Denison 985: 9 )<br />
The emergence of this remarkable construction can be seen as constituting a<br />
clear actualization of <strong>the</strong> new function of <strong>the</strong> passive. First, it differs in its syntax<br />
<strong>from</strong> construction (D) (Copula + ap), and, second, it also illustrates how <strong>the</strong> new<br />
topicalizing strategy was implemented. Compare in this respect (37) to (38) and<br />
(39) respectively:<br />
(38) *he is afraid of (meaning: someone was afraid of him)<br />
(39) ?With her body <strong>the</strong>y dealt cruelly (infelicitous construction <strong>from</strong> ME onwards)<br />
While weorðan is found with past participles during its entire period of use, it is<br />
not found with prepositional passives, nor is <strong>the</strong>re any indication that it participated<br />
in <strong>the</strong> new topicalizing function of <strong>the</strong> passive construction. We would like to<br />
argue that this lack of participation can be accounted for by means of <strong>the</strong> close association<br />
between participle and adjectival constructions with weorðan, described<br />
in Section . This association prevented <strong>the</strong> spread of weorðan to non-adjectival<br />
passives. As a consequence, weorðan started to sound archaic and eventually was<br />
lost. The split of <strong>the</strong> passive <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> rest of <strong>the</strong> copula network can also explain<br />
that becuman was not used in combination with participles at all. The spread of