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

Verb types and word order 51
also included clauses with just a subject and a verb, i.e., clauses where there is no X
element following the verb. 3 An example of an SVX clause is shown in (2):
(2) wit geanbidiað þinre ondswore
both-of-us await your answer
“both of us await your answer” (Bo 19: 24)
In XSV word order, there is a single initial X element, followed by the subject, 4
and the verb occupies third position. If the verb phrase is complex, the order of
the verbs must be finite–non-finite, i.e., the finite verb must precede the non-finite
verb immediately. There may of course be elements following the verb, as in (3),
where there is a clausal object.
(3) Nu ge habbað gehered hu se hælend be him sylfum spræc
Now you have heard how the Savior of him self spoke
“Now you have heard how the Savior spoke of himself ” (ÆLS 10: 11)
The distribution of XVS, SVX and XSV clauses is given in Table 1. In general, we
see that the proportion of SVX and XSV clauses increases throughout the periods,
and that there is a decrease in XVS clauses, all of which is as expected in view of
the fact that English changed from a language with a verb-second constraint into
an SVX language.
What is also interesting, however, is the development of the category I have
called other, which means any other word order pattern, e.g., verb-initial, verb-final
and verb-late word order. In early OE, 32.5% of the non-coordinate clauses and
45.8% of the coordinate clauses have a word order other than XVS, SVX or XSV,
but by late ME the proportion has decreased to 15.0% and 12.9%, respectively.
This clearly illustrates the fact that OE word order was relatively free, which is
why postulating clear-cut word order rules for this period is a risky undertaking.
It also illustrates the word order change and the increasing restrictions that took
place in the course of the ME period, to the effect that by late ME, a great majority
of the main clauses had verb-medial word order, i.e., SVX or XSV. The present
paper is concerned with verb types in the three main word order patterns, but the
general word order development of English should be kept in mind throughout
the discussion.
3. These are extremely infrequent: only seven occurrences in the entire corpus.
4. The subject may be nominal or pronominal; i.e., I do not regard pronominal elements as
clitics. Apart from the fact that it is not really necessary to operate with clitics, there are other
good reasons for disregarding the concept of clitics in the study of the word order history of
English, cf. Bech (2001: 79ff). This does not mean, however, that the distinction between nominal
and pronominal elements is irrelevant.