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

Verb types and word order 61
complement in the non-coordinate group of clauses than in the coordinate clause
group in early ME. XVS coordinate clauses still occur with initial pronominal
objects, and in the later part of the period with the adverbial þeruore “therefore”.
If we compare Tables 4 and 5, we see that late ME is different from early ME.
As regards verbs with complement, the proportion remains quite high in the coordinate
clause category, but it is lower than ever in the non-coordinate clause group.
This correlates with the fact that non-coordinate XVS clauses are now to a great
extent existential clauses. Coordinate clauses, on the other hand, do not seem to
be existential to the same extent as non-coordinate clauses, and the reason for this
distribution was discussed in 3.1, in connection with the therefore constructions.
We may relate the proportion of verbs with complement in XVS clauses to the
occurrences of existential verbs, since they seem to be inversely correlated: in OE
XVS non-coordinate clauses, the proportion of verbs with complement is higher than
the proportion of existential verbs, whereas the situation is the inverse in coordinate
clauses. Thus, if we take a step back and look at the whole XVS word order picture, assuming
now that the data are representative, we see a pattern in which the OE period
is marked by the þa/þonne style, which is associated with non-coordinate clauses.
Verbs with complement are represented to a greater extent in this clause type than in
coordinate clauses. The proportion of existential verbs in XVS clauses, on the other
hand, is higher in coordinate clauses, particularly because of the features of descriptive
narrative texts. Early ME may be said to be a transition period, whereas the late
ME period is the opposite of the OE period. The great proportion of existential verbs
and the low proportion of verbs with complement in the non-coordinate XVS pattern
point to a narrowing down of the XVS word order option. In coordinate clauses, the
proportion of existential verbs is lower than in non-coordinate clauses, though still
quite high, but coordinate clauses also have quite a few verbs with complement, due
to the therefore constructions, which keep XVS order, on the pattern of OE.
3.3 Verbs with complement in the XSV pattern
In the XSV pattern, there seems to be a clear preference for verbs with complement,
both in non-coordinate and coordinate clauses, in all the periods. 11 This is
probably because: 1) in earlier stages of English, as in Modern English, the most
common initial element was an adverbial, even though OE to a greater extent than
Modern English allowed other elements in this position, e.g., objects (cf. Bech
2001: 119ff.). Consequently, we would not expect to find many copular verbs in
the XSV pattern, since the combination of an adverbial and a copula is not very
common; after all, the attribution of a quality to a subject does not usually call for
11. It is only in late ME non-coordinate XSV clauses that the percentage is under 50, vs. around
60% in OE, but the difference between the periods is not statistically significant.