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

Verb types and word order 63
(12) He wæs mid þæm fyrstum mannum on þæm lande; [næfde he þeah ma ðonne
twentig hryðera, 7 twentig sceapa 7 twentig swyna]
He was among the foremost men in that district; [not-had he however more
than twenty cattle, and twenty sheep and twenty pigs]
“He was among the foremost men in that district, [even though he did not have
more than twenty cattle, and twenty sheep and twenty pigs]” (Or 15: 11)
The above comments are meant to throw some light on the difference between
non-coordinate and coordinate clauses as regards the distribution of verbs. However,
in order to get information about word order in copular sentences in general,
we may also read the tables vertically, instead of horizontally. As mentioned, in SVX
word order, the X element(s) will in most cases be heavy and/or new, and in copular
sentences, the main focus is on attributing a quality to a subject (presumably
new information). Thus, SVX word order is to be expected if the verb is a copula;
i.e., word order is seen as a consequence of the information content of the sentence.
If the tables are read vertically, we see that SVX order is indeed preferred
for copular clauses; in early OE, for example, 107 (67.3%) out of altogether 159
copular sentences have SVX word order. 13
It is, as the tables show, not the case that coordinate clauses are never copular
clauses, but when a coordinate clause contains a copular verb, the preceding sentence
is also often copular, so that the sequence becomes a listing of qualities, or a
repetition of the same quality:
(13) Se fæder is angin . and se sunu is angin . and se halga gast is angin . ac hi ne synd
na þreo anginnu . ac hi ealle þry synden an angin
The Father is Beginning, and the Son is Beginning, and the Holy Ghost is Beginning,
but they not are not three Beginnings, but they all three are one Beginning
“The Father is the Beginning, and the Son is the Beginning, and the Holy Ghost
is the Beginning, but they are not three Beginnings, but they all three are one
Beginning” (ÆLS 10: 14)
In Table 5, we see that the late ME distribution differs from the earlier three periods
in having an approximately equal proportion of copulas in the non-coordinate
and coordinate SVX patterns. A closer examination of the individual texts reveals
13. Notice that what the tables show in terms of the percentages given is 1) the proportion of
copulas in the SVX non-coordinate clause category vs. the SVX coordinate clause category,
and 2) the proportion of copulas in the SVX pattern in relation to other verbs in the same pattern.
The percentages do not tell us that SVX copular sentences are more often non-coordinate
clauses than coordinate clauses or that the SVX pattern contains more copulas than the other
patterns. However, information about these features may also be drawn from (the raw data of)
the tables if, as mentioned above, they are read vertically instead of horizontally.