The Linguistic Cycle in the History of English

1
The Linguistic Cycle in the History of English

• Elly van Gelderen
• ellyvangelderen_at_asu.edu
• Berlin, 7 December 2006

2
Aims

• To present a description of some recurring
  changes in the history of English
• To understand some of these cycles
• Examine internal and external factors of
  linguistic change and their interaction

3
Outline

• Background on the Cycle/Spiral
• Examples of the Cycle in brief
• Negatives
• Demonstratives
• Aspect
• Study of recycling in clause markers
• Prepositions
• Adverbs

4
Background on the Cycle/Spiral

• de Condillac, Tooke, A.W. von Schlegel, von
  Humboldt, Bopp
• more recently Tauli 1958 and Hodge 1970
• Grammaticalization literature
• word gt clitic gt affix gt 0
• (from Hopper Traugott 2003)

5
Internal and External Change

• Jespersen "the correct inference can only be
  that the tendency towards ease may be at work in
  some cases, though not in all, because there are
  other forces which may at times neutralize it or
  prove stronger than it".
• Von der Gabelentz (1891/1901 251/256)
  "Deutlichkeit" ('clarity') and "Bequemlichkeit"
  ('comfort').

6
Data

• Old English Dictionary Texts (all of OE)
• Helsinki Corpus (OE through eModE)
• Oxford English Dictionary
• http//dictionary.oed.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ent
  rance.dtl
• Oxford Text Archive electronic-texts etc
• http//www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/
• Modern corpora British National Corpus,
  International Corpus of English
• http//sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/lookup.html

7
Negative Cycle

• (1)a. no/ne eOE
• b. ne (na wiht/not) OE, especially Southern
• c. (ne) not ME, especially Southern
• d. not LME
• -not/-nt LME
• Old English South
• (2)Næron 3e noht æmetti3e, ðeah ge wel ne dyden
• not-were you not unoccupied. though you well not
  did
• You were not unoccupied, though you did not do
  well'. (Pastoral Care, Cotton, Sweet, 206).

8

• Matthew Whites map
• www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/oe/oemap.html

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Negative Concord Cycle

• (1) ænig monn ne mæg tuæm hlaferdum hera
• any man not may two lords serve (Northumbrian
  c950)
• (2) ne mæg ænig twæm godum ðeowigan
• not may any two gods serve (Mercian C10)
• (3) Ne mæg nan man twam hlafordum þeowian
• not may no man two lords serve (Corpus c1000)
• (4) Ne mayg nam man twam hlaferden þeowian not
  may no man two lords serve (Hatton c1150)
• Matthew 6.24

10
Latin Lindisfarne gloss

• (1) Nemo potest duobus dominis seruire aut enim
  unum odio habebit et alterum diliget aut unum
  sustinebit et alterum contemnet non potestis deo
  seruire et mamonae.
• (2) ænig monn ne mæg tuæm hlaferdum hera vel
  forðon an vel enne mid læððo he hæfeð vel he
  scile habba 7 oðerne lufað vel enne hræfneð 7
  oðerne geteleð vel forogas ne maga gie gode
  gehera 7 dioble. (Lindisfarne, Matthew 6.24)
• No man can serve two masters because either he
  will hate the one and love the other or else he
  will hold to the one and despise the other. You
  cannot obey God and the devil'.

11
Demonstratives

• (1) demonstrative/adverb gt definite article gt
  Case/non-generic gt class marker gt 0
• (2) a. min þæt ungesælige mod OE
• my that unhappy spirit
• b. min ungesælige mod
• (Gregory's Dialogues, 4.9, from Wood, to
  appear 15)
• (3) gife to þa munecas of þe mynstre LOE
• give to the monks of the abbey (Peterborough
  Chron. 656)
• (4) To frowne vpon th'enrag'd Northumberland EMod
  E (2Henry4, Shakespeare)
• (5) Oh they used to be ever so funny houses you
  know and in them days They used to have big
  windows, but they used to a all be them there
  little tiny ones like that. (BNC - FYD 72)

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Perfective aspect

• Cycle
• (1) adverb gt affix gt 0
• One stage
• (2)a. Elizabeth's accession allowed him to
  receive back his wife (BNC-GTB938)
• b. a husband who changed his mind to receive his
  wife back without ceremony (BNC-HTX2122).
• - Pattern (a) has become more frequent in the
  recent period (Davies 2005), even with definite
  nominals
• In the 100-million British National Corpus,
  receive occurs nine times in constructions such
  as (2a) and four times in constructions such as
  (2b) (twice with a pronoun and twice with a DP)
• - The use of pronominal objects, typical for the
  first order, with these verbs has gone down too.

13
Other such adverbs

• evaporate out boost up
• dissipate away issue out
• spend down order up (from the library)
• receive in offer up

14
Clause markers

• 1. WH gt Yes/No marker
• 2. Relative gt Conjunction
• 3. Preposition gt Complementizer/Conjunction
• 4. VP adverb gt Clausal adverb

15
Creation of new Clause boundaries
16
Whether from WH-pronoun to Yes/No and C

• (1) Hwæðer þara twe3ra dyde þæs fæder willan?
  Who of-the two did the fathers will Ags. Gosp.
  Matt. xxi. 31
• (2) þær se snotera bad hwæþer him alwalda æfre
  wille ... wyrpe gefremman.
• there the wise waited whether him almighty ever
  would ... change accomplish
• There the wise one waited whether the almighty
  would ever grant him change' (Beowulf 1313-5).
• (3) Whether hadst thou rather be a
  Faulconbridge, ...
• Would you rather be a Faulconbridge'
  (Shakespeare, John I, i, 134).

17

• OED OE. hwæ er and hwe er, corresp. to OFris.
  hwed(d)er, h(w)oder, ho(e)r (NFris. wader), OS.
  hwe ar one of two, whether, OHG. hwedar, wedar
  which of two, neut. whether, either, (MHG. weder,
  surviving in G. weder neither), ON. hva arr, nom.
  pl. hvárer (whence sing. hvárr), which of two,
  each, neut. whether (Sw. hvar each, mod.Icel.
  hvorr), Goth. hwa ar which of two OTeut. wa
  araz, we-, f. wa-, we- WHO comp. suffix
  (Indo-eur. -tero-) as in OTHER (cf. Skr. katará-,
  Gr. , Lith. katràs). Either (OE. hwæ er)
  is a compound of whether. With forms of the
  -type cf. OHG. diu hwiduru, thoh-widaro
  THOUGH-WHETHER, early mod.G. wider neither with
  forms of the -type OFris. hwoder and with forms
  of the -type OFris. hoer, hor (but in ME. north.
  texts hwor may represent ON. hvárr).

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Relative gt Conjunction

• (1) api rama vanam gacchati Sanskrit
• Q Rama wood-ACC go-3S
• Is Rama going to the forest'?
• (2) ratham ko nir avart aya Sanskrit
• chariot-ACC who down rolled
• who rolled out the chariot' (from Kiparsky
  1995 154).
• (3) kya ram jata he Hindi/Urdu
• Q Ram go-3S is
• Is Ram going'?

19
English relatives in OE and ME

• OE se þe gt þe or þæt
• (1) scyldwiga se þe wel þenceþ
• shield-fighter the that well thinks/judges
• (Every sharp) shield fighter, who judges well'
  (Beowulf 287-9).
• (2) as theo the duden with Godd al thet ha
  walden.
• as those who did with God all that they
  wanted.
• (Ancr. R. III 492)

20
New relatives

• (1) a laide de Dieu notre Seigneur, Qui vous
  douit bonne vie et longue.
• With the help of God, our Lord, who gives us
  a good and long life' (Bekynton, from Rydén, p.
  131).
• (2) be the grace of God, who haue yow in kepyng
• by the grace of God, who keeps you' (Paston
  Letters 410).

21
Preposition gt Complementizer/ConjunctionAfter
from P gt C

• (1) Ercenberht rixode æfter his fæder
• E. ruled after/following his father' (Chron A,
  640)
• (2) a. æfter him Stephanus feng to rice.
• after him (i.e. Pope Leo), Stephanus became
  pope'.
• (Chronicle A, anno 814 816)
• b. æfter þissum gefeohte cuom micel sumorlida.
  
• after this fight, there came a large
  summer-force'
• (Chronicle A, anno 871)
• (3) a. Æfter þysan com Thomas to Cantwarebyri
• After this, Thomas came to Canterbury'.
• (Chronicle A, anno 1070)
• b. æfter ðon uutedlice ic eftariso ic forlioro
  vel iowih in galileam
• after that, surely I arise-again I come before
  you in Galilee'
• (Lindisfarne Gospel, Matthew 26. 32).

22
Percentages of demonstrative objects (Dem) with
after and fronting
800 lt892 950 Northern gt893 VPs Chron Lindisfarne Chron Dem 4/52 8 2/26 8 8/29 28 17/22 77 Fronting11/52 21 7/26 27 11/29 38 12/22 55
23

• (1) After that the king hadde brent the volum
• (Wyclyf 1382, taken over in Coverdale 1535 and
  KJV 1611, from the OED).
• (2) After that Raleigh had Intelligence that
  Cobham had accused him, he endeavour'd to have
  Intelligence from Cobham (HC, EModE2)
• (3) Aftir he hadde take þe hooli Goost (c1360
  Wyclif De Dot. Eccl. 22).
• (4) After thei han slayn them (1366
  Mandeville174).
• Four stages
• PP PP 900 (Chronicle A) present
• PP (that) 950 (Lindisfarne) - 1600 (OED 1587)
• P that 1220 (Lambeth) - 1600 (OED 1611)
• C 1360 (Wycliff) - present

24
For P to C

• (1) ouþer for untrumnisse ouþer for lauerdes
  neode ouþer for haueleste ouþer for hwilces
  cinnes oþer neod he ne muge þær cumon
• either from infirmity or from his lord's need
  or from lack of means or from need of any other
  kind he cannot go there' (Peterborough Chronicle,
  anno 675).
• (2) forþam Trumbriht wæs adon of þam biscopdome
• because T had been deprived of his biscopric'
  (Peterborough Chronicle, anno 685).

25
From lexical to grammatical category
26
VP adverb gt Clausal adverb

• (1) and he shulde goo frank and quite.
• (OED 1475)
• (2) All other lawfull thinges..to do as
  liberally, frankelie, lawfully..as if they..had
  been naturally borne within this realme (OED,
  1541)
• (3) Therefore with franke and with vncurbed
  plainnesse, Tell vs the Dolphins minde.
  (Henry V)
• (4) She... Can you wonder that I'm disinclined
• for amusement? He.Frankly, I do (OED 1888)

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• (1) You wrote so probably that hyt put me in a
  feare of daungerys to come. (OED, 1535)
• (2) A source, from whence those waters of
  bitterness..have..probably flowed (OED, 1647)
• (3) for, tho very probably I shall not have
  occasion for them, yet it wou'd be very
  vexatious to want them shou'd ther be occasion.
  (1690, Letter by Charles Hatton, HC)

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Conclusions

• description of some changes
• Negative, Demonstrative, (Agreement), and
  Perfective Cycles
• Clause marking through
• wh
• P
• VP adverb
• Reason semantic features are reanalyzed as
  grammatical
• internal (grammaticalization) vs external
  (renewal)

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Relevance to Language Evolution Adam Smith, 1767
30
A few references

• Bopp, Franz 1856. A Comparative grammar. London.
• Dufter, Andreas Elisabeth Starke 2005. "La
  linguisticque variationnelle et les changements
  linguistiqques mal compris' le case de ne de
  negation". ms.
• Eckardt, Regine 2006. Meaning Change in
  Grammaticalization. OUP.
• Fonseca-Greber, Bonnibeth 2000. The Change from
  Pronoun to Clitic and the Rise of Null Subjects
  in Spoken Swiss French. University of Arizona
  Diss.
• Gabelentz, Georg von der 1891. Die
  Sprachwissenshaft. Ihre Aufgaben, Methoden und
  bisherigen Ergebnisse. Leipzig Weigel.
  Nachdruck Tübingen, Narr, 1972.
• Heine, Bernd Tania Kuteva 2005. Language
  Contact and Grammatical Change. Cambridge CUP.

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• Himmelmann, Nikolaus 1997. Deiktikon, Artikel,
  Nominalphrase. Tübingen Niemeyer.
• Hodge, Carleton 1970. The Linguistic Cycle.
  Linguistic Sciences 13 1-7.
• Tauli, Valter 1958. The Structural Tendencies of
  Languages. Helsinki.
• Wood, Johanna (to appear). "Demonstratives and
  possessives From Old English to present-day
  English". In Abraham, Werner, Elisabeth Leiss,
  Elisabeth Stark (eds.). Evolution and function of
  nominal determination - DPs in synchrony and
  diachrony. Amsterdam John Benjamins.