Pro drop in Old English: shifts in the pronominal system Elly van Gelderen

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Pro drop in Old English shifts in the
pronominal system Elly van Gelderen

• Aims
• To show pro drop exists in Old English
• To argue inflection changes from interpretable
  to uninterpretable
• To examine other changes in the pronoun and
  demonstrative system that gt the she they
• To think about the status of features in current
  Minimalism

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Pronouns, demonstratives, and pro-drop

• (1) þæt fram ham gefrægn Higelaces þegn, god mid
  Geatum, Grendles dæda se wæs moncynnes mægenes
  strengest on þæm dæge þysses lifes, æþele ond
  eacen. Het him yðlidan godne gegyrwan, cwæð, he
  guðcyning ofer swanrade secean wolde, mærne
  þeoden, þa him wæs manna þearf. ðone siðfæt him
  snotere ceorlas lythwon logon, þeah he him leof
  wære.
• Hygelacs thane heard about Grendels deeds
  while in Geatland he (Hygelacs thane) was
  mankinds strongest man on earth, noble and
  powerful. (He) ordered himself a good boat
  prepared and said that he wanted to seek the king
  over the sea since he (the king) needed men.
  Wise men did not stop him (Hygelacs thane)
  though he was dear to them. (Beowulf 194-98)

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Traugott (1992 171)

• (2) Þa clypode an ðæra manna Zebeus gehaten and
  cwæð to ðam cyninge
• Then cried one of-the men Zebeus called and
  said to the king
• Eala ðu cyning þas fulan wuhta þu scoldest
  awurpan of ðinum rice.
• Oh you king the foul creatures you should
  throw-out of your kingdom
• ðylæs ðe hi mid heora fylðe us ealle besmiton
• in-case that they the foul creatures with
  their filth us all affect
• Hi habbað mid him awyriedne engel. mancynnes
  feond.
• They the foul creatures have with them
  corrupt angel, mankinds enemy
• and se hæfð andweald on ðam mannum ðe heora
  scyppend forseoð.
• and he the angel has power over those men that
  their creator despise
• (Ælfrics Catholic Homilies, 2nd series Godden
  1979, 283. 110 115)

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Different from Germanic topic drop

• (3) Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard
• Now must praise heaven.kingdoms guard
• (Northumbrian version of Caedmons Hymn).
• (4) Nearwe genyddon on norðwegas
• anxiously hastened on north.ways
• Anxiously, they hastened north.' (Exodus 68)
• (5) Him on mod bearn þæt healreced hatan wolde
  medoærn micel men gewyrcean
• Him to mind came that palace command would
  meadhall large men build
• He thought that he would order his men to build
  a big hall, a big meadhall.' (Beowulf 64-69)
• And non-generic third person!

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Lindisfarne (Northumbrian)

• 1S 9/212 (96 overt pronouns)
• 1P 0/53 (100)
• 2S 16/103 (87)
• 2P 10/206 (95)
• 3S 445/116 (21)
• 3P 263/108 (29) (Berndt 1956)
• See also Walkden 20 3S pro-drop in Beowulf
• C/Edge-Linking Generalization (Sigurðsson 2011)
• Any definite argument, overt or silent,
  positively matches at least one CLn in its local
  C-domain, CLn ? ?A, ?P, Top, ....

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Around 1200 a reanalysis

• (6) gaddresst swa þe clene corn
• and so you gather the clear wheat. (Ormulum
  1484-5, Holt edition)
• (7) 3ho wass Elysabæþ 3ehatenn
• She was called Elisabeth. (Ormulum 115)
• (8) swa þe33 leddenn heore lif Till þatt te33
  wærenn alde
• and so they led their lives until they were
  old. (Ormulum 125-6)
• (9) þin forrme win iss swiþe god, þin lattre win
  iss bettre.
• Your earlier wine is very good, your later wine
  is better. (Ormulum 15409)

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Internal External

• se --gt the seo --gt she
• him/her --gt himself/herself hi --gt they
• a. se gt the
• i-loc/i-phi u-T/u-ps
• b. he/hi is replaced by he
• heo/ha is replaced by she (possibly via seo)
• hi/hie is replaced by they
• i-phi i-phi/i-loc
• Internal change
• Semantic gt Interpretable gt Uninterpretable
• External change
• Renewal of the semantic features

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• Demonstrative
• i-3S
• i-loc
• article complementizer (copula)
• u-phi u-T i-loc
• (10) Mi da i tatá Saramaccan
• I be your father
• I am your father. (McWhorter 1997)

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Features of the English DP

• (11) a. That the dog loves their the toys.
• b. I saw that.
• c. I saw the.
• (12) DP DP
• that D D NP
• i-loc D NP the 3S
• i-3S 3S u-phi

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Semantic gt Grammatical

• Chomsky (1995 230 381) "formal features have
  semantic correlates and reflect semantic
  properties (accusative Case and transitivity, for
  example)." This makes sense if a language learner
  uses the semantic features in the derivation,
  these features turning into interpretable ones so
  to speak.
• The cycle of phi-features
• noun gt emphatic gt pronoun gt agreement gt 0
• sem i-phi i-phi/u-phi u-phi

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Semantic gt Interpretable gt Uninterpretable

• (13) Ac nis nan scild trumra wið ðæt ...
• But NEG.is no shield stronger against the ...
• But there is no stronger shield against ...
• (14) ne ne helpeð nawiht eche lif to haben.
• nor not helps not eternal life to have
• Nor does it help to have eternal life.
• (15) I can't do nothing for you either, Billy.
• (16) No, I never see him these days
• (BNC - A9H 350)

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Where do semantic features come from?

• The Minimalist program has shifted the emphasis
  from UG to third factors and from syntactic
  parameters to lexical ones, i.e. features. One of
  the reasons to deemphasize UG is the supposed
  lack of evolutionary depth.
• Third factors, however, are vague and feature
  theory is not well-developed.

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• Cinque and Rizzi (2008) discuss the question of
  the number of functional categories. There are 32
  in Cinque (1999 130) and around 40 in Kayne
  (2005). Cinque and Rizzi, using Heine Kutevas
  2002 work on grammaticalization, come up with 400
  features that are targets in Heine Kuteva.
• Benincà Munaro (2010 6-7) note that syntax has
  reached the detail of phonological features.

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Challenge acquisition of features and their order

• Jackendoff (2002), based on Bickerton (1990),
  suggests that pre-linguistic primate conceptual
  structure may already use symbols for basic
  semantic relations. This may include spatial and
  causal concepts. Agent First, Focus Last ... are
  fossil principles from protolanguage. Homo
  erectus (1 million BP) may have had
  protolanguage. This gives the innate faculty
  longer to incorporate this.

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The acquisition of semantic features

• Chomsky (1965 142) semantic features ... too,
  are presumably drawn from a universal alphabet
  but little is known about this today and nothing
  has been said about it here.
• Chomsky (1993 24) vocabulary acquisition shows
  poverty of the stimulus.

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Conclusions

• Pro drop in OE licensed by interpretable phi
• Change in D interpretable gt uninterpretable and
  renewal
• Recent shift towards third factors and parametric
  features. What does that mean for vocabulary
  acquisition?
• All change is in the lexicon semgti-Fgtu-F
• Evolutionary time-depth greater to allow UG to
  have more structure.

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References

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• Chomsky, Noam. 2005. Three factors in language
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• Mitchell, Bruce 1985. Old English Syntax I.
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• See also www.public.asu.edu/gelderen/Pro-regensb
  urg.doc
• And www.public.asu.edu/gelderen/JT-FS-August-2011
  .pdf