Correlatives in earlier English: Change and continuity in the expression of interclausal dependencies

Abstract

A construction very widely used in Old English and Old Germanic more broadly are correlatives introduced by an adverbial or conditional subclause, as in When you've done your homework, (then) you can come back (Old English: ‘…, then can you come back’). Correlatives originate from a paratactic clause structure, making use of resumptive adverbs such as then belonging to the Old Germanic series of demonstrative adverbs, whose syntactic niche was the clause-initial position, particularly in Verb Second main clauses. Paratactic structure in correlatives is diagnosed by the presence of a resumptive adverb. We show that the correlative use of resumptive adverbs is sensitive to both clause-internal and clause-external variables: mood, subclause-internal particles, negation, subject type, subclause weight, text type, translation. Correlatives decline from late Old English onward. Although it may seem tempting to attribute this to the loss of Verb Second in English, it resulted primarily from the loss of the original Germanic resumptive adverbs.

Discourse particles in early English: Clause structure, pragmatics and discourse management

“…Þa is, by the same token, descriptive, and it structures narrative discourse, in line with observations about þa as an adverb in the literature, e.g. Enkvist (1986) ;Wårvik (2011;; Links et al (2017). Þonne is used in contexts that are nonfactual: questions, conditionals, and imperatives.…”

“…3, page 11 of 23 the temporal sequencing of the whole event, while the resumptive adverb introduces the main clause presenting the new information: the subsequent building of the monastery. Links et al (2017) show statistically that adding a particle to the temporal adverbial subclause promotes the use of the third þa, the resumptive adverb. This construction thus has a strong discourse-structuring function, promoted by the use of a particle.…”

“…These include temporal adverbial clauses with þa or þonne as the conjunction, as in (6-7), as well as gif-conditionals with þonne, as in (8). They have a discourse-structuring function, which is reinforced by the use of particles (Links et al 2017).…”

“…We hypothesise that þa finds its origin in a (spatial) deictic meaning that became temporal, and was subsequently bleached to an exclamative meaning, and, in temporal correlatives, to an action marker, drawing attention to the important new information to come (cf. Links et al 2017). A key point is that the temporal origin of þa implies that the events it sequences have actually happened; they are factual: Mitchell (1985) refers to them as actions completed in the past).…”

“…The use of particles in correlative clauses is closely related to the special status of these clauses as paratactic: Links et al (2017) show that they are paratactically adjoined to the main clause; Haegeman (2003; and Quirk et al (1985) argue that this is still the case at least for what Haegeman calls peripheral adverbial and conditional clauses in present-day English (2012: 160-61). 10 Correlatives show multiple uses of þa and þonne, as discussed above in connection with the examples (6-8): they are introduced by þa/þonne as conjunctions, and when they feature a particle use of þa and þonne, this robustly triggers the use of þa and þonne as a resumptive adverb, as shown by Links et al (2017) on statistical grounds. A plausible analysis of this state of affairs is that correlatives are more like main clauses in that they have a more extended functional articulation that supports the use of particles, even though they are clearly subclauses in terms of word order.…”