Object–verb order in early sixteenth-century English prose: an exploratory study

Abstract

Object-verb order in early sixteenth-century English prose: an exploratory study 1Recent work on word-order change in the history of English has shown that late Middle English prose retains object-verb order as a productive option in contexts with an auxiliary and a quantified or negated object, and also in topicalization structures. In order to determine when these limited types of object-verb order became impossible, we have examined a collection of sixteenth-century prose texts. Our findings are that the patterns attested in late Middle English in fact continue until 1550, but then appear to dwindle away. We present the relevant object-verb data, discuss the reasons for the survival of the patterns found, provide an explanation for a difference at the level of detail between the fifteenth-and sixteenth-century data, and offer some suggestions about the reasons for the eventual loss of the structures in question.

Changing EPP parameters in the history of English: accounting for variation and change

“…The late ME specialisation was followed by the final loss of object-movement of non-pronominal DPs around 1550 (Moerenhout & van der Wurff, 2005; as shown in Roberts, 1995, pronominal object-shift obeying Holmberg's (1986) generalisation is attested until verb-movement finally disappears in the 17 th century). The reanalysis in (26), however, was not connected to these later changes.…”

On the use of data in historical linguistics: word order in early English subordinate clauses

“…Pintzuk (1995Pintzuk ( , 1999 was mentioned above, while a number of other generative studies have explored the nature and extent of OV order in Middle English. Allen (2000) and Kroch & Taylor (2000) point to the frequent occurrence of OV order in early Middle English, and it has also been demonstrated that OV was productive in limited contexts later in the Middle English period (Foster & van der Wurff 1995;Moerenhout & van der Wurff 2000) and even into early Modern English (Moerenhout & van der Wurff 2005). Pintzuk & Taylor (2006: 272) conclude that the loss of OV order took place over a long period of time, and at different rates for different object types.…”

Transitional syntax: postverbal pronouns and particles in Old English

“…It probably started in Old English (though my material does not allow us to draw this conclusion with certainty), and became the norm in the Middle English period, whereas OV syntax gradually disappeared (for the survival of OV see Fischer et al, 2000: chapter 5, Foster & van der Wurff, 1995Moerenhout & van der Wurff, 2005). In this article I intend to shed more light on this innovation by establishing how many instances there are in Old English, in which constructions they are most frequently found, and what diachronic development took place.…”