2020
DOI: 10.5334/gjgl.890
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On the syntax of object pronouns in Old English and Early Middle English

Abstract: The paper investigates the conditions that determine the distribution of object pronouns in the period before the latter become fixed to the post-verbal position. In the transition between Old English and Early Middle English (henceforth OE and EME), object pronouns surface to the left of T, to the left of V and to the right of V. It will be shown that the distribution in the pre-T and post-V positions in OE is due to information structural and prosodic interface conditions, whereas the position at the left of… Show more

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Cited by 3 publications
(2 citation statements)
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“…14 In this way, structures comparable to the ones analysed for the OE prose are obtained. The information structural value of object pronouns in OE and EME prose texts is studied by De Bastiani and Hinterhölzl (2020), who observe that the object pronouns found before the inflected verb are co-referential with a specific kind of referent, namely the topic of the preceding context. The definitions of topic in the literature are various and slightly different from one another; for the present contribution, the topic is identified as that referent the proposition revolves around (Reinhart 1981;Lambrecht 1994).…”
Section: On the Interaction Between Metrical Structure And Informatio...mentioning
confidence: 99%
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“…14 In this way, structures comparable to the ones analysed for the OE prose are obtained. The information structural value of object pronouns in OE and EME prose texts is studied by De Bastiani and Hinterhölzl (2020), who observe that the object pronouns found before the inflected verb are co-referential with a specific kind of referent, namely the topic of the preceding context. The definitions of topic in the literature are various and slightly different from one another; for the present contribution, the topic is identified as that referent the proposition revolves around (Reinhart 1981;Lambrecht 1994).…”
Section: On the Interaction Between Metrical Structure And Informatio...mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The dataset, however, shows also in these cases a clear distinction between a topic and a focus domain, which maps onto the metrical structure of the work. I restricted the search in this way in order to obtain structures comparable to the ones analysed in the prose especially by De Bastiani and Hinterhölzl (2020), who examine the information structural value of pronouns with respect to the auxiliary verb; it must be kept in mind, however, that according to Tangelder and Los (2017) the syntax of Beowulf might represent a stage in which V2 had not fully developed yet. Further investigations are therefore needed, in order to determine, e.g.…”
Section: On the Interaction Between Metrical Structure And Informatio...mentioning
confidence: 99%