| Popis: |
In this chapter, we discuss the syntactic and discourse properties of a number of adverbs in Old and Middle English, concentrating on þa and þonne, which both have ‘then’ as their literal meaning. This may seem like a small topic, but in fact, we will show that the syntactic and discourse properties of these adverbs reveal a good deal about the changing organisation of clause structure and discourse during the Old English period and the transition to Middle English. Building our argument around the properties of these adverbs, we will address a number of core issues in the analysis of Old English clause structure, such as the shift from parataxis to hypotaxis, the underlying motivation for the Verb Second constraint, and the changing position of various types of subject. An important implication of our discussion will turn out to be that the syntactic organization of the clause, at least in Old English, is interwoven with discourse organization much more closely than has been thought so far, and that the transition to Middle English is one that results in a more strictly syntactic organization of the clause. |
