The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

Another verb-first context that we mention here for the sake of completenessis imperatives.In an analysis that draws on a comparison with the present-day Germaniclanguages, these facts are typically seen as instances of movement of the finiteverb to some presentential position, which is assumed to be in the CP domain.In this analysis, the first constituent is in Spec,CP, the finite verb in C, as illustratedhere for (6a):(11) Hwi wolde God swa lytles inges him forwyrnan[ CP[ CVf [ IP. . . ...........................V ]]]The Verb-Second constraint and its loss 107This analysis captures the empirical generalization that Verb-Second takesplace regardless of the word order of the rest of the clause. This is further supportedby a variety of arguments, which will be discussed in 4.3.In (6)–(8) above, we saw illustrations of Verb-Second when the sentence isintroduced by an interrogative or negative constituent, or by a. Apart fromthese contexts, when the first constituent is a non subject, verb–subject orderis dominant only when the subject is a full noun, as in (12); 2 pronominal subjectsprecede the verb, as in (13)–(14). Note that the verb has clearly beenmoved, since, as in (12), its position is distinct from that of the non-finite verb:(12) On twam ingum hæfde God æs mannes sawle gegododin two things had God the man’s soul endowed‘With two things God had endowed man’s soul’ (ÆCHom I, 1.20.1)(13) Foron we sceolan mid ealle mod & mægene to Gode gecyrrantherefore we must with all mind and power to God turn‘Therefore we must turn to God with all our mind and power’(HomU19 (BlHom 8) 26)(14) Be æm we magon suie swutule oncnawan æt . . .by that we may very clearly perceive that . . .‘By that, we may perceive very clearly that . . .’ (CP 26.181.16)Part of the empirical motivation for assuming that there has been V-movementhere is that in verb and particle combinations, particles are ‘stranded’ by movement.In embedded clauses, particles nearly always precede the (non-fronted)verb, but in main clauses, they often follow the finite verb in a position that correlateswith what is assumed to be the position of the verb before movement.This is illustrated in (15)–(16); we come back to this in detail in chapter 6.2Unlike the contexts of (6)–(8), where we always see verb–subject order, declarativeswith a topic, like (12)–(14), have inversion dominantly but not invariably; cf.Koopman (1998).