The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

118 The syntax of early English(50) 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)(51) 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)This contrast is found only in topic-initial sentences, and not in questions, negative-initialsentences, or sentences introduced by the adverb a, as was discussedabove. The grammatical status and the position of personal pronounshave played a key role in the debate on Verb-Second in Old English. Let ustherefore consider that role in more detail.4.3.2.1 The role of personal pronounsIn the previous sections, the position of subject pronouns in topicinitialsentences was noted. From the perspective of the V-movement analysis,the positional contrast between topic-initial sentences on the one hand, andinterrogative, negative-initial and a-initial sentences on the other, is especiallyintriguing; recall that in the latter, the pronominal subject always follows thefinite verb:(52) for hwam noldest u e sylfe me gecyan æt . . .for what not-wanted you you self me make known that‘wherefore would you not want to make known to me yourself that . . .’(LS7 (Euphr) 305)(53) a foron hie mid rim scipum utthen sailed they with three ships out‘Then they sailed out with three ships’ (ChronA (Plummer) 897.30)(54) Ne sceal he naht unaliefedes donnot shall he nothing unlawful do‘He shall not do anything unlawful’ (CP 10.61.14)Several analyses of this contrast have been presented in the literature. VanKemenade (1987), who attempts to derive the full variety of Old Englishclause structure from a single underlying OV order with Verb-Second in rootclauses, takes the position that, as far as V-movement is concerned, topicinitialsentences as in (50)–(51) should be treated on a par with sentences introducedby a wh-element, negative element or a, as in (52)–(54). The primarymotivation for this is that topicalization with Verb-Second is restricted to rootclauses, as we have seen above. This suggests that Verb-Second contexts occuronly in root clauses, and that V-movement is to the C-position, since it isblocked by the presence of a complementizer such as æt or gif. But then we